Chloe's Best Friend Kate

This is Chloe's best friend Kate. They like to fight over toys and grab at each others' faces. Kate and Chloe are about a month apart, but Kate is big for her age, and Chloe is small... and also Chloe was about 3 weeks early- so we consider the two to be about the same age.

Kate's mom's name is Krista, and she is my friend. We are having a good time getting to know each other and talking about babies and husbands and girly stuff. Chloe and I like having new friends.

I Am My Own Grandpa

Zach and I have gotten in a lot of confusing discussion regarding first, second, third cousins and their removal. The discussion never goes anywhere. When I googled this, I found that a lot of people don't know. There are a lot of websites out there where people answer each others' questions, and it was really funny to see that everyones' answers varied so much. Here is a helpful chart I found. Hope it clarifies things for everyone.

Russell Speeders Car Wash

Zachary decided to buy me a wonderful hour long massage for Valentine’s Day.

Zach dropped me off at the message therapist’s office and went to go get my car washed at Russell Speeders Car Wash (at about 114th and West Center road). This is a very funny car wash and I had told him he needed to try it out sometime. It reminds me of something from a Pee Wee Herman movie. There are manikins in the carwash. The manikins have human heads and stick figure bodies. They are wearing regular clothes, which cling to their metal frame bodies because it is sopping wet in the car wash. There is a black manikin with a whistle that holds a stop sign. This car wash is a sight to behold under the most normal of circumstances.

When Zachary picked me up after my message, I sat down and began to put on my seat belt. I noticed that my seat belt was very wet and asked why. Zach responded with a surprisingly snappish "I'M ALL WET!!"I looked up, and sure enough, Zachary was wet and furious. I was reminded of a puppy who had received a not wanted bath. I could not believe my luck, and felt like it was Christmas all over again. "WHAT HAPPENED?!" I exclaimed.

WELL, evidently, Zach had gone into the car wash (and here is where he angrily interjects that "there wasn't even a sign that said to put your car into neutral," though I know for a fact there is one). When he had gotten to the part where you are supposed to stop, he put his car into park, and a frantic car wash attendee ran over to him yelling to "PUT YOUR CAR IN NEUTRAL!!" Zachary rolled down his window and asked the attendant to repeat himself. "PUT YOUR CAR INTO NEUTRAL!!!!" the attendee screamed.

Zach acted quick and realized that having his car in park was probably causing damage to it at this point. Then he realized that the "ride" had begun and he started to roll up his window. It must have dawned on him at exactly that moment that he was in my car, and the driver’s side window most often gets stuck when it is rolled down. I can only imagine (with delight) what happened next. Zach proceeded to be washed, waxed, and whomped in the head with the car wash "whompers," all the while panicking and possibly screaming as he was pummeled, soaped, and squirted. He denies any screaming, or obscenities, but I like to imagine that there was much of that going on.

When he exited the car wash, another 'annoying' manikin was holding a sign that said to go when the light came on. Zach waited patiently. He was not going to make any move without being sure he was doing the right thing. He was mortified when (probably about 5 min later) he was forced to make a move as the car behind him started honking with fervor.I asked Zach "when did you finally get the window up," and he replied with bitterness, "about 10 blocks later."It is 20 degrees outside, he was wet, and he had to drive 10 blocks with the window down. Also, Chloe was with him in the car at the time (though... thankfully, she remained dry... and possibly slept through the entire adventure). Zach was late to work this afternoon because he had to wash the stick from his soapy and waxy body, and change his clothes. I know that in time Zach will be able to see the humor in this situation. He begged me not to tell anyone. I apologized and told him that the world MUST know of this.

I hope you enjoy this gift I have given you.

I will try to get some pictures of this car wash in the next week so you all can see how funny it is. All in all I think this was one of the better days I have had in my life.

And on the 8th day... she POOPED!

Chloe has been having issues with constipation, and this just wouldn't be a "mommy blog" if I didn't mention it. Since Chloe started solid foods (well... she had cereal at Christmas, but real "1st foods" after the 9th of January), she has not been regular. It was a concern when she was going 4 days at a time without pooping, and the doctors office recommended we give her a suppository (that is if rectal stimulation, a sitz bath, and prune juice didn't work... I know LOVELY).

