Conversations with Chase....

This morning on the way to school, Chase was just talking away about coyotes. The kid has a strange fascination/fear of them. Anyway, he is telling me all these things about them, that they are predators and the travel in herds and all the reasons why (which I can't remember now) and I said, wow you know a lot about coyotes....did you learn all this at school? He said "no, guess I'm just smart". A few moments of silence pass and then he says "or I think I learned it from gammaw and papaw"

April it is!

Six months since I have been here...not even going to try and get this up to date at this point...why put on the extra pressure!! :) Luckily, I have been keeping a journal and I will still have a way to match my pictures to my scrapbooking....since I am so behind with that too!!

Where do the weeks and days go? Let's see...we last left off in September I think. Here's the condensed version....We had a fun Stokes weekend at the Lake in September, Chase was Bumblebee (the Transformer) for Halloween, enjoyed a nice Thanksgiving with friends and family, same for Christmas and Santa was very good to Chase for sure. Onto the New Year, January was busy for me with work and meetings, February brought Chase's 4th birthday party (Lightning McQueen style), he started preschool in March and just loves it. And here we are to April already and Easter this weekend. Promise to get back...need to do it weekly, but we all know how that goes :)

Chase riding his John Deere tractor that he got for his birthday. Had to take it to Gammaw and Papaw's when we went for dinner one night.
My best effort at getting him to take a picture anymore. Either he has a cheesy smile or he is looking away from the camera....can not get a regular smile and looking at me at the same time. Turd.

Last week was Chase's second week at preschool and it went pretty good. He got two yellow lights but I think he is doing well overall. They say he is so polite!! He loves it....so that is the best thing!! Over the weekend, we spent a nice weekend at home. House work, yard work, etc. It was a beautiful weekend. We had date night on Friday; Saturday a quick trip to Urgent care for a cough that turned out to be just allergies, then breakfast at Hyvee while waiting for a scrip, then Chase and I joined Beth and Gavin at the park, home for a nap, then outside to help Dad with some yardwork, Chase and I put up the tent to check it out and Famous BBQ'd. Whew...what a day. Sunday, it was an easy day around the house and got ready for a birthday party that evening.

Raking leaves and helping Dad with the yardwork.

Famous grilling on his new BBQ. Yum!

Chase and I put up the tent to check it out. We haven't been camping since before he was born and I think we might try and go this year. It is in really good shape still...gotta plan a weekend soon.

Reese's third birthday party. It was Hello Kitty!

Chase bringing me a flower...what a sweetie!

On Friday, we got to go have lunch at school with Chase...he loved it and was so excited to see us!

September, here we come :)

August 29-Sept 4
Not much happening during the week at all….same old same!! We had planned a Friday night double date night with Lee and Missy but then Miss Reese was running a fever, so they had to cancel. We headed out anyway and Jim and Beth happened to text us and see if we were out, so they came and joined us. We had some appetizers and drinks at BWW and then to the usual spot, JPfennys.

Saturday we headed to Columbia to run a few errands and had lunch a little Mexican place. By the time we got home, Chase said he didn’t feel well and I could tell he was running a fever…round 2?

It was a pretty low key Labor Day weekend but that is okay!

Playing outside with his Handy Manny chainsaw....I love his expressions!

That was hard work!

Lazy summer days

August 15-21

We didn’t do a whole lot of anything this week. Everyone was kind of under the weather and not feeling great. Saturday night I went for a quick dinner and cappuccino with the Jaime, Gina and Amanda. Nice to get a little girl talk in. On Sunday, Gamma brought dinner over for us….it was very good and a nice way to end the weekend. BTW...not a picture to show for it either!

August 22-28

Not a good week again….my sinuses are messed up majorly…no sneezing or runny nose, but just an annoying cough and my voice sounds like a man!! It is ridiculous and going on days now! We had a triple date night for my birthday with Lee, Missy, James and Jaime and had dinner at Arris Bistro and then drinks at JPfennys. Don’t have much to say about this 39^th birthday….I guess it wasn’t horrible!! ;)

Lately, Chase has been very sassy and talking back a lot…I am not liking it. I will chalk it up to exerting his independence but I am still not very happy about it. He very much wants to do things his own way and when he wants it…..regardless of whether you try to convince him otherwise….3 yr olds…it gets better right??

On Sunday, we headed to the park to get out of the house for a while. Rylee and Reese met us there and the kids had lots of fun playing together. Chase is loving playing hopscotch too!

Dentist, Doctor, Baseball!

August 8 – 14

Chase had his first appointment with to the dentist this week. We saw pediatric dentist Dr Maice Scott in Columbia..it was a wonderful office geared towards kids. He did really well, except he would not let them take any xrays, but they were just trying to get him acclimated to the process anyway. He especially liked the tokens he got at the end and got to pick some goodies from this tower of toys!

