Flyers Family

We took our first road trip to Jersey for a flyers game and a friend's 30th birthday party this past weekend. Last time we were up was March!! Delaware traffic wasn't as bad as expected and Chase did well in the car. I just realized a bunch of pics are missing from my sd card-including today's Santa pics:( so unfortunately I won't have pictures from all of this weekend's events for upcoming posts. All of our pictures of the family decked out in orange for the Flyers game were luckily still on the camera though!

Chase and GiGi

Chase and "Deke" AKA Uncle Kyle

Go Flyers!!

Even though I'm still too little to go to my first game, I can still support the team!!

Movember

Chase is looking in the mirror and trying to figure out what happened to daddy

Yes, you read the title correctly...Movember! Jas had a full beard again for awhile and wanted to show his support for the team by shaving so he just has a moustache. I told him he could keep it for tomorrow's game, but after that off with the stache! For those of you unfamiliar with Movember, its a worldwide charity event to raise awareness for men's health issues including prostate cancer. Many of our beloved Flyers have decided to partake in the event, and Jas thought he'd try to rock one. I'm not a huge fan:0

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mommy what am I supposed to do with that thing?

A little scaled down this year

Since we celebrated with family over the weekend, today its just the three of us! Jas and I couldn't be more thankful this season. Chase is a happy, healthy baby who brings so much joy to our lives. We feel its appropriate to be spending the day just as a family with no schedule and no visitors. Maybe it will even be an all day pajama day!

So far today we've relaxed, did a little more cooking, and watched the parade. No driving-YAY!! I spent the morning cleaning the leftovers out of the fridge and making up some new recipes. Turkey=Turkey and Wild Rice Soup, Mashed Potatoes=Potato, Roasted Corn, and Prosciutto Chowder, Raisin Wheat Bread=Blueberry French Toast Casserole. Busy, busy already.

No elaborate menu for today-just ham:)

While we ate our yummy breakfast casserole, Chase played with his new favorite item. He just recently graduated from just batting at toys to holding them and of course bringing them to his mouth. Hmmm, slobbery:) I'd read that lots of people love this little giraffe, and after my girlfriend raved about it I decided to pick one up. Well worth the 2o bucks!

I love Sophie the Giraffe!!

Why can't I get both hooves in my mouth?

Oh well, I'll just settle for one

I have to protect her from Summer, she thinks Sophie is a toy for her too:)

Daddy to the Rescue

A few years ago we started the tradition of having Thanksgiving dinner the weekend before the actual holiday. It makes life much easier for everyone, and traffic on holidays just plain stinks. Even though Chase is here, I'm determined to continue the tradition of having our family down for dinner at our house, and each year I get better with preparation. I refuse to just throw the bird in the oven and hope for the best, so for the past 3-4 yrs we prep by brining the bird the night before(trust me it is well worth the effort). Another endeavor I've decided to take on is cooking the bird breast side down and then flipping it toward the end of the cooking time. This is a feat in itself, and definitely a two-man job! Brining the turkey in combination with this unconventional cooking technique truly make the most succulent bird, and always up for the challenge, this year my plan is to be able to execute the same caliber meal with a baby in the house:)

In efforts to prep a little ahead of time, and psyched that I have a new larger oven this year I realized that I should probably set the self-cleaning feature on the oven. We had a bit of a fiasco with a thin crust pizza last week and I totally forgot to clean things up. After about 45 minutes the oven started setting off the smoke alarm incinerating those cheesy bits, and instead of taking down the smoke detector I decided to cancel the self-clean. I realized that starting this at 8 o'clock at night was a dumb idea, and Chase needed some uninterrupted sleep. The problem is when I hit the cancel button the oven did go into cool down mode, but immediately started beeping and clicking and throwing an error code. This happened repeatedly, and after a quick look on the internet because those stupid manuals are useless we decided to flip the power and head to bed. Upon waking up this morning the oven door was still locked and turning off the power did absolutely nothing! I thought I was going to have to cancel our Thanksgiving dinner:(

After thinking I was going to have to call the Maytag repair man, here come Jas to the rescue....he takes the whole back apart and finds a tiny little screw(we still haven't figured out where it came from) that has jammed the door locking mechanism. Yay for Daddy!! He saved the day!

Time to end this ridiculously long-winded post, gotta go brine that bird:)

Back to Work

I kept dreading today, but it was inevitable. Today was my first day back to work:( I prepped everything last night and made a plan to leave the house by 7:15am. Jas' prediction was that I would be an hour behind schedule, but I managed to get out the door only 10 minutes late! I was determined to prove him wrong!! If Chase hadn't decide to poop as I was buckling him in his seat we would have made our departure time:) We ended up being later than expected actually arriving to the daycare provider's house because I drove right by my turn and made it another few minutes down the road before I remembered. No, I didn't forget Chase was in the car, you just get in a mindset when you drive the same way every day for years, and her house is on the way to work for me! So after trying to be swift and take a back road, which ended up dumping me in a business park, I had to completely backtrack to my original missed turn. I'm not going to lie...Chase heard a few choice words from mommy, but only after we had hit the third set of light rail crossings with red lights!

