It means you live in Florida and the temperature is getting down in the 30's. The poor house, poor us! No joke, we slid the button to heat and the world ended, well okay, the smoke alarms were so confused they thought there was a fire and it seemed like the world was ending. Mass confusion. It is a weird feeling, the feeling of after so many months of feeling hot, then waking up to feeling, well feeling cold. The feeling of not wanting to sleep with blankets, walking outside and sweating, blasting the air in the car so your kid is comfortable in the sweat box that is otherwise known as a car seat, and then the next day set your house on fire turning on the heat. But I must say I am enjoying the cooler temps. It has been so flippin hot here. My poor in laws were here for the holidays and all I wanted to do was turn on the air conditioner I was so hot and sweaty, but of course they are from more comfortable or cooler winter climates and just didn't get it, because they were enjoying the warmth. I do enjoy the Florida winters though, very nice and just about make putting up with the summer here worth it. I know that those of you up north of Miami, which might be all of you, are rolling your eyes. But I thought of each and every one of you as I put my musty sweatshirt on to wear to bed tonight. It made me think of the good ol' days growing up in the St. Louis area, where if you didn't wear a sweatshirt and winter hat in the house during the winter you just weren't comfortable. It has been so long since I have updated the blog, much has progressed in the life of Chloe. Well, my daughter went from learning to sit to crawling in just two weeks! I mean she was ready to move and just needed some good therapy to give her the know how. The therapist says she has never seen anything like it and can't contain herself with how well Chloe is doing. The therapist says her muscles are having a hard time keeping up with what her brain and body are learning, but the muscles will catch up. She is hitting those milestones with a vengeance! She probably will be riding a bike by next week. And all of a sudden I am finding myself having to take my poor daughter in the bathroom with me because I can't leave her alone for one second because she is into the new and exciting world around her. Feeding therapy is a much slower process. So far, she likes Cheetos and Nutella. Yeah no joke. All you mothers worrying and stressing about setting your kids palette with nutritional food- ha! I mean nothing has brought me down off my high horse more than raising a preemie. You have good intentions and you have your set opinions about certain things, but you just have to go with the flow and somehow help your kid get over their aversion to having anything in their mouths so they at some point eat the nutritional foods you want them to. We are going four times a week to feeding therapy and sometimes during the sessions I think the demon who posses my daughter during feeding times is going to use her demon strength to throw the therapist out the window to her death. But then it is time to leave and we walk out the door and it never fails Chloe gives the therapist a big, excited, can't wait to see you tomorrow smile. It cracks the therapist and I up. The doctor has given us one last week before considering other avenues for getting the calories in Chloe. She just isn't gaining enough weight, and still only taking a bottle when asleep. But she is growing up so fast in other ways she now has an invisible tooth! This first tooth has to be the most anticipated tooth ever, I mean 16 months actual and 12 months adjusted, at this point I just assumed we would get a nice pair of dentures for her and that would be that. You put your finger in her mouth and feel it, but when you look there is nothing there. I was not expecting this with tooth development. I mean we have been anxiously awaiting this first tooth to come in, and when we first felt it, we got so excited we just looked and looked in her mouth, but nothing but pretty pink gums. Then I stared, waited for the tooth to pop up, nothing, very strange. I mean how long does it take to pop up once you feel it??! Is it under the gums? There is a tooth there and it makes sound. This has gone on a couple days at least. I just keep putting my finger in her mouth so I can feel it is real, and then next I go get a drinking glass and have her gum the glass so I can hear the nice clanky sound the tooth makes when it hits the glass. I repeat this pattern several times a day. I mean, don't be scared tooth, Chloe doesn't like to eat food so you won't have to work too hard, show your face! All this leads me to the obvious conclusion she has an invisible tooth, and I am excited to see what other super powers she may develop as time goes on. Chloe has developed some lovely new passed times. She likes to pick our noses, so we quit buying tissue she is so efficient... just kidding. I don't know why the fascination with noses, other than her parents have prominent ones, or she is going to be an ear, nose and throat doc when she grows up. What do you want to be when you grow up Chloe? An ear, nose and throat doc. I mean it kinda makes sense. After picking other people's noses though, she then usually comes at you with an open mouth tries to eat your nose. Medical school will clear that confusion up though. Chloe has inherited her Uncle Avery's "arm flapping like a hummingbird when excited" trait. (Okay he stopped doing it a couple years ago.) But it is pretty funny, Chloe exhibits this when the following animals walk by; a cat, a dog, a duck. This behavior leads me to believe her second career choice is a veterinarian. Having the in-laws here for the holiday was great excitement. It was a learning experience for me, balancing the relatively new mother to a crawler duties with all the other things hosting Christmas entails. Which in my case the hosting duties turned out to be not much, so next time I will do better at meal planning. Non meal planning leaves you to have a lovely dinner of spaghetti for Christmas. Chloe was not sleeping well Christmas week, probably due to the invisible tooth coming in and the excitement of Santa, (Okay it was really me who was excited about Santa) therefore Evan and I were a bit sleep deprived. I forced the fam to listen to my Christmas music and it took us all day to open gifts, which was kinda fun. Chloe cared nothing of opening gifts but cared everything for the new toys. I have to admit, I got a little impatient and just started opening them for her. Next year I will probably be snooping to see what Chloe is getting, I should be ashamed, I am, I am ashamed. Santa forgive me.
