Hair Cut!

We were finally able to get Chase a hair cut today after we picked him up from school!  I swear I think we were in and out of that place in under 10 minutes.  Chase was not the ideal client.  We were a little hopeful at first.  The lady turned on Blue's Clues before Chase sat in the chair, and he got a grin on his face, but then when he realized he had to sit still in a chair, it was ALL over!  He was a squirmy mess!  Drew held his lower half of his body and I had to try my best to keep his upper half still.  No easy task.  I asked if all the first timers act like this and she said that she had a 15 month old boy that morning that just sat still and was perfect.  She then asked how old Chase was - I guess expecting us to say something younger than that.  I was a little embarrassed to say 15 months after that story! :)

The end result turned out well!  I asked for his length to stay, but just to clean up around the ears and get rid of the little rat tail that was forming!  Thankfully, he still looks like himself to me.  I was dreadfully afraid that they were going to hack his hair!

This was the first picture I took.  My flash decided it was going to die on me even though I just changed its batteries (hopefully it's not broken!).  Anyway, to salvage the awful picture, I turned it into black and white.

 Brushing off the cut hair!  By this time, he was OVER this haircut!

 All done!

 Finished product in the front and back.  So cute! 

The One Where Chase Threw Up on Christmas

This Christmas may forever be remembered as the Christmas where Chase threw up!  Surely that won't be a common occurrence in the future, right?

So, I've already mentioned that Chase woke up with a gross, wet cough on Christmas morning.  Not sure where it came from, but sure enough, it was there!  I think his symptoms got worse progressively over the course of the day and he was starting to get a fever as the day went on.  By that night, the cough had gotten more persistent and the phlegm was starting to choke him.  After being asleep for about 1 hour, he woke himself up coughing and gagged on all the mucus and threw up!  It was such a pitiful sight to walk in there and see him sitting up with vomit all over his sleep sack and his little lovey bear.

He got even worse on Sunday, so we had plans on taking him to the doctor on Monday morning.  By the time the doctor got into the room, Chase was laid out on the table looking miserable!  Our doctor didn't hear any wheezing which is good because that was what I was fearing.  Then our doctor mentioned the "F" word.  The "Flu".  I was caught a little off guard.  I hadn't even considered that, but based on how miserable he was, I figured well maybe.  As the doctor left the room, I then remembered that Chase had his flu vaccination, so I was hopeful that wasn't it.

So Chase had a cotton swab stuck up his nose to test for the flu (lovely!) and his thumb pricked to test his white blood cells.  He tested negative for the flu and his white blood cells were on the high side of normal.  Our doctor diagnosed him with bronchitis, gave him antibiotics as a precautionary measure, and said he should hopefully feel better by Wednesday.

It was a long week!  Chase was just absolutely miserable.  I would never describe my child as clingy, but that word definitely described him this week.  He wanted to be held all week and the only time he didn't act sick was when he was playing in his new playroom (best money spent ever!).  He didn't eat much - milk, water, and snacks only.

Whatever this illness was - bronchitis or whatever - hit him hard!  He was out of school the first 3 days this week, and we took him back today because his fever finally broke and he was starting to get back in happier spirits.  He got a "Sad" and "Clingy" on his report card.  :(  Hopefully by Monday he'll be a "Happy" and "Bouncy" boy again as usual.

Picture in the doctors office after our doctor did his initial exam.  Unhappy!

Checking out his cool band-aid!

Waiting for the lab results wore him out!  Only wanting Mama!

15 months!

I've delayed Chase's well-baby visit for a week or so until he recovers from his illness, so I can post his official stats for 15 months at a later date.

15 Month Stats:

Unofficial weight: 26.6 lbs
Clothing size: 12-18 month clothes
Shoe size: Wearing size 5 or 6 shoes depending on his outfit
Diaper size: About to switch over to size 4 completely once we use up all the size 3's.
Favorite toy: He can entertain himself with pretty much anything, but he is enjoying his new playroom and running around with all his new Christmas presents.  His favorite thing in the whole world though is when you put on the Fresh Beats on TV.  Nothing makes him happier.
Favorite foods: So last month I said everything was his favorite.  Well, now he won't eat hot dogs and he's starting to not want to eat his chicken patties or his grilled cheese (not sure if this is because of his teething/sickness, but we've wasted a bunch of food lately!).  He pretty much just lives on bread and snacks.  Have I ever mentioned how much he loves Sister Schubert rolls??
Least favorite foods: See above.
Typical daily schedule: No change since last month.
Words: Mama or Ma, Dada or Da, "Ivegagogo", and "Oh" for Uh oh, and a bunch of other stuff that I can't comprehend.  He hasn't said Elmo again since the day I was the only person that heard it.
Teeth: He's had a ton of teething pain this past month.  Last week we were consistently taking Tylenol to help with the pain as the upper molars were continuing to come through.  It's also getting a lot harder to try to brush his teeth because he puts up such a fight now.  Not sure about any new teeth.  I'll have to check again when he feels better.
Tricks:  He now likes lifting his shirt up as he walks around the room (see previous post).  When he's crying in his room at night and you walk in, he now laughs at you.  He's taken to playing basketball very well.  He also likes to drop golf balls and baseball bats through the hoop.  When I sing "Itsy Bitsy Spider", he puts his hands over his ears and smiles at me.

