9 Months Old

I can definitely say that Chase’s 9 months outside of my womb went by a lot faster than the 9 months of my pregnancy with him.

What is Chase up to these days?
-pulling himself up into the standing position
-taking baby steps while holding onto something for balance (i.e. the couch: he can walk the whole length of the couch while holding on)
-crawling everywhere and putting lots of miles on those little hands and knees
-vocalizing his emotions more (i.e. he sometimes likes to scream as loud as he can just for the mere entertainment of hearing his voice, but other times, it’s obvious that he’s frustrated when he screams)….we’re hearing lots of “dada’s and momma’s” these days.
-still sleeping on the 7-5 schedule….only wish we could stretch it a few hours longer on the weekends so we wouldn’t have to get up so early when we don’t have to work, but all in all, we can’t complain with his sleeping habits.
-loving his time with Grandma Anderson….he lights up whenever we first bring him to Grandma’s house in the mornings before work
-rolling toys across the floor and chasing after them….sometimes he takes laps around the house doing this
-experimenting with finger foods such as Cheerios and puffs….most of the time, they end up on the floor at home
-still drinking lots of formula….makes me miss the breastfeeding days, because formula is not cheap!
-mimicking actions such as when Tim and I are chewing food
-riding in a new car-seat now; enjoying looking out the windows during car-rides to observe new sights

Chase goes for his 9 month check-up in early February in which case I’ll pass along his latest weight, height, and any other interesting news. Hope everyone is having a great 2010 so far!

Merry 1st Christmas, Chase!

Chase after his bath on Christmas Eve....he looks like a grumpy elf...

...and a sleepy elf.

Chase's 1st visit with Santa was very short because Chase was afraid of the big guy in the red suit. He never cracked a smile for the picture.

Playing with a spatula on the floor with Daddy

This spatula is probably way more fun than any toy he'll get for Christmas....funny how that works.

It’s hard to believe Chase just hit the 8 month mark! As we celebrate our first Christmas with him, we are so thankful and humbled for all God has blessed us with this year. For one, we are grateful for our health. Chase hasn’t been sick at all during his 8 months of life and we pray he’ll continue to be healthy in 2010.

Our little rug-rat is crawling all over the place these days. It didn’t take him but a few days to master the art of crawling. Now, he is trying to pull himself up on things. He definitely knows his name when we say “Chase, don’t get into that.” He’ll turn around and look at us and usually proceed to get into whatever he’s not supposed to….guess that’s what having a boy is all about!

Chase has a hearty appetite and continues to grow with each passing day. He has outgrown most of his 9-month clothes and we’ve started him in some 12-month clothes. He’s not a chubby baby, just very long. He still doesn’t have any teeth to mash his food with….we keep on saying it will be any day now, but we’ve been saying that since he was 3 months old! His teeth have been hanging out just barely below the surface of his gums for several months. He still has his fussy moments when his gums bother him or when he gets really tired and fights sleep. However, he is a much happier baby now that he can crawl around and entertain himself. We just have to keep a close eye on him to make sure he doesn’t get into something that could harm him….for instance, he loves tugging on electrical cords.

I am in complete awe that this year has flown by so fast. I hope everyone can slow down over the holidays and reflect on the true meaning of the season. Merry Christmas and Happy 2010! Chase will be 9 months old when I post again in January!

Thanksgiving: 7 Months Old

We have so much to be thankful for this year as we celebrate our first holiday season with Chase. Our 17-pound, 30-inch long bundle of joy is healthy and keeping us very busy with each passing day. Almost everything I mentioned in my 6-month blog update still remains true for Chase now. However, he is no longer wobbly and unstable sitting up and he officially started crawling on Thanksgiving Day. Needless to say, we’ll be chasing him around from this day forward. He’s still not a pro at crawling, but I’m sure he’ll have it refined by Christmas (just in time to keep him away from the Christmas tree).

We’re all pretty well-rested these days. Chase sleeps through the nights like clockwork now….goes to bed at about 7:30 and sleeps until 5/5:30. He’s still lacking teeth, but it’s got to be any day now! He’ll probably get a bunch of teeth all at once. Some days are tough on our little guy because his gums bother him. We give him teething tablets, Baby Orajel, and Tylenol in hopes of easing the discomfort (and easing our aggravation in having to listen to a lot of fussing). Fortunately, outside of teething, Chase is a little better at self-entertaining now and doesn't fuss quite as much.

The Christmas pictures were taken at Sears the day before Thanksgiving….some of you will be seeing these again as Christmas gifts!

Half a Year Old!

Win or lose, we still sport our team colors! Go Deadskins!

