Christmas 2012 or better known as best Chase tantrums yet

So Christmas came and went about three weeks ago.  As you can tell I'm a little behind the ball on getting something written down.  I also do not have the pictures downloaded yet, so maybe I will get around to that later. 

Christmas day was good at our house.  It started with Chase coming down the stairs and asking if he could go downstairs to watch a movie.  We tried to point him to the presents, but he wasn't too interested until we forced him over there.  Then it was time for the big present which Laura wanted him to open first.  His brand new kitchen.  Laura waited with anticipation as he slowly began to unwrap the gift.  He poked his way through, saw what it is, and walked away saying "I need to find my train present."  Needless to say Laura was a little dissapointed. 

After that before every single present Chase said "This is my new train set." Funny thing was we didn't get him a train present.  We figured that 50 trains was enough, I guess not.  Oh and what about Miles.  Well we figured he wouldn't know any better so he got one present.  He can use this against us later, but he didn't seem to mind this year. 

After that we had back to back weekends in Iowa.  This made 4 straight weekends in that great state.  What we found is that sugar, plus lack of consistent naps, can lead to some great tantrums.  The best was at Laura's parents and involved some cold lasagna.  After an hour of ignoring it and telling me he didn't want it, I informed him it was time for bed.  He then decided the lasagna looked pretty good and tried a bite.  After realizing that didn't taste good, he decided it was done, but didn't like the whole bed idea very much.  So I grabbed him, kicking and screaming, and carried him past the rest of the family.  He screamed for a good 20 months with some great phrases like "Not you, Dad", "Leave, Dad", "I want Mom" all while sobbing.  We decided it was probably time to get on a normal schedule. 

This was pretty much a nightly occurance while we were at both inlaws, so we looked like great parents.  Either that or we scared my sister into never having kids.  While Laura's siblings were thankful that those days were mostly behind them. 

All in all a good but stressful Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas

Or at least our Christmas.  We figured we could get away with this one last year.  Chase still doesn't really get Christmas and since we have two other family Christmas events we're celebrating a couple days early.  You may remember last year and our attempt to visit Santa.  Well we tried again.  Here were the results. 

So yeah, we still don't like Santa.  We thought we were ready this time.  We asked, "are you ready to sit on Santa's lap?"  Chase replied, "yes".  "Are you going to tell him what you want?" Chase replied "trains".  OK, we were ready to go.  We went through the curtain, Chase peered around the corner, saw Santa and started wailing.  We had to force him into the room because they had to shut the door.  Meanwhile I just handed Miles to Santa and basically figured he could handle him.  We'll try to traumatize them again next year. 

On top of that, Miles' contact fell out right as we were walking in.  Yes, you heard that right we have a 3 month old with a contact.  This was the first time it fell out all week.  So two wailing kids, a contact that falls on the floor, and Santa wondering "what is wrong with these people".  Kudos to Laura, she popped that thing right back in after we got out of there. 

So for those of you that don't know, Miles was born with a cataract in his left eye.  Odds of this are about 3 in 10,000.  So that was neat.  Miles had to have surgery to remove the lens, and then he will wear a contact for the next 8 years at least.  Basically he has to learn how to use the left eye, so he will be patched for half of his waking hours over the same time frame.  We call him "Patch" now. 

Everything went great and so far the contact has went well.  The hospital gave us great perspective.  A lot of kids who were really sick.  If you are going to have a rare condition, we were glad this was all it was.  

Miles also got a chance to meet his great Grandpa a few weeks ago.  Unfortunately Grandpa Nichols has found out he has acute Leukemia and has hospice taking care of him now.  We try to get down  and see him as much as we can and am glad that his family is getting a chance to talk with him.  So we are keeping him in our thoughts and remembering what is really important during the holidays.  Chase has come with me a couple of times, we are working our way into entering the room, he seems to not like hospitals.  He brings a smile to a lot of people in the nursing home as he sprints up and down the hallways. 

Well, it's time for Santa to go to bed and get ready for tomorrow.  Here's hoping for a 7 o' clock wake up call.  We need to go eat the cookie, milk, and the cheese.  I guess Santa needs some extra calcium at our house.  Hopefully Chase enjoys the presents, if he doesn't like his play kitchen his mom is going to pretty upset. 

Daylight Savings Time is one cruel joke

You know how normal people love the fall and the time switch because you pick up an extra hour of sleep.  Well with our two year old, daylight savings does not exist.  He used to get up at 6 AM, now he gets up at 5 AM.  Basically I have to go to bed at 9:00 just to keep up.  It's not like Chase is groggy at 5 AM either, he's ready to go.  He will tell me, "I'll be right back", which basically means he's going to try and jump into bed with Mom.  So he's learned to lie to do what he wants, fantastic. 

