Strike a pose

It's my second week back to work. Everyone was very nice to me last week, letting me get back into the swing of things. Now, they are assuming I've had enough time and the work is starting to really pile on! The good news is that it sounds like people did miss having me around either for my charming personality or the work I do. At this point, let's hope it's because of my work, because with my lack of sleep my personality may not be as charming as it once was! :)

I do have cute pictures! Chloe and I were at the H House on Sunday for some quality cousin, grandma and grandpa time.

Jack and Chloe are pals...

Hailey and Chloe chillin'...

Post bath couture...

Pretty eyes and chubby cheeks...

Caution partially naked baby picture ahead!

Days of Our Lives

The first day back to work was nice, people stopped by all day to say hello and I didn't actually have to work too much. Today was more of the same, but I was able to get some work done. I woke up with a cold which didn't really help my motivation level. Overall, it wasn't bad leaving Rob and Chloe home, just a little disappointing that I miss out on the fun awake time with Chloe.

Rob and Chloe are doing great during the day. He informed me that there is only one issue. Chloe is into As the World Turns and he's more into General Hospital. I hope they are able to work out their differences.

Deep Thoughts by Chloe

I love my hands. I have discovered that I can use them for entertainment and they make a great pacifier!

What do you mean mom is going back to work tomorrow?!

Oh! I get to hang with Dad? I have him wrapped around my little finger... I just give him this look -

I'm ready for bed... all fresh and clean after my bath.

Blue Steel

I go back to work on Monday. I do miss the people and some of the work but it will be difficult to be away from Chloe during the day. She is just so darn cute!!! She has been such a chatterbox.

Some cute pictures:

Have you seen Zoolander? This is Chloe's 'Blue Steel' look-

I think she looks SO much like Rob (but with my nose) -


Her hair is starting to look more like mine -


Everyone was down for an afternoon nap (Ben was also sleeping but wants less to do with Chloe so he was sleeping away from the group)

We were able to get at a couple of things that we would never attempt on just a weekend. We reorganized our master bedroom closet. We moved the shelves to a different wall, and put my work clothes apart from my weekend/casual clothes. It looks amazing. I sorted through ALL of my clothes, even the stuff in the dresser drawers I have ignored for a few years (I mean - really. I'm not sure why I was keeping size 8 jeans around. If I'm ever that size again, I think shopping for a new pair of jeans won't break the bank!) We brought a few stacks of clothes to Goodwill and now all of the clothes I have, I actually can wear. I was inspired by having everything clean and sorted, so I ironed EVERYTHING that would need to be ironed. Everything. I can now go into my closet and pick something to wear without having to wonder if it fits and if I want to bother with it because I don't want to iron. I'm hoping this will ease my transition back to work.

Being that it's so freezing cold we didn't leave the house today. The closet was the cleanest part of the house (how does everything get so messy?!), so we cleaned our house from top to bottom. We still had our Christmas stuff up (it was so past time to take it down) so that was put back in bins in the process. It was another thing nice to have done before I get back to work!

A Day with Grandma and Grandpa

I have been enjoying the last few days home before I have to go back to work. I guess my plan of winning the lottery would work better if I actually bought Powerball tickets. That would be great, if both Rob and I could be home all of the time. We would have to win big, we've discovered how good we are at spending money! Since I do have to go back to work, I am lucky that I get to go back to a job that I like with a great, fun boss and coworkers! Those paychecks will address Chloe's prediction in this picture!

I've been trying to get more pictures taken. This adorable outfit is from Sarah and Deb. Chloe looks so cute in it! We think her brown hair is getting more red.

Chloe spent more time looking at Rob then looking at the book, but she was a big fan of being read a book.

We took a trip to my parents yesterday. Kathy came down to visit us (really more to visit Chloe). Kathy was able to get in some quality grandma practice time and she's going to need it. She'll be a grandma in August. Congrats!!!

Chloe was very chatty and happy all day and I think the grandmas had a great time, too.