Dirty Laundry


Sitting outside in our favorite lawn chair


"Major Cutie" in Camo



Trying to crawl underneath the piano bench

I can hardly believe Chase is already 6 months old! He is growing and changing so much everyday. Here are some of the highlights and milestones from this past month:

-sitting up on his own, but still very wobbly and unstable

-rolling all over the place

-attempting to crawl, but still doesn't have the upper body strength

-fussing when he gets bored or frustrated (we hope he'll become more self-entertained with time)

-eating 3 jars of stage 1 baby food a day and drinking lots of milk (mostly formula now....my breastmilk supply is about gone, but I'm still doing what I can even if it's just a few ounces a day.....just thankful we made it to 6 months on mostly breastmilk!)

-enjoying strolls with Great Grandmother Anderson on nice Fall days

-sleeping through most nights, but occasionally wakes up in the middle of the night rolling around in the crib (will usually fall back to sleep on his own without any Mommy intervention)

-drooling and gnawing on everything (still no teeth.....thought for sure he would have had one by now!)

-reaching for everything in sight; exploring new textures

-giggling out of nowhere sometimes

-speaking "babynese," consisting of lots of "dadadadada, mamamamama, lalalalalalala" and spitting

-squealing whenever excited

-wearing mostly 9 month clothes and just graduated to size 3 diapers

-growing like a weed....don't know exact weight, but we know he's well over 16 pounds now and most pants are "high waters" on him.

-sprouting more golden blond hair (seems more of a golden blond now versus the white blond it seemed to be at birth)

-bringing Mommy and Daddy lots of joy with each passing day

Chase has a check-up with the doctor on November 3rd, so I'll be sure to fill everyone in on the latest stats.

Happy Half-Year Birthday, Chase!

20 Weeks Old

My nieces, Chase, and I are in the picture below. The picture above is of Tim and Chase catching a nap together on the couch.

Chase wasn't too happy in this picture that was taken at Laurie's baby shower on August 22nd.

If you look closely at the picture below, you'll see that Chase and I both have dimples on our right cheeks. We were sitting on the back of our boat; we named our jet boat "Chase This."

Chase will be 20 weeks old at 2:19 AM tomorrow morning. Time is flying and Chase is growing like a weed! He was 15 pounds, 1 oz. and 26 1/2 inches long at last Monday's doctor's appointment. All is healthy, praise God! He didn't like getting the shots, but he survived without any side effects. This past week has been an experimental week with trying out stage 1 baby food. I think my mom is having much better luck spoon-feeding Chase than I am. He looks at me like I'm crazy and gives these disgusted looks whenever I shovel any food in his mouth. It took us three days to finish a tiny jar of bananas, and I still think most of it ended up everywhere other than in his mouth! Oh well....I'm sure he'll get the hang of eating "big boy" food with time.

Chase is rolling over more each day. He's such a curious little guy. If he's not on the floor rolling around, he loves to be held and walked around so that he can discover new things. Nap times can turn into serious battles since he hates to surrender to sleep....guess he's afraid he'll miss out on something! Fortunately, he's always ready to go to sleep for the long stretch at nights. Otherwise, I don't know when Tim and I would catch a break. Though we enjoy spending time with our little man, we always look forward to his 8:00 bedtime.

Tim and I are off from work this week, but Chase hasn't allowed us to do much relaxing yet. Our first couple of days have been spent indoors since it's been rainy, but we hope to take Chase out and about during the latter part of the week. We still have our OBX trip to look forward to Thursday-Sunday.

Our little man is ticklish on his neck. We love to kiss him on his neck and make him giggle....it's those sweet little laughs that give us the strength to go on during the fussy periods. Nonetheless, every moment whether he is crying or laughing is still a blessing.

4 Months Old

Chase is 17 ½ weeks old today (4 months old)! He has reached so many milestones this past month. He is now flipping over from his back to his belly. He is also reaching up and grabbing things (like clumps of my hair) with his “death grip.” One of his favorite toys right now is his aquarium-themed play gym, which is basically just a mat that is on the floor with dangling fish hanging over top of it. He loves to bat the fish around and wiggle all over the mat. He gets himself in the most awkward positions sometimes; I have to laugh as I watch him try to figure out how to reverse it! I can definitely see his motor skills and hand/eye coordination developing more with each day.

Chase is drinking lots of milk, but he is more of a “snacker” than a baby who will take in any more than 4 oz. at a time. This makes it hard on me because he wakes up in the middle of the night hungry and I have to nurse him back to sleep. He has woken up quite a bit this past month. He rarely makes it past 3 or 4 AM these days, but he’s good about going back to sleep as soon as he’s done nursing. Dr. Baust recommended me to start adding a teaspoon of rice cereal to two bottles per day to help him remain satisfied longer. At first, Chase wasn’t too fond of the texture of the rice cereal, but he’s gotten more used to it now. We have yet to try giving him the rice cereal in a bowl with a spoon. It won’t be long until he will be eating all sorts of things with a spoon. He goes to the pediatrician on August 31st, and I’m quite sure Dr. Baust will recommend us introducing stage 1 baby foods at that time. He’ll also have another round of shots on the 31st…yay (not!).

Some other “big boy” moments this past month have been watching Chase try to hold his bottle while he drinks and seeing his personality shine through various situations. For instance, he recognizes Dexter now and often giggles when Dexter comes near him. He also cracks up around my nieces. It’s almost like kids can communicate with babies better than adults can. Chase communicates with his coos and playful screams. Sometimes he is so loud during the car ride to and from work that Tim and I bust out laughing. We are definitely having fun watching our little guy grow. He has already been out on our boat twice this summer. I thought he would be too little to go for a boat ride, but he does pretty well out on the water (must be like his mom and dad). Of course not every day is filled with fun and games; we still have our exhausting, stressful moments at times, but it’s all worth it!

Chase will be expecting a little girl cousin in a couple of months. My sister Laurie is approaching the latter months of her pregnancy and we will soon be welcoming baby Bella Rose into the world. We had a baby shower for Laurie here at our house yesterday and all went well. It seems like we were just celebrating Chase’s arrival not too long ago! I often reminisce to those first few days of motherhood. I remember doing anything I could to get Chase to stop crying some days. One thing in particular that comes to mind is me dancing around to the “Poker Face” song while carrying him. For some reason, the beat to that song would always soothe him, though I’m sure I looked like an idiot dancing around the house….(sigh) the things we do for our children!

Next blog posting will be at the 5 month mark! I’m sure we’ll have lots of fun adventures to share at that time. We have an OBX trip planned the weekend after Labor Day, so I hope to do better with taking pictures this time. As you can see, we did get around to getting professional portraits done. The pictures up top were taken at the end of July at Sear’s. Chase was such a ham during the portraits!

3 Months Old

I’m amazed at how much Chase has changed during his first 3 months of life. Moreover, I’m astounded with how much my life has changed in the past 3 months. Though I heard everyone say that life is never the same once you have kids prior to having one of my own, it’s completely different to actually live the experience myself versus just hearing about it through others. Another thing I’ve found to be so true that I’ve heard so many people say is that having a child is like wearing a piece of your heart on the outside.

Chase is definitely growing! He doesn’t go for his next doc appointment until next month, so I don’t know his exact weight; however, it’s obvious that he’s getting bigger since he’s heavier to carry and has outgrown just about all of his 0-3 month clothes. I’m putting him in 3-6 month clothes now, and in some 6-9 month outfits. I’m guessing he’s somewhere around 14 pounds now. On average, he goes through 32 oz. of milk a day. I’m still breastfeeding him which entails a lot of pumping since I’m back at work. Sometimes I feel like Bessie the Cow!

Thankfully, Chase sleeps through most nights very well and seems to be on a decent schedule for a 3-month old. His naptime schedules during the day could still use some refining, but all in all, we’re blessed to have a baby who sleeps so well. He is starting to roll over on his sides, but can’t quite flip himself over completely. If I place him on his belly, he squirms around and tries to crawl. He can hold his head up all by himself and can almost sit up. It’s so much fun to see what he’ll learn to do next! My favorite thing right now is that he’s cooing a lot and blowing spit bubbles. He hoots like an owl and has Tim and me rolling in laughter! He also has a smile and laugh that is so contagious.

Chase took his first trip to OBX this weekend. He didn’t spend any time on the beach itself, but he did get a few strolls on the main beach road and he got to spend lots of time with his Papa, Grammy, Aunt Amber, Uncle Jeff, and cousin Kenden. He also got to briefly meet Tim’s Aunt Dale, Uncle Rick, and Tim’s cousin Michelle and her family. One of the highlights from his trip was getting to sit in his bouncy seat while Daddy (Tim) carried him over the pool (not IN the pool). He loved the reflection of the water. I didn’t take the first picture while we were at the beach or at the cottage (shame on me!). Fortunately, Amber snapped a few, including the one posted here.

Tim and I are now another year older. My birthday was July 20th, and Tim’s was on the 25th. Tim just turned the big 3-0 and I just turned 28; though a lot of folks dread getting older, I prefer to look at it as God giving us another year full of blessings. It’s humbling to look at how far we’ve come in the past year. I remember our hearts were broken this time last year after we lost Connor, but this year we are beaming with a 3-month old.