Paul, Kateri, Chloe and Lincoln: January 2012

Chloe has turned 19 months and has sustained her rascal'ness. It's fun seeing her moving from being a tiny little thing and growing to a little bitty thing. She talks and talks from morning until bed time. When she makes her first calls to get out of bed (still between 6-7:30), she's talking to us right as we open the door. There's always a bahbah dada when she knows we're coming to get her. It's a nice way to start the day. Since our last post, she's started figuring out what a potty is for and has even gone an uno y dos a few times. We aren't interested in pushing her along and will be happy if she has it totally figured out in a year or so. Usually, she's already gone, but she'll grab her diaper and says over and over -- "Baffroom." We were able to get her to the potty a couple of times. We sit her on the potty before baths and she'll sit there for 10 minutes drawing on the tub and getting up and down over and over. She is not too shy to sprint around the house with a nakeybutt either.

We've come up with a BINGO song for Chloe that we don't want to forget. It goes a 'lil something like this - Ahem...
There was a mommy who had a baby and Chloe was her name-ooo
C-H-L-O-E; C-H-L-O-E; C-H-L-O-E;
and Chloe was her name-oo.

It is amazingly clever, we know. She can't stand when doors and drawers are open, so she closes them as soon as she can. She likes keeping herself busy by opening and closing them, too. She's about 2 or 3 inches shy of being able to open doors with the handles. She really likes trying. Probably the funniest thing she picked up this month is that if mommy sneezes, she yells out a "BESS YOU". She usually does it when people cough or sneeze -- with a lot people there isn't much difference.

She's also figured out a slew of new words. Here are some that we were able to write down or remember:

Why? -- when you answer her it tends to go on for quite a while
Where's it at?
Hi Da-Da! - She yells this to both Daddy and Mommy
I want See See for Sesame Street
I want BubbaGuppah -- Bubble Guppies
I want a coo cah or I want a crakaw -- I want a cookie or cracker (from morning until night)
I want down
Down and Up -- sometimes she gets them backward
A, B, C, D -- She brought this out of nowhere when were laying in bed one morning
1,2,3 -- Happened the same morning as A,B,C,D
If you ask her where something is she'll answer Ummm, I dunno
What's this
I want 'dis
Lots of fake laughing -- especially if we have company over
OWWWWW -- she's very dramatic if something happens to bump into her

A few other notable things she's done is that she was able to go on her first sledding trip with the cousins, aunt Veronika, and Gramma. She loved it. She wasn't quite sure why we would want to play in cold and wet snow at first, but she stopped asking questions when we scooted down the hill. She found out she loves bananas and has a fancy taste in perfume. She tricks Gramma into giving her a spray or two. Last, but certainly not least, Chloe has turned on her snuggle button this month. She's always been cute in kissing us and family and friends, but this month she has started really liking to snuggle. After her bottle in bed with us, she'll lay with mommy and have her rub her back. When the rubbing stops, she'll wiggle her butt to get mommy to start doing it again. She also like throwing her arm around our necks and pulling us in closer -- a lot of times it can feel like an aggressive choke hold, but it's still very cute. The best is when we're laying there and she stares right in your eye and says hiiii dad dah (for mommy and daddy) and pulls you in for a kiss. She is a rascal.

Some pics!