These pictures were taken at the park. We were there again yesterday. This time we went around the back to get a couple geocaches and found that there was a whole other part to the park we didn't really know was back there. It opens up and runs along the Mississippi river. The wind was blowing off the river which everyone seemed to like except me though in the hot of summer it will be a perfect place

to hang out. We found two caches and wondered around in the grass for a long time. We even got up close and personal with the river for one cache since it was hanging out over the water. I did not get too wet though. Chance was once again playing in the dirt. Now that he has discovered dirt he seems to be drawn to it. We went out this morning to dig some more in the yard. Chance got all wet playing in a bucket of rain water. I think the days of changing clothes multiple times per day and having play clothes and going out clothes might be here. Today we plan to go to the Nursery (plant) down the street and find out how much a Magnolia tree will cost to put in the yard when we are ready to start relandscaping, which should be next week. Chance is really looking for a bug in that second picture, I think.

To the Park

We have been going out to the park a lot lately. Chance likes it outside and he is getting more and more active each day that the park is a great place to be. Plus there are a lot of different parks in the area so we have a variety of places to go. A few days ago we went to Audubon Park again because it has lots of wide open spaces to roam around. Chance had a great time crawling and practicing his outdoor walking in the grass. He has been more timid about walking when we are out I think it is just because he can get to things faster if he crawls and outside there are so many fun things to see and play with he can't be bothered to walk. But he is trying his outdoor walking more every time we go out. He then found a nice dirt trail as you can see in the first picture where he got himself very...well...dirty. We also found a fountain in the park that we had never seen before. A woman gave her jewels to the park when she died and in 1923 they built this fountain for all to enjoy. The inscription reads "To all the little children on New Orleans" so this fountain, in a way is for Chance. It is low tot he ground and perfect for playing, We let him splash around in it and he had a really good time. We had to remove his shoes, socks and overalls before putting him in the car. It was well worth it, and this will be a perfect place to come back to in the hot summer months for a little splashing. Next time maybe we will wear something a little easier to splash in.

Flying Through The Air

Today we went out to the Arts Market in MidCity. It is a park that once per month has an Arts and Crafts fair. They also have a Children's Tent where they make crafts and today they also had a magic show. The magic show was a little over Chance's head so we didn't stay for that but we had lots of fun playing in the grass and sliding down the slide. Chance likes to crawl up the slide and slide down on his tummy. We all had a good time looking at all the things we would like to buy to decorate the house too. The rain didn't start until we got home but then it began to pour and continued to rain all day. We played inside just hanging out and having fun. Scott and Chance have developed a new game. Scott flies Chance over the bed and then plops him down on top on the bed at the count of three. Chance loves it! He has so much fun flying around and always has a smile on his face. This is a picture from his flying through the air. Chance is walking more and more I think he is walking a little more than crawling now. He is also really starting to comunicate more than every before. He still doesn't have a whole lot of words but he is pointing and saying 'no' and with those two things combined lets him tell us lots of stuff. He is also remembering where things are and making up his own little sign language. Like the other day he pointed at my soda then at his mouth then toward the back of the house (where his sippy cup was). He wanted his sippy cup. He is also picking things that he wants now too. For instance if he points at the refridgerator I pull out a yogurt and a fruit sauce then let him pick which he wants. Just a few weeks ago he would have just grabbed out at both to get ahold of them but now he looks and thinks and points to the one he wants.

just stuff

The last couple days we have been getting lots of stuff done but having fun too. Tuesday we had a playdate at the library for the storytime the library puts on. The library uptown is a very very old huge building on a hill. It would be a really creepy building if it were not a library. Storytime is held in the Pink Room which is all pink, Chance sat through about two and a half stories which is really good for a baby besides how many stories were they going to ready anyway sorry I got on subject there moving along... and then he was ready to go and made a break for the door. We moved on to the Children's Department where he had fun with the other little kids coloring and looking at books. I knew I had some fines from a long time ago on my acount and when we left I asked the librarian how much they were and she said they were from so long ago she was just going to take them off. Yay!! Now we can check out books from the library, I am so excited about this because I love the library. I have always thought the library is way under used in society, Hello people there are books in there that they let you read for FREE!! not to mention audio books, CDs, DVDs, magazines and Newspapers. Or the archives don't even get me started. This picture is Chance looking at books with Eva (one of the girls in the playgroup) and her Dad. I finally uploaded all the phots from Vegas which you can all see here.

