What We Did On Our Thanksgiving Break

Wednesday

Drew and I were off work and Chase was in school.  I have no recollection of this day at all except for a haircut I had late in the day.  Magical.

Thursday

Thanksgiving lunches with both sides of the family.  Food was delicious however, unfortunately my pregnant belly doesn't hold as much food as an unpregnant belly.  I could only manage an additional helping of dressing.  Sherrie and Patrick - I need that recipe.  It was delicious!!

Chase went the whole day without a nap and did fairly well.  We tried to put him down for a nap at 10am, but that was a big fail.  Between lunch #1 and lunch #2, he literally caught about 1 minute of sleepy time.  He didn't really eat the entire day.  I think his Thanksgiving lunch consisted of milk and rolls (he's been VERY picky lately).  For dinner, we stopped by McDonald's and got him some familiar food (nuggets and fries) and he gobbled it up before an early bedtime!

Friday

No Black Friday shopping for us, unless you count one puzzle I bought Chase on Amazon.  Instead we took Chase to see his first movie - Puss in Boots.  He did very well considering he was one of the youngest kids in the theater.  He talked a little during the previews and "wagged" his finger at the green rating screens during the previews (for some reason, he wags his index finger a lot at TV's lately!).  He doesn't quite weigh enough to keep the movie seats in a down position.  He had to sit on the edge of the seat or he would scoot back and say "Weee" each time he seat started closing on him.  He held my hand during the first part of the movie while saying his words when he saw them on screen.  Moon.  Mooooo (for when he saw cows and boars). Duck.  When he got restless, we gave him snacks or Drew held him in his lap.  Drew got lots of kisses from Chase during the movie.  I was jealous.

Here's a picture taken before the movie started.

Saturday

We started decorating for Christmas.  Drew brought the tree downstairs the night before and I started on it shortly after waking up.  I SLOWLY put the tree together (I wasn't feeling it!).  Chase likes to grab the ribbons off the tree this year and he's broken just one ornament so far.  I've already ordered another corral type baby gate for the tree this year (we are using the one from last year to block the dining room and stairs).  Drew put out the inflatables.  We don't have any other lights going on this year so far like we usually do.

Later in the day during the AU/AL game (which ended like we expected), I started "nesting".  I cleaned random drawers in the kitchen and I created a home management binder to help us keep track of all the various things going on and I created a cleaning schedule and a dinner plan for the week (I was going to do it for 4 weeks, but I ran out of ideas by the time I got to Wednesday).

Chase was a WILD man all day on Saturday.  He had tantrums randomly throughout the day.  Luckily unlike the past several Saturdays, Drew was home with me to help (thank goodness graduate school ends for good for him next week!!!).  Chase learned to get a running start and fully clear the sofa in our living room when jumping on it. 

Sunday

Nothing interesting to note on Sunday.  Drew and Chase went to church while I cleaned the bathroom.  Chase and I took naps during the day and overall it was a relaxing, cold, rainy day!

Randomness

I'm about to try to catch up on a month of stuff.  In no particular order:

We bought our new car last weekend.  It was the most stressful weekend of my life.  I can see where some people might enjoy the "game" of buying a new car, but Drew and I are not those type of people!  I, the one in our house to hates to do anything by myself and just recently in the past 8 years became able to go through a drive-thru by myself, had to take the lead in the negotiations.  I wasn't awful at it, but I definitely wasn't good at it either.  I did cry though and freak the salesman out.  Maybe I am awful at it!

The minivan is amazing though.  Drew is the primary driver.  I took it out for the first time on Saturday and I was a little freaked out the entire time.  I could drive it if I never had to actually park it anywhere and if I never had to change lanes.  I think sedans are more my speed.

Here it is!  We got it in a dark gray color.  We can't wait to take it on a trip somewhere!

Late last month, Chase had his follow-up visit with TEIS for his speech.  He didn't qualify for the free services because he was only 25% behind in speech, but not significantly behind in any other areas.  Between the time that the first TEIS lady came and the second one came, Chase had been making some strides in speech, but he's definitely not where the guides say he should be.  I am planning on taking him to a private speech specialist while I'm on maternity leave.  I would love to do it now, except I'm working 50 hour weeks now and will be working 55+ hour weeks in January and February, so there is just no time in the day to try to find a place and make appointments right now. 

We credit Chase's improved speech with all of his puzzles.  He is fantastic at puzzles and he now knows to say or make the sound of all his puzzle pieces.  He knows his shapes, animals, and vehicles.  He also knows what numbers are, but he calls them all "two".  We have flashcards as well that show all sorts of different things and he knows almost all of them now!  I got these for him around 18 months or so and he had little to no interest in them at first, but now he likes going through all of his flashcards and saying what is on them.  He does the same thing with his shopping cart.  He'll lift all the food up and make us tell him what it is.

Lately Chase's new loves are Blue's Clues and Pocoyo.  He knows most all choreography from Blue's Clues and loves to laugh at and dance like Pocoyo.  He's also been saying "Weee" and "Whoa" a lot!  Whenever we spin him around or if he's sliding his socked feet on the tile floor (which he LOVES) he'll say Weee and whenever Drew opens the minivan doors automatically, he'll say Whoa!!  He loves playing with his Matchbox cars, puzzles, play fruit and veggies, and his riding cars (he can zoom across the house!).  He's also learned to use his play hammer in workbench and will sometimes hammer the crap out of his workbench!  He loves Cheezits and we have to hide all snacks now because he will hunt them down and raid the pantry if he finds them.  He loves to color and draw!  He LOVES to play our Google Image game where we show him various pictures from a Google Image search and he tells us what he sees.  I've been meaning to videotape this because it is just so cute how excited he is when he plays his.  He's a big talker now, although most of the time we don't know what he's saying...but it's progress.  We've been teaching him who Santa is and what Santa says.  Chase doesn't say "Ho, Ho, Ho" though.  Instead he says "Who, Who, Who!".  It's very cute!

11/11/11

The last in the "1" series for the year!

Here's a messy faced little boy eating a popsicle and watching Pocoyo!

Baby Update

I'm currently just a little over 24 weeks pregnant with baby Cooper (yep - that's his name now!).  I thought I would post a belly picture for those of you who haven't seen me lately.

I'm up about 20 pounds from week 1, which is consistent with where I was with Chase as well - although looking at the pictures, I don't know where that 20 pounds was hiding with Chase.  I look like I'm up about 50 pounds compared to last time!!

I Photoshopped the crap out of my face in my current picture and I still look awful!  Oh well!  The swelling has begun again.  My feet are getting tingly and my wedding ring barely fits in the morning.  Cooper is kicking and moving and with the exception of a few minor scares this past week, everything is fairly uneventful.  I'm already starting to "waddle".  I "waddled" a ton with Chase too.  I don't carry the extra weight very well! :)

On the agenda for the next few weeks, we need to come up with a middle name for little Cooper and we need to find a big boy bed for Chase so we can start thinking about his new room.  Cooper will pretty much have the exact same room as Chase...I don't think I have the time or energy or desire to spend the extra money on anything new or different for the nursery!  All extra money will go to our new car which we will probably get in the next few months.  All I want for Christmas is our Odyssey and a new computer!! :)

11/1/11

Chase doing his FAVORITE thing the morning after Halloween - Puzzles!