Chase at 2 1/2

He's too old for monthly posts now (although he does seem to photobomb all of Brice's monthly updates!), but Chase is definitely still growing and learning. He is funny, inquisitive, and strong-willed. He loves his "Bricey."

In his own words, at 2 1/2, Chase is:

-Talking about everything, asking a lot of questions, and repeating what we say, even when we don't think he's listening. We have really got to watch ourselves now! Sometimes it's hard to understand him, but we can use context clues to figure out what's he's saying. He even corrects what I'm saying to make sure I pronounce it right.

-Can count up to 14. Fifteen throws him off. To be fair, it should be "fiveteen"

-Can name his extended family and many of our good friends. One of our favorite tricks is to look through our wedding pictures and have him name everyone. We were all younger back then!

-Singing. Chase knows all the classic kids' songs, but now he's added school songs to his repetoire. He sings Friends, Friends 123 and Ram Sam Sam. I've used Google to look up a few of the songs, but Chase has the intonation and words right so now I trust him.
-Sleeping in a big boy crib! (entire post on this coming up) He goes to bed between 8:30-9pm and wakes up around 6am. He's got a new alarm clock that keeps him in bed until 6:40am. Most afternoon Chase takes a 2-2 1/2 hour nap.

-Quite independent. "Mommy, I can do it." We take advantage of this by asking him to pick things up and put them away, retrieve things for us (when we have our hands full with Brice), or help us feed Mueller. Chase usually happily obliges.

-Going through a whiny phase. It's awful. Everything has been whined or cried for a couple of weeks now. We finally realized that we need to tell him "no cry talking" and he sort of gets it. But when he's cranky or hungry, there's no stopping the tears/whine.

-Loving on his little brother-- They are so sweet together. Chase loves to hug Brice and Brice loves to hug and mouth him back. (entire post on this coming up too!)

-Doing great in school-- He loves his teacher and his class. Chase repeats school songs. He talks about the kids at school and what they are doing.

-Not eating much, but his favorite foods are:
          Breakfast: pancakes with syrup, waffles, fruit, yogurt
          Lunch: pasta, hot dog, peas, edamame
          Snacks: pretzels, rice cakes, fruit, yogurt, apple sauce, milk
          Dinner: pasta, rice, hot dog, sushi, broccoli, shredded cheese, cabbage, tortillas

-His favorite things to play are "shoot ball," "kick ball," volleyball, baseball, football. In that order. Don't even think about sitting down when you are playing with him. You have to be standing up to play with him. You also have to dribble, dribble before you shoot.

-Calling Mommy and talking on the phone. Chase has Carol call me every day after he finishes lunch. He asks, "How is you day at work, Mommy?" and tell me what he had for lunch, whether he went on the potty, and who blew out the candle during circle time at school. Lately he hasn't wanted to give up the phone so he'll say, "I have to tell you something," but then proceeds to carry the phone around as he plays with his toys. Needless to say, I'm usually laughing.

-Using the potty and often wearing big-boy underpants! He wants to wear them to school, but I spoke with his teacher and we're going to start that the week after Thanksgiving (another post coming on this! I had better get writing...)

-Funny!

Chase's 2nd birthday

On Chase's birthday, we let Chase choose what we did all day (except he had to nap) so went to the choo-choo park. The park also has an awesome playground where Chase showed off how big he is!

 (luckily he is not too old to show his Mommy some love!)

 Veronica, Josh, and the beautiful Daniella met us at the park.

After Chase's nap, we gave him his present- a balance bike and helmet. The bike was too high, but the helmet was a big hit.

When we asked Chase what he wanted to eat for dinner. "Sushi!"

Chase drove:

He did pretty well with the chopsticks!

We had a cupcake with a candle and sang to him, but Chase was not interested.

The next day was Mother's Day, but we continued to celebrate Chase's birthday. He rode his new bike for the first time. Gosh, he looks so grown up!

Happy Birthday, Chase!

Chase at 2 years!

Is it possible that the teeny, tiny 6lb 5oz baby who we welcomed two years ago is the same as the happy, hilarious, strong-willed toddler who woke us up this morning by asking "Mommy, Daddy, 'a doin?" Or the mostly-baby one-year old who wasn't quite walking (and definitely was not saying Mama) a year ago?

I'm not sure that we had any idea what we were in for as we headed to the hospital to have Chase, but I can honestly say that he is the best thing that we've ever done.

