Because it's a new year, I decided to start a new blog. This time, it's Chase's blog. (Well, the real reason I started a new blog is because I've exhausted my photo storage limit to post pictures on this blog, so I just decided to start a new one, as I'm too cheap to pay for upgraded storage space.) It's more interesting to see and hear about Chase anyway, especially since he's growing up so fast! Chris can now add his two cents and feel like a part of the blogging world, which has become such a part of my everyday life for the past few years. Besides, our lives revolve around the little guy, and I could use an additional author's point of view!
So, the question is: Will I keep updating my current blog? Well, I have had it for about 4 1/2 years now. It would be sad to just let it go unedited. But, seriously... with a toddler, home improvements, a husband, and a teaching job, who has the time to update 2 blogs? Yes, life must go on.
That being said, please check out Chase's new blog at www.chasetales.blogspot.com
Oh, and Chris, Chase, and I wish you all a happy new year! Welcome to 2009 (I'm going to have to get used to writing that.)!
Thursday, January 01, 2009
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
On New Year's Eve
Wednesday, 31 December 2008
We just returned from a party at the Otakes', bathed Chase, and put him to bed a little after 10 pm - way past his bedtime. He had a very late nap around dinner time, so he wasn't too wired. He was still holding the little princess doll Sky gave him when we left the house, as it was one of the toppings on her birthday cake, as she turned 3 tonight. The fireworks in the valley are getting a bit crazy and LOUD, so it's a good thing we came home when we did. Driving through the smoke and pyromaniacs is not ideal. I am going to go outside on our lanai and video tape a bit so you can see just how crazy it gets. No matter how many times they try to ban illegal fireworks, people always do them here in Hawai'i. Let's just hope Chase sleeps through it all (and I think Chris is sleeping already!). At least it's rainy out, so hopefully my brother Jay won't have to fight too many house fires this evening.
Hope all of you are enjoying ringing in the new year. 2008 seemed to go by so quickly, as we watched Chase turn from a happy baby to a very happy and active toddler. I hear it gets even better. We're looking forward to 2009. It will be the year for home improvements and hopefully working full-time for me. May the new year bring you and your families much joy, luck, and good health.
We just returned from a party at the Otakes', bathed Chase, and put him to bed a little after 10 pm - way past his bedtime. He had a very late nap around dinner time, so he wasn't too wired. He was still holding the little princess doll Sky gave him when we left the house, as it was one of the toppings on her birthday cake, as she turned 3 tonight. The fireworks in the valley are getting a bit crazy and LOUD, so it's a good thing we came home when we did. Driving through the smoke and pyromaniacs is not ideal. I am going to go outside on our lanai and video tape a bit so you can see just how crazy it gets. No matter how many times they try to ban illegal fireworks, people always do them here in Hawai'i. Let's just hope Chase sleeps through it all (and I think Chris is sleeping already!). At least it's rainy out, so hopefully my brother Jay won't have to fight too many house fires this evening.
Hope all of you are enjoying ringing in the new year. 2008 seemed to go by so quickly, as we watched Chase turn from a happy baby to a very happy and active toddler. I hear it gets even better. We're looking forward to 2009. It will be the year for home improvements and hopefully working full-time for me. May the new year bring you and your families much joy, luck, and good health.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Active Chase
Tuesday, 30 December 2008
It's been nice to go to yoga in the morning, so I have the day and evening to myself (although sometimes it wipes me out so I end up taking a mid-morning nap, which might not be so good, but hey, I'm on vacation...I deserve it.).
It's also been fun to play with Chase all day, since he's not at the sitter's this week (though I've still been sending him to the Halsall's a couple days so that I can get some house cleaning done). He's back to his normal, energetic self, over his colds and illnesses. He's so much fun at this age, always doing new things and always laughing. He is quite content playing by himself with his race cars, putting crayons in and out of boxes, or making towers with cups or blocks and then tearing them down (perhaps he's going to be a demolition man when he grows up). It's nice because i can clean the house and cook while he's playing (most of the time - as long as I'm in the same room as him. Otherwise, he follows me like he's my shadow and sticks to me like glue.) He's really into building towers and snapping mega blocks together. In the bath, he lines all his cups up and then stacks them in a tall tower before knocking them all down and laughing hysterically.
