My New Job!

I haven't been blogging much lately. That's because I've been working! That's right. Working. Fortunately, I started my new career from home and can choose exactly when and how much I work. What am I doing? I'm selling Pampered Chef. I've been in love with/obsessed with Pampered Chef for years. Anyway, we were thinking it would be nice to have a little bit of extra money around but we didn't want for me to go back to work, send Chloe to daycare, or have another person responsible for her contacts. I was inspired by my good friend, Kim, who just started selling Thirty-One and I thought, "I could do this with Pampered Chef and it would be so cool!" I love it!

Anyway, I signed up some time around November 14th and had my grand opening on the 18th. I've been a whirlwind of activity since then. The company gives incredible incentives for new consultants to start quickly so I did a lot right away. I'm doing my 7th cooking show tomorrow and my January calendar's already booked. Plus, I have one show in February!

Starting in January I'm only doing one show per week. A show requires that I leave the house around 5:45 and get home around 9pm. We'll all have dinner together and then I leave. Dave can handle one evening of bedtime responsibilities but I can't ask any more of him. He's been really great in the past month. I did three shows last week and two this week. Yikes!

In the spirit of sharing (not trying to push my business on my blog readers) here's my new website that I just set up. I'm pretty excited about it. I even posted some of the recipes that I demonstrated at my shows. The Santa Hat Brownies are just about the cutest things ever and the brie recipes are easy and divine! Click on "news, recipes and more" and then "Cooking Show Recipes."

Wish me luck!

Hiking

I make our calendar every year on Snapfish. Every month is full of pictures from that month the year before. It's a bit of an undertaking because I have to basically go through a year's worth of pictures, pick out the best ones, and then load them onto Snapfish. But it's sooo worth it. We love looking back and seeing how the girls have changed or remembering all the cool stuff we did every time we flip the month.

When going through our pictures for our 2012 calendar I realized that I never did a hiking entry for this year. We LOVE hiking! Well, at least I do. And the others either like it or pretend really well to make me happy.

This particular park is called Sugar Creek Metro park and is a 4 minute drive from our house. I also love bringing the dogs out here to jog but it's easier to just go around the neighborhood so I don't make it out here too often.

The first time we came out this year was mid-August. It's so beautiful in Ohio in the Summer. Everything is green green green! I told Dave that the jogging stroller wouldn't work on the trails so we packed Chloe in the hiking backpack. I began to whistle and look around when we passed a family pushing a mall-walking stroller down the trail. Oops.

Dave is threatening to climb the tree with Chloe on his back.

Solana proudly exclaims, "I did it all by myself! I really did Mommy! Daddy hardly touched me at all!" Sometimes I wonder if she really believes the stuff she tells me or if she just thinks I'm stupid. ;-)

The next trip was early November. It was a little cooler.

Chloe climbed this rock all by herself. She was proud. I'll write about her climbing feats in another entry. This rock currently pales in comparison...

We packed a little snack of fresh-from-the-oven warm and buttered Provencal Fisherman's Bread (herbes de Provence, saffron water, garlic, and fennel bulb) and apple slices. And this was shortly after Halloween so we had some chocolate for dessert. Yum.

Our little model. She composed and requested many pictures of herself during this hike.

It's gotten cold and nasty out. I don't think we'll make it to Sugarcreek again until Spring. I'll just have to look longingly at these in the meantime.

Music Enrichment Concert

Solana's special music class had their holiday concert last night. I was surprised at how small the group was but it was also nice that it was such an intimate setting. I could actually single out Solana's voice during some parts. They sang about 7 songs - almost none of them were familiar to me. But Ms. Johnson said that's the idea of the special enrichment group - to give them the opportunity to try new and different things that they don't get to do during their regular music class.

They did great. First graders are soooo cute! They were really into it. Bopping to the music. Concentrating really hard. Smiling enthusiastically at the end of every piece. And every time the teacher introduced one of the funny songs (Reindeer Shouldn't Waltz, Don't Eat A Poinsettia, etc.) They would giggle and and look at each other knowingly and with excitement.

I'm very proud of Solana for being selected into this group. There are 11 first grade classes and only 15 children participated in the concert. There may have been some children absent but I can't imagine many missed it. This concert was a big deal to them.

We were all dressed up and that doesn't happen too often...

Potty Training? Are we Ready?

For the past few weeks I've been sitting a naked Chloe on Solana's old Dora potty before her bath. No expectations or hopes. I just wanted her to get used to sitting on a chair with a hole in it. Actually, we had to work on the whole sitting thing because she likes to sit in chairs by first stepping into them and then turning around and sitting. That doesn't work so well on the potty. (Her VS says it's a vision thing.) Eventually, she got it. Watching her turn around and sit down was pretty cool! After the excitement of sitting wore off we started to sing a potty song to keep her on there longer.

To the tune of Mary Had A Little Lamb:

Chloe is a potty girl. Potty girl. Potty girl.

Chloe is a potty girl. She goes potty, too! Wooo!

She pats her hands on her legs during the song and then throws her hands up in the air for the "Woo!" She loves it and it makes sitting on the potty fun. I had no plan for how long we'd do this. In fact, I couldn't find the little pot that goes inside her Dora Potty so she was sitting on a potty with no pot! If she ever did pee it would go straight through to the floor. But I wasn't really worried. Surely we'd find the pot before anything happened.

