Tidbits

I finally added pics to Brice's 11 month post!

Brice has figured out to dunk while standing up....and keeps doing it and doing it and doing it!

Stephen got me photoshop for my birthday. I've been having fun.

In the last 3 weeks, Chase has grown up so much! He has made dramatic strides in reasoning (which is good for all of us!) and is making connections between things. For example, yesterday he was talking to Stephen about the deer in the neighborhood getting wet in the rain. Stephen mentioned that they were picking me up from the metro because my shoes got wet and Chase asked if the deer's feet got wet too. Stephen explained that deer don't have feet, they have hooves...and so do horses and cows. Chase didn't miss a beat, and asked, "And pigs?" 

Oh, and in major news, Brice is taking steps!

Easter 2013

How lucky are our boys? Nonnie and Pop came for Easter! And they were spoiled by the Easter bunny (bunnies?)

 

Easter was a special day for us-- it was Stephen's first day and first mass as a Catholic. Of course, we got dressed up and then snapped some pictures.

 

(Unfortunately, we could not get a decent family photo because Stephen and I were squinting. Luckily, our cutie boys made up for it!)

 

(Our other little bunny was napping while we took this picture)

 

Chase had fun doing crafts with Nonnie!

 

Brice's first Easter!

Brice at 11 months!

I am seriously in denial about how big Brice is getting. He is not quite walking, but he still seems like a toddler- he's certainly as silly and coy and wiggly as a toddler!

At 11 months, Brice is:

-Not quite walking, but taking a few steps. He doesn't need to walk- he's such a good crawler! He's definitely strong enough and has the core strength, so I bet one day he just decides to walk.

-Teething- at 10 months, Brice had 4 teeth. Now he has 7 and the 8th is coming through. Those middle front teeth are finally almost in! Brice puts everything in his mouth and has been pretty uncomfortable with tooth pain often over the last month.

-Doing all kinds of cool things:

     -Saying, "ut oh" when he drops things. I think it qualifies as his first word
     -Saying dada, dah (dog), baba, chah (for Chase).
     -Blowing kisses and making kiss noises
     -Responding to, "Is that a hat?"by putting whatever he is holding on his head
     -Looking up and pointing to ceiling fans when we ask where the fan is (he learned this one in Florida)
     -Dunking the toy basketball
     -Playing with lots of toys and anticipating what happens- like when Brice puts the car on the ramp, he knows where it comes out

-Hates to have his diaper changed or to get dressed or undressed. He squirms...he turns over....he crawls away. It is not fun for the changer.

-Going through a terrible bout of separation anxiety. When we were in Florida, Brice did not want to be with anyone but Mommy and Daddy. He screamed if we left him and almost hyperventilated. He's been much better since we've been home so I think it was a combination of his age, his stage (learning to walk), teething, and a new environment. It's not his usual  personality so we're glad he's back to normal.

 

 

-Learning to eat more table food. For a while he wasn't eating much besides baby food, and not much of that, we think because his teeth hurt. But now Brice is eating more table food and enjoying it. If he doesn't enjoy it, we know because he throws it all over the floor.

-Playing with Chase. Brice rolls on the ground with Chase and leans right into him. They also play at the train table a lot- Brice mostly watches and plays with a car or two while Chase is creating a whole scene and narrating it. It's really nice that they can play together now and to hear them giggle together is just awesome.

-Adventurous and on the go. We need to keep our eye on him, lest he get in trouble or hurt himself. He'll climb the stairs in a flash.

Brice is still a sweet and silly boy. We have so much fun tickling and giggling with him and playing all kinds of games. I'm so sad that he's growing up so fast, but so proud of all of his developments. We love you, Bricey!

Chase in Quotes

Chase talks up a storm. Even his teacher said that he's got so much to say and such a vocabulary that sometimes we need to slow him down. Lately, he's been hilarious too.

