The Ranting of a Sick Person

Being that I am sick yet again, I have had plenty of time to surf the web from bed today - which has made me realize quite a few things...

- While surfing today I actually got around to looking at my favorite blogs lists of favorite blogs (if that makes any sense) and that alone brought on a few conclusions...

1) There is NO way I can compete with a stay at home mom when it comes to crafting and baking - I kept looking at blog after blog and thinking to myself - wow I wish I had time to bake those amazing treats - or wow check out that quilt and sweater so and so made - or wow I wish I had time to take Chase to do those amazing activities - and then it dawned on me... I don't have time to do those things not because I'm lazy, or because I'm sick (granted that may have a little to do with it), or because there are a ton of better moms out there, but the main reason I can't do all those things is that I work 40 hours a week! I need to find some "working mom" blogs to check out so I can ease my mom guilt - then again do most full time working moms even blog - or is that also something they rarely have time to do?

2) I realized that although I am a modern urban loving chic, recently some of my friends (mainly suburbanbrunette and capricious) have started to wear off on me and I am starting to dig more country, shabby chic, retro, vintage stuff. Dang before you know it I'll be wearing floral dresses...

3) I realized that I should be really grateful that I have a helpful husband, and easy kiddo, lots of babysitting help from family, and uncle Griff (which is what we call Boris's best friend who is always helping us out) because without all of those above things I would never have time to even get to the hobbies that I do manage to get to. So thanks to everyone above for making my life a lot better than it could be!

4) The one thing that I realized that made me a little sad is that most blogs have TONS of blog followers - I can only think of maybe 10 - 15 people that regularly check my blog - all of whom which know me personally. So that started to make me wonder - how does one get a blog following - and do I even want one?

5) How do people stumble across these really fun blogs of people they don't know???

6) Maybe I should combine this blog and my crafting blog - everyone else has combined theirs....hrmmmmm...

- Moving on to other web surfing realizations...in my boredom I logged on to DeviantArt.com - which I have been neglecting for a long time...only to be reminded of how much I love that site! It is like Etsy for artwork - people can post their art and comment and each others stuff and even sell prints. If you have never checked it out it is worth doing.

- Lastly I realized, there are way too many good things to buy on Etsy. I could shop there all day!

PS. In other random news I think I have dog fever and new house fever.

Chase Moments

So just recently it occurred to me that I am NEVER going to finish Chase's scrapbook - I just don't seem to find the time (or may I just don't seem to find the motivation).  The sad thing is that if I wait too long to get around to it I will forget all of the adorable stories that I want to journal about.  I think I am going to do a set of electronic scrapbooks for Chase and have them printed up in bound books for now because that is a lot faster.  Then if I ever get around to finishing the actual paper scrapbook that will be nice but at least then I can stop worrying about it.  With being sick there just isn't enough time to get to everything so I think this is one of those things I am going to cut myself slack on and go the easy way out... so here I come Apple store - printed baby books it is!

Since I am worrying about forgetting my cute Chase stories I thought I would add a few here - that way when I am trying to finish my books I can use my blog as a reminder.

Chase's Favorite Things:

- Stuffed Animals (Pinkie, Foo Foo, and Puppy are the current favorites)

- Fruit Snacks

- Chocolate (including milk, dark, chocolate milk, or anything that in fact resembles chocolate)

- The Bumble Bee Song

- The Bear Hunt Book

- Elephants, Monkeys, and Hippos (and I guess just animals in general)

- Trains and cars

- Stickers!  Stickers! Stickers!

- Shoes (the boy LOVES shoes - his own, other people's, it doesn't matter - a shoe is a shoe)

- The color pink

- Chase really loves the men in his life:  Uncle, Daddy, Pops, Papa, Jeff (or Beff as Chase calls him), Pouch

- Being outside / the park / walks / slides

Cute Things Chase Says:

- Thank you mama / Thank you daddy

- Any time you sing the "I've been working on the railroad song" when you get to the part where "Someone's in the kitchen" Chase always shouts "Pops" - apparently my dad (Pops) is in the kitchen

- Whenever he wakes up in the morning he says "All Done"

- He likes to sing the dinosaur song so he runs around saying "Here he comes" which is the first line of the song and then he wants us to name all the dinosaurs when we sing the song - Uncle dinosaur, mama dinosaur, daddy dinosaur, Chase dinosaur, Ah Ah dinosaur, Mammy dinosaur, Pops dinosaur, etc etc (and we usually have to to go through all of the family, his friends and teachers at daycare, our friends, and anyone else Chase can think of at the moment)

- Sometimes when I get him in the middle of the night when he wakes up he says "mama's bed"

- Chase calls graham crackers "Uncle Crackers"

Other Random Cute Things:

- Chase is very big on spinning and jumping (or trying to) right now

- In one of Chase's books the frog sticks out his tongue and says "Blah" so Chase always says "Blah" and waits for you to stick out your tongue so he can touch it