Back Home

We are back in New Orleans. On Thursday we left Las Vegas. Scott flew back to New Orleans and I flew to Fort Myers. Chance was asleep by the time I got there so I didn't get to see him as soon as I got home. I fought the urge to go in and look at him as soon as I got there since I did not want to wake him up. The next morning though I went in to get him up and he had a huge smile on his face. He did a double take when I walked in and then he got all excited. We had a good time just hanging out all day Friday and then on Saturday we drove over to Miami and flew out to New Orleans. We ended up flying out of Miami because it is less expensive and it is a non stop flight which makes it so much easier to fly with a baby. We had a whole row to ourselves which gave Chance plenty of room to play. This was his 16th plane trip and by now he is a pro he knows how the window shades, the seat belts, the tray table and all the buttons on the arm rest work as well as the fact that there are magazines in the pocket. He also looks forward to the cart going by because he gets a lot of play time out of a plastic cup and a bag of pretzles. Scott picked us up at the airport and we went home. Chance is walking a lot more now. He is probably 50/50 walking and crawling. Scott will be home for a while so we are just hanging out mostly for now. We are working on the yard and Scott is working on remodeling the cabinet that was cut out to make room for the dishwasher. We got a renter for our apartment who is going to move in on the 25th. Right now things are going well. These pictures are from Florida. Whne my Mom was vacuming Chance went in and just layed down in the floor, he is so funny.

Viva Las Vegas

Hello everyone,
Scott and I are in Las Vegas. We left the little one with my Mom and we arrived here on Saturday. Scott is working at the NAB convention and I am mostly just hanging out. This is the first time I have been to Las Vegas since I have been 21 and although I am not a big gambler by any means I am looking forward to putting a couple dollars in a machine for fun. We ate sushi at a nice little restaurant not far from our hotel yesterday night with Nick, a friend of ours who works at BitCentral as well. Scott, Nick and a few of the other guys that work at the company have spent a good bit of time here over the past year installing editing systems in the television stations in the area so they know all the good places to go out to eat. We are staying at a hotel right next to the convention center where the convention is being held so we are a couple blocks from “the strip“ there is a monorail that runs over there though in case I feel the need to go. Today Scott went in to work for a couple hours and I returned our rental car. We just got it for the first day since the company isn’t paying for it and we won’t need it the rest of the days while the convention is happening. Now I am back in our hotel room writing this. I don’t know what our plans are for tonight we sort of have to wait and see what is happening with the company and if they invite us out to a dinner or something. It seems like the whole city is filled with people going to this convention or at least our whole hotel is for sure. Today before taking the car back we drove around and picked up a couple virtual geocaches so these pictures are of me in front of the old sign welcoming people to Las Vegas and at the guitar that is in front of the Hard Rock Café. There is another cache right in our the parking lot but I forgot to write down the cords and so have to wait for Scott to come back with his cell phone which gives us internet.

Walkin'

These were also taken in New Orleans before we got to Florida. I drafted a few things before leaving since I know how hard it is to post here with the dialup. Things are going well, we are still mostly just hanging out.

Everyday he is getting better and better. At first just a step then two and then within a couple days he was walking with a purpose from the ottoman to the couch or from Mommy to the wall now though he is walking around. And by that I mean he is just standing up and walking to walk. He is still crawling a lot but he is choosing to walk more and more. He walked all through the house the other day. He will walk till he hits an obstacle, usually he will try to walk around it first before giving up for the crawl. He is concentrating so hard on walking his little hands become fists and his little tongue can be seen clenched between his lips. When he caught sight of me though he gets a huge smile on his face it's as if he is saying "look what I can do Mom!"

Mommy's Little Helper

We are in Florida and all is well. We arrived Saturday evening. Chance was great on the plane. I figured it up and this was Chance's 15th plane trip in as many months. He is a pro. These pictures were taken before we left New Orleans.

