Look-a-like contest

I dunno....I think we might look a like, what do you think? Did I clone myself?

First food

Over the last few weeks, Chloe has been very interested in our food when we eat. So Tuesday morning we decided to let her try some food. It was a mixture of baby rice cereal and breast milk. She didn't really like it and as you can see in the videos, she started to like the idea of eating, but not the act of eating yet. She has not been so interested in our food anymore since this event. I think I will wait a few more weeks until I try it again.

Thanksgiving

OK so it has been a while since I have posted. Sorry. My parents were in town and I was having such a good time with them, I didn't want to tear away and write a blog. So here I am now.

As you already heard, my parents came down for Thanksgiving. They came the Sunday before and stayed until the following Tuesday. It was so nice having them here for so long. We got so much stuff done. Brett and I were able to go on a date night...alone, just the 2 of us, it was so nice! On our lovely date night we got me put onto our bank account...finally....and went out to dinner. We were going to watch a movie as well, but nothing sounded remotely good, so we decided that we just wanted to go home. But the time away was very nice. With my parents, we went to the "Holiday in the Park" at Six Flags which was nice and very cold! We have a thermometer on the stroller and around 6pm it was reading 45 degrees. at the same moment I was reading it, I heard a woman in a tank top say "wow it really isn't that cold out tonight!" I was absolutely shocked! Hello lady it is 45 degrees in California. Where I come from that is cold. She must have been visiting from Alaska.

So we did the Six Flags adventure, farmers market, fixed up the apartment, and we went to San Francisco where we had a wonderful time eating good food and did some good shopping and just walking around.

My dad and mom were very helpful in making our home even better. My dad went around and fixed all the doors so they wouldn't slam shut (I love shutting them now), My dad put up lights in the kitchen under the cabinets so I can see what I am doing after the sun goes down! My mom helped make wonderful food, canned applesauce for Chloe and helped make a headboard for the guest room. They also got me a fire extinguisher which is good to have when you have a gas stove and a gas fireplace. They also made me call Josh (my landlord / owner) and had him put up weather stripping around my back door and got another heater from him. SO now my place is so much warmer.

Along with being very helpful with stuff around the house, They were very helpful with Chloe. With in the week that they were here, my dad was able to get her to almost sit by herself, like to do floor time, got her to love to stand, and was even able to help her in taking her first few very assisted steps. Here is one video for you.

To answer my dad's question

Hopefully all of you have seen the similarities post between Brett and Chloe. Well when my parents viewed it, my dad was wondering how we knew she was MY daughter! (side note: he was there in the room when I delivered her)

Anyways, This morning I had fed Chloe like I usually do and like usual she took a short nap afterwards. I usually put her down for a brief moment to do something for myself, but today I decided to hang on to her. I love watching her sleep.

This morning during her nap she had a dream, not a good one either, She was whimpering and crying in it. I was feeling bad for her and thinking it was really cute at the same time. I started to caress her head saying it was OK and that I was here for her. Well she woke up but her emotions didn't go away. For a minute or two she was upset and still whimpering / crying and didn't want to be her happy cute little self.

Well I told this story to Brett and his reply was "Oh she is like you, have a bad dream and wake up mad at me". It figures that that is the thing that I pass to her. My sister, Brett, my mom and especially my dad have been subjected to my verbal thrashings when I can't separate my dream from reality. Sorry, but it seems that I have passed this wonderful thing onto my daughter. Who wants to babysit?

Before I was a mom...

Before I was a Mom
I never tripped over toys or forgot words to a lullaby.
I didn't worry whether or not my plants were poisonous.
I never thought about immunizations.
Before I was a Mom -
I had never been puked on.
Pooped on.
Chewed on.
Peed on.
I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts.
I slept all night.
Before I was a Mom
I never held down a screaming child so doctors could do tests.
Or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.
Before I was a Mom
I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn't want to put him down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn't stop the hurt.
I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much.
I never knew that I could love someone so much.
I never knew I would love being a Mom.
Before I was a Mom -
I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body.
I didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby.
I didn't know that bond between a mother and her child.
I didn't know that something so small could make me feel so important and happy.
Before I was a Mom -
I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.
I had never known the warmth,
the joy,
the love,
the heartache,
the wonderment or the satisfaction of being a Mom.
I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much,
before I was a Mom.

