Ready, Steady, Wiggle.

Gday Gday.

How are you? I'm well... Chloe's just toddled off to bed! So I thought I'd add the finishing touches to this update before the tasks for Japan completely take over my life!!!!  So before that happens.... lets get into it.... hehe

STATS (31/3)

Height - 80cm

Weight - 11.1kgs

Size: 1 (but still a little big on her, but hey... lets go with it!)

Shoe Size: 5-6

 

 

EATING and DRINKING

 

Chloe is still eating as we are at dinner time and pretty much what we have. Although we tend to deconstruct the dinner dish for her. As in we won't make her a taco, instead she will have some mince, tomato, lettuce, carrot and cheese on a plate and just pick and choose what she wants. She'll try everything, but will always devour the cheese! And don't even get me started on the sour cream! We cant put that on her plate as she'd eat it like ice cream (lol) instead we put a scoop on our plate and she asks us ('more please') for it. 

 

Regardless of this 'help' we provide, it doesn't stop her spilling foods, accidentally onto the floor. And every night, without fail at the end of each dinner when she is '(fin)ished' she will exclaim 'ohhhh no' and point at the mess under her chair. Then daddy and her begin the task of cleaning the floor. I am SURE she thinks it is some kind of hilarious game they play each and every night.

 

She now confidently drinks from a cup, with one hand. Although it makes mummy incredibly nervous. Her favourite, BY FAR, are baby cinos. Although if we're out with her besties (Ellie and Ayla) she likes to share a smoothie or milkshake. But she smashes the baby cinos in less than 5 minutes. Thank goodness for the nepresso frother or I'd be broke! She inhales her cino that quickly that she is often left with a chocolate monobrow and a milk smeared face! It is beyond adorable!!!

 

Chloe just LOVES eating out. Thanks to our reviewing gig with Little Eats Sydney Chloe has become quite the diner! We've developed a bit of a routine now when we are ordering, once we have been given the menu, we hand her the menu to 'order'. She will happily peruse the menu, make her 'selection', tell us and then hand the menu back to the waitress. We think it is a good way of her 'reading' and interacting positively with her world. Plus the 'reading' of the menu with each articulated pout is so darn tootin cute! 



COMMUNICATION

 

Chloe now understands EVERYTHING. So all our potty mouth friends, you are officially on notice! Whilst she still only has a handful of clear words that others understand. To us, what she says makes sense and 9 times out of 10 we understand her babble intermitted with real vocab clear as day.

 

She is also starting to parrot. We encourage her to watch our mouths when giving a word and when she makes an attempt that is close we shower her with positive reinforcement, which she loves! However her favourite catch phrases continue to be 'more please', 'bye bye daddy' and 'no, mummy'. Which is both hilarious and spot on!

 

Her manners seem to be coming to the forefront, in the last month she now understands she must say bye bye and give kisses to people as we leave and when asking for something or after being given something she will say 'ta'.

 

We're very proud of our little chatter box.

 

GROSS MOTOR SKILLS

 

Chloe has started running.... away.... at speed... and thinks its hilarious! Just in time for Japan! Ace! We had been employing a don't chase policy, which was working really well. But now she is getting so much braver that if she cant see mummy or daddy she's not bothered. at all! It use to be if she couldn't see us, she would come quickly back. Not anymore! Now if we let her out of sight for even a second she takes the opportunity to bolt. Which is very helpful in crowded shopping centres or whilst walking across driveways. Freaks me out! I'm hoping its just a stage and not something we're going to have an ongoing battle with.

 

Swimming has been going great guns! She really, really, really loves it! We have a beautiful little group each Friday that we meet up with for the lesson and a bit of morning tea afterwards. She is extremely confident and loves standing in the shallow water, bobbing down til the water hits her chin and then springing up. With the weather starting to get cooler and only a handful of nice days this month we have taken every chance to hit the beach.

 

 

Nicole and I were saying though that pools would be a good Thursday play date when its starts getting to wet and miserable outside. I think she's on to something there!

 



Up until last week Chloe had been attending Ballet each Wednesday. Unfortunately, last Wednesday I scored a casual day at work and felt that loosing 30 bucks was better than loosing 300.  So off I toddled and Chloe missed out. I found out Monday that I could have the next few Wednesdays until the end of term. I umm-ed and ahh-ed about it as I REALLY love attending ballet with Chloe, Renee and Ayla. But again my practical side (AKA Jarratt) got the better of me and I snatched them up. But at her last lesson she was really starting to show some independence and knowledge of learnt skills. She was sprinkling her sunshine, attempting to touch her nose to her feet and generally waving her arms rhythmically to the music. Renee and I have enrolled the girls in Ballet for next term, but with Renee due with Baby number 2 in May, we're going to see how that plays out before we commit to it whole heartedly. I think it will be fine. It would be lovely to continue catching up with the girls weekly, but don't want to put too much pressure on Renee. We'll see.

SLEEPING

 

So, after my last post Chloe had a week of sleeping through, no screaming! Mum introduced a soft toy companion (woof) into the cot. We had tried EVERYTHING. And I was reluctant to give her something like this to build too much of a reliance on it. But hey if it meant we didn't have to get up then great! We have since had hit and misses. Some night perfect, others not so much, but in general it seems to have gotten better. I'm not entirely sure it is as a result of woof being with her, but I'm not entirely sure it isn't either. So for now, woof sleeps with her. I actually think it may work in our favour, as we will take him to Japan and it may be good to have something familiar in her bed as we move around and she adjusts day to day.

