Happy Halloween

Chase had a good time on his first official year as a Trick-or-Treater!  He was Mr. Potato Head this year. We made it to a total of 3 houses on Halloween!  Maybe we can double it next year!

The night before Halloween, our church had a fall festival and a trunk-or-treat.  Drew and I had no clue was a trunk-or-treat was and we still don't because we couldn't last until 6:30 when it started!  Maybe next year we can make that as well!

 He was a little unsure of what was going on when we first got to the fall festival!

 Chase hated his costume.  It annoyed him the entire time, except for when we could distract him with activities.  Apparently taking his picture on a haybale was not enough of a distraction for him!

 Chase really perked up when we left the hot gym and went on the playground!  He was the only kid there for a while and went up and down the slides way too may times to count!

 He didn't like when it was time to put the costume back on!  He left a trail of face pieces behind!

 Until...we distracted him with a Tootsie Pop!!

On actual Halloween Day, I left work an hour or so early and when we picked Chase up from school.  After dinner, we headed over to my mom's to "practice" trick-or-treating.  Chase did not know what the heck we were asking him to do, but eventually he liked taking candy from one bucket and putting it in the other bucket.  We left with half a pail of tootsie rolls!  Drew would think that was fantastic...I thought it was just gross!

When we got back home and headed to our neighbors around 6:15 or so, we made it to about 2 houses before Chase decided he wanted to go back home.  He loved (and still loves) going through his stash and finding all the suckers!  He also loved handing out candy to the other kids that came by our house.  That kept him thoroughly entertained until around 7:30 when he went to bed!

This video is him helping give out candy with Daddy.

Partied Til He Puked!

Last Sunday, we went to Pump It Up to celebrate Grayson's 3rd birthday.  Drew was prepared to do all the climbing and sliding and jumping this year since I wasn't going to carry my now extra 13 pounds around through all the jumpies. 

Interesting fact - we found out I was pregnant the day after our last trip to Pump It Up for Parker's birthday party!

Very early on, Drew tested Chase to see if he would be able to slide down the big slide by himself.  Then Drew tested to see if Chase could climb up the big slide himself and slide down by himself! Chase did both great, although he was a bit of a bottleneck for the other kids since he went up slower than others.  Because Chase could now climb up and slide down totally on his own, Drew was not nearly as sweaty and tired by the time we left!

We estimate that Chase went up and down the slide about 25+ times during the 90 minutes in the playroom.  He had an absolute ball and he didn't stop to rest the entire time!

After the jumping was over, we went to the party room for cake, ice cream, and presents.  My sister made a fantastic looking Mater cake, but I didn't get a chance to take a picture of it unfortunately!  Chase ate about 2 bites of cake and then started coughing pretty incessantly.  Right before it was time to open presents, Chase just threw up all over the place!!  Drew was prepared with a small towel for the first wave, but the second wave caught him off guard!  After he quit, I rushed him to the bathroom to clean up (what I could since it was all over his shorts!) and he then threw up another 2 times in the bathroom.  I remember I had him over the toilet for a little while to see if anything else was about to happen, and he looked up at me and smiled and said "Momma".  It was so pitiful and sweet!

I had figured that all the running around and climbing had caused him to be sick to his stomach, but it turns out it was a stomach virus because he continued to throw up all through the night and the next morning.  Drew and I developed a pretty good system on catching it before it got all over the place as the night went on, but we all were pretty gross for that 24 hour period.

Well, after that pleasant story, here are some pictures!

Here's the Birthday Boy!!

Pumpkin Time!!

Last Saturday we had a busy day!  It started out bright and early at 8:50 in the morning for our family pictures with Ms. Julie.  The pictures were taken at Davies Manor.  I had never been there before, but what a cool place for pictures!  Chase was a wild two year old that day and didn't cooperate with any of the planned poses we tried, but luckily Ms. Julie came away with some good stuff anyway!  I can't wait to see the rest of the proofs and start picking out a Christmas card!

After our pictures we went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast and I was disappointed.  I had never had breakfast there before and it was NOT great.  I would prefer Waffle House or McDonald's any day of the week!  Chase wasn't a fan of the food either, but he did like the gift shop and he picked out a dinosaur toy all by himself that is actually pretty cool!  He "rawrs" everytime he sees it!

After a needed naptime, we headed to the pumpkin farm to pick out our pumpkins for the year.  This was the first year Chase was really into it!  I think Chase was about a week away from full-time walking when we went last year, so he got to really enjoy himself this year.  The bad thing about learning to walk though is that he will not longer sit still for pictures.  Last year we could pose and sit on the hay with our pumpkins...there was NONE of that this year!

I think Chase found his 2 year old calling though while at the farm!  He loved to pick up any little pumpkins that fell off the pallets (and he attempted to pick up the big ones too!).  Sometimes he would purposely knock them off the pallet so he could pick them up and put them back.  He loved crawling around on the pallets and on top of the pumpkins as well!  He was very sad when we left...an hour later!!