Thank you

So I was at Lucky (formerly Albertson's) yesterday shopping. I was in the checkout line which as usual had some very rude customers in it that were taking forever. So to pass time, I was smiling and talking to Chloe. When I finally got to the checker, he asked how I was doing, and I replied with an "I'm doing great how about you?" with a smile like I always do. He proceeded to ring me up but kept looking at me with a look of somewhat amazement and curiosity. Nothing really all that odd to me since whenever I go anywhere with Chloe people seem to look like that at her. And so I proceeded to smile and make faces at Chloe. When He handed me my receipt, he said "Thank you for smiling. You are the first person who has done that today. It is nice to see it once in a while." I was shocked. Was this area of town really that grumpy or did he just start his shift? I responded with "Well I know how your job is, I worked at Albertson's in Washington and I know how grumpy customers can be and I will never be one of those! So you're welcome. And I hope you have a great rest of your day." I smiled to him and he smiled back and I left the store. When I left, he looked just a little happier than when I first met him.


It is amazing the little things that you do every day that can effect someone else so much.

Random Stuff

How do I know that my child is Brett's some might ask??? (OK no one has ever asked that or even questioned that)

Well here are some things only they share:

Same facial expressions

same hair style
they both sleep in the same position

They have much more in common, but these are the only pictures that I could find.

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So today I got out of the house again! This time I took Chloe on a walk along the waterfront. It was really nice out today, 73 degrees. Since I am always talking to Tracy on the phone (that is me talking to her in the picture) we were having a conversation about all the pigeons and seagulls that were around. I noticed something strange. There was a brown pigeon! I had never seen one before. Tracy asked what a normal one look liked, so I took a picture of both. Have you ever seen a brown one? Click on the pictures to make them bigger. Anyways it was a really nice walk.

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I just found out:

On Friday Brett is volunteering his time to give out flu shots to the homeless. He is doing it through the family practice club . He is such a good person!

Last night with emergency medicine and surgery club he learned how to suture up people, well cadavers, but still he learned how to sew them up. He is getting that much closer to being doctor.

Dinner ideas

So I was talking to Tracy today and she was describing how Phil made an awesome dinner for them the other night. A stuffed burrito with seasoned meat, beans, and a bunch of really really great fixings in it. Wow was I jealous. I then proceeded to tell her what Brett had planned to make for us the other night when I felt like not cooking.

Set up to the story:Brett and I were going to a poker party on Friday night with a bunch of people from his school. It was a nice way for me to get out of the house and for me to meed some more of his classmates. We were unsure if there would be food...more than chips and various snack foods... so I thought that we should have dinner before we went just in case! Well everything we had was frozen and soup just didn't sound good to me. So I suggested that we go out to McDonald's and get something off the dollar menu, cheap and filling! Well Brett had other ideas.
Here is our (mine and Brett's) conversation:

me: "Can't we just go to McDonald's tonight? I really don't feel like cooking AGAIN."
Brett: "That's just silly, here I'll make something"
me: "But we have nothing to make, otherwise I would make it."
Brett: "How about spaghetti?"
me: "We don't have any spaghetti sauce!"
Brett: "We have ranch right?"
me: "You are NOT making spaghetti with ranch! If you do I will just puke!!!"
Brett: "Come on it is soooo good. "
me: "Never will I ever eat ranch dressing on Spaghetti noodles...sick!"
Brett: "But ranch is great on everything" (here he proceeds to take down a pan and fill it with water.)
Me: (begging) "can we please please please just get some McDonald's? It is on the way to the party and we are going to be late if you make the spaghetti"
Brett: "OK fine, you win...this time"


So I have a wonderful husband who is very willing to cook for us, I just need to always have something in a can ready to heat up or else I get wonderful meals like spaghetti with ranch sauce.

San Francisco

On Sunday we went to San Francisco with our friends Marie, Dallas, and Cadence who is one month older than Chloe. We took the 10:00 ferry over which is so much better than driving!











It took about an hour to get there but if we drove it would have been like an hour and a half. So Chloe and Cadence really liked each other. They smiled and talked to each other the whole way over, when they weren't both eating. It is amazing to see what one month can make in the alertness and social behaviors of babies. Now I thought that Chloe was a talker and was active, well not compared to Cadence! Chloe looked like a lump almost the entire time compared to Cadence. But I have to remind myself "she is a month younger and her parents are more laid back". Did I mention that Marie is a med student with Brett, has a baby one month older than Chloe, AND is training for a triathlon???? So compared to her parents, we are WAY laid back.

It was a very nice and sunny day, so nice that we all started out wearing warm jackets thinking it was going to be cold and windy, but the sun made us warm enough that we didn't need our jackets for the majority of the day.










