My Blog is Moving!!!

I finally decided to combine this blog and my crafting blog into one new blog. So this blog will be going away shortly.

Check out my new blog: http://www.another-ordinary-life.blogspot.com/

Thanks for reading!

My Life Has Gone Down The Toilet - Hooray!

Today was a big day in our household - forgive me for the details / subject but this is what my life has come to. Chase told me that he needed to poop and when I took him to the potty - HE ACTUALLY POOPED IN THE POTTY!!! It was our first potty success. Unfortunately about 3 minutes later he said "mommy poop again" and being the naive person that I am, I figured since he had already gone he didn't need to go again - but sure enough about 1 minute later he pooped again in his diaper. Overall I still consider the experience a success. We still aren't "officially" potty training yet, we just talk about it a lot and squeal in delight when we have successes, but I'm pretty sure the real thing is coming soon *GULP - SCARY*. It's sad how when you become a parent the highlight of your day is watching someone else take a crap.

The other way in which my life has gone down the toilet (forgive me for whining but I can't help myself) is that this morning I woke up and my joint pain was so bad and I was so stiff that I couldn't straighten my knees. I spent the entire day hobbling around like an old person and it made me very grouchy. *sigh* If it is chronic fatigue syndrome I am 1.5 years down, with about 1.5 years to go...

40 Minutes Over That?!

Wow - two blog entries in a day!  I must be making up for lost time.

Yesterday Chase and I had quite the adventure.  When we were leaving daycare Chase started pitching the biggest fit!  I had to physically drag him in both arms out of daycare with him screaming down the halls (many a parent gave me the "I'm so glad that isn't me" look).  I hauled him to the car only to find that he was kicking and pinching me so much that I couldn't get him in his car seat.  So I sat and waited for about 10 minutes thinking that he would calm down - no such luck.  I had to push the kiddo into his car seat and he proceeded to cry the entire way home.  When we got home I put him in his crib where the tantrum continued for about 20 more minutes.  Chase finally calmed his body down after quite the marathon tantrum.  So I am sure you are asking yourself what could set off a 20 month year old and make them so mad as to warrant a 40 minute cry?  The answer...a pair of 2 inch little rubber toys, one fire truck and one train, that mean old mommy made Chase leave at daycare...

Being the ENORMOUS chump that I am, I went out and bought Chase some of them today because he loved them so much.  (We now have 90 tiny vehicles in case anyone needs any.)

Cookies for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

Chase is an extremely picky eater. In fact he is vegetarian by his own choice (he won't touch a single type of meat). His favorite foods right now are tofu, edamame, olives, fruit, fries, and of course chocolate and Cheetos. Needless to say that since one of my paranoid mommy areas is him being "underweight" (in the 5th percentile) it bugs me when the kid won't eat ANYTHING for a meal. So I have recently implemented some trickery. Chase will often ask for cookies for a meal so I have started feeding him Clif bars and calling them cookies. Using this fabulous trick I am able to sneak 250 calories worth of protein and other fortified goodness into my skinny kiddo. I wonder what we will have to resort to next...

In other Chase news, now that we are planning on moving, I have been dreaming about decorating Chase's toddler room. I've decided that we are going for an ULTRA modern loft styled room. I want to do it in orange and white with maybe lime green accents. I think I want to paint a thick orange stripe in a white room and then paint white construction trucks in the orange stripe. Here are some of the things I am pondering purchasing....

This table and chair set comes in orange

I love this trundle bed





PS. After browsing through my blog recently I realized ALL of my entries are about Chase so I have decided to make the effort to start blogging about other things as well. I think the rest of my life just isn't that exciting (work, cleaning, illness, etc)...especially since my crafting has its own blog.

Hard Not to Laugh

Here are some pictures from the other day of my sister, her daughter, and Chase... but the part of this entry worth reading is at the bottom...

