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.

Camping

A couple of weekends ago, Matt, Chase and I had our first camping adventure.  We've been talking about going for a while so when we saw the gorgeous weather forcast, we decided it would be the perfect opportunity to head to Jordan Lake.

Matt spent many weekends camping with his high school friends so he was excited to have to opportunity to channel his inner 'survivor man' and I was looking forward to seeing him in action.  I was also looking forward to seeing how much Chase enjoyed setting up the tent, building a campfire and making s'mores.

As soon as we got to our camp site and started unloading all the stuff, Chase started running around, squealing excitedly with a big smile on his face.  I think it was safe to say he was having a good time.

Don't get me wrong, in no way did we 'rough' it.  We brought an air mattress, we strategically placed ourselves about 100 yards from the bathrooms and (I'm a little embarrassed to admit) we even brought the portable DVD player. 

I knew bedtime might be a little challenging since sleeping on an air mattress, in a tent, in the woods is a little out of Chase's normal routine.  So we brought it just in case.

We probably could have survived without Nemo but you just never know.

I think it's safe to say it was a successful first camping trip for us.  Definitely want to go again at some point.

we'll just have to see.  :)

You hear me??

2 and a half is proving to be such a funny age.  The things Chase says is so funny.  It's amazing all the things he hears (yikes!) and repeats back at random times.  He's still completely obsessed with all electronic devices.  The most recent obsession: our GPS.  He calls it a 'BTS' for some reason.  The other day he was begging Matt for it and Matt said no because he was driving and therefore using it.  Chase said, "One more minute!  You hear me??"  Then he laughed.  :)

He's also starting exclaiming things from the backseat while I'm driving.  He'll look ahead at the road and exclaim, "Come ON!  It's traffic ERRRYWHERE!" while waving his hands in the air.

Exhibit A of the electrical obsession: the camera bag (he's searching for the cord).

Definitely making me watch what I say around him these days.  I'm a little bit nervous about what will come out of his mouth next.

All the ladies...

Matt and I have been known to be a little ghetto.  Back in the day Matt had a "system" in his jeep that he would use to blast rap in high school (maybe even after that), and we've also been known to go to Player's in Chapel Hill to dance (yep.  just the 2 of us.  no special occasion was necessary).

So when Chase started playing with his little keyboard and microphone, Matt took the microphone and said "All the ladies in the house say yeeeaaaaahhhh." bringing back our ghetto days.

Here's Chase's version of that.

Work pooter

We've officially entered into the world of pretend play.  Chase loves to pretend that he's going to work.

 

He has different work bags, work stuff (that's literally what he calls it.  work stuff.), an office, and most importantly:  his work 'pooter'.  

Our netbook laptop sucks (which is one of the reasons I'm so behind on my blog postings) so Matt started letting Chase play with it.  

And it's now his work pooter.  And let me tell you, he's pretty attached to it.  So attached, in fact, that yesterday morning he woke up crying hysterically.  When I ran into his room (thinking that he was hurt or sick), he was sobbing and kept saying "My work pooter.  My work pooter..." over and over again.  Even though it was still dark outside, the only thing that would calm him down was for me to go into 'his office' (otherwise known as our bonus room) to get the pooter and bring it to him.

I'm guessing he had a nightmare that someone was trying to take it from him?

Where's Chase??

I recently went in to check on Chase before Matt and I went to bed because I couldn't see him on the video monitor.  When I tip-toed into his room I got a little nervous because at first I didn't see him.

 Then I looked closer and this is where he was.  Hugging/being smothered by his cow pillow. I know that the risk of SIDS doesn't exist for 2-year-olds and all but I thought I should maybe move Mr. Cow off of his face.  :)