When we got to "The City" ( I guess if you live anywhere in the bay are the "city" refers to San Francisco. The same as if we in Washington would refer to Seattle as the "city" although we all live in a city around it....odd I think but that is the way it is around here) we headed over to the docks to see the sea lions. Thinking that it would be fun to show them off to the kids. Well our little bundle of joy had fallen asleep as soon as we got off the ferry. Too bad, maybe she will see them next time. Cadence enjoyed them however.

To sum up our trip, we got to the city at 11:15, ate lunch at noon (at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co...yes from Forrest Gump), walked around Fisherman's Wharf for a bit, went to Ghirardelli Square to eat brownie and chocolate sundaes, walked around a park and along the water front (closed because of the oil spill), went back through Fisherman's Wharf, and went to get in line for the 4:15 ferry.....AND CHLOE SLEPT THE ENTIRE TRIP!!! She woke up to eat right before we got on the ferry. It was nice not having to "deal" with an awake baby, but it would have been nice for her to be awake to see things. Oh well, we will try the trip again when my parents come down for Thanksgiving.










Over all it was a great trip and we (I) needed to get out of the house.










Click on pictures to enlarge them if you want a better look.

tests are done

So Brett finished up both tests. He is very confident that he aced his OMM test, but is really skeptical about the other test. He said that everyone in his class (roughly 145 students) felt really bad about the second test. We will find out how he did in the next few days. 2 students dropped out on Monday.

So far this year, 5 classmates of Brett's have dropped out of school. At first that doesn't seem too bad of a number, but the school counts on every student's tuition money and budgets it all for the entire 4 years. So they are looking at $120,000 per student (150 students) over 4 years...nice budget to work with. Well take away 5 students and that is a fairly good chunk of change. Scary for the school since it is only 3 months into the school year.

The only good thing about this is we don't think the school will be kicking out any students for poor test grades. Not that Brett has any problems with that. It will be interesting to see what happens over the rest of the year.

On a different note...sort of... Brett got to give shots to his classmates today. He gave a couple of flu shots and a lot of saline shots. The first guy he was partnered with received the worst of it from Brett. Brett had to stick the guy 5 times in the arm muscle before he got it correct. Poor guy!But Brett got his fair share of pokes. He now wants to give Chloe her 4 month immunization shots! I am still debating this one. I have until December 20Th to make the decision if I want to ask her doctor if Brett can do it.

Well Chloe is finally asleep so I am off to bed as well.

Purple and new play toys

So Brett made an interesting comment the other day. He said that "Chloe seems to have a lot of purple stuff". I have no idea what he is talking about. (me being sarcastic)

I see nothing wrong with having a few things purple. Purple is a great color and I think that my Aunt Elaine would agree with me on this one.

.............................

So I got out the exersaucer or whatever they are called for Chloe the other day. She absolutely loves it. Right now all she can do is chew on the flower and stand there, but she enjoys the new angle of sitting. It was really cute, I put her in it while I was wiping it down and she fell asleep in it, I love this toy!

Brett turned 26!

So Saturday, the 3rd of November, Brett turned 26 years old. When I asked him if he felt any older he replied with "yeah I feel 37" Poor guy.

Side note: It is November 3rd, and it is 75 degrees outside! Notice tank top in picture and Brett is wearing shorts.


Since he had so much studying to do for the big test, we couldn't really go out to do anything, and his few friends that he has here were also busy studying. So again, it was our small little family that had the birthday party. I got him his favorite cake, ice cream cake, he got to eat his favorite meal...sushi (thank you Costco), and he got to get a new DVD box set, his choice. So even though we were all alone, he still had a pretty good birthday.



Right after Brett blew out his candles, my mom had called to wish Brett a Happy Birthday. It was perfect timing because both my parents and their friend Marlene sang the happy birthday song to him over the phone. It made the moment perfect.












So I made Brett a present, and I am going to make him wear it at least once. It is a picture of Chloe on a t-shirt if you cannot see it very well. I think it is the cutest thing ever.



Overall it was a pretty good day.

Access has returned

How to describe the Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.):

Take a chiropractor, a massage therapist, a physical therapist and a Medical Doctor and combine them into one and that would pretty much be equal to an Osteopathic doctor. This also means that in the 4 years of medical school, he has a LOT of information to study.

So Brett had two major tests this week, his OMM (Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine) test and his 6 hour long fundamentals and doctoring test which covers anatomy, biochemistry, histology, pharmacology, pathology, and doctoring ( OMM theory, Dr. / pt. protocol, exams). So needless to say that he has been studying like crazy. With that, he has taken over the office and I have not been allowed in here so he can concentrate.

