Another month, another country, another family vacation....

In July it was Vienna, in August we were Canada-bound.  Chloe and I just got back from 2.5weeks in Nova Scotia.  It was great.  There's too much for me to cram into one blog post so I'm gonna split it up a little bit just to make things easier for me.  I've already spammed a whole load of pics on Facebook so most of you will probably have seen them already - no photographic surprises here I'm afraid!

Right, I better get down to it.....

Vienna in July

A couple of weeks ago we headed over to Vienna to visit Alex's parents.  It had been wet and gloomy in Edinburgh for most of the summer so I was looking forward to some warmer weather.  Be careful what you wish for......you might just get it!  Warm is an understatement, it was HOT!  I think it ranged from 32-38C for most of our time there, a bit of a shock to the system.  In Edinburgh anything above 25C for a couple of days in a row and we'd be calling it a heat wave, but this was the real deal.  Needless to say I was very thankful I had bought some maternity dresses from Gap a few days before cause jeans were a definite no-go.  Babywearing was also mostly a no-go, much to my disappointment.  I'm all too aware that my growing bump will shortly prevent me wearing her on my front, and she seems to have taken a dislike to being carried on my back so we may have to call it quits for a little while.  Then of course she will be older and wanting to walk even more than she does now, and there will be the new baby to carry.  I wonder how much more carrying I will do with Chloe and it makes me very sad to think that it may be coming to an end.  I did get one lovely carrying morning when we walked to the Blumengarten (flowergarden) not far from the house.  

Blumengarten

I put Chloe up in a sling to get there a bit faster so she'd have more time to play, and typically, she fell asleep just as we arrived also just as we and interrupted a wedding ceremony.  We walked through the entrance which is next to an outdoor wedding chapel and all the guests turned to stare at us.  Not wanting to intrude we stopped, and decided to walk around to a different entrance rather than walk down the path right beside the ceremony.  We turned to leave and only then did we notice the bride right behind us waiting to make her big entrance!  No wonder everyone turned to stare.  We quickly slunk away.  At least we didn't wander in with a running, screaming toddler though!

The Blumengarten was definitely one of Chloe's favourite places, and we really liked it too.  Not just a beautiful garden, but also a place to visit some animals......

Chloe signing that the goats were "happy" 

Chloe looking very happy after a visit to the turkey who lived there - a very ugly thing and for some reason, one of Chloe's favourites!

.... have an ice cream....

....play in some sprinklers and build (then destroy) some sand-castles. Hours of toddler-worthy occupation all in one place!

Another favourite was the Badesee, basically a "swimming lake" about a 15 min walk away.  We initially thought Chloe would be all about the swimming, but she was surprisingly reluctant.  Granted, she has only been swimming once in her life but she took to that in a flash and loved it, yet she was definitely nervous about the water this time around.  

Suited-up, suncreamed-up and ready to go!

Despite her floaties there was no flinging herself in the water this time around and even getting her to dip her feet in the shallows took some coaxing.  Eventually she was happy enough to do some bouncing in the water in our arms but that was about the extent of it.  Giver her a paddling pool in the back garden and she won't stay out of it, but I guess this was a little bit scarier. 

Luckily everything seems better with ice-cream.

They were setting up a little fun fair the day we were there and had dropped off some equipment but left it turned off and un-manned.  Needless to say all the kids took an interest and Chloe was straight in there too.

"Bbbbrrrrroooooooommmmmmm"..... and then she peed in the car and we made a swift exit!

Another day saw us taking Chloe for her first trip to a Zoo.  We went to the Tiergarten at Schönbrunn.  It's a beautiful zoo, and actually quite large - I don't think we ever really saw half of what there was to see but Chloe can only take so much excitement in one day. 

"Now let me see, what shall we go look at next?"

It was a bit touch-and-go for a little while as the tired cranky girl fought sleep but she eventually pushed through and got a second wind and really seemed interested in the animals and what they were doing. 

