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!!

Fourth of July fun

Fourth of July weekend

This holiday weekend we laid low and stayed home. It was really nice and relaxing and made the weekend go by really slow…which was great! It was terribly hot and humid out and we were not really up for melting outside!!

Friday night, Famous mowed the lawn and I trimmed trees and Chase played outside…ohhh…we are exciting, huh? We sweated our butts off for sure….it was hot! Saturday, I got some mommy time and headed to Columbia for a few hours for a little shopping. That evening we headed out to pick up some dinner and got a few fireworks for Chase and Famous. We didn’t get too much, but enough that Chase has caught the firework bug for sure. He wanted to do more and more. He enjoyed the sparklers and the parachute trooper the best…the black snakes, not so much! He liked the poppers too…of course, what kid doesn’t!!

That face cracks me up!!

Sunday we did our usual grocery shopping and headed to Nana’s house for some dinner. Some of Famous’ family from Atlanta, St Louis and Columbia were in town and it was nice to visit with them for a while. A few of them had not yet seen Chase, so that is always fun. Famous and I went downtown for a few beverages, but didn’t stay out late. We decided we are Friday night people…we are not up hanging on Sunday nights!! When we got back home Sunday night, the neighborhood was going crazy with fireworks and we had about 6 different shows going on. We late Chase stay up late and watch them outside. He had a ball!


Monday morning Mommy got to sleep in til 9….it was wonderful….and sad that I still didn’t want to get up then! We enjoyed some family time, took a couple of JC roadtrips through the day and visited Gammaw and Papaw that evening for a little while. Then it was time for bed and back to the grind the next day. But it was a nice relaxing weekend and I will take another one like that anytime!

Not sure how many of you have heard of this, but Chase loves the cartoon "Calliou". It is on PBS and I am pretty sure he likes it so much because it is about a little boy about his age and I know Chase very much relates to him. He is always wanting to mimic what Calliou does and so here is the montage of the many things he wanted to do to be just like Calliou this weekend.

He wanted to have Chase's Pizzaria and we put on our apron, made a chef's hat to wear, got out the rolling pin and made some pizza!!

Couldn't resist this one!

Next Calliou wanted to be a drummer in a band and so......Chase did too. He wore his hat backwards and we had three pots for drums and colored pencil drumsticks! He is so imaginative!!

Lastly, he wanted to be Bob the Builder...of course, wearing the hard hat and fixing the clothes basket. The boy loves his Bob the Builder too!!

June comes to an end

June 20-26, 2011

Chase’s babysitter needed another week to recuperate and so Mr Man was home with me again this week. I am so glad my job is so accommodating when things like this happen and am so lucky that I didn’t have anything out of town that I needed to attend and was able to stay home with him. We did more of the same as the previous week, but lucked out and had a couple of play dates with Gavin…one at the park and one at the pool! The boys just love getting together and have so much fun playing. They do really good too, with an occasional push or shirt pull! Hey, they are boys…it’s expected, right??

Friday evening, Famous and I got out for a quick date night and had some appetizers and drinks. I so enjoy that time with him. It is so hard to have a complete conversation at home or in the car with Mr. Motor Mouth in toll….he gabs nonstop….and I love it, but he interrupts when we are trying to talk, or calls from another room needing the channel changed or something to eat or drink, or he is in your conversation, always asking “you talking bout me?”. I love that this is his personality and he makes us laugh constantly, but sometimes it would be nice to string 6 words together to speak a complete sentence!!

Saturday, we hung around the house and put Chase down for an early nap because we had a birthday party to go to….and there was going to be bounce houses!! He woke up from his nap asking if it was time to go to Kenadie’s birthday party. Imagine his surprise when we got there and there were two bounce houses….including a castle with a slide. The last time (and all previous times) that Chase has been in a bounce house…he freezes up and gets scared to move. He doesn’t want to bounce or even move. He really was like that with anything where he felt out of control or unstable…swings, slides, tall playground equipment and bounce houses. I was really getting worried about it and hoped he would grow out of it as he got older. Luckily he seems to have turned a corner with it and basically overnight, he is climbing tall ladders and sliding down big slides and now has conquered his fear of bounce houses. Truthfully, I think he finally just did it and decided it was actually fun and not scary!!