The other day after bath for some reason Chase decided that he didn't want to put his diaper or PJs on.  The result was the most spectacular tantrum Chase has had yet.  He was screaming and crying and flopping around so much that Boris and I just couldn't get his diaper on him.  So I picked him up and took him to his room and put him in his crib and told him that when he calmed down we would get in our PJs and go watch Thomas before bed.  Completely naked, Chase proceeded to grab on to the crib bars and he started jumping up and down while screaming and crying.  I could hardly stand it, it was so funny, do you think you could have contained yourself?  I really should have gotten out the camera and taken pictures...

Can I Have Too Many Bags?

Yesterday Boris went to the outlets to return some shoes that were giving him blisters and while he was there he saw that Coach was having a HUGE sale (everything was on sale with an additional 50% off the sale price).  So needless to say Boris couldn't pass up the opportunity so I ended up with the below fabulous Coach bag.  I am very excited about it but between all the bags I already own and the new ones I have been making I am starting to feel like I have too many!  Is there such a thing?

Also since I never did a recap of my amazing 5 year anniversary trip here it is...

Boris and I went to the Broadmoor for our first night away from Chase - it ended up going well and we had an amazing time.  The Spa was incredible and it was nice to just relax.  I think I may have even hooked Boris on massages.  Everyone was so nice there!  The only negative side effect is that ever since our trip Chase has been super needy and he cries whenever anyone leaves...

Here is the bracelet Boris got me for our anniversary.

In parenting news Chase recently had his first time out.  It looked something like this:

- Chase hits mommy (repeatedly)

- Mommy sits Chase on a stool where he flops about and whines

- When we calms down we talk about what happened and why he had to sit on the stool

- Chase gets out of timeout and says "NO HIT MOMMY" and proceeds to whack me again

- Chase ends up back in time out

- Repeat the last two steps for about 20 minutes

- Chase finally apologizes to Mommy and the hitting stops

- The next day Chase walks by the timeout stool and says "No hit mommy"

- Later that day Chase walks by the timeout stool and says "No hit mommy" he then proceeds to find me and whack me

- Chase is back in the timeout stool

- At this point Chase began trying to "get out" of time out but mommy was always there waiting to put him back in...the power struggles have begun - I just hope I can keep winning...

- Now the last stair in our house is also a timeout place because Chase is apparently in a hitting phase (he has tried to hit the dogs, Uncle, Daddy, Mommy, etc. and much to his annoyance he finds himself in timeout every time he hits)

Last but not least - a house update.

We have had two open houses and a bunch of showings - now I think we are just waiting for the right buyer.  Very exciting, although I will say that selling a house is a huge pain!!!  Here is the house that we plan on buying if ours ever sells.  I've already started having fantasies about custom closet shelving, a non-hazardous second floor, a nice backyard, a craft room / playroom area, decorating Chase's toddler room, etc.

88%?! Really?!

Apparently about 82% - 88% of married couples make it to their 5 year anniversary (this number was higher than I expected) - today B and I happily joined that group. It does feel like quite the accomplishment, 5 entire years of getting along nicely with someone else. I don't suppose that I necessarily imagined that by the age of 27 I would be having a 5 year wedding anniversary and that I would be chasing a 20 month old around the burbs. I think I expected that I would be living in a loft downtown doing some kind of high powered job. Funny how life works out.

Photo Shoot

We recently had some professional photos of Chase taken - I am thrilled with how they turned out!  If you like them check out Poucher Photography...  the best part is that you get full rights to your photos so you can print as many as you like or email them around!  If you want to see all of the pictures check out our family website.

Mother's Day

This year for Mother's Day the first thing Chase said to me was "Happy Mommy's Day - I love you mommy!"  What can be sweeter than that?!

Also, because I thought it was funny, here is what TV time looks like at our house...I swear it sucks a kid's brain out.

Give-Away

So apparently Give-Aways are not the way to draw people to your blog =) - but it was an interesting experiment. I only had three people enter so they each get something - I am delivering the prizes via Capricious - congrats and thanks for entering!

In Chase news - the kiddo can finally consistently count to 10 and to my surprise he knows about half of his ABCs. The bad Chase news is that he is in another "No" phase, everything is "No Daddy" or "No Mommy", there is a lot of sass going around our house lately. We have even had a few tantrums because I said no and meant it and Chase wasn't pleased with the decision. Unfortunately Chase got stubbornness from both of his parents...