We've tried one of those fancy clocks that lights up a different color when he can leave the room, he doesn't care.  So bascially we have a kid who already only needs 8 hours of sleep at night, which means we are only getting about 6.  We also have this great sliding door now for Chase's room that Laura thought of and my Dad constructed.  Couple of problems: Chase can get out, and it is extremely loud when he slides that door open.  So at 5 AM, my alarm clock is that stupid sliding door. 

This past weekend, Laura and Miles headed down to Kansas to welcome Corey back from Iraq.  So that meant Chase and I headed to Ames for a double header weekend.  A little football and basketball.  On the way to the football game Saturday, Chase took a little nap.  Little did I know that waking him from that nap was going to lead to the biggest meltdown I had ever seen.

It started with me trying to put a stocking cap on him.  This set him off and the crying began.  So I dragged him out of the car and put him on the sidewalk wailing.  He immediately ripped his hat and jacket off.  Realize that it is 45 degrees out with a 30 MPH wind.  Then as a parent you start dipping into your bag of tricks to make something work. 

 - Start with asking nicely.  "Don't you want to go to the football game, see grandma and grandpa"  Chase's response was a lot of screaming
 - Move on to force.  Just pick him up and start walking.  It's amazing how kids can contort their bodies to try to wiggle out of your hands.  It involves arching the back, going limp, kicking you where it counts, all while screaming as loud as possible.
 - Try to make him laugh.  This involved me trying to run my head into a mailbox.  Because my pain gives my son joy.  Didn't work.
 - Just ignore and try to wait it out.  We did this on the corner of the street as people walked by.  Just to give a little context this sidewalk was right next to a busy highway.  Chase's response was to try and shove me in front of traffic.   I tried to explain that this would hurt and possibly kill his dad.  This made him push me harder. 
 - Take him away from everyone and leave him alone: So we went back to the car, I put him in the back seat, turned on the heat, and then just let him calm down.  After about 10 minutes he decided maybe we should go to the game.   The joys of a 2 year old. 

Finally, it was a little bit of a scramble putting together the Halloween costumes this year. We tried this one on Chase.

He wasn't buying it.  He wouldn't even try it on.  (Quick sidenote - doesn't Laura remind you of Justin Timberlake in the SNL skits.  If you haven't seen them, look it up on youtube.)  So we decided to go simple.  Since he was a baseball player last year, and we still had the pants and a football jersey.  We went with this costume.

One problem, we used the same pants from last year.  Chase has grown slightly from last year, so we told him he couldn't bend over.

Oh, and what was Miles you are asking. 

He was a banana.  And not just any banana, he was a dog costume banana.  He didn't seem to mind.  Trick or treating went much better than last year, which is probably described like 4 posts ago since I have been so lazy with this.  Chase went to about 15 houses, said trick or treat and thank you.  Mostly he just wanted to run up the middle of the street though.  So we were out about an hour headed home and then Laura and I have been eating his candy. 

Until next time...

Chase's Modeling Career is Over

Well, we've had our first accident that warranted a hospital visit as Chase took a little stumble and his face met the corner of our piano bench.  Hysteria ensued. Laura panicked, blood was gushing everywhere, chase was screaming, laura was screaming, and I was thinking, "crap, where is that hospital at again". 

In the moments that followed here were some of the quotes heard.
 - "We have to go to the hospital, grab the baby too." - Laura
 - "We don't need the baby, isn't that what Steph is for?" - Matt
 - "AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH" - Chase
 - "Where are your shoes?" - Matt to Laura as she's in the car
 - "He's not going to die" - Matt to Steph (outside of Laura's ears)
 - "Look there's the moon" - Chase, 2 minutes into the car ride, with an open gash bleeding down his face
 - "My phone's going to die, hopefully we find the hospital soon" - Matt

Three hours later we arrived back home with a doped up Chase with 5 new stitches in his head.  Chase was pretty funny after being drugged up.  Supposedly he told Laura that she was missing some teeth and that she could buy some more at Target.  He also couldn't walk too well, he looked like a drunk two year old.  The funny thing is that he insisted on walking, so we are basically following him around to make sure he doesn't fall into another corner and we finally roped him into bed.

Here's the damage, his modeling career is over unless he goes for the tough guy look. 

As far as the other kid, he's doing great.  Basically eating constantly now.  We had his weight checked today and he came in at like 9 lbs 6 oz.  So I think he's gaining weight just fine.  He's going to catch his brother's pace soon.  Pretty crazy to think he wasn't supposed to be born until last Friday.

We are adapting to the whole two kid thing.  It means a little more work for both of us, and probably a lot more work for me since Laura took care of a lot when it was just Chase.  I've learned to master some great meals like cardboard pizza, PB&J's, and Mac and Cheese in the last couple of weeks.  Chase and I have spent some quality time together.  At some point in the weekend we usually go to Target just so he can run around and play with toys. 

We also spent a weekend in Cedar Falls with my college roomate Dale and Jessica, along with Chase's birthday buddy Will who is exactly one year younger.  They spent about 3 hours of the weekend running in circles, with Chase bossing Will around. 

