Almost...Almost...Got It!!!

Baby Drew has been on a mission this past week to find his thumb, and I think he is finally starting to figure it out. He made the loudest 'smacking' noises I've ever heard from a baby this week as he was trying out all his fingers until he could find one that fit just right. So today, with Chloe (aka. the "Thumb Master") cheering him on, we watched Baby Drew finally find his thumb! And for those of you familar with Chloe's attachment to her Buddy (her burp cloth), you'll notice that Drew has a firm hold on his the whole time he is working on his thumb. I honestly don't know if it's because he sees Chloe doing it or if it really is genetic, but it is amazing to me how they both have the same mannerisms already!

Chloe's FIRST Haircut

Chloe went to the salon with me today for her first haircut...ever. I have been a nervous-nelly when it comes to getting her hair cut because I have always loved her curls and I was so afraid that cutting them off would mean they would be gone for good! Brian even teased that Chloe would end up looking like one of those ladies with hair down to the floor and 25 cats! But all turned out well, besides Chloe being a little nervous about the cape (because she couldn't see where her hands went!) and I think her hair looks even better now--here are some before, during, and after pictures. She even got a cute braid in her hair (along with several suckers!) before we left, so she was as happy as could be!

Nana visit

Nana came to visit for the day to help me out while Brian was out of town, and we had a great time! We went to the park, McDonald's for lunch, and Chloe got her nails painted in the afternoon by Nana. Chloe even got new pj's before the visit was over, so she was in heaven! And I was so thrilled to have the kids bathed and ready for bed with the kitchen already cleaned up after dinner! Thanks for my sanity, Nana!

9 to 5!!

I am so happy to report that Baby Drew (as his big sister has affectionately named him) slept from 9pm to 5am last night, by far the best solid stretch of sleep he has had so far! Actually, he slept longer than that one night during the blackout, but we had left him in his carseat because he fell asleep there instead of his crib, so we aren't counting that. It's been somewhat of a challenge for us to get Drew to fall asleep (and stay asleep) in his crib, so I think we are finally making some progress. And another trick we learned during the blackout--Drew actually prefers the dark....the darker the better...so no more nightlight! And we won't tell him this when he's older, but we've been using Chloe's pink wearable blanket at night since he likes to be so warm. It makes Brian cringe, but it works!!

The lights are back on!

After almost 54 hours of darkness, the lights came back on at our house last night. We could hear the kids next door screaming with excitement, and we were certainly relieved to have the blackout behind us. We were really lucky not to have any storm damage and it definitely could have been a lot of worse. But I'm so happy that we don't have to give the kids their baths in the dark and try to potty train Chloe in a dark bathroom (YIKES!!) anymore!

5 Years Already??

Brian and I celebrated our 5th anniversary on Saturday night (before the lights went out!!) with a wonderful "date night". Thanks to Tom & Cheryl, who were willing to take over the circus for us for the night, we had a great dinner and night out just the 2 of us. We even worked in the yard together in the afternoon, something that is quite rare in our "divide and conquer" lifestyle. It's hard to believe that it's been 5 years already...but we've been very blessed to have so many great memories already. And, just for the day, it was so nice to just be a couple again.

Mommy's Helper

Chloe helped me do some fall planting tonight, and this is a picture of her showing off her gloves "just like Mommy's". Ok, so I didn't have any kid-sized gardening gloves, so I had to improvise!

WHO-DEY!

Today was the official beginning to what could be quite a long season for Bengals fans, and even the littlest fans had trouble getting excited about the game today in the Harves household! Unfortunately this is the best expression I could get out of Drew in his Bengals outfit--and in case you can't quite tell, that is spit-up all down the front of his shirt! I guess he was as disgusted with the game as his Daddy was!

Sand is icky!

This morning I took Chloe & Drew to the park near our house while Brian worked on the latest home improvement project. We actually planned ahead for once and brought the sand toys to play with. Chloe certainly loves playing in the sand...that is, for the first 5 seconds until it gets in her shoes! She had her crocs on today with no socks which made it even worse--she spent the whole time she was in the sand trying to get it out of her shoes, which was a no-win situation since it got in her shoes each time she took a step! It reminded me of the family vacation we took to Myrtle Beach when I was a kid and Julie kept washing her feet off in the ocean to get rid of the sand, only to get back to the towel covered in sand again! Maybe it's genetic....

This Thumb Doesn't Taste Good....

Chloe has sucked her thumb since she was 10 weeks old, but she didn't develop a preference for a specific thumb until somewhat recently. Now, she exclusively sucks her left thumb and holds her "buddy" (i.e. a burp cloth) in her right hand, with the tag up close to her nose. That creates a problem when she is coming down the stairs and has to hold the railing with her left hand. I told her today to just suck her other thumb instead, so she tried it and then made an icky face and said "This thumb doesn't taste any good!"

Tummy Time!

Ok, it's really hard (make that impossible!) to not compare your kids to one another, and we are just as guilty as everyone else. So when I took this picture of Drew doing his tummy time, which he hates just as much as Chloe used to hate it, I couldn't believe how much it looked like a picture we took of Chloe when she was the same age!

Last Trip to the Pool

We took Chloe & Drew to the pool at the Y for one last time before it was closed for the summer. We were hoping that Chloe would continue her progress with swimming from when we were at the lake, but we realized quickly that she would rather tentatively wade in the baby pool than swim around with Daddy in the big pool!