9 months/39 weeks

On Monday, Chase turned 9 months old!  Wow, another big milestone! 

That morning we took our routine trip to the pediatrician.  Most of our time was spent discussing his rash, but we did get his 9 months stats and a routine check-up as well.

9 Month Stats:

Weight: 21 lbs 10 oz (50th to 75th percentile) - up 3 lb 8 oz from 6 month checkup
Length: 28" (50th percentile) - 1" longer than month 6
Head: 44.75 cm (50th percentile) - 1.25 cm SMALLER than month 6...we think the 6 month measurement was wrong!

One of the big surprises that day was that there were no shots! That was a relief because I was pretty sure they wouldn't give him the shots anyway with the rash, so that just saved us from making another trip to the doctor later!

Some other stats:
Clothing size: 6-12 month clothes. Although some of the one-pieces are getting a little snug and we've had a hard time squeezing his head through some t-shirts.  We may be moving on up soon!
Diaper size: Huggies size 3.
Eyes: Beautiful blue eyes with long dark lashes!
Hair: Getting thicker with just the smallest amount of texture.
Favorite toy: Hmm, he's not obsessed with any one thing right now.  He still loves his bear head, Silly town, talking rolly ball, music table, any sort of paper you may have in your hand, remotes, phones, glasses...just exploring EVERYTHING!
Favorite foods: Yogurt!
Least favorite food: Nothing new.
Typical daily schedule: 6:00am Wakeup (get in bed with mommy and sleep more); 7:30am - Wakeup for real and have morning bottle (6oz); 8:20 to 8:40am - Arrive at daycare; 9:30 - oatmeal w/ pureed fruit (5oz); 11:00am - Bottle (6oz), 1:00pm - yogurt (4oz), 2:30pm - Bottle (6oz), 5:30pm - Bottle (6oz), 6:30 - Veggies (5oz); then bedtime (7:30)!  Quick little 30 to 45 minute naps scattered in between!
Words: See below!

So Chase has had a ton of developmental milestones since my post last week.
 
First, last Friday he said his first word!  Da-da!  Of course!  I should have know that Drew has been campaigning for that since he's been home for the summer.  He said it when Drew was changing his diaper Friday afternoon.  I was on the other side of the house at the time, but heard him say it through the baby monitor.  I sprinted across the house when I heard it to double check with Drew if I heard it correctly!  He's said it a ton since then too.  Now, if only he could start practicing his "M" sounds!
 
Chase has a new nickname as of late last week.  Roomba!  He's like that little robot vacuum the way he rolls all over the floor now.  Sometime last week, he learned that if he just rolls over and over again he can get to where he wants to be, so now he just rolls all over our living room area from one side of the room to the other going where ever his little heart desires (or until he gets stuck, bumps his head, or trys to reach for the "dust buffaloes" under our couch).
 
I don't know how this happened, but today he managed to go from laying on his belly to sitting up on his bottom all on his own.  I would have seen this milestone today, except Drew made me watch this.
 

**edit: removed image of goblin shark because it was too disturbing**

 

It distracted me so much in its weirdness, that I missed a cool milestone.  Yeah, thanks Drew!  Also, sorry for now putting this image in your mind as well! (Edit from Drew:  That shark is a goblin shark and it lives in Japanese waters for the most part.  It has protrusile jaws to extend its bite.  AWESOME!)

 

Since last month, Chasie has gone from being bundled every single night to now it is a rare occurrence.  Now he's back in his sleep sacks!  He's been waking a little more in the middle of the night lately for some reason.  It's been a little annoying but he goes right back to sleep with a little help from his pacifier or Drew putting him in bed next to me at 3 in the morning!  Ugh.

 

Chase has discovered Elmo!  I've had an Elmo in his room since before he was born, but we gave it to him today just to see how he liked it.  He thought it was hilarious!  The Elmo is of the Tickle-Me variety and was originally mine back whenever the Tickle-Me-Elmo was all the rage.  Chase gave Elmo big smiles and loved sucking on Elmo's eyeballs. :)  It was cute.  I see all sorts of annoying Elmo videos and stage shows in my future!

 

 

His lower teeth are getting more and more noticeable!  Also, we are starting to see his upper teeth beneath the gum.  You can't feel them yet, but you can kind of see them!

 

 

I've already started thinking about his first birthday now! I've got the theme worked out in my head and I'm very excited to start planning. Now, I've got to make a couple of more big decisions - cupcakes or a big cake; homemade or professional! I'm glad I've got 3 months to work this out!

Saddest rash ever!

I think by the end of this year I may have a PhD in Childhood Illnesses. 