Restore-a-Finish / Potty Mouth

This weekend while getting our house ready to sell I discovered one of the most amazing products! It is called Restore-a-Finish (but I hardly think the name does it justice - half way through the day we started referring to it as "Jesus Juice"). It is a $7 bottle that will remove any scratch, fading finish, or other issues on wooden surfaces. We did our kitchen cabinets along with every door in the house and everything looks new. I am not exaggerating - the stuff is AMAZING (if you saw it on a late night infomericial you would think they were full of ****)! It even took out the dog scratches all over the doors. The best part is how easy the stuff is to use - you just wipe it on and then wipe it off and you are done! No removing hardware or cabinet doors or anything. Like I said - amazing stuff - this is by far one of my new favorite products.

In other news, Chase has officially inherited my potty mouth. I definately have a tendency to curse a lot... I have been trying to do better around Chase but this weekend we caught Chase (on numerous occasions) banging his toys on the floor or wall and saying "Damn It Damn It Damn It". It is terrible - definately not a pride mommy moment - and it usually takes all my self-control not to laugh. I am trying to shift him to saying "Oh Goodness!" or "Goodness Gracious" which is hilarious when he says it but we haven't been that sucessful yet. He has been saying other funny things as well such as "I found it!" and "All better" - very cute.

PS. Lately Chase has been in a "mommy" phase where he always wants me - it is so nice when that happens - I always feel so loved. I'm sure we will shift back to a daddy phase soon but I am enjoying it while it lasts.

Everyone Loves Free Stuff

As mentioned in my previous blog entry, Philigry is doing a give-away.  I decided that sounded like a lot of fun so I'm going to do one too (again not sure if enough people check out my blog but I thought I would give it a whirl).

- One entry for leaving a comment.  

- An additional entry for each new person that leaves a comment saying that they heard about my blog from you (the new person and you will both get an entry).  

- One entry for mentioning the give away on your blog (just be sure to leave me a comment letting me know you did that).

- One entry for checking out my Etsy shop (www.beyondimagination.etsy.com) - leave me a comment letting me know you did this too.

- I will do the drawing on May 8th.

I decided to go with jewelry since most of the people I know either knit, scrapbook, crochet, or sew so I figured anything I would give away in those areas people could make for themselves.

Also, I actually have 3 "prizes"... no winning more than once so there will be 3 winners.

Give-Away 1 - Two Scrabble Tile Pendants

Give-Away 2 - Book Thong

Give-Away 3 - Glass Tile pendant

Give-Away!

One of the blogs that I follow (Philigry) is doing a free give-away! The fabric samples that she is giving away are really great - how exciting. It makes me think to myself that I should do one, then again I am not sure that I have a big enough of a blog following to make it worth it.

In other news, my life recently has been consumed by 1) a bummer of a flare in my illness - which I am blaming on the weather and 2) trying to decide what to do about our house. Do we buy an existing house, build a new house, or try to stay where we are and fix up the house? So many choices!!! It makes my brain hurt. Hopefully in the new week or two we will make a decision.

Lastly a Chase update. Chase has been adorable lately - that kid says the cutest things. He is starting to get better at sentences, today he said "I love you Mommy" - so sweet! His favorite book right now is "Katy No Pocket" and he is starting to become afraid of things. He is currently terrified of the picture of a T-Rex in one of his books.

It's Too Dark!!!

I have the best Chase stories today.  He was hilarious all day long.

Story 1:  It's Too Dark!!!

This evening Chase was playing in our bed and he was making "caves and tunnels" in our bed covers.  He kept going in the tunnel and wanting Boris and I to go in too.  So I went in with him and pull down the covers a bit and his eyes got as huge as saucers and I asked Chase if he was scared and he said "YES!!!  It's too dark!!!".  After that he decided the dark was delightful and he spent them next half hour burying himself in the covers and covering his face.  He his now a big fan of tunnels - I should get him a tent.