- Chase has been trying to count lately but he really only gets 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 right

- Chase is big on animal noises and he knows just about all of them now

- Chase playing the drums - need I say more

- Chase doing the "Wheels on the Bus" song  - again need I say more?  The best part is that now when you ask him what Chase says he says "Wha Wha Wha" and if you ask him what any adult says the answer is "Shhh Shhh Shhh"

- Chase loves to hug to dogs right now - Jaxx is okay with it but it is kind of freaking out Bugsy - he is also big on giving me kisses which I love

- Chase likes to talk to himself in the mirror

- The other day in the car a song came on and Chase started waving his fist in the air like a white man dance - it was freaking hilarious - Boris and I got him to do it again last night at home - I will try to get a video of it!

...I would have put up new pictures of Chase except that, oh yeah, I'm a clutz and I broke the lens on our nice camera so there are no new pictures....

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

After endless tests I think the doctors have finally settled on a diagnosis of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome for me.  The good news is that hopefully in a year or two I will get better - the bad news is that there isn't really much they can do for me... so off to acupuncture I go to try to get some relief from my symptoms... it is apparently to best option left since I don't seem to respond to medications (and the only ones left to try sound pretty scary).  There is only so much time a day for sleeping so I need to figure out something that will help!

In Case I haven't Blogged Enough Today...

I know I know it is my zillionth web update today...but I thought I would share some pictures since I so rarely take them anymore.

Capricious' Bad Influence

Inspired by Capricious' blog entry about the store Anthropologies - I went today to look for a dress for an event I have coming up and ended up splurging more than I should have...the sad thing is there were a ton of other things I wanted to buy but I couldn't bear to spend that much on clothes.  I wish that stored wasn't so expensive.

Here is the dress I bought for the event...I really like it - it even has pockets!  I just hope I don't look too busty or pregnant in it.

Here is the cover up that I bought to wear over the dress - I swear it is cuter in person but it is not really my style (I am pondering returning it - but I needed something to match the dress)...

I bought the below shirt in grey (I liked the cream better but it was on sale in grey) - this was a totally unnecessary splurge but I loved it and Boris convinced me to buy it.  Now I need a girls night to wear it to - it looks hot with a pair of jeans and heels.

This is the dress that I originally wanted and went to buy that they didn't have at the store that I am now pondering having them order for me...not that I need another dress but I love this dress more than any other dress I have seen in years!  Which is saying a lot since I normally hate dresses but I can't stop thinking about this one...

Blogs

I have recently started checking out blogs of people I don't know and I am finding that it is rather addicting...

My two favorite new additions are:

www.philigry.blogspot.com

www.lulubugjewelry.blogspot.com

Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day this year we have been having quiet fun around our house.  Last night and this morning we made crepes which were delicious!  This morning we just had some family time -  Chase and Boris got me the cutest little locket with pictures of Chase in it.

We were planning on decorating cookies with some friends but Chase had a bit of a fever this morning so all our plans were cancelled...but honestly it was probably good for us to have a mandatory day of relaxation!

Climbing

Chase has recently become quite the dare devil.  He has been standing on his hippo rocking chair and this morning we caught him climbing on top of the garage!  Crazy kiddo...

Chase's Art

I finally got around to scanning some of Chase's art!

Adorable Chase Moments

I've been neglecting blogging lately so here are a few updates from the past few weeks.  Mainly it is just a list of cute baby moments so I don't forget them later...(hopefully I haven't already listed all of these in previous entries).

1)  The other day when Chase woke up (in our bed) he stood up on the bed looked down at us and said "Tall!"  (He normally wakes us up by saying "baby all done" or "uh oh")

2)  Chase is getting close to being able to count to 10!  If we say one he will say "two" and then if you ask what is after two sometimes you get a "three" - he never really gets four or five but he does much better with 6 - 10.  (Two is by far his favorite number,  if you give him something he likes he always asks for "two" so he can have one in each hand.)

3)  Chase has started singing along with songs.  If you sing "Row row row your boat" sometimes he will chime in with "gently down the stream", other times he picks up at the "Merrily merrily merrily".

4)  Chase is currently a fruit snack addict.  He knows where we hide them and ALWAYS asks for "snacks".  The only thing that can deter him from snacks is chocolate.

5)  Chase has been in a phase where he keeps trying to feed people which usually involves him cramming soggy food bits into your mouth (and in Graham's case it often involves Chase trying to feed Graham dairy products and Graham trying to avoid them as not to die from eating them)

6)  Chase has been LOVING bath time lately, if you even mention a bath he starts running up stairs and tries to climb into the tub.

7)  Chase is still in love with Sponge Bob, balls, and pushing trucks and cars around.

8)  Chase has been trying to jump lately which is just hilarious to watch.

9)  Everything is still "Uncle Uncle Uncle" around our house - Chase does love his uncle Graham.