Over the weekend Chase has slowly started developing a rash.  When I first noticed it on Friday, I thought maybe it was just a few little pimples on his face.  Then I noticed a few more tiny bumps on his legs so I thought maybe it was some sort of bug bite.  Then on Saturday as we were hitting the road for a wedding, I noticed even more so then I started thinking maybe it's the beginning of chicken pox.  Then I was assured over the phone by my mother that it wasn't that, so then we thought maybe it was a heat rash.  Then later on into the evening and the next morning it got way worse.  By this point I was convinced he was having an allergic reaction to the new blueberry yogurt he had on Tuesday and Friday.  Luckily, one of the wedding guests staying at our hotel was a pediatrician so after looking at Chase quickly he thought it was just a harmless viral rash.

This morning Chase was already scheduled for his 9 month well-baby visit, so it was a perfect time to inquire about this sad, pitiful rash.  Dr. Owen was a little confused by his rash.  It has characteristics of an allergic reaction and a viral rash.  At one point during our visit, he thought he had Fifth disease but then he changed his mind when Chase didn't have more of the typical symptoms of that rash.  They did some blood work on Chase and the results leaned towards a viral rash, but it was right on the edge of possibly having an allergy as well.  So we left the doctor knowing nothing more than when we went there!  :)  All the rest of his vitals were good.  He's the picture of perfect health except for his yucky rash!  Luckily Chase doesn't seem to be itchy, so he seems to be very comfortable despite the rash.  Dr. Owen said it could take up to two weeks for it to clear up.

You'll see from the pictures below it is FAR worse on his face than the rest of his body.  I think that's what makes me so sad for him.  I think I'm projecting my own insecurities about my skin onto him.   Growing up I had the worst skin and I still consider myself having horrible skin (I liken it to body image issues that people with eating disorders have...I will always see myself that way regardless of what I may actually look like).  And now that Chase has this horrible rash, I see myself in him and I feel like I foresee what it may be like for him as a teenager and it just makes me want to cry!

38 weeks

Chase is now 38 weeks old!  The weeks have just been flying by way too quickly.

Some of the latest happenings:

The teeth are coming, the teeth are coming!!  Chase is full-on teething now.  His first one is now fully through the gum (and it's sharp!) and now it has a little buddy coming through right next to it (it started coming through on June 18th - I know you don't care about that, but I need to document this all someday!).  Chase has moments where he is so fussy because of what I imagine to be pain from teething.  We've been giving him teething tablets very consistently lately.  They seem to do the trick which is good!

Still not crawling, but SO close.  I mean, SO close that it's ridiculous!  Drew is convinced that Chase will stand up before he crawls.  Chase is getting great at pulling up on our hands to stand up.  He just plants his feet on the ground and lifts up!  He gets a little stuck when pulling up on other things around our house, but I believe at daycare they said he pulled himself up on a little chair and then proceeded to get scared when he realized he didn't know how to sit down!

Still no words, but Drew heard da-da like sounds coming from Chase this afternoon.  I think it went more like ga-da, so maybe he'll put two of the same sound together soon.  I hope it's ma-ma though, but my real wish would be that I'd be present when it first happens! :)

Yesterday as Drew took Chase to the highchair for dinner, Chase reached his hand up and put his fingers in Drew's nostrils.  This is not a new occurrence.  What is new is that Chase must have really dug his fingers into Drew's nose and he must have torn something because all of a sudden Drew was in intense pain and blood was starting to pour out of his nose!  It was so gross!

That's all for now, I believe.  Next Monday Chase will be 9 months old!  How is that possible?!  Will have all the latest stats next time!

Latest Baby Purchases

So it seems lately I've been making a lot of baby-related purchases. I thought I would share some with you.

Chase is teething like crazy lately, so I saw these cute teethers online.  The were cheap (relatively speaking) and I was ordering a bunch of other stuff from this website and needed just a little bit more for free shipping, so I threw these in the cart.  Glad I did, because he likes them.  Unfortunately, Weezie likes them too.  She got a hold of and claimed the foot for herself.

Then I got some of these rice crackers called Baby Mum-Mums.  They taste like a rice cake/ice cream cone.  Chase LOVES them.  When he first got one, he was a little awkward with the coordination of putting the crackers in his mouth and I was super nervous he was going to choke.  He QUICKLY got used to the cracker and now he just munches on them and smacks his gums and can quickly eat both crackers in the package.  Oh my gosh!  It is just the cutest thing to see him eat these.  It's like I get a little preview of what he's going to be like in a few months when he's eating chunks of "real" food (as opposed to the "fake" pureed food I give him now!)  I could just stare at him eating these crackers FOREVER.  Seriously.

Then I got him this little Octotune thing.  Drew and I saw this at Toys R Us one day and we decided Chase must have it.  It came in the mail today.  Chase doesn't really know what to do with it, but I'm afraid by the time he does, Drew might have worn out the toy.  Drew already knows how to play various tunes on the toy (see how it works is that each leg of the octopus makes a different tone so you can play songs on it if you are talented like Drew!).