He is quite verbal these days too, speaking with a loud gurgling voice and mimicking everything we say...and he's so quick! Gotta watch what comes out of our mouths these days! Today, I was reading a book to him, and I went through the animals once. He pointed to a picture of a bull and said, "Bull". I said, "What?" I'm just amazed at the stuff that comes out of his mouth.
With all these viruses going around, there are always people sneezing and coughing everywhere we go. Chase always covers his mouth and pretends to cough whenever he hears someone sneeze or cough. He remembers to cover his mouth better than some of my kindergartners at school!
We have these Playhut tunnel things I bought awhile back off of Craigslist. You can arrange the tunnels however you want. He loves crawling through and playing hide-and-go-seek in them, running away from anyone that tries to chase him while going through the tunnels. It's nice because you can break them down and fold them flat when you're not using them. But if he sees them just laying there, he immediately wants you to set it up so he can play.
He's really into hiding things behind his back. We'll play this hide-and-go-seek/peek-a-boo game. He'll take toys and put them behind his back. Then we'll go, "Uh-oh? Where did they go?" He'll walk around and turn around, still with the toys behind his back. He figures that if they're behind his back, we can't see them...even though his back is to us. Suddenly, he'll take them and reveal them from behind his back, and start laughing, as if he's saying, "Ha ha! Fooled you! Silly guys! They're right here!"
It's been nice to go to yoga in the morning, so I have the day and evening to myself (although sometimes it wipes me out so I end up taking a mid-morning nap, which might not be so good, but hey, I'm on vacation...I deserve it.).
It's also been fun to play with Chase all day, since he's not at the sitter's this week (though I've still been sending him to the Halsall's a couple days so that I can get some house cleaning done). He's back to his normal, energetic self, over his colds and illnesses. He's so much fun at this age, always doing new things and always laughing. He is quite content playing by himself with his race cars, putting crayons in and out of boxes, or making towers with cups or blocks and then tearing them down (perhaps he's going to be a demolition man when he grows up). It's nice because i can clean the house and cook while he's playing (most of the time - as long as I'm in the same room as him. Otherwise, he follows me like he's my shadow and sticks to me like glue.) He's really into building towers and snapping mega blocks together. In the bath, he lines all his cups up and then stacks them in a tall tower before knocking them all down and laughing hysterically.
He is quite verbal these days too, speaking with a loud gurgling voice and mimicking everything we say...and he's so quick! Gotta watch what comes out of our mouths these days! Today, I was reading a book to him, and I went through the animals once. He pointed to a picture of a bull and said, "Bull". I said, "What?" I'm just amazed at the stuff that comes out of his mouth.
With all these viruses going around, there are always people sneezing and coughing everywhere we go. Chase always covers his mouth and pretends to cough whenever he hears someone sneeze or cough. He remembers to cover his mouth better than some of my kindergartners at school!
We have these Playhut tunnel things I bought awhile back off of Craigslist. You can arrange the tunnels however you want. He loves crawling through and playing hide-and-go-seek in them, running away from anyone that tries to chase him while going through the tunnels. It's nice because you can break them down and fold them flat when you're not using them. But if he sees them just laying there, he immediately wants you to set it up so he can play.
He's really into hiding things behind his back. We'll play this hide-and-go-seek/peek-a-boo game. He'll take toys and put them behind his back. Then we'll go, "Uh-oh? Where did they go?" He'll walk around and turn around, still with the toys behind his back. He figures that if they're behind his back, we can't see them...even though his back is to us. Suddenly, he'll take them and reveal them from behind his back, and start laughing, as if he's saying, "Ha ha! Fooled you! Silly guys! They're right here!"
Saturday, December 27, 2008
BLACKOUT! Chase is 18 Months Old!
Saturday, 27 December 2008
Well, Chase's 18 Month Birthday (as if we're even counting the months!) was a blur because we spent most of the day trying to find food. Why would we do that (other than Tanya being hungry all the time)? Well, like one news reporter said, it was supposed to be a successful Black Friday for retailers...But, it turned out to be "Black" for another reason. Last night, around dinner time, there was a huge lightning and thunder storm. Then, all of a sudden...