Back to the party…he played and played and played nonstop for two hours in those bounce houses….his hair was full curls because of the sweat and humidity! Of course, he had three sno-cones to cool down between bouncing, but he had such a good time and there were lots of little kids to play with…so he was in heaven! Sunday, Famous did some yard work and Chase and I played in the sprinklers and got some sun.

Chase and Gavin at the pool...such hams!

Down the slide with Jayden

Yum...sno cones!

Sprinkler plus play gym equals WATERSLIDE!!

June 29, 2011

Famous is a huge Keith Urban fan and so when I found out he was coming to St Louis, I knew we had to get tickets and it was perfect timing for a Father’s Day gift too. I have not been to a “real” concert ever (unless you count seeing Garth Brooks and George Strait at the state fair…and I don’t!!). Famous went to see Beastie Boys and Run DMC when he was 15 but I think that was the last one he saw too. Boy…have concerts changed over the years!! I like Keith Urban, know a few of his songs but that is about it….but having said that…it was an awesome concert! We had a really good time and I loved it and so did Famous…we want to go to more!! It was really neat because although we had decent seats, he also went and performed on platforms in the middle of the audience and imagine our surprise when he ended up about twenty seats and two rows up from us!! It was so cool. I just might have to burn a couple of his CD’s now.

When he was two rows away...blurry, but I like the effect!

Summer fun and Father's Day

June 13-19, 2011

Chase’s babysitter Jean went into the hospital over the previous weekend and so Chase spent the week home with me and Gammaw. I took the morning shifts and Gammaw got the afternoon shift…so not fair, but I figured I better take mercy on Gammaw, especially since she was helping us out so much!! It was fun to have the time with Chase and we got out during the week and went to the park, did some grocery shopping, had some lunch and played at home. He is the definition of busy body and has to be busy all the time. When he was at home, he was asking where we were going next….when we were out, he said he missed his home!! Darn kid, doesn’t know what he wants.

Since I work best under pressure, of course I decided on Friday that I would take some pictures of Chase for a Father’s Day gift for Famous. I took various pictures of Chase holding the letters DAD and then tried to choose the 3 best out of the many outtakes. He always had a funny face or wasn’t looking at the camera…but that is the epitome of his personality, so it worked!! It turned out really cute and Famous loved it!!






We spent the weekend hanging outside, playing at the playground and running through the sprinkler. We had breakfast at Nana and KK’s house and a yummy dinner at Gammaw and Papaw’s house. It was a nice relaxing weekend.

St Louis Getaway

June 10-12, 2011

We decided to take a quick getaway to St Louis for some weekend fun. We used to go to St Louis almost once a month before Chase, but I think have only been twice since he was born. It really is a lot of work to pack to go away with Chase…..make sure you have all the necessities, snacks, toys, blankets, etc!! So much stuff for two days!! Oh well, we had such a fun time.

Friday evening, we got to the hotel and were starving, so we ordered some pizza and called it a night! Saturday morning, we decided to head downtown to Soulard Market, one of our favorite places to go. They have such good stuff and lots of fun food, it’s a cool way to start the day. Chase and Famous enjoyed some awesome pistachio ice cream. They also had an art and crafts show too.

Ice cream at the market

Then we decided to go to the Botanical Gardens. Chase loved running through the gardens, playing in the ponds and fountains. The have a children’s garden too with lots of slides, climbing, forts and such. Even a sprayground, with “geysers” as Chase calls them spraying water from the ground at different intervals. He played fully clothed and was soaked but had such a good time. After the gardens, we headed back to the hotel and swam in the pool for a while. It was indoor but still pretty chilly…..our teeth were chattering! After a long day and dinner at Casa Gallardo, we headed back to the room. We were all beat and ready for bed. Chase slept in til almost 8am….he was really tired! We stopped at Bob Evans for a yummy breakfast and headed home. Tired and beat for sure!

