Wow, we are getting terrible at posting these on time! Sorry about that. At 14 months Chase is:
-Walking, almost running. He still falls on his butt, but it's much less often. He can usually even turn while he's standing to look in the opposite direction without falling.
-Talking up a storm! He finally said Mama around the middle of June and he's amended his Dada to "Da-DDY." He points at us and says "Daddy and Mama"! And "Abu!" (Mueller). When we point and ask who he is, Chase looks at his shirt to see if it's an Elmo or Cookie Monster shirt. His newest words are bubbles, wawa (water/juice), up, and mama in addition to his previous y
eah, bird or birdie, abu, Elmo, ball, duck, dog, hat, head, hop, dada, and baba. He signs more, eat, and all done, although we're pretty sure that more is synonymous with want. Chase points at the door and signs more when he wants to go for a walk. He's gotten very good at communicating and even if he babbles off a sentence that we can't understand, one or two words and his gestures give us an idea of what he wants. In fact, when he starts crying we ask him what he wants and often he'll stop crying and try to tell us. Of course the crying resumes if it's bubbles at the dinner table, but at least we get a break!
-Getting in shape....: We've started classes at the Little Gym and even though Chase was unsure at first, he quickly started using the equipment and sometimes participating in the activities. He likes to pull himself up on the bar and do forwards and backwards rolls. We practice at home often and did some pull-ups on the grab bar in the nursing home last week. Chase likes to play independently...aka he doesn't like to participate in the group activities and usually we have to chase him around during that time. But Chase loves bubble time and ball time and we enjoy being active with him.
-....and quite a little monkey! He's getting into EVERYTHING. He loves to open cabinets and take everything out. We praise him for closing the cabinets, but guess what? You have to open to close. And he opens to close and gets distracted and pulls everything out. He also climbs all over Stephen and is learning to climb into chairs, benches, etc.
-Loves swimming: Chase was hesitant in the pool at first, maybe because it was cold, but not he really enjoys swimming and splashing. He was also hesitant about the ocean, but after a swim, he started to point to it (and sign more) when he wanted to go in. His only caveat is that he would MUCH rather swim with Mommy than Daddy, which is ironic since Daddy was a life guard!
Chase in action:
...put the boys in...
...and took off for the Jersey Shore. Mommy sat in the back seat with Chase who had some caffeine (Starbucks markets to younger and younger customers these days) and was excited about this adventure!
After a while we needed some greasy food so we stopped for Burger King and picked up a crown ("hat!") for our prince.
Aside from some traffic getting on to the island, the trip was uneventful (hooray!). We were able to get to the beach after Chase woke up from his nap. While we had briefly taken him to the beach during our time in Florida back in February, this was his first significant amount of time at the ocean.
He wasn't so sure of the ocean or the sand, but not terribly upset either so we headed home and resolved to come back early the next day.
The next day we went to see Grandma and Grandpa Ness. Chase briefly sat with Grandma.
But silly Chase was running up and down the hall, doing pull-ups on the chair rail, and climbing on chairs...
...and climbing all over the meal cart. Mommy and Daddy were exhausted by the end of the visit!
Back at the shore house, Chase snuggled with Daddy. Sorta.