Initial Home Visit

On Wednesday, we had our first in-home visit with TEIS.  This was just a preliminary evaluation before a full evaluation that will occur in the next 45 days.  I went into the meeting kind of excited, but somewhere around the middle and I started to feel sad (maybe I can blame it on the pregnancy hormones!).   Knowing that my child was being "tested" hit me somewhere in the middle of the evaluation and I was having a hard time with it (also knowing that my work email was blowing up when I took two measly hours off of work didn't help matters!!).  The lady who came to visit was super nice and Chase loved having someone new in the house to show out for.  He couldn't wait to dig into her bag and see all the toys and activities she had for him to play with.

The purpose of her visit was to gather a preliminary assessment as to whether Chase passed or needed a referral on certain abilities: motor skills, communication, cognitive, social, and adaptive.  Her assessment will then be passed on to another person who will come to the house and do a full evaluation to determine if Chase qualifies for further help.

They started out playing a game where she gave Chase two cups and some blocks.  She asked Chase to put the blocks in the cup.  Boom!  Done!  Before she even asked him to transfer the blocks to the other cup, he was already doing it.  Right before she went to take the cups and blocks away, he started transferring the blocks back to the other cup!  Such the show off!

She then brought out some stacking cups to see if Chase knew how to put them back together.  He kind of halfway did this, but he was more interested in putting the blocks from before in these new stacking cups! He then ignored any new instructions after he created his own new game!

Then she brought the cups and blocks back out again and put one block under one cup and shuffled the cups on the ground and asked Chase to find the block.  He immediately lifted both cups up at the exact same time.  She laughed and said he cheated and tried again.  He did the exact same thing again.  As you'll see later, she counted off for this in her assessment.

She then brought out a puzzle for Chase to try, let him color with her pen (which started a mini-tantrum when that part of the test was over!), and read a book.  She then asked Drew and I a bunch of questions about what he can and can't do, how he interacts with other kids, etc.

At the end, she showed us her initial assessment.  He passed on motor skills and social.  He got a refer on adaptive, communication, and cognitive.  She said he would have passed the cognitive except that he "cheated" on the cup game.  I think that's a little debatable!  I thought he was just being clever!!  The adaptive score came from us saying that he doesn't properly use a spoon - which is true.  He's very messy with a spoon when he's using it by himself.  I think that score was also counted off because he doesn't communicate to us when he wants food (or something like that...I honestly wasn't paying attention by this point when I saw all the "refers" on her page!).  The communication was a referral for obvious reasons as that was the whole reason why we got referred to TEIS in the first place.

So overall I'm glad that lady came over and I am looking forward to moving on and seeing what this new lady says next month.  I'm trying not to feel like a total failure for not giving Chase more opportunity to use a spoon (even though he uses one everyday!) or playing "cognitive" games with him.  I also hope we answered all the questions correctly because there is a whole 8+ hours everyday where we don't see Chase and the daycare teachers could have answered the questions differently than we did as they see him more (as I only see Chase 1 1/2 hours each day).  I hope I didn't shortchange his abilities when we answered the questions!

Baby Brother!

Chase is going to have a baby brother!! 

We found out on Tuesday at our gender scan.  The appointment was at 3:15. I got there a smidge after 3:00 because my client site is very close by.  I checked in, did my regular business, and then they called me back at 3:08!  I kept trying to tell the lady that Drew wasn't there yet and we couldn't begin.  She then continued to squirt the gel on my belly and said they would show him back when he got there.  I was sending panicked text messages to Drew the entire time, who was apparently caught by every red light from school to the doctor's office.  Drew finally got there about 3 or 4 minutes after we started.  Whew!

Baby was moving all around during the ultrasound, but also yawning and rubbing his face.  She said he was wearing himself out because he was moving so much!  Considering I was up until 3am the night before working, I told her she could blame that on me!

Everything checked out great.  He has all the body parts and organs that he is supposed to.  His little femur bone is one inch long.  He had a 7 inch diameter belly.  And a little wee-wee that showed itself when she wasn't even looking for it!  I knew what I saw the moment she passed by it!  Drew did not.  I remember he had a very confused look on his face when she stopped on that area and said "look what I see!".

Baby gave us some great pictures, typical to what he normally has given us in the past. Chase, on the other hand, never gave us any good ultrasound pictures!  Good thing he's so cute and sweet now!

I'm so excited to finally know what we are expecting!  It makes everything about 300% more "real".  Also, my belly "popped" this week so I think I finally officially look pregnant, even though people who haven't known I was pregnant have been pointing out my stomach to me for the past 3 weeks!  With this new belly comes with not being able to sleep on my stomach anymore (drats!) and back and hip pain.  The back pain is also exaggerated by the amount of time I've been spending on my computer lately.  Luckily, I only have another week and one day of long work hours and then I can start working a "normal" 45 to 50 hours a week again!  Blah!