The "monkey swing rope tree" was fun to watch and she particularly liked the "purple snakes" a.k.a the eels in the aquarium.  She was also somewhat transfixed by the jellyfish floating in their pool of darkness.

Alas we didn't see any actual elephants but Chloe seemed happy enough with some miniature statues instead.

We all had a great time, I'm glad we waited until she was a bit older for her first trip because I think she wouldn't have appreciated it as much 6 months ago.  The day was punctuated with a trip to the gift shop where Chloe picked herself a monkey like the one we'd seen in the Zoo, as well as the obligatory ice cream.  

Right now I'm asking Chloe "What are we going to have now?"

Chloe answered "Ice Cream!" with a look of pure joy.

And the end result of a fun-filled day at the Zoo?

So Chloe had a blast and loved every day with her Grandparents, Vienna was certainly a hit and she didn't seem to mind the heat even if us adults were sweltering.  And really, what elses does a toddler have to do but have fun and chill out?

As excuses go, it's a pretty good one.

I mentioned in a post yesterday that I had a good excuse for my recent post-slacking.  I do, it is called exhaustion.  But hey, looking after Chloe whilst growing another little Eros is hard work!

Show Me The Money!

Chloe likes money.  Really likes it.  She can say that word clear as day, no mistaking it.  She will walk around with as many little coins as she can fit in her hand.  She will dig into our pockets searching for it, knowing it often resides there.  Click here to see what Alex taught her.  Yeah, Cuba Gooding Jr would be so proud.  

So she has a little change purse.  We have a big jar of coppers she can play with.  She usually just piles it up or sorts it from one place to another.  Alex wondered if we should get her a Piggy Bank.  I thought that was a tad premature but after today I think he's right.  We should get her one.  Although, I suppose now we don't technically need one seeing as she's already found a very secure Piggy Bank of her own.

She was standing with a pile of coins in front of her on the coffee table in the living room while I was busy folding some laundry.  I noticed she kept picking up a single coin, trotting out of the room with it then coming back empty handed.  This continued for some time.  I figured she was just transferring them elsewhere.  Which she was.  But I realised I wasn't hearing the coins.  I wasn't hearing her drop one onto the pile I assumed she was creating.  So I got curious.  I knew she couldn't have been going far because she was returning quite quickly.  So I walked into the hallway and looked around.  No money.  I peered into her bedroom.  No money.   I peered into the spare bedroom.  No money.  "Well, that's odd."  I thought to myself.  So I decided to just ask Chloe.  "Chloe, where's the money?"  I asked.  "Daaa", she replied.  That means down.  I had a growing suspicion where the money was.  "Show Mama where the money is, Chloe."  So she did.

Yeah, that money is waaaaay safer than in a Piggy bank.  It's not going anywhere for a long time. 

We've just returned from a fabulous week in NY but that's a topic for another post (don't worry, I'll get to it soon!)  First I want to do a very brief and totally inadequate recap, what with my lack-luster posting recently, of what's been happening in our life with Chloe.  So many things I've no doubt forgotten about already having delayed writing them down, but I have my excuses - of which I'm sure you will also hear more in a later post.

She really is a proper little person now, talking up a storm with a well developed personality already.  She is always chattering away, and while Alex and I might be the only people who understand half of what she says without the need for translation, I still find it amazing how well she makes her desires and feelings known.  It is surprising how much you can convey in 4 word sentences!

I was greeted with a lovely "Happy Mama Day" on Mother's Day.  I know I've turned soppy but there isn't much that I can think of cuter than your 22 month-old daughter greeting you first thing in the morning with a massive bed-head of curls, her bright blue eyes, a little smile and a that sentence on her lips.  Even if Dada is prompting her in her ear!

She sometimes channels Goldilocks.  And it isn't just the hair.  I was trying to convey the concept of "warm" rather than "hot".  She got it really rather quickly and will now distinguish the two quite successfully.  Her reasoning goes as follows: "No too hot.  No too cold.  Warm."  She likes it to be just right.