Will's kind of a little ham...

We also went to a pumpkin patch in Cedar Falls.  It had a haunted corn field maze.  Parenting tip #5, don't take a two year old into a haunted corn field maze.  This thing had aliens, headless men, scary music, bloody hands, etc...  At one point Chase wanted to turn around, so I had to scoop him up and carry him the rest of the way. 

Well one month in, everyone's doing great.  We bid a sad farewell to everyone's favorite dog Dakota as he left us tonight to go to his new home.  We had a love/hate relationship with Dakota.  By that I mean 1% love, 99% hate.  Just kidding Dakota, kind of.  Dakota's heading closer to the big city to live with another dog along with Steph.  Suburban life with two kids is not the most exciting thing in the world.

I'll leave you with a couple pictures of Miles.  Definitely looks like Chase, except for the hair.  That's a little crazy.

Baby 2 does come faster

So as I had told Laura many times in the past few months, I wanted to have a game plan on how this baby was going to be delivered.  Especially if I was at work which meant we were an hour and a half from the hospital.  This conversation usually resulted in Laura getting very angry at me and saying she would just drive herself to the hospital. 

Well thankfully, Mr. Miles decided to come while I was at home, and it's a good thing he did. 

Laura started havings some contractions during the afternoon which became regular at around 6:30, by 9:00 we realized this really was going to happen a month early.  We got to the hospital, which is very nice, but they definitely took their time in getting everything registered.  After about an hour they finally decided to check her, and I'm pretty sure this is what went through the nurse's mind: "Holy Crap".  All of a sudden everything was a little more urgent as we realized we were a couple of hours away from delivery.

About this time the contractions started getting painful, and Laura started getting ANGRY.  Now I know most of you would say, "Laura, angry?  I can't believe that nice person ever gets angry, she's always just so happy"  Well, every once in awhile I get to see that this is not the case, and I'm pretty sure the nurse and the guy giving the pain shot was about 2 minutes from getting punched.  The best was that this bag of fluid had to get drained prior to her getting to the shot, which was basically like watching a pot boil.  Thanks to our nurse, who realizing she may get punched soon, started squeezing that bag like crazy. 

You ever want to see someone's personality change 180 degrees in a 30 seconds.  Give them painkillers.  Immediately happy Laura came back.  The pain killers caused the baby's heartbeat to drop a little bit, so the doctor sped everything up.  About 10 minutes of labor later, Miles Sebastian Becker entered the world wailing away. 

6 lbs 6 oz and around 20 inches long, with a full head of hair.  Also, Steph had wanted to be here for the delivery, so we had arraged for a friend to drop by with Chase.  Laura had originally told Steph, take your time, we will be sitting around all night, it should be no problem.  Well Steph, driving as fast as possible, supposedly hitting a farm animal on the way here, still missed it by about two minutes.  Oh, and I know everyone is wondering, I did not faint.  Come on people, it only has happened once in my life, I'm not going to faint at everything. 

So other women who have had babies feel free to give Laura some grief, she didn't even break a sweat and looked great after delivery.  You will also notice that she quickly changed out of her flowery gown this time, the things you learn with the second child.

Chasers dropped by yesterday morning to meet his new brother.  He was interested for about 5 minutes, and then it was on to other things.  So we will see how bringing Miles home goes.  I think we may have a little terror on our hands as he realizes he has competition for Mom's attention now. 

I'll wrap this one up with our new family picture. Welcome Miles to the fam.

Chase's First Movie Experience

So, you know those parents who can't control their kids and let them run around a theatre screaming and just running around.  They are really annoying people that you just look at and go, "why did they bring a two year old to a movie theatre, get the hell out of here!"  That's us. 

Everything started out so great.  I was excited to take him to see Cars 2 even though I heard there were guns and explosions, etc...  My argument is that in other Disney movies you have to explain why Bambi's mom gets shot, why a shark is trying to eat Nemo's dad, why dragons are trying to blow up a village, and why do wildebeasts run down Simba's dad.  So I thought it was fine. 

So Chase had his little bag of popcorn and was just chowing it down.  He laughed at some of the previews and yelled "plane" as the cars movie started.  This lasted for about 30 minutes.  Then he decided to stand and calmly watch the movie.  Then, he decided he was bored.  He started running up the stairs and walking into random rows, walking behind his mom and smacking her on the head.  Then he stood behind this kid and started yelling at the screen.  This kid looked back at us a couple of times with a really annoyed look on his face. 

Then he ran down and started running up and down the handicap area in front of the theatre.  At this point I told him he had to stop and he started wailing.  We figured it was about time for the first movie experience to be over.  So we made it about halfway through the movie.  I told Laura to go back and ask for half our money back, but she thought that was a bad idea. 

So lesson learned that A. You should not take a 2 year old to a movie unless the theatre is empty B.  or take him to a movie that is only 30 minutes long  C.  never get angry at parents who cannot control their kid, it could be you some day. 