On Sunday, he had to practice for his OMM test that he took on Monday. So with me being here now, he was able to use me as the patient. I got to experience things such as the "liver quiver", the "spleen pump", "thoracic diaphragm release", "thoracic pump" and the all time favorite "abdominal pump" (I just ate dinner). Yes I now have wonderfully working body parts...but Brett said that there was nothing wrong with them before, but they might just work better now that they have been pumped or cleaned out so to say. It is going to be a very interesting few years for me.

So I finally got access to my computer tonight. YAY. so much to update you on. I know I know it has only been like 3 days, but I just have so much going on in our lives...right now that is.

So here are a few pictures of Chloe helping Brett study. She is going to be one smart kid with all the studying that she does with Brett. Her nighttime stories with Brett include but are not limited to all of his medical books and lecture notes.

Lets hope he does well on his tests!

I got this from a friend, it is so cute!

WHY GOD MADE MOTHERS

Answers given by 2nd grade school children to the following questions:

Why did God make mothers?
1. She's the only one who knows where the scotch tape is.
2. Mostly to clean the house.
3. To help us out of there when we were getting born.

How did God make mothers?
1. He used dirt, just like for the rest of us.
2. Magic plus super powers and a lot of stirring.
3. God made my Mom just the same like he made me. He just usedbigger parts.

What ingredients are mothers made of?
1. God makes mothers out of clouds and angel hair andeverything nice in the world and one dab of mean.
2. They had to get their start from men's bones. Then theymostly use string, I think.

Why did God give you your mother and not some other mom?
1. We're related.
2. God knew she likes me a lot more than other people's momslike me.

What kind of little girl was your mom?
1. My Mom has always been my mom and none of that other stuff.
2. I don't know because I wasn't there, but my guess would bepretty bossy.
3. They say she used to be nice.

What did mom need to know about dad before she married him?
1. His last name.
2. She had to know his background. Like is he a crook? Does heget drunk on beer?
3. Does he make at least $800 a year? Did he say NO to drugs and YES to chores?

Why did your mom marry your dad?
1. My dad makes the best spaghetti in the world. And my Mom eatsa lot.
2. She got too old to do anything else with him.
3. My grandma says that Mom didn't have her thinking cap on.

Who's the boss at your house?
1. Mom doesn't want to be boss, but she has to because dad'ssuch a goof ball.
2. Mom. You can tell by room inspection. She sees the stuffunder the bed.
3. I guess Mom is, but only because she has a lot more to dothan dad.

What's the difference between moms & dads?
1. Moms work at work and work at home and dads just go to workat work.
2. Moms know how to talk to teachers without scaring them.
3. Dads are taller & stronger, but moms have all the real power'cause that's who you got to ask if you want to sleep over at yourfriend's.
4. Moms have magic, they make you feel better without medicine.

What does your mom do in her spare time?
1. Mothers don't do spare time.
2. To hear her tell it, she pays bills all day long.

What would it take to make your mom perfect?
1. On the inside she's already perfect. Outside, I think somekind of plastic surgery.
2. Diet. You know, her hair. I'd diet, maybe blue.

If you could change one thing about your mom, what would it be?
1. She has this weird thing about me keeping my room clean. I'dget rid of that.
2. I'd make my mom smarter. Then she would know it was my sisterwho did it and not me.
3. I would like for her to get rid of those invisible eyes onthe back of her head.

WHEN YOU STOP LAUGHING --SEND IT ON TO OTHER MOTHERS, GRANDMOTHERS and AUNTS and anyone else who has anything to do with kids or just needs a good laugh!!!

Chew toys

So Chloe has some new favorite chew toys. Her thermometer, her syringe (as seen in a previous post), and the best chew toy of all...her fingers. Yup all 4 of them at one time and not in a fist form. Just flattened out for maximum contact on those gums. She can go for a while chewing on them, refuses to chew on anything else when she has found her fingers. This is great because she has a built in chew toy, when she needs one it is there. The down side to this is that the fingers are attached to her. If she bites down too hard she starts to cry out in pain. Poor thing has yet to learn that she is chewing on her OWN fingers. In the amount of time it took me to write this blog (maybe 2 minutes) she has bitten herself 4 times! Poor thing.

Dancing baby

So Brett is singing the song "Maniac" in the background. I thought this was hilarious. I hope you enjoy it as well.

Because I have to show up my sis and cousin!

in the photo department that is....