Thanksgiving Pictures

Don't be prepared to be impressed with my Thanksgiving pictures!  But I did take some that I wanted to share.

This is the first holiday Chase could walk into the occasion!  He still needed to be carried a bit because as they say at school, he has his "walking legs" and sometimes where he wants to go isn't where he should go!

As soon as he got to my mom's, he found the apparently very popular watering can.  That went with him around the house at least once...

...Until Gray got there! Then the older cousin got to claim it!

Then I had my heart set on getting a picture of all three grandchildren.  I knew it was impossible, but there was a brief moment in time where they were all near each other.  I got about 4 clicks of the camera before Parker walked away! :)  None are good, but they are all funny!

Chase is trying his best to tell everyone that he does NOT want to be held.  Grayson is trying desperately to get his shoe back on.  And Parker is trying his best to get away from all the babies!

All of the turkey and walking and watering-can-playing made Chase very tired.

And finally, a sweet picture of him walking with the watering can!

Incident Report

When we picked up Chase from school on Wednesday before Thanksgiving Break, we were handed an incident report!!  Dum, dum, dummmmm!!!

Apparently 15 minutes before we picked him up, another kid had bitten Chase on the playground!  As my mom said though, it's better to get the report that your child had been bitten rather than your child be the biter.  I'm sure though my time is coming on that one too!

The bite wasn't serious at all though.  It left a mark for about a day and then went away.  I, of course though, did take a picture!

That same day, Chase (and mommy and daddy) discovered the animated Curious George movie (very cute!!) and watched a little before school that morning.  In honor of that, I dressed him in his Curious George t-shirt.  Also that day, Chase (and mommy) discovered Toy Story.  Daddy has seen them before, but had rented it so we all sat down and watched it.  Chase was enthralled for about the first 20 minutes or so but then he decided he had other stuff he wanted to play with. :)

Still my little piggy!

Weekend of Tears

Last weekend was something else! 

It started rather early for us all.  On Thursday afternoon, I got a call from C's school that said he had vomited, had a potential stomach virus, and to pick him up ASAP.  I got there as fast as I could and I see the Director giving me a sad face.  She then rushed to a closet to get clothes because she thought C was naked.  I was thoroughly confused and then went into C's room.  He was being held by his teacher and was in his backup outfit.  Then I saw that he had thrown up all over his backup outfit too (that's why she thought he was naked)!  I passed on trying to get him into clean clothes because he was super duper smelly and likely to get sick again at any moment, so I just wanted to rush him home.  So they handed me one baggy of his dirty clothes and one entire trashbag with his nap blanket which I later discovered was DIS-GUST-ING!

I thought I was handling things rather well.  I was remaining calm on the ride home.  Then as I was making one of the last turns before I reached our neighborhood, I heard C throw up in the backseat.  I still have him rear-facing in my car, so I couldn't see what was going on, but it sounded awful.  I'm still a little traumatized by it!  I was trying to calm him down as he was starting to cry, but since I was freaked out, it came out more like I was yelling at him.  I knew I needed backup at that point, so I called Drew and told him to please rush home after work.

Once we got home, I felt better and we could get cleaned up, call the doctor's office, and try to rock and cuddle this virus away.  Chase felt awful though.  It was weird seeing him with this type of illness (a first for him). Per my conversation with the doctor, the only thing I could really do for him was give him a teaspoon of water every 10 minutes, and boy that was Chase's favorite time of the entire day!  I let him sneak other sips during the day if he felt well enough to walk over and take his cup off the table.  He would smack his lips and say "ahhhh" each time! It was very sweet!

The virus was mostly bad just Thursday, but kind of lingered on through Saturday morning.  That weekend poor Chase was sad.  At first we thought it was just the virus, but then we think he was teething really bad as well.  Here are some pictures that will melt your heart...and probably make you laugh (like it did us):

It was hard trying to find something to cheer him up.  We relyed mostly on snacks since his appetite for real food was still limited.  Here are some pictures with some cheese puffs that he adores.

 Just for good measure, here are some more sad pictures from the weekend.  Honestly, all weekend long it was like this!  Poor baby!

Of course, Drew and I each felt like we were getting the same thing that weekend, but then never did....well until Monday for me.  And then Drew had more of a cold later in the week. Glad that is now all behind us!  Chase was a ahead of the sick trend at school.  A majority of the other kids got sick after him, so at least we're all now immune for the rest of the season (hopefully!).

Silly Piggy

I figured I should do a mid-month catch up before Chase turns 14 months old!  I've taken zero pictures so far this month (I'm not counting cell phone pictures because those will probably never really be saved anywhere).  The picture below is the one picture from my phone that I had to keep because it makes me laugh so much!  He just discovered these little cups that were hidden in the bottom of a toy basket and he is obsessing over them a little.  He walked around the living room with this in his mouth for a good 5 minutes!

So Chase started walking just a couple of weeks ago and he is REALLY good at it now.  In fact, I rarely see him crawl anymore (he's maybe 70% walking and 30% crawling/cruising).  Seeing him crawl now seems weird.  He's getting faster and steadier.  He can stand himself up and begin walking now without any assistance from anything besides the floor!  I still can't believe how fast these milestones come along and how fast they can master them!

Chase still isn't saying much of anything.  He's gotten really vocal in the past week or so, just shouting out gobbledegook and "mama" and "dada" and "nine-nine" (??).  He understands a lot though, but he hasn't felt the desire to say anything yet!

Our current games include peek-a-boo which has always been one of his favorites; saying touchdown and him raising his arms, which is usually followed by him clapping and saying "yay!"; and him placing both hands over his ears which means my response needs to be me saying "Aaaggghhhh"!  He'll usually do that at least a good 8 times in a row!

His Learning House is still one of his favorite toys.  The toys I've seen him obsess over more recently include his blocks and shapes that he likes to drop into any random container.  Once they all are in the container, he will dump them all out and start over.  This boy definitely has an opinion on where you place these little shapes.  His Learning House has some spots where you can place these little shapes.  Whenever I find one of these pieces lying around, I always scoop it up and place it into the corresponding spot for that shape.  If Chase sees me, he beelines towards that shape and takes it out of the hole.  Under his reign, no shape will stay in its spot.  Neither will the letters stay in their proper home - the mailbox. It drives me batty! It's a constant battle we have going on in our house! :)  He also has started loving his little chair I got him on his birthday more and more since he's been able to walk.  He loves walking over to it and just falling face first into the chair and then proceeding to roll over the arms of the chair onto the ground.  He's definitely keeping me on my toes!

Also last week, I finally got a chance to go to the new Mellow Mushroom that made its way to town.  Thankfully this time it didn't have a 1 hour wait for lunch like the last time I tried to go!  Anyways, I mention this because this was the first restaurant that treated Chase like a real life kid!  I mean other restaurants have acknowledged Chase before, but MM actually gave Chase crayons and a coloring menu and a plate!  Chase deserved his treatment like a kid though.  He screamed out during lunch several times because as we gave him little bites of our pretzels and pizza, he would get so excited and want more and more and more!  He was our little piggy that day!  As we left the restaurant, I looked back at our table and we had broken crayons and bits of food all around where we were!  I told Drew that I think we were officially THOSE parents now!  Fun times at restaurants are just beginning!

Happy Halloween!

In case you can't tell (and I wouldn't really expect you to be able to), Chase is Twist from the Fresh Beat Band. :)

13 months!

It's been a little over a week since my last post, but so much has happened since then that it feels a lifetime ago!

First, on Thursday Chase turned 13 months old!  I don't have a picture of his 13 month birthday because 1) it had been a long week up until that point, and 2) I can't take an in-focus picture right now to save my life!

