Santa

This past weekend (Thanksgiving weekend) we took Chase to see Santa.  This was a very big deal since he was too scared of Santa last year and wanted nothing to do with that scary man in the red and white suit at the mall.  But this year was different.

Maybe it's because we keep telling him about Santa, about how he needs to tell Santa what he wants for Christmas.  We remind him that he has to be a good little boy because, as Chase will tell you, Santa doesn't like whiny babies.  (We've also let Chase know that Santa will be taking his paci's to give to little babies who need them, but that's another posting).

 

Not only was Chase willing to sit in Santa's lap and talk to him, he was extremely excited.  So excited, in fact, that he didn't really like the waiting-in-line part of the process (he gets that honest).  We were only the 4th family in line, but still.

 He even resorted to yelling at Santa while he waited:

 And then.  It was time.  The long-awaited, 2-and-a-half-years-coming, meeting with Santa.  I had my camera in hand, standing right outside the 'set' so Matt stood with Chase, waiting.  When it was our turn, Matt put him down and Chase sprinted from the line over to Santa's chair and looked at Santa so he could be picked up.

His excitement made me laugh at first. Then to see how sweet he looked with his hands folded in his lap brought tears to my eyes.

Ok.  I'll go ahead and say it.  This Santa trip was just as much for me as it was for Chase.

"Alright now, Santa.  I'll see you in a few weeks.  You remember what I said?"

It was definitely a successful Santa trip.  The kind that makes a Mama happy.  :)

Thanksgiving

It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving has come and gone and now we're on our way to Christmas!  We had a great (and very relaxing) Thanksgiving so here are some more things I'm thankful for:

22. a relaxing Thanksgiving (duh) that involved lots of cuddles and snuggles with this little guy.  in our pajamas.

23. a Thanksgiving that included my dad, who made the 8-hour drive from Chattanooga, TN.  I'm so thankful to have another Thanksgiving that included my dad, who has survived not one, not 2, but 8 heart attacks in the last 13 years.

24. a Thanksgiving that included my Nanny.

25. a Thanksgiving where we have a perfectly healthy, happy, and so-much-fun little boy who makes us laugh at his entertaining little personality.

26. did I mention snuggles?

 

27.  Matt wanted me to make sure I didn't forget to mention that I'm thankful for his sexiness.  which I am, of course.  :)

28. I'm thankful that I have that sexy beast as a partner in parenting.  Because, believe it or not, that little boy does occasionally get in trouble.  And it means a lot that Matt and I are on the same team.

Thankful day #20 and 21

I'm thankful for cousins and nice weather.

On Sunday, we went to Henderson to visit my mom, sisters and their boys.  Chase had a great time playing with everyone.

I think Katy had fun, too.  :)

We were lucky to have such gorgeous weather so we could play outside.

Thankful day #19

I am so very thankful for Leslie, who sends me pictures like these of Chase having fun playing with Samantha.

He hardly notices when I leave him in the mornings and sometimes doesn't want to leave in the afternoons when I pick him up.  We love you, Leslie!!

Thankful day #18

I'm thankful today for coupons.  and sales.  and blogs about both.  All of it makes me pretty happy.  :)

Thankful days # 16 and 17

I'm thankful for surprises.  Like when Matt surprised me this week by being able to come home a day earlier from his work conference in DC.

I'm also thankful for a husband who legitimately would rather be home with Chase and me than traveling.  Makes me feel pretty special.  When he got to DC and realized that it wasn't going to be as big of a sales opportunity as he/they thought, he initiated a call to his boss who agreed that he would be more productive in the office.  in Raleigh.  :) 

Thankful day #15

Today I'm thankful that Chase can now have (most) milk products....Like ice cream!!!

 

He's apparently pretty happy about this as well.  :)

Thankful days 12-14

Today I am thankful for family.

For both the family that Matt and I have started with Chase and our families we have married into.

I'm thankful for aunts who take Chase out for an Icee at the drop of a hat.  :)

On a less heartfelt note, for my 'thankful # 14', I'm thankful that Chase didn't shave off all his hair yesterday.  Matt trimmed up his hair a little bit and when he was done, Chase needed to charge the trimmer.  When Matt glanced up, Chase turned on the trimmer  and had shaved out a tiny spot of hair on the side of his head.  (Luckily when Matt yelled, "CHASE!!!", it scared him and he stopped).

 

Silly boy.  :)

Thankful day #11

These 2 boys make me very thankful that it's Friday.

Happy Friday, everyone!!

Thankful day #10

Today I'm thankful for girls' nights that involve all the kids (well minus one who had a cold).  6 moms and 8 kids.  The kids included 2 sets of twins and 2 toddlers.  It was fun.

 Chase was a little unsure about what to do with all the babies.  But Anna Grace has had a lot of experience since she has a little brother so she seemed happy to show Chase what to do.  :)

"Look Chase.  Do this.  Just just rock the babies."

Getting a picture of all the kids together was difficult.  (You can see Hayes on the bottom left, starting to cry and run out of the picture.  the look of concern on Chase's face makes me laugh).

Here's a blurry picture that Jill caught with her phone of the kids (all but one).  It was funny and not quite as crazy as I anticipated.  Probably because 4 of the 8 kids were unable to crawl or walk yet.  Having them contained helped.  :) 

Love you girls!

Cords

As I've mentioned before, Chase is (and always has been) completely obsessed with all electronic devices.  In particular, he loves cords, phones, computers, radios, DVD players and cameras.  He doesn't discriminate, so really anything with buttons and a place to plug a cord into will suffice.

It's kind of funny but lately it's just mostly annoying.  Because.  The more electronic devices we let him play with (old phones, old chargers, etc.), the more he asks for.  "Where's Bebe's old phone??" (that would be the blackberry pictured above) "Where's Dada's old phone??"  The funny part happens when he finds an old cord that fits in something that we had no idea would work.  Like our Jamaican phone charger that fit into Matt's GPS (otherwise known as the 'BTS').

All this is usually fine...IF we can locate what he's asking for.  But usually what he's asking for is at the bottom of the toy box...or hidden in one of my purses upstairs...or plugged in to Matt's old playstation upstairs...You get the idea.  It's completely MADDENING.  And this past weekend, it got to out of control I had to say "NO MORE CORDS.  NO MORE PHONES.  I'M PUTTING THEM UP.  PLAY WITH YOUR OTHER TOYS."

I know.  I'm mean.  But seriously.  Who has to say that?  Does this mean my child is going to be an engineer?  Who knows.  But what I do know is that he could possibly be more technologically advanced by age 4 than I am now. 

Thankful day # 9

9. I'm thankful for mornings like this one where Chase woke up super early, calling out for us.  When I went in his room (even though he can get out of his bed, he still won't get up until Matt or I go in there.  I'm thankful for that as well...), he said, "I want to go night-night in your bed."  So he snuggled in between us and fell back asleep.  So thankful for moments like that.

I am thankful

In light of Thanksgiving coming in a few weeks, I am borrowing an idea I saw from another blog and making a point of listing one thing I am thankful for each day.  Since I'm a few days behind, I'll list my first 8 now. 


1. A flexible job.  that I actually enjoy.

2. The kind of deep-from-his-belly laugh that I hear from Chase when we read the Tickle Monster book (thanks, Aunt Lauren) and I tickle his 'cute boney knee' and his 'underarm pitties'.

3. a husband that makes me laugh. and roll my eyes at the silliness shortly after.

4. coffee.

5. little boy clothes that look like a little man.

6. For the odd things I find as I'm cleaning up after Chase goes to bed at night (i.e. a Nerf gun hanging in his kitchen where utensils should go).

7. Lots of really good girlfriends.  that like wine as much as I do.

8. Chocolate.

Halloween 2011

Halloween was fun this year.  We didn't really build it up too much for Chase prior to a few days before.  Honestly, this was mostly because I was worried that the more we talked about it the more Chase would change his mind about what he wanted to be.  The only real thing he said he wanted to be was Angelina Ballerina.  Which is lovely.  I mean, I'm ok embracing Chase's feminine side and all but I didn't really want  a ton of pictures of Chase dressed up like a ballerina.  Let's just be real.  Also, Kristina had offered up Wes's fireman costume from last year and I'm all about the hand-me-downs.  So when I suggested to Chase that maybe he could be a fireman and he said ok, I was pretty thrilled.

Another thing that ended up being pretty cute was that Wes wanted to be a fireman again this year.  So they could fight all the Durham County fires together.  Although Chase kept asking where the fire truck was all night, which I thought was pretty funny.

 

We went over to Wes and Parker's house, had some dinner and drinks and then headed out to do some trick-or-treating in their nearby neighborhood.

We had practiced with Chase how it would go down.  He didn't seem shy about being the first one in line to knock on people's doors.  Although it was pretty funny the first couple of times because when he knocked on the door and the person opened the door, he tried to walk in their house.  Which I guess makes sense.  I mean, isn't that what you normally do?  :)

Then, he would hold out his pumpkin.  I said, "what do you say, Chase?" (hoping to prompt him to say "trick-or-treat").  Instead, he said, "thank you!" before getting the candy.  So we'll work on that for next time.

 

All in all it was a successful (but rainy) Halloween with our 2 firefighters, bumblebee and Fancy Nancy.