Chloe, The Little Photographer

There are two thing that Chloe has always loved since she was a baby. That is a camera and a telephone, I guess we were always taking her picture either with the camera or the phone is the reason why.

Whenever she is taking pictures of things around the house most of her subjects are things that are her height. This makes things much different than pictures that adults take.

The centerpiece on the Breakfast table that is off center because Debby and I were playing a game of Phase10 and had pushed it back for more table room.

My bowl of Clementines sitting on the table while I went to the refrigerator to get me some bottled water.

How about a selfie while eating a Christmas sucker.

This one was taken with her daddy's phone.

A picture of the quilt on her bed.

 Pictures on her desk and the dollies that she said she rescued out of the closet. She has an old soul and loves homemade things, like the pictures on her wall, the dollies and the quilts.

I asked her why she took this one and she said she wanted to show how the light reflected off of the shade onto the desk.

A picture of Clarence beside her bed. He look so real to be a stuffed animal. He was originally David's dog and now she has claimed him as her own.

Spending A Weekend With Poppy And Grandmother

Well I know that grown-ups love to sleep in and so does Chloe on the Saturday. She is usually up around 9:00 and ready to get her morning started.

She like to either drink a glass of chocolate milk or a glass of Cherry Coke while she is waiting on her bacon to cook. Today she has already been coloring and gotten herself some Cherry Coke and is waiting patiently for the bacon.

She has already informed me that she wants to go to McDonald's not just for the Happy Meal with a surprise but the wonderful indoor playground where she meets old and new friends every time she goes there.

As we leave home to go to McDonald's we make a quick stop at Sonic for their morning "special." If you get there before 10:00 am you can get a large drink for 99 cents and she wants a Slush this morning.

When we get to McDonald's it to early to order lunch so she plays on the indoor playground until 11:30 a.m. to eat her lunch, which of course is a Happy Meal. There must be a new movie coming out called Flutterbye because all of the girl toys are Magic Fairies.

All of the kids love to see if they can climb these poles to the top and hang on. I have told Chloe that just because other kids are climbing on top of the playground it is not ok to do it. I get her to read me the rules of the playground whenever she wants to take off her socks so that she can climb of the slide backwards. Then she tells me that everyone else is doing it so why can't she. That is why McDonald's have rules, they are for your safety as well as for McDonald's.

She is enjoying her Sonic Slush down to the last drop, and then she will drink her milk that she got with her Happy Meal.

We are heading home after several hours of playing with friends at McDonald's. "Poppy, Can we read and play some more Barbies and maybe play Hide-N-Seek, or ride my scooter or my bike. Is it two cold at 33 degrees to ride my bike around the lake?" I'm afraid so Chloe, we will have to stay inside today when we get home.

When we got home she found some books to read in her room and she played with her toys until sh got tired of playing and reading. She came looking for me to play hide-n-seek. I am hiding in the closet under the stairs so maybe she won't find me for awhile. Oops, she just opened the door, now it's my turn to count and then find her....,

Christmas and New Year Break

Maybe you can remember when you were in grade school and when each new year would start you couldn't wait to see the list of holidays and school breaks for that year.

Well, This is what Chloe did again at the start of her school year. She was glad to have a free day off here and there but what she wanted to see were the week long and two week long holidays. The first four days came at Thanksgiving, but the one that she was most interested in was before Christmas until after New Years.

[Spending some of Christmas Break at Poppy and Grandmother's in her room reading her books.]

Oh Boy!, Did she have a big grin from seeing those two weeks off on her schedule.

Yes, she loves school and she loves learning new things, but a holiday that she can spend with all of the family is pretty special. Christmas with Mommy and Mimi. Christmas at Daddy's, and at Pop's and Great-Grandmothers. Christmas with Papaw and Mamaw's in Mississippi and Christmas with Poppy and Grandmother.             

 ["Poppy, I bet you can't guess this riddle"]

                                                                                                                                                          
After Thanksgiving her mother put up Christmas decorations and the slow anticipation began as she had to wait almost a month until Christmas. List had to be made, allowances had to be saved and any little jobs that she could do for extra money helped.

 ["How about this Poppy, they have a flower named after you, it says so right here."]

