Mini golfer

Matt wants this child to play golf so bad he can't stand it.  He bought Chase his first golf club last Christmas and I had to gently remind him that Chase couldn't even walk yet.  To this, Matt replied that it's never to early.  I do agree that children learn a lot just by watching and imitating.  And since Matt swings his own clubs (both inside and outside the house but that's another story) then that's probably a good start in teaching Chase.  Here are some pictures of him playing around outside with both his and his dad's clubs.

Shopping.

'Mama.  I'm shopping.  Do you mind??'

Little bit sick but a lot of smiles...

Chase is unfortunately still a little bit sick.  Croup from 2 weeks ago turned into a full-blown cold 1 week ago which turned into ear infections in both ears now.  Yuck.  He's still not 100% but trying pretty darn hard to hang in there.  This video makes me laugh.  He's gotten pretty good at cheesin' in when the camera comes out, so when the video started rollin' he kept trying to "CHEESE!", which was funny.  The little cough at the end shows you a snip-it of what I mean.

You're my someone.

Today marks a very special day.  To remember this special day, I thought we'd take a walk down memory lane.  So, let's start with what happened 10 years ago.  10 years ago, Matt and I saw each other accross the bar (how romantic) at Pantana Bob's, the ever-so-popular bar in Chapel Hill, and kind of recognized each other.  (His cousin, Lindsay was a friend of mine from high school but Matt and I had never met).  That summer night, we completely hit it off.  But I had a boyfriend.  So we didn't meet up again until several months later, on St. Patrick's Day when Matt came up to Chapel Hill to go out with some of his college buddies.  That night was about 3 weeks before this first picture was taken.  I think both of us knew almost immediately that this could be something that might last longer than the average college fling.  Things moved pretty quickly and I met his family about 2 and a half weeks after we started hanging out.

Kind of ironic that things moved so quickly in the beginning of our relationship but yet it took us 6 years to get married, right?  :) At any rate, over those 6 years we were almost always long distance (me in Chapel Hill and Matt in Winston-Salem, then Charleston, then Raleigh, then Greenville) which kept things fun.  Everytime we saw each other it was like a vacation.

This picture was taken last October, at Champ's wedding.  I love this picture because we were having a blast, dancing at the reception.  Several things have changed just a little bit since St. Patrick's Day 2000.  Our life isn't quite like a vacation every day anymore but being a wife and a mom is pretty rewarding and I feel pretty lucky.

Today we celebrate 4 year wedding anniversary.  Matt, I want to wish you Happy Anniversary.  You are my someone and I love you with all my heart.

Portland trip

I had an amazing time this past weekend in Portland Maine.  My college friend, Kristin is getting married in October and we went to Maine for her bachelorette trip.  Here are some pictures from the trip:

It started on Friday with a lobster roll and beer by the Harbor:

Then we took a ferry over to Peak's Island to walk around and get some ice cream...Mmmm.  (Most of the weekend centered around food which was fine by me, of course).

After our tour of Peak's Island (and ice cream), we were walking back to the hotel and noticed a sign in the window of a bar that said there was a DJ playing 90's music that night.  We got pretty excited and made plans to hit that up after dinner.  So, here you go:

Lots of good music and dancing, like old times.  :)

Ummmm...Except for that guy.  "YOU want some of this??"  Uh, no thank you.  (I love the look on Kristin's face)

Another one of the highlights of the weekend: the Spa.  (Ahhh...)  I had my first facial and it was awesome.  What a relaxing weekend and a great time with great friends.  Thanks for such a wondering trip, ladies!!

Bye- Bye!

Chase has been able to wave for quite some time now.  But lately (as in maybe the last week) he's started waving like crazy, like he's trying to communicate and not just imitate.  He'll walk up to you, grin really big, wave and then jump in his toy car and slam the door.  Almost every morning this week when I drop him off at both Betty Ann's and Leslie's, in the middle of me talking, he'll look up, grin, and wave in a "I got this Mama.  You can leave now" kind of way.  Very funny.  And a much more pleasant way for me to leave than with him crying and reaching for me.  Anyway.  Another funny thing he likes to do is carry various bags around the house.  So, this afternoon, he grabbed this bag, his play keys and was 'ready to go'.  See him waving:

It was also ironic that this week has been the week that he's become so "independent" because I'm leaving in the morning for a girls' weekend in Portland, Maine with my college friends.  Of course a part of me is sad to leave Chase (and Matt) but a bigger part is pretty freakin' excited about a weekend of good food, good friends and overall relaxation.  I'll post some pictures when I get back Sunday.  Yay!!