After we finally got there and a brief goodbye(I got my few tears out last night), I headed to work for a pretty busy day. The fact that I needed to catch up on so much kept me occupied enough to prevent me from being a anxious mom all day. Both times when I checked in Chase was doing fine, and the day ended up going pretty quickly. He greeted me with a little smirk when I went to pick him up which was adorable and of course made me smile. He was happy and so was I. One day down...

Another Day, Another Outfit

Like my fuzzy head? I just had a bath:) I'm squealing in delight because my mommy is making funny noises and silly faces at me.

Like my new duds?

The other day my mother-in-law mentioned that she had yet to see a picture of Chase wearing the same outfit more than one time. I laughed and then I thought about it...I've determined that dressing a little boy can be just as much fun as dressing a little girl. Obviously this is my only reference point, but I get excited when Chase can wear a new outfit. I sadly just about filled an entire bin with his preemie and newborn clothes, and have now washed all of his 3 mos. outfits. This is just a reminder of how quickly they grow!

Getting back to the above comment, Chase has worn numerous outfits multiple times! A lot of the posts just happen to have him in new(er) clothes:) When he outgrew his newborn sleepers we realized he only had a handful of larger sleepers, so I had to go out and pick up a few more warm ones. I even passed up a visit to the Loft with my mom the other day, because I'd rather shop for him now:) That was definitely a first for me. Not that this is news to anyone but the little man generates a lot of laundry. Not nearly as much since the upgrade to bigger diapers-thank goodness!

On another clothing note, even though its going to be nearly 70 tomorrow we've been on a hunt for a winter jacket for Chase over the past few weeks. Everything was way too big. Thanks MomMom H. for finally finding him one! We now have a few prams and a ski jacket, we just need some gloves and boots to complete his winter attire. Bring on the snow!!

That reminds me-Congratulations to my 4 girlfriends who had "blizzard babies" over the past two weeks. One of them even made it on the news for an interview about keeping occupied while being snowed in:) Even though she said it was embarrassing to talk about, she now has a wonderful little boy to show for it!!

Sound Sleeper

It is truly amazing what babies sleep through! Since Chase learned to sleep through the hustle and bustle of the NICU he generally doesn't stir if its loud. This is great for when I'm vacuuming or Jas is watching something with the surround sound cranked up. Today however it is incredibly loud because we are getting a new roof put on. I made the mistake of not moving my car early enough, so when the guys showed up at 7:30am(our neighbors must love us) I ended up just putting it in the backyard. So here I am stranded because my car is blocked in, listening to hours of racket and banging, all while the little one sleeps. Oh well, at least I can get some housework done:)

Sweet Moments

Chase and I shared some giggles and smiles while he was in his bouncer today. The light coming in his window was perfect(by my amateur standards) and I think he couldn't look any more adorable.

Many Faces of Chase:)

"You mean I'm not supposed to wrap by fingers in your hair?"

Holding on for dear life

I can sleep anywhere. Especially in MomMom's arms:)

The Bumbo is growing on me, but I'm not a fan of getting yet another picture taken when its time to eat!

More Guestssurprisingly

Kathy, Brynn, and Chase

Isn't she a cutie pie!!

Uncle Chris finally got to meet Chase and put him right to sleep

Since Tuesday as election day a lot of my friends had off of work and we made plans to get together for the day. My brother Chris was also up for the day since he's moving back to NJ so we had a full house of visitors! Uncle Chris hadn't met Chase yet, and he was surprisingly quite a natural. He didn't hesitate to hold him and wasn't flustered if Chase fussed. I was even able to take a little longer of a shower since Uncle Chris was visiting! It doesn't sound like a big deal, but all of you moms will understand:)

Jenna, Katie G, Kathy, and MomMom H. also came over to hang out for some girl time (sorry Uncle Chris). Kathy brought her adorable daughter Brynn who was wonderful with Chase and loved hanging out getting licks from Summer. Since there are some days that I don't get a lot of adult conversation in until Jas gets home from work it was a nice change to my daily routine!

We Love Summer!

All we need now is a saddle!!

Summer had been our baby for nearly 11 yrs. when Chase joined the family. She has been absolutely wonderful with the little one, and over the past few months has grown to tolerate the divided attention. You can often find her sitting on the rug in front of Chase's crib or next to him when he's in his bouncer. She sneaks in a few licks here and there, and often comes to see what's going on when Chase cries. I was a little sad when Jas came home with "senior" dog food for her the other day, but its been long over due. She's never been a pet food only dog and I'm sure she'll be thrilled when Chase starts to eat solids. Although she doesn't get as much attention as she used to our first baby still deserves a shout out with the occasional post:)

5 Months Old!

Today Chase is 5 months old, and he continues to grow and reach milestones on a daily basis! Yesterday when we went in for his first course of Synagis he weighed 10 lb. 9oz. and the pediatrician told us that he is making progress closer to his chronological age which is awesome! Hopefully the little man will be starting on rice cereal at the beginning of December, and he no longer needs formula designed for preemies. The best news is that Chase has been off of medication for 8 days and he hasn't had any symptoms!!!