At about 7 pm last night, the whole island of O'ahu had a blackout. (Thank goodness we had just pulled the pizza out of the oven, and Chase was just finishing up eating!). The power at our house did not come back until about 2:30 pm this afternoon. With nearly 20 hours without electricity, the Honolulu airport had to cancel flights, sirens were blaring throughout the city (and I worried about our friends with ALS who depend on ventilators - some had to be ambulanced to hospitals, many of which were full), and the whole city basically shut down. Even Barack Obama and his family lost power all night at the house they are vacationing in. No one was spared. Every single house, business, restaurant, and hotel on the island was without electricity all night. Cell phones couldn't be charged, blogs couldn't be updated, the refrigerator couldn't be opened, and the washing machine couldn't finish its cycle. Our evening newspaper was only 5 pages altogether, an indication that no one could get much done with the power out.
We have a panoramic view of Waikiki from our lanai, and at 7 pm last night, all I saw was complete darkness. Surprisingly, a fireworks show still went on by the beach, but it was about the only light visible, as all the street lights in the valley, all the houses across the mountain and below, and all the hotel lights went black. The only lights we could see were the headlights from cars driving through a complete sea of black. We were not well prepared either. The last time we had a blackout was when the earthquake hit in 2006. I remember rushing to my dad's to make sure he was okay. They didn't have a generator to run his bi-pap machine on and had to run a power cord across the street to connect to a neighbor's generator. Even though that was 2 years ago, we didn't have working flashlights or lanterns in the house. Luckily, we found some candles and matches. We bathed Chase by candlelight. Our house sure did smell nice and fragrant by morning! Lots of revelers in the valley decided to light fireworks out of boredom.
I was hoping our power would be back on by morning (especially since I had a load of Chase's clothes sitting in water waiting to go through the rinse cycle.), but this morning, I heard the loud drone of my uncle's generator on the driveway. The power actually came on for a few minutes because I heard Chase's Christmas cd playing. But, it played about one song, then went off again. That was about 6:30 am. I called yoga to see if they had classes. I knew hard core yogis would work out as long as the heaters were working! When I couldn't get through to the studio, I went back to bed. But, I got up again for the 9 am class, and found out that they had electricity! In fact, at that time, much of Kaimuki town had electricity, but our hill did not.
Thank goodness for the solar water heater because I was able to take a hot shower when I got home. Kai and Jason met us to pick up baby furniture and other newborn baby things, then they took us out to lunch for Greek food. We headed to the mall after that, as we knew they were open. Lots of people were there doing the same thing we were, killing time and finding food to eat until the power came back on. Everywhere you went you could hear people talking about the blackout, and whether their houses had power or not. We called my aunt to see if the power came back on before heading home. When we knew the power was on, we went grocery shopping so that I could cook dinner. We only opened the refrigerator once during the blackout, so we figured our food was okay. All of our lights were on by the time we returned. We were able to dry the very wet load of clothes from last night, and I was able to cook dinner.
We had a productive day, amidst the blackout frenzy. I organized Chase's toys in the dark last night, guided only by his REI shark keychain flashlight. We got a new comforter, which we've been needing for these cooler winter nights, on sale at Macy's. And, of course, Chris bought some GI Joe toys at KB Toys, for himself or Chase, I'm still not sure, but Chase sure did have a blast playing with them and talking up a storm about them.
By the way, did I mention that Chase is 18 months old today?! Yep, with his new little boy haircut and tons of energy, our little baby boy is turning into quite an active little toddler!
What Chase is Really Into These Days:
* Watching TV (uh-oh): He actually stayed focused on watching "The Grinch" for about 20 minutes on Christmas Eve, and the next day kept pointing to his Grinch shirt. But, he prefers to read books for sure. I think he's just noticing that the TV has animals and kids on it.
* Playing Peek-A-Boo: He'll cover his eyes and stay still for a LONG time (at least 5 minutes), thinking that if he can't see us, then we can't see him. He'll stay real quiet and still and we'll go, "Where's Chase?" He'll slowly peek an eyeball out and start laughing!
* Making towers of mega blocks (big LEGO type blocks) or any four sided box/block. ...Then knocking them over!
* Saying animal noises when you ask him what sound a certain animal makes. His favorites: "ROAR!" for a tiger or lion & "Moo" for cow
* Climbing and jumping all over Mommy as if she is a human jungle gym. He also loves to climb up steps, run over suspension bridges, and slide down vertical and spiral slides on jungle gyms at parks. He'll do all that, and then run over to do it all over again, about ten times in a row NONSTOP!
