Chase's First Cold

It was inevitable, and the fact that we made it 8 months is pretty darn good. Chase has his first cold:( On Thursday he woke up kind of congested and wheezy, and it wasn't like the days when he's just groggy and it works itself out. Although he had a hard time nursing, he seemed a little better and happy while we were getting ready. He didn't have a fever so I decided to take him to the sitter's house. I kept thinking about all of the parents that send their kids to school sick and how I said I would never do that! He actually ended up being fine throughout the day, and I questioned whether I was a bad mommy all day long. Later that evening however he became really congested and after a two hour bedtime nap, he was up and fussy for the rest of the night.

I stayed home from work on Friday since he was pretty miserable, but since he didn't have a fever, and everything was running clear I didn't call the pediatrician. Again, I questioned whether I wasn't making the right call as a first time mommy. Still no fever, and after checking the RSV symptoms for the umpteenth time, we decided it was just a cold that needed to run its course. After three very sleep deprived nights(since he could only doze while being held upright) I think he's feeling a little better. He's still congested and has a fit every time I put him down on the changing table, because he thinks I'm going to pull out the nasal aspirator. Hopefully I haven't traumatized him for life.

Not at all looking forward to more illnesses over the years. BTW, I read that kids don't learn to blow their nose until about 4 yrs. old, and now I'm determined to add this to the list of things to teach Chase at an early age!! Not that it would have necessarily helped, but wouldn't you know he's scheduled to get his next Synagis shot this week?

Videos

We have accumulated a nice collection of videos in semi-HD and HD. Some we were unable to post due to the size. Well now you can watch them.

Is this Chase's first words? If you ask Kate they are!



Look I can feed myself now!

8 Months Old and Feeding Myself

Since yesterday was Chase was officially 8 months old, we decided that this past week we would let him try to eat all by himself. We finally put his high chair together(well Jas did), and he has been enjoying his new setup. Chase has been super interested in trying to feed himself recently, and since he was going to be getting a bath anyway, we figured we'd give it a whirl! Jas and I were needless to say highly entertained by the whole experience.

Every time I go to the store to look for spoons with looped handles they are sold out, and since Chase doesn't quite understand that you don't grab the vessel? part of the spoon first, it get's pretty messy, pretty fast:)

Here's a photo breakdown of how cereal time went...

Instead of handing the spoon back to get more, he tries to reach his hand in the bowl.

Oops, sometimes his aim isn't so great!

Bullseye!

Licking the spoon clean

Anything left in that thing?

Let me get a closer look

Oh, well...the bowl tastes just as good!

Happy Birthday MomMom!!

Since my parents were in town because they babysat for our date night, and they had planned to take a cruise out of Baltimore, we got to see my Mom on her actual birthday! We headed to brunch at Mr. Rain's Fun House on the top floor of the Visionary Art Museum downtown to celebrate. I hadn't planned on the fact that when we asked for a high chair they would bring an actual one, and not the typical wooden one for us to flip over or sling for his car seat. Luckily I had wipes in my bag, and I know now for next time to bring a seat cover! Since Chase is now into grabbing everything in sight he had a field day trying to reach for everything on the table. The waitress realized this quickly after the first set of utensils and mimosa was almost swiped by the little man! MomMom graciously volunteered to have Chase sit on her lap while she ate, and enjoyed showing him off to the rest of the patrons in the restaurant. After yet another wonderful meal to cap off the weekend, we dropped off my parents at the Port of Baltimore to set sail on their cruise. I'm pretty sure they said it supposed to be 80+degrees in the Bahamas all week, while we have ice and snow in Baltimore.

Can't wait til Chase takes swim lessons in a few months so next time we get an opportunity to go to the Caribbean he can snorkel with us! Okay maybe no trips for a while, but he's a water baby already!

MomMom telling Chase that this was her best birthday ever!

