Monday, May 23, 2011

Interview: 6yr old Chloe

I interviewed Chloe and told her that she’d be able to read all her answers when she’s older. I think it will be fun to look back at a glimpse into Chloe’s 6 year old mind.
All italics are quotes from Chloe.

Tell me the 5 best things about you:
1. I’m really good at swimming
2. I like soccer
3. I really good at drawing
4. I think I’m good at summersaults and stuff. Like gymnastics


If you could tell me to only serve you two vegetables ever again, what would they be?
Carrots and Peas

On a scale, how strict are we in our house? In the middle

Who’s your favorite teacher? Mrs. Ostendorff. There’s two eff’s

If you had to pick one of these, which would you pick? Really long nose hairs, hair in your ears, hair above your lip or massively hairy armpits.
I couldn’t. *giggles* I couldn’t’ at all!!!

If you could have a day with me home from work, what would we do? Go on a picnic.
Which one would you want more: -Dinner with everyone at the table and your favorite show on TV – Dinner where everyone took what they wanted to eat and we ate different things – Dinner with the whole family together and no TV on. ??
Together with NO TV ON!

If you were feeling sad, what meal could we make you in order to cheer you up?
Cupcakes, cake and cookies.

What punishment have you gotten that you remember a lot? Taking away my marbles.

How do you think peanut butter is made? Crushed up and melted peanuts.

Why do you think the sky is blue? I don’t know.
(She just couldn’t answer something if she didn’t believe she knew the answer. It’s like it didn’t make sense to her to make something up if you didn’t know)

What do you want to be when you grow up? A scientist, a Vet or a Teacher

Who is your best friend?
Do I have to pick ONE? (nope) Josiah, Jacob, Kylee, Kirsten, Trace – all my friends in my life are my best friends.

What is your favorite subject in school? Math

What makes you the happiest? Sticking cake in my face *giggles* actually, eating cake!

What worries you the most? A wasp. Definitely a wasp.

What makes you the angriest?
A bully. I’ve never seen one but if a bully ever talks to me I’ll probably get mad.

If you had $10,000 how would you spend it?
A very very very very VERY expensive Build-a-Bear!

As we talk she’s sitting next to me on the couch chewing a toenail off her toe as she answers me.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Turning 6!!

I'm sure I'll be saying this for the rest of my life: I just can't believe my eyes watching Chloe grow up! Sometimes I sit back and watch her move and talk and... exist. She is such her own little person now. Her face is changing, her voice is changing. It's funny to hear her use slang words and expressions.


6 already? Tomorrow is her birthday. She's got her first loose tooth.







She tells me if she had one wish in the whole world she would be born as a human but she could turn in to anything she wanted. And if she could have her room any way she wanted it would be: "Very very VERY clean with a pet unicorn inside of it. Like a real live unicorn."



Best Friends



When we moved in to our house last october, Chloe was excited to find out that a little girl her age lived next door! I was happy to find out that it was the family of a co-worker of mine.
Chloe and Kylee both have very strong personalities, so it can be amusing to see them try and work through their play time. Most of the time though, they have a lot of fun playing pet shops, polly pocket, or stuffed animals in Chloe's room, or barbies at Kylees. Chloe rides to school with Kylee in the mornings and plays next door after school. Sometimes they play in our yard and I get to capture some fun photos! It has been a pretty wet spring so far, so these days seem to be limited. When it's nice out, I try to encourage them to play outside as much as possible.






It's funny, sometimes on nice days, Abby and I are dying to get outside, and Chloe would rather be inside by herself. I give her tons of invitations and sometimes it takes a while for her to decided she wants to come outside. Last weekend or so, I was digging up some plants and reorganizing one of our flower beds, Abby was mowing the lawn and Chloe finally decided to come outside and start digging with me and playing with a couple long roots that I'd pulled out of the ground. I didn't get any photos of the afternoon, but it was really fun. No matter what else is going on, of course she would always rather play outside with some of her neighborhood friends. When she has an open afternoon, she asks me to go see if so-n-so can play. After a few minutes, if that friend wasnt home she'll turn up and ask if she can go check if someone else is home. And so it goes until she finds a playmate, or she settles on hanging out with her boring ol' moms.




Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Chloe Writes!

Chloe has been bringing home these adorable pages from school where she writes sentences and draws pictures to go with them. I absolutely love getting these! It is so cute to see how she sounds out words and does her best to illustrate. She always makes the eye colors right on the people she draws, too.

"The mom bird laid an egg. The egg hatched. The baby bird flew"

"I get dressed. I brush my teeth. I get in the car."


"The mom unicorn laid more eggs"







"I love my family" (Abby, Chloe, Me)




"I'm picking flowers for my mom. I love my mom."





Okay, so why wouldn't I just love them? I love being Chloes mom.






Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Riding Bike and Piper Puppy




Chloe just recently decided she was brave enough to ride her bike!! She's been on it before a few times, but this time, she got excited and has been asking to ride a lot. At first she was extremely careful and had to have all her pads on (as with times past). But this time! her attitude was so positive!

Instead of saying "I can't, I'm too scared!" she's saying "I can do this! This is fun!" We went around the Cul de sac a few times and she practiced stopping and starting.

Then she was brave enough to go on a ride on the trail with us. We took our new puppy Piper with us! tangent: Chloe just LOVES piper. Sometimes Piper loves Chloe a little too much and is too rough with her. They are ironing out the kinks, though. Chloe is learning to assert herself to Piper to get her to listen, and as Piper gets older, shes listening better and better. Chloe sais that Piper is basically like her little sister. She is always careful to put her shoes away and close her bedroom door so Piper doesn't get at her things. I'm really looking forward to watching the two of them grow up together. So: when we went on that first ride on the trail, Piper was learning to walk on a leash and Chloe was learning to ride her bike. This time, Chloe even rode without her pads on and just her helmet! A few times I pushed her down a little hill or something and she said "Mom! You are gonna freak me OUT!" I just said "Okay! be freaked out for a second, it will get better!". It seemed to help her a lot that I promised I'd be there and she could let her self be a little scared and then she'd say "That was AWESOME!" I hope to build as many of these instances as possible so she can start to notice that it's okay to be nervous or scared and push through it. I love to see her when she challenges herself.









Awesome Outfits


Chloe definately has her own sense of style! She always chooses her own clothes, and I learned my lesson than to try and sway her. It feels good for her to have such a sense of herself in that way, and sometimes it's just downright amusing:






Junk food and Marbles



We don't eat a lot of treats at home. Mealtime, is usually very healthy, and can be pretty serious business. Sometimes, though.... you just gotta let loose! Every once in a while when Chloe earns a treat, she gets a REALLY BIG treat. This is a bowl of rocky road ice cream, with sprinkles AND three big marshmallows! wow! I think she got this for eating a huge mound of broccoli with her dinner. :) We all laugh at the crazy idea of eating such a big treat, but it's fun. You better believe Chloe isn't the only one who ate her broccoli and had a bowl of ice cream!!
Another time we let loose was when we all ate cookie dough and kale chips for dinner! (following a late lunch)