The perfect little child was around during this time because Santa or one of his elves may be watching and she wanted to stay off of the naughty list. Not that she is ever bad at Poppy and Grandmother's house.

[Christmas at Mommy's and with Mimi]

I knew one thing that would be on her want list were Barbie Dolls. Here Mimi and her Mommy were both into Barbie Dolls and this doll was passed on to her. They have two and one half generations of Barbie Dolls, houses and cars, clothes and accessories. We have a few barbie Dolls for Chloe to play with but nothing to compare with what she has at home.

 ["All the presents are opened, now to see what all we have gotten."]

Each time that I pick up Chloe from school she has her list of things that we are going to do for the evening or weekend. We must go to the toy stores and check out what is new this year? Chloe said, "I know that I will probably get clothes and other stuff but let's not waste our time looking at those things they will take care of themselves. " "That's what grown-ups like to do."

 ["Christmas at Daddy's, just making sure I have opened all of my presents."]

So we visit, Walmart, Toy's R Us, Target and any other store that I will take her to. You see she has me wrapped around her little finger.

Well it is less than a week to Christmas and one little girl is so excited and tomorrow is the last day of school until the new year.

 ["Wow, did I say Wow, Look at all of the colors that i have to work with. I have pens, markers, pencils, crayons and water paints. Where do I began?"]

When I picked Chloe up today she had a small bag with cards that she had made for Grandmother and I for Christmas. They were so precious and she had spent some time on them. She is always thinking of others. She asked me to help her make a card for her mommy and I knew that if anyone could help me make it special it would be you Poppy. She mainly wanted me to be there to make sure she spelled all of her words correctly, which she had already done.

Chloe came to our home the Saturday after Christmas and was a little disappointed to not find the doll that she had wanted from Kroger's. I explained to her that I needed to go to the Grocery Store and I needed her to help me when we got there. She asked me if I had gotten around to buying the doll that she wanted to late and they were all gone and that she would never find that doll again. She looked up at me and she said, "Poppy, you can't be so frugal on everything that you buy because you will miss out on somethings."
I guess you could be right on that Chloe. I got a smile of understanding but it wasn't a happy smile.

When we got to the Grocery Store (Krogers) she wanted to go immediately to where the Christmas items were to see if maybe a doll was still there. Maybe the $24.95 doll was still there because other parents had decided to wait until the price dropped after Christmas. The dolls were still there lined up like statues in a doll factory. She was so excited to find that the doll that she wanted was still there. She said can I get it, can I get it. I said sure get the one that you wanted and if you want to you can get her sister as well. Sure I said, "You don't want her to be lonesome do you." Chloe said, "No, but are you sure that I can have both of them today!" She took one box in one arm and the other box in the other arm and proudly walked up to the register. She told the cashier, "Look what my Poppy and Grandmother got me for Christmas, he is so frugal sometimes I was afraid that they wouldn't be here and I would never see these dolls again. Did he get a great deal for me?" The cashier said, "He sure got a great deal on these dolls he only paid $13.90 before tax for both dolls." Chloe looked at the cashier with a beaming smile when she said, "Wow that's a savings of over thirty five dollars." I couldn't help but smile at her quick little mind, she is just like her Daddy when it comes to math an anything to do with memory.

[She could hardly wait until she got home to open the boxes very carefully to save her boxes.]

She played with the with the dolls for quite a while and then decided to play with her other Christmas gifts. It is funny how minds think alike. David got her an art set and so did I. They were much the same but different in some ways. She was glad to be able to keep one at her Daddy's and have the other one here.

 [The artist set that we got her for Christmas, pastel paints, water colors, markers, colored pencils, crayons.]

Well it's back to the drawing board, and time to color, but she didn't want to use her new crayons in fear that she would have one break so we used the older crayons but she loved the color markers and made a beautiful rainbow.

 [Taking a little time-out to play with a last years Christmas present; Nabi Junior, to make a video of her Christmas at Poppy and Grandmothers.]

The day is coming to a close and she is settling in her bed ready for a night of sweet dreams. Just when you think that you can leave the room, "Poppy, can you tell me one of your stories while you scratch my back." Sure, I'll be glad to do just that," and before the story is finished she is fast asleep.