13 Month Stats:
Unofficial weight: 25.4 lbs (He is drinking WAY too much milk!)
Clothing size: 12-18 month clothes
Shoe size: Same - Wearing size 5's.  Finally found some shoes that stay on most of the time!
Diaper size: Still size 3's, but we have had to put him in size 4's at night because of some wet pajama pant issues earlier in the month!  Worked like a charm!
Favorite toy: His Learning House, his phones/remotes, and his pianos/keyboards.
Favorite foods: Cheerios have finally been replaced by Goldfish crackers and graham crackers.  Hot dogs and grilled cheese are also high on the list.
Least favorite foods: I try to avoid foods he doesn't like, but I think green beans are still up there unfortunately.
Typical daily schedule: No change from 12 months.  Going forward I am trying to cut back on the amount of milk that I give him.  The doctor said last month he should be getting no more than 16 ounces of milk per day.  Welllllll.....I cover that quota all by myself and that doesn't count the milk they give him at school during breakfast and lunch.  I really don't know what the "right" amount is, but I'll try to figure out what works for him over the next week or so.
Words: Chase doesn't really say any of his words very regularly.  In fact, he'll go a week or so without really saying anything.
Teeth: His two new teeth just came in Friday or Saturday (officially, his upper right and left laterals...thanks Google!).  He's been much happier ever since!  That brings the total to 6!

Latest happenings:

• Chase started walking (part-time).  He started this at like 5:30pm on 10/28, so at almost exactly 13 months and 30 minutes old!  Drew posted a video on Facebook that I'll need to post here of his first few steps.  I was so in shock when he first started walking that I couldn't move.  It was the most surreal thing I had seen in a while!  Only two days before he had taken at most 4 steps and then all of a sudden he took like 30 steps!
• I spent my first night away from home since Chase was born and I survived!  It was only supposed to be one night away, but ended up being two nights away due to flight delays and horrible weather in Atlanta.  I was very happy to be back home.  I guess I hadn't really thought about it, but he did act a little strangely when he saw me again.  He didn't cry, but I sat with him in the backseat on the way back home (Drew was driving) and he looked at me strangely the entire way back.  I guess it could have been in my head, but it made me sad.  Hopefully, I don't have to go out of town anymore to experience that again.
• Weezie and Chase are now best friends.  Weezie probably wouldn't admit it, but she's totally warmed up to Chase.  See, Chase has learned how to feed Weezie.  When Chase gets a snack of Cheerios, Chase will feed himself one and then he'll take one and lower his hand on the side of the highchair to feed one to Weezie.  Then he feeds himself one again, and then he feeds Weezie one.  It will repeat like this until he's all done!  He does not share Goldfish though.  Those are all his.  See below for a picture of Weezie getting an animal cracker.  As of this morning, they will also now play "keep away" with each other with Weezie's "yellow thing".  It was very cute.

• After 3 weeks of slowly trying to teach him, Chase finally learned how to signal a touchdown during the AU/Ole Miss game on Saturday.

Other things I want to remember some day:

• Earlier in the month, Chase would make us laugh by rubbing his bare chest in a "sexy" manner when we'd change him into his pajamas.  He was usually crying because he hates being forced to stay in one spot, but then as soon as we'd take his shirt off that he wore during the day, he'd start rubbing his chest with both hands.  Drew and I always got super tickled by that!  He doesn't do it as much anymore, unfortunately.
• He's loving his daycare class.  I think he just has a ball all day long.  One of his buds from the baby class is transitioning in his class, so he's no longer the youngest!  Also, when I was out of town my mom told me a story of a little boy who came up and hugged Chase when she set him down on the floor of the classroom.  The little boy hugged Chase, then took the pacifier from Chase's mouth and handed it to my mother!  Just imagining that makes me laugh!
• Speaking of his pacifier, I think he is more addicted than ever.  When he can't find the paci, he'll now even suck his thumb a little!  I'm thinking maybe sometime after Christmas, I'll start getting serious with making the pacis go bye-bye...maybe.

I have another picture to share.  On Friday, it was pajama day in his class.  We went out and bought some Halloween pajamas the night before (even though I don't know why I bothered because one of the kids had on Christmas pajamas!).  He was very cute in his PJs!  I did want to show though how filthy he is when he comes back from school.  That afternoon he had eaten a frosted cookie in celebration of Halloween and it was ALL over him!  You can't really get the full effect of all the cookie on his cheeks!

