Mommy Comes Home & The ABC's

The week went by so fast and my pictures for the week are scarce. One of the great moments was when Paula (Mommy) returned home from her weekend away. Claire and Chloe were so excited to see her. They jumped up and down and laughed and were so happy. It was priceless to watch. These few pictures show them with their surprise from Mommy. New "Hello Kitty" back packs!

Claire and Chloe's Noni got them magnetic alphabet letters for the refrigerator. The girls spend quite a bit of time moving the letters from the front to the side often singing the ABC song. They both know the entire song, although Claire is much more apt to sing it through. It is very fun to hear them singing away as they do other things. They both are counting as well, often to 20. They count buttons on shirts, fingers, or anything that is around. The first little film below shows Chloe "working" the letters and Claire is singing tidbits of the alphabet song. The second film is a little more of the same.

The last video is from the previous week's rainy day activities. Papa mentions something about Grandma giving a ride, and Chloe is telling him that my leg has an "owie". Not sure where that came from. Then it shows the girls taking turns at Papa's suggestion, and you can hear Claire parroting back most everything Papa says, like, "that leg doesn't work, honey." That is what Claire does, says whatever you say....sometimes over and over. Chloe refers to herself as Coco when she wants a turn or needs something.

Rainy Day, Sleepover, and the Pumpkin Farm!!!

Early in the week, we had some rainy days and we had to create fun in the house. Laundry baskets can make for some fun.....Also making like monkeys and swinging from the counter.

Playing with Papa's shoes....

Selecting books to be read for the umpteenth time..... :):)

Claire and Chloe's Mommy had a girls weekend away with her Mom, sister-in-law, and cousins. A well deserved break for Paula, we hope she had a wonderful time.  Claire and Chloe, along with Aunt Suzie, came to Papa and Grandma's for a sleepover.

We played with puzzles, dolls, color crayons, and watched a video about a little girl named Nehao's Great Trip to China.

The girls ate like lumberjacks....

Took a bath, with Aunt Suzie's help....

They performed a "late night concert"....

And slept very, very well....  The next monring, Claire took an early morning call, she said something about riding motorcycles...but we said, "no way". They ate Mickey Mouse pancakes made by Aunt Suzie and got ready to go to the Pumpkin Farm.

At the Pumpkin Farm, they fed the goats, rode the trains, jumped on the bouncing pad, and rode ponies.

One of the highlights was a helicopter. Chloe, especially, is fascinated by helicopters. They climbed the haystack pyramid for a better look and then Daddy took them closer to get a really good view. They really felt the wind as it took off.

Claire and Chloe ended their day with a final train ride around the farm. One highlight that we didn't get in pictures, was a little hill that the girls ran up and down for the longest time. They giggled and laughed and had such fun, they would run at top speed down the hill and Daddy, Papa, Aunt Suzie or Grandma would catch them at the bottom.  A great time was had by all.

The Trees Come Down & Other Tidbits

Chloe and Claire each got a new hoodie that they proudly wore. Here is Chloe in the blue and Claire in the pink.

Chloe is giggling about something below. It doesn't take much sometimes to get them going. There is nothing better than the sound of laughter as far as I am concerned.

Papa and Grandma took the girls to Caper Acres one day, a great play area in Chico's beautiful
Bidwell Park. What fun they had. Claire is ready to slide......

Chloe, down the slide and off on a run!

Papa helps with the teeter-totter.

The big action for the week however, was the removal of three 70 foot tall trees right in front of Claire and Chloe's house. They were beautiful liquid amber trees but they had began to drop good size branches on the house damaging the roof and posing danger for anyone around. The following pictures show a bit of the work it took to get them down. One of the workers, told the girls that the guy at the top of the tree was "a monkey" and Chloe talked about the monkey for blocks as we went on our morning walk. When we returned and parked the stroller across the street to watch, both Claire and Chloe exclaimed, "Grandma, see the monkey". It took me a while to convince them that is was just a man.

When we were outside watching, the girls seemed to enjoy what was going on, but when we were inside the house the noise of the chainsaws and the branch grinder truck caused them much distress. Each time one of the tools started up, they would come running for cover and cling to you. We distracted them by going elsewhere, Paula took them shopping one day, and I took them for a long walk on the day that I was there. Below you can see what happened at nap time. Both girls wouldn't get off my lap and so as I rocked, they both fell asleep. We sat that way for about an hour and 20 minutes. What a perfect way to spend an hour or so. Also below, by contrast, is a picture of them sleeping on my lap when they were about 4 months old. My how they have changed!!

Chloe gets an encouraging hug from her sis....when she was attempting to do her business. :):)

The two little films following are cute. Coco is just starting to wake up from a nap and Claire is "helping" her. Claire gives her a couple of smooches and then says, "Time to play Coco"!

We thought it was so sweet. The second film is of the girls doing puzzles on Norm's lap. Claire knows very well where the pieces go and both girls actually are quite proficient at those puzzles, but she tries to put the firetruck in the wrong spot, saying, "firetruck right here" and then tells herself, "no". Notice she is waiting for some reaction from Papa.

In case you have noticed that the films are most often of Claire, you may want to know that for the most part, Chloe sees the camera and she wants to operate it, not pose for it. She likes me to have saved at least one digital pic of Papa as well as herself. She sees the camera and immediately wants to see Coco or Papa. I keep trying to get more film of her and one of these days I'll get a good one.

20 Months---Up Close

Twenty months old! Claire and Chloe's vocabulary increases by the minute it seems, and amazes us every day. You can actually carry on a conversation with each of them about what they want (or don't want) to eat, the books we are reading, and the surroundings wherever we are. Both are doing quite well recognizing colors and identifying objects by color, i. e. blue shoes, red apple, and purple--- everywhere. Chloe loves purple!

This week it seems that I got several up close shots of Claire and Chloe. Here Chloe is making her "troubled" face. She can do that pretty much at any given moment when asked to do it. Below Claire is jabbering about something. She didn't eat much at all that day but was happy to sit in her chair and converse.

Below, Papa and Grandma and Claire and Chloe were out to lunch. Papa had been feeding them some frozen yogurt after they ate their lunch. They eagerly await the next bite.

Below, Papa is reading a book to the "tu-tu" clad twins. The title is "Is My Shirt Getting Smaller?" The answer to that question, is "yes" clothes are fast becoming too small for the growing girls.


Claire rocks the babies below. Their names are Deedee and Poka. Be sure you don't get them mixed up because both Claire and Chloe will set you straight.



Chloe was convinced the missing quarter was under the chair.

Tu-tu's and water bottles. It doesn't take much to entertain these two.

Here are a couple more shots of the park this week. Notice the jackets and long pants,
Fall has arrived in Chico.

Claire is still singing whenever and wherever she is. Here are two clips of our song, "Good Morning Merry Sunshine". The first time, when I asked her if she wanted to sing for the camera, she went to get her xylophone in order to accompany herself. :) If you listen very carefully on the second clip you can hear Chloe chiming in.

And yes, for some reason I had some formatting problems this post but I think you can still read it.