Kayaking in the Bayou

On Saturday, Chance stayed with Scott and Syed and us girls went kayaking on the Bayou. We drove about a half hour form the house to the Jean Lafitte Preserve where we rented kayaks and headed out for the day. The rivers we are used to canoeing and kayaking in are much different than the areas we went today. The water in the Bayou is mostly covered with grass and reeds. In most spots there was only a small path that was cleared to go through. If we missed the path the reeds would scrape against the bottom of the kayak making it hard to paddle. We did not see a whole lot of wildlife but we did see four alligators. There was also very little cover leaving us out in the hot sun most of the time also a change from the other places we have gone. Even though we were planning to be out longer we were only out a little over two hours. We are all glad we did it but I think next time we are going to look for a place with a little more shade and maybe a little less cumbersome path. After we turned our kayaks back in we went down the road to a little restaurant where we had some lunch. While we were out kayaking Scott, Syed and Chance went to the World War II museum. They had a very good time looking at all the exhibits. The museum is one of the best in the country, when they were deciding where to build it New Orleans won the bid because the place where they built the amphibious assault vehicles for the war (the ones that helped win the invasion of Normandy) was in the Lake nearby. I don't have any pictures of the museum since I took the camera kayaking. Picture captions: 1. Rayna and Sherri - this isn't the best picture of me 2. This is me just leaving the dock 3. One of the alligators we saw right beside Becky's paddle 4. Becky - you can still see the alligator just under her paddle

To the Park with Friends

Three of my best friends drove up from Fort Myers last Thursday to spend the weekend with us. We all met at Barnes and Noble when we all worked there, now only one of us still works there but we are all still friends. They are so comfortable and fun to be around. To start the weekend off we went walking around town we ended up at Riverwalk Park where we sat for a while to rest before heading back to the house for Chance's nap. We had a wonderful time wandering around. It had been a while since we had been walking around the area where we used to live. The middle of the day is really startin to get hot here so it was a good thing that is exactly when Chance's naps so we could go back to the house and cool down. We got a babysitter for the evening so that we could take them out on the town. Chance was upset when we left but he was in good hands and he was sleeping peacefully when we returned. It had also been a while since we had been out at night with no where in particular to go so we had a good time eating dinner and grabbing a couple drinks in a few bars. In the first picture Syed and Chance are having a stick 'sword' fight, the second Chance is playing in the middle of some mirrored sculptures and

the third he is eating a mint that Becky gave him. I thought he would not like it but he ate it with no problem. The third - me, Syed and Chance riding the streetcar back to the house and the last one is our family at the park. While at the park Chance got into the sand you see here and got it all over himself. He liked playing in it though.

Pull Toys

Scott wears his wallet on a chain and the other day Chance grabbed it and took off through the house dragging te wallet behind him. Well today he got his little phone and pulled it through the house. Then Scott grabbed his wallet an started dragging it through the house and so there they were following each other around dragging there wallet and phone. We have friends coming up from Florida for the weekend and of course we will go walking around the Quarter and when we do I am going to

look at this cool little toy store for one of those little wooden ducks with the flippy flappy rubber feet that you pull along behind you. Chance would really like one of those.

Yummy Pocky Sticks

While at the store last week I bought some Pocky Sticks. If you do not know what Pocky Sitcks are you need to go to the grocery store and get some. You will have the best luck with a store that has a large Asian food section. They are little sticks of puffy wheat flour dipped in chocolate or strawberry cream or even green tea cream? anyway they are sweet and yummy and can be addictive so be careful. I gave Chance a strawberry one but he did not lie it too much so I did not try to give him another one but today he found the box of chocolate ones and went to town. He took the box up on the couch and ate them one by one. He put the end in his mouth and nibbled it down bits at a time like a rabbit with a carrot. By the time he was done he had eaten 4 sticks and had two hands and a face with chocolate all over them. He laid out on the couch for a while but then he was fine. They don't have too much sugar in them but then he doesn't regularly eat that much sugar so I wasn't sure but he seemed unfazed, just full and happy.

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Ride On Toys

Chance is just now getting the hang of his ride-on toys. He woul get on and off of them before but now he gets on them and actually pushes around the room. As a matter o fact this morning he pushed out into the hallway too. He started out going backwards but now he goes forward too.

When he is riding on them it gves me a glimps into the future of tricycles and skooters and bicycles and allthe other wonderful ways to be mobile when you are little.

Playing in the Sprinkler2

This is scott writing to you because I took these pictures of Chance playing in the sprinkler, by playing I mean standing in front of. he just sorta stood there as we watered the lawn, pretty funny. He now will run up and run away and over it. I guess it takes a couple of times to learn how to play in the sprinkler, anyway here are the pics... enjoy!!

