Road Trip

Chloe had her first long ride in the car. We drove Matt's car up from Dallas to NYC last weekend. We left Dallas on Saturday just in time to hit the ice storm that swept over Little Rock. It took us 10 hours to go 130 miles from Little Rock to Memphis. Chloe was a trooper and did really well. She enjoyed shouting "truck" as we were surrounded by 18-wheelers on Interstate 40 that were getting stuck on the highway. The next two days of driving were easy compared to our frst day on the road.

Along our 1600+ mile journey, Chloe learned to sing. Her favorite tunes to belt out are "Mr. Sun", "Twinkle, Twinkle" and what Matt and I call the "Bottle Song", which is Chloe's ode to her "bot-tool" (as she pronounces it). Chloe also has begun to count. Her favorite numbers are 2 and 5. She will start at 1 and then go to 2 and then it is 5. Matt and I can keep counting but the next number, according to Chloe, will always be 2 or 5.

When we arrived in Jersey, we stayed at a condo on the Jersey shore. Chloe has finally learned that the big water is not a "pool" but is called an "ocean". Of course, she didn't go in the ocean as it was cold and windy. She just liked to look at it.

This week we are back at the hotel. Chloe is famous around here and the staff was a little upset that we chose to keep her at the condo and not at the hotel. They have nicknamed her "Dora" because they think she looks like Dora the Exporer. We have a ridiculous amount of luggage now and as we were getting help bringing in all of the stuff (the majority of which is Chloe's), the cleaning lady stopped by our room to give Chloe a basket (it is the basket that holds all the coffee and which Chloe loves to carry) along with the hostess at the restaurant to see Chloe and the maintenance man. Chloe is a superstar around this place!

As much as we enjoy the attention at the Marriott, we continue to look for houses in NJ. I believe that Chloe and I have seen every house for sale in Morris, Essex and Bergen counties. Chloe lets me know if she likes a house by telling me she wants down. If she doesn't want me to put her down then we know she doesn't like the house. So far we have made a short list of houses, one in each of the 3 counties listed. Matt is taking an afternoon off and we are going to go and look at the 3 choices and hopefully make a decision. One of the houses already has 2 offers, but they are waiting for our offer (if we make one). It's the best house we've seen and at the best price (still a ridiculous sum of money for what the house is) but in the place we least want to live! That's the way it goes. So, we have some decisions to make.

I have posted a picture of Chloe in her Texas attire. We took the photos before our road trip. She is in the picture with "Pink", her rocking cow.

Right as we are looking to buy a house in New Jersey she now says "Texas" all the time (she learned the word listening to a George Strait song in the car). She also likes to mention "Tucky" which is her speak for "Kentucky". I guess she liked what she saw as we drove through.

A Day at the Zoo

After the blizzard in NYC, we returned to the sunny and warm weather of Dallas. It was a lovely 80 degrees and Chloe and Mommy went to the Dallas Zoo.

Chloe has been to the Central Park Zoo, but she never saw an elephant, tiger or lion (and it turned out she could care less about seeing them). Her favorite animals are always the monkeys but she also enjoyed the camel and the kangaroo. She now likes to go "boing!" like the kangaroo.

We went to the children's petting zoo and Chloe loved the goats. She loves to pet them and say "baaaaa". She was running around with the goats, but when she walked up to see the bunny and the guinea pig she freaked out and wanted Mommy to "hold you".

All in all, we had a nice day at the zoo.

Blizzard!

The snow kept falling in NYC, dumping a little over 26 inches. We were trapped in the hotel all day Sunday. We all became a little "stir-crazy", including Chloe. She threw several tantrums as she refused to take an afternoon nap. She finally crashed out at 4:30 p.m. and we had to wake her for dinner. She enjoyed watching all the snow come down. We finally broke out for dinner, going to the Chinese restaurant next to the hotel. We tried to get Chloe to play in the snow, but she wasn't game for that. She just wanted Daddy to "geese", which is her word for skip. She is very insistant that you skip with her while you hold her now. Of course, we weren't up for skipping in 2 feet of icy snow.

Saturday, we went to Ridgewood, New Jersey to look at homes. We really like the city, but think taxes may be too high. We can go south or west from NYC and get a little more house with less taxes. We shall see. We hope to have a decision made within the next couple of weeks.

Tonight we are going to the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at Madison Square Garden. Chloe should enjoy looking at all the dogs.

Homeless

The past month has been a little insane. We started the paperchase for a sister for Chloe and we began house hunting for our new home near NYC. Prices are a little ridiculous, but seem to be coming down about 10%.

Chloe has been a trooper, going to houses with Mommy and riding all over the Jersey 'burbs checking out communities.

We hope that we will officially be moved and in a home by mid-April.

In the meantime, we are paperchasing for Emma Claire and enjoying seeing the amazing changes in Chloe. She is so friendly and is well-known in the Jersey City hotel that Daddy has been calling home. Today, she and Mommy went house-hunting in Bergen County New Jersey. They stopped at a mall in Paramus and Mommy and Chloe got stopped 7 times (no exaggeration) by people in the mall to comment on how Chloe was a "doll baby". Of course, she gets plenty of attention as she is running down the mall yelling "HI!" and blowing kisses to random strangers.

Our digital camera is broken, so there are no pictures. Hope to have some posted soon of our little charmer.