I know, I know...here's a new post

Updates are not as frequent lately. For those of you that check in every once and a while, I'm sorry. Here's a hodge podge of updates, questions, and some pictures.

Question first. So fellow bloggers, do you find yourself looking at situations in life now and dictating out in your head how you will blog it? If only my mind had a tape recorder I would have the greatest things to blog. But alas, this is what I'm stuck with because I don't remember what I had written in my head. I can tell you it was really good when I wrote it though.

Despite the fact that I have forgotten, I will still update you on Chloe's doings. Mike and I are kind-of boring, but Chloe continues to entertain us everyday. Her happiness is infectious and we smile and laugh non-stop with her. At her 1 year doctor appointment her numbers were in the 90% + of everything. Her growth is starting to slow down, like it should. She is a 25 lb sack of potatoes now. In Maryland it is required to do a blood test for anemia and lead. This was awful. We have been through it before when she was 2 months old with some study we were involved with, but that was even more traumatic. Once the tech bled poor Chloe out for the vile, Chloe refused to keep the band-aid on her finger. This was how sad she looked on the way home from the doctor's office. The tear stained, zoned out look on her face says it all. She just sat there hugging her lovey and holding out her injured hand, blood and all from her still bleeding finger (don't worry if you are squeamish, it's not bad). Poor pumpkin!

Her vocabulary continues to grow, but sometimes needs to be translated by mom and dad. Daddy seems to be here favorite word. All day long she asks for "da-da" or "daddy." (It was so hard this past Monday, after a 4-day weekend with Daddy. Chloe had some withdrawals, poor thing.) Waves are a morning ritual when Daddy goes to work and when we get ready to go "bye-bye." She loves to make sounds of any of the following animals, duck, fish, horse, and of course the monkey. We work on others but progress is slow. Other tricks include crawling down stairs (she is a pro at going up the stairs), getting out of the straps of her high chair, and (duh-ta-duh) walking!!! Walking is still a work in progress but for those of you we will see at Christmas time, watch out, she might be pretty good by then. It is still something we have to coax out of her, but day by day we see improvements. Personally, I can't wait! It will be so much easier to go places with a walker rather than a crawler. But at the same time this new skill brings independence and also power struggles. Ah, the classic parenting catch 22.

When the weather is nice we love to swing at the park, and as I discovered yesterday, Chloe loves the slide. She crawls right up to the top and slides down head first. I let her go on her own one time, without stopping her at the end, and she went right of the end and landed face first in the bark chips. When I picked her up, her fleece coat and hat had bark attached everywhere possible. But she didn't make a peep. After pulling all the debris off her face and clothing she was off for another trip down the slide. I think we have an adrenaline junkie on our hands. Hmmm. You can see the progression below. Sorry I don't have a picture of the face plant. Murphy's Law was in full effect in that my batteries died.