We have some names picked out, but they change based on the day.  I was calling the baby Clay on Tuesday and now it's changed to Cooper.  Who know what it may be next week!?  Drew and I are having a hard time agreeing on it this time around. Chase's name was easy.  I don't even remember talking about it.  He was just always "Chase Henry".

Anyways, we are very excited and I'm so looking forward to our new little boy.  Weezie and I will be the only "ladies" in the house.

Typical boy

Boys always add at least one extra inch to their height and now Drew and Chase have conspired somehow to add a few extra inches to Chase's height at the doctor's appointment last week.  At the appointment, Chase was 37" tall.  Here at home on our growth chart he was 34" tall.  I know there is a difference between length which is where the 37" came from and his height which is the 34", however I think Drew didn't have his head completely touching the top of the measuring chart!  I'm sure this won't be the first time.

However, look at how much he's grown!!

Last monthly check-in!

I want to go ahead and note all the stuff Chase is into at 24 months before I take this to an every 6 month thing.

I don't have any special pictures for this post, so I'll just include these pictures from earlier this week.  He woke up in his big (3T!) flannel pajamas I bought at the Carter's store in Florida with an awesome case of bed head.  Oh, how I wish they made those pajamas in an adult maternity size!  They are SO soft! I am so jealous when he wears them to bed!

24 Month Stats:

Unofficial weight: approximately 32 lbs
Clothing size: Same as last month.  Now that it's getting cooler, I am in desperate need of a good 40% sale at GapKids to stock up on the waffle tees, jeans, and knit pants!  The 24 month jeans still fit well, but they are just starting to look a little short on the leg!
Shoe size: Same as last month. 
Diaper size: Same as last month.
Favorite toy: All his Toy Story stuff and his new birthday presents!  And the bouncy house.  LOVES THEM!
Favorite foods: Loves tortilla chips and salsa.  Just recently tried mustard and loved it!  He has a spicy palatte like his parents! 
Least favorite foods: He hasn't refused anything we've given him lately, but we also don't try any veggies.  Shame on us!
Words: Chase is starting to talk in a form of pig latin!  Banana is "a-nah".  Mom is "a-mah". Dad is "a-dah" or daddy.  Since last month, he's been saying Baboon, Yellow, and Moon.  His vocabulary is only maybe 25 words.
Teeth: No change since last month
Daily Routine: He's been sleeping later in the morning. I think we try to put him down at night by 6:45 and he doesn't want to get out of bed until 7:20 or so.  His naps are getting a little shorter at school and at home.  Naps are normally between 1hr 45 minutes and 2 hours.

Latest happenings:

Starting around the beginning to middle of September, Chase graduated to a new classroom at school.  He's now a Playful Puppy!  I don't know if it's normal or not, but he was only in his last classroom for 3 months (since the beginning of June!).  I loved all the teachers in his last class, and I'm sure I'll like the teachers in his new class as well, but we just haven't bonded yet!  Chase loves it in there though.  I can drop him off in the morning no problem.  He likes to clutch to my legs for about a minute or two in the morning, but once we get him started on a toy, he's perfectly fine and then blowing me kisses as I walk out the door!  Again, his class is mostly boys (maybe 3 girls total), but it's been like that since he's started school. There were just a lot of boys born in late summer/early fall 2009!  Some of those boys in that class are big talkers!  I have full conversations with some of them in the morning!  It's very strange that these are Chase's friends, but I'm hoping they rub off on him.  One of the new rules in his new class is that the kids have to keep certain toys in designated areas of the classroom (books in the book area, blocks in the block area, etc).  Chase picked up on that very quickly, but they did say that he didn't like that rule very much initially!

We find out this week if Chase is going to have a brother or a sister!  I think once we know that, it'll be a lot easier to try to tell him that someone new will be coming along soon.  Then once we can figure out a name, that'll make it easier as well.

Over the past month, Chase has mastered opening interior doors (doors to the garage and to the outside are just too heavy right now...thank the Lord!).  We have non-standard door knobs in our house, so regular childproofing locks won't work.  I have just learned about a new kind that works from the top of your door, so we're going to test one out this week and see how well it works.  Chase is going to be a little upset when we finally figure out how to stop him.

Chase has finally started getting into his carseat himself in the morning.  It's been very helpful!  He doesn't always do it on his own (depending on his mood and if I somehow manage to upset him in the morning), but it's very nice when he does it!  Early on when I was teaching him to do this, he would take detours through the front seat and start pressing on all the buttons on the radio and driver's side!  I can't wait until early next year when we buy our new car(s).  I desperately want my minivan!!