Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Conversations with a 3-Year-Old: Eye for an Eye

So I picked Chase up from daycare yesterday and he was just standing there, crying. I asked him what happened and after he finally calmed down he told me another kid hit him. I said, "Chase, you need to go over there and tell that kid he can't hit you, that it's not nice and you don't like it." He wouldn't do it so I just got him calmed down and we walked out to the car. I have been working so hard to get him to be assertive with his words, so when we got in the car I said, "OK, Chase. So what do you do if someone hits you?" His response:

"Jimmy says I should hit them back and then they won't hurt me anymore."

My jaw just dropped. At three years old he's already learning that it's OK to hit someone if they hit you first. Ummmmm.... NO! So we spent a lot of time in the car on the way home talking about how we don't ever hit back, yadda yadda yadda.

Now I know there are opposing views on this subject out there, but I struggle daily with my middle school students, trying to convince them not to fight. I mean, in the world it doesn't matter who hits who first. Did you hit someone? You're in trouble. In school: You're suspended. In the workplace: You're fired. In life: You're going to jail. My principal gave me this amazing quote that I will never forget:

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. -Ghandi

I didn't realize I was going to have to start teaching Chase this lesson so early in his life!

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Vote for Chase!

So I heard about this Parents magazine cover photo contest and I thought I had a good photo to submit, being all proud of my recent photo shoot with Chase on the trains in Temple. I assumed I was submitting my photo, but in reality I guess I submitted Chase's face in a contest to go to New York for a photo shoot for the cover photo. Oops! I didn't know I was entering Chase in a modeling contest (I thought it was a cute photo contest!), but I guess now that he's entered I might as well try to get him some votes! To vote for our cutie pie, CLICK HERE! [Update: Voting is closed. Thanks to all who voted!]

Friday, April 16, 2010

Green Thumb

Chase loves to help Daddy with his yardwork/gardening. He was fascinated with the plants he bought for our front porch and just had to help!

First we had to get the old dirt out of the planters:


Then we put the plant in:


Unfortunately some dirt fell onto the front porch and Chase had to point out that we were making a mess and needed to clean it up (he's so anal!):


Finally, we finished the job by filling the planter with new dirt!


"Did I do good, Daddy?"


More photos coming soon to our Photo Album!

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Conversations With a 3-Year-Old: Baby Mine

Tonight after I sang Chase his bedtime songs we laid there for a minute and when I was about to leave he wanted to sing more, so I suggested he sing a song to the baby. I wasn't sure he would go for it, but he embraced the opportunity. He sat up in bed, looked directly at my belly, leaned in and said, "Baby, what song do you want me to sing?" I told him to pick his favorite song and he chose "Hush Little Baby." He proceeded to sing the entire song to my stomach by himself, stopping a few times along the way to look at me for a line prompt. When he was done he said, "Baby, what song do you want me to sing next?" I thought it was so sweet he wanted to keep singing so I told him to pick another one he thought the baby might like. He chose "Shine On Harvest Moon," and much to my surprise he knew all the words to the entire song! I thought that would be it, but nooooo.... My boy was just getting warmed up! "Baby, what song do you want me to sing next?" I told him to pick one more of his favorite songs and he chose "Baby Mine." That one is a bit tougher.

Side story: If you don't know the song, Bette Midler sang it in "Beaches" and I specifically learned the song before Chase was born because I have always thought it was a beautiful one and that it would make a great lullaby. Unfortunately after Chase was born he SCREAMED every time I started singing it, which totally broke my heart. So I am thrilled that he finally likes it. ANYWAY... back to the story.

So he started "Baby Mine," but like I said, it's a bit more complicated than the others and he was having some issues with lyrics. So I decided to help him out along the way by singing the first few words of a phrase to prompt him. My mistake!

"Mommy, no! I'm singing the song to the baby. Don't sing with me!"

I did as I was told and when he was done he leaned in and said, "Baby, did you love the songs?" I whispered a "yes" and his eyes got really big and his face just lit up with the biggest grin. He then gave my belly a kiss and told the baby goodnight.

Talk about a tear-jerker! I love this little boy! He's going to be a fabulous big brother.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Bloomin' Temple Festival

We found a festival not too far from us today, so we decided to check it out! It turned out to be a really fun day. The festival was right along a railroad track with a railroad museum, so Chase was in HEAVEN. He loves his trains!

He got a super cool bubble gun that he used to shoot us with, while entertaining everyone around him!

He also rode on his first ever carnival rides and loved them!

And at the end of our day he was very patient while I snapped some photos of him on one of the cool museum train cars (OK, so I bribed him with treats):

You gotta love that cheesy grin!!

More photos of our day are in our Photo Album if you're interested!

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Sticker Fun

We had a pretty lazy day at our house. Well, "lazy" meaning we didn't go out and do anything exciting. Chase has entered a stage where he doesn't want to play by himself anymore, so he keeps us running around constantly. Some activities I am good with, others take more stamina than my prego body can sometimes deal with. Our fun with stickers this afternoon was an activity I could handle:

It will be interesting to see what happens when the baby comes and we can't constantly play with him like he wants us to these days!

Brian and I both agree that we should really take advantage of this time when he WANTS to hang out with us and WANTS us to play with him, because we know there will come a day when he doesn't want anything to do with his totally uncool parents, and when that happens we will be sad. But at the same time.... It's exhausting!

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Chase's Artwork

Chase was very proud of his art at daycare today, so I told him there was a way we could put his pictures on the computer so everyone could see them!

Chase would like me to write, "Come see my pictures!"

(The second one is a painting with really light colors on white paper, so sorry it's harder to see!)

I'm going to start an artwork slideshow for the "Chase's Corner" page and keep some of his artwork on there, if you're interested!

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Hoppy Easter!

The Easter Bunny came! The Easter Bunny came! We had a great Easter today. First, Chase discovered his Easter basket filled by you-know-who!

Then we went on an Easter egg hunt:

Some eggs were filled with SPIDERS!

Then we opened some gifts from grandparents. I found this photo of Chase (eagerly waiting for Daddy to open one of his new cars) especially funny:

(The grass made the bottoms of Chase's pants wet and he does NOT like to be wet.)

One of the fun things the Easter Bunny left in Chase's basket was sidewalk chalk, and we had lots of fun playing with it outside!

Brian and I stretched our artistic abilities to their limits. Here is Brian's masterpiece:

And here's mine:

Then we made chalk outlines of ourselves!

(Chase is wearing my sunglasses because it was so bright staring straight up!)

I tried to take a picture of all three of our outlines but it's really hard to see them. At any rate, it looks like we have a crime scene in our driveway. Ha ha!

Happy Easter!

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Easter Egg Decorating

Today we decorated our eggs for the Easter Bunny! First we colored them...

...with a fun little spinning contraption...

...which Chase totally got into!

He and Daddy had a pouting war to see who should spin the egg around next:

Then we decorated them as monsters!

Chase had to show me some good monster faces of his own, of course!

And finally, a masterpiece!

We're looking forward to the Easter Bunny's arrival!

Friday, April 2, 2010

Sock War

Chase woke me up this morning and when I crawled out from under the covers I noticed he had taken his socks off and left them on the floor by my side of the bed. I asked him what his socks were doing there and he said, "I have to put them there or Daddy will take them!" I had no idea Brian was a sock thief! Anyway, it started a little game between them and while we were eating breakfast Brian came out of our room with Chase's socks on (which Chase thought was hilarious). After breakfast Chase disappeared for a minute into our room and when we turned around we saw this:

It was such a proud display!

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