At 2 years old, Chase is:

-Running, hopping like a bunny, jumping off things and landing on his bum (on purpose), jumping on Mommy, jumping on Daddy, and all around an active little boy

-Opinionated about his clothes. This includes wearing his rain coat no matter what the weather.  Additionally, he is averse to getting dressed at all and thinks that rolling around the bed while we try and get him dressed is the greatest game ever!

-Loves to be outside- diggin' and watering and blowing bubbles.

-Has his first skinned knee! He fell down outside at daycare and got a "boo-boo" that  he likes to point out to us. The only problem is that sometimes he shows us the right knee and sometimes the left knee (it's on his right knee). It can't hurt that badly. I'm  sure there will be many more to come!

-Hilarious. On Sunday morning (at 6:30am when I was trying to entertain him while half-awake) he was playing on the iPad. One of the apps he likes is a matching game that said "Where's the submarine?" And Chase replied, "Submarine. Some are red. Some are blue!" So funny.

-Strong-willed. Chase knows what he wants to do and there's not much to deter him from doing it! For example, if he wants to play outside when he gets home from daycare, there is not much we can do except let him. Sure, we try to convince him to have a snack or give us time to change clothes, but it's a struggle. He's also throwing full-on tantrums with crying and writhing on the floor. Awesome!

-Loves looking at pictures and videos of his family. He's good at naming everyone- even those he doesn't see very often! His favorites are "Owen-Melia" and Addy.

-Climbing and playing with all of the baby's stuff. His bunny has been in the baby's carseat since Saturday and he will not let us take it out. Tonight he was hiding in the bassinet attachment to the baby's stroller, which was on the floor in the nursery. He's sort of interested in the baby books, at least moreso than the last few weeks.

-Loves trucks! Diggers and dumps are his favorite. He sees them when we are driving and yells "Daddy, digger!" Friday mornings when the garbage and recycling trucks come, we stop everything and watch them out the window. Lately he's into "ne-naw, ne-naw" or firetrucks.

-Loves talking on the phone. But only to Nonnie and Mommy. With Nonnie he doesn't usually get past "Hi, Nonnie. Watcha doin'?" With Mommy, he tells me how his day was (fun) and what he did all day (played).

Chase at 23 months!

Holy cow, this is the last "monthly" Chase update that I'll write-- the next one will be the big 2 years! I'm not going to dwell on it because it will make this pregnant and hormonal Mommy tear up.

Chase has had such a fun month! He got to see family, had a fun weekend with Nasya, and has been loving the warm spring weather. He loves being outside and throws a tantrum when we try to bring him in (acting like a 2-year-old alerady). But I'm getting ahead of myself.

At 23 months, Chase is:

Saying something new everyday. He says almost every word we say (watch out!), even hard ones. We now try to give him the words he needs to identify or describe what he is talking about, like ketchup instead of dip (dip is also maple syrup). It's amazing how many words he remembers the meaning for.

Chase's sentences are becoming more complex: he's had a couple of 8 word sentences lately. Last week he said, "Chasey look at the truck through that window," and yesterday it was, "Daddy, Chasey shoot the basketball in the hoop."

He still refers to himself in the third person, but there are more mines, my, and yours lately.

His play talk is almost all real words. Maybe this is because we understand him better, but for example, when he is pretending to make us coffee he talks about the milk and mixing.

He sells hello and goodbye to us when we leave the room, whether that is going to work or just upstairs.  He also loves to get into his little tykes car and tell us he is going places, often work. This morning he told me that he had dropped the baby off at Sona's (the woman who runs his daycare) and was headed to work.

He was sick earlier this week so we've been a bit of a rough patch with sleeping. He's been waking up a couple of times a night and I, wanting to get back to sleep as soon as possible, have been putting him in our bed or sleeping with him in the guest room. (I blame the pregnancy hormones) It is actually really nice to snuggle with him (even if he is kicking you while he snuggles) and he's been sleeping later, but we really want him consistently sleeping through the night again by the time the baby comes.

As for baby prep, Chase went through a short bout of babying his bear, but he forgot about the bear for a few days so I think that's over. He knows that there is a baby in Mommy's belly and he sees the baby's room and some of his gear. Chase likes to pretend to sleep in the baby's crib and got himself stuck in the baby's bumbo this morning. He also loves all of the baby toys that used to be his. He has two books about waiting for baby and the new baby, but they are kind of boring and he loses interest in them pretty quickly (as opposed to books about trucks and construction equipment, which he loves). We show him pictures of family and friends, mostly with him when he was a baby and he recognizes the baby in the photos as "Chasey baby." I've tried to tell him that I will be going away for a few days when the baby comes but that Grammy and Grampy will come and that they will all come see Mommy and baby in the hospital. It's hard to say whether or not he understands what is happening, but we are doing our best to prepare him.