Croup.

Last week was just a bad week.  So bad, in fact that I'm just now posting about it.  Chase was up every hour, on the hour last Tuesday night.  He kept falling asleep and then, like clockwork, 30 min. later he was up coughing.  A deep, horse-sounding, dry cough.  The next morning he had a temperature of over 100 so I took him in to the doctor, who diagnosed him with Croup and sent us home with a prescription of Prednisone to take for 3-5 days.  A few days later that dry, horse-sounding, dry cough turned into a wet-sounding cough accompanied with a lot of snot.  Each morning (after more restless nights), Chase would wake up with dried snot all over his face.  Which was lovely.  Poor little guy was just plain pitiful.  Anyway, it was a long week but this Monday/Tuesday, he started FINALLY feeling better.  Still pretty snotty, but better.  Here is a picture of him playing Monday afternoon.  (If you look closely you'll see the snotty nose.) 

Now THIS:

...is more like it.  :)  Silly boy.  He was in such a funny mood that afternoon, we had so much fun.  (Yes, that is an apple that he is holding.  and biting.  I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to let an almost 16-month-old run around taking bites of an apple, but whatever.  He saw me eating it and was dying to join in the fun so why not?)

Fun with Friends

I'm late with this posting, but last weekend we went to our friends' house, Doug and Lynette, to have dinner and let Chase play with their cute little girl, Ada.  The last time we all hung out, Chase was sick and not much fun.  This time around that was not the case.  Lynette always talks about how 'wild' Ada is but Chase had NO problem keeping up with her.  It was hilarious to watch.  I really wish I'd recorded them screaming and giggling because it was really cute.  Here are some pictures that Lynette took:

Here is Chase going down the slide.  He kept trying to climb up the slide rather than sliding down it but whatever.

Yeah, here you go.  You can tell how much fun he's having in this picture.  I love it.

We tried to get the kids to sit beside one another so that we could get a picture of them together but this is how that worked out.  Not so much.

At any rate, thanks again for having us over, guys!  It was great seeing you!

Foodie.

I love food.  If you know me, then this is not a surprise for you.  I love to eat food, cook food, think about food, talk about food, watch tv shows about food, read books/magazines about food...You get my point.  Food with Chase has been a little bit challenging given his [cow's] milk allergy.  How ironic that MY child would end up with a food allergy?  (I truly don't know anyone in this world who loves cheese, milk, butter, cream and any other milk product more than me.)  At any rate, it's been hard because he's not a huge eater (more of a 'grazer') and pretty much a little, skinny-minny runt-weighing in at a whopping in 20.5 lbs. at 15 months.  So it's a big deal when we discover that he likes to eat something...Particularly something new.  Yesterday I discovered that he loves edamame.  Very exciting since there's so much protein in those tiny little beans and I found them already shelled in the frozen section at Trader Joe's-also at a very cheap price, I might add.  Betty Ann said that he LOVED chicken lo-mein the other day so that was exciting as well.  Never did I think I would get such sheer pleasure out of watching my son eat when I know that it's good for him. 

Tonight I spent about 3 hours steaming and pureeing spinach, roasting and pureeing sweet potatoes, making brownies (that's for dinner at a friend's house tomorrow.  not for Chase), and making sweet potato pancakes (well, the mix anyway) for breakfast tomorrow morning.  I mentioned a while ago that I have a book called "Deliciously Deceptive" and it has all kinds of creative ways to add fruits and vegetables to recipes.  Chase has 16 teeth right now so you might be wondering why I was pureeing everything.  Well this book has recipes that calls for adding pureed fruits and veggies so that they blend in more 'deceptively'.  It's still really important to let the child see 'real' fruits and veggies but for me it's just an easier way to ensure that I'm adding something good to what I'm already making.  So since we have a long weekend- and I an obsessed with food and cooking- I decided to take advantage of the free time to make some of the recipes to try out on Chase (and Matt...).  Yes, I know...  I'm pretty wild.  What a crazy Friday night...  I did have a couple glasses of wine while I steamed, pureed, roasted, and baked.  Does that make me more fun?  (Just in case anyone's wondering what Matt's been doing during this 'crazy' Friday night, here you go:)