Story 2:  Wipes for Everyone

Earlier Chase got ahold of a wet wipe and the first thing he did was go get his bear, wipe its butt and say "EWWW".  He proceeded to do that a zillion times (I even have video footage of it).  After that he used the wipe to clean the floors, carpet, couch, etc.  Apparently being a neat freak is genetic and can be passed to ones children.

Story 3:  Tickle Monster

Boris and I were tickling and rough housing with Chase and he would copy everything I did.  So I sat on Boris's tummy and Chase sat right in front of me and jumped up and down on Daddy.  Then I blew raspberries and Boris and Chase did the same.  Then I said I was the tickle monster and started tickling Chase and now he runs after Boris and I saying "Tickle Tickle" and making little crab hands at us.

Story 4:  Binkie Swear

Today Boris tried to teach Chase how to "pinky swear" so he kept saying "Chase to you pink swear?" and Chase said "Yes", pulled his "binkie" out of his mouth and gave it to Boris.

Easter

Chase had quite the Easter experience this year.  He is such a spoiled baby!  In addition to his basket he ended up with Farm Mega Legos and a Thomas the Train set.

Here is Chase at the neighborhood Easter Egg hunt.  It was really fun and there were only 3 kids in the 0 - 2 year age bucket so they all ended up with a boat load of eggs.  Chase didn't really get the hunt part at first - he would go pick up eggs and open them and let the contents drop to the floor.  It wasn't until the very end that he started putting them in the bag. He did find the special silver egg which won him some sidewalk chalk.

This morning we started the day by giving Chase his Easter basket.  He was very excited and he ended up dumping it all on the floor because he figure that it was the fastest way to get at everything.  Our neighbor had given us a pair of Elmo slippers which we had put in the basket and Chase was thrilled and wanted to put them on right away.   As soon as we put them on he decided that they were terrifying and he wanted them off - he is now scared of them (I think the stickers and candy and snacks were Chase's favorite part of his basket).

Later in the day the whole family came over for another Easter egg hunt (which Chase started before anyone arrived since the eggs were all over), brunch, and games.  Chase had a splendid time and he received a singing Easter bunny which he enjoyed at first but is now scared of (that seemed to be a theme today).

New Interests

Chase's new interests lately have been:

- Coloring with crayons

- Shapes (he knows hearts, stars, circles, and diamonds)

- Counting

- The dog bed

Out of Context

Lately Chase has been saying things that if taken out of context may sound really bad.

"Shoot Up Please"
No - we don't have a drug problem...
My mom showed Chase how to shoot a Nerf dart gun that we have and Chase LOVES it. Well Boris taught him that when we shoot we shoot at the ceiling so we don't hit anyone. So now Chase runs around saying "Shoot Up Please Shoot Up Please!"

"Naked Baby in Bed"
No - we don't have inappropriate naked time at our house...
Somehow Chase learned what the word "naked" means so every time we get undressed for PJs or take a bath he says "Naked Chase" or "Naked Baby". So after a bath the other night I was in bed and we put Chase in bed in just a diaper next to me to snuggle. So now we have "Naked Baby Bed".

That's all I can think of right now but I'm sure there are other things that would be embarressing if Chase said them in public.

Blizzard

Yesterday we got quite the snow storm - here are a few pictures of us from earlier this morning out in the snow.

Decline in Photos

I recently realized that I don't take nearly as many pictures of Chase as I used to.

Chase watching TV.

I thought the below picture was hilarious.

Chase and I tried PhotoBooth for the first time tonight!

If Only I Were That Clever

Capricious turned me on to the following Etsy site - I LOVE it and it is totally worth checking out.  Everyone needs a little bit of snark in the their life!

www.neatthings.etsy.com

Terrible Twos - I hope I survive

Chase just recently hit full on terrible twos (I swear it happened over night).  This age is exhausting and definitely tries my patience!!!  Here are some of the things Chase has started doing that makes me realize I need a parenting book ASAP!

- Chase will look at us and say "No Chase!" and then he will proceed to do something he shouldn't be doing such as throwing food on the floor or playing with an outlet.