I used to think that I'd be the kind of mom that never allowed for sugar or treats. But, I think if we completely said no to any junk food at all, we'd would never have the chance to teach Chloe how to eat responsibly. I eat junk food, and I stay healthy, so it stands to reason she can, too. I can tell when it's getting a little out of hand with Chloe. She sometimes starts to ask for candy or treats all day or after every snack or meal. It's a balance that's hard to keep with a 5 year old. It's easy to want to use candy to motivate good behavior every time. Sometimes I just insist she listen. No reward but a happy mom. I also try to reward good behavior in other tangible ways.
Recently, we began the "marble" system. Chloe has a collection of marbles I put in a bowl. Every time she does something positive like having a good attitude or reaction to something, or saying something thoughtful or nice, showing her manners, offering to help... pretty much anything I can think of that is a good action from her, I say "you just earned a marble" or two or three, depending. She earned 5 whole marbles for being so very brave getting on her bike and wanting to learn to ride it. She's really struggled with the bike thing, and I was very proud of her for facing her worries like she did. Each time she empties the bowl of marbles and fills up her glass she gets to choose between a small treat or a dollar. Its pretty funny to me the times she chooses a small treat. I don't think she realizes yet, that a dollar can buy way more than what shes getting. She's learning how to count her money and save her money up for something she wants. Lately she's been saying she wants another build-a-bear. She already has three, so I told her I wouldn't buy her another one. If she wants to save up her money and buy herself one, I would be fine with that. So sometimes, she's asking if we can go to the store so she can see how much different things cost. She hasnt bought anything for herself yet, I imagine it will be pretty empowering for her, though. She can also loose marbles for negative behavior or attitude.
So far, the marble thing is working fabuliously! I'm sure it will fizzle out and we'll have to come up with something else, but for now it's good. Maybe we can just start making the rewards bigger as she gets older. :)

Monday, May 2, 2011

Easter 2011

Here is Chloe with her little easter bucket she got from my mom. It was filled with peeps and a new pair of sparkly pink shoes and goofy socks. We went to an easter egg hunt that wasn't planned very well. There were not nearly enough eggs for the kids that came and it was not very well organized at all. Chloe ended up getting one egg. She seemed really bummed, but started feeling a lot better about it when she realized that a lot of kids were going home with nothing. She was a pretty good sport. This little pose she does with her hands is funny. When she seems shy or something she does a kangaroo thing. I remember her doing it as far back as her first day of kindergarden and probabally before. She recently began swimming lessons and I saw her using her hands like this while she was walking to where her instructor told them to go. I think it's pretty cute.
Chloe had 4 visits from the easter bunny! One at her dads house, one at her grandmas house, one at home with us, and one at Kris and John's house. Here she is opening the eggs in her easter bucket at home. Chloe is still working on being grateful for her gifts, so later in the day she drew a nice thank you card for the easter bunny.


These cute bunny ears came as a gift from Kris. Chloe was so excited going to bed before easter she was putting on a show for me. These were her various bunny poses.

Chloe, Abby and I dyed easter eggs together. We each made an egg for the other two of us. They all turned out very pretty! We experimented in dunking in different colors and using a white crayon. In these pictures she is hugging the eggs that Abby and I made for her. Abby thoughtfully used the egg holder to dunk her eggs while Chloe and I used our fingers and stained our skin and nails. Chloe did a great job of layering the colors and getting very dark and vivid shades. She was patient to wait while a layer dried before she added another layer of color. Later that day we had a family movie afternoon, bath time (to play with her new bath toys from the easter bunny) and a fun easter egg hunt around the dining room and living room. It was a low key and relaxing easter day around our house.














Tooth Fairy Visit #1

Well, I guess Chloe didn't inherit my no-cavity baby teeth. Her first few "real" visits to the dentist turned up some decay. She's been a champ at her visits, and now has one "robot" tooth. They decided to wiggle out one of her other teeth instead of filling it. So, Chloe got a visit from the TOOTH FAIRY. I'm not sure who was more excited, me or her!!! She didn't get to keep the tooth from the dentists office (something I LOVED doing as a kid) so we used a small white bead as a substitute. We figured the tooth fairy would be able to figure out what had happened. She's a pretty smart lady! :)

We couldn't decide at first where to put her "tooth". It might have gotten lost under the pillow, and it had to be someplace the tooth fairy could find it. So, I quick crocheted a little tooth sachel and we hung it on the doorknob of her bedroom. In the morning, Chloe found two shiny half dollars in her bag. She thought they were quarters at first and was so excited to find out that she'd gotten a whole dollar!! This year - Chloe got a visit from the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny on the same night! She was super excited getting ready for bed hamming it up for my camera.