52 weeks

Chase is 52 weeks old today!  Last weekly picture!  Let's just all stop and think about how monumental this is.  Oh wait, I don't want to do that, because then I'll get sad and no one wants that!

I figure I'd start this post out showing where we started and where we have come.

Here's Chase at one week old

Here we are today

Oh, I sooo miss him as an itty bitty baby, but he is so much fun every day.

For example, today was his very first day in "One Year Old" grade as I like to call it!  I dropped him off in the infant room.  He had breakfast there and then headed to the one year old class at 9.  Drew and I picked him up together this afternoon and we headed to the front door of the school and we see Chase staring at us in the window (he has low windows to look out of in the new room)!  He sees us and then starts smiling and beating on the windows.  I melted.  We go in the new classroom and meet his teachers (I immediately forgot their names...oops).  They said he had a great day!  He ate a ton (loves Goldfish crackers), took a two hour nap (!), he drank milk well from the sippies, and he played outside (I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall).  He was so happy when he came home.  I was a little taken aback by all the changes, but he was happy so I was happy.  It's like he went to school today as my baby Chase and came home a little boy.  This new class is going to force us to change up our daily schedules a bit.  He's no longer on the "eat every 2 hours" plan, so Drew and I are going to have to get something figured out by this weekend.  Also, even though he was super happy when he got home, he started to fade faster than normal.  We could tell he was ready to go to bed around 6:30 or so, but we were trying to keep him up until 7:30 for his last bottle.  I could tell that he needed to go to bed way sooner than that so I gave him the bottle at 7.  I think he set a world record for how quickly he drank that 8 ounces.  He was in bed very soon after that.

Also this week, Drew and I noticed something interesting about Chase.  When Chase is happy and playing, he tends to say "Dada Dadada".  When he's sad or upset or protesting, he says "Momm Momma".  What's that all about?  :)

We think Chase said the word "yay!" today when he was clapping his hands.  That's the word I say when he starts clapping.  I have it on video and I'll let you decide.  Look for that in the coming days if we can figure out how to post it!

Also, I have finally updated the weekly picture slideshow.  It now has all 52 weeks on it!

Bad Day

Luckily the title to this post has nothing to do with Chase's birthday party!  But it does have to with last Friday...or what we like to call one of the worst days this year.  It was just one thing after another!

It all started with me getting a phone call from school on Thursday afternoon saying Chase was getting some mild rash all over his body.  I called the pediatrician's office for a Friday appointment with the hopes of cancelling it if the rash went away overnight.  I came home that afternoon though to see Chase with bright pink cheeks and looking kind of blah.  He seemed super warm to me, which was confirmed when we took his temparture and it was 102.5!  I immediately start trying to make childcare arrangements for the next day since daycare was obviously not an option now!

The next day I get up at 5:30am (just the way you want to start a "bad day"!) for work and try my best to get ready with a sweet, sick little baby who only wants to be held. I drop him off with my mom that morning and go to work.  Drew made the visit to the pediatrician's office with Chase after he did a partial day at work.  It turns out Chase had a slight ear infection in his right ear and a really red, sore throat (that is the first I'm aware that he's had that).

Drew had to play Mr. Mom the rest of the afternoon, taking Chase to the pharmacy to get his medicine and then being the sole caretaker the rest of the day.  Weezie had a previously scheduled annual checkup that afternoon, so Papa had to stop by and watch Chase while Drew went to the vet.  While at the vet, the doctor noticed how a few weeks after Weezie gets her vaccinations, we end up coming back with an allergic reaction that she's had (we had never put 2 and 2 together...we always thought she had been bitten by a bug).  Anyways, she gets her vaccinations and her checkup and they come back home.

I get home around 4:30 that afternoon and everyone is home.  Chase is still a little warm and a little clingy, but besides that is in a good mood.  Here's a picture of us relaxing in bed watching a little TV.

About 20 minutes after this picture is taken, I walk into the kitchen to heat up some food for Chase and I see my poor sweet Weezie all swollen in the face.  I had to do a double and triple take because I just couldn't figure out if what I was seeing was real.  I freak out and call Drew into the kitchen.  He then freaks out and immediately rushes her back to the vet.  I had a camera about 2 inches from me at the time I see Weezie, but I just couldn't take a picture because I didn't want "that" picture to possibly be the last image of her.  It was really bad! 