- Chase has started throwing things at both people and dogs and he is so good at throwing that it really hurts!

- The poor dogs are constantly getting attacked by our 18 month old, he always wants to give them hugs and kisses, but just recently he also started to fight with the dogs for toys which usually leads to screaming at the dogs "NO BUGGY, NO JAXX!"

- There has been a lot of screaming in general...

- Whenever Chase gets mad (like if he is trying to do something he just can't quite do yet such as stacking cups from largest to smallest) he gets really frustrated and will either chuck whatever he is mad at across the room or he will scream at it (again with the screaming).

- We unfortunately spoiled Chase while he had Pneumonia and now at times he will stand in front of the TV and want us to turn it on "TV ON TV ON TV ON", he will then stand in front of the couch and say "Couch Couch Couch" until he is seated on the couch next to mom.

- If I hear "STICKER STICKER STICKER" or "SNACKS SNACKS SNACKS" one more time I may lose my mind (I'm sure it will happen tomorrow).

- Chase had his first public tantrum while we were leaving Target the other day.

But for all that I realized that nature is pretty darn sneaky because for every annoying thing Chase does he does an absolutely adorable thing that makes my heart melt (hence the survival of our species)...

*Sigh*

Non-Terrible Two Chase Moments:

- I have a polar bear collection from when I was a kid and Chase found the largest of the bears and he decided that it was the daddy bear since it was so big - he has since named the bear "Boris Bear" instead of daddy bear since Boris is his daddy's name.

- Chase has started to learn his colors, his favorites used to be red and pink but green and purple are now making a move into first.

- We like to build a lot of towers in our house (out of blocks, out of dice, out of Legos, out of anything that is stackable) and recently Chase has started copying whatever tower Boris or I build.  If we build one that is two blocks wide and 4 tall he does the same, if we build a wall of 6 blocks across and 2 high he does that.  If he isn't mimicking our towers he is adding to them - very sweet.

- For some reason Chase loves the map and backpack song from Dora the Explorer.

Wake Up Call

Last night I was woken up in the middle of the night for the millionth time in the last year but this happened to involve being woken up in the WORST possible way - which is what inspired this blog entry.

The top 4 worst ways to be woken up:

4) Waking up to a crying kiddo is so exhausting - not that it is really such a terrible way to wake up it's just that if you wake up once to a crying kid most likely the scenario will repeat itself numerous times that night. Also once I've been woken up in this method I tend to lay in a half sleep with my mommy senses somewhat listening for more crying all night long. The other bummer about waking up in this fashion is that it requires the long walk down the hall to kiddo's room... which is the worst part when you are groggy.

3) I recently found that one of the most irritating ways to be woken up is to the hacking of your own cough or to the hacking of a spouses cough.

2) I HATE waking up to a wrong number phone call... whenever the phone rings in the middle of the night I jerk awake and my heart starts racing and I run through all the bad things that may have happened that would require someone to call at 2 am. It always takes me FOREVER to fall back asleep after a middle of the night call.

1) The number 1 worst way to be woken up in the middle of the night is to sound of a dog dry heaving in preparation to barf. For all you dog owners out there I'm sure you can relate to that ever so pleasant sound that sends you flying out of bed in hopes of catching the vomit in some kind of towel before it ends up all over the carpet.

Sometimes I forget what a good night's sleep feels like...

Trouble!!!

This morning Chase managed to get in all sorts of trouble...

The most disturbing thing is that he learned how to open doors.  He can now escape any room we shut him into!  Time for child locks...we are in fact going to go purchase more of them this afternoon.

Funny things Chase said in the last few days:

- Yesterday Chase was throwing goldfish on the floor and watching the dogs eat them and I said "Oh shoot!!!" and Chase looked at me and said "Oh shoot!  Buggy eat it!"

- This morning I woke up to Chase saying "Tiptoe Tiptoe Tiptoe" (which is what they say in the bear hunt book when they are in the cave looking for the bear)

Here is Chase after dumping an entire box of Corn Pops onto he couch - he thought it was a brilliant idea.

Here is Chase practicing escaping with his newly discovered door opening skills...