He had been running an up and down fever for a few days when he woke up at about 5am with a 105 temperature. I called the on call nurse who suggested I take him to the ER. They give him ibuprofen and the fever is down in a ½ hour and they diagnose him with an ear infection…grrr. Little did I know this would be the beginning of 6 weeks course of fevers and ear infections. As I type this, I pray he does not have to have tubes in his ears.

Friday night we had a double date night with the Holmes and James and Jaime joined us too. Had a fun time at El Espolon and the usual JPfennys. Saturday night we went to Edwin Bybee’s 60^th birthday party and had some fun dancing and gabbing with everyone. Chase spent the night with Gamma &Papaw and had fun himself! On Sunday, we had Gamma over to our house for her birthday dinner. Chase had the whole family outside playing baseball before dinner. He had such a good time and it was fun watching him. He would hit the ball and try and run and get the ball before anyone else…we tried to explain that wasn’t how you do it…but he didn’t care!!

Arts and crafts with Dad

OMG....terrible blogger here.

I just peeked and the last time I blogged was in August...eeks! I was doing so well too. Well, this will be my attempt to catch up...I am going to do a million posts, but as I have said before...this blog is for family and friends to keep up to date but also a visual memory for me too!!

Where I left off.....August 1-7

I took off work and Chase and I took a fun trip to Kansas City with Gavin and Beth. We decided to visit Crown Center thinking there might be some fun stuff to do there with the Crayola Factory and Hallmark being there. The boys had a great time. We did lots of different things including visiting the Crayola store that had lots of artsy things to do, went to Hallmark visitors center and got a cool recordable story book for free, and went to Kaleidoscope which had lots of arts and crafts stations for kids. For lunch we went to Fritz’s restaurant which is a really neat burger place that has tracks and trains running at the ceiling that drops your food off at your table and a conveyor lowers it down to you. The boys just loved it…not to mention there were other trains running everywhere! Lastly, Crown Center has this huge area with fountains that the kids can play in…we didn’t know about it ahead of time, but saved it for last and the boys had a great time playing. Long day trip but such a good time!!

Thursday was Chase’s last swim lesson. He has done really good, but I am thinking that next year we might invest in private lessons. I think this was good for this first year, but I think next year he would benefit more from one on one instruction.

Saturday morning, we gave Dad a break and went to Towne Grill for breakfast, not to mention that I was craving their pancakes….they are so darn good!! Sunday was Steph’s party where we all got to say “see you soon” as she departs on her adventure to England! What an exciting time for her…I am sure she will love it.

Conversations with Chase:

Chase is drinking his juice and gets a little choked up…
Mom: Are you okay? Did it go down the wrong pipe?
Chase: (hesitates) um, yes.
Five minutes later…….
Chase: Mom, I think I need different pipes.

Playing in the fountains

Supposed to be washing their hands.....he must get it from his father :)

Swim lessons and more

July 8-10
Another lazy weekend…boy, we are getting really good at this. It has been so dang hot that it is hard to do too much outside without having water or a pool involved!! Friday night, we had our usual date night…just got out for a couple hours. Saturday, Famous did a ton a lawn work and I did some much needed organizing and cleaning of my craft room….just needed to get it back in order. Chase took a really long nap which allowed me to do some scrapping in my clean craft room too. Sunday we had a family baby shower in the morning. Gavin and Chase got a chance to play together for a while too.

After the shower, we went swam with Adam, Stephanie and Harper. It was awesome to cool down and take a dip. We didn’t stay too long as Chase hadn’t had a nap and we were fearing a possible meltdown. We picked up pizza for dinner and he was asleep by the time we got home. Of course, he woke up as soon as we got home and was good for the rest of the night, but we went to bed early and he slept soundly all night. Just realizing now that I didn’t take a single picture from the weekend…oops!

July 11-17
Chase started his swim lessons this week. The first lesson was a flop…at least by my opinion (get ready for overbearing parent to step in here!). The whole scene seemed very unorganized and I was just not happy with Chase’s teacher. The lesson started with all the kids jumping in the water…which doesn’t seem like the most appropriate way to teach lessons…where are the fundamentals?? Then onto immersing under water to pick up a ring of the bottom of the pool??? Hey…what happened to blowing bubbles and putting your face under water?? And the teacher was not attentive at all…Chase wanted to jump in but you could tell he was anxious and she basically left him on the ledge until I asked her to help him. I wasn’t very happy, but like I said, I might have been a helicopter mom for a minute, but my feelings were confirmed after talking to a few people.

At the next lesson, we got a new teacher and although they basically did all the same things that the first one did, at least the new teacher was more attentive to the kids. The same teacher that had 5 kids on Tuesday, only had 2 on Thursday, so I am assuming other parents felt the same way.