Drew gets her there and the doctors are already waiting in the lobby to take her to a room so they can determine the situation.  Luckily, her lungs were fine and the swelling was limited to just her facial area.  Drew said by the time he got there her eyes were almost swollen shut!  It turns out she had an allergic reaction to possibly the rabies vaccination.  The vet said it is actually relatively common, but it is rare for a dog to have a delayed reaction to it like she has had.  Most of the time it is immediate.  Anyways, now she has a big note stuck to her file saying that she's allergic and that she needs benedryl before the vaccination!

Here's a before and after picture.  The before picture is just a normal, everyday picture of Weezie.  The after is about 30 minutes after her benedryl shot (still swollen, but a ton better than what she was!).

While Drew was at home monitoring Weezie, I went over to my parent's for dinner so Chase could have dinner with is great aunt Elizabeth and Sandra.  Unfortunately I have no pictures of them with Chase, but I do have a cute picture of Chase with one of his gifts in his mouth.  Weezie has since killed this little man!

51 weeks

Just a warning to anyone who sees me over the next 8 days.  I'm an emotional basket case!  If you look at me wrong or blink or if I see or think about the number 28 or think about how my baby is growing up, I will cry.  It will be a messy, nasty cry.  I was thinking last week this was just a hormonal thing, but now I'm thinking I'm just crazy!  It's like I'm getting post-partum depression 12 months after birth.  Does that happen?  Is that even a real thing?  Because I'm starting to get worried.  Oh well...I'll just keep a box of tissues with me where ever I go this week and pray that I don't embarrass myself too badly!

Ok, on to the updates.  I'm forcing myself to update tonight so I don't forget anything like I did last week!

Last week I mentioned how I was trying to teach Chase some tricks.  Well on the 18th, he learned to clap.  It's super cute.  I don't have a picture, because it's kind of hard to take a picture of clapping, but I do have video, so we may be able to get that video up in the next 5 years.  He mostly claps when he's sitting in his highchair.  He kind of does it randomly, but when he gets started he'll do it off and on for several minutes.  I just say "yayyyyyy!!" every time he does it.

He's making a weird sound with his mouth that neither Drew or I can replicate.  It sounds similar to someone rolling their R's, but not quite.  It's funny to hear these strange sounds he comes up with!

He's starting to get picky with his food.  He loves his standbys - sweet potatoes, yogurt, and cereal, but he's starting to act picky around foods he used to like - green beans and chicken.  He doesn't really eat all his school lunches like he has been over the past few weeks.  He does take after Drew and I in that he loves his carbs.  Breakfast foods are his favorite and he even had one of my McDonald's pancakes on Sunday morning.  He thought that was awesome! 

We are starting the transition to whole milk soon.  We bought it tonight and gave him about an ounce to play around with during dinner.  He seemed to enjoy the few drops he drank, so maybe this transition won't be too awful.  I think we may go half and half the rest of the week with his formula and the milk.  I hope it goes well!

I think I've mentioned on here plenty of times about how Chase loves telephones.  On a side note, one of the only phone numbers I was allowed to dial as a kid was JAMJAM1 (that weather number).  I still dial it occasionally because I love it that much!  Anyways, when Chase plays with the phone, I dial JAMJAM and put it on speakerphone.  It's so funny to watch him with the phone when I do that.  He holds the phone up high in the air like a trophy while the weather guys announce the 5 day forecast.  He's so proud!  Also, I think we've had a few victims of Chase's crank calls this week (I'm looking at Mom and Aunt Melanie here!).  If you get a call from us and no one says anything when you answer, it's probably Chase.  He's pretty good at figuring out how to dial the last person who called us and we're not always the best at hearing if he's just pressing numbers or actually dialing someone.  So, we apologize in advance.  Just say "Hey Chase" and then hang up!

On to some (big) pictures.

Here are some with his walker that he loves.

 Making it look easy with just one hand!

 Taking a pit stop to play a bit!

 Back to business

I have to make a confession.  My little boy likes to play with dolls...Russian nesting dolls!  I have 3 sets and he loves shaking all of them.  I'm currently letting him play with the doll that my parents brought me back from Russia about a year ago.  I filled the doll with rice so Chase loves to shake it!

 He loves crawling around with a least one thing in his hands at all times.  In this picture, it's a remote in one hand and the doll in the other!

