23 months!

Next to last monthly update!  We have a crazy 23 month old running around our house, jumping from one piece of furniture to the other!

23 Month Stats:

Unofficial weight: approximately 32 lbs
Clothing size: Same as last month.
Shoe size: Same as last month.  We bought him much bigger socks though because his old ones looked like they were cutting off his circulation.  He's in 4T-5T socks now!
Diaper size: Same as last month.
Favorite toy: Buzz Lightyear.  Most favorite toy ever!  Never puts it down and has a tantrum if he separates from Buzz.  And it's been like this for a month now!
Favorite foods: Chicken nuggets, cheese, apple juice, animal crackers.  He's an official toddler now that he finally LOVES apple juice!
Least favorite foods: He hasn't been too picky.  His appetite has been huge lately!
Words: No huge change from last month.  I can see the wheels turning in his head though.  When I say something funny to him that he wants to repeat, he'll stop and think about it and almost whisper an attempt, but the words don't quite come out.  Obviously this is something that will be talked about with his doctor visit next month.  He's just so sweet though.  There is no frustration on his part with us because of a lack of communication or understanding.  I think he's just taking his own sweet time!
Teeth: No change since last month
Daily Routine: No change since last month

Latest happenings

Sometime over the course of the past few weeks, he started to develop a love for trains.  Or as he calls them "choo (long pause) choo"'s.  He also loves to point to the airplane in his picture book.  I don't think I've mentioned this before on the blog, but he loves the logos and emblems on cars.  He's always touching the trunks and fronts of people's cars trying to touch the Honda or Toyota logos.  I always get a little freaked out when he does that to any cars but our own!

He got promoted to the 2 year old room in Sunday School today.  Such a big little boy!  Apparently they learned about Noah today!

We've developed a little routine in the morning that helps my sanity and has reduced the amount of tears that I have to see every morning (although sometimes there are still a few).  First we have to hide Buzz Lightyear.  If he catches a glimpse of Buzz in the morning, the day is shot!  Chase's least favorite part of the morning is his diaper change and getting dressed.  I've helped that my grabbing a few animal crackers or goldfish and taking them with me when he gets changed.  He lays down in the floor on our designated "changing blanket" and I give him just enough goldfish or crackers to keep him happy while I change his diaper and get his pants, socks, and shoes on.  The tears usually start when I then try to put his shirt on.  I don't know why, but he hates that part!  Once we get to school, I sometimes let him try to walk into daycare, but he never walks past the second set of doors.  Instead he just wants to run from one side of the hallway to the other and point to the apple pictures, say apple, and then laugh at me trying to get him to move any further!  I pick him up and then walk him down to his classroom.  As soon as I get to his classroom, he puts his head on my neck and pretends that he's sad or shy.  His teacher, Ms. Melanie, then walks up to us, says Hi Chase, and then he quickly flings himself to her so she will take him in her arms.  He then waves bye to me and never looks back.  EVERY MORNING!!

He gives me the sweetest kisses one or two times a day straight on the lips.  Most of time he gives them to me in the morning after he gets done drinking his milk and we are watching Curious George together.  I just live for those kisses!!  I've been trying to get Drew to ask for them more often so he will get some too.  I think he finally got his first one yesterday! Poor Drew just isn't home when Chase is his most cuddly!

Speaking of Curious George, I've almost dumped Nick Jr all together.  Chase doesn't love, love Fresh Beat Band anymore (although the occasionally episode one a month makes him smile!) and they've changed their morning schedule up so only really boring cartoons are on from 6:30 to 7:30am when we might be possibly watching TV.  So PBS has come to the rescue!  It's our ritual now that we watch Curious George every morning at 7 (give me a few minutes to dry and straighten my hair!) and then we watch the very beginning of Cat in the Hat so he can listen to the Go, go, go song if we have time.

Picture of Baby

About a week and a half ago, we got a good long peek at Baby #2 when we went to the doctor for our NT scan.  One thing I remember vividly is that the very moment the lady put the ultrasound wand (??) on my belly, the picture of the baby moving all around just instantly popped on the screen.  There was no need to search for the baby, he/she was just there!  Baby was moving all around and rubbing its eyes and squirming all around!  He/she made the ultrasound technician work for her paycheck that day!  During the NT scan there are certain specific measurements that the technician needs to get and our little mover and shaker wasn't letting her get any of those easily.  I think the total scan took about 20 minutes or so, but she was finally able to get the measurements she needed.  Baby was measuring about a week ahead - measuring at 13w5d as opposed to the 12w5d my doctor told me I was based on my first ultrasound.  Next time I go to the doctor I'll figure out if that changes my due date any.  I'm expecting my due date will be anywhere from February 17th to February 24th.