She has developed an shifting attachment to several toys.  She is fickle.  One will be the must-have companion for a week or so and then suddenly they will be tossed aside to be replaced with another.  She has so far mainly cycled through the "Whap Whaa" (white cat), the "Bee Baa Woof" (big black dog), the "Mall Baa Woof" (small black dog) and the "Wabbee" (rabbit).  She's a fairly literal toy-namer.  But hey, one of our cats was named "Kitty" by me, so I guess we know where she gets it from.

Just a phone pic but you can see the Big Black Dog was not being left behind, even when she was slung on my back!

Her play with her toys has become ever more interactive and imaginative.  Remember that Sock-Monkey jack-in-the-box Mom bought her for Christmas?  The one that terrified her?  There was a picture on Facebook, let me dig it up.........here, this was her reaction to it.  

Pic by Kathy Crassweller

Well, after it was put to good use for several months as an effective baby-deterrent to keep her out of the office and playing with all the non-baby-friendly electronics in there, she gradually built up a resistance to it.  Now it is her friend.  It is called "Ooh-ooh", you know, like the noise a monkey makes.  Now she runs around with it, gets Alex and I to make it pop up, and feeds it rice crackers.

In fact, I've been seeing all sorts of imaginative play in her wake.  Lego is another good example, or it's younger sibling Duplo to be precise.  I generally try to avoid mass-produced plastic toys but I'll make an exception for Duplo, that stuff is great.  Witness the farmyard procession taking place the other day:

Wooden blocks are also great, and so is stacking them.  I came across these little towers neatly arranged in the corner of the room.  And, as I'm sure Auntie Kate would agree, colour-blocking is so this season.

Colour-blocked as well as shape-specific towers.  No idea what is normal for her age but I was impressed!

Another favourite activity is climbing onto the back of the sofa and jumping down onto it.  Or "gupping" as Chloe puts it.  She is fearless.  Totally.  But at least she might turn out to be a nice little rock climber like her Mom and Dad.  I'm picturing idyllic family holidays climbing in exotic locales already!  The gupping part is a little more worrying.  This better not develop into a love of base-jumping.  She even loves watching things jump, her favourite so far being the "Gupping Arrrghs!"  which translates to the "Jumping Tigers".  Want to keep a toddler entertained for 1min 50secs?  Stick this on YouTube.  And here is Chloe asking to see the gupping arrghs with some visual aids - you kinda have to imagine her making the claws sign along with her "Arrgh!"  Baby sign language for the win.

It's totally adorable.  She's totally adorable.  Yes, I'm biased.  I don't care, she's too adorable.  

Excuses, excuses.....

I've been finding it hard keeping up posts recently.  I blame exhaustion and a fear of Adobe Photoshop.  I bought it when I got my new laptop, thinking I'd have the technical know-how to figure it out pretty fast.  Didn't happen.  It scares me.  I need some serious time spent watching YouTube tutorials to figure out how to get it to do the basics of what I want.  And really, I don't want that much.   My old SilkyPix Developer software that came with my camera (and for which I no longer have the installation CD) was much more intuitive to use.  Sure, it can't do all the fancy stuff that Adobe can, but it takes me 1/5th of the time to correct colour/contrast compared with my laborious attempts on Adobe.  Don't get me wrong, I am sure it is all me, I'm sure there are lots of fancy shortcuts I can learn.  But I kinda don't have the time.  Catch-22.  So I know I have lots of posts to write, but that means photos to edit, and that means facing Adobe.  Then my brain shuts down.

I will delve into my Adobe education and get my thumb out, and hopefully you will see some more posts with pretty pictures of an adorable 21month old soon.    

Bogies!

It is hard to think of many things quite as retch-inducing as a snot-leaking toddler.  I mean, she's had the sniffles before but this latest cold was something else.  This was the sight that greeted me the other morning:

Gross, right?  Did it make you gag a little bit?  She seemed pretty pleased with herself though.  Check out the coy lady:

She likes the mega-bogies though.  You should see her displeasure when I try to wipe them away.  Tissues are evil.  Smearing it all over your cheek with the back of your hand is obviously the better way to deal with them.