My Darling Diva

Chloe is working on perfecting being a toddler diva. She went to the nail salon with me this week (to repair the broken nail) and she had her nails painted too. She opted for one red hand and one blue hand with flowers painted on.



She was so good getting her nails painted. The owner of the salon gave Chloe a purse too. It is tres chic. While running some errands, Chloe found some sunglasses (in an animal print) that she wanted. I caved and they are now her favorite. Enjoy the photos of my darling diva. We are off tomorrow for some R&R at North Carolina's Outer Banks.

Paying for the Weekend

We had a great weekend. The weather was lovely and we hosted a back yard BBQ for Chloe's playgroup and their parents. The weekend didn't get off to a good start. Matt went out of town in the week to Dallas. Yes, he went to MY hometown, the one we got moved from for his work, only to have him return on a business trip and stay at my parents' house while I was here in Jersey. Anyway, my anger causes me to digress. He was to return Friday at 6:30 p.m. but due to the high winds at Newark, the airport had to go to only one runway causing a backup and a two hour delayed take-off from Dallas. So, I bath Chloe Friday night, put her in her PJ's and pull-up, call the airline to see when Matt's flight will now arrive to be told 8:38 p.m. I load Chloe in the car with a sippy cup of milk and head out to get Matt. During the drive, I call the airline again (because I am anal) just to check the flight arrival time again. It was now 9:03 p.m. arrival. I get to the airport at 8:55 p.m. and have to cruise for 10 minutes until I can pull up to the gate to get Matt. At 9:10 p.m. I attempt to call Matt. It goes instantly to voice mail, a giveaway that he has not landed. I call the airline again. This time I am re-routed to a person because the computer tells me there is no information on this flight (yes, I had instant panic set in. Is it REALLY good for an airline to tell you that the "flight information is missing" for that flight and will transfer you to a service rep. for the information. Now tell me, what would your first thought be for a flight that has gone missing?). Mike, the rep., comes on to tell me that the flight will be arriving at 10:00 p.m. causing me to go into a tirade that they could have shared this information a little earlier and that I didn't appreciate the computer telling me that the flight information was missing on this flight. While I am telling this to Mike, my other line beeps, it's Matt. I hang up on Mike by clicking over to discover Matt's flight has landed not at Newark but at JFK. He thinks they are going to refuel and then go back in the air for the 2 minute flying time to Newark and that I should sit tight. GREAT. That's real easy to do with a toddler who has to pee in the back seat and the airport police yelling at you to keep moving and don't stop unless your picking up passengers from their bull horn.(Well, technically I was picking up a passenger, he was just at JFK right now).

So, I cruise to every New Jerseyan's favorite donut shop and get a coffee and a pee for the wee one. As I am pulling out, wondering where I should go now, Matt phones to tell me to pick him up JFK. I enter it into the GPS and thanks to the airline, Chloe and I get a tour of the parts of greater NYC that you hear about but don't ever really want to visit. We crossed the Goethals Bridge to Staten Island then back over the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to Brooklyn, passed Coney Island, onto Long Island and JFK. It was 34 miles hike past roads and place names that I know but don't know why I know them.

In the end, we picked up Matt and arrived home at 12:35 a.m., six hours later than planned. We put an already asleep Chloe to bed and Matt updated me on his time in Big D. We got to be around 2 a.m.

Understandably, we were a dragging a but Saturday morning but we had a list of things to do. Our first objective of the weekend was to buy the needed supplies for Sunday's cook out. We planned to put on an authentic Texas-style BBQ with an assortment of smoked goodies. That meant searching for a brisket. Brisket can be easy to find in NJ, unfortunately it is Corned Beef Brisket. Say it ain't so! We went to the specialty grocer and placed an order to be picked up later that day. While at the market, Matt had the idea to grill some ribs (like he had at MY parents house in the week). I thought it was a great idea so we bought them.

We went to the bicycle store with then purpose of buying a bike rack/hitch for the SUV. We managed to tick that one of the list, and quite affordably too. We did manage to get suckered into buying one very cute little girl a pink bicycle with some pretty cool accessories. Chloe loves her bike and it gives her a reason to run around in her bike helmet. She wore is to dance in the basement and she even tried to nap in it.
While Chloe was napping I ran to the store for some other items while Matt checked out the grill and why it was no longer lighting. He discovered that the bottom had completely rotted and the gas valves had falled through rendering it useless. Since you can't have a back yard BBQ without the BBQ, we went out to buy another grill. Since we had to have the grill right then, we had to bring the grill home and assemble it. This threw a kink in our plans of grilling the ribs and we opted for sandwiches instead. The rest of the evening had me prepping for the cook out and mixing up my own special seasonings for the bratwursts, pork butt and brisket and rubbing it on and marinating all night.

