Craving? Or a New Discovery?

When I was pregnant with Chase I didn't have any cravings at all, really. This time I'm not quite sure if I am having a craving or if I have just discovered the most unbelievable flavor combination known to man. Ready for it?

Plain Hershey's chocolate + unsweetened iced tea = HEAVEN!

It happened by accident (which is why I'm thinking it wasn't a craving). I was eating a miniature plain Hershey bar (or 2... or 3...) and I needed something to drink. We were out of milk so I reached for my iced tea. Oh. My. God. It is awesome! The combination of bitter and sweet is unbelievable.

So, folks, I need your help. I need you to try this unlikely pairing and let me know if this pregnant lady is crazy or if I'm really onto something here! It has to be a plain Hershey bar... nothing fancy... just pure milk chocolate, and UNsweetened iced tea. You sweet tea drinkers, sorry.... This combination will most likely not work for you.

Anyway, try it and let me know what you think!

MAN I want some right now!

Conversations With a 3-Year-Old: Shut Up!

I'm in trouble. Over Christmas break I heard Chase saying, "shut up" over and over while playing by himself. I said, "Chase, we don't say 'shut up.' It isn't nice." I wasn't quite sure where he had gotten that. Then I figured it out.

It's me.

I say "shut up" a lot, apparently. Not as in "be quiet" but as in "no WAY!" Like:

Friend: Did you hear So-and-So got a nose job?
Me: Shut UP!
Friend: It's true!

Well, now I'm in trouble. Because every time Brian says something to me and I respond with, "Shut up!" I hear, "Mommy, don't say 'shut up.' That's not nice. You need to go to time out." My favorite was when I was talking to Brian on the phone in the car and Chase said from the backseat, "Mommy, if I hear you say 'shut up' one more time, I'm going to have to put you in time out!"

I have been to time out more than Chase has in the past couple weeks.

Christmas Break

OK, so I know I said I would get this posted a week ago. Sorry! To make up for it, I'm going to include tons of pictures in this post!

Christmas morning we got up and opened presents! Chase was really excited to see that Santa ate his milk and cookies, and fed the carrots to the reindeer! His gift from Santa this year was a fun, winding race track for his cars:

Grandma and Grandpa K got him some fun things, too!

After we were done opening gifts Brian and I finished packing up while Chase got to play with his new toys (or in this case, IN them!):

When we were all set to go, we headed to the airport to fly to Tampa to visit family! Chase was great on both flights there (phew)! I was so worried after that horrific flight home from Idaho this summer, but we discovered the beauty of media entertainment this time. We downloaded some Nick Jr. TV shows (Dora, Diego, etc.) onto my iPod for the trip and anytime he got antsy we just stuck the headphones on him, turned the iPod on and he was zoned in. What did people do before this luxury? We will never get on a plane without it again.

When we got to Florida it was pretty late so Chase went right to bed, but in the morning he had more Christmas gifts waiting for him!

The next day we drove to Sun City Center to visit my Grandma Paine (Chase's only living great-grandparent):

We had a nice time visiting with her, but Chase was very antsy and whiny, especially when he found out the cool train set he fell in love with in the lobby was broken. I was disappointed he wasn't in better spirits for his visit with his great-grandma, but hey... he's 3! You can't win 'em all, I guess.

Next stop on our visit was the Tampa aquarium, where Aunt Jen won Chase over with her marine knowledge and infectious enthusiasm!

Grandma and Grandpa W took us to St. Pete's where we had fun at the pier...

...and got up close and personal with a pelican:

Then we headed to Orlando for a few days. On the way there we stopped at a rest area and were alarmed/amused at this sign posted there:

We told Chase he was going to be able to go swimming in Florida, and as soon as we arrived at the resort we saw the pools... and his eyes lit up. Trouble was, it was 54 degrees outside. Aw, who cares? We're on vacation, right? Brian is such a good dad....

They hopped around, testing all the "heated" pools to see which one was the most bearable. This one didn't win (Chase's face says it all - click on the picture to see it better!):

But he loved every second of it:

They finally found a not-so-boiling hot tub to swim in, while Shiela and I shivered on the sidelines:

While in Orlando, we went to Gatorland:

We saw, well, lots of gators... and there was a petting zoo...

...and an aviary:

I do NOT do aviaries, so I took photos from the outside, and managed to get this shot of a bird landing on Chase's head (which he wasn't a fan of, by the way):

I also got this shot of Brian right before he told me Chase fell and landed in a plethora of bird waste (look at his face!):

But I think the hit at Gatorland for Chase was getting to ride the train! He and Grandma strained to see the train coming around the corner:

After waiting for what seemed like an eternity, Chase finally got to ride:

This boy LOVES his trains!

One thing I love about hanging out with someone else who loves taking pictures is the fact that I actually get to be on the other side of the camera sometimes! Brian's dad asked us to pose for a couples pic and I was so excited, but my lovely husband has that, "Really, Dad? I have to smile for ANOTHER picture?!?" look on his face. *sigh* We tried!

We went to Downtown Disney and ate at the coolest restaurant:

And afterwards Chase dragged his grandparents up and down the streets...

...and conned them into some free rides:

Grandma and Grandpa took Chase back to Tampa with them one day early so Brian and I could have New Year's Eve to ourselves in Orlando. It was so nice! While Brian and I shopped and watched the Mizzou game, Grandma and Grandpa took the opportunity to bond with their grandsons and took them to the beach. When we got back, Brian and I heard all about it from Chase. He especially loved burying Ryan in the sand, apparently!

Finally, Aunt Jen took us to see her office and marine lab, where Chase got to help feed the marine animals:

And he also got to hold some things, including this starfish:

I was amazed at how fearless he was when it came to touching and holding the animals. He even touched a crab!