War Eagle!

We had a big game today that we won! Whoo hoo!  I'm hoping Chase doesn't learn any of the dirty words that may come out of the mouths of Drew or I when we watch our games!  They have just been too close to behave ourselves completely!  Also, I can tell Drew loves his football team when he changes the desktop pattern on his computer to the latest image of the quarterback instead of the latest pictures of Chase!

Here's a few pictures from the Auburn game this afternoon of Chase.

Here he is with his little pink bottle of lotion.  He thinks this makes a great substitute paci when we hide his real paci from him.

Here he is just *standing* around drinking a big gulp of water!  He loves just standing for the sake of standing now!  He's getting better at it everyday!

Afternoon at the Pumpkin Farm

We took Chase to the local pumpkin farm again this weekend!  The same pumpkin farm that helped produce my most favorite picture from all of 2009.

Chase was a little more interactive this year as compared to last year.  He was interested in checking out the pumpkins and being in a new environment!  Despite having my camera settings all out of wack (which I didn't realize until I looked at the pictures on my computer), I did get some cute ones although a little grainy!

Jersey Boy

I'm really at a loss now as to what to call my blog posts.  It was easy when I could just use the number of weeks!

Nothing really new to note with Chase's milestones.  He likes standing more.  He'll just push himself up to a standing position and just clap for no apparent reason.  I've seen him just stand totally on his own for up to 20 seconds before.  We learned at Grayson's birthday party on Sunday that he LOVES hotdogs.  I think he had 1 1/2 hotdogs all by himself.  I don't think he would have stopped eating it had we not pulled it away!  I didn't get a chance to check today, but his two new teeth are just about to break through any day now.  I know he'll be happy when they do!

So Grayson had a Halloween themed second birthday party yesterday.  There were two little Bo Jackson's running around the party!  One of the Bo's was supposed to be Robin (from Batman and Robin), but he didn't feel up to it.  The other Bo started out as Twist from Fresh Beat Band, but no one knew who he was, so he changed his costume mid-party.  :)

After Auburn won their crazy game against Arkansas on Saturday, Chase briefly changed into his Mississippi State jersey before going to bed to help root on State against Florida.  Apparently it worked!!  We'll try to get a better picture of him with the jersey next week.  There was a bit of drama (i.e. dirty diaper) at the time we took this picture, so we didn't have the patience to get him to pose just right! :)

Lots of new things!

It's only been a week since I last posted, but there have been lots of new developments!

First, Chase finally started pointing towards the end of last week.  That's a big 12 month milestone and I was a little worried when he hadn't yet done it when his birthday rolled around, but I only had to wait another 10 days before he started doing it.  Luckily, he hasn't yet started demanding anything with that finger!

Also on 10/9/10, Chase took his first step!!  I mean, it was the first one I had seen, but you know it never really counts until the mommy sees it for herself!  He had taken step-like motions before, but this was the first time that he landed the step.  He prompty sat back down on his bottom after that one step, but you have to start somewhere!!

We remembered this trick my nephew used to do when he was little with the telephone, so we tried to teach it to Chase one day. Chase picked up on it every quickly and thinks it’s so funny! When we say “hello”, he’ll put his hand, telephone, or remote (because really remotes do look like cordless phones!) up to his ear. Sometimes he’ll do it without us saying hello, but then we then promptly say “hello”! He just smiles! This has led to another milestone. We think another word! I’m not sure when these classify as real words, so I’m withholding calling out an official “first word”, but as of Sunday, we think he says “hello”! The first time it came out like a rushed “heh-yo”. Monday morning it just came out as “oh”. So now his words include dada, mama, yay, and hello! Fun times!  See pictures at the bottom of him talking on the phone.