So we are pretty much at the stage where we cannot attend any event that requires silence, because Chase hates silence.  He will fill it with just loud "BLAAHHHH's", the phrase "Bobby Glick" (no idea what that means), or just a lot of crying.  So church, weddings, movies, piano concerts, and story time are pretty much out. 

Oh well, hopefully this only lasts like a year or something, until then you can find Laura and I at home or outside where our little hellion can yell as load as he wants.

P.S.  the hour I did see of Cars 2 was OK, but not great, I may go back later tonight and ask to see the second half

Let's try this again

Well, in case you haven't heard by now, Laura's got a little bump growing from her stomach again as number two is on the way.  Crazy to think about going back to an infant once again as we just got done celebrating a 2 year old's birthday.  Back to no sleep, 20 diapers a day, crying, and somehow doing this while still watching a 2 year old. 

We've asked Chase if he is excited about having a baby brother or sister, which he responds to with a resounding "No!"  So it should be interesting.  We've taught him to answer the question "what's in mom's belly?" with "baby", but then we see him pointing to anyone's stomach including his own and saying "baby inside".  So I don't think he quite gets it.

So time to create a new bedroom, get a toddler bed, and do all of that other baby stuff.  We are still trying to decide if we want to find out the sex.  Laura is voting for not finding out and saying it is one of the few suprises you can have.  I say let's find out because it is more efficient, we can remove half of the name book that way.  Because that is going to be tough enough as it is. 

As for the details, we are in week 17 or 18 right now, the ultrasound is the first week of June, and right now the due date is sometime around mid October.  The one thing we are trying to figure out is if we can still fly somewhere at the end of August, any other pregnant women that have flown at week 34?  Anyways, we're excited for the next baby to come!

Actual Birthday

So I realize that this is about three weeks post his actual birthday, but better late than never.  As Chase wrapped up his 2nd year of life, you start to realize how important a nap can be for a toddler.  Also, be careful trying to cram too much into one day, which is what we tried to do with presents, an easter egg hunt, and some birthday cake. 

We probably had our biggest meltdown to date on his birthday.  Here's some pictures. Chase had some issues with the song "Happy Birthday", you may have heard of it.  This was literally his face as we were singing it.

Notice the pretty sweet cake that Laura and my mom created.  Doc Hudson from cars. Chase got a lot of trains for his birthday.  Currently ranked as his top toy.

The first meltdown of the day had been around doing an easter egg hunt.  You know what is great about an easter egg hunt at the age of two?  You can just stand on the deck and chuck the plastic eggs into the yard since you don't need to be too creative in hiding them yet.  After a 15 minute melt down, Chase decided an easter egg hunt was pretty fun, supposedly later that week Laura had to hide eggs around the house so he could do it again. 

So we begin the terrible two's.  Pretty sure we saw the switch turn on the very day he turned two.  So hopefully we can survive the next year.  :)  Here's some nice pictures from the day.

Birthday Buddies

So we made a quick trip down to Iowa last weekend for a baby shower and got to stay with my college roomate Dale and his son Will.  Funny thing is Will and Chase were born on the same day exactly one year apart.  Laura made a couple of cakes and we got to see the advancement of one year.  Will immediately tore into his cake and started chucking it around, just like you are supposed to. He took about 2 total bites of the cake I think.  Chase on the other hand, stared at his cake, took a few attempts at a bite, and then decided he needed a fork.  He then (in a very proper manner) proceeded to dismantle his cake in small bites that he could eat. 

It took about 2 full days for Chase to warm up to Will.  Meanwhile Will was fascinated by this larger version of himself and followed Chase all over the place causing Chase to cry when someone 15 pounds lighter than him started stealing back his own toys.  Chase got his revenge with a few well timed hip checks that knocked Will over, followed by a face that said "I didn't do anything, this kid ran into me"  By the end of the weekend they were hugging it out and were best buds. 

On a personal note, I decided to show that I can still play bball with college kids and decided to head to the rec center to show them how a 29 year old hoops it up.  My most impressive plays were a tipback where I got 2 inches off of the ground and a block that I had.  I also destroyed my brother one on one.  OK, we each one a game, but I beat him in free throws.  After this, I headed back with a slight limp, but with my head held high.

Here's some more pictures from the weekend

Karate Chop

I just told a really funny joke, this is what most of our nights are like

Will wondering "what the hell is this guy doing"

Will's angry model face

Opening Day

One of the best days of every year, the home opener.  Especially now that it is actually outside and not under some teflon with seats that point towards center field.  We started a new traditioin today with just Chase and I going to the game.  It's not that we wanted to exclude Laura, we just thought it would be more fun without her.  I kid, I kid.  Our season tickets only allowed for two tickets to the opener, so me and the kid went.  Here's how it went.