Sunday was the BBQ and all had a good time. The kids played and we actually got in some adult conversation. I made a champagne sangria that rendered me unable to take photographs, so my apologies for no cute kiddie pics with gratuitous shots of some really good BBQ. Everyone was impressed with the meats and I think Matt may have convinced the 2 other Dads to purchase a big ole smoker too.

Today, I am dealing with a pile of dirty dishes, a sangria headache (as Matt and I stayed outside after all had gone home and the Chloester went to bed), a pile of laundry and a messy patio and sandbox to clean up. To add to these Monday Blues, my eyeglasses broke and cannot be repaired and I broke a nail (that one really sucks!). I'm glad we had fun because we will be paying it off for a while.

The Week In Review

T

he week began with Chloe and I driving south to Washington, D.C. to meet my sister, Deanna. Deanna was on assignment at a national park and Chloe and I picked her up to take her back to NJ for the week.

We attempted to tour D.C. on Friday, June 8, but it was ridiculously hot and humid and we didn't last long. We were able to get a few photos in at some of the landmark sights.

--Chloe and Mommy at the Roosevelt Memorial

--Chloe with the Washington Monument behind

On Saturday, June 9, BeBe arrived from Dallas. We picked her up at the airport and then went to our block party. Chloe only got out of the bounce house long enough to play with the bubbles.
--Chloe in the bounce house.

--Playing with the bubbles with the other toddlers on the street.

--Sliding down out of the bounce house.

On Tuesday Chloe had her birthday celebration on the last day of pre-school. I made monkey cupcakes for the event and served as the co-oping mom for the day. BeBe and Aunt Deanna also got to come and witness 7 toddlers in a pre-school class.

--Monkey cupcakes

--Chloe getting ready to blow out her candle.

For Chloe's birthday, Aunt Deanna and BeBe bought Chloe a trampoline. She adores it as she just LOVES to hop, hop, hop. Chloe freaked when she saw the trampoline box in the back yard. She begged for us to put it together. After it was assembled and tested, Chloe got to give it a try. Since the trampoline has been in the yard, Chloe wakes up and her first words are, "Do you want to go bounce?". She LOVES it.

--Bouncing on the trampoline.

--Checking out the trampoline with Aunt Deanna.

Thursday we all celebrated Chloe's birthday in the city (see post below). We had a great week and we were happy that BeBe and Aunt Deanna could help us celebrate Chloe's 3rd birthday.

P.S. If you are ever in NYC and are a foodie, be sure to take this tour. BeBe, Deanna and I took it on Sunday and really enjoyed it.

Happy 3rd Birthday Chloe!!!--The day in pictures

Today is Chloe’s 3rd birthday. Chloe has planned and has been anticipating this day for some months. We made sure we followed her wishes.

The day started out with BeBe striking up a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday” and Chloe getting an 8 a.m. (that’s 7 a.m. CST) phone call from PaPaw followed by another call from Nana in England.

At 9:30 a.m. we set out for our Mommy & Me party. We stayed there for a little while then gathered up the family (BeBe, Aunt Deanna, Daddy, Chloe and I) to go into NYC to celebrate.

Chloe’s 1st wish was to ride the ferry boat across the Hudson into NYC. After we arrived in the city we were famished so we took a cab ride to one of our fav’s to have a spot of tea and lunch. Chloe was declared by none other than the owner to be "WB" (well-behaved). After Aunt Deanna discovered why I am so in love with the British dessert sticky toffee pudding, we digressed from the All About Chloe day to detour here to pick up a souvenir for Deanna. We were quick to get back to Chloe's birthday schedule so we hailed a cab and headed to Central Park where we completed Chloe's 2nd wish by taking her on a horse-drawn carriage ride around the park. Chloe selected Sultan to take us around the park.We then met Nigel (Matt's co-worker and a Chloe fav) outside FAO Schwarz to say "hello" and to allow Matt to conduct some business. We then headed to the Central Park Zoo to take a quick gander at the animals. Chloe enjoyed watching the two polar bears and checking out the chin-strap penguins and fruit bats.
After the zoo, we jumped on the subway back to the ferry. Chloe was hungry so we ate at P.F. Changs (a Chloe fav).

Chloe was worn out from her big day in the city and fell asleep in the car. We had to wake her up to sing "Happy Birthday", blow out the 3 candles on her cake and open a few presents. It was a big day for the Chloester.

Beauty Salon

Chloe had photos taken at JC Penney yesterday for her upcoming 3rd birthday. During the photo shoot, she had all sorts of stray hairs that were driving me crazy. After the photos were taken, I went next door to the salon and got my hair cut and asked to have Chloe's cleaned up. They cut our hair at the same time. I was done 45 minutes before Chloe.

Two of the stylists "teamed" up on Chloe because they thought she was adorable and so well-mannered. They curled and styled her hair in ringlets. It was really cute - I jus wished I had gone to the hair salon BEFORE the photos. Chloe just sat in the chair and let them play with her hair. After cutting and styling her hair she charged me for a kids cut. I think Chloe has her own hair stylist now.