Stephen had flowers delivered for me. When I got home, Chase helped me open the envelop and read the card. I asked him,
"Chase, who do you think got flowers for Mommy?"
"The mailman!"

Mommy: Chase, thank you for being such a good boy at school. You make Mommy and Daddy very proud.
Chase: Thank you for being a good girl at work. You make ME proud.

Chase: Mommy doesn't have a pee-pee, Mommy has two bums. Does she show them to you, Daddy?

"Mommy, I think you should paint your hand nails pink"

"Oh, I LOVE to eat rain. That my favorite." (During a conversation Chase started about going outside to catch rain in his mouth the way you catch snowflakes on your tongue)

Mommy: "It's good when Daddy rocks you in the middle of the night because he's more comfy than Mommy. He has a bigger, more comfy lap."
Chase: "And you have more comfy arms. Mommy, has the MOST comfy arms."

(We were having a conversation about swimming in the big pool now that he is potty trained and how Chase will also need to spend some time in the baby pool because that's where Brice will be swimming)
Chase: Oh, I know! Ms. Carol can watch Bricey while I swim in the big pool.
Mommy: But Chase, I don't think Ms. Carol got a ticket on the airplane to Florida.
Chase: I can share MY tickets with her! I like to share my toys with Ms. Carol. If I share my tickets with her then she can watch Bricey!

(a few days later, we're in the car and I'm relaying the above interaction to Stephen and saying how nice it was that Chase offered to share with Ms. Carol)
Chase: Mommy you have to share you clothes and underpants with Ms. Carol when we are swimming.
Mommy: Oh really?
Chase: Yes and Daddy you need to share you underpants with Ms. Carol too.

Mommy: Chase, you can play soccer with Ms. Carol tomorrow.
Chase: No! Ms. Carol doesn't have a pee-pee. She can't play soccer.
Daddy: Chase, girls can play soccer too. You don't need a pee-pee to play soccer.
Chase: Oh, I don't use MY pee-pee to play soccer.

(Me, pretending to sleep)
Chase: Mommy, wake up!.....Cock-a-doodle-do!

I know he'll have some more funny lines so I'll keep updating this list. The boy always has me laughing!

How we potty trained Chase and got Brice to sleep through the night

...........

This post should be empty, but I couldn't just leave you hanging with a title like that. The truth is, both of these developments just sort of happened. But because I know I will look back in a few years and wonder how we did it, I wanted to post something. BTW, there's some TMI in here. What do you expect from a post with potty in the title?

Potty-training Chase
The single biggest factor in this was preschool. Every day they take the kids to the bathroom at the same time to use the potty or to have their diaper changed. As you can imagine, they make a big deal of going on the potty. So pretty early in the year Chase was happy to go pee-pee on the potty. But we didn't make a big deal out of it- we were happy when he did it but didn't pressure him too much.

At our conference in December, his teacher mentioned they one of his classmates (who Chase totally looks up to) had just decided one day to wear big boy underpants and that was it. I said "I can't imagine that ever happening with Chase," but lo and behold, a few weeks later, it did. Around the time of Brice's baptism, Chase decided to wear his super-cool big boy underpants (adorned with Diego, Cars, and Spiderman to encourage him) all the time. He would yell, "I'm pee-pee'in!" when he had to go and progressively got better at making it to the bathroom before going (although only recently stopped saying "I'm pee-pee'in" when he has to go). Of course there were a few accidents, and his aim isn't always the best, but overall he's doing a great job. Chase still wears a pull-up to bed for nap and at night, but he doesn't need it.

#2 took a little longer-- for a month or so he was only going only every 3-5 days and it was not comfortable. But a sticker chart (for pooping and sleeping until 6:30) with increasing incentives convinced him to start going more often. Now he's happy to go every day, often as soon as we sit down to a meal.

Brice's sleeping
Here are the things that worked for us:
1. Brice's binkie and lovey
2. A nanny who puts him down for naps awake so he learned to fall asleep on his own

I can't really add much to either of these, only to say thank you, Carol!