While we were in town we even managed a big dinner out to see Brian's Aunt Carol, Uncle Rodney, Aunt Elaine, Uncle Carl, his cousin Jason and his wife, Glenne, and their son Smith... who is just a little younger than Chase. They had a great time playing with trains at the restaurant together.

One of the last outings we had in Tampa was a trip to Celebration Station, where everyone but Elmer and me rode the go-carts. They had so much fun!

Chase and his cousin Ryan had such a blast playing together. I have been a little nervous about having two kids, not sure if we could really handle two at once, but after watching Chase and Ryan entertain each other for hours I thought, "You know what? This could be nice!"

Our flight back was a bit of an adventure. We had a connection through Dallas and learned our flight back to Killeen was cancelled. We were originally told we could get out the next morning and they would put us up in a hotel. Not ideal, since I had to work the next day and we didn't have our luggage (meaning Chase would have to live on the 2 diapers I had in my bag), but we thought we could manage. We were then told they wouldn't be able to get us out until the NEXT day, putting us in a hotel for 2 nights without luggage... and that just wasn't doable. So we hunted around for a rental car place that would allow us to do a one-way carseat rental as well, and ended up driving the 2 1/2 hours home. $160 for 2 1/2 hours... crazy! But we got home and now Brian is trying to get some reimbursement from the airline. Chase was an ANGEL through all of this, by the way. He could have made the whole ordeal so much more stressful but he was perfect. Phew! Makes up for that horrible Idaho flight experience, I think! :)

There are LOTS more photos posted in our Photo Album if you're interested!

Conversations With a 32-Year-Old: New Addition

Brian and I are expecting a new addition to our family this July! Yes, Chase is going to be a big brother. I am due July 6th.

And yes, you read the post title correctly, by the way. This started out as a "Conversation with a 3-Year-Old" when we told Chase about the baby, but then my husband interjected and, well... the conversation took a whole other turn. See for yourself:

Me: Chase, do you know what's in Mommy's belly?
Chase: Ummm.... Food?
Me: Yes, but there's also a baby in there!
Brian: Yeah, Mommy ate a baby!

I'm sure Chase sleeps with one eye open now, afraid I'm going to eat him, too! Thanks, hubby.

Anyway, Chase isn't quite sure what's going on yet. He plays along with us but I don't think he'll really get it til I get bigger and he can feel the baby move, etc.

This is definitely going to be an adventure (can we REALLY handle TWO of them?!?), but we're excited.

I'll keep you all updated as things progress. At this point I'm a little over 14 weeks along. Not much has happened except we got to hear the heartbeat on Tuesday and it was good and strong (162). I have been struggling with some "morning" (all day) sickness, but it has been nowhere near as bad as it was with Chase (phew)! Hopefully that all goes away soon.

Here's to 2010 being another new adventure for us!

P.S. We asked Chase what the baby's name was and he said, "Two! Cuz I'm three!" So I guess this baby will be known as "Baby Two" before it's born, per his/her older brother's request.

We're Home!

We just got home from our vacation with Brian's family in Florida, after some interesting travel drama today! I have photos and stories and such to share, but no time at the moment. Look forward to them sometime this week (I promise)!

Conversations With a 2-Year-Old: The Value of Money

This conversation took place the day before Chase's 3rd birthday.

At Christmastime we usually find a family to help out with Christmas gifts. This year our school sponsored some families of needy students and I sponsored a 4-year-old sibling of one of our students. I chose a small child because I wanted to involve Chase this year to try to teach him about the spirit of giving and all that good stuff. I wasn't sure how much he would understand but I really wanted to try.

Now because of confidentiality I didn't actually know who we were sponsoring, but we thought it might help Chase if we had a picture of a kid we could show him. So Brian printed a picture of a random little boy off the internet and we told him this little kid didn't have many things so we were going to buy him some presents for Christmas. On the way to Target I worked hard to explain things to him, pointing out that while he has lots of toys and clothes, some people don't have a lot of things. He seemed to be getting it pretty well and the whole shopping experience was a good one. He helped pick out the items for the little boy, saying things like, "I think the little boy would like this one!" and "Ooh, the little boy would love that!"

On the way home we talked some more about it and in the midst of our conversation Chase said, "Mommy, the little boy doesn't have money?" I was floored. Not once in my explanation of what we were doing did I mention money, because I thought there was no way he would understand that concept. It was all about "stuff" and how Chase has more things than other kids have. How in the world did my 2-year-old understand that the reason the little boy didn't have things was because he didn't have much money? That just blew my mind!

At any rate, he got it. And I was so thrilled he got it. We are so fortunate and I really want to be sure Chase understands and values that, while embracing the concept of giving.

He did so well. The next day we brought him to my school so he could give our organizer the gifts. He handed them right over to her and said, "These are for the little boy." She thanked him and he said something like, "I have lots of stuff. I have trains and cars and balls...."

Talk about a tear-jerker! Man, I love my little boy!

Conversations With a 2-Year-Old: Cleaning House

I can still say "Conversations With a 2-Year-Old" because he was 2 at the time.... I just forgot to post this until now!

Brian has wanted some Cutco knives for the longest time. He finally decided to get some and if you have a sales rep come to your house for a demonstration you get free stuff (vs. ordering online)! So Brian and I were cleaning up the house a bit to prepare for the sales guy's arrival when Chase stopped what he was doing, looked up at us and said:

"Who's coming over?"

Brian and I stopped what we were doing and just stared at each other in disbelief. We hadn't said anything to Chase about anyone coming over. He just knew someone was coming to visit because we were CLEANING!

I guess we should clean more often.