My BIG purchase is a big boy car seat for Chase.  And I got it in a cute cow pattern.  Chase isn't really close to outgrowing his infant seat yet, but the carrier is becoming a little too much for me to carry (10lb carrier + 21lb little boy = HEAVY!!).  So, I thought I would upgrade him in my car and keep the baby seat in Drew's car.  It's so cute!!  And roomy!!  At first I thought the cow pattern was a little girly, but then I decided girls shouldn't have all the fun.  Plus if you understood my obsession with Chick-fil-a, you would know that this is a must have for me...I mean Chase! :)

Because the new car seat doesn't have a shade like the carrier and because it is incredibly HOT outside, I made two more purchases for my car.  Sunshades for the front and a sun screen for the back to keep the sun out of Chase's eyes.  Just got these today, so I haven't tried them out yet, but I'm very much hoping it helps with the sun and the heat!

Another big purchase is our new ABC foam puzzle mat!  This was an awesome purchase.  We have tile and hardwood through most of the downstairs of our house but NO rugs, so I needed a soft spot for Chase to crawl since he's getting so close to mobility.

Of all the purchases though what has Chase taken to the most?  A little package of tissues I found on the kitchen table.  Typical.

Father's Day

So, Drew had his first Father's Day last Sunday.  I hope he thought it was special.  I'm really not the best at making a big deal out of things, but I hope I did somewhat ok!  Chase made Drew a card telling him how he is the best daddy and then he put some cute pictures of himself on it.  I must say that he's very talented for an almost 9 month old!  After Drew read it, I promptly put it away in our "keepsake" rubbermaid box.

Drew dressed Chase up like himself for Father's Day.  It was very cute!  Here are a few pictures.  Chase was very tired when I decided to bust out the camera.  The last picture is partially staged.  I think I've mentioned before how Chase rubs his eyes like Drew.  Now you can see for yourself!

37 weeks

It's one of my favorite times of the week (update the blog time), except this week I have a bit of writer's block, so we'll see how I do.  Because of my writer's block this may all just come out random and unorganized but I need to just get it all out so I can remember!

We've had a good fun (healthy!) week.  Can't complain about that! 

37 weeks!

Chase is getting more comfortable moving around.  He's fairly good at rolling over now.  It's not as much of a rare occurrence as it once was!  Fun fact:  He only rolls back and forth.  I've never seen him take two rolls back to back in the same direction.  Maybe that's something he's saving for us in the coming weeks!  Still not crawling, but he's on the brink.  We may have a breakthrough in the coming weeks.  He's also getting stronger standing up supported and he trys so hard to pull up on things, but he usually gets stuck and starts crying to be rescued!

One fun thing he does is he clicks his tongue.  I'm not sure if that's exactly what to call it, but he makes this clicking sound as he's moving his tongue all around.  I think it's super cute, so I usually "click" back at him. 

He's still doing really well sleeping through the night.  During our sick weeks, it got a little rough, but for the most part, once he goes to bed he stays there until 6:00am or so and then comes to the bed with me so we can all get an additional hour all cuddled up.  Also during the time he was sick, I got in the habit of taking naps during the day with him in our bed to help calm him down and get him to rest.  Then later on I did that when I was desperate to get him to nap.  Now, I think he wants to do that more and more!  So, I think he's starting to get a bit spoiled.  I'm a bit torn because I know he needs to have good sleep habits to save us a lot of drama in the future, but it's so easy to get him to nap when I snuggle him up beside me (plus it's my favorite part of the day...gosh, I'm so sad!).  So, this is something I'm totally aware of and need to fix sooner rather than later!

As mentioned last Thursday, he's officially teething!!  I noticed on Saturday that his cheeks have been bright red.  I was a little nervous he was getting sick again because he usually gets bright red cheeks when he has a very high fever.  Per a Google search this afternoon, Drew and I learned that red cheeks could be a sign of teething, so I think that's exactly what that was.  He had the red cheeks again today, and I noticed the tooth is slowly coming through.  Here's a picture.  If you want to see if you can see his tooth, click for the larger version.

 Still no words.  I think I'm hearing some "ga-ga"s so maybe something soon.  But mostly he just speaks in gibberish and ooh's and whoo's.  I just love when he speaks though!

One funny thing that happened today - Drew and Chase came by and picked me up for lunch today.  When we were at the restaurant I noticed that everytime Drew picked up his glass and drank from it, Chase started laughing.  It was hilarious!  He kind of smiled when I did it, but he really thought it was funny when Drew drank from the glass.  Sometimes you just wonder what he's thinking!

