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Today we are staying in. We don't need to spend any money and don't really have anything to do so we are staying in all day. Except for the balcony we go out there almost every day. Chance likes it out there. He will sit on my lap and look out at everything. I always point out the horses pulling the carages as they go by but today it looked like he actually saw it and followed it down the street with his eyes and turned his head and everything. Also today it looked like he actually saw Rosco. Rosco is alway licking Chances feet but Chance never seems to notice until today. Rosco licked his foot and Chance looked down and saw Rosco, he watched him for a while and when Rosco walked away Chance forgot about him and went on looking around at random things. He has started holding onto things and trying to put them in his mouth as can be seen in the picture of him sitting in his Bumbo chair. He doesn't really reach out for things yet but he will grab things when you hand them to him and of course they instantly go toward his mouth. He puts anything in there, blankets, toys, stuffed animals you name it he tries to put it in his mouth. Today I gave him some banana. He is eating only formula and breastmilk not even any rice cereal yet but he was sitting in his bouncy chair and I was eating a banana so I squished a little between my fingers and sucked it off my finger. He made a icky face and then a little less icky face and then he smiled. I guess that means he liked it. I did that yesterday and today he did the same thing both times. I didn't give him much because I know a banana isn't supposed to be his first food but he doesn't have an upset stomach and he didn't cry so I know he didn't hate it. He has also started playing with the toys on his bouncy chair now. I love that first picture it looks like he is giving me a curious eye. Like he is saying "what are you doing with that camera?" And look at that little button nose. He is sleeping right now and I should be going to the bathroom while I have the opportunity. Bye for now.

We are home! We got here Tuesday night around 8pm yesterday I didn't have time to post we were just trying to get back in the groove of things here at home. Chance was once again an angel on the flights to Atlanta and then on to New Orleans. We got a Taxi home and then Chance pretty much went right to sleep. His first night home was a little rough he woke up a lot not hunger or wet just awake and I would wrap him back up in his blanket and he would go right back to sleep most of the time I didn't even need to pick him up. He just needed to be reasured. It is hard getting into the swing of things here at the house with jsut the two of us again, it's hard taking care of a baby all by yourself. Scott won't be home till the 20th of April. Yesterday we bought some groceries and picked up all of our mail there was a lot since we were gone for almost two weeks. Chance is 14 weeks old today! He is getting so big. I am going to try and weigh him again today sometime because I know he has gained some weight. Right now he is sleeping. He had a better night last night but he still woke up a few times. I had to turn the air conditioner on and it will probably be on till sometime next winter. It is hot and muggy here, no fun. We are off today to the post office and to Walgreens for some formula. Chance is eating from the breast at night but during the day he has a few bottles of formula. People say the breastfeeding is easier when you are out and about but I can give him a bottle while he is in the carseat or stroller. It is also fast when he is hungery I just pull out the bottle and give it to him instead of having to find a clean spot out of the way to breastfeed him. He has had so little formula so far that he has only just finished the free cans of formula they gave me at the hospital. Well I am going to go before Chance wakes up from his nap. I am going to update the two posts I made while we were gone with pictures so stay tuned. These picture were taken while we were gone too, I caught two naps in the same day (notice same outfit) the one is in the carseat and the other is in the Pack N Play.

Chance is 3 months old today! He is healthy and happy and currently sleeping. We are still in Florida visiting my family. He is having a great time with all the extra attention how could he not be. Last night we all went out to Outback for dinner. Chance was great if I remember right it was only his second restaurant escapade, he sat in his carseat in the booth and just went to sleep. He was probably right at home with all the noise. Here in Florida we are staying on 5 acres in the middle of Buckingham which doesn't have a lot of noise just some crickets which I think is great but for Chance it is a big change. He is sleeping ok though. I think the big difference is that we are in the same room together I am in the bed and he is right next to me in the Pack N Play. Which means all those little noises that prompted me to get rid of the monitors that we had are happening right next to me and I am not getting very good sleep. Sometimes he wakes up in the middle of the night and just makes these little noises usually happy noises and he doesn't need me to pick him up or mess with him at all but they wake me up anyway. The bottom line is I think he is doing much better at night here than it feels like he is. We got him a Gymini play mat which he seems to really like in moderation. In the morning he will lay on it for about ten minutes before wanting to get up and then I have been putting him on it for some tummy time which he seems to like too for a little while. I think he will lke the play mat more as time goes on. I am not sure if we are going to be abe to take it home with us on the plane I think it will turn into a Grammy's house toy.

if you look at this website he is meeting all these milestones except the one about liking spirals more I haven't tried it to see if he does or not.

Updated Pictures first of my Mom (Grammy) feeding Chance and the other of Chance getting a bath. He loves baths.

I just wanted to update you all on what is going on down here in Florida. First Chance was a little angel on the airplane flights he slept for most of the flight he sucked on his pacifier and ate on the way up and down and he never made a peep. I was so relieved. We have mostly been just hanging out with Mom (Grammy) and Grandma. Kristy has been working most days but we are going to go visit her at work this week. We took Chance to Barnes and Noble to visit he cried while we were inside but it was really cold in there and so when we came back outside he was just looking around visiting people. The next day we went to the lawyer office where my Mom works and showed Chance off there, he was great and again just looked around and visited with the people. He does seem to mind much being around people. I left him with Mom Friday night and went out for a few hours with my friends he was asleep when I got home. His night time sleep has gotten a little off with being here he is sleeping in the Pack and Play (thanks Peter and Chellee) next to my bed. Usually he has his own room so I think I have been waking him up and he has been waking me up a bit more. He is getting enough sleep he's just waking up a couple times at night. Right now I am in Miami and Chance is staying with Mom and (Aunt) Kristy. It is our anniversary today, I drove over last night and Scott and I have just been hanging out, it has been great. Well we have taken lots of pictures but we don't have anything to upload them from here so I will update all my posts with pictures when we get home.

Picture Update: Chance spent some time hanging out with my Grandma while in Florida. She would hold him in this big comfy rocking chair and he would watch TV with her and fall asleep with her.

I take pictures almost everyday they just sit in my computer or in my camera. Today I am cleaning out my camera to have plenty of room to take pictures while we are in Florida. So I have some pictures to share. We have mostly been running around the last couple of days getting ready to go. I think we have everything. I'm getting up at 5:30am to get us ready to get out the door. Chance slept all night last night from 8pm to 6am which was great. That means I slept a long time too. Yeah! The first picture was taken a couple days ago we got home from getting the mail and he was still fast asleep when I took the sling off. He really loves his thumb, he also loves to put as much of his little fist as possible in his mouth. He has started mouthing my shoulder when I put him
up there to carry him. He will also mouth my hand or arm or anything else I let get within reach. I guess this is the beginning of putting everything in his mouth. He hasn't really started to mouth any toys yet but I am sure he will as he gets more intertested in them. Mouth: Get all slimmy with baby spitle. I will try to update as much as I can while we are gone. This second picture on the Right is the wind up for a sneeze. One day I will try to get a sneeze on tape and put the video up here because that is so cute. He gave me the cutest face evver yesterday, It was a pouty face and he actually turned his bottom lip out in a pout, he was sad but I thought he was the cutest thing I had ever seen. He has lots of new sounds, oohs and aahs but also gurgles and these little throat bubbly noises. This last picture I took the other day while he was talking to me. He has the best smiles.

Weekday mornings we get up eat breakfast, play for a little bit on the floor in Chance's room then Chance takes his morning nap. I then run around getting dressed, putting in my contacts and putting on my makeup, brushing hair and teeth. Then usually I have enough time to grab a bite to eat before Chance wakes up. Every morning he wakes up just in time for Ellen. I love Ellen and love watching her show so we sit on the couch and Chance has a snack while I watch TV. Lately though he has wanted to a a part of the action and sometimes gets briefly interested in the Television. This morning I snapped a few pictures of us watching Ellen.

On Thursday Chance and I went on a tour of the USS New Orleans. It was built here in the city and is being commisioned today. It has been docked just a few blocks from the house all week. The tours were free so we went. We had to stand in line for about an hour to get in but Chance was very good in his sling he slept most of the time. We had to go through metal detectors and could not take cameras which is why this picture isn't too good. I took it with my phone after we left the ship. Once inside Chance woke up and I held him while we took the tour. He looked around at everything and everybody he seemed really interested in what was going on. We got to see the mess hall, the pilot house, crew's quarters and the command center. It was a cool experience getting to go on the ship and see all of those things and even though Chance won't remember it he seemed to like it at the time.

I also wanted to update you on Chance's eye. It is all better no longer pink at all and not draining anymore either. I did figure out how to get him to open his eyes to get the drops in though so if we ever have to do it again I am ready. The trick: put the drops in the corner of his eye (while he's crying) then blow in his face. He gets stunned and blinks his eyes. He's then really upset but then you just pick him up and things are all better and you know the drops actually got in his eye.

