Unwrapping and Wrapping Up

Jas and Uncle Kyle on t.v at the hockey game

Before 2011 comes to a close, and so various friends and family will stop pestering me- without further adieu, here is a tidbit from our holiday week. Right now Chase is upstairs fussing, so this first post will be a collage. As you can see from above Daddy is at the Winter Classic Alumni game! More on our holiday festivities to follow shortly!!

This free picture collage created with Smilebox

Merry Wishes!

Hope everyone's days are filled with as much wonderment as ours! Wishing a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of our friends and family-near and far!

This is the first year in a very long time that we'll be waking up in our own bed on Christmas morning. Don't forget to cherish the little things...

Tree Time

I read a post on how to take the perfect picture of your child in front of the Christmas tree...turn on the tree lights during the day, wait for the perfect amount of sunlight to come through the window, and sit them several feet in front of the tree. Clearly that person did not have a freaking toddler-

Decorating before pictures

Making his plan of attack for what to grab first. "Hey buddy can you turn around and look at Mommy?" This was attempt #1. There was clearly too much to look at.

Try #2(really #20 or so probably, but that's the beauty of digital)-At this point Chase has started to move on, and is getting ready to do laps around the house with his grocery cart and/or Ferrari.

So I am left with Summer, who also rarely listens to me.

Except for this day...

So here is our first baby, who is now 12yrs old.

Posing for me for the perfect Christmas tree shot

Countdown to the Holidays

Time to Make Ornaments!!

Rolling the dough

Pretty skilled with the rolling pin

"Mom I know you told me its salty, but I want to try some."

All gone! And not too gross

Mommy forgot to poke holes in them before putting them in the oven

Ooh, smushy. I think I'll just paint my fingers

Thank goodness this is washable and nontoxic!

You can't see the finished products, sorry. They are presents for my grandparents!

Simon

My very own cell phone

Chase has been spoiled with some gifts from our out-of-town family recently. Jas' family in New Mexico, and my brother and his wife from Wales got all of their presents in the mail in a timely fashion. I, on the other hand, still have not sent out their boxes! Soon guys, I promise. Since Chase loves wrapping paper almost as much as the gifts themselves, I couldn't have him wait another week to rip them open. He got some awesome holiday books and a pillow pet from Grandma and Grandma, and a Vtech cell phone from Aunt Fay and Uncle Tim. Chase loves any kind of books, and rolling around with the pillow pet while being read to is a new favorite pastime. The cell phone is a slide and talk smartphone, and the best part of it by far is the fact that its from the UK!

Let me tell you a little more about the phone-

At first Chase needed assistance sliding the phone open to text and check his email. Since his favorite new word is "help", I spent quite a while helping him slide the front open over and over again. He was obsessed with the on/off button I didn't get the chance to really hear the prerecorded messages at first. The British accent was adorable, but I didn't realize I was in for more entertainment as Chase hit his "contacts" button. The children each state their name and something about themselves. "Hi it's Emily, I like to eat apples. Hi it's Jacob, I have a pet dog." etc. After pushing the same button over and over again(this time is was me)-It was addicting! I got "Hi it's Ethan, I like drawering." That isn't a typo(many of you know I am a spelling freak).

Immediately I couldn't help but think of...

The SNL jingle:

"Well, you know my name is Simon

and I like to do drawerings.
I like to draw all day long
so come and do drawerings with me.
Come and do drawerings with me!"

Now does the title of the post make sense?

If you lived in a hole and never watched SNL, or were born after the early 80's(a few of our blog followers fall into this category) you may have no idea what I'm talking about. I recommend you hit Ctrl T(open a new tab) right now, and check out Hulu or YouTube clips to get the full effect of Mike Myer's character in a tub talking about "cheeky monkeys or bum-lookers" Nothing beats those old Saturday Night Live skits!

But seriously-Although we rag on my brother for his transplanted accent and sayings, the fact that Chase has family in Europe is awesome! We all love the gift, especially me:)

We're fortunate to have the majority of our family located on the East Coast, but Chase misses his grandparents and aunts out West, and his aunt and uncle in Wales. Time to start Skyping people! After all he'll be 2 yrs. old before everyone visits again in June.

He Did It!!

Finally on Thursday, December 8th Chase got up the nerve to walk more than a few steps on his own! Did he not like the fact we were talking about him at the pediatrician's office? Jas commented that he probably didn't like the idea of the possibility of another specialist. After all of his appointments early on, can you blame him?

Mommy and Daddy were unfortunately both at work when he finally hit this milestone:( but we did get video and play-by-play commentary via text. The incentive in question for those precious steps....a bowl of Special K cereal held by Aunt Zandy! Our little health nut:)

Go Speed Chase'r, Go!

Summer, you better find some new hiding spots~

65th%tile!

Chase had his 18 month checkup today, can you believe its been a year and a half already? Like our friend said the other night, it still feels like just yesterday that Nutter made his surprise arrival. Sunday was officially the day to be exact, but I wanted to wait until I could post his stats:) Sometimes I spend part of the day amazed at how stinking smart he is, and the other half trying hard not to laugh at his antics. As you will see below, its oh so hard some days.