Well, she went 4 days without pooping, and then we got her to poop by sticking the ole thermometer up her bum. 4 days later she pooped on her own. Then she went 4 days more and the thermometer didn't work, so we bought a suppository and gave it to her. 4 days after that she did not poop, and we decided that suppositories were not the best (can be habit forming).

We waited and called the doctor on day 5. We were told to call after day 7 if still no poopies. On day 8 (today) we went to the doctor's office. The doctor felt Chloe's tummy for hard lumps- and there were none. She told us to give Chloe 5ml dark Karo syrup 2 times a day, 1 oz pear juice 2 times a day, and if that didn't work (after 2 days) we should try Miralax (a very tiny dose).

WELL, after shopping and getting all the ingredients to make her poop (being stopped by literally every person in the store to just gush over how cute Chloe is), we went home and fed her 5 ml (1tsp) dark Karo syrup through a syringe. We tried to get her to drink pear juice... but alas she will not take a bottle. After this I let her nurse, and HOORAY!! There was a massive explosion. She finally pooped! A big orange brown stinky mess, all over her cute little outfit. It was awful and wonderful. Daddy made a lot of overly dramatic gagging sounds and gasps and exclamations. She was sticky from the Karo syrup, and I was not confidant she was all clean from the poopin, so we had to take her to the sink after we had cleaned her all up with a baby wipe.

Now she is laying in her bed (clean and in a new outfit) because she looked sleepy... but she is just giggling and playing in there! Squealing in delight and kicking those legs. What a cutie. I can tell she is very happy to have finally emptied those tiny bowels.

So PRETTY!

Today at church, Chloe was a big distraction. She had her fuzzy snow boots and tights on, with a green dress and her white lacy sweater. The icing on the cake was her green headband with the big pink bow and flower on it that we put on the top of her head. I noticed that a whole section of people was NOT listening to the lesson at all. Chloe was just too cute!

She is so much fun!!!

Stick Out Your Tongue!!

Chloe is really starting to be able to sit up by herself. She has taken to sticking out her tongue all the time. It is really cute, because she got her first two teeth (bottom front). I think she likes the way it feels when her tongue rubs against them. Most often (lately) she sits there with a happy expression, just sticking out her tongue and squealing the tiniest high pitched little mouse squeals I have ever heard. I can't squeak that high (and I have tried). She will squeak to herself for long periods of time, occasionally laughing at herself or making other babbles-- but always going back to the squeaks and squeals. She has her tongue out so often, in fact, that I noticed when I was giving her a bath tonight that she has a little red rash under her tongue on her chin. It is amazing how fast she is growing up. I went through her clothes today, and I can't believe it's already time to put away some of them (it feels like she just started wearing them)! I guess some of them really didn't get much wear (good news Dori! I'll be sending you first pick).

Weekend Update

Hello friends and family! It's time to update the old blog again!!
We went to the farm over the weekend. Zachary's mom and step dad are about to be finished building their new house! It is really beautiful and quite a grand new house they have built. It will be so nice out there when it is all done. We had 'Christmas' with them over the weekend. Kathy made the best prime rib dinner I have ever had!


When I got back home it was really hard to start the diet back up again. I also learned that I REALLY like marble rye bread!! Who knew?! I should have known this as I once worked in a bakery, but I never knew. Maybe this one was just a very very good loaf, but I couldn't get enough of it. Kathy insisted we take the rest of the loaf home with us, I loved it that much.
On the car ride, we finished reading C.S. Lewis' series, "The Chronicles of Narnia." It was so good that I actually cried at the end! C.S. Lewis is just such a great writer!
We made the biggest purchase of our life on Friday when we bought a new computer! We had gotten our loan and grant money for the semester, and decided it was time to make an investment of that kind in our future. Our old pokey computer was made in 1998, so it was HIGH TIME!! It was very thrilling to build a new computer on Dell's website. Now we are waiting for it to come in the mail! It comes with a webcam, so all you with 'Skype' will have to 'Skype' us when we get it all set up! It should be here next week- or maybe the week after next. We can hardly wait! Here are some other pictures that we hadn't posted, but that needed to be shared!

Chloe's Blessing

Chloe's first Christmas, first time meeting a lot of the family, and first airplane ride!