 

As the nights start getting cold again, we are looking at covering her with a blanket or adding more clothes to her at bedtime. So yet another battle of bedtime is about to begin! Watch this space!

 

 

LOVES and HATES

 

So Chloe has always been a fan of Charley Bear on the TV, nothing was better than Charley, nothing could snap her out of a tantrum like Charley, nothing could occupy her whilst I showered like Charley. Than BOOM! Mister Maker! Well, more particularly, the shapes! And quite frankly, I'm stoked! I don't think I could have taken watching one more rerun of Charley Bear.

 

 

Her other loves this month, surprisingly have been sharing. Chloe is more than happy to share food, toys, everything. Even after completing the kick board activity at swimming, she will pass it to the next child unprompted. She is really very sweet! Normally at this age children are more inclined to 'Parallel Play' but Chloe's calm, patient and friendly nature seems to mean she's advanced in her social skills instead preferring to engage in cooperative play. Such as sharing the kick board at swimming, playing throws with BFF Ayla (see below), although best friend Ellie is a little more reluctant she has not escaped Chloe and her boisterous pursuits and games either.

 

 

Hands down though her BIGGEST love this month is painting, or as she says 'aints'. Often she will come home from day care COVERED in paint. The teachers always rave about how much she loves it and she's exactly the same at home. She has worked out where we store the craft supplies and she will on occasion ask us 'aints?' and walk us into her room and point to her craft shelf. Its pretty hard to say no to that ridiculous level of cuteness!

 

Coming in a very close second is bubbles. We got her out a container full of assorted wands that she had got from Auntie Kehlet at Christmas and was sure she'd just lick them. But no, no, kid blew some pretty impressive bubbles for about 20 minutes. Its now a bit of a weekly, maybe even biweekly activity of heading into the garden (weather permitting) and blowing bubbles. Its even a blast for the day care kids over the back as Chloe's bubbles get caught in the breeze and travel over the fence.

 

 

I so badly want to buy Chloe a dog! She just loves them!!!! Visiting the pet store at Westfields is mandatory each and every visit! And much cheaper than the zoo ;-)

 

But, I'm so keen on getting her a dog that I have started to save for one as I realise the kind of dog we want is going to cost a couple of thousand! But once the house is bought (hopefully later this year) it will be the FIRST thing we buy! As Chloe is definitely suffering from Puppy Love.

 

As far as hates go, the unfortunate dislike of water being poured over her head has reared its ugly face. We haven't forced the issue and instead only wash her hair when necessary such as after day care and swimming. And even then her little upset face breaks my heart when we do it.

 

OTHER STUFF

Teeth

So just after her bottom first year molars appeared. We had a week break and then bang! The top ones started to push through. And just like the bottom ones, they are HUGE! We're hoping her mouth will give her a break of growing teeth until after Japan, but as our luck goes with teeth, I really doubt it!

 

Modelling

So you may remember the smart casual job back in November/December? Well the magazine came out a week or so ago and Chloe appeared in the two shots as a double page spread. She looks just adorable in each photo which are below. I've also been told the Babies R Us book should be out soonish. So I should be able to share that image with you next update as well.

 

We have been debating resigning her, as her contract is up in May. After some chats between ourselves and the agent we have decided to go another year. She made more than enough to cover both last years fee and this years (discounted) fee so why not? We figure until it starts costing us more than she's making, we'll carry on.

 

The Wiggles

Last Saturday we attended the Wiggles concert with bestie Ellie, Nicole and Greg. Nicole (with a little help from me) had done a BRILLIANT job of making the girls matching Emma outfits. SO good in fact that Chloe was singled out by Anthony in front of the entire auditorium in Hurstville because of how good she looked. As you can see in the photo below she really was a knock out. As far as the concert goes it was great! I think she was a bit of a stunned mullet most of the show, warming up towards the end to have a bit of a wiggle. But she did cry out a lot of 'ohhh wow!' throughout so I'm pretty sure she had a blast!

 

Japan

So Japan is 8 sleeps away. I bought Chloe a new pair of closed in shoes today as her old ones are sandals and starting to get a little tight. We sat down this weekend and really nutted out what we had left to organise and looked at what we need to take. Today I grabbed a few bits a bobs and will continue to tick off our list over the next few days. I'm really excited! We've started doing some prepare Chloe for the trip stuff like Daddy taking her into the city for the day and acting as if they were on holidays. They caught the train, walked around the city, she had a sleep in the carrier, ate sushi for lunch etc. I've started the transition into the new pram for sleeps. So far she's had two sleeps, both 45 minutes, which is not ideal, but on which she can live. We've also tried her on powdered milk for the last two nights and a bunch of mornings, so far, it hasn't phased her. We figure this is a much more practical option than carrying around one litre plus of milk and trying to keep it cold. hehehehe. All in all, we're ready and very excited!!!!

 

I guess the next time we chat, I'll have A LOT to update you all on I'm sure. hehehe.

Til then, all our love, Team Wyatt.