* Using his signs and words to communicate:
Words he signs: milk, done, more, hot
He has about 15 words in his vocabulary (including "bus", "bath", "done", "yes", "no", "rice") and he mimics everything else we say.
Chase's main staple has been poi since he was 4 months old, but we're trying to throw more variety of foods into the mix. Although Nana did give him a See's candy chocolate lollipop to lick on Christmas day, we still frown on junk foods. Because he doesn't eat a lot of processed foods, or things with excess sugar or salt, he tends to eat a lot of bland foods. He tells us what he likes and what he doesn't like. We're starting to expand his taste buds.
Now that we have our power back on, we're so grateful for the power of electricity. I plugged in my cell phone, which was on its last bar. I was able to make a home-cooked meal. I could check email and update my blog. Think we better go get new lanterns and flashlights and a battery-operated radio so that we're better equipped the next time we have a blackout.
Tonight, Chase got introduced (meaning Daddy opened the gift for him) to his big Christmas gift, a Strider bicycle, which is a balance bicycle (a bike without pedals) for little guys. He didn't want to keep his helmet on, and he was a little intimidated by the whole balancing on a seat, but he loved spinning the wheels with his hand.
Well, Chase's 18 Month Birthday (as if we're even counting the months!) was a blur because we spent most of the day trying to find food. Why would we do that (other than Tanya being hungry all the time)? Well, like one news reporter said, it was supposed to be a successful Black Friday for retailers...But, it turned out to be "Black" for another reason. Last night, around dinner time, there was a huge lightning and thunder storm. Then, all of a sudden...
At about 7 pm last night, the whole island of O'ahu had a blackout. (Thank goodness we had just pulled the pizza out of the oven, and Chase was just finishing up eating!). The power at our house did not come back until about 2:30 pm this afternoon. With nearly 20 hours without electricity, the Honolulu airport had to cancel flights, sirens were blaring throughout the city (and I worried about our friends with ALS who depend on ventilators - some had to be ambulanced to hospitals, many of which were full), and the whole city basically shut down. Even Barack Obama and his family lost power all night at the house they are vacationing in. No one was spared. Every single house, business, restaurant, and hotel on the island was without electricity all night. Cell phones couldn't be charged, blogs couldn't be updated, the refrigerator couldn't be opened, and the washing machine couldn't finish its cycle. Our evening newspaper was only 5 pages altogether, an indication that no one could get much done with the power out.
We have a panoramic view of Waikiki from our lanai, and at 7 pm last night, all I saw was complete darkness. Surprisingly, a fireworks show still went on by the beach, but it was about the only light visible, as all the street lights in the valley, all the houses across the mountain and below, and all the hotel lights went black. The only lights we could see were the headlights from cars driving through a complete sea of black. We were not well prepared either. The last time we had a blackout was when the earthquake hit in 2006. I remember rushing to my dad's to make sure he was okay. They didn't have a generator to run his bi-pap machine on and had to run a power cord across the street to connect to a neighbor's generator. Even though that was 2 years ago, we didn't have working flashlights or lanterns in the house. Luckily, we found some candles and matches. We bathed Chase by candlelight. Our house sure did smell nice and fragrant by morning! Lots of revelers in the valley decided to light fireworks out of boredom.
I was hoping our power would be back on by morning (especially since I had a load of Chase's clothes sitting in water waiting to go through the rinse cycle.), but this morning, I heard the loud drone of my uncle's generator on the driveway. The power actually came on for a few minutes because I heard Chase's Christmas cd playing. But, it played about one song, then went off again. That was about 6:30 am. I called yoga to see if they had classes. I knew hard core yogis would work out as long as the heaters were working! When I couldn't get through to the studio, I went back to bed. But, I got up again for the 9 am class, and found out that they had electricity! In fact, at that time, much of Kaimuki town had electricity, but our hill did not.
Thank goodness for the solar water heater because I was able to take a hot shower when I got home. Kai and Jason met us to pick up baby furniture and other newborn baby things, then they took us out to lunch for Greek food. We headed to the mall after that, as we knew they were open. Lots of people were there doing the same thing we were, killing time and finding food to eat until the power came back on. Everywhere you went you could hear people talking about the blackout, and whether their houses had power or not. We called my aunt to see if the power came back on before heading home. When we knew the power was on, we went grocery shopping so that I could cook dinner. We only opened the refrigerator once during the blackout, so we figured our food was okay. All of our lights were on by the time we returned. We were able to dry the very wet load of clothes from last night, and I was able to cook dinner.