The dropoff at daycare has gotten much easier. Monday through Wednesday he bawled which meant I was usually crying by the time I got to my car, but then on Thursday I sat on the floor with him and played with some blocks until he got distracted and crawled off to another toy. No crying (by either of us)! Then on Friday, they were eating breakfast when I dropped him off, so it was a little out of our routine, so there was a little fussing, but the cinnamon toast made him better! Monday and Tuesday of this week have been easy again, so I think we are over the bad part!

When I picked Chase up from school this afternoon, he was acting strangely and apparently had only napped for a total of 30 minutes all day.  He was zonked in my car, but I couldn't get him to rest at home.  He felt really warm, his cheeks were flushed...I was getting worried.  Then I felt them!  I think he's teething again.  Now it feels like the teeth on either side of his top, front teeth are coming in.  I gave him some Tylenol to hopefully help him rest tonight...so far so good!

So here are some pictures from this past week...

The first one was from a little experiment we did on Saturday.  We gave Chase a WHOLE Sister Schubert roll!  He ate pretty much the entire thing and did really well!  I watched him like a hawk the entire time, but he was just in heaven!

12 month stats

We went to the doctor this afternoon for C's well-baby visit.  Here are the highlights:

He got his iron levels checked.  The finger prick hurt, but he did love the bandaid he got afterwards.  Iron levels checked out a-okay!

We got to overhear the two very dramatic kids gets their vaccinations in the room next to ours.  One kid screamed out that his mom was a liar.  The other kid just screamed out "please, please, puuuhhhleeeaaasseee!"  Hilarious (until it's Chase doing that).

Chase got checked out and everything looked fantastic.

Vaccination time.  4 different shots.  He hated them, but was all better when we sat him back up.  I think that was the most he's had at one time, because previously they've combined certain vaccinations into one super shot.  Lucky Chase though.  We get to go back next month for the second part of his flu shot! Yay!

12 month stats:
Weight: 24 lbs (75th percentile) - up 2 lb 6 oz from 9 month checkup
Length: 31.5" (90th percentile) - 2.5" longer than month 9
Head: 46.5cm (50th percentile) - 2cm larger than month 9

Chase had a rough day from my point of view.  I dropped him off in the one year old room today for the very first time.  He started bawling as soon as I sat him down.  I don't blame him though.  It's scary in that room.  You have Chase who isn't saying a word and who can't walk and who is just starting to learn to eat on his own in the same room with 10 kids who are in their "late" ones who can run and say words and follow commands and eat like a champ.  It's a little intimidating!  Of course in my emotional state, I started crying as well!  I think I've cried every single day I've been to daycare this past week.  I've officially gone looney!  Then when I picked him up for the doctors visit, he was crying again!  They said those were just isolated cries and he was fine the rest of the day, but I don't know how much I believe them!  Again, I'm crazy.  I totally think they are lying to me!

Also, I'm officially in my busy season at work (again) and now it's scheduled to last through mid to late May for me this year.  Oh joy!  I'm extremely apprehensive about what this busy season will mean for me being a pleasant, available mom since my job tends to stress me out beyond belief.  Keeping my fingers crossed that I survive!

Our Saturday afternoon

Did you know that diced carrots are gross, but diced carrots in applesauce are delicious? Whatever it takes!  I would like to thank Weezie's allergy for this helpful hint (since we've been hiding her Benadryl in cheese and hot dog buns all week)!

Bad

 Yum!

Chase got to cheer on Auburn during an actual day game today.  I dressed him up in a ridiculous(ly cute) outfit.

During playtime, I realized I live in a primary color nightmare!

 But he thinks it's pretty awesome!

Videos: Yay and Silly Laugh

Momma got a new "toy" at work through the PDA program - the iPhone 4.  Pretty cool, even though I barely know what I'm doing with it.  The first thing I figured out though was the camera and video features!  I'm always a smidge bored during Chase's dinner time, so that's usually when I pull the phone out and try to entertain myself.

Here's the Yay video I mentioned the other day.  Do you hear it?

Here's a video of this silly laugh he does.  It sounds like he's inhaling when he laughs!