Mommy has a new baby!

Sunday was my birthday. It was pretty low-key. We had a pot-luck at church for our pastor because his birthday is this week....but secretly, my family was actually using it for MY birthday lunch (sneaky, huh?). One of my mom's friends loves to take pictures and she came up to us and asked us to get together for a family picture.

As I was looking into her camera, I realized she had the camera that I have been wanting and saving up for for months. I asked her if it was new and she said, "Yeah, but I haven't really figured out how to view the pictures...can you show me?" Of course I said yes because 1) I just wanted to touch it and 2) I knew how to view the pictures.

So, I show her how and scroll through and this is what I see:



THE CAMERA WAS MINE!!! They seriously fooled me and I was so excited!

Here's a picture of my new baby:

ln fact, Justin told Chloe "Mommy has a new baby now" - lol!

Be on the lookout for lots of new pictures here! :)

I will hide Your word in my heart

This past weekend I attended a women's retreat that our church put on. It was such a wonderful time of laughter, tears, and renewal. There was a great speaker as well as break-out sessions on different topics. My second breakout session was called, "Teaching your Children the Word of God". It was amazing. The woman who led the class was named Karen Eppler. She has been teaching her grandchildren bible verses through very creative means and I was so encouraged! I can not WAIT to start teaching Chloe the verses and for her to have them hidden in her heart at such an early age. It makes me tear up just thinking about it. Karen's grand-daughter (Miriam), who was probably about 7 or so, was there and recited some of the verses for us. Karen was telling us that Miriam knows about 500 verses - including some complete chapters of the bible. It was so amazing. If you are interested in some of Karen's curriculums you can go here and click on Scripture Memory. She has a picture card and a song that goes with each verse. Here is an example (sorry its fuzzy):

M&M

My Little Con Artist

I started trying to potty train Chloe a little over a month ago. She was giving me lots of clues that she was ready, so I decided to give it a shot. It was a HORRIBLE week. The first day she peed in her panties all day. The next day she held her pee the entire day. The third day she was just mad and didn't want to have anything to do with it. I tried several different things with her: I gave her lots of toys to play with on the potty, we got Elmo panties (which she LOVES), I would give her a couple of mini M&Ms if she went on the potty. These were all great ideas, but none of them could help her relax enough to actually let her pee out. So, we decided to give it a rest for a while. Every once in a while she will go pee-pee on the potty and each time I give her a couple of mini M&Ms (I will try to post a video of her saying M&M because its quite possibly the cutest thing you have ever heard).

Anyway...fast forward to yesterday. She gives some pretty tell-tale signs that she's going poopy, so yesterday when she was doing her "poopy dance", I decided to sit her on the potty. She went on the potty and I was so proud of her! I got her some M&Ms and she was happy!

Last night we took her to her grandparents house to play for a while. When Justin and I came back to get her, here is the conversation we had on the way home:

Me: Did you have fun with grandma and grandpa?
Chloe: Yeah! Pee-pee!
Me: You went pee-pee? Did you go pee-pee on the potty??
Chloe: Yeah! M&M!
Me: Oh, really? I think grandma would have told me that!

So, basically we have learned that our daughter is a con artist! She thought if she told me she went pee-pee on the potty (which she DIDN'T do!) I would give her an M&M.

How do they know how to lie and manipulate at such an early age?

I think Justin and I are in for a long 18 years!

Are YOU talking to ME?

Chloe has been amazing me lately with her language. I really have no idea whether she is on pace, ahead, or behind with her skills. It doesn't matter to me. It used to. When she was about a year old, I worried that her language was delayed and she would never talk. First-time mommy anxiety, I guess. But now, we just go with the flow. I don't care about what's "textbook" anymore. She is her own person and will develop at her own pace.

When she says new words I get so excited. I love to see her little brain work things out. Its so fun to see her connect objects or happenings with words. Lately she has been making sentences. -- 2-word sentences and some of them aren't grammatically correct, but I don't care, they are sentences none-the-less.

Her new sentences are:

*I eat. She first said this when she was talking to her daddy on the phone. He asked her what she was doing and she said "I eat." Sure enough, she was eating at the time!

*Go home! She loves to say this one after preschool when she is tired and ready for her lunch.

*This Momma's. One night I had a bottle of water and Justin wanted a drink, so I handed it to him. He was holding it after he was done and Chloe came up and took it from him and said "this momma's!"

*Nana, bye bye. She has learned to address people when speaking to them now. My mom (Nana) was not listening one day when Chloe was saying bye bye repeatedly, so she said, "Nana! Bye bye!"

Those are a few of the sentences I can remember right now. I can't even imagine when she will start talking in full sentences. Although, I'm sure it won't be long.....

Time flies when you're having fun!!