Christmas 2012

Laura and I decided to pat ourselves on the back for how well we informed Santa this year.  I think we are batting 100% on presents that Chase and Miles actually enjoy, or at least 90%.  This after the unfortunate incident last year with the red kitchen that Laura was very excited about, but Chase wasn't ready to be a top chef quite yet.  There's still hope down the line that it will get used. 

We now have 6 different sets of trains and train tracks, and no that is not an exaggeration.  We have trains in the bathroom now so that there is always one in sight.  What was Chase's favorite gift you ask?  Probably Miles' train set, which consisted of a simple round track and trains that make no noise.  I have no idea why he latches on to gifts that are his brothers. 

Another shining star was one of my favorite movies from childhood, "The brave little toaster".  Laura and Stephani were skeptical, but Chase loved it.  Who doesn't love talking appliances that travel cross country to find their master.  What we realized today is that Toy Story 3 completely just ripped off the brave little toaster.  Owner leaves them behind, they try to get back to him, they end up in a dump, and in the end he finds them again. 

The boys seem to be sharing presents, at least when they are not around each other.  Miles tried rolling an orange down the car race track or anything else that will move.  So even though Miles only got a couple of presents this year, I think he will have enough to play with. 

I'll leave it short and simple today and leave you with a link to updated pictures and videos if you want more details. More videos still coming. 

Coming down the stairs video

Christmas Morning Part 1

Presents part 2

Presents part 3

Train Table

2012 Pictures
2012 pictures v2

Twas the Night Before Christmas 2012

Twas the Night Before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring...  Wait a minute, this is my family, of course people are stirring, it's 5:30 in the morning right?  We hear the myth that there are kids out there that sleep from 7 to 7, must be nice.  We have Chase who's bladder is too small so 5:30 is his wake up call which then leads him to our room to see what is going on.  He then pronounces quite loudly that it is time to get dressed, which in turn wakes up Miles who is the lightest sleeper I have ever seen.  Seriously, a pin drops into carpet and the kid immediately pops up to make sure he is not missing anything.  Needless to say, this post comes on little sleep. 

Slight Interlude:
You know what else is pretty lame about this blog.  I just noticed that 4 posts ago, I used the same exact title.  I'm really creative.  I am now changing this title to add 2012 to the end.  Just to make it slightly unique.  You may continue. 

One and a half Christmas' in the book and the boys have made out pretty well.  We will have 4 different types of train sets set up around the house after this Christmas.  We can now put one in every room to ensure their is always a train nearby.  Recently we discovered Chase's new favorite place in the world in Choo Choo Bob's.  Choo Choo Bob's is a train store that very cleverly put 6 kid train tables in the back of the store to get people to come in.  Even though we have train sets at home, Chase would go here every day to play with train sets that 500 snotty, germ filled kids have touched. 

Santa was a fail again this year, although we thought we were so close.  Chase was excited, ready to tell him that he wanted two things, a train table and sunglasses.  So we are in line, still excited, we are next to go in, still excited, we turn the corner, still excited, we see Santa....  and immediately bee line out of the room trying to escape.  This kid does not like Santa, which he will tell you if you ask him.  Except he still wants him to bring presents of course.  We wrote a letter instead. 

We had the first of what I assume are thousands of kids events over the next 18 years, Chase's preschool concert.  Chase was in the front row "singing" at the top of his lungs.  The best line was when he sang "one small voice" as the loudest kid in the building.  Doesn't quite understand the words he was singing.  We showed this video over Christmas and all the comments are, wow he can stand still and listen to people, he can be quiet.  Yup, as long as he is not around his parents he seems to behave quite admirably. I guess that means we are doing something right, just not when he is around us.

Miles is taking after his Great Grandpa Nichols and has decided to point at what he wants instead of learning his words like any normal 15 month old should.  This usually involves me carrying him around for 30 minutes as he points at the door to look outside, the wall of pictures so he can show me who everyone is, the fridge to get milk, the pantry for his cheerios.  I'm his personal butler who gets the privelige of lugging a 25 pound kid wherever he wants to go.  The crawling and walking with help has also begun, which has led to some good arguments already.  Chase likes the hip check method of dealing with his brother to shove him out of the way. 