On Sunday, Drew, Chase and I went to Pump-it-Up for the first time for first nephew Parker's 4th birthday!   I still remember where I was when he was born (in Atlanta stuck at training!), but strangely it seems it's been more than 4 years.  It's like he and his crazy curly hair have always been with  us.  Anyways, we had so much fun.  I'm surprised to tell you how scared I was of the big slide and how terribly embarrassing it is to be lapped by 4 year olds on the little obstacle course.  Drew took Chase down the big slide on his lap.  Chase remained emotionless during the actual sliding but afterwards he was kicking his legs like he wanted more.  I think he went down an additional 2 times.  Here's a picture after the first slide down:

For the rest of the post, I'll post pictures..

Here are some alternate weekly pictures.  The first one is cute (him playing with his foot), but I was playing around with my camera settings and the picture is grainy.  The second one is cute, but I show you this because I'm thinking this is the face of a future troublemaker!  He looks up to no good!

The next few pictures are also from today (I usually only use my camera on Monday's now!).  He's playing with his (partially inflated Weeble Wooble).

This is him playing with his Silly Town!

The End.

I told you so!

In my post earlier this week, I said how I thought Chase was beginning to teethe.  Well what did we have waiting for us when he got home from school today? A tooth!!  Granted, it just popped through in the past day or so.  The top of the tooth is just barely through the gum, but it is most definitely there!  This is a good thing because it has definitely gone through my mind the past few weeks what life would be like with a teenager who didn't have any teeth!  I can be a bit of a worry wart if given enough free time to think.

So here is a picture of said tooth...

What?  You don't see it??  Shocking! :)

Let me zoom in and point it out to you...

Still don't see it??  Ha ha!  Well, it's there.  I promise!

So soon I get to add a new daily chore - brushing Chase's tooth/teeth!  Fun times!

Sneak Peek of Professional Pictures

I don't know if giddiness translates through blog posts, but if not just know that I couldn't be more delighted!

I am in love with these cheeks (link)

36 weeks

The 36th week came in like a lion and went out like a lamb!  Lambs are so much cooler than lions! :)  It took until late Thursday before Chase started feeling better from the ear infection, and now he's back to his old self!  I hope we won't have to go back to the doctor until his 9 month checkup early next month!  We've been racking up co-pays like crazy around here lately!!

 So what's up with Chase this week? 

Hmm, he started baby oatmeal yesterday for the first time and we are now just beginning to start giving him 3 solid meals a day.  With the increase in solids, I'm back to being totally confused on how much he should be getting in formula.  Back in the old days (one month ago), he would routinely take an 8 ounce bottle every 3 hours and drink every last drop and still fuss when it was done.  That was on top of his fruit in the afternoon and his veggies in the evening.  About two or so weeks ago, I've noticed that his appetite for formula is much less.  I'll fix an 8 ounce bottle and he'll drink only 4 to 6 ounces.  We have thrown out a ton of formula lately!  I'm not sure if I've increased his solids more than I thought or if since he's not growing as fast anymore, he's just not as hungry. So now I'm going back down to 6 ounce bottles (except for his morning bottle...he loves that one!) and experimenting with the spacing out of his meals.  I have to tell you - I'm not the hugest fan of being responsible for another human being's meals.  I'm never sure if I'm feeding him too much or too little!  Such pressure!

For the rest of the post, I'll be incorporating pictures into the latest happenings...

He's chomping on his tongue more...

 

...and as a result making lots of silly faces.  This isn't really silly, but it's as silly as I caught on camera!

He's gone back to eating his hands again.  I know I've said this a million times, but I think he's starting to teethe again!  I mean, he's 8 months old now.  Surely it's going to happen soon?!  I thought I noticed where his lower gums were a bit puffy looking the other day, so maybe...but again I've said that lots of times! :)

He's still not crawling, but he really wants to!  He just rolls from his belly to his back over and over again, but doesn't manage to go anywhere!

Here's one of his new favorite things that started a week or so ago.  For a while there he loved holding his own bottle.  Lately, he wants you to hold it for him again.  He decided he has better things to do with his hands than hold a stinking bottle...like grabbing daddy's nose!

He just loves Weezie more and more.  Weezie is far more interesting to Chase than either mommy or daddy! Weezie has a love/hate relationship with Chase.  She loves Chase, but hates his fingers because sometimes his fingers like to pinch her!  Not fun.

Can't you just see Weezie signaling us for help?

We bought a little baby pool for Chase over the weekend.  He loves it.  It took him a while to get used to the cool water, but he just loved splashing around! 

No story here, just thought this picture was cute!

Some 6 month pictures

I'm too tired to post about week 36 tonight, but in the meantime here is a post I've been meaning to do for about 3 weeks now!

A local photographer came to Chase's daycare around the end of March and took some pictures of the kids. Chase's pictures turned out pretty cute. I've saved some from the online preview and posted some here.  At the time the pictures were taken, Chase didn't know how to sit up, so all of these pictures are of him lying down.  It's hard to remember him when he didn't sit up, but gosh, that was only 2 months ago!