2 year check-up

On Monday Chance had his two year check up with his Pediatrician. He was very good playing in the waiting room with his cars and the other toys they have there. They have just completely redone this office, it is really great. They have steering wheels built right into the wall and the colors and other decor are really neat. Very kid friendly. Chance stood on the scale all by himself for the first time and he actually stood still long enough for the nurse to see how much he weighs. Which is 31 pounds. He actually does not weigh as much as I thought he did. He feels much heavier when you are carrying him around. He also stood by the wall for his height but the little bar that comes down kept sticking and by the time it got down to where his head was he lost interest in just standing there so we ended up having to lay him down which he did not like but it was quick. He is exactly 3 feet tall. Then we waited for a while in our own little room. They have also been totally redone and now have great colors and toys built into the wall. Chance is playing with it in the second picture. Chance did pretty well with the Doctor he was really interested in playing with her stethoscope and the light on the thing they use to look in your ears. He liked standing up on the table and looking out the window which was great because that was where the Doctor wanted him so she could get a good look at him. He really did not want her to look in his ears which was the only thing she wasn't able to see really well but she said at this age that was ok because now he would tell us for sure if his ears were hurting him where before he would just cry and not be able to communicate where it hurt. He talked a lot while we were there so she heard him ask for his cars and ask "what's that" She said some kids will have up to 50 words by now which Chance doesn't have but the fact that he is starting to make two word sentences means he is progressing with his language even if he doesn't have the number of words in his vocabulary that some other kids do. Plus we can tell that since he said 'cars' a few weeks ago he seems to be getting a new words every couple days. The Dr. said that will keep right on happening from now on and his vocabulary will grow by leaps and bounds this year. He did not get any shots but they took blood to test his Iron and Lead. His Iron is fine and we will get the Lead results back in a couple weeks. Chance did not like getting his finger pricked but after it was done he stopped crying right away. They also gave him a book which is a great prize for him since he loves books so much. He doesn't have to go to the Doctor again until he is three years old. That seems like such a long time away. Only a year though.

I also have to tell you about the first picture. This Christmas we got a little Rosemary bush to decorate and so after the holiday passed we took it outside to plant. As Scott was putting it in the ground Chance picked up the decorative pot it had been in and put it on his head. Well there was sap in the pot and so on Chance's head. We searched the Internet for a home remedy and found the Avon Skin So Soft will take it out. We happen to have some so that evening we covered his hair in Skin So Soft during his bath. The washed it as normal. The Skin So Soft worked like a charm. No more sap!! But before you go grab your bottle of Skin So Soft let me warn you. Although it will take the tree sap out of your hair it will also leave your hair looking very greasy. Which is fine for a little guy who has no where to go and no one to impress but if you have work or school the next day you may want to think twice about using it. We washed his hair twice and it still looks a little greasier than normal.

Going to Montreal

So, it is now official we are going to Montreal. Scott is working there for the week of January 4th. Chance can not go because even newborn babies need passports to leave the country now and since we have been lazy and not gotten Chance his own passport yet then he will have to stay behind with my mom. That is not really a problem for me because I could use a week off with Scott. Also it is going to be so cold I don't think he would have much fun anyway. I am flying to Montreal from New Orleans on Monday the 5th and we are both flying back together on Saturday the 10th. We have to drive to Fort Myers to drop Chance off and then drive back here to catch the plane. The company is paying for our tickets so that is why we are flying out of NOLA instead of Fort Myers.

Does anyone know anything about Montreal?

If so what is good to see and do there? I am looking for things to do since I will be alone most days while Scott is working. From what I have found on the internet Montreal looks like a beautiful place with a lot in common with New Orleans. I want to eat good food and buy lots of cool little souvenirs to bring home and give to everyone. I am so looking forward to the whole trip.

Teeth Bubble

Here is another picture Scott took with his Iphone and then added the bubble with another Iphone application.

Christmas Day at the Park

After we woke on Christmas day, had some breakfast we were looking for something to do. It was such a beautiful day especially for winter that we just had to find something to do outside. I remembered hearing about a new playground they just added to a park close by so we decided to check it out. The park was great! Another family came while we were there to let their four year old ride his brand new bike he had gotten for Christmas but other than that we had the park all to ourselves. It was really nice and the rubber padding they had put down was very squishy. Chance liked playing this little glockenspiel type instrument that had been worked into the play set (picture #1). That was really cool, the notes were marked and they had the music to four songs so you could learn to play. After making music he went back to his old standby, the swings (Picture #2) where he spent a long time. Scott and I each took turns pushing him till he was finally ready to get out and wonder around again. We hope everyone had a great Christmas.