Back home today to prep for Christmas, pretty sure we haven't wrapped any gifts yet, so we will be up until midnight doing that, and then up at 5:30 to open them I'm sure. 

4 month gap, it's getting worse

Well, another 4 months just flew by without any comments from me.  We've now got a 10 month old who gets very angry if his every need is not being met whether it is more food, dirty diaper, or someone just not looking at him when he wants.  I thought he was going to be the mellow one, just like me, unfortunately he is becoming just as energized as his brother. 

Speaking of Chase, my favorite story over the past four months is about my friend Greg.  Greg is a fly, and the great thing is he can be any fly.  One day I just pointed at a random fly and told Chase, "Hey look, it's my friend Greg".  So now whenever we see a fly, whether it is in our house or in Iowa, Chase will yell "Look, it's Daddy's friend Greg!"  Never gets old.  I haven't killed Greg in front of Chase yet, but the day is coming.  

Laura tried a week of vacation bible school with Chase this summer.  I'll stress the word "tried".  We had a success rate of 40%.  The other three days I would just get a call at work saying that he didn't make it.  It usually involved Chase sprinting back out of the Church saying he didn't want to stay.  He has a tough time making decisions and will spend hours going back and forth.  Laura didn't feel comfortable just sprinting out of there and leaving him with some high school kids who didn't really seem to be paying attention. 

I'm waiting for the day Miles can start moving, and it's coming soon.  I'm anticipating him getting back at his brother over these first 10 months.  Crawling around, destroying train tracks, knocking over blocks, and just being annoying.  It will be good for Chase.  Miles is starting to get the basics down.  He says "Mama, Da, Banana, Hi, Bye, and shrieks".  He's also learned to wave, clap, and blow kisses.

We continue to traumatize our kids by leaving them behind for weeks at a time while we go on vacation.  I think we may be creating a complex in Chase as he is very concerned about us leaving him places.  I figure it will make him a tougher 4 year old.  

Finally, whenever I ask Chase what he did that day, he basically recites the same thing.  Basically it is his dream day and it goes like this.  "Uhhh... I went to the gym and played trains with the other kids, and then mommy picked me up and we went to Wendy's and I had chicken nuggets, apple slices, and a frosty.  Then I went to the baseball game with Grandma and Grandpa and I had popcorn and ice cream and I played with Grandma's Iphone"  That's basically it, as you can see a lot of it revolves around food.  

It's amazing what gets you excited

I'm back, only a 3 month hiatus.  Just like how the second kid doesn't get photographed, you quickly get to busy to do little things like this as well.

It's potty training time...  Fantastic.  Let me replay a conversation that happened while I was at work.

Laura: Can you Facetime
Matt: No, that doesn't work while I'm at work
Laura: Oh, Chase has something to tell you
Chase: I pooped!
Laura: Where did you poop?
Chase: In the potty!
Matt: Nice job, buddy.  That's fantastic.
Laura: I was going to send you a picture of it, but then I realized that may be a little gross.

You think?  Like I want a picture of a turd in my text messages.  Something I could show everyone at work.  At the same time, I probably would have thought it was pretty cool.  Also just awkward having these conversations at work where people can overhear you. 

We are making progress though, so that's good since he's almost three.  Chase and I went to the Twins opener.  Nothing like baseball in 30 degree weather.  Nice that Chase is getting more into it, he basically watched the first 5 innings, refused to go indoors because "I want to watch the game", and at one point handed me the Ipad and said "Dad, hold this, I need to watch the game."  Now I just need to teach him to hit a baseball.

Miles is still progressing nicely with the contact.  So no issues there.  We had him sleeping through the night, but just recently he's back to waking up every 2 hours.  The worst is when he screams so loud that he wakes me up.  :)  We also have the kids who  think 8 hours is enough for a kid.  Those parents who say that their kids sleep from 7 to 7 drive me nuts. 

Here's some pictures of the boys.

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