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.

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!