International Eats

Last weekend we had Chinese food delivered. I sat our all of my food and when I turned around Chance had taken my egg roll. He wondered around with it sticking out of his mouth and then he sat down and nibbled on it. He ate about half of it and then gave it back to me. That was his first attempt at Chinese and today he got is first try at Japanese. We went to Wasabi. a little Japanese restaurant just a few blocks from our house. We ordered much sushi filling the middle of the table. I gave Chance his own little soy sauce bowl and he had his own chop sticks. He grabbed a piece of sushi and ate the rice off of the outside. When he finished nibbling on it he gave it to me. I am not sure why he gives all these things to me. He watched us using our chop sticks for a while and then he started spearing the pieces with his chop stick and trying to eat them that way. He seemed to like the sushi and it kept him busy for the whole dinner time so Scott and I could eat too.

The Coolest Geocache

I am working my way up to my 200th geocache and I know for some of you out there that is a low number but I have been taking my time and having fun with it. So we went over to the North shore of the lake a few days ago to geocache. We had never really been to the north shore, you have to cross the longest salt water bridge in the world to get there it is 29 miles long crossing the Lake Ponchetrain. I love Mandeville (the town on the north shore) There is land the houses are nice and they don't have a suburb feel to them and best of all it is clean. All that being said we only spent one day over there so I am not an expert but I liked what I saw. Anyway there is a geocacher who is a ingineer and he builds these wonderful elaborate things for his caches his caches are the reason we went all the way to Mandeville in the first place. For this cache he built and entire little garden as you can see in the first picture. It is called the Mystery of the Holy Grail and he built everything you see in these pictures, the cache was complete with a grail as you can see in the last picture even though it isn't a very good picture. I liked this one so much and the area that I had to dedicate a post to it.

17 months old

What a day we had today. Chance turned 17 months old today, that seems like such long time and yet like no time at all. Scott was working for the day in Baton Rouge so this morning I dressed Chance in some of his cool new clothes (thanks grandma g.) and then we spent the day playing around the house and going to Chuck E. Cheese. I had not been to Chuck E. Cheese since I was very little and Chance of course had never been so I was excited to try it out. He had so much fun. I had taken a coupon from the paper so we got lots of tokens when we first arrived. At first Chance was not sure what to do there were some kids running around and some of games look like things he has been taught not to touch, like the computer screen. After we got settled I le him down to walk around, I took him over to a little car, I told him it was ok and that it was there for him to play with, then I sat him in front of the stearing wheel and that was all he needed to know. From that point on he was off.

He tried to climb into anthing that had a stearing wheel, he rode in cars and busses and trucks. He even put the token in the slot by himself and then turned the wheel back and forth while the little car moved up and down and from side to side. half way through our visit he ate a whole slice of pizza which is a lot for him but he was using a lot of energy. He did not want to sit for long though and soon he was off again. We stayed for two hours and by the end Chance was starting to get "floppy" which is our term for when you pick him up and he just kind of goes limp and molds to your body this usually means he is tired. So we packed up the rest of our tokens and the tickets Chance had won and headed home. Soon after we got home Scott pulled up outside which was perfect timing since I had a little last minute travel coordinating to do. Scott and Chance played for a while and then we all went outside to water the lawn and play outside a bit then it was dinner and bed. It was a long day and Chance was ready for bed I don't think he made a sound after I put him in his crib, just straight to sleep.

17 months
Most children can • Uses six words regularly• Enjoys pretend games• Likes riding toys

Some children can • Feeds doll• Speaks more clearly• Throws a ball underhand

Few children can • Dances to music• Sorts toys by color, shape, or size• Kicks ball forward

18 months

Most children can • Will "read" board books on his own• Scribbles well

Some children can • Strings two words together in phrases• Brushes teeth with help• Stacks four blocks

Few children can • Throws a ball overhand• Takes toys apart and puts them back together• Shows signs of toilet training readiness

These milestones are from babcenter.com It is strange how all kids are so different yet so alike. I copied both the 17 and 18 months here because he is doing a lot of both. I am just going to go down the list and comment on the things he does or does not do although it desn't flow very well when you read it that is the easiest way for me to d it so here we go. Chance has just started getting into his riding toys but he loves pretend games and plays all different kinds all the time. He uses "mama" "dada" "this" "up" and "hi" regularly but there are alot of other words he has only said a few times like "red" "done" and "yes" thenthere are other times that he says things and we aren't sure if they count as words like for 'no' he turns his head to the side quickly and says a sharp 'n' sound, does that count? Chance does not feed a doll but I think that is because he does not have any dolls and he is not that fon of stuffed animals the words that he does have though are becoming more defined. He thows a ball underhand and overhand and he is getting much better on his aim, most tims he can at least throw it in your direction and a few times right at you. He has been getting a little confussed as to why he can throw a ball but can not throw other things. Chance can kick at a ball but only hits the ball about half the time. He sways and twists to music and his dancing is getting more complicated he is also starting to dance on his own when music comes on without us telling him its time to dance. He has also started clapping when he hears other people clapping on a music track of on TV. He sorts items by shape and color but not so much by size.

