Totally Terrific Two!

Chloe turned two on June 26, 2008. Wow! Where does the time go? We had a really fun day celebrating her birthday. It began with a special birthday breakfast that included blueberry muffins, some singing for her, and balloons and a princess-themed banner hanging across the window.

Our next fun event was to get the whole family ready for a trip to the swimming pool! Our new apartment complex has an indoor pool which we had not yet visited. The girls were so excited to go swimming! Chloe is still happiest if she just plays around the edges of the water, but she had a great time, and looked awfully cute in that Dora bathing suit!Christin slept happily in the stroller while we swam and enjoyed the water. How do you like Clara Anne's swim get-up?We then came home for a delicious Asianese lunch prepared by our house helper, including a cold noodle dish which is traditionally eaten on birthdays. The length of the noodles is supposed to signify long life. Whatever the meaning, they are tasty! We finished the meal with a good old western standby--birthday cake. This recipe for "Minnesota Chocolate Cake" is destined to become a favorite in our family because of its ease of preparation and use of local ingredients (i.e. oil instead of butter, cocoa powder instead of baking chocolate). Yum yum! Clara Anne thought she would give Chloe a bit of help blowing out the candles.

After lunch the girls got to play with one of Chloe's new gifts. She got one gift to share with Clara Anne and one gift for herself. The gift to share was a set of wooden blocks. Up to this point, our toy collection was lacking this basic and fun toy! We decided it was time and found this set of pretty painted blocks in a local market. The girls played with them in the same place on the floor, non-stop, for one hour and 43 minutes after lunch without disputes, without getting up for a drink of water, or to go to the bathroom, or anything!!! I was so amazed I just let them keep playing rather than enforcing nap time. (I knew the start time because they had just started playing when I was sitting down to feed Christin.) They had such fun and were so creative with the things they were building, making trains with them, and finally at the end Clara Anne had made the blocks into little people and was telling stories about them. FUN TIMES!

Chloe's other gift, for her alone, is this new bright green bike! Finally I said they had to be done playing with blocks and put them down for a late nap. Then we woke them to go downtown to pick out this bike for Chloe. She is so excited about it, though she needs to grow just another inch or two to make it really work for her legs. How do you like her fake smile here?There's the real smile, but the sun was too bright!

We love our totally terrific two year old! It is so interesting to see her personality emerge. She is our brave daredevil, very physically active. She loves to climb, run, roll, crawl, jump, and dance. She is just now putting short sentences together: "That's Daddy's chair! . . . Let's go outside! . . . Where's my blanket?" Her hair is crazy curly and she has stout, strong legs. She still loves Mater (a small stuffed one) and her pink blanket dearly, as well as a particular stuffed bear with a purple ribbon around its neck. Chloe is not a snuggler; she'd rather be running around. She loves to eat and eats quickly, especially sweets. If given a treat, she will polish it off in a matter of moments and then look at Clara Anne's portion and say, "More?". But she loves Asianese food too, even the spicy stuff!

Chloe loves Christin and calls her "Kiss-tin" but is oblivious to Christin's crying. She and Clara Anne get along pretty well but still occasionally wage possession wars. Chloe is usually pretty happy-go-lucky and so it was strange lately to see her waking up crabby from naps, crying over small things, and being generally sensitive. We think she may have some two year molars coming in which may be the source of the troubles.

We are thankful for our sweet Chloe Rachelle! She's a blessing to our whole family. Happy Birthday, Chloe! We love you!