 Whoopsie! The doll rolled under the couch!

50 weeks

50 weeks.  I think I say this every week, but gosh, where has the time gone?  Everything is happening so fast!  I felt I just breezed through the past 20 to 30 weeks!  Luckily this blog has come in handy for remembering all that we've experienced the past 10 months (thankfully I did keep his baby book up to date back then so I do know what happened the first 8 weeks!).

As much as I love them, I'm kind of glad these weekly photoshoots are coming to an end.  They are getting dangerous on the couch.  Two seconds after you place him down, he's trying to crawl off the couch!  Next week we are going to try to turn the TV on to see if it distracts him into sitting still longer.

I don't know if I just don't have much to report this week, or maybe because I'm posting this late, but I feel like I've already forgotten about everything.  It's been a bad week...between food poisoning, work, hormones, birthday party planning, and now Drew's grandma breaking her hip, I've got too much on my mind.  Also this week, they told me Chase is scheduled to begin his test week in the 1 year old room week after next!  I almost started crying as soon as she said that!  Once he enters that room, he'll sleep on a mat...on the floor.  What???  He's never ever ever slept on the floor.  He's never even passed out on the floor during tummy time or anything.  I'm expecting a cranky, tired baby by the time Drew picks him up in the afternoon.  Also, no more bottles and no more formula...and he has to wear shoes!  Gosh, that'll be a miracle to find shoes he can't take off!

Too many changes!  Too quickly!  I'm just trying to process the fact that he's almost one without bursting into tears.  Then add in the fact that we're about to leave Ms. Bettie and the rest of the crew and it almost kills me!

Ok, enough with the sobbing because my baby's growing up (until next week). 

So I guess this week, he's getting more confident in standing up all by himself.  Every once in a while he'll let go and stand totally on his own for several seconds.  Then he realizes what he's doing and plops straight back down on the floor.  He's making strong walking motions with his baby walker, so I think it's just a matter of confidence and he's going to be off to the races!

He's a big mover at daycare.  Last week they told me how he walks around pushing the cribs all over the room.  Then this week they told me that he climbed on top of the baby dining table to get a cell phone.  They pushed the cell phone in the middle of the table since he was stretching so much to get it.  Then he somehow managed to climb up on top of it!  That boy loves his remotes and phones!!

Also this week, we've been working on some tricks.  I've been trying desperately for him to wave bye to me, but that's just not quite working, so I tried to come up with something he could do.  And that would be "drum".  I don't know if it's a coincidence, but now he'll bang his hands on the highchair a majority of time now when I say "drum".  I also tried to get him to clap, but his version of clapping is to shake his arms wildly up in the air (something he'd never done before until I showed him how to clap).  I caught him doing a little clap in the car one day, so we'll keep working on that one!

On Saturday night I was out of all baby food in the house.  I was out of sweet potatoes, green beans, yogurt, everything.  I had the stuff to make cheese toast, but he hates that (or at least when I make it).  So, in all desperation, I got Drew to order a pizza.  And that's what Chase had for dinner.  Here are the pictures:

Notice the big wet spot on his shirt.  That is because he can suck the water out of the sippy cup and then in the same breath while the sippy is still in his mouth, he spits all the water back out!  He does drink some of the water, but for the most part he thinks his sippy is a toy!

This picture is of him watching Yo Gabba Gabba (that, Fresh Beat Band, Cheerios, and yogurt melts are about the only things he'll sit still for) .  Also, it looks like the beginnings of Justin Bieber hair!  Uh oh! :)

Nappy Face

Notice the paci ring around his lips! :)

Buddies

I don't think I'll have to time to make a post tomorrow night, so I'll leave a little something to tide you over until later in the week.

49 weeks

So here we are now at 49 weeks!  I'm starting the month kind of frazzled and behind.  I'm hoping I can get to his birthday party alive!

This week's weekly photoshoot was....interesting.  Here's the result.

I debated whether I should post that picture or maybe this one...

...or this one, because he was a wild child last night.  Drew and I broke a sweat!

Immediately after these pictures were take he crawled from the hearth room, through the kitchen, through the living room, up an entire flight of stairs, into the empty playroom (his future bedroom) and crawled back and forth about a million times!  Unlimited energy last night.  I heard him breathing heavy for one of the first times ever last night.

