Some of Chase's last days as an only child

Gosh!  Why do I have to feel guilt about making Chase give up his role as the baby in the house?  Everytime I drop him off at school in the morning, I never know if that is the last time I'll get to see him when he is my only baby (I've really been overthinking things lately!).  I don't feel like I've been getting to spend my quality time with him lately, which has also made me feel bad.  I have another 8 days of work, so I'm really hoping Cooper stays put until late February so I can enjoy as much one on one time with Chase as I possibly can before life gets turned upside down.

As I've been noting in some of my other posts, Chase has been getting much better with his words and saying lots of new things everyday.  He's still not putting any of the words together or attempting any sentences though.  One of our new favorite words Chase says is "rabbit" (I made a conscious effort to only teach him the "adult" forms of animals - dog, cat, rabbit, etc - as I thought it would be less confusing than distinguishing between babies and older animals!).  It comes out like a really quick "babbit".  So cute!

Some of Chase's favorite things right now include:

• Taking over my new computer to watch all the Toy Story movies.  He now would rather watch stuff on the computer than on the TV.  He has now also somehow learned to start the movies on his own.  Oh boy!
• Playing with quarters.  He loves to dump a roll of quarter all over the floor, to stack them back up, to look at the "birds" on the quarters, and dump them all over the floor again (and leave them)!  I would introduce him to the other coins, but since they are much smaller, I'll wait til he is a little older!
• Playing with my velcro hair rollers!  I think he thinks they are Legos since they are brightly colored and nest within each other!
• Playing in my makeup drawer!  I've recently organized it (as part of my nesting weekend this past week) and he loves to go in there and pull out all my makeup brushes and shake all of my makeup containers.  This wouldn't really be a problem except that I use that powdered makeup and he keeps attempting to take the lids off.  I'm going to have a big, expensive mess on my hands soon!
• Raiding the panty!!  This is a relatively new hobby of his since he discovered the joys of cookies.  He is constantly trying to raid the pantry to cookies, fish (i.e. any cheese flavored cracker), wheat thins, fruit gummies, etc.  He will also throw a big ol' fit if we lock the pantry up and he can't get into it!
• Dancing!  He loves to move and groove right now!

Recently we've noticed that Chase likes to be a little prince charming.  If I'm taking a nap (which is rare lately...UNFORTUNATELY!!), Drew will sic Chase on me when it's time for me to start waking up.  Chase will crawl on top of the bed and hover his face over mine.  He'll giggle and then he'll give me a big kiss on the lips.  If I pretend I'm still asleep, he'll gently use his fingertips to pick at my eyelashes to try to raise my eyelids.  I have no clue where he learned that, but it's so hilarious!!

He's really starting to like books now and will actually have the patience to sit and listen to an entire one!  He is usually making animal noises throughout the books and having a great time!!

Chase's new room should be finished soon.  I finally ordered the furniture this week and it should be here within the next week.  I just need to order some artwork for the walls to make it special!  I realized the other day that Chase is about to get a new room that is bigger than any room I have ever lived in before!  I hope he enjoys it!!  We also just recently ordered a baby video monitor for his room (with a second camera for the baby's room).  When that is set up, Drew and I will be able to tell when Chase gets out of bed or is getting into trouble up there.  I'm sure we'll see some pretty comedic things on that monitor before too long!

Here is a picture of Chase after attempting to eat a big powdered donut on Saturday morning.  He never ended up eating it because it was just too much for him, but he did enjoy several donut holes!!

By the way, Chase totally poses for the camera now (assuming he isn't showing off and running all around the house!)