Dexter & Sadie (Chase's best friends)
Chase after his 1st haircut
What did Daddy do to my hair? (before the haircut)
Contagious Smile
Eating Goldfish Crackers...num! num!
Hope 2011 has been a great year for everyone so far! I figured it would be easier for me to post blog updates every other month or on a quarterly basis instead of trying to keep up with it every month. Chase definitely lives up to his name, which leaves me little time to do blog updates outside of the normal work routine. My last posting was in December right before Christmas, so I have a lot to catch up on with the Adventures of Baby Breeden. First off, I should probably rename the blog to something other than “Adventures with Baby Breeden,” because Chase is hardly a baby anymore at 22 months old. At times when I look at him he seems like such a grown little boy. He’s tall (well over 2.5 feet) and weighs around 25 pounds. I’ll get the exact measurements when he goes for his 2 year check-up in April.
His hair has grown like crazy in the past few months, so Tim finally broke down and gave him his first haircut on February 6th. His hair was getting to where it was in his eyes and tickling his ears. I fought the haircut the entire time because I think Chase has beautiful hair and I hated to see those perfect strawberry blond curls getting snipped; however, I will say Tim did a great job considering how Chase screamed, cried, and wiggled the entire time. Of course I saved the locks for Chase’s baby book!
Chase is speaking more words with each passing month. It’s hilarious to hear him say “poo-poo” and “pee-pee;” don’t jump to conclusions and think we’re teaching him nasty words, because we’re really trying to introduce the factors of potty training to him. My grandmother is going to attempt to start potty training him this summer when it’s warm enough to where she can strip him down to underwear—we’ll cross that bridge when we get there to see if he’s ready for the potty. Some other words that are beyond cute coming out of Chase’s mouth are “alright” (he’ll draw out the “al-” part of it, so it sounds like “aaawwwwlright!”) and “amen.” We say the “God is great, God is good…” blessing before every meal and he can’t wait to get to the end of it when we say “AMEN!”
This winter has been one of the coldest, gloomiest ones I can remember. Since Tim, Chase, and I are all “outdoorsy” people, it’s been rough being cooped up indoors and fighting off cabin fever. However, overall, Chase has done well playing with his many toys inside. He loves playing with legos, blocks, trucks/cars, and shapes—which is great because they’re all fundamental, learning toys. He also loves to play with our chocolate lab Sadie (who is a permanent member of our family now). Nonetheless, we’re all looking forward to spring and can’t wait for warmer weather.
Introducing new foods and trying to get Chase to eat well has been a roller coaster. He goes through spells where he’ll eat a great variety of foods and lots of them at a time; and, he also goes through phases where he’ll be persnickety and eat like a bird. Praise God; he’s been healthy and he’s growing like a weed—that must mean he’s getting plenty of nutrients even when he goes through his eating-like-a-bird phases. Another roller coaster situation has been trying to reduce Chase’s pacifier time to only when he’s napping or sleeping at night. Most of the time, he’s distracted enough with toys and other things to where he hardly notices he doesn’t have the pacifier. Then there are other times when he’ll stand by his crib crying wanting me to get his pacifier for him. I keep telling myself I’m not going to cave in—ultimately, I want to completely eliminate the pacifier habit within the next year.
I think the hardest thing for me as a parent is not having enough play time with Chase. More often than not, Tim and I end up spending the majority of our weeknights and weekends keeping up with household chores. Tim often reminds me that sometimes we just need to put household chores on the backburner and give Chase our time. We’ll always have piles of laundry to do, cars and dishes to wash, floors to sweep and vacuum, etc; but, we won’t always have Chase in this precious stage of life.