Oh boy!

Chase has a new "thing" he does.  I shouldn't be posting this, but we think it's kind of funny.

Obviously, Drew and I are too mature to say anything like "boobies" when he does this.  Obviously.  Oh boy!  We are going to learn our lesson someday!

Visit from Ho Ho!

Last Christmas I vowed to take more pictures during the next Christmas' festivities.  I think I actually took less this year than last!  There is just too much going on to document everything like I would like, but I still got some cute pictures.

Santa didn't drop off his presents by the Christmas tree this year, instead they were all upstairs.  Santa redecorated Chase's playroom upstairs with a new play table, a bookcase, and a rug.  And so Santa didn't get a reputation in our house for giving "lame" presents, he also gave Chase a play tent and snacks.

About to head upstairs

All the reorganizing of the room made Chase bee line to his old toys - totally ignoring his new stuff!

Discovering the tunnel!  He took to this very quickly!

Actually using the play table for a car!  Notice his green "bracelet".  He loves carrying around this green ring!

 Emptying out his bookcase

After checking out all of Santa's presents, we all headed to Nini and Papa's house to exchange presents.  Here is where the camera clicking ends.  I got one pitiful picture before all the madness of the day started.  Here you go!  Here he is playing with his little ornaments (he favored the gold ones) while checking out his new firetruck.

One other thing to note in this picture is that we dressed him in the shoes that Uncle Justin, Aunt Liz, and buddy Walter gave him for his birthday.  They are these cute little squeaky shoes.  All day as Chase took a step, we would hear a "squeak".  It always made me smile...plus I always knew where he was!  I have since learned that you can take the squeaker out when you need to be a little less noticeable.  Nice to know we have options!

About 3 hours later we head to Gigi and Pawpaw's house to open some more presents and then eat lunch.  We had to make a pit stop back to our house on the way there to get some medicine.  Chase woke up on Christmas morning with a nasty cough.  Throughout the morning, you could tell he wasn't feeling very well.  By lunchtime with the skipped nap and the illness, he was just a pitiful sight.  While things were kind of slow, I tried to get a picture of us.  Poor thing couldn't muster a smile!

This picture is actually from today.  I'm keeping the Christmas tree up until Chase feels better and we can take a family picture in front of the tree.  Since I was getting antsy to take a picture of anything in front of the tree, I made Weezie pose for me.  She was a little less than thrilled.

Enchanted Forest

I wanted to post some other pictures we took at the Enchanted Forest on Thursday.  This was Chase's first time to go the Enchanted Forest, and as far as I remember it was my first time as well.  We all enjoyed ourselves.  Santa was fantastic and the decorations were classic and very old fashioned which kind of reminded me of Christmas when I was little, so it was kind of neat.

Drew claims Chase was not the one to break the fence even though it totally looks like he was!

I think this little area by Santa was Chase's favorite attraction all day.  It was a little glass wall that overlooked the first floor and escalators.  He hung out here happily for several minutes.

First Time Playing Basketball

Jolly Ol' Saint Nick

I think Santa is on his way to our house right now.  Chase has been a very good boy this year, so I expect he'll get some good stuff!  We visited Santa on Thursday and here is Chase's picture!  We were fully expecting Chase to be scared of him.  He was a little weirded out in the first few seconds, then he spent another few seconds just staring at Santa, and then he was ready to hop off his lap and run around.  Thankfully, the photographer had the magic touch and somehow got Chase to smile AND look at the camera.



Christmas - Round One!

We had our first round of Christmas today!  I've been lacking a bit in holiday spirit, so I was hoping all the festivities would help snap me into the holiday mood.  It kind of helped.  Hopefully, as I start shopping and wrapping presents over the next few days, take Chase to visit Santa, and squeeze in a trip to Starry Nights, I'll get into the full swing of things!

After not the most ideal nap this morning (only 40 minutes...sheesh!), we got Chase dressed in his one and only Christmas outfit (you will be seeing this again later in the week!) and headed off to Gigi's.  We exchanged presents with Aunt Sherrie, Uncle Patrick, and Parker and Grayson.  Then Chase also got to open one present from Gigi and Pawpaw.  Drew and I went ahead and snuck a present as well for the each of us (we'll open the rest from Gigi and Pawpaw on Christmas).

