Allergy update

Last Monday I took Chase for his follow-up allergy specialist appointment. I normally don't mind going to the doctor. I have a feeling, however, that this will mark the beginning of many not-so-fun visits for my little man. It started with nasty, cold, rainy weather. Not fun considering we had to park accross the street in the deck, take an elevator, then walk accross the bridge to the UNC Children's Hospital. It also didn't help that the appointment was scheduled during Chase's normal naptime (Uh. Note to self: ONLY schedule future appointments at 8am). We waited approximately 45 minutes to be seen. Once the doctor came in, of course the total time we spent with her was only about 10 minutes. The whole point of the visit was to ask questions and to have a blood test to see how "allergic" Chase is to milk. So an hour and a half later, I took a very tired, very fussy baby to the lab to have his blood drawn. This was quite possibly one of the most painful procedures for both Chase and me, second maybe only to childbirth (for me at least. not sure about Chase but he seemed pretty freaking unhappy). He was so pitiful, crying, and fighting while we held him down so they could draw an ENTIRE VILE OF BLOOD. Seriously??? Does it really take that much??? Ugh. Not fun. Poor little guy. So, basically we left with a nice bright purple bruise in the inside of Chase's arm but not much else until we get the results of the blood test. Here's a nice little picture to document our day.

Baby-proofing.

After the whole dangling-out-of-the-crib incident, it should go without saying that lowering the crib mattress was in our immediate future. So before putting Chase to bed on Saturday night we (and by "we" I mean Matt) set out to lower the crib mattress. We (I) thought this would be a quick, easy, 10-min. task. Well, over an hour later (along with one frustrated husband and dad later) we had the mattress lowered. Apparently it's not quite as easy to maneuver under the crib to get all the bolts loosened so that the mattress could be lowered. Anyway. The point is the "problem" is now fixed.

Here's Matt in action.

Chase was all over the place so I was pretty busy trying to entertain him. With it being his bedtime he was pretty restless...That is, until I gave in and let him play with one of his favorite "toys": the remote to our bedroom TV. After handing it over to him he was immediately mesmorized. (Noticed the crib bed skirt on the floor on one side of him and the mattress propped up by the closet on the other).

Busted!

Yesterday Matt was keeping Chase while I helped Betty Ann at the Junior League holiday market. Just to give some background info, when I got Chase up yesterday morning when he first woke up, I saw him (for the very first time) go from being on his hands and knees...to sitting... to almost pulling up... This was all in a matter of seconds. So I thought 'wow, he's gotten good, pretty quickly'. Little did I know it would merely take a little more practice for him to perfect his moves. When I called Matt later in the day to check in, he reported that Chase had pulled up to standing, was therefore refusing to nap (Why nap when standing is so much more fun???)...AND had almost hoisted himself over the crib. He casually mentioned this part (later telling me that he didn't want to worry me). When I got the details later, Matt told me that Chase had half his body hanging over the edge of the crib, with his head facing completing downwards and his feet no longer touching the crib mattress. Huh. Matt said that he heard his "thud, thud, thud" sound so he went upstairs to inspect. That sound (as you can see from the video) is Chase happily smacking his hands on the top of his crib. It's almost like he's saying "DAD!! Come see what I can do"!

Watch out rubber ducky

When we were bathing Chase the other day, we took this video. He had the rubber ducky's head completely in his mouth and kept it in his mouth for several minutes while he played in the tub with his other toy. It was funny because he wasn't holding the rubber ducky while sucking on it (the way he does with all his other toys)...Just biting the duck's head in a death grip while casually going about his business.

Happy boy

Despite not taking his usual 2 good naps yesterday, Chase was all smiles last night while playing with Matt. Here's a picture of the happy boy with his dad. Sweet boy.
Also, just to document more for my purposes than anything else, he was so tired last night that we went to bed at 5:30pm. Yes, I know that is crazy early but he was basically asking to be put down. Then this morning WE had to wake him up at 7:30 so we could go to work. The child slept 14 hours. On top of that, Betty Ann reported that he took a 3-hr. nap this morning and over an hr. nap this afternoon. Crazy. No complaints here, though. I think we deserve this after the first 4 months of his life where he got up 1-3 times every night. Ugh.

Chase's first basketball game

We took Chase to his first basketball game...and yes, it happened to be an NC State game. Matt was really excited to have an excuse for Chase to wear his NC State red. Despite the nasty rain and weather we had a really good time.

You can't really tell here but I managed to sneak in some Carolina blue with his pacifier... :)

He loved looking all around. In particular he enjoyed staring at the nice lady sitting beside of us. (He hasn't learned quite yet that it's not polite to stare.) He also had a good time flirting with the girls sitting behind us. I notice him smiling over my shoulder and turned around to see a lady smiling a waving at him. It was pretty cute.

Since it was way past his bedtime, Chase was out like a light almost as soon as we got him in his car seat and started the car. He was pooped but it was worth it.

Look what else I can do

With Chase scooting, rolling, and sliding all over the place he's been more and more unhappy in his car seat. Gone are the days where Matt and I could go out on a Saturday night and have him contently sleep while we leisurely ate dinner. Now, everytime we put him in his car seat (which of course is still the infant carrier), he immediately pulls his little head up so that he can see either side of what's going on outside the carrier. So. A few weeks ago I decided it was time to see how he'd do in a grocery cart since he can sit up...And he loved it. Luckily all the carts have little seat belts so I could strap him in, he could hold on and look at all the excitement going on around him without the limitations of his car seat. This has been pretty nice for me as well since that darn carrier is getting heavier and heavier...(wait. I think that Chase is actually the one getting heavier, but whatever.) Anyway I think he looks so funny sitting up all independently but I kept forgetting my camera. So this past weekend Matt and I needed some things from Target, so I took a picture of Chase, who was along for the "ride".

On the move and up to no good

Chase has been on the move for quite a while, rolling around, and using his legs to scoot backwards. He has been using those various techniques to get where he wants to go. Yesterday, however, he seemed to have learned how to use both his arms and legs to get him where he needed to go. As you can see from this video, I was so excited to see him trying to crawl, it took a minute to realize that he was desperately trying to pull on the monitor cord. Uh...I guess baby-proofing is in our immediate future, huh?

Trunk or Treat

After getting back from Henderson and resting for a bit we headed to Hillsborough for "Trunk or Treat" at Matt's family's church. Chase was a trooper for wearing his costume for the majority of the time. He had to have been hot considering it was 80 degrees.

Here's a picture of him with his Bebe.

Family photos

We started out our Halloween by driving to Henderson to visit everyone and to let them see Chase in his monkey costume. Baby Jake and Justice were also at my mom's house so we got some pictures with all 3 cousins together. Here's Meme holding Chase and Jake.

Katy was able to get all their attention but as with all kids, it's pretty difficult to get them to all smile at the same time.

Jake was the only one smiling here...

We went to my Nanny's house first so that she could spend some time with my little monkey.