As far as 18month things go he will read his own books all the time nearly everyday sometimes he jsut flips through the pages and sometimes he babbles out loud as he turns them. He also is really getting into drawing, he brought his crayons in to me this morning and I got a piece of paper and he scribbled circles al over the page. He does not put words together yet but he does brush his teeth all by himself. He likes to brush and will point to the toothbrush in the morning when we go in the bathroom. He stacks blocks up to four and usually the fourth or fifth one will topple the tower. He takes things apart and puts them together over and over and over again. As far as toilet training goes he has started doing something different in just the last week or so, he is going off to the hallway in front of the bathroom or in the bathroom when he poos. I am taking that as a good sign.

Well that's the big 17 month update.

Walking Walking Walking

Chance is walking all the time now, he almost never crawls anymore. When we get out of the car he always wants to walk wherever we are. He has learned where the coffee shop at the end of the block is and now when we get home he grabs either my or Scott's hand and guides us down the block. He is learning much to his dismay that he must stay on the sidewalk and can not enter the road. He has started walking longer and longer distances all on his own without our prompting at all. While we were on the North Shore we walked a long way up and down the lake looking for caches. Chance walked most of the way down but he walked the whole way back to the car. I am not sure how far this was but it was pretty flat and we could not see the car when we started walking back toward it. He took a couple breaks but he never gave up. Sometimes he would take Scott's hand but most of the time he walked on his own. He does not run yet but he takes little jogging moments. He will walk and then he will jog for a moment then stop, look around and rest then he will sprint for a moment then start all over again. He seemed a little tired when we got to the car but when we got back home he tried to take off down the sidewalk toward the coffee shop again so I guess he was not all that tired.

Holding Hands

Chance has been holding our hands and walking around with us a lot lately. This is sooooooooo cute.

Playdate Sharing

We went to a playdate at Audubon Park the other day it was just us and one other mom (Denise) and her daughter (Lilly). Her little girl is a little younger than Chance but they got along great. They sat together on the blanket and shared each other's food. Lilly would give Chance a piece of her cracker and Chance gave her a piece of his fig newtin, each without either me of Denise prompting them. This is the first time Chance has really interacted with another child usually he is just playing nearby but not paying much attention to the other children around.

Pug Puppies

We are getting a new puppy! When we had to put Rosco to sleep last year we knew we

wanted another animal we just did not want to jump into something too soon. We thought about what breed to get and everything pointed to a pug. They are gentle but have lots of energy, they are good with kids and in small spaces. They have wrinkles like Rosco and have short noses for their sizes just like Rosco. Their size is perfect for us, he will be easy for me to handle during the times I am home alone with Chance. Chance still shows an enormous liking toward all animals especialy dogs and he is always gentle when we stop to pet a dog. We found a breeder in Boyce, Louisiana and have put a deposit on one of the puppies in this photo. I can't tell you which one yet, we don't actually get to pick our specific puppy till they are two weeks old which will be on the 25th they were born on the 11th. We will be able to pick him up about the 22nd of June. The breeder will be sending us a new picture every week so I will post it here too so you can all watch the puppy grow with us. P.S. his name will be Deedle, Chance named him.

electric man

Chance and Rayna and I went on a wild and crazy geocaching adventure the other day. I am teaching Chance to call Lake Ponchetrain, "The Briny Deep", mainly because it seems easier to say, and he'll be right whenever he's talking about a salty body of water. So we hung out at a park next to, "The Briny Deep", which was really fun for little stinky pantalones.


Also, while "cacheing" brah, we discovered this cool electro-zappy man killing a defenseless shadow guy picture that I thought was too cool.


Cheers


scott

Mother's Day Photo

This was one of the pictures Scott took on Mother's Day. I forgot to move the dead plant from the background, oh well. These are the flowers and one of my new dresses. It took me a while to get it in here but here it is.

New Shoes

Recently Chance's toes have made it to the end of his shoes and so it was time to get a new pair. His last pair of shoes were Airwalks and they were very good plus they had a cool design so we went in search of another pair of the same brand. We

found them without much trouble and now Chance is wearing a size 6 in toddler sizes. I had no idea there were three different size charts for shoes one for baby/toddler one for kids and one for adults. These are his cool new shoes they have an Atari pattern on them that has the little spaceship and streroids from the game Asteroids.