Invitations have been sent for Chase's 2nd birthday- I'll post details soon. We're hoping it doesn't have to be postponed due to an early arrival of his little brother. 

Happy 23 months, sweet boy! 

Chase at 22 months

Holy smokes-- In 2 months Chase will be a 2 year old! How did he grow up so fast? It literally was not that long ago that he was in my belly. His time as a baby flew by and now his toddlerhood is flying by. It makes me teary to think about my little baby becoming such a big boy.

His developments this month only highlight his development. Chase is becoming such a "little kid" in so many respects.

At 22 months, Chase is:

-Jumping! Two feet off the ground at once. This is a MAJOR accomplishment as Chase has been wanting to jump since Owen taught him to hop last May. The instructors at the Little Gym told us to not expect kids to be able to jump until age 2. But there is always a lot of jumping at our Little Gym classes and Monkey See, Monkey Do has a part where they tell the kids to jump to warm up. All of those paid off because he is jumping!

-Talking, talking, talking. Four word sentences are pretty frequent these days "Daddy, why Abu barking?" or "Mommy, Chasey apple juice please?" It.is.amazing. The stuff he puts together and the words he knows are mind boggling. He's just started with "why" and luckily does not use it too frequently (yet). We talk a lot about what we are doing, what happened earlier in the day, and what is happening later that day or the next.

-Chase does not forget. If we tell him that he can ride his bike when we get home, he is sure to say "Chasey, ride the bike?" as soon as we pull into the driveway. Our distract and deflect method does not work nearly as well as it used to!

-Chase is starting to talk a bit on the phone- Mommy calls when she is on her way home from work and he tells her that his day was "fun" and that he went outside and "play da ball," but his attention isn't much longer than that. He loves to FaceTime with Owen and Amelia (and "Cah-rie" and Gef") and with Grammy and Grampy.

-Sleeping in his big boy choo-choo room. Chase has moved into his new room equipped with a new "big boy" crib from Ikea (that transitions into a toddler bed). The theme is trains, although we are still waiting for the train decal I ordered from etsy. Chase also has a new toy box that's in the window nook that he both climbs on to look out the window and opens to pull out some of his choo-choo room toys. We still need to get him a (real) chair because the glider is going back in the nursery.

We don't have many pictures this month, but here's a long video of him eating an ice pop and chatting. (this was from a couple of weeks ago when he wasn't saying as much)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAoZUyb7ntA

Chase at 21 months!

Wow, I can't believe how fast Chase is growing up. I look back at old blog posts and can hardly believe this is the same little guy who was in my belly 2 years ago.

At 21 months, Chase is:

-On the mend--Finally! The antibiotics the doctor prescribed on Thursday for the ear infection and the nebulizer treatments have made a big difference. Chase is now eating normally again and acting like himself. I had almost forgotten how active he is! He still has bouts of coughing that sometimes make him gag, but they are fewer and further between. The coughing is still waking him up in the very early morning (5:40am today), but it is getting progressively later. His mama is feeling better too, although I still have a cold.

-Talking a lot- I know I say this every month, but he's really talking to us all the time. He's got two word phrases for everything. Chase pretty regularly says 4 or 5 word sentences. He is naming almost every animal, including "newt" and "rhino," counts to 12 or 13 (but often skips 9), and sings his ABCs. He even tried using a pronoun the other day ("me"), but we didn't know what he was talking about because he always calls himself "Chasey". While Stephen and I can understand almost everything he says, he is still pretty difficult to understand. But he's willing to try and say almost anything, which is great!

Some of Chase's funny lines:
               -"No, no squirrels" (yelling at the squirrels to get off the bird feeder)
              -"I don't want that."
              -"Mama, a'doin?" (this is still hilarious...and annoying)
              -"Mama come!" or "Abu come!"
              -"Abu eat da bone"

-Tilting his head to add emphasis to what he is saying- He cocks his head to the side and says "Daddy come?" to look innocent.

-Remembering- Chase names people based on pictures, even if he hasn't seen them in a while. He names all of his friends in school, as well as the teachers. He can even fill in lines from books that we commonly read.