Date Night

I have a confession...I have a small obsession with Kevin Bacon. I haven't seen all of his movies, and I honestly only know a few of his band's songs, but there's just something about him! Jas and I regularly play a modified version of "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon"(we pick one old and one new actor) on road trips, and for the past few years I've said I wanted to go see his band play. Well, one of my Christmas presents ended up being two tix to see the Bacon Brothers! And as Jas put it "I got you seats right next to the stage, so you can stare at his butt." Anyway, since the show was in Annapolis we had our first official overnight trip away from Chase this past weekend. My parents came down to babysit, and we planned to have a nice dinner before the show. Jas got us 6:30 tickets, because some nights 9:30 is sadly past our bedtime!

After a fantastic dinner combining two of our favorite "genres", small plates and local/organic at a new restaurant called Level, we maneuvered over the icy cobblestone streets of Annapolis to Rams Head. The crowd for the 6:30 show was interesting to say the least. It was a mix of middle-aged women wearing embroidered sweatshirts(probably Kevin fans like me:), but I will never be caught dead in that attire!), Cougars(Jas' comment, not mine), country/folk music fans, and some other younger trendy couples. Definitely some good people watching!

Since Rams Head in Annapolis only has about 300 seats, and you sit at tables, most of the seats are pretty good. I was so excited when we got there to see that our table was right next to the stage, so I was less than 10ft. away from Kevin! Although he said from the beginning that they wouldn't be playing "Footloose"to the dismay of many women in the crowd, they put on a really good show and we had a great time. He is super skinny in person, btw!

Before heading back to the hotel we stopped for a killer dessert, a rice krispie treat dipped in caramel and chocolate and rolled in pecans. Sorry- I showed restraint above, and didn't describe our dinner and this creation was truly ridiculous:) We were staying on the waterfront and looking forward to a good night sleep, but I think we've gotten so used to hearing the fan over the monitor in Chase's room, because we both slept terribly. Despite a restless night sleep, getting away for the night was really nice, but we missed the little man like crazy!

Snow Days

All bundled up for my first snow!

Mommy is clearly more excited than me

Schools were closed for three days this past week. We finally got our first real snow in MD! The first round brought a few inches, then it turned to freezing rain, then back to a "thundersnow" storm. All in all I think we ended up with over a foot, but we only took Chase out for a little bit after the first few inches. Jas also had a ton of shoveling to do, and photo ops require a lot of bundling up. It was wicked cold last week, and Chase still doesn't know what to make of his big bear pram.

Since we were stuck inside for a few days Chase also had lots of time to practice some of his new skills! Besides grabbing everything within arms reach(glasses are a personal favorite), he practiced sitting without support, working himself to his knees to almost crawl, rolling from back to front, feeding himself, jumping while someone holds his hands, and exploring some more of the toys he got for Christmas. We were very busy! In regards to the matter of sitting, I think we'll need to write an age range for that one in his baby book. He still slides from side to side occasionally, but is getting much better. About the crawl/scoot thing-just yesterday was the first time he got up to his knees for a few seconds. Normally he moves all over and spins himself totally around on his belly, but he did manage a few moments up on his knees before face planting into the sofa cushion! We can't wait for more snow days to hang out and watch Chase discover new things he can do:)

Can you believe he's going to be 8 months old this week?

Our Little Foodie

I always said when I was pregnant that I hoped Chase wasn't a picky eater. Jas and I consider ourselves pretty big foodies, and we generally don't hesitate to try new things. So we are thrilled to report that although Chase has just started trying new foods over the past two months, and we haven't tried any "grownup" food yet, he so far will eat pretty much anything! Sweet Potatoes, squash, green beans, apples, bananas, regular and brown rice cereal, and oatmeal have all gone well. He isn't a fan of carrots, but neither am I. The only problem now is that feeding Chase is becoming more and more messy, because he now enjoys being an active participant. He enjoys trying to feed himself, and the tip I read about giving him his own spoon to hold, while you use another one, was disastrous. The little man is extremely impatient if you get distracted during meal times, and he just started trying to grab food off of our plates. While we won't be trying table foods just yet, our little peanut is growing up and eating Mommy and Daddy's food is right around the corner!