Baby and Doggie in a box

This picture was taken with Scott's new Iphone. It has an awesome camera for a phone I think it has 2 megapixals which isn't much for a camera but for a phone it takes great pictures. Pictures good enough for the blog for sure. The Iphone also has a blogger application and Internet wherever you go. With all those things combined I may actually be converting to Apple. I think when my current plan is up with Verizon I just might get an Iphone.

Rocking Horse

Aunt Jenny sent Chance a rocking horse for Christmas. We put it together after Chance went to bed so it would be set up in the living room when he woke up.
We weren't sure if he would know what to do with it. But there was no need to worry. As soon as he saw it he just climbed right on and started rocking.

He climbed back on throughout the day to rock a few more times. He got better at rocking each time he tried it.

Opening Presents

Merry Christmas!! On Christmas Eve we opened all of the presents we received from friends and family. It took Chance only one present to figure out what was going on and exactly what he had to do to get into the presents. Whenever he pulled the wrapping paper away enough to see the package inside he would say "wow, wooow" he is so funny. Chance also did pretty good understanding that we all had presents to open and they were not all his to open. It is hard to read the paper I am holding but it is a picture of two of my favorite movies, Young Guns and Chicago. Scott downloaded them from Itunes and added them to our Apple TV as a surprise for me. He put this paper in my stocking with a note telling me what he had done. Chance did not understand the stocking at first but when he pulled this Doc car from the movie Cars out of it that was all the training he needed.

Playdate at the Library...Park

Still catching up, on Tuesday we had a playdate that was supposed to be storytime at the library but turned out the library was closed because their heating and a/c was not working and so they had workers all in the building fixing it, so we walked across the street to a new park. The Grassy area has been there for a long time but they just added a playground area in the last few months. It worked out great because the weather warmed up nicely and Chance had a great time running around playing in a new area. And I had a good time being able to really talk to the other moms and not have to worry about making too much noise. The weather has really warmed up here over the last few days and today we had the air conditioning on in the house. It is a strange amount of warmth here usually it is cold for Christmas.

On another note Chance is using more and more words every day. Since he has said 'cars' he has added a bunch of words to his vocabulary. So far he has: cars, cup, cake, two, uh oh, uh-huh (positive), uh-uh (negative), doc (as in Doc Hudson from Cars), he also says the letter 'a' as he points to it. He learned cake on his birthday. I guess if you have the proper motivation then you can learn any word. All you need is some good cake. He also repeats tons of things that we say but these are the things he says and we are sure he knows what he is saying.

Guys will be Guys

Scott and Chance lounging in their chairs

Chance turns 2

I can't believe I am this far behind in my posts. It has just been a busy few days and continues to be as I look ahead into the next couple weeks. On Sunday Chance celebrated his 2nd Birthday. Since we had his party on Friday his actual birthday was kind of low key. He had a couple more presents to open and of course we had cake (picture 3). We did our best to make it his day even though he does not really understand that concept just yet. He got to have what has recently become his favorite lunch which is Ramen noodles (picture 1) with soy sauce. He loves the stuff and will down an entire package of Ramen in a single sitting. As long as there is plenty of Soy Sauce he is good to go. He will go get a Ramen package out of the cabinet and bring it to you to fix for him. Well, he did not have to do that today because we were ready for him. I knew he would love it so I was ready to make it when he woke up from his nap. We also watched his favorite movie, Cars. He is always asking to watch Cars and many times we say 'no' because we don't like to watch that much tv but today was his special day so we watched Cars without him even having to ask. He was very happy about getting to watch it and sat right up on the couch and watched the whole movie. He is a whole two years old but in so many ways still a little baby. He can say the word "two" and we are trying to get him to answer "two" when you ask him how old he is but right now he just repeats when we say it. He is very sweet and I could not ask for a better little boy. I have really enjoyed the last two years being able to see him grow and watch him learn. He is getting stronger and smarter every day. I have a hard time imagining what the next year might hold but I look forward to experiencing it all as it comes along. Happy Birthday Chance!

Quick Pic

This is a picture of Chance and my Mom who was here for the weekend.

Playing with some of his presents

These are just a few pictures of Chance playing with some of his new toys. We opened Chance's birthday presents at his party and on his birthday this Sