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.

I love my guys!

This post might be better suited for the week before Father's Day, instead of the week before Mother's Day, but I really don't care :-D

In talking to other moms, I am constantly reminded how lucky I am to have married such and Involved (and evolved!) Husband and Father. James has often commented on how he wants to be able to do it all; but, alas, the Universe did not bestow the power of lactation upon men, and so he can only do mostly all. And he does - he plays with, diapers, bathes, reads to, and rocks Chase any chance he can get. Watching them together just melts my heart. Just look at some of the moments I captured on film in the past month.

Here they are at the park. James is holding out raisins for Chase to eat.

And here at the top of Mt. Tabor, looking toward downtown Portland. James often wears Chase on our walks, or carries him when we go shopping. Although lately, Chase sometimes prefers to be on the ground, exploring.

Last weekend, James kept Chase busy while I baked and made dinner in the kitchen. I was busy, busy, busy, and bopping away to the radio when it was break time - dinner on the stove, muffins in the oven. I went in the other room to see my guys, wondering why it was so quiet. This is what I found.

Look at how cute Chase is, lovingly snuggled in Daddy's arms!

Earlier that day, we had moved the couch in front of the window. Now Chase can look outside without my having to hold him up. And Daddy can look, too. Isn't this a sweet moment?

There are moments like this every day, but I can't always get my camera out in time to capture them. I knew before I married him that James would be a fantastic father, but I didn't realize how seeing father and child together would so often make me want to smother them both with mama kisses.

First Blood

It had to happen sometime, and I guess I really should be happy it hadn't happened yet.

Chase had his first bleeding owie today.

I was in the garage, with the door to the house open, and Chase was amusing himself by banging on the keyboard of my laptop. I don't know when he realized I wasn't in the room, but I heard him coming - he is very loud when he crawls fast!

I expected him to crawl to the edge of the step and babble and gesture for me to come get him, the way he always does. But either he was going to fast to stop, or he wasn't watching where he was going, because by the time I looked up he was face down on the door mat.

He started crying, so I swept him up and spoke to him the way I do after any tumble. "Oh, baby, are you OK? That must have been surprising, to fall like that. And I bet it hurt, too." I thought at most he'd have a goose egg on whatever part of his face he'd landed on, but when he finally let me look, all I saw was blood. I cleaned it off while he cried (and cried, and cried...) and finally figured out it wasn't a bloody nose as I thought.

It doesn't look like much in this photo, but there's a nasty scrape under his nose. It looks like road rash from the rough scrape-your-boots door mat. Poor little fellow.

I held him and cuddled him and kissed him while he cried, and then put him down for a long and recuperative nap. This afternoon he seemed just fine, although at least one woman at the coffee shop thought he had a bloody nose.

I'm sure we're in for a lot more bumps and scrapes through his life. I just hope they are all as easily cured with mama kisses.

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!

Rock on, baby!

My baby loves his keyboard, yes he does.

A boy and his..er..giraffe

Chase has had a giraffe "thing" for quite a while - his favorite toy off his play mat was a giraffe, and we used to make sure it came with us everywhere. Then someone gave us a second play mat giraffe and that lived on the dining table for a while. And who can forget the giraffe costume at Hallowe'en time?

But the giraffe of all giraffes came to us at Chase's birthday, courtesy of his paternal grandmother. At first, I was a bit skeptical; Chase has many stuffed toys and barely pays attention to any of them. Plus, this one was HUGE. OK , it could have been bigger - we saw one at Goodnight Room that came up to my chin. But still, I admit thinking, "What are we going to do with this??"

Then one morning - and I have no idea why - I decided to make the giraffe talk to Chase. I took hold of it under the "chin", wiggled it's head, and said, "Good morning, Chase. How are you today?" What a smile the giraffe got in response! I couldn't stop. "It's so nice to see you today," the giraffe said. "Can I give you nuzzles?" And the giraffe rubbed his face against Chase's. More smiles!

I've done this for a few weeks now, though not every day. Chase now smiles when the giraffe turns to face him, and I've seen him pet it once or twice. Today, though...well, today, he actually PLAYED with the giraffe.

He pulled it's feet. He rubbed it's tummy.

And he even lay down on it as though to go to sleep.

The trick was on me, though, when I took this position to mean he was ready for a nap. No, my guess is he just wanted to love on this special giraffe a little bit more. Sometimes giraffe "kisses" trump mama kisses, even if they both come from the same place.

