22 Months

Chloë loves going outside. Today has been cold and rainy, but that doesn't deter her. I can watch her from the kitchen and dining room windows, and she is free to get all muddy and wet. Last week was warm and sunny, and we spent lots of time outside while I was doing yard work and weeding. She enjoyed running around barefoot, looking at bugs, waving sticks around, and she even got to see a few gardner snakes.

She's been asking for things by saying "may I?" for months now, but we decided to try to incorporate "please." The girl is just a little bit ADD, and either gushes "May I?!" or "please?!" and has a hard time saying them both together. So I tell her "slow it down, and say it all together." And then I can get her to say "maaaay... I.... please." We've also been working on prompting her to say "be" at the end, and then she know to say "'scused."

She loves food, but she can be both picky and strange. She usually has chex or cheerios for breakfast, but the other morning, she woke me up by sticking her sweet little nose in my face, and asking "Beans? Salsa?"
One of her favorite new things is her "snack lunch." I try to find a variety of healthy things and put them in an ice cube tray. She thinks it's great. She always eats olives, grapes, and raisins first.

I don't think anyone is surprised by her sweet tooth. She often cocks her head to one side and sweetly asks for snacks, treats, chocolate, cookies, cake, or ice cream. Occasionally I oblige.


We have a little game we call "get you." As you might have guessed, the game consists of me chasing her around the house, stomping my feet loudly and saying "I'm gonna GET YOU!" Then when I get her, I throw her up on the bed or the couch, and give her a short tickle session, and then she gets down and runs off again, squealing with delight, and cheerfully yelling "oh no! oh no!"

I realized one day a couple of weeks ago that she can spell her name. She was scribbling away on paper, and she said "C, H, L, O, E... op op." I think the "op op" was supposed to be "umlaut." She can't actually write the letters yet, but I was so surprised to hear her spelling her name!

She likes to count. She understands the concept of one and two, but beyond that, she gets a little confused. She's great at counting to ten, but usually skips a number or two near six or seven. And it doesn't help that she rarely starts at "one." So if there are five blocks in front of her, and I ask her how many, she'll likely say something like "three... four... five... six... nine!"

She's getting really good at her colors, too.


She spends a lot of time in the living room, looking at books (and sometimes making up gibberish stories), and playing with her toys.


Uncle Austin and Aunt Laura got her some new food toys for Easter.

The other day, she had been playing in the living room, and came up to me and handed me a gift bag that I had left out. "A present!" she announced. "For me?!" I asked, and she shook her head with a huge grin on her face, jumping up and down just a little. The bag contained a plastic piece of bread, plastic lettuce, and a plastic ketchup bottle. She's so cute.

Sleeping. She does pretty well falling asleep in her toddler bed. If she hasn't exhausted herself and told me she's sleepy and asked for her binkie, I'll send her to bed for a nap around 2:30 or 3. She usually passes right out, and almost always in this position:

If she could have it her way, she would still cuddle on the couch and have a thumb to squeeze. She likes to hold a thumb in her fist, and uses her own thumb to press on the meaty pad of my thumb. Or if she's holding my thumb from the other angle, she'll rub her own thumb up and down the smoothness of my nail, and then along the edge. Really, anybody's thumb will do. And not just when she's tired. She would happy to have a "thumb fix" any old time. In fact, when we were at the mall last week, she actually checked to see if the mannequin thumb was at all satisfying.

She still loves music. She always asks for "beats" when we get in the car. Her favorites right now are what she calls "Somebodys" and "Mess." She knows all of the songs we sing her at bedtime, and it's so sweet hearing her randomly break into song during the day: "...worshiped, adored. He 'thout 'egINing, age-ess and SAME, is, ever, SHALL BE, g'ory, 'is name." She's a little bit shy, so it's hard to get her to perform if there's anyone around, and she gets all distracted if she knows the camera is there. It seems like she's singing or humming more often than not.



A few days ago, I was yelling out the back door at Bryan, trying to get his attention when he had the loud wood chipper running. Chloë asked "What's this "BRYAN"? I laughed at her imitation of my yelling, and then tried to explain that daddy's name was Bryan, and Mama's name was Bess. She totally understood, and does a great job at explaining the concept: "Daddy, Bryan. Mama, Bess."

She's doing fabulous with her role as Big Sister. She's very sweet and affectionate, and likes to bring toys or stuffed animals to share with Sister.

She has realized that Elaina has tiny fingers and thumbs that work well for squeezing, so we make sure she knows she's not allowed to squeeze or squish Sister; she's too tiny and fragile.

She's getting awfully pretty.