A year and a half ago I didn't think I'd ever be at an appointment and hear that the little one was over the 50% tile on his growth charts. Okay, so the title of this post is only for height(he grew two inches since Sept), but that is huge! He is still a skinny little thing weighing in at under 23lbs, but he is up to the 25th%tile on the chart. Besides the routine checkup piece-time to fill out those all too familiar developmental checklists, and a few shots, the doc and I had a conversation about Chase's walking skills. Or fear of walking issue. He continues to be extremely hesitant and will only take a few steps unaided to the nearest piece of furniture, or drop to a crawl all together if there isn't anything in proximity to grab. Since he still technically falls between two milestone lists, he was given a pass this time. He has no motor planning or muscle tone issues, he just needs more confidence. Everyday Chase walks/runs around the house with one of his cars and even uses his pedal car Flinstone style. If he is not walking unassisted in the next six weeks he will need to be referred for early intervention. Come on buddy, you can do it!

Besides the update I thought I'd just recap with a few photos from the past two weeks. Can't believe its December already!

Trying to go out to see the Christmas lights

Feeding Summer treats

Just sit still so I can hook this on!

The box from our new hot water heater has been a fort, a tunnel, and a racetrack so far.
Dickens Festival

I kept my mittens on the whole time!

Time to help decorate

We have enough ribbon to go all the way around. I measured for you:)

Chase's first ketchup experience

One of his last morning bottles-time for only cups all day long!

Even though mommy cut up pizza, I'm a big boy now

From a day in Chase's life: "Mom(that's what he calls me) why can't I comb my hair with a Q-tip and then suck on it like a lollipop? Why can't I talk on every person's cell phone I see and try to steal them out of random strangers bags at parties? And Why can't I give Summer 10 biscuits from the pantry-I know how to get the box, take it off the shelf, and get them out for her. You told me I can't feed her my crayons anymore. And why can't I chase her around the house with the lease, when I know she wants to go for a walk? And lastly, why do you get upset when I climb on the counter from the back of the couch I am just trying to get the wireless keyboard that has that awesome media center button. After all, you won't let me hit that shiny button on the DVR over and over again when you and Daddy are trying to watch t.v. "

Turkey Day!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

As I typically do on my overdue posts, I apologize for my tardiness. As people often say "the best laid plans...". I had every intention of posting on Friday-yes still a day late, but we were in a little bit of a food coma. Then came Saturday, and we woke up to inches of water in our basement from the hot water heater. That project dragged into Sunday, and after having friends over for the race, shopping with the girls, Donkey's cheesesteaks for lunch and cheesecake for dinner(you might as well end the four days of gluttony with a bang)-we are now at Monday.

Let me backtrack a bit....here's a brief rundown leading up to dinner. Feel free to skip down to the pics if you could care less about my ramblings(I won't be offended)

Wednesday I picked up our big beautiful bird from the Dutch Market, and got that baby in some apple cider brine, then the "boys" came over to hang out, and Pat and Jenna came up from MD. Thursday we got up and started prepping for the day-thankfully they had spent the night and kept the little one occupied by doing laps with him around the first floor with his shopping cart. This year was our best year yet with timing everything and having all of the dishes stay warm! I was very nervous about my smaller oven, but quickly realized that having 4x the counter space in this kitchen made up for it:) The one thing I will do next year is set the table the night before. I had prepped our pretty centerpiece, but while running around ran out of time. Oh well, we were doing a sit down/buffet anyway!

Waiting with Summer for the turkey

I know Summer looks less than thrilled in most of these lounging pictures that I post. 1) She has resigned herself to the fact that Chase thinks she is either a) a pillow b) a jungle gym or c) a horse. 2) She thinks that when I turn on the oven that the smoke alarm is going to go off, so she follows you around when the oven is on. This day of course the oven was on for hours.

Unfortunately I didn't get a shot of everyone all together. We took this one before my brothers and the ladies had to leave to go to their second dinner! Yep, Jas still has that hot moustache. I know a few of my girlfriends required their husbands to shave off the facial hair. Its grown on me at this point. And he fit right in at the Flyers game the other day. Chase did however grab the moustache of one of my wooden Santas while I was decorating today, and said "Dada"-not quite.

Sides in the kitchen, and turkey and ham on the table. There was no way we would be able to fit all of the food and everyone at the table. We made traditional sides with a kick. Quite a few decadent ingredients-truffle oil and butter, heavy and sour creams, gruyere and parmesan, and good old sage sausage and bacon added to the flavor and general oh-so deliciousness. You can't skimp-its Turkey Day. We actually probably only buy butter during November and December. This one day alone I think we used more than 1/2 lb!
Yumm, brined bird slathered in truffle butter. We cook her breast side down until about an hour left. Its a real b**&^ to flip over, and Jas annually burns his hands, but the end product is so worth it:) Its difficult to get the skin perfectly brown with this cooking method, but she turned out pretty well this year.

Summer and Jas both thoroughly enjoyed the Grand Marnier whipped cream:)

Chase practicing his walking skills-he still takes about four steps and then drops to a crawl.

Hanging with Aunt Zandy after dinner

Too stuffed to move!

And lastly-Mommy and Daddy let me have pie and desserts for breakfast with them the next day. Yippee for sugar! I don't get much of it often, but when I do you better watch out!

Look at that devilish smile

Just Like Mommy and Daddy

Chase wants to be just like the two of us!

We all love lounging with Summer...

Listening to good tunes (although neither of us are very musically or rhythmically inclined)...

Using chopsticks...

Like daddy getting dressed up(darn windsor knot), and doing dishes...

Like daddy stepping on the gas to go faster...

Like mommy shopping for goodies...

And dirtying many gadgets in the kitchen, to make the ultimate dish! Found the lid to the baby crockpot-time for buff dip:)