The Last Post of the Year

This is the last post of the decade as well!  2009 has been a memorable one.  Dylan joined our family.  Chloe became a sister.  After an almost two-year search, we finally bought a house in a good school district.  Dan turned the big 4-0.  Due to some tough love, Chloe was finally potty-trained!  I ran the Army 10-miller with my sisters.  I'm beginning to commence to figure our the work/family balance (hopefully in 2010, I can bring more blogging and running into the mix).   

Cheers everyone!  Hope you all had a wonderful holiday and see you next year! 

1. Like my sweater?, 2. One more family shot before going to the hospital., 3. All swaddled up, 4. Ten toes, 5. Dylan-o, Daddy-o and Chloe-o, 6. Chloe and Justin wear many hats, 7. The Next Donnie and Marie?, 8. Really Mom, it was Chloe's idea..., 9. Daddy-o has his hands full, 10. Yum! Birthday cake!, 11. Untitled, 12. We're laughing at the photographer who's trying to get Chloe and Dylan to smile., 13. Cheeeeeeeese!!, 14. Future so bright, gotta wear shades!, 15. IMG_3011, 16. IMG_3050, 17. I'm a princess!, 18. Trick or treat. Smell my feet, give me pureed candy to eat!, 19. Chloe and Dylan plotting to rule the world, 20. Grandma, don't blame that toot on me!, 21. Guess who's 40!, 22. IMG_3808, 23. Our first Christmas with the blue carpet., 24. IMG_3872, 25. Are these all mine?!

Bad Girls Truck

One day back in June, on the way to daycare, Chloe saw a huge garbage truck and asked, "Momma what's that?".  I could have told her the loud truck was a garbage truck, but instead I said, "Chloe, that's the Bad Girls Truck.  If you do bad things and and don't listen to Momma and Daddy, this truck comes to take you away."  To wish she replied awestruck, "Oh."  And she totally believed me.  After all, I did teach her to sing the theme song to "Cops" replacing "bad boys" with "bad girls". 

That evening, I tried to use the Bad Girls Truck idea to get her stop sucking her thumb.  When I saw her indulging in that terrible habit, I told her she needs to stop sucking her thumb so she can ride the Good Girls Bus.  I told her, "On the Good Girls Bus, there's lots of toys and chocolate, but only girls who listen to Momma and Daddy and don't suck their thumbs can ride it."  She quickly replied, "I can suck my thumb on the Bad Girls Truck?"

Dylan's Older Sister

For the most part, Chloe has taken Dylan's presence in stride.  It didn't start out that way.  Her first meeting with Dylan was at the hospital in front of aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents in addition to Dan and I who were eagerly awaiting her reaction.  We all had pushed her to interact with Dylan that she didn't know what to do so naturally she shyed away from him.  Dan recalls two big crocodile tears in her eyes as she tried to leave the hospital room.  My sister Jennifer told me about Chloe's somewhat shocked reaction to me holding Dylan (she also could have been reacting to my puffy face and me wearing an un-flattering hospital gown :P). 

The next day, after all the extra audience left, Dan brought Chloe to the hospital to visit with me and Dylan.  He mistakenly brought their pizza dinner into my hospital room.  Soon enough, Chloe was getting her pizza sauce stained hands everywhere and Dan was too eager with the hand sanitizer.  This made Chloe come to me with her arms outstretched begging me to pick her up and hold her which I couldn't do since I couldn't lift anything heavier than Dylan for two weeks.  So when I tried to explain to her that I couldn't lift her, she started to cry which made me cry since I really wanted to hold her and tell her everything's okay (plus after two nights in the hospital, I really wanted to go home).  Then, Dylan started to cry.  Dan was definitely having a Calgon moment, but he handled it well and somehow managed to calm everyone down.     

Chloe has become very protective of Dylan.  During the first couple of days home from the hospital, it took two people to change Dylan's diaper - one to do the changing and one to hold down his feet and ankles so that he wouldn't kick his recently circumcised area.  During a diaper change, I was holding Dylan's feet down and Dan was changing the diaper.  All the while, Dylan was screaming at the top of his lungs.  Chloe ran in, thought I was hurting Dylan and while trying to release my on Dylan's ankles she yelled, "Stop it, Momma!  Go away Momma!".  Whenever Dylan cries, she's quickly at his side trying to soothe him or thinking that he must be cold, covers him with a blanket.  She enjoys helping out when we give him a bath and gladly throws his diapers into the trash can (even the stinky ones) .

Dylan enjoys having a sister.  When Chloe comes home from daycare, she greets him and Dylan responds with a smile and vigorous kicking.  He may not understand why she throws a tantrum (neither do Dan or I), but when he hears her cry, he starts to cry.  It may have been rocky during Dylan's first days, but I think it was the beginning of a beautiful sibling relationship.