For the past few weeks I have been teaching Chance to put his dirty clothes in the hamper. In the morning and at night after we take his clothes off he will take them and put them in the dirty clothes hamper. He caught on pretty quickly to this since he loves to put things in and take things out of places. The other morning I was making my cup of coffee and I noticed Chance putting something in the hamper in our room. I did not remember leaving any dirty clothes on the floor so I waited and watched to see where Chance was going to get the clothes he was now putting in the hamper. As I followed him back into his room it turns out he was getting them from his room. Haha jokes on me. He likes putting clothes in the hamper so much he had to get more clothes so he could keep doing it and when you need clothes where do you look? In the chest of drawers of course.

Playdate at the Zoo

Last Thursday we went to the Zoo with our playgroup. This is a picture of Chance with the other two little girls that came to the zoo with us, Lilly and Marigny. Chance had a good time. It s starting to get hot here so I don't think we will be able to do the Zoo this late in the afternoon much longer.

The Future's So Bright

He's Gotta Wear Shades

Scott picked up these cool Batman sunglasses for Chance in preparation for the bright summer sun.

Fort Fun

This morning we went to the Louisiana children's museum with our meetup group. It was fun Chance really likes it there. I think it is all the different toys to play with more than the other people, he still doesn't care much about other little kids. Then this afternoon it started raining so we just hung around the house. We we

re both starting to get a little bored so I pulled a card table that we have had sitting around for years out into the living room and covered it with a sheet and a blanket and Tada!! a fort. At first Chance wasn't sure sure what to do with it but I crawled in to show him and then he had lots of fun crawling in and out and playing inside. Throughout the day today Chance practiced his walking. He would be holding onto the couch then see something he wanted and instead of sitting down sometimes he would try to walk to it and most of the time he would make it. It is fun because you can see him thinking about trying and then deciding to give it a shot. Also, he has a new tooth. It is on the top back left side but I don't know what it is officially called. It also looks like there might be another tooth coming in on the bottom, not sure about that one yet though. Again we had no idea he was getting another tooth. We just found it by accident when Scott was hanging Chance upside down the other day.

Outside

I know I have said it before but Chance loves it outside. He wants to go out all the time. He loves playing in the yard and in parks and he never wants to go inside when we ( me and Scott) are done playing or working. We have been going to parks for the last week or so nearly everyday. The weather is so nice here now, soon it will be way too hot to go out for long. These pictures were taken a couple days ago when we went to Audubon Park which is a big park in Uptown. It is very pretty with big Oak trees and a marsh in the middle with lots of birds and ducks all around. There is a golf course and the Audubon Zoo is in the park as well as trails for biking and walking. We take Chance to one of the wide open spaces so he has plenty of room and just let him go. He crawls all around getting dirty but having lots of fun. Due to all this outside play he has discovered bugs. Flies, Ants and other creepy crawlies. He points at them and makes all sorts of excited noises. He hasn't tried to pick one up yet but I know that is just a matter of time. Yesterday Scott flew to Fort Wayne, IN where he will be for just one day and then he is off to Syracuse, NY again but we will all meet up in Florida on the 10Th of April where Chance will be staying with my Mom for a week while Scott and I go to Las Vegas to work the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) convention. It will be a busy month but I am looking forward to Vegas it should be a lot of fun. Then we are all coming back to New Orleans.

Walking: We finally found the right walking motivation. We had tried toys and food and even things he isn't allowed to have but always wants like the laptop but nothing would motivate him enough to walk he just sat down and crawled over to it then went on about his business. Well a few days ago now I was sitting on the floor trying to get him to walk to me with my arms outstretched. When he started to sit down I just dropped my arms and head and stopped talking like the strength had fallen out of me, then he stood back up so I raised my arms and head and started telling him to walk to me again. He caught on to the game and sat down and stood up a few times before turning toward me and taking three big steps to reach me. Now that he knows the game he has walked to me a bunch of times. He has taken a few more steps on his own to reach things he want too. He is still choosing crawl over walk but he is getting closer.