Also, someone has developed his mom's temper. While up in the playroom last night, Chase pitched the mother of all temper tantrums.  I'm talking about a runny nose that drips over his lips and down to his chin, big giant tears flowing down his face, full-on wails, and catch-his-breath-type sniffles.  All because Drew wouldn't let him play with the television (and all the related boxes and cables and power outlets).  He was ticked.  We eventually caved and let him play with just the remotes, which made everything (almost) instantly better.

Other things going on this past week.

We bought his first pair of shoes on Saturday.  They are a little big, but so cute!  They measured his foot and said he was about a 4 or 4 1/2 wide.  They typically give you shoes one whole size up, but they were out of 5's so they gave us 5 1/2s.  Chase has already mastered taking them off by himself.

We upgraded his baby spoon this week.  It's cute and he loves it.  We also upgraded to a new dinner bowl, but that'll need to be saved for another post because I didn't take any pictures of it this week.

Sorry for the filthy high chair cover!  This mess isn't noticeable to the naked eye,

but as soon as you take a picture, it's all you see!!

We also attended the annual family reunion this past weekend.  I brought my camera, but I didn't really take pictures of anyone but Chase.  Here are some cute ones.

With the paci...

With the thumb...

Found a toy...and it went into his mouth (of course!)

Loving his new sippy (I'm not convinced he gets anything out of it!)

I'm a sucker for a pouty lower lip...

...and a flirty grin.

And the two of us (with my weird growing out hair and my "ten second" makeup job)

Best Sleep Wrinkle Ever

He woke up from his Thursday nap with his handprint on his face!

Morning Time

When I was packing up Chase's school bag and my lunch bag one morning this week, I looked up at Chase munching on his Cherrios (just enough to keep him entertained for 5 minutes) and I felt compelled to take a picture of my little babies.  I love the look on my fur baby's face in the second one.

Speaking of my fur baby, I'm happy to report that the little lump I found on her neck this weekend was not cancer like I had feared all day Sunday and Monday.  It was just a growth with fat in it.  Gross...but relieved!!  Love you Weezie!

Chase the Destroyer

We bought this alphabet mat when Chase was around 6 months old.  He's recently learned how to take it apart.

And here's a sweet picture of him a few moments later...this time sucking on his upper lip!

48 weeks

48 weeks

Can you believe there are only 4 more weekly pictures left?  What am I going to do with my Monday nights in one month??

11 months

11 Month Stats:

Unofficial weight: 24lbs
Clothing size: I think we're on the last month or so of his 6-12 month clothes.  I pretty much reach for the 12-18 month clothes nowadays.
Diaper size: Devoted to Pampers Cruisers Size 3!
Favorite toy: Nothing really new in this department.  Still loves remotes, phones, laptops, dog toys...pretty much anything that isn't his.  Oh, and he loves one of his cousin's walker toys.  See link for picture.  We actually don't mind it too much either!
Favorite foods: Cherrios.  L-O-V-E-S them.
Typical daily schedule: Wakes up between 6am and 7am. 8 ouncer in the morning.  Then he eats breakfast at school which is usually something like crackers, cheese toast, and/or applesauce.  For lunch he'll have a cut up sandwich, veggie, and a fruit.  They also give him a couple other 6oz bottles at school.  At home he'll eat sweet potatoes or green beans for dinner and then other 6oz bottle.  In bed sometime between 7 and 8pm.
Words: I don't think there's anything new here.  He says "Da" to everthing in a kind of a German-esque accent.  He's also experimenting with raising his voice and saying "Agh....Agghhh.....Aggghhhh".  It makes us laugh.
Teeth - 4 total...and I wouldn't be surprised if we're working on more soon.
First Annoying Habit - Grinding his 4 little teeth together.  Oh Chase, please quit!
TV - We watch cartoons together in the morning when I'm getting ready for work.  If I get up early enough we'll watch Oswald, but as usual I'm running late so we have to watch Pinky Dinky Doo (Lord help that show is annoying and catchy!).  In the afternoon we try to squeeze in an episode of Fresh Beat Band.  I think I'm beginning to like that show more than Chase.  I'll admit to watching it when Chase isn't in the room!

Here are some other pictures from our 11 month "shoot".  Chase thought the grass was too weird.  He was very leery about touching it! 

Can you tell I messed around with the editing? :)