Chance is eleven weeks old today. He is napping right now which is his second nap of the day. He really needs it because he hasn't been sleeping well for the past few days. His eye is much better it is hardly draining at all and only a little pink just at the corner. He isn't trying to rub it anymore either which I take a a sign that it must be feeling better. He slept pretty good last night but we had a couple rough days with naps and with nighttime. Tuesday he spent a lot of time inhe sling with me just walking around, that was the only thing that seemed to make him happy. Putting the drops in his eyes has not been fun, he cries and I have to pry his eye open so they go in he is really not happy about it but it is worth it so we will keep doing it. Even after a few times though he seems to remember when I put my hands on either side of his head he gives me this pleading looking and then starts to cry. One thing no one ever told me anout having a baby is that they talk to you, like the pleading look, of course maybe I'm just crazy.

Yesterday we went to The Historic New Orleans Collection it is free and in the French Quarter so it was for us. They have this great exhibit on France's Presence in Louisiana over the last 400 years. All of it on loan from France and some of it never before displayed. Treastise and maps and wonderful paintings, amazing historical items, I loved it and Chance slept in the sling the whole time so it was a success.
Chance has actually started talking too. I will talk and he will babble oohs and ahhs and gurgles back to me he does this a lot now. He is also paying more and more attention to toys and anything that you dangle in front of him or over his head. In this last picture you can see how intent he is paying attention to his hat in my hand, he just followed it with his eyes and head and sometimes will turn his whole body to follow something he likes. We have some busy days ahead of us to get ready for our trip to Florida next week, we are a happenin' little team.

We had our first sick baby visit today. (I guess that's what you call it since when you aren't sick it is called a well baby visit). Anyway, Sunday morning Chance woke up with his eye glued shut by mucus. I wiped it with a warm cloth and we started about our day. All day Chance was very fussy which is really not like him. He didn't want to nap or play or really do much of anything. The only thing that would make him happy was when I would walk him around the room so he spent a while in the sling yesterday just hanging out. Also, his eye drained yellowy mucus all day. Last night he didn't have a good night he woke a few times and he hasn't really been waking up at all. This morning his eye wasn't glued shut but his eyelid and just under his eye was now pink and a little puffy. I called the Doctor and made a appointment for today at 2:30pm He was still super fussy all day up until the visit. The car seemed to sooth him a bit and when we got to the Dr's office he gave me a big smile (of course). He was still being fussy but when he doctor came in the room he gave her a big smile too. She said all babies do that just to make the Moms feel like they're crazy. She looken him over and then gave us a prescription for some eye drops. He has a little eye infection that she said should clear up in three days with these drops and if not or it gets any worse to come back in to the office. We got the drops at Walgreens and then came home. It was hard putting in the drops but finally we got some in his eye, He did not like that. He ate and is now sleeping which is great. He hasn't had a good nap since Saturday, he needs this one (not to mention me needing it too). I don't think I am going to put the drops in again today but he will get them 3 times per day starting tomorrow. He's a tough little guy and will pull through just fine but it is sad to see him so upset. On a better note I threw in some pictures here. His little hats are finally starting to fit him I kind of think he looks like a Pope in this one. Oh yeah and today he weighed 12 lbs 9 oz and he is 25 inches tall.

This morning I woke up to find Chance sound asleep with his thumb in his mouth so I had to take a few pictures. He had wiggled out of all of his covers and worked his way up tot he top of the crib under the mobile and way over to one side. He's just adorable. After he woke up we played with some toys and he actually held onto it and moved it around while watching it. I think he is beginning to figure out that he
is the one holding the toy and he is making it move. When you think about it that's a pretty big concept. When he moved the toy in front of his face his eyes got really big, you can see him figuring it out. You can also see in the second picture that his little ear is still turned down at the top, I think it may stay that way. It looks kind of cute, of course as he grows it may straighten right up.

Chance is 10 weeks and 1 day old, can you believe that? He grows so fast the time really does go by fast. He has been making coos and gurgles and all kinds of little noises. He will move his mouth and make these little noises when we talk to him like we are having a conversation. He really watches his toys now when we hold them up for him to see. Also he follows both me and Scott around the room with his eyes and turns his head to keep following us. He also quiets most of the time when he hears my voice or when he sees me before I pick him up. Scott just left again today, this time if all things go according to plan he won't be back for two months but as I am sure you are learning the schedule isn't something you should bet on. It was great having him hear for the last week. It is amazing to see how Chance watches him and see how they play together. These pictures are of Chance sitting in my lap yesterday. He now likes to be held out so he can see what's going on in the world. He pays more attention all the time. He is already asleep for the night, he usually goes to bed around 8pm.