Chase's 2nd birthday party

Well the party's over and I must admit, I think it was a success.  I was a little nervous after what happened last year (Chase was sick with a stomach bug and threw up an hour before the party started).   Chase had a blast today.  Whenever we would talk about today, he would smile really big and exclaim, "Birthday!!"  :)  In planning what we would do to celebrate, I really wanted to keep it small and I really wanted Chase to have fun.  I think we accomplished both.  Here's Chase (or Justice, I should say) blowing out the candles on his (dairy-free) cupcake.  I was so proud of those freaking cupcakes and was so excited to see Chase dig into it.  Which he did not do.  My son is just not a big eater.  But anyway, check it out:

I LOVE how he's looking around at all of us singing to him, just taking it all in.  Makes it so worth it to me.

Family photo with a crazy expression from me.  Not sure what that was about.

Had to get a picture of the sign that Betty Ann made from last year.  I'm so glad that we were able to use it again this year because I know it took her a long time to make...

The cupcake got quickly pushed to the side and the chik-fi-A nuggets resumed their place in from of him.

 

We were excited that Leslie and Samantha came to play.

Lauren bought a Thomas the Train (the theme of the party) pinata and it was a huge hit.  I'll post a video about that later.  The kids' faces lit up when all the candy came pouring down.  See how excited Chase was?

Still excited about the pinata:

 Here's Chase's friend Wes, and cousin Justice "helping" Chase with his presents...

 And Samantha checking out the cool guitar that she gave him:

 The fun continued as the party moved outside.  Check out the cool tractor that Bebe and Pops gave him:

 It was kind of hard for him to pedal so Wes was happy to help out and let Chase ride while he drove.  Chase grabbed his Thomas the Train bottle filled with apple juice, his bubble gun and jumped on.  :)

Alright, Chase.  Drink your juice and let's go, okay?

 Samantha and Chase went for a ride in the wagon:

What a great day.  We got lucky for the 2nd year in a row with the weather so it was nice to be able for the kids to play both inside and out. 

Happy Birthday, Chase!!!

March 20,2009

 Just 2 short years ago, Chase Ryan Dickerson was born.  Our life is definitely different now but I am positive that Matt would agree with me in saying that being a parent is truly the most amazing experience in this world.  And being a parent this guy is better than we ever imagined.

How is it possible that in the blink of an eye, the tiny little baby that I spent 2 and a half hours pushing from my body, has turned into this little BOY??

Chase, we love you more than you will ever know!

Pajama day. For real this time.

I've been talking quite a bit lately about Chase becoming increasingly difficult.. I mean independent... with his opinions regarding what he wears each day.  It's mostly been with his pajamas each morning.  (actually, no wait.  It's also with insisting he wear long sleeves when it's hot outside...And insisting he wear a striped shirt instead of the plain shirt I picked out.  You get the point.  It can get pretty exausting).  More specifically with the pajamas, he loses his mind when we try to take them off.  So being the pushover that I am I have been letting him go to Leslie's in his pajamas.  Well, in honor of Chase, Leslie has deemed Fridays "Pajama day".  Here's a  picture of everyone in their pajamas last Friday:

And, yes.  Chase has his rain boots on with his, of course.  :)

A new friend

Leslie seems to be well on her way to becoming one of the most popular babysitters in Durham.  I recommended her to one of my friends from Junior League who was needing someone to keep her little boy Nathan on the days when her daycare closes.  So Nathan has been there all week, playing with Samantha and Chase.  Here's a sweet picture of them standing at the gate  between the kitchen and living room.

Hard at work

Ever since Chase was old enough to reach and somewhat express himself, he has had an insane interest in phones, computers, cords, and electrical gadgets of any kind.  I'm hoping that this is more than just being a little boy...I'm hoping that maybe he'll grow up to be an engineer of some sort.  :)

Here he is "working" at Leslie's house.

Silly boy.  :)

Painting

Leslie sent me these pictures of Chase using his fingers to paint their cardboard house.  As you can see from his facial expressions, he seemed to be painting pretty intently.

I love that she lets Chase learn in so many different ways and lets him get as dirty as he needs to in the process.  :)

Dada gunny

This is a video we took a week or so ago (when we took the baby gate down) but I'm just now getting around to posting it...

Naptime

Saturday was a slightly challenging day for us.  We had a great morning that started at 6:30 (ugh).  Chase was a sweetheart, being really cuddly on the couch and we all just took it easy.  In fact we all stayed in our pj's until naptime...Or lack thereof.  Since he got up so early that morning I figured we'd try to put Chase down for an earlier nap.  In fact we laid him down the same time that Leslie puts him down for a nap Wed.-Fri. every single week: at 11:30.  And, since he normally sleeps anywhere between 2 and 4(!) hours

 on a regular basis for Leslie, I figured it wasn't too early. 

Well, Chase had other plans in mind...Like taking off his clothes...  See?

What??

For the hour that he tossed and turned, and talked and played, he also worked his upper body completely out of the neck of his shirt.  With our new 'fancy' video monitor, luckily Matt and I were able to witness all this while it was happening.  So, when I finally decided that the nap just wasn't happening (at least at that time) I walked into his room and started laughing at him.

So, he pulled his shirt from around his waist and acted like he was trying to put it back on.



(see the arm of the shirt hanging out the bottom by his leg??)



What a mess.  Later that afternoon the lack of a nap was not-so-funny.  We were those people in Harris Teeter that everyone stares at.  Chase was screaming at the top of his lungs because I wouldn't let him unzip my wallet and dump change all over the grocery store.  Ugh.  Matt took him (still screaming) to the parking lot while I checked out.  Then we got home and spent about an hour getting a waaaay-too-tired Chase to take a waaaay-too-late nap around 3:30.  Thank you, God, he did finally go to sleep.  Whew what a day...

Helper

Chase is really 'helpful' these days...  :)

He loves 'helping' while I fix dinner.  I made these chicken and spinach crossiant roll-ups last night and he 'helped' by very strategically dumping all the chicken into the casserole dish as I was doing the stuffing and rolling.

See how hard he was working?? 

 (Of course I waited til he turned his head to pick up all the chicken and take it out of the dish...)



Dad, do you mind?  I'm pretty busy here.



My boys

I don't know what exactly it is about this sight that makes my heart melt...

  

 ...But it just does.

I sure do love these 2 guys.  :)