Sleep...What's that?

Lately Chloe has been on a very weird sleeping pattern.

Wake up: 10 am
1st nap: noon (1-2 hours)
2nd nap: 4pm (1 hour)
3rd nap: 7pm (20 minutes)
won't go to sleep until midnight

The other night I was tired of this schedule, so I laid down with her at 10:30 pm saying it was time for bed. I did our bedtime routine and let her sleep in my bed which she loves to do. Well the plan didn't work out so well. She cried the entire time until (I an not kidding you) 11:55pm. Then she was out cold until....1:25 when she woke up crying,then again at 3:00....then again at 4:30....then again at 6:00.....then again at 8:37 and finally got up for the day at 10:35am.

And this pattern has been going on for 2 weeks now! It doesn't matter what I do during the day or night. I was telling my sister that she has regressed! A few months ago I was boasting about how all I had to do was lay her in her bed and she would fall asleep on her own and stay down for 5-7 hours at a time. I feel like I have a new born again.

Oh and she only falls asleep if I put my sheet and comforter over her. Her own blankets don't do her justice. So with this in mind, I really don't know what sleep is anymore. Naps, yeah I know that word and feeling, but anything more than a 2 hour nap just goes right over my head.

This is why I haven't been posting much lately either. Right now Brett is occupying her so I can have some "alone time".

Rock Band

Brett joined a rock band with fellow med students this last weekend. Ok well they aren't going to go on tour or even leave the living room for that matter. I don't know if you have heard of guitar hero or not, but this is very similar to it, but it involves a whole band. There is a drummer, a Bass player, a guitarist and someone on vocals. They all have to hit the marks for the music otherwise the band will get booed off stage. We discovered that Brett and I should NEVER play an instrument. Brett can't keep a beat and I lose track of where my fingers should be. None the less it was very fun.

Still getting the hang of it

She now enjoys eating rice cereal, oatmeal, green beans, refried beand, navy bean soup and can tollerate squash. She still doesn't enjoy fruits.

A new chair

We got out Chloe's high Chair last week after seeing her in the neighbor's chair. She really liked being in it. She was able to see people at a whole new level and could interact with us better.

For us it is nice having the high chair out because it is easier to feed her, less back breaking that feeding her in the exersaucer and it is much easier to clean.

Although she doesn't fit in it all that well, she loves being in it! She gets to watch me cook and clean and I bring her around from room to room with me and she really enjoys that as well as my back and arms!

Dinner at the neighbors

We decided that we needed to get to know our neighbors better, so we invited ourselves to their house for dinner Sunday night. They are such wonderful people. They have 2 kids, daughter Brianna who is 1 1/2 years old and a 3 year old boy named Brandon. They have a ton of energy!

Ok let me go back to the beginning of our "relationship" with them so we don't seem so strange as to just invite ourselves over.

They moved into the neighborhood in July from South L.A., we moved in to our home in August. They have 2 kids, we have one. Brett and my dad have had a few conversations with them while they were here moving us in during the summer. A few weeks ago, The mom came over and borrowed our VCR so her kids could watch a movie that they rented, theirs was broken. On Dec 18Th, the day before we left for Washington, she returned the VCR and along with it gave us some grapefruit as a thank you and a Christmas card. We were invited to go over to their house for some tea, but I had to pack and Brett was going to go out and celebrate the end of the first semester of school with some friends so we had to politely decline the offer. She then told us that if we ever needed a babysitter, that she would love to watch Chloe for us. Well with Brett going out with friends that I haven't met yet, I asked if she wouldn't mind watching Chloe for like 2 hours that night. She was thrilled! So yes, we are horrible parents I will say this now. We went out with the friends, had a great time, and when I went to pick up my baby she was still there, sleeping in their daughter's crib, and apparently she did really well. WHEW!!!

So we have had them watch our kid once, let them borrow our VCR and have canceled on them 2 times for tea or dinner in the past because of other things going on. So I decided that we needed to get together with them and have dinner. Since they have 2 little ones who get into everything, and our house is so not baby proofed, I asked if we could bring dinner to them if they would supply the house.

Ok back to Sunday. So I brought over salmon, rice, garlic bread, a green salad and a Cesar salad for dinner and strawberry cheesecake for desert. Thanks to Costco, I didn't have that much to do. I guess when Brett had originally set up the dinner date she mentioned that she would make a salad and do desert as well, but didn't mention it to me because we showed up with our stuff, and they had theirs out on the table already. Oh well...more food for us to eat.

We got over there about 6pm and we were not planning on staying too late, because they worked, Brett had school, and we had never actually hung out for more than oh lets say 30 minutes. But we brought games with us on the off chance we needed something to do. We brought over rummikub and settlers of catan. They were excited to play Settlers of Catan because they heard it was a great game, oh and it is! So with dinner and the game and desert, we left their house at 11:30pm. It was a long night, but we had a really good time. We really need to set up more date nights with them.