We had a productive day, amidst the blackout frenzy. I organized Chase's toys in the dark last night, guided only by his REI shark keychain flashlight. We got a new comforter, which we've been needing for these cooler winter nights, on sale at Macy's. And, of course, Chris bought some GI Joe toys at KB Toys, for himself or Chase, I'm still not sure, but Chase sure did have a blast playing with them and talking up a storm about them.
By the way, did I mention that Chase is 18 months old today?! Yep, with his new little boy haircut and tons of energy, our little baby boy is turning into quite an active little toddler!
What Chase is Really Into These Days:
* Watching TV (uh-oh): He actually stayed focused on watching "The Grinch" for about 20 minutes on Christmas Eve, and the next day kept pointing to his Grinch shirt. But, he prefers to read books for sure. I think he's just noticing that the TV has animals and kids on it.
* Playing Peek-A-Boo: He'll cover his eyes and stay still for a LONG time (at least 5 minutes), thinking that if he can't see us, then we can't see him. He'll stay real quiet and still and we'll go, "Where's Chase?" He'll slowly peek an eyeball out and start laughing!
* Making towers of mega blocks (big LEGO type blocks) or any four sided box/block. ...Then knocking them over!
* Saying animal noises when you ask him what sound a certain animal makes. His favorites: "ROAR!" for a tiger or lion & "Moo" for cow
* Climbing and jumping all over Mommy as if she is a human jungle gym. He also loves to climb up steps, run over suspension bridges, and slide down vertical and spiral slides on jungle gyms at parks. He'll do all that, and then run over to do it all over again, about ten times in a row NONSTOP!
* Using his signs and words to communicate:
Words he signs: milk, done, more, hot
He has about 15 words in his vocabulary (including "bus", "bath", "done", "yes", "no", "rice") and he mimics everything else we say.
Chase's main staple has been poi since he was 4 months old, but we're trying to throw more variety of foods into the mix. Although Nana did give him a See's candy chocolate lollipop to lick on Christmas day, we still frown on junk foods. Because he doesn't eat a lot of processed foods, or things with excess sugar or salt, he tends to eat a lot of bland foods. He tells us what he likes and what he doesn't like. We're starting to expand his taste buds.
Now that we have our power back on, we're so grateful for the power of electricity. I plugged in my cell phone, which was on its last bar. I was able to make a home-cooked meal. I could check email and update my blog. Think we better go get new lanterns and flashlights and a battery-operated radio so that we're better equipped the next time we have a blackout.
Tonight, Chase got introduced (meaning Daddy opened the gift for him) to his big Christmas gift, a Strider bicycle, which is a balance bicycle (a bike without pedals) for little guys. He didn't want to keep his helmet on, and he was a little intimidated by the whole balancing on a seat, but he loved spinning the wheels with his hand.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Lots and Lots of Christmas Presents
Christmas was a whole day event, involved with opening presents all day long. We started in the morning at our house. We actually left a few unopened as Chase was more than happy with his first gift, the dump truck of mega blocks from Aunty Melissa. Each time we opened something new, he kept going "Oooh!!! Ooooh!!!" We decided towards the end that we could just leave most of the gifts wrapped and store them away. Even if we opened one a month for the next year, he would be totally ecstatic an wouldn't know the difference.
We continued to open gifts at Nana and Popsicles (aka The Halsall's). We spent 6 hours there, opening gifts eating dinner in between, and opening more gifts. In fact, we weren't sure we were going to be able to finish opening! Chase got a rocking horse from Nana and Popsicle. But, so far, he likes to pile all his stuffed animals on the horse and bounce them around. He is not so sure about sitting on it himself and bouncing around on it. Chase loves his race car track set and his Elmo Live. He's interested in the Strider bike Chris got him, and always says "bies" for "bicycle" when he sees it. Like the horse though, he's a bit intimidated by the whole balancing thing, so as long as we hold him on the bike, and push him around the house, he' fine. He mostly likes to spin the wheels with his hands.
This year, we probably could have gotten away with less presents for Chase (as he really doesn't know what Christmas is all about anyway), but we went a bit overboard. Perhaps I could still put some away and rewrap them for next Christmas?? His birthday??
We continued to open gifts at Nana and Popsicles (aka The Halsall's). We spent 6 hours there, opening gifts eating dinner in between, and opening more gifts. In fact, we weren't sure we were going to be able to finish opening! Chase got a rocking horse from Nana and Popsicle. But, so far, he likes to pile all his stuffed animals on the horse and bounce them around. He is not so sure about sitting on it himself and bouncing around on it. Chase loves his race car track set and his Elmo Live. He's interested in the Strider bike Chris got him, and always says "bies" for "bicycle" when he sees it. Like the horse though, he's a bit intimidated by the whole balancing thing, so as long as we hold him on the bike, and push him around the house, he' fine. He mostly likes to spin the wheels with his hands.
This year, we probably could have gotten away with less presents for Chase (as he really doesn't know what Christmas is all about anyway), but we went a bit overboard. Perhaps I could still put some away and rewrap them for next Christmas?? His birthday??
Mele Kalikimaka!
Thursday, 25 December 2008
Merry Christmas! May you, your families, and loved ones enjoy a wonderful Christmas!
Merry Christmas! May you, your families, and loved ones enjoy a wonderful Christmas!
Send your own ElfYourself eCards
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
On Christmas Eve
Wednesday, 24 December 2008
I unsuccessfully tried to get a Santa picture with Chase. Last year, we passed altogether. This year, I had a feeling Chase would just be scared by Santa since he was scared of the one at Chris' work gathering, and he is scared by most men in beards anyway. But, I figured we could try anyway. Well, for starters, I took him at a bad time...on Christmas Eve, in the middle of the afternoon, when Chase was grouchy and ready for a nap. We actually waited in line, but after 10 minutes of Chase fussing and wiggling, I decided it was time to get out of line and go home. By the time we pulled out of the mall parking lot (and my great parking spot on such a crowded, busy day!), Chase was fast asleep. Probably a good thing we didn't wait to see Santa. It wouldn't have been a great picture. Guess we'll just have to wait till next year.
The best part of today was going to visit Uncle Jay at the fire station. My brother has been a fireman for over 6 years now? But, we haven't yet brought Chase to the fire station. He's about the age where he would start to appreciate it. So, we headed over to the station. We had to wait a little bit until they got back from putting out a fire. Then, we watched Uncle Jay empty the hoses, and he asked if we wanted a ride (but don't tell because civilians aren't supposed to ride in the fire trucks!). We hopped in the back, and Uncle Jay drove the truck into the street and stopped traffic so that he could reverse it the huge ladder truck and park it in the fire station. Chase got to try the steering wheel out for himself afterwards (when the truck was not moving of course).
But, the best part was when Chase noticed the basketballs on top of the lockers. He had fun throwing the ball to his uncle, playing on the exercise equipment, sitting in the jet ski, and hitting the lockers to hear the loud sound they made.
We had dinner at the Halsall's tonight. We decorated the tree after Chase went to sleep, making sure that all the unbreakables are at the bottom and taking a BIG step back to admire the tree (from afar) with the bright blue LED lights. Chase is going to have an exciting day tomorrow....And I wonder what his favorite gift will be? (probably the empty boxes and tissue paper) He's getting lots of new toys and things! What a spoiled kid!
I unsuccessfully tried to get a Santa picture with Chase. Last year, we passed altogether. This year, I had a feeling Chase would just be scared by Santa since he was scared of the one at Chris' work gathering, and he is scared by most men in beards anyway. But, I figured we could try anyway. Well, for starters, I took him at a bad time...on Christmas Eve, in the middle of the afternoon, when Chase was grouchy and ready for a nap. We actually waited in line, but after 10 minutes of Chase fussing and wiggling, I decided it was time to get out of line and go home. By the time we pulled out of the mall parking lot (and my great parking spot on such a crowded, busy day!), Chase was fast asleep. Probably a good thing we didn't wait to see Santa. It wouldn't have been a great picture. Guess we'll just have to wait till next year.