First of all I had to wake him from a nap at daycare to get us on the road. (one sidenote, i forgot to leave his diapers there in the morning so I got a call at 9:30 asking where the diapers were.  They are probably thinking stupid dad, which is what Laura also told me when I relayed the story to her later.  She said she had told me not to forget this the night before, which I'm sure she did.  Must have slipped my mind) I walked in and he's clutching his sippy cup while in sleep, probably dreaming about cookies to go with the milk he's drinking.  It took me about a minute to wake him up, and when he finally realizes I'm there, he immediately hops up and starts running for the door, saying "get me the heck out of here".  We had to change into his twins jersey, Morneau not Mauer, and his twins stocking cap. 

Then we had to walk about a mile to get to the game.  Do you know how long it takes a toddler to walk a mile with his short stubby legs.  About 40 minutes.  Especially when they just wake up from a nap and they are not really sure where they are.  The slowest walk of my life, but thankfully I had planned for that.  God knows I can't carry him that far, he weighs like 35 pounds now, and with the 20 pound backpack of his stuff, that wouldn't work. 

Chase's favorite part of the game.  Probably the national anthem.  Not only did he get to see a big flag, but there were fireworks and some F-16's (I think) that flew over.  He thought that was pretty cool. Oh, we also saw a train while walking to the game.  He wanted to sprint across the highway to see that.  By the way train has two syllables when you are 2.  Chase was still pretty zoned for about the first couple of innings.  Then he remembered I had food.  We proceeded to eat for the next 7 innings, and when we got to the car he told Laura he was still hungry.  Really, he had 3 oranges, two muffins, 2 bags of fruit snacks, 2 boxes of raisins, and I'm sure I'm missing something. 

Also, with being by myself I had to change his diaper.  Normally Laura loves this job and takes care of it.  The diaper change went fine, it was afterwards when he started sprinting out of the bathroom before I was ready that was the problem.  I was the guy who then grabbed Chase by the arm and made him fall to the ground while I dragged him back towards our bag.  I'm sure it looked like good parenting. 

Chase continued to eat, started clapping with the crowd, and the Twins made a comeback in the 8th after having 2 hits the rest of the game to win 2-1.  Chase didn't see the end of the game since everyone was standing as Nathan got the save, but he didn't seem to care much.  He was still able to spot airplanes and birds, so the world was good. 

So the start of the new tradition went pretty well, hopefully next year he will actually care about the baseball itself, but we take it one step at a time.  He did tell the people behind us that someone was going to pitch it and then someone would hit it.  So we are getting somewhere.  All in all, a good day, with no catastrophies without mom. Probably a miracle in itself. 

Potty Training Attempt #1

So Laura gave potty training a try and after a day and 2 hours of following Chase around the house while he peed himself like someone with the tiniest bladder in the world, she decided he may not be ready.  Seriously, who knew that kids actually pee like every 45 minutes at this age, it's  crazy.  And he just didn't care that pee was running down his leg.  He just stopped, let it flow, and then went about his business.  Meanwhile, we would have to hunt him down, take off his pants, wipe him down, and start over. It was awesome.

She tried this on Monday and it was one of those days that when I walked in the door after work I realized I better take care of Chase the rest of the night.  Every parent knows those days where there kids just bug them so much they want to just set them outside while they sit down and have a drink while watching TV.  Laura had a couple of those, and as someone walking into this situation, it is better to just take the child and get the hell out of there for the benefit of both Chase and myself. :)  So we immediately headed to the basement to watch blues clues or something.  Needless to say we will be changing diapers for a little longer.

Other than that, Laura and I just took a trip to Mexico for a week.  You always wonder what Chase actually thinks as we say "good-bye, see you in a week" and beeline for the door.  We left him with Val and he was trying to chase us down the stairs, crying the whole way.  We equipped them with the proper entertainment and 10 minutes later while watching the movie cars and eating some snacks, we were promptly forgotten.

Thankfully, Chase is good when he stays with these other people.  Much better than he is with us.  He stops whining, wants to go to bed, sleeps in until 8, etc...  So on the one hand you are like, "why doesn't he do that with us", but on the other hand you say, "keep doing it, that way they will take him the next time"  He was happier to see us this time when we got back.  He basically just started laughing and then was clinging to Laura for about the next half hour. 

Next up, his 2nd birthday.  Only a month away and it is on Easter this year.  So time to figure out the presents and make him a cake and all that stuff.  So we should have some exciting pictures from that. 

I'm Hungry!