Oh and I was informed by Brandon the 3 year old "I LOVE CHLOE!!!" Yes he yelled that to me while the was walking over to her. I think he wanted to keep her. What a cute kid!

Chloe's thoughts

The following was typed by my daughter all on her own. I was going to start typing and she took over.

c mkl. n jjlldrecgcr jv v vb,

Our visit home for Christmas

For Christmas, we were able to come home to Washington. It was so nice to be home with our family and friends. We were there for 11 days but it felt like we were barely there. We weren't able to see everyone that we wanted to, but for the few that we did see it was so nice to be with them.

Chloe did a wonderful job on the plane. She didn't sleep much, but loved looking out the window and playing with Brett. The only problems she had were during take off and landing because of the pressure on her ear drums.

While we were in Washington, we had Chloe's 4 month check up.....she is very healthy at 17 lb 11 oz. Her doctor asked me if I was feeding her fertilizer...ha ha ha very funny Dr Goodman! But she is doing well and is right on track with her development.

We also made a trip down to the UW where Brett and I both worked. It was nice seeing everyone again and it was fun showing off Chloe to them. I was asked AGAIN to come back to work by the clinic director, but I told him that it would be a rather long commute for me. I really miss it there.

My parent shave some friends who are Jewish, and to celebrate their traditions, we held a Hanukkah dinner in their honor. We had wonderful food including latkes (potato pancakes), matzo ball soup, cous cous, a chicken dish, green beans, and olive rolls. It was very delicious. It was nice to be able to experience another religious tradition around the holidays.

Brett and I were both able to see our friends while we were up there, although we didn't get a chance to see everyone. For the people who we saw, we only got to see them once.

We were able to get in a few games of Settlers of Catan in on this trip. My dad got an expansion pack for Christmas for the game and next time we are up here, we need to figure out how to play it.

Christmas eve was spent at Brett's parent's house. It was a really nice evening with the family. There was so much wonderful food to eat, we left stuffed!

Brett's Grandma Mary was there and it was fun talking to her and hearing her wonderful stories about her childhood in Iowa. Apparently she grew up not too far from where Tracy is now. Chloe got in some good Grandma and Grandpa time as well. She really likes them.

Chloe didn't quite know what to think of her very rowdy cousin Nolan who was all over the place. It was very nice that she took a long nap in her Auntie Stephie's arms. We were able to talk to everyone and not worry about her the whole time. We met Eric's girlfriend who seems like a sweet girl. David joined the crowd for a brief moment as well. All in all it was a wonderful visit.

Christmas morning started later than it had been in the past. Previous years, Tracy and I would wake up at about 7am if not earlier and would try to wake up our parents so we could open up our stockings from Santa. We woke up so early some years, our parents made a rule that we couldn't wake them up until 8am. Now that I am older and have a kid of my own that likes to wake me up every few hours, I really enjoy sleeping as long as I can. On Christmas morning she actually let me sleep in until 10am!!! Never have I slept in that long on Christmas morning. So with our late start, we opened our stockings and went strait on to the presents. Normally we do breakfast in between. It was nice not having to wait this year.

We had my Aunt Sydney, Uncle Lee, and Cousin Amanda and Nathan and Joshua come over later in the day. Man was that fun! Chloe LOVED Joshua. I think she might have scared him with her excitement over him. He is so adorable and is rolling all over the place.

It was good seeing him roll everywhere, it made me appreciate the fact that she can't roll yet. I am so glad that Manda and Nathan could come up for Christmas, I wish we could see them more often.

Later on in the day, my sister and both nephews joined in on the festivities via the Internet. I love having a web cam. It makes the holidays easier when you can bring everyone together. However next year they better be here in person!

The rest of our time seemed to fly by very fast. On our last day in Washington, we had brunch with Brett's parents and Aunt Gerry and Uncle Jim. It was so good seeing them again. The food was wonderful, but the company was even better. Everyone was doing well and seemed to be healthy and happy. Chloe got to have more Grandma and Grandpa time, and even fell asleep with Grandma which she wouldn't do for me.

Before the plane trip, we were able to squeeze in a visit with my Aunt Elaine, Uncle Denny and cousins Kyle and Courtney. It was really nice catching up with all of them. My cousin Courtney got her drivers license - way to go! My Cousin Kyle is going to the Art Institute of Seattle and working at what sounds like a very fun and wonderful job right up his alley. Uncle Denny is back at Boeing and Aunt Elaine is working with a new law firm. All seems to be going well for them.

We realized how much we miss it up in Washington, being with our friends and family and can't wait to come home. The only thing I know we will miss here in California is the wonderful sunshine. While we were in Washington, it was overcast, rainy every day and cold. It even snowed the day after Christmas. That was nice to have, but we did miss the nicer weather in Cali.

It is nice to be home but can't wait to see everyone again. Hope you all had a wonderful holiday!