Pack Rat, Pregnancy and Opening Doors

Well, as hard as I have tried to steer myself away from the Fowler tradition of being a pack rat (you family members know who you are), my child is another story. Chloe is a paper pack rat. Any paper you give her ( mail, ticket stubs, magazines, cards, etc), she will keep and put in her stack of papers. Now, you may be thinking- "just throw them away when she's not looking." Well, that would be easy, except for the fact that she remembers everything and asks where it is when she notices it is missing. I usually say that we will ask Daddy when he gets home from work. Chloe's response to this is "Maybe daddy threw it away." Needless to say, we have to be very careful of what we hand her because it will be around for a long time.

Chloe also learned how to open doors yesterday. I knew she would catch onto it quick, but we just weren't ready for it yet. However, I figured it was time so I showed her once and she had it. She spent the next 20 minutes opening and shutting doors.

As for me, I only have 14 more weeks left until the fun begins. I am feeling great and definitely look pregnant. Here is a shot just for you Tawna- and yes- I just got out of the shower so my hair is wet.

Book Worm

It's recommended that parents to read to their children for 20 minutes daily. There are countless reasons why you should (which I will not go into) and being a teacher, I could always tell which children were read to/with often. So, ever since Chloe was a newborn I've read to her. Now, however, I have created a monster. Chloe loves books so much and we have to read them for at least an hour a day.

Since we read so much, Chloe has of course picked her favorite books and can tell me the titles of what book she wants. I was curious yesterday how many titles she knew so I started pulling books off the shelf and asked her to tell me the title. I stopped at 20! What a little smarty pants. Right now, some of her favorites are Pinkalicious, Pirates Don't Change Diapers and Naughty Little Monkeys.

Another funny thing that she likes to do with her books is sort them. She will sort them by size and by softback or hardback, the she makes a special pile for the "boring books." It makes a big mess, but I'm so glad she loves books.

Potty Training Help

We would really like to only have one child in diapers at a time and with the new baby coming, we decided it was time to potty train Chloe. So I am asking for some tips and advice from the pro's - YOU! What worked for you, what didn't, etc...

We already have a mini toliet, a seat that sits on the actual toliet, and big girl panites that she got to pick out. So I think we have all the basics. Please help!