-Thinks his baby brother should be named Noah...after one of his best friends at daycare. I actually like the name Noah, but Stephen does not. There's another problem: Our baby will not look like Noah because Noah's dad is African American. So Chase might be sorely disappointed (and confused) if he has a baby brother named Noah who doesn't look like his friend Noah.

-Still peeing on the potty...once a day. Chase goes potty after his bath. It's sort of a ritual now. Then he gets up (naked), laughs hysterically, runs into our room, and jumps on Mueller's bed. Just what you want on a just-washed naked toddler- dog hair. Now we know to chase him down as fast as possible and intervene before he can get in there. It's really funny.

-Into playing "bounce pass" with his Daddy. Chase and Daddy play a fun game where they bounce pass the ball to each other while Chase sits in his chair. This greatly improves his catch rate! Nowadays he is less interested in "shoot ball" and more interested in "bounce pass". Chase has been watching basketball on television with us as well and even cheers when the ball goes in the hoop!

Here are some of the other things Chase is into these days:

And Happy Valentine's Day!

Chase at 20 months and pregnancy week 22

This doesn't happen very often- today Chase is 20 months old and Baby Boy L is 22 weeks along. Let's get to Chase first.

At 20 months, Chase is:

-Talking non-stop. He does not babble anymore- almost everything he says is intelligible. He wakes up in the morning and starts talking about Mama and Dada and Abu and Choo-Choo! This morning I walked into his room and he said "choo choo?" Not even a "hi mama!"

Chase often says  "Mama come!" or "Daddy come!" and then pulls us to wherever he wants us to go (usually to play with trains). He is insistent and does not understand if we are doing something else like eating or cleaning up. 

His funniest phrases these days is "'a doin?" as in "Daddy, 'a doin?" It is so funny. He says it multiple times if we don't respond. We know we should correct it, but it's hilarious.
Chase is also naming almost every animal, even hard to say ones like "elephant."

A lot of things are still "that," but we're working on his specificity. The great thing about this is that he rarely gets upset that he cannot communicate what he wants!

-Obsessed with trains. Not only does he have an awesome train table (thanks to Grammy and Grampy) that he loves to play with, he also loves to play the Zoo Train game on the iPad (we've had it for less than a month. It didn't take long for him to get obsessed). He even sat for 5 minutes today and watched Thomas and Friends while I put on makeup (the boy barely ever sits still to watch TV-- a good thing in general, but sometimes the distraction is helpful)

-Cooking up a storm in his new kitchen. Last night he told me he would make me a hot dog, peas, and pasta. Chase also makes "cahfee"- he puts the cup in the microwave and pours fake milk in when it is done. Then he brings it to you and makes you drink it. He even made tea for Grammy last week. We have to get it on video- words cannot describe how intently he makes cahfee.
-Can sing the ABCs. While we sing the ABC song to him, we don't think we do it enough for him to know it (thank you, daycare!) but lo and behold, one day I started singing and he sang along! He can even fill in the letters, although LMNOP sounds an awful lot like "Owen P."


-Remembering things. For example, I opened the toilet tank to see why it was running. Now every time we go into that bathroom, he points to the tank and says "see wawa?" because he wants to watch the tank while the water flushes. This happens EVERY SINGLE TIME we go in that bathroom. We have to distract him. But sometimes his memory is useful- the other day I couldn't find Mueller's leash and was looking all over for it. Chase called me over ("Mama dare!") and was pointing to the top of the coat closet where Stephen had stashed it. Chase remembered Daddy putting the leash "dare".

-Being such a sweet boy. He gives kisses and hugs on demand. While he's not exactly gentle to my baby bump,  he points to it and says baby and then lifts up my shirt and kisses it. Of course he has no clue what he's in for, but it's nice to imagine he'll be sweet like this to the baby once he comes!

 Speaking of the bump, here is the 22 week pregnancy update. Some of these questions are becoming repetitive and/or obsolete, so I'm going to amend the list.

How far along? 22 weeks


Total weight gain/loss: I'm ignoring the scale

Bump showing? Yes
Maternity clothes? Of course
 Movement: Stephen finally felt him move! One day this week he was not very active (so I drank mango juice until I felt him move) and the next day he was very active and dancing on my cervix.