As you see, Chloe barely got any attention... :-) She had such a great day. She fell asleep in the car for the drive home (at around 7:30) and didn't wake up until 3am!!! She was chatting away in her crib at 3:30, she talked herself back to sleep at some point and didn't wake up again until 7:30! It was nice to be able to get some solid sleep for us, too.

She is also maintaining the championship for best dressed person in our family. Here you can see she's taking it to the next level by the best dressed napper!

Chloe would like to thank Deb for the fabulous Christmas gift!

Figuring out the formula

We have been impressed with Chloe's sleeping over the last week or so. She has been falling asleep around 6:30 or so at night and sleeping until about 11, waking up to eat and falling asleep right away. Then, the next two feeding are at about 3 to 4 1/2 hours intervals. It's worked for us pretty well, and I'm thinking that once I go back to work it will work for us to start our day with 5-6 ish wake up call. I never thought I would say that 5am or 6 would be an okay time to start my day. Crazy huh?! I'd like for her schedule to shift a little bit so she falls asleep later in the evening - giving us her biggest block of sleep while we can been sleeping too. I know I can't be too demanding at this point and that things will continue to change - at her choosing, not mine!

The beginning of this week was a bit rough on all of us. Chloe wasn't feeling well. Sunday was well documented with pictures but Monday and Tuesday was difficult. She had a bit of a temp (nothing horrible), and when she wasn't eating or sleeping she just cried and cried. I felt so bad for her. Yesterday and today was much better.

Late last week we were working on switching the formula we have been supplementing with from the regular stuff to soy. She had been SO gassy and a queen of spitting up, her doctor said that it might make a difference. With her not feeling well, probably from her vaccinations, we're not sure how much of a difference it has made. We'll give it a bit longer to see.

You can see from the background on a couple of pictures, that the soy formula we were using tends to leave some stains... and man it stinks! We picked up a different brand to see if there is any difference.

PICTURE TIME!

Zzzzzz...

Do you think I'm happy?!

My cute outfit

Soy tastes great!

Put 'em up

My vaccinations kicked in!

I wish we didn't have burp rags and bibs in almost every picture, but she would be soaking wet without them...

Rinse and Repeat

"Does this look make me look chubby?!"

Chloe had her check up last week. She's really been packing on the pounds, she's up to 10 pounds 10 ounces. Yeah! I forget the other measurements off the top of my head, but she was in the 35th percentile for weight, 85th for length and 54th for head size.

We a good deal on a jumpy seat for her, which she didn't mind all that much. She really liked looking at the bright colors and was facinated by the spinning toy, but she wasn't feeling well after her shots from her appointment, so she let us know when she had enough. She'll have to grow into it a little bit!

Today was a mixture of a really great and fun day with her and absolutely horrible. She was very happy and cute with awesome smiles, she was very interested in the sights and sounds (especially her dad!) and then a she would be over all of it and cry and cry (and cry...) She'd settle down and fall asleep for 15 minutes or so and we'd start all over.

Here's the cycle in pictures:

(cute in her crib where she enjoyed her mobile for quite some time)

(posing for pictures)

(and then...)

(and finally)

Thanks Mom and Happy New Year Part II

My mom came down to watch Chloe today and Rob brought me in for surgery. I took the nurses advice and told everyone that came to my bed (if they cared or not) that I had severe vomiting with anaesthetic so they gave me the good stuff and I avoided the ususal unpleasantness of waking up sick. Everything went well, and I was home around 3:45, minus one gall bladder and plus some pain killers. :-) Mom left a while later, we had a bite to eat and we were watching a marthon of Jon and Kate Plus Eight (the couple who has 2-6 year olds and 6 -2 year olds - how in the world do they do it) we all fell asleep watching the show!

We woke up around 11, watched the ball drop, came upstairs to go to bed. Chloe decided she needed to cry a little bit before we laid down, so I'm taking advantage of some sitting time to keep everyone updated. We are such wild and crazy kids, aren't we?!?

Happy New Year it's time to get some sleep!