Over the weekend, I showed up to the salon when I wasn’t supposed to work, so that set my day off on the wrong foot. But I did get to join Chase and Famous at Nana’s for breakfast, so that was nice. After naps (yes, me too!) we went for a drive and got some Zesto for a cool treat. Sunday, we cleaned house…man, I love a neat clean house and especially when I have help and it takes half the time. Then Famous did yard work and Chase and I decided to go see Cars 2. He did pretty good for the most part….of course, he spilled ½ the popcorn first thing and about got folded into his seat. He really wanted to play the games in the lobby more than watch the movie…luckily there were only about 20 people in the theater. If they would start the movie when they say, it would have been fine. But the give 20 minutes of previews and cartoons before the movie even starts….and by that time the popcorn was gone!! After the movie, we played air hockey and he won a stuffed giraffe....which impressed him more than the movie…oh well. Sunday night was a yummy dinner at Mom and Dad’s house then back to the grind!

Chop, chop, timber

Chase’s current favorites:
• Watching Calliou
• Singing songs
• Pretending to be Bob the Builder
• Yogurt popsicles, baby oranges, eggs, grilled cheese, McD’s nuggets and fries, popcorn
• Sipping mom’s diet mountain dew
• Going swimming and playing in the water
• Playing games
• Thomas the Train
• Monster trucks

Conversations W/ Chase (in the car on the way to the sitters)
C: Mom, is my ‘nother birthday tomorrow?
M: Nope, you’ve got a while to wait.
C: But when will my birthday arrive?
M: Another 6 months til your birthday bud.
C: Wow, that’s a long time mom.

July 18-24
Second week of swim lessons and Chase is progressing. I am happier with his new teacher. He is getting better and less nervous each time. He loves the water but is still so cautious. He will jump in a million times but you have to be right there to catch him…sometimes I don’t catch him and let him go on his own so he knows he can do it, but he is just right on the verge of doing it himself. He is the same way when floating on this belly and back….so scared to let go completely but wants to so badly. Thursday was parent’s night and boy, what a disaster! He definitely does much better with the teacher than with me. You know when people say kids are always better for someone other than their parents…so true and very apparent that night. Truthfully I am glad there is only one parent night…otherwise he wouldn’t learn a thing!!

I worked at the salon on Saturday and Chase, Famous and Nana spent the day together. They went to the library, played at the mall and got some lunch. He got some dentist books at the library since he is making his first official visit to the dentist in a few weeks. Now he knows all about going to the dentist…or so he says! Not much else going on…just trying to stay cool!

Look at that tongue!

Love this picture...looks like he is having a blast!

July 25-31
Third week of lessons….man, this seems like it has been going on for months!! A reprieve on Thursday as a big storm cloud blocked the sun during the lesson…best lesson yet!!! It is so stinking hot at the pool, even at 7pm and of course, usually the sun goes down beyond the trees about 3 minutes before the lesson is over!! Thursday, Chase’s swim teacher was a new guy…and Chase loved it. He just followed him around like a little brother wanting to hang out with his big brother. It was pretty cute. We have a tradition after every lesson….happy meal from the drive thru at Old McDonalds. Chase has to say hello to the cashiers at both windows, so I have to roll down the back window and practically pull past it so he can see them and say hello. He is quite the charmer!!

Potty training is kind of frustrating these days. He has the peeing down….goes when he needs to go, wakes up dry and has even gotten up twice in the middle of the night to go potty. But the poop is going to be the death of us. He will not go on the potty. He won’t tell us when he needs to go, when he sits on the potty…nothing and by the time we can tell he needs to go, it is too late. We take away toys, no cartoons, time outs…nothing works. He did great for a two week streak when he first started training but now, back to going in his pullup. Same for underwear. I have tried making him go naked, but that doesn’t last long. I am at a loss…..any advice out there???

Over the weekend, Chase and I and Beth and Gavin headed to Columbia to go to the splashground at Twin Lakes Park but of course, it rained as soon as we got there and didn't stop for a while. So we changed plans and tried Going Bonkers instead. The boys had lots of fun, although Chase didn't want to try the climbing high up...actually, it would have been high even for me. The "floors" of the play structure are made similar to the lawn chair webbing, so they had give to them and you could see all the way through to the bottom, so he was not really into it. But he still enjoyed the low play areas and really loved playing the games upstairs. It was a lot of fun and I know the boys enjoyed the day.

Little E... :)

Conversations W/ Chase (in the car as I am putting on my face powder…don’t judge!!)
Chase: Mom, what you need your marker for?
Mom: This? (holding up my compact) It’s makeup, bud.
Chase: What you need it for?
Mom: It makes mommy pretty.
Chase: Oh….and awesome and stuff?
Mom: Yes
Chase: And beautiful….and cool too?
Mom: You got it!!