Reading to Retta and Pearl

Chloe learns to drive!

Chloe is now driving her four wheeler.  She can't steer it yet, but she can make it go.  She had a fun weekend playing outside in the unseasonable great weather. She is a constant challenge to her mother as she is finding the fine line between fun and trouble.  On the phone tonight she was showing me something at her house and threw a toy at a large wall picture.  She immediately muttered, "I'm in trouble!"  She constantly places her babies or toys in time out an states they have hit her or the dogs.  This week she moves up to another classroom at daycare.  Sadly, she will no longer be in the care of Ms. Courtney for whom there are no appropriate words to express our gratitude for the years of love, care, and understanding she has given to Chloe. 

 Chloe had a great time touring the new Crystal Bridges Museum.  Even though she doesn't quite appreciate the art yet, she will have many opportunities to revisit the museum.  It is a beautiful structure and such a gift to Arkansas!

Chloe and I had a birthday party for her Moma!  Chloe was excused early from daycare so we could make the party a surprise.  This was quite an adventure as it was the first time for us to go shopping without moma.  Chloe was quite tickled with her carseat being in Granbec's car.  She carefully selected some nail polish and a candle for her mother's present.  I'm quite sure she had her own nails in mind when she picked the sparkling purple polish!  After the shopping trip, we went home to decorate.  Chloe helped decide where the baloons were to be placed and she placed the napkins and Skittles on the table.  She put hats on the table and selected a headband with a foil flower and feathers for herself.  I held her up in her closet so she could select something to wear.  As I made suggestions, she would say, "no Granbec that's not for a birthday!"  She picked a smocked dress with "no sleeves" and was very certain that her selection was perfect for a birthday party.  (Chloe insists that all her long sleeves are rolled or pushed up above her elbows, so it wasn't surprising that she chose a sleeveless dress!)  After putting party scarves on the dogs, we were ready for Moma to come home.  Check out the videos to see her excitement and love for her moma!

Chloe went shopping and picked out a pretty pink (her favorite color!) swimsuit and now wants to go to the BEACH.  Check out the video to see her demonstrate how to swim!

Chloe went to see the Razorback Gymnastic team perform in a meet in Fayetteville this weekend.  She reported to me, " the girls turned and spinned."





She exhibits her fashion style even while drawing and baking.  She likes these headbands!

She still hasn't forgiven Pearl for tearing up Curious George.  One afternoon this past week I received a text from her moma...In the car last night we were talking about how Chloe made good choices and she said "Pearlie make bad choices with George."  I see she's not over it yet.

She's quite proud of the green shirt in these pictures as her Daddy brought it to her from "AtLANta."

Chloe predicts the Giants to be the Super Bowl winners.

Big Girl Boots

They almost fit!  Ella gave Chloe her boots when she was a tiny baby and finally she can wear them. 

 Doesn't our girl have style?!  So much that she and her moma had a photo-shoot.

Chloe's wearing headbands

Even though for the first day, she called them "band-aids", Chloe now likes to wear headbands.  One more way to look prissy!  She also puts them on all-by-herself and likes to arrange some hair pooched out in places!

Speaking of her pretty head...Chloe was given a cognitive test recently at her daycare and just did not take it seriously!!  She did just enough to let the examiner know that she new exactly what she was supposed to do, but wasn't going to cooperate.  She even responded to the tester with numerous expressions of "you do it," when asked to perform a task.  The official report was no score and a narrative about her behavior.  Of course, she'll get plenty of more opportunities to prove her smarts! Let's just hope she chooses to do so.

Chloe's In-Charge

On my last visit with Chloe, I was amazed at how she was play-acting with her baby dolls and toys.  She rocked bunny to sleep and put him in her bed with her blankie just like her Moma does.  She picked up a baby doll and walked across the room to place her on the floor facing a door.  She said, "YOU in time out!"  When her Moma asked her "why?" she replied, "She hit Retta!"  As she walked away from the poor baby, she turned around, pointed her finger, and very sternly said, "STAY THERE!"  In a little while she went over, picked up the baby and took her to Reta.  After the baby told Retta she was sorry, Chloe smiled and lovingly carried the baby across the room.  At the halfway point, she abruptly turned around and placed the baby in timeout again.  It appeared that baby had now hit Pearl.  She went through the same routine several times.  I'm not sure who Chloe was imitating, but she certainly was in charge and not tolerating any baby that didn't follow the rules!

Last weekend she chose Curious George as her buddy and drug him around the house with her.  She placed him in the laundry basket (the hospital) when he had a booboo or was sick.  She also took him and some other selected babies to the mall to go shopping.  On Sunday, periodically she would throw George across the room and then run  to grab him and proclaim, "Oh no another booboo! George you have to go to the hospital."  She'd place him on a blanket in the "hospital" and leave him for awhile.  She repeated this process numerous times.   Pearl watched the game and when Chloe wasn't in the room, she decided to pull George's leg (literally) and remove lots of stuffing.  Chloe screamed and cried!  Moma had to put George, his leg, and the stuffing in a bag so Granbec could repair him on the next visit.  Chloe settled down but every time she went past Pearl, she would shake her finger at her and say, "I SHAME ON YOU!!"

I called her on facetime, and when she answered, her first words were, "Grandbec, WHAT are you wearing??!"  (I was outside and had my hood pulled up.)   She was irritated that I didn't looked dressed appropriately.  She called me one night and Grandad answered my phone and her first words to him were, "I'M calling GRANDBEC!!  She didn't want to talk to him.  (Of course normally when I answer, she asks me where he is and then talks to him.)

She's begun to understand days.  Last night she told me her daddy was coming home TOMORROW, and that it was the LAST NIGHT she got to sleep on the puppy sheets.

In another conversation, I asked her, "who loves you?"  She replied Moma.  I asked again: she replied Daddy.  I asked again: she replied Nat.  I asked again: she replied Mur. Then looked very serious but with a sweet smile and said to me as if I didn't know, "Mur is in heaven."

She's developed into a little girl playing with dolls, imitating others, and expressing herself with wonderful vocabulary and speech!