The best part of today was going to visit Uncle Jay at the fire station. My brother has been a fireman for over 6 years now? But, we haven't yet brought Chase to the fire station. He's about the age where he would start to appreciate it. So, we headed over to the station. We had to wait a little bit until they got back from putting out a fire. Then, we watched Uncle Jay empty the hoses, and he asked if we wanted a ride (but don't tell because civilians aren't supposed to ride in the fire trucks!). We hopped in the back, and Uncle Jay drove the truck into the street and stopped traffic so that he could reverse it the huge ladder truck and park it in the fire station. Chase got to try the steering wheel out for himself afterwards (when the truck was not moving of course).
But, the best part was when Chase noticed the basketballs on top of the lockers. He had fun throwing the ball to his uncle, playing on the exercise equipment, sitting in the jet ski, and hitting the lockers to hear the loud sound they made.
We had dinner at the Halsall's tonight. We decorated the tree after Chase went to sleep, making sure that all the unbreakables are at the bottom and taking a BIG step back to admire the tree (from afar) with the bright blue LED lights. Chase is going to have an exciting day tomorrow....And I wonder what his favorite gift will be? (probably the empty boxes and tissue paper) He's getting lots of new toys and things! What a spoiled kid!
Monday, December 22, 2008
Quarantined At Home
Monday, 22 December 2008
Though all my Seattle friends are quarantined in their houses due to snow storms (and I'm so jealous of their amount of snow this year...though lucky I don't have to drive in it), we were quarantined in the house today due to Chase still being sick. It didn't make sense to bring him out, where there's only going to be crowds of people, some of whom are probably sick anyway. He's already battling enough of his own viruses, and I want him to get better by Christmas. So, other than a few errands, we pretty much stayed home most of the day. He watched Signing Time videos so he could learn a few more signs and laugh at all the kids in the videos. He snacked here and there, but still didn't eat a substantial meal. He had more energy today, but I was still worried he might have croup. Doctor thinks it's probably just a wheezing cough and that we should just continue with the nebulizer.
Chase absolutely refused dinner and screamed through his bath. He held on for dear life to the changing table as I struggled to get a diaper and clothes on a screaming baby who was clenching his fists and ankles so tight that I couldn't even properly clothe him for bed. At least we don't have freezing temperatures out. It's okay for him to go to sleep in just a diaper. It took him some milk and mommy's hugs to get him to fall asleep. Poor baby. Late this afternoon, though, he actually had fun playing. But of course, his version of playing was ripping up bits of paper towels and taking tissue out of the kleenex box and throwing them behind the sofa. He definitely found humor in that. And then I brought out my old wooden train pull toys that we've had since we were little. Chase had fun with that too. But, he much preferred climbing all over me and sitting in my lap or kissing me on the lips and hugging me, rather than playing with all of his toys. I know he's getting better. Let's hope he's better by Christmas (for his sake and mine!).
Though all my Seattle friends are quarantined in their houses due to snow storms (and I'm so jealous of their amount of snow this year...though lucky I don't have to drive in it), we were quarantined in the house today due to Chase still being sick. It didn't make sense to bring him out, where there's only going to be crowds of people, some of whom are probably sick anyway. He's already battling enough of his own viruses, and I want him to get better by Christmas. So, other than a few errands, we pretty much stayed home most of the day. He watched Signing Time videos so he could learn a few more signs and laugh at all the kids in the videos. He snacked here and there, but still didn't eat a substantial meal. He had more energy today, but I was still worried he might have croup. Doctor thinks it's probably just a wheezing cough and that we should just continue with the nebulizer.
Chase absolutely refused dinner and screamed through his bath. He held on for dear life to the changing table as I struggled to get a diaper and clothes on a screaming baby who was clenching his fists and ankles so tight that I couldn't even properly clothe him for bed. At least we don't have freezing temperatures out. It's okay for him to go to sleep in just a diaper. It took him some milk and mommy's hugs to get him to fall asleep. Poor baby. Late this afternoon, though, he actually had fun playing. But of course, his version of playing was ripping up bits of paper towels and taking tissue out of the kleenex box and throwing them behind the sofa. He definitely found humor in that. And then I brought out my old wooden train pull toys that we've had since we were little. Chase had fun with that too. But, he much preferred climbing all over me and sitting in my lap or kissing me on the lips and hugging me, rather than playing with all of his toys. I know he's getting better. Let's hope he's better by Christmas (for his sake and mine!).
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