Sleep: This is linked more to my first-born than to this pregnancy--Chase got into a bad pattern earlier this week and was up in the middle of the night and then again at 5am. The last two nights were better, but there's no way to know when it will deteriorate again. :-(

Best moment of the week: Stephen feeling the baby kick
 
Miss anything? My old clothes 

Cravings: I've been eating a lot of chocolate, but not craving it per se.

Anything making you queasy? I had headaches again this week. No good.
Gender: Baby Boy

Mood: I was in a funk this week. I'm really feeling the pull of the working mom these days.

Looking forward to: More family visits this weekend! And it is a long weekend. But I'm not looking forward to some very busy days at work next week. oy.

Chase at 19 months!

(note, we updated the 18 month post with pictures)

It's so funny to look back at the pictures of little-bitty baby Chase and compare them to the funny, active, adventurous, talkative toddler we have today. He really is quite a person, with distinct likes and dislikes and ways to voice his opinions. Chase is also a daredevil and is becoming less worried about "fall down" as he learns he can climb up on almost everything.

At 19 months, Chase is:

Talking and Singing: Again, I can't list all of his new words, but he has something new to say almost every day. He repeats phrases like "Daddy feed bitty birdie." (He calls the birds that eat on our bird-feeder "bitty birdie. Not sure why). This month he also started telling us what songs he likes to sing and really singing along. Baa Baa Blacksheep, Elmo had 4 Ducks, and 6 Little Ducks are among his favorites--he likes quacking.

Peeing on the potty: (!!!!!) Chase has peed on his potty at least 10 times. We ask him if he wants to go pee-pee on the potty and he says yes, so we take off the diaper and put him on the potty and he pees! We cheer him on and celebrate like it's New Years Eve. We even do the "Pee-Pee on the Pah-tay" dance. Chase is especially good about doing it before baths and early in the morning. We're not trying to get our hopes up because he doesn't show a lot of the signs of being ready to potty train, but we're still happy about this development.

Starting to sleep later: I really don't want to jinx myself by writing this, but Chase has started to sleep later. He even slept past 7am a few days in a row! Twice he woke up around 5:45 and we rocked him back to sleep and he stayed down until almost 8am. Again, I hate to get my hopes up, but maybe he is catching on to how cool sleep really is (especially for his pregnant mommy).

A daredevil: He's started climbing his bookcase....and on the coffee table....and up on all of the chairs...and on the railings on the outside of the stairs.

Getting used to daycare: This month Chase transitioned to daycare. For reasons beyond our control (and not to our liking), our nanny share dissolved and we had to give up our fabulous nanny, Carol. Chase started in an in-home daycare around the corner from our house. The first couple of weeks were rough--he was happy to be around other kids but missed Carol, was sad he couldn't play outside as much, did not adjust well to the new 1-nap schedule, and (worst of all) cried every time I left him there. But they are very good to him and he likes the kids and caregivers so things have gotten much better. I still wouldn't say that he is excited when we arrive, but he gives me a kiss and goes to one of the ladies or goes to play. He still gets excited when we see Carol and yells "CAROL!" when we tell him that she is coming to visit.

Making best friends with Mueller: Chase knows where Mueller's treats are and likes to give them to him often. It's not uncommon for him to give Mueller 3 treats in a row (or shove one in Mueller's mouth while he's still eating). Mueller is very patient with Chase....this only helps!

Not quite throwing tantrums, but...Coming pretty close. There are a number of things he does not like such as having his diaper changed, taking away a toy he is playing with, catching him when he is trying to run away (even in busy parking lots) or waiting for his "Nigh nigh bah bah". He's been known to throw a fit, although it's usually short of a full blown tantrum. So far there is crying and whining but no screaming. We also steer clear of taking him out to eat when it will be a long wait and try to avoid stores because we are not prepared for a full blown public tantrum.

Getting ready for Christmas: Chase loves the Christmas tree, especially "the balls!" on it. We put lights up all over the first floor for our holiday party this weekend that Chase insists we turn on. He plays music in his Charlie Brown Christmas book. He knows Santa says "ho ho ho ho," although he would NOT go anywhere near Santa when we were at the mall the other day. He moves the ornaments on our Advent Calendars and even hurried Christmas along by putting them ALL up. Every day Chase counts down to Christmas by gluing more cotton to Santa's beard. I'm excited to share his excitement this year.

And now for some more (low-quality iPhone) pictures!

Playing with Mama's brushes:

On the CHOO CHOO at the mall

Wearing his Red Sox hat that he put on all by himself.