Photographing a 2 Year Old

We finally got back our prints from Chloe's 2 Year photos. Yes, I know, it's almost 6 months after her 2nd birthday, but in my defense, she is still 2.
We had an interesting time. She found the prop closet and decided to take out everything that she found even the least bit interesting. We allowed some of the props in the photos, but drew the line with items like:
- a blue ABC block
- a foam jack-o-lantern
- a raggedy teddy bear and duck (which for some inexplicable reason needed to be held at the same time)

After taking said items away, things did not quite go as planned.

Note: Random, wooden flowersThis incident occurred right after we took away her bribery sucker. Much to her chagrin, we did not find it complimented the photo.I'm pretty sure this happened when the raggedy bear and duck "went to take a nap." Nothing gets past her.

We actually did get a few really cute pictures of our Chloe, but these are just the ones that I found best represented how the session went. And who knows, maybe these photos will find their way into the scrapbook that I show all her future dates.... right next to the bath pictures.

San Antonio

Chloe and I went with my parents down to Texas to visit my grandparents, who are now living at my aunt and uncle's house. We saw a few of my cousins and had a terrific time catching up and enjoying our family. I think my favorite part of the trip might have been the fact that Chloe didn't end up in the ER this time. :) It's all about the little things, right? My Uncle Rick, Grandpa Miller, and my Dad on my uncle's back porch. He has a beautiful view of the temple. Chloe was instantly in love with my uncle's golf cart. She hopped on it and "steered" every chance she got.So we decided to let her drive... here's how it ended up... My uncle also has a playground in his backyard that Chloe had a blast with. She kept asking my aunt to come watch her slide. My Uncle Rick got the chance to play the "Chalk Game," which Grandma Hansen is all too familiar with. First, Chloe draws a scribble on the chalkboard. Then, who ever is assisting her has to wipe it off as quickly as possible. Repeat as many times as necessary.

Profession Update

As I was trying to get Chloe to tell my sister what kind of "work" Jared does, she decided to change her story. She recounted that Daddy vacuums for work. Now it is apparent that I can't even hide from Chloe that I am a terrible housekeeper, but at least we have Jared to do the vacuuming.

She Can Do It Herself

It still cracks me up how independant Chloe has become... or at least how independant she thinks she is.
She can get herself dressed... relatively. She even has her hygiene routine down. She thinks that she can run a VCR or DVD player all by herself. And she can... if a VCR is meant to use a 2 year old's hand as a cassette and if a DVD player read DVDs that have been snapped in half by a 2 year old trying to get them out of the case.

She can even feed herself, by moving kitchen chairs to climb to the top of the cupboard to get candy.

Did I mention that she is an amateur photographer too? She is very independent. :)

Chloe's First Haircut

January 12, 2010
This one was a little difficult for me. I have a hard time admitting that my baby is growing up. I didn't cry though. That counts, doesn't it? Chloe was very wiggly at first, but once we turned on "Misser Freddsen (translation Mister Fredrickson)" aka Disney's "Up", she was as still as could be. Thank you again my trusty babysitter, TV. Becca did a great job, especially trying to work with a wiggly baby at first.

Before After

Jared's New Profession

December 30, 2009
Jared had been wanting to take Chloe out in the snow for a while now, which really surprised me because Jared generally is NOT a winter person. Chloe screamed at first. We usually carry her out to the car, so she had never really even walked in the snow before. It didn't take her long to warm up to it though.Jared tried to teach her how to make snowballs. He faced two challenges- the snow was too light to pack into a ball and Chloe is 2 years old, so the only concepts she got were "pick up the snow" and "throw it."Chloe loved the icicles too. Jared plucked one from the stairs. He tried to clean it off by dipping it in the snow, sucking off a bit, and spitting it out. Chloe, being the great repeater that she is, spit almost every time she licked it.I tried to get her to do snow angels with me. She was more interested in trying to bury me in it.Everything in the yard, including the swing set, held a new wonder all covered in snow.

I didn't realize that she enjoyed her time outside as much as she did until a few weeks later. We were playing with her dollhouse and she told me that the Daddy was leaving for work. I asked her, out of curiosity, what the Daddy did for work. She thought for a second, and then with surprising conviction, she replied, "Snowballs. Daddy makes snowballs!"

The Holidays

SINTERKLAAS At the beginning of December, the Dutch celebrate Sinterklaas, a holiday best compared to "commercialized Christmas." While each of us lived in Holland, Jared and I both had the opportunity to dress up as Zwarte Piet (Sinterklaas' helper). I think we both can agree that setting up this picture was so much more fun! My family got together and the kids each got chocolate letters of their first initial. We had pepernoten and chocolate to snack on. It was a really fun way to start the holidays.

CHRISTMASMerry Christmas. This was our family Christmas picture this year. Every time we asked Chloe to smile, she spread her arms in excitement. So, we had to hold her hands back as best we could.Jared gave me a new hoodie, to replace one that had been "adopted" by a friend a few years ago. I think I like this one better.We seriously had to bribe Chloe to open presents. She would have been perfectly happy playing with Grandma's kitchen set the whole day. Chloe got so spoiled by both of our families. Grandma Hansen gave her a toddler-friendly dollhouse that she loves.

Her best reaction was to the present she got from Grams (Miller). After begging her to open presents all day, she finally did this one with little resistance.This year I got Jared a much needed, slightly new golf bag. (Thanks to KSL)Chloe got a brand new guitar from Papa and Grams, that Jared decided to test out.Chloe was absolutely enthralled by the singing, dancing Christmas characters that my mom had picked up from Wal-mart. There were three of them and they each sang a different Christmas tune. Her favorite thing to do was play them all at once... a sort of Christmas medley, I guess.My family tradition is to get new jammies on Christmas Eve. Grams has been kind enough to get cute matching jammies for the grandkids each year.

NEW YEARS
In previous years, we have gone to a friend's place to ring in the New Year. It didn't work out this year and we thought we might have to spend the evening all alone. That was until someone informed us of the yearly Hansen get together. I'm not quite sure how or why it was kept from us this long, but we were so glad to be let in on the secret. We played games, watched movies, and had a lot of snacks. It was wonderful.
As for our New Years Resolutions...
Mine was to be more scheduled in my home. I would like for Chloe to have more structure as far as daily routines, and I know that it starts with me.... sorry Chloe. :)
Jared's goal was to practice what he preaches. He has been trying to be more strict with his diet and exercise, to be a good example to his clients. Of course with me preparing his meals, this is another duty that falls on my shoulders... sorry Jared. :)
Another big one was to update the blog more. I'll let our friends and family be the judges on how well that's going...