Today Dave and I were having lunch and Chloe, having already eaten, was running around the room playing and coming over every once in a while for a bite of my sandwich. All the sudden, she came over to Dave, said "poopoo", put her hands down onto the step of her high chair (at hip level), and made the face. We all know the face (face turns slightly red, eyes get glossy, lips tense) and what it means. "Did she just tell you 'poopoo' before doing that?" I was shocked and thought, "maybe we need to start thinking about potty training. Oh well. Missed opportunity. Maybe another time." When she came over to me I was surprised to discover an empty diaper. She acted like she was about to try again and I asked her if she wanted to go poopoo on the potty. She raced over to the bathroom with me. I took down her pants, removed her diaper, and she sat. About 10 seconds later she stood up and I saw a little present sitting on the floor under her potty!!! Are you kidding me? Her FIRST success in the potty was #2?

Dave immediately ran to Target (I think he just didn't want me to drag him into the bathroom to look) and came home with a new potty. As he assembled the potty Chloe was already trying to sit on it. I left with Monty for a jog. An hour or so later I returned and Dave told me to go check out where he put her potty in the bathroom. I looked and saw a little puddle of pee in it. No. Way. "Did she do that?" Dave: "Well, I didn't!"

I'm not sure how to proceed with this. I guess we'll start to put her on the potty more often during the day. She kept me prisoner for about 10 minutes tonight, insisting that I sit on my potty while she sat on hers. But nothing happened. I don't think I'm ready to actually start potty training her but I don't want to miss a good opportunity. I guess we'll just sit her on it more often and see what happens.... Or maybe I'll just put it off until I get through this JUMBO box of size 3 diapers I just opened. Pull ups would probably make this easier...

Disability Cessation

We received a Notice Of Disability Cessation. Apparently, the Social Security Administration no longer considers Chloe to be disabled. We're not surprised after the way she showed off for their Speech Therapist.

Sure she is and will always be vision impaired. She still can't/won't eat most solid fruits or vegetables. She still can't jump or do many things a typical kid her age can do. But we're proud of her for all the things she can do. She's amazing and we celebrate everything around here.

No longer "disabled?" I guess we can kiss that $30 a month goodbye. Yippee!

Decorating the Christmas Tree

The girls and I started decorating the Christmas tree on Friday before Dave got home from work. I flipped on the TV to the Christmas music station and we began.

Chloe ran to the TV, stood in front of it, and started her toddler dance. You know the one. The one where they sort of bend their knees and stick their bottom out over and over to the beat. She was thrilled. She squealed, grinned, giggled, spun around in circles, and danced.

Meanwhile, I was untangling those little paperclip-ey hooks and Solana began digging through the box of ornaments. Every time she pulled one out she'd say something like, "Oh I remember this one!" "Mommy, do you remember this one I made for you and Daddy? Wasn't it your favorite?" "Oooooh. I loooove this one. It was from when..." She just went on and on and had something to reminisce or say about every one she pulled out. It was so sweet.

When Dave got home he joined in on the action. And of course he lifted Solana to the top to put the star on. It was such a happy tree decorating moment. I loved it so much and I'm glad the girls, did, too.

Chloe vs. Cola

Ok. I've been putting off this entry for a long time because I thought it might be crude to some people but it's too funny of a story for me to not document.

Chloe recently learned our word for girl private parts. This is the word that all the Hispanic people I know in Texas use. I have no idea if all Spanish-speaking cultures use this word of if it's just Texans. It's "cola." Cola is also the Spanish word for "tail" and is pronounced using Spanish pronunciation. It rhymes with "ROLL-Ah."

We used it around our house a lot during potty training: "First wipe your cola. Then your bottom." "Mommy, my cola hurts. I think I have a diaper rash." We used it during the the talk about sexual abuse: "Remember, there are certain parts of your body that nobody is ever allowed to touch. Like your cola and your butt." We use it during diaper changes: "Chloe, move your hands. Don't touch your cola while I'm trying to change your diaper." It was during this last instance that Chloe learned this most interesting word. I didn't mean to teach it to her but I shouldn't be surprised because this is where I tend to teach her names for her body parts. (Plus, quizzing her on body parts is a great distraction during diaper changes so that she's not flopping around like a fish. "Chloe, touch your nose. Good. Touch your elbow. Yes! That's right. Now touch your chin." She loves it and it works like a charm!) Anyway, all the sudden she would happily and proudly point and announce, "COLA!" with a big smile on her face, every time I removed her diaper. Of course I'd giggle so she continued.

When Chloe first started saying her name she pronounced it "Kholey." It was cute. But some time after she learned her new word her name changed from "Kholey" to "Cola." It was like someone flipped a switch and she was literally unable to say her name any other way.

"Chloe, say 'Chlo-e' ."

"Cola!"

"No. Say Chloooowww-eeeey."

"Cola!"

"Say Chlo"

"Cho"

"Say EEE"

"EEE"

"Say Chloe"

"Cola!"

"Aaaaaaahhh!"

When walking into a room to find Chloe I often sing this song. It's to the same tune that we use for "Where is Thumpkin."

Where is Chloe? Where is Chloe?

There she is! There she is!

I-I see-ee Chloe. I-I see-ee Chloe.

Yes I do. Yes I do.

Chloe loved to sing that song, too, but her version sounded a little different.

Where id Cola? Where id Cola?

Yeah do do! Yeah do do!

I-I dee-dee Cola. I-I dee-dee Cola.

Yeah do do. Yeah do do.

It is possible to be exasperated and giggling at the same time.

This went on for a good month and a half. I complained/laughed about it with my sister and she said, "Well, at least there aren't many Hispanic people in Ohio." Ha! I think she's just about back to "Kholey." I must admit that I'm relieved. But I definitely don't want to forget her little stint as Cola. It's just too hilarious.