Really, you're hungry?  This is Chase's new favorite phrase that he picked up this weekend.  From the size of his little belly he probably has enough in reserve, but about every hour I hear that he is hungry and usually the only thing he wants is yogurt.  Which he then slops all over himself because he won't wear a bib.  Also, you know how there are kid's menu's at restaurant and they are intended to go to age 10.  We got Chase one last night and he downs pretty much the entire burger and almost all of the fries.  It's a good thing Laura feeds chase healthy stuff about 95% of the time otherwise we'd be on one of those talk shows with the huge kids.  (As I'm writing this he just walked over to me and told me he's hungry, I can't make this stuff up) 

We are also now told when Chase has completed going potty.  We've tried to explain how it may be more beneficial to tell us prior and then use a toilet, but I think that thing scares him right now.  He loves watching me flush the toilet though, he says buy to the water as it swirls away.  This will probably only apply to other parents, but is it sad that when I go to change one of these diapers my thoughts center around hoping that I've got a good solid number 2 instead of the runs.  It can really make or break the experience.

It's also pretty amazing how kids can memorize books.  Pretty much any book we have he can repeat the last word of every phase now.  It makes him sound impressive and is a good party trick at least. 

Here's a good picture of Chase making a gingerbread house.  Needless to say we did not eat the house.

Tantrums

Is it OK that I find Chase's tantrums to be hilarious. To the point where I get the video camera out so I can tape it to use it later in life to prove the fact that he's not the angel that he will try to claim to be?  It's a good thing my parents did not have a video camera.  When we dropped him off at a friends house for a night, he supposedly just cried the entire three hours we were gone.  He also kept bringing his coat to our friend and walking towards the door.  Breaks your heart, huh.  He also refuses to look new people in the eyes, he'll turn his head and look at them out of the corner of his eye which is pretty comical. 

Also, does anyone else's kids require about 25 things with him in his crib before he will go to sleep.  Chase will not go to sleep until he has books, cars, blocks, 7 blankets, maybe some waffles.  It makes no sense.  I then have to go in later and pull everything back out so he doesn't roll over on the car later at night and make the sirens go off.  It's great.  He also makes us turn off the light and turn on the humidifier.  Without water in it of course, we just use it for the noise.

I figured we've taken around 7000 pictures of Chase.  Do you know how long it takes to sort through 7000 pictures?  Well I finally did.  I'm going to start throwing some of them in here from the past two years so I get some use out of it.  First ice cream cone, provided by gramps.

For your viewing pleasure

See two posts in one day, a new record.

Chase has learned a new face, which he enjoys doing constantly

Chase's first snowman, which I think he was scared of and who melted and fell over about 3 hours later in our balmy weather

New Goal

Ok, new goal, post quick thoughts on here more frequently.  We'll see if that works. 

Do you have to give money your child gets for his birthday, or Valentine's day, or other random days he gets money from his grandparents to your kid?  My philosophy is that I should take that money and then tell him I used it to pay for his diapers.  Seems to make sense for me.  Chase got a $1 in the mail today and threw it away, so he's not his father's son.

I'm pretty sure Chase will take a year off some time in his adult life and just walk across the country like Forest Gump.  We take him to play in the snow since it is finally above 10 degrees here and all he does is want to go to the path and just walk down it.  No interest in building a snow man or trying to walk through the snow.  Same when I tried to take him sledding, he wanted to just pull the sled down the path. 

We also have found the favorite movie.  If you ever want Chase to stand in one spot for two hours and ignore the world, just put on the movie cars.  I pry use that ploy twice a day on the weekend.  By the way, his favorite car is not Lightning McQueen, but Doc Hudson.  Like I said, our kid is strange.

Find out if Chase likes Santa Clause.....

The answer is No!

Everything was going fine as we walked through the Macy's little elf land.  Chase was enjoying the singing trees, the animals, and the toy making exhibit.  We got into line for Santa and he noticed some trains, which he thought were pretty cool.  He tried to make a break for it at this point, but we scooped him back up and told him it was time to see Santa.  At Macy's they put Santa behind a curtain so you can't see what you are walking into.  You also don't see people exit, so I could see how this may be scary for a kid. 

The nice little helper pulls the curtain back, we turn the corner, and Chase wanted nothing to do with this nice man in a red suit with the white beard.  He started screaming like we had taken a cookie out of his hand after he had already taken a bite.  Of course our camera was on timer mode for some reason, so I only got this one good shot.  Pretty sure Santa will be haunting Chase's dreams for the next few nights.  When I hear that scream at 3 AM, I'll know that Chase is reliving one of the most traumatic experiences of his life.

From a parent's standpoint, we found this hilarious.  These are the moments you live for when you have to wake up at 5 AM each morning because your kid won't sleep in.  Does this make us evil, nahhhh, just normal parents I think.  We can't wait to do it again next year!

I have failed...

Wow, it's been about 6 months since the last time I posted, not much happens in 6 months right.  Never mind that it is a third of Chase's life right now.  Well he's almost 20 months old and getting more funny and more aggravating depending on the time of the day.  I'll try to hit some of the highlights since the trip to the bahamas.

He finally did get a haircut, first attempt was a trim by mom, but that didn't turn out too well.  Then we just went with the buzz look, and it has been the same ever since.  He has this weird things at the nape of his neck though where the hair just kind of sweeps to the side, makes it tough to cut.  May turn into a good mullet or rat tail someday.  Maybe for next year's christmas card.