Happy Mother's Day

We want to send a very Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there especially my Mom and Scott's Mom without whom we would not be here (sorry I could not help myself). They have both helped us in so many ways to get to where we are today that we could not even list them if we had 100 more years to do so. We love you.

Today, for the most part we just hung around. Scott got me two lovely dresses and shoes to go with them and Chance got me some wonderful flowers. I would post pictures of them here but I left my camera in the Kitchen and we just put Chance to bed so pictures tomorrow.

Too Cute

So Chance is kind of in between sizes right now. In clothes I mean. He is fitting nicely into his 18 month pants but some of his 18 month shirts are just starting to be hard to get over his head and are beginning to fit snug all over. So I have been putting him in some of the 24 month shirts that he already has waiting for him in the bottom drawer of his chest. Today I put him in a pair of jeans and this 24 month shirt. The shirt is a little big still but the outfit is cute. This evening we went out in the yard to do some more work. We finished laying all the bricks around the flower beds today which makes this weekend time to lay down the grass seed and keep our fingers crossed. We already have the supplies ready under the house we just have to get them out on the land. Anyway Chance got all dirty outside and we had to take his pants and socks off when we came back inside. This left him to wonder around the house in his oversized shirt and diaper. What a cute sight. I can not even really discribe how cute he was walking around like that. He seemed to know he was extra cute too because he kept looking around and giving me these big smiley faces. Maybe he could just tell I thought he was extra cute. That was probably it. In this middle one he is actually smiling for the camera. I said "1, 2, 3 Smile" and he did right on cue.

All Wet

So the other day I had found a Yoga podcast and was busy trying it out in the living room. I have not done yoga in a while and was trying to remember all the moves. Chance had been in the living room with me but quickly lost interest in what I was doing and took off to find his own fun. What he found was the bathroom. The bathroom has been becoming more and more of a 'no no' place. There is a delicate balance in the bathroom. We of course want him to bush his teeth, wash his hands and eventually be potty trained but other than that we don't want him in there. Unfortunately that does not really work since he needs to become acquainted with the place. Anyway off he went. I heard the water in the tub start to trickle out of the faucet but being close to the end of my Yoga podcast and hearing nothing else but joy in Chance's voice I continued and figured I would deal with whatever was happening in the bathroom when I finished. What was happening in the bathroom was this, Chance had turned on the faucet and was filling one of the caps to his bottle with water then trying to taste it. Most of the water would go down his front and then when he decided that he did not like the taste (or something) he tossed the remaining water over his shoulder and onto the floor. This left me with one very wet baby and extremely wet bathroom. When I turned off the water and said " Now we need to get a towel" Chance turned around and sopped off down the hallway like nothing ever happened leaving a trail of water behind him.

Danneel Park

There is a little park Uptown that we pass by a lot on the way tot he big park that is built just for little people. And by that I mean people as small as Chance. The jungle jims are for small people so Chance does not nee any extra help to climb on them as you can see in these pictures. He had a really good time like he always does outside. Also, he saw his first squirl. There have been plenty of squirls passing by but this is the first time I am sure that he saw it. He called out and pointed at the squirl as it ran up a tree. I am going to do more research on this park because the sign at the front has a date of 1906. That makes me wonder what the story behind the place is, I wrote a Metroblooging article on the history of the park to read it follow this link. There is a jungle jim in the shape of a fire truck with two stearing wheels. I sat Chance up on the seat and he drove for it seemed like forever. He had so much fun sitting up there just turning the wheel this way and that.

Rainy Day

Rain rain go away. When we first went outside I didn't know it was raining. Really it was just sprinkling then but when I decided we should go back inside

I noticed Chance was having such a good time that since it was not thundering or raining too hard. I sat in the doorway while he played. He got soaked, it was so funny. He promptly walked to the downspout and sat down right in the stream water. He played and played. He stood under the water that was dripping off of the roof and laughed. He spent a good bit of time trying to push rocks up into the spout and laughing as they came back out. We finished ripping up all the grass in the yard a couple days ago and now we are working on lining the yard and the future flower beds with brick. Today we bought some soil, grass seed and fertilizer. We will start laying out the seed in the next couple days and see how that turns out. Also while we were out today we bought a little bird feeder and some seed that I am going to hang outside the kitchen window tomorrow. A couple things that Chance is doing that are new. He has learned the color Red. If we lay out a few items and ask him which one the red one is he will point to the red one. He gets it right nearly every time.
He also knows where his feet are as well as his nose and his ears. Sometimes he will switch the ears and nose around like pointing to his ear when I ask him where his nose is but he is getting it. The other day when I asked him to hold my hand while he walked and he put his hand right in mine so I also think he knows what hands are but he isn't pointing them out when I ask him yet. He is starting to guide me in the direction he wants to go with his hand while he is walking which is very cute.