A better day

Well, there was no baby insomnia last night. Thank goodness! So, despite the drizzly weather outside, I'm feeling much better this morning. Plus, I get to go to Pilates! Hooray. Then grocery shopping. Not so hooray, except I am making new-to-us meals this week; there's a touch of adventure in that.

Feeling a little blah

As if the title wasn't enough, here's another warning. This isn't a feel-good post.

It seems my desire and creativity for blogging just don't exist anymore. I guess I'm in a waning cycle with blogging, writing, and the Internet.

Blame Chase, I guess. He is very busy, which keeps me busy. If I try to get on the computer while he is awake, he does what he can to reach the keyboard and pound away. Makes it hard to do more than get in quick snatches of reading or commenting. And I'm using the computer for other things, as well - making mothering connections, finding recipes for creative and cheap dinners, figuring out how to better manage my house ('cause I'm terribly disorganized and the house is getting downright dirty), making "green" cleansers at home, and figuring out what to do with my garden.

I try to get online when Chase is napping, as he is now. But there are other things I'd like to do when he's napping, things that are also difficult to do when he's awake. Exercise, cook, clean, knit, read. Some days, it's like I'm cramming seven or eight hours worth of stuff into two, and hoping he doesn't wake up early! Other days, I think "Oh, why bother!" and just watch Martha and the noon news.

The past couple of nights have been Not Good. They haven't been horrible, and certainly not as bad as some of my friends' regular nights with teething toddlers. But they've been Not Good by our standards. Chase has been cutting a molar for two weeks, in addition to an incisor that is still only halfway in (those two appeared within days of each other). On Saturday, I noticed he has another molar popping through. Molars are really terrible. Really. They will be so useful once they are fully in, but in the meantime? Awful.

Knock wood we are healthy, financially secure, and reasonably happy. I'd like four straight hours of sleep and some sunshine, but all in all life is good.

It just hardly seems worth blogging about.

Where's my baby??

Look at this cute little baby...dimpled hands, cheeks so adorable you can't help but pinch them, and long wispy hair.


Someone took this sweet little baby and turned him into a little boy. See?

I know his hair was too long and in his eyes. I know it looks neater this way. But oh! my baby! He looks like such a little boy, now! Luckily, he still acts like my baby ;-)

But even that is changing. And so quickly. Just last week Chase figured out how to move from the coffee table to the couch without sitting down first. He would only "cruise" a step or two along the edge of the table or couch. Then at IKEA on Tuesday, we bought him a little pushcart and all of a sudden he's taking long walks from one side of the living room to another!

We were lucky and James caught his first lock-steps on video.

Chase types!

Finally, FINALLY, Mama let me get on the computer so that I can blog. ALAH!

Life has been pretty good for me lately. Did you know I have two more teeth now? One in front on the bottom, so that makes three there. And one in the back on top. Mama says it's a molar and it will help me chew tough things like chicken and carrots. I hope it finishes coming in soon, 'cause I don't like it when Mama doesn't share ALL her food with me.

Speaking of food, I found a new favorite. At my buddy Kiran's birthday party, my buddy Liam and I shared beans that his mama made. They were easy to pick up, and easy to chew, and TASTY. My mama made some yesterday and we ate them today with leftover steel-cut oatmeal and chopped tomatoes. It was yummy :-D

Ooo, my favoritist new game is so much fun! maybe you do this too? I love to take things out of drawers and boxes. And I like to put them in, too! Only sometimes I think it's funner to put them in something else, like the black cylinder with the cool lid in my room [Mama says: it's the garbage pail for disposable diapers, and mostly what he likes to put in there are his shoes or Duplo blocks].

Doggy is getting friendlier. She almost lets me pet her twice in a row now, although sometimes I forget I'm only supposed to pat and I end up with her hair in my hand. When that happens, I always show Mama. Oh, and doggie ate out of my hand the other day! It was so cool I didn't even mind that I had meant to eat that Cheerio myself.

I've discovered all these cool things in my room called "books". I love to take them off the shelf and put them on the floor, or hand them one at a time to Mama or Daddy. There are a couple that I even ask Mama or Daddy to read to me...it's so much fun to hear the same one 10 times in a row! Some of them have flaps and things I can touch and turn myself, and some have pictures of other babies. My favorite is a picture of a laughing baby. I make Mama go to that page over and over again and it never fails to make me smile.

Uh oh! mama says it is time for a nap. She might be right, because my eyes keep needing rubbing, but I really don't wanna. Oo, but naptime means I get milkies and to snuggle with Mama! All right, Mama, let's go!