We all had new toys when we left - Chase a police car and a music set, Drew a new video game, and me an awesome new camera "purse" and Photoshop and Lightroom!  Sweet!

The Outfit

The first Christmas present every really opened by Chase

 His new police car

 I think someone was a fan of it (I think I heard Santa might be bringing him one!)

 

After all the new toys, he still wanted the remote!

After Gigi's, we left to go to the Hamilton's extended family Christmas.  So. Many. Kids!  All so precious!  If you go back to my blog post from last year on December 22nd, you'll see the group of all the cousins' babies from a year ago.  Chase was just under 3 months old then and just a little lump on the couch.  This year (poor thing) he was just the trouble maker in the picture.  Chase doesn't really know how to sit still.  At school, while all the other kids are forced to sit and listen to a book, they let Chase just roam around and do his own thing.  You could kind of tell he's used to that in the pictures below.  By the way, check out cute Grady in the red shirt in the chair...such a ham!

Did somebody say Bananas??

As Chase learns on Fresh Beats nearly everyday, sometimes you just have to go bananas!

I think he takes this advice to heart.  He loves bananas!  Today he ate an entire banana in less than 2 minutes...and I have the timestamps on my photos to prove it!  Chase doesn't necessarily eat the banana in the neatest possible way, but he's awfully effective at it!

Left Field!

Today has been a big day in language development in our house.  Chase is running around surprising us every time he opens his mouth!

Chase has been saying "Mama" a ton over the past few weeks.  "Dada" has come back into his vocabulary recently too and he's saying that a lot now.  This morning as he was running in circles through the kitchen, dining room, entry way, and living room and as Drew was saying to him "I have to go go" over and over again, Chase was saying "ive-go-go-go".  It's very funny.

Then as Drew was taking the recycling to the recycling center, I was upstairs with Chase in his "playroom"/future bedroom.  He has a bucket full of old toys that aren't his favorites anymore that keep him entertained the few times he's upstairs.  We were trying to give each toy equal opportunity to be played with.  I reached over for Elmo which has dying batteries and barely laughs when you tickle him anymore, and I tell Chase "Elmo?", and sure enough he says back "elllm".  I'm sitting there puzzled if I heard what I think I heard.  I say "Elmo????" again, and I hear back a very distinct "El-mo".  What???  That Elmo has been sitting in in the bottom of that bucket for 5 months and we haven't mentioned Elmo's name in ages.  Since Drew was gone and his cell phone was dead, I ran around following Chase with my cell phone recording him for 30 minutes repeating the word "Elmo" over and over again.  That wasn't exactly on my agenda today, but so be it!  He never said it clearly on video.  I'll try again soon!

I knew words would be coming soon, but I wasn't expecting that!

Here's a taste of how I was embarrassing myself this afternoon -

14 1/2 months!

We are half-way to another monthly birthday!

Here are some highlights of the past 2 1/2 weeks:

- Over the past month, we've gradually reduced the number of bottles Chase has per day to one (his nightly bottle).  In all honesty, we could totally replace that bottle with a sippy cup and he probably wouldn't miss it, but I think we are afraid it'll mess up his "ritual" right before bed.  We don't want to mess up his sleep schedule!
- I used a real toothbrush on Chase last night.  He didn't seem to mind it as much as I had imagined.  Plus another big bonus...yesterday was the first time in a while I hadn't been bitten!
- Last week was the "Week of the Grumps".  On Monday of last week, his school note came back that he was "Happy", "Sad", and "Bouncy", and "Grumpy".  Then that same night, he had trouble sleeping.  When we went in to check on him, his sheet was soaked in sweat and he was bright red.  He was sick!  Turns out he had an ear infection and a cold.  Apparently, it took him several days to get over this illness.  On Wednesday when he went back to school, he got a "Sad" and "Grumpy".  On Thursday, he was "Happy", "Sad" and "Grumpy" and the extra bonus note of "Chase was just not himself today".  On Friday he was "Happy" and "Sad".  Poor thing!  I think the mixture of the ear infection and the molars that are still pushing through, just forced him to have an awful week!  He seems to be back to normal now!
- Chase learned a new word during our bathtime yesterday.  "Uh-oh!". He doesn't use it in context, but he just repeats it back to us when we say it.  It's very cute.  He's very deliberate with his sounding out of the word, but it also sounds like he's coughing or clearing his throat when he says it.  Maybe I'll capture it with my phone this weekend.
- Chase hates hotdogs now.  Seriously.  Honestly.  Hates Them!  The same day he got the note from school that he wasn't himself...that day for lunch, they had hot dogs!  No wonder he was so grumpy!

Here are some pictures from our freezing cold day on Sunday testing out Chase's new hat.