Here's a picture of our little squirmy thing!  My scanner is apparently dusty, so please look past all of the crud on the picture!

Chase's Big Announcement!

Chase is going to be a big brother!!



He doesn't quite understand that fact yet, but he still has another 6 or so months to figure it out!

As of right now Baby is due February 24th.  I went in for my 8 week appointment and Baby was only measuring 6w6d, so apparently I had an irregular cycle, but our due date will be confirmed later this week when we go in for another ultrasound.  The big ultrasound to determine gender will be in about 7 weeks or so.  I'm predicting another boy!

So far this pregnancy has been similar to mine with Chase, except that my nausea hits at night with this one and with Chase it was in the morning time.  With Chase I craved Chick-fil-a and roast beef sandwiches.  With this one, I seem to want fruit and pizza more!  I started taking belly pictures with Chase around 15 weeks, but I was looking at them the other day.  I'm now a little over 12 weeks pregnant, but I appear to look the same as when I was 16 to 17 weeks pregnant with Chase!  I think that is part of the reason why I told work sooner this time around than last time!

Part of the reason why I couldn't update my blog much lately is because one of my strange aversions this pregnancy has been my camera and looking at pictures.  I can look over at my camera and see certain pictures on Facebook and I immediately start to feel sick to my stomach!  Strange, strange!!  Luckily, I'm almost out of my first trimester so I hope to return to normal soon!

Anyways, Drew and I could not be more excited and nervous for this new addition!  As soon as we are in a very easy groove with Chase, it's all about to change...but I'm so ready for it!  We can't wait to see Chase as a big brother.  He already loves the babies he sees at school, so it should be really interesting to see how he is when one comes home with us!

22 months!

This is late, but that's the way I do it now!

22 Month Stats:

Unofficial weight: approximately 31 lbs
Clothing size: Same as last month.
Shoe size: He's officially a 7M according to our visit to the shoe store.
Diaper size: Size 5
Favorite toy: His Bloks.  He's recently rediscovered his popcorn popper things and runs around the house with them. 
Favorite foods: Same as last month.  Also bananas, strawberries (although we have taken them away because of severe diaper rash!), and pretzels.
Least favorite foods: Hot dogs are back on the list!
Words: Again, there doesn't seem to be a significant change in his list of words each month.  A lot of his words kind of sound the same.  Auburn = Abuh; War Eagle = Gull; Ball = Aball; Book = Buh; Peek-a-boo = Aboo; Dog = Dog or Gog; TV = De; Bubble = Bubble; Bath = Bath; Banana = Nana; Cow = Mmm; Go; Bye; plus some others
Teeth: All his teeth have started finally coming in.  I think we are now just missing the last set of molars.
Daily Routine: He sleeps a ton now!  He routinely sleeps 12 hours (maybe an hour more if we'd let him!) at night, plus a 2 1/2 hour nap at school.  Milk is still a big part of his day!  I can't imagine breaking him of his morning and evening milk!

Recent happenings:

(Part of my post is going to be ever changing as I remember stuff that has happened over the past month!)

Chase has been getting over a virus this past week that started almost immediately after we came back from the Zoo last Saturday.  Toddler vomit is so much worse than baby vomit!

Chase was a real good waver for a while when saying goodbye to folks.  Now, he's big on blowing kisses instead!  When we visited the shoe store last week, he blew kisses to the store worker as we left.

He loves his Pixar movies and Dreamworks movies!  He's been a little burned out on Shrek since our beach trip, but now he loves the Toy Story movies (and can say Buzz!), Finding Nemo (and can say Nemo and try to say Anemone!), and Wall-e.  He especially loves the Pixar opening scene with the bouncing desklamp!

He's starting to love blankets at nap and bedtime.  This started shortly after the beach trip as well.  He would love a pillow too, but I think I've heard maybe they shouldn't have a pillow until they can ask for a pillow.  We currently keep about 3 to 4 fluffy blankets in his crib and he just gravitates to them when he lays his head down!

His least favorite part of the day is diaper changing time.  I've noticed when he has a dirty diaper, he'll move away from me and act really playful with his toys.  I think he's trying to delay the inevitable as long as possible!

When he wants to watch TV, he'll smile and put one finger on each cheek and say "De!".  We have no clue where he learned that from!!

Here are some pictures from our visits last week to the Children's Museum and the Zoo.