Cheesin' with the otters!

Cooling off and playing with animals

Playing with the "geysers"

Pool time

Memorial Weekend

May 28-30, 2011

Memorial Weekend wasn’t all that great this year for the Lewis family…but it was nice to be home and lounging a bit. Saturday started off with rain pretty much all day…so not fun. We got a decent sized blow up pool for the yard and Chase so badly wanted to swim in it but wasn’t gonna happy on Saturday. Saturday evening, Chase went to Gammaw and Papaw’s house to spend the night and Famous and I went with James and Jaime to see Hangover II. It was pretty good….hard to top the first one, but it was pretty good overall. After the movie, we went to Santa Cruz…ate too much and then we were too pooped to party! Oh well, such is life.

Saturday morning, we had to fill up the pool and get some swim time. The water was freezing…but Chase didn’t mind. He is definitely a water bug! After a 3 ½ hr nap, we woke him up to go to Nana’s for dinner, but he seemed very tired and just out of it. He didn’t want to eat at Nana’s and wanted to snuggle with me most of the time. I knew that was not a good sign. He doesn’t stop for much, but that is his one sign of not feeling well. One the way home, we stopped for ice cream and he didn’t even want that…should have known what was coming. Half way home, he got sick in the car….poor guy…he gets so upset when it happens. We had to pull over, undress him and try to get him cleaned up. He got to ride home in the back with just a seat belt because the car seat was “icky” (his words!) and on a normal day, he would have thought it was pretty cool…but he did not feel good. We got home, got a back and snuggled in for the night.

Monday morning, he woke with a temperature again but that wasn’t gonna stop him from getting in the pool for a little while. Think he wore out quickly though and we were inside again and resting. Poor guy, he would have times when he wanted to play and then he was ready to climb back up and snuggle with me. I won’t lie…I love it…just hate that he has to be sick to get that time!

All smiles for a popsicle.

Still feeling a little under the weather

On Saturday, we began some serious potty training with Chase. Up to this point, we had tried on several occasions, but had been of the mindset that it would happen when he was ready…but it wasn’t looking good. Happy to report that he went potty twice on Saturday (never had done “anything” while sitting on the potty before) and we were delighted. Of course, Saturday night, he fought Gammaw and Papaw on sitting on the potty, but we started back on Sunday. He came to us on Sunday and said he had to potty and we got there in time and he pottied!! So proud of him…we made a huge deal of it and he has a box of toys that he gets to pick out one each time he is successful….so he loves that.

So that was our weekend in a nutshell!

must.get.better.at.blogging

I realize that I completely sound like a broken record....but I have to make time to do this. I love when I do, I love having a record of our family, I just need to do it!! Bear with me as I recall the last month or so from the Lewis household and try to stay awake through these 27 posts...

5/20-5/22/11

Famous and I went out to dinner and drinks with Jim and Beth. Nice to catch up as it has been a while since we got together. Funny how the conversation always leads back to Chase and Gavin. But it is so nice to have someone with a child so close to age as yours….especially now when they definitely are in a “terrible threes” stage….at least you can assume if they both are doing the same thing, that your child is normal and not a demon spawn!! Well, some days at least!!

The next day, we met up with them again, this time so the boys could play a little and take some pictures of them too. They had so much fun together and it is so fun to see them have their little conversations with each other too. We had lunch at Prison Brews outside and they had some space to play Thomas while we waited for the food, so that was nice.

Hey...what are you doing over there?

Dinosaurs on the prowl!

That evening, Chase and I went for a walk and passed some boys who were flying a kite and he remembered he had a Spiderman kite at home, so we had to go home and get that out! He loved playing with it and running back and forth. He had the biggest grin on his face and so happy to get that kite up in the air!! So cute! I was cheering him on as he ran back and forth, looking back to see his kite fly!