Sometimes, we need a 2nd bath

Chase had a pretty long day yesterday - his first visit to the dentist, lunch at Daddy's school, and a late nap. So we were pretty sure bedtime would be easy. But Chase had other plans.

Things started out easy enough - he ate a lot at dinner, and was happy to splash in the bath. We brushed teeth, got into PJs, had some milkies. But then he noticed something on the table. Daddy had brought home notes and presents from last week's "Teacher Appreciation Week." So we let Chase help Daddy open the notes. Ripping paper is a lot of fun for 15-month-olds!

Among the gifts was a small bag of foil wrapped chocolate hearts. Chase is in a phase where he loves to take things out of containers and put them back, or into other containers. These hearts were great fun for him to play with - first he took them out of the bag, then he put them back in. Then he took some out and put them on the table. Then put them back in the bag. Then he took them out of the bag one-by-one and handed them to Daddy. Who wisely hid them under a sweatshirt. That last heart, though? He wouldn't let it go, even when both Mama and Daddy emphatically insisted it was bedtime and time to let go of all toys and similar items.

Oh, well, though Daddy. At least I'll know when he's asleep because he'll drop it. So off to the bedroom they went. Daddy began to rock Chase to sleep and Mama settled into her chair with her knitting. Ah, peace!

Then, a plaintive cry from the other room. "Mama? We could use some help in here...and you might want to bring the camera." So I grabbed the camera and went off to Chase's room. Where I found this:

As you might have suspected by now, that is melted chocolate in his hair. And all over his hands. And in his ear. And on Daddy's shirt. Oh, my!

Mama tried not to laugh too hard while she undressed Chase. We plopped him into the kitchen sink, which has a sprayer - easier to get the chocolate-covered portions of the baby while not completely redoing bath-time or refilling the tub.

Chase fell asleep pretty quickly the second time. No less sweet for being covered not with chocolate but with mama kisses instead.

Two cute

I have a backlog of photos I want to share, but I'm too tired tonight to do that. Instead, I'm posting because I want to remember these two really cute and incredible things Chase did today.

First, we were in the living room and he was standing with one hand on his little walker-wagon and one hand on my leg. He'd been trying to get to my cell phone - and becoming very upset when I wouldn't hand it over - so I handed him his cell (an old inactive one we had in the garage). he was so excited to grab it, he did so with TWO hands - letting go of both of his supports. I don't think he really noticed; he was intent on opening the cell, standing wide legged and only a bit wobbly while I grinned for ear to ear and shouted (in my head) "Look at you! You're STANDING!!!" After about 10 seconds, he started to wobble, and rested his hand on my leg while he sank to kneeling. He did it again this evening, just letting go and standing for a few seconds. I don't think he'll be walking by his 14-month birthday (another week), but it won't be long now.

A little later, we were sitting on the kitchen floor, where he was insisting on drinking a strawberry smoothie from a "big boy cup" without any help from Mama. We both had our legs out in front of us and we were facing each other, with Chase between my knees. Well, he must have gotten frustrated with how I kept helping him and reminding him to hold the cup steady (and then reminding him to "tip it a little more" when he was trying to drink) - he suddenly pushed on the floor with his heels and spun around, facing away from me! This made him giggle. He took another sip of smoothie (and dribbled a little on the floor), then did it again, ending up facing me. Another giggle, another sip, more spinning. Soon he was just spinning himself around and around, stopping every once in a while to giggle and sip more smoothie. :-D OMG, I about died holding in my own laughter.

By the time he was done, there were plops of strawberry smoothie all over the floor, a dab of strawberry in his hair, and several dribbles of strawberry down his shirt. Addie (our dog) and I both took a stab at cleaning the floor, then Chase got a bath to wash off all the sticky. (He did more cute stuff in the bath, but I said I'd talk about two things...)

Gosh, I love my boy!

Friends and laughter

Chase is getting more "interactive" with his friends lately. A couple of weeks ago, when Grandpa T was visiting, our friend Rebekah stopped by with her daughter, Zel. Zel is a couple of weeks older than Chase, and has an older brother. She is mobile - crawling and pulling up on things, while Chase is still only going in circles and sometimes scooting backwards. He had enough momentum, though, to grab and "kiss" her, as seen in this video.




He gave Liam and Kiran (other baby-friends) much the same treatment when we saw them yesterday. It's so fun to see him interacting with other people; before he'd seemed pretty content to look at them and smile, but now he wants to touch.

Chase also finds weird things funny, like waving blankets and bouncing cloth blocks (again, see video). His favorite, though, are his dad's funny voices. James makes a stuffed giraffe "talk," uses different voices when he reads Chase stories, and sometimes just talks weird. This makes mama smile, too.