Sunday, September 30, 2007

He's a Singin' Dancin' Piano Man!

It was a Mother/Son bonding weekend for Chase and me. While Brian taught his weekend class at Argosy we got to hang out and play all weekend long, just the 2 of us! Of course he did get a fever Friday night which almost ruined our plans, but after a trip to the doctor on Saturday afternoon he was feeling much better.

Just thought I'd share this video clip of Chase jammin' at his piano (and this is the tame version)! He LOVES this video of himself, by the way. It makes him laugh every time. ;)

Now THAT'S entertainment!

P.S. I LOVE that I can download videos right to Blogger now vs. going through YouTube. I'm sure you'll see much more videos posted as a result!

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Vegas, Baby!!

We just got back from Las Vegas! We spent 4 days there with our friends Katie and Ryan while Chase spent the weekend at “Camp Grandma & Grandpa W.” Highlights from our trip:
  • Shopping with Katie at Caesars Palace while Brian and Ryan followed us around with drinks (so everyone was happy)!
  • Stomp Out Loud. What an incredible show. I had seen Stomp about 15 years ago (yes, that does make me feel old) and it was pretty much what I remembered, but still incredibly amazing to see.
  • We saw a comedy magic show (the Mac King Comedy Magic Show, though Mac King was out and someone else filled in), and the best part was laughing at stupid people in the audience. “Name one of the 50 states.” “Canada!”
  • GOOD EATS. I’m sure I gained 10 pounds but I’m afraid to get on the scale to check. It was worth it, though! We got a chance to go back to Battistas for AMAZING Italian. People leave their business cards all over the walls there so I put one of my Soapbox cards up (I feel so special)!
  • Dueling pianos at the Bar at Times Square in New York New York. Those guys have to make a fortune! We're sure in the 1 hour we were there they made a minimum of $500 in tips from song requests.
  • Dancing all night with Katie at Polly Esthers in the Stratosphere. We were SO tired before we left (so much so that we had to “pep talk” each other into getting ready vs. climbing into bed... like we did the night before!) and when the boys dropped us off we told them we would probably be back in an hour, we were so tired. Well, we ended up dancing non-stop until they closed at 4am… just like old times! My legs are paying for it, though… they are SO SORE.
  • Massages at the hotel spa the next day. The boys chose to watch football instead but it was just the afternoon Katie and I needed to recoop from our night of dancing before. The massage therapist asked me, "is there any particular area you would like me to concentrate on?" and I barely let her finish. "MY LEGS AND FEET ARE KILLING ME." It was heavenly.

Lowlights:

  • We lost $$ (Oh, well.... It was worth it!)!

Highlights of Chase's weekend with Grandma & Grandpa W:

  • Giving Grandpa the opportunity to change his first disposable diaper
  • Giving Grandma the opportunity to scrub poop out of her carpet
  • Waking Grandma and Grandpa up at 4am the last 2 nights he was there
  • Getting new toys and books and clothes!
  • Taking lots of walks
  • Feeding the ducks and fish where his Grandma Janice is buried
  • Meeting the Wilburs and Aunt Lauren

Photos of our trip are now posted in our Photo Album!

Monday, September 17, 2007

9 Months!

Chase turned 9 months old yesterday, so here is his 9 month photo!

Click here to compare it to his 8 month photo!

You can see more teeth in this photo than the others. He now has EIGHT of them! Chase also went to the doctor today and he is now 20 lbs (50th percentile) and 28 1/2" long (60th percentile).

His slideshow has been updated on Chase's Info Page if you're interested in seeing the progression. [Update 1/18/08: This page no longer exists. If you would like me to email you a slideshow of the progression, let me know!]

Random photos taken over the last month are also posted in our Photo Album (labeled "Chase: 8 Months - Misc.").

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Edwards Apple Orchard

It was a perfect fall day yesterday for our annual trip to Edwards Apple Orchard, and this time we had an extra person in tow! Chase got to try some of Brian's favorite apples (Honeycrisp) and a little of my apple pie (and MAN did he like THAT)! We saw some animals and listened to the band for awhile, and just because we couldn't resist, we stuck him in a barrel of pumpkins in the middle of their country store and snapped this quick pic. If I hadn't been in such a hurry to get out of there before someone gasped, "What is that mother doing putting her kid in the produce?!?" I would have taken the time to try to get a better one!

Photos of our day are now posted in our Photo Album!

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Scrapbooking and Such

Last weekend Brian had to teach a weekend class at Argosy so my mom came to Chicago to do some scrapbooking and play with her favorite grandson (I can say that because he's her ONLY grandson)! We bought out Archivers and I finally started on Chase's baby album. I only got through the first three months of his life but at least I got started!

To see the photos my mom took this weekend, click here!

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Atlanta

(I tried to come up with a more clever title but my brain is not functioning.)

I had to go to Atlanta for an all-day meeting yesterday. I flew in Monday night and out Tuesday night. It would have been a pretty boring trip but I took the opportunity to have dinner with my wonderful friend Janet while I was there! She is doing an internship about an hour and a half away and she was kind enough to drive all the way over to have dinner with me! As always, I learned so much from her... about horse acupuncture, camel dentistry and the unbelievably exciting (*drum roll, please*)... World Rabies Day!! (Next year I'm totally throwing a party for it.) I'm afraid all I had to offer her were stories of boogers and poop. Come to think of it, she had some of those stories for me, too.

So, anyway, Monday night in Atlanta was fun. Tuesday night was not. My plane was delayed and I spent many hours in the airport watching a special on Osama Bin Laden that was playing on all the TV's. Now maybe I'm overreacting but it just seemed a bit tasteless and insensitive to play that on 9/11 in the airport. At any rate, I came out of it all with just a mild case of sleep deprivation (hence my lack of brain function for a snappy title to this blog).

Z z z z z z z z z z z z . . . .

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Nesting and Forbidden Toys

I'm finally nesting. Leave it to me to procrastinate nesting, which I should have done a year ago... BEFORE Chase was born! But now that he's crawling around I'm freaking out about our incredibly messy house and starting to go nuts cleaning stuff out and everything. I just don't need to turn around one day to find Chase has swallowed a lost tube sock or something. So this weekend I got brave and looked under the bed to see what fun things Chase could find there. Let's see... A pack of gum, underwear, a couple cat toys and a slurpee cup top. All of which were Brian's, I might add. Well, except the cat toys.

But seriously.... Anything Chase can't have, he wants. Everyone told me this but now that I've seen it with my own eyes I feel like I can pass it along as advice: When you have kids, don't buy toys. They will want to play with the stapler instead. The photo above illustrates my point. Aunt Jen's credit card was the ONLY thing that would get him to quiet down while we were all out to eat in St. Louis a couple months ago.

Chase's new favorite toy is a prescription pill bottle. He found it from when I had the flu this summer and it was apparently a really fun rattle. So I cleaned it out and filled it with Cheerios just in case he was a super genius and figured out how to open the childproof cap. It wasn't until we went out to Taco Bell yesterday and everyone was staring at us funny that I looked at my son, the bottle shoved in his mouth, and thought, "This probably looks really bad...."

Saturday, September 1, 2007

Last Zoo Trip of the Summer

I took some time off work Friday afternoon to join Brian and Chase on their last zoo trip of the summer. We pet the stingrays (Chase pretty much just splashed in the water) and checked out some of the other animals. Goodbye, summer! Can you believe it?!?

More photos of our day are posted in our Photo Album!

Our Blog Has Moved!

Check us out at  3c-family.com !