You saw Laura's post about going overseas for a month, well you can figure out who was watching Chase the whole time.  His grandparents.  He had a good time hanging out, seeing mom on the computer screen and talking to dad on the phone.  For awhile he would refer to the computer as mama and the phone as dada.  Awesome.  When he finally got to see Mom at the airport he acted pretty shy, but eventually accepted her back into the family.  Which is a good thing, because things wouldn't go quite as smoothly without her.

For Halloween Chase was a baseball player.  This involved Laura attempting to make him some pants. After about three tries she finally figured out that Chase has some chubby legs and got them to fit.... barely.  So he had his bat, his Twins jersey, and some awesome eye paint.  So he looked good, unfortunately the actual trick or treating was a bit of a challenge.  He just wanted to pull his wagon around, so we stopped at no houses, it was cold out, so I eventually just grabbed him, wailing, and took him home.  We have some good pictures of him crying on the ground. 

At some point we took family pictures, which I was really excited about.  Check out the ones with me in my hat, they are the best. I wanted to wear my hat that made me look like a robber, but that didn't work out.  Most of the pictures are of Chase, and they turned out really well.  I'm pretty sure Laura has put them on facebook. 

Chase knows a ton of words now and is starting to repeat everything we say.  Our issue word at the moment is "truck".  The tr comes out as an f if you know what I mean.  Now we think he knows what he is doing too.  He can say tree and train just fine, so he doesn't have an excuse.  Pretty funny though, we just have to make sure we don't take trucks to church. 

Our ipad also gets the most use by Chase.  Whether it is Dr. Seuss books, blues clues movies, or flashcards, he's figured out how to navigate it pretty well.  Pretty funny to watch an 18 month old start swiping at the screen to get what he wants.  I also taught him how fun movie time can be, for both him, and for dad since it serves as a good distraction.  So he's seen cars, thomas the train, an American Rabbit (that one was a movie I remembered as a kid, I remember it being a much better movie)  So if you hear him saying "moobie, moobie", that is what he wants. 

Otherwise we hear a lot of "no's", and finally starting to get a headshake for a yes.  He can give us "knucks" which is pounding fists, although when we tell him to blow it up he tries to blow on your hand.  He insists on eating full size food, so he must have the full slice of pizza or a full cheeseburger. 

All in all, getting more and more entertaining.  I'll give an update after Christmas, I know he already got too much from us, and I'm sure he'll get plenty from the grandparents.  I promise it won't be six months before the next visit.  Now back to my holiday tradition.  The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.  Time for the big fight at the end of movie one. 

Iowa, Minnesota, Malaysia。。。

I've hijacked matt's blog.  Don't have much time, but thought i'd at least give a brief update of my trip thus far.  I have to start by saying how much I already miss my boys.  It was hard to leave them, but i know chase is having a blast in algona with both sets of grandparents and matt is enjoying his golf, video games & twins games.

I landed in Korea Wed afternoon after 15 hours on the plane...and maybe only 3 hrs of sleep the previous 2 nights.  It was so great to see steph - who i haven't seen in over a year!!  We headed back to her apartment and then  out to her favorite thai restaurant for dinner.  That night we also had to pack for our 18 day backpacking adventure.  If you haven't guessed already, it took us 3 rounds of packing and re-packing to get everything to fit into our backpacks.  I thought I was bad with overpacking, but I'm nothing compared to steph!

Thursday morning we headed to the airport, but soon ran into some debris from the previous nights typhoonesque weather.  Trees uprooted all over, power lines down, it was pretty impressive.  Looked like a tornado had hit a 2 block stretch.  Steph took about 500 pictures, so i'll try to get those up sometime. 

We're now in Malaysia for the next 9 days.  Today and tomorrow we'll be in the capital city of Kuala Lampur.  Today, we got here just in time to get some massages, but at a really sketchy place...not sure i'll go back there.  It was really dark, dingy & i seriously feared for my safety just a little bit.  The old lady who was doing my massage kept saying that steph and i needed to be careful in malaysia(2 girls traveling alone is apparently just asking for trouble).  don't worry matt - we can  take care of ourselves!!  Tomorrow, we're going to do some shopping and sightseeing.  Then it's off to Cameron Highlands for the next leg of our trip, which is one of malaysia's many national parks.  I'm hoping to see some elephants & monkeys!!!

I think that's it for now.  Off to bed for me.

to my boys...I miss you tons!!!

Laura

Chase in the Bahamas

Only 14 months old and Chase has already been outside of the United States.  Pretty sure it took me 18 years to do that.  The best part about taking him to the Bahamas was that he got to get a passport picture which looks awesome.  Even better is when they really inspect that passport in customs, like he's going to smuggle something through in his big gut. 

Overall he did pretty well on the plane, pretty much slept on all four flights, which was great accept when you had to hold a 30 pound kid on your lap like dead weight.  Also in case you every go on a plane with a baby I guess you need a ticket even without a seat.  We almost left him in the bahamas because of this very reason. 

Pictures are up on Picasa from the trip, but Chase enjoyed the trip overall.  He got his first experience with the ocean and he loved to just walk in and out of the swimming pool.  Being the great parents we are we forgot to bring any toys with us on the trip, which forced us to buy a $15 dollar ball that probably cost 25 cents to make in order to keep him occupied.  As for the adults there was a lot of snorkeling (with sharks!) (no really, I got in with sharks 15 feet below).  Of course I waited until everyone else was in the water and then went in for like a minute.  We also did a lot of water slides and Laura tanned for about 5 hours a day.  So a great vacation overall. 

Other than that the kid has had a pretty good summer.  A lot of time at the zoo, running around outside, trying to teach him to hit a baseball and golfball (which we are off to a pretty good start on), and playing at the water park.  He can know climb stairs quicker than we can figure out where he is at, still falls at least 5 times a day, and is starting to get more words.

 He also has discovered the bobblehead collection.  This started with first staring at them in fright and then figuring out that his Dad has to be the coolest person on the earth with all of these bobbleheads.  Know he will spend 10 minutes just staring, pointing, and saying bah-bah.  He also had his first camping and boating experience.  Infant life jackets seem a little uncomfortable, but if he gets tossed in the water he should survive.  He was sleeping when he got on the boat, so I can just imagine what he is thinking when we force him awake and he's got the wind blowing through his long locks.

Speaking of that, the kid needs a haircut.  Laura refuses to do it, but I think she finally realized the necessity when she got asked "how old is she" at the store the other day.  So not sure how we will pull this off, but I told her if it is not done in a month, I'm taking care of it.  Buzz cut man. 

Finally, I think I figured out that when you are a baby, Dad's probably really don't know how to fix anything, but they pick it up as they go.  I tonight figured out how to wire a telephone line by myself.  One of two times I have completed a man task.  I figure I'll continue to pick up on this, although my wife may disagree. 

Here's a link to the pictures again. http://picasaweb.google.com/mbecker0410

Later

Rocky, Roads, and Sprinklers

It's your lucky day, bonus coverage of the exciting adventures of little Chasers.  This is what happens when I get a day off of work and run out of things to do.  Definitely an exciting weekend that began with some blood.  For the most part Chase has the walking thing down, but every once in a while he likes to throw in a good faceplant to remind himself he has a little learning to do.  This weekend there were two pretty good ones.  The first happened while he was carrying a basketball around the yard, tripped, and bit his lip.  Nothing like a kid wailing with blood all over his teeth in front of the neighbors.  About a minute later he was fine though and shouting "ba, ba" as he went to pick it up again.  Round two came at a friends house.  Chase was taking his 5th lap around the driveway (more on this later) when all of a sudden he fell forward on his hands, couldn't stop his mass from driving his face right into the driveway.  It was one of those slow motion moments where I just stood there and watched the nose and lip smoosh into the driveway and what "oh crap".  He immediately started wailing and had blood dripping from his nose and a cut lip and front of the nose to go with it.  So while the outside maybe fun, we're finding it a little more dangerous than around the house. 

Second, once again we buy an awesome little pool, take Chase to parks and all he does is find the road and start walking towards it.  We set him in the middle of the yard and he immediately bee lines to the driveway and wants to walk over to the neighbors.  My wife would say that is because they all have dogs and we do not, but it means no snoozing while watching him in the front yard.  Then today we drove about 30 minutes to find a park.  We were trying to find a lake, since this is the land of 10,000 lakes, but all the lakes around us have no parks attached.  So we finally find this nice park, have lunch, put Chase into the sand next to the playground and he immediately starts marching off down the sidewalk, does a few laps around the restrooms, and then walks out into the parking lot towards the road finding discarded cigarettes and water bottles that he wants to play with.  Awesome.  You've got to love the walking now though because he very rarely falls and he swings his arms like he's out for a nice little stroll.  Maybe he understands when we talk about his big belly and he's just trying to work it off.  He already takes part in Laura's workout videos every morning.  He has the arm waves and jumping jacks down. 

Finally, Chase isn't quite sure what to make of sprinklers yet.  He first experienced them this weekend and he would basically walk into the stream of the sprinkler, stop in shock, and let the water continue to just pelt him in the face.  I thought this was pretty funny, so we tried to make him continue to do it.  Doesn't seem to be afraid of them though and seemed to like getting wet, so that bodes well for our vacation coming up.  Although he did hate the sand today at the park, he didn't like that it stuck to his hands, and he just tried to wipe everything off onto his belly.  He definitely loves the outside though, at least 10 times a day he walks to the door and starts waving his hands like he's saying goodbye to let us know he wants to go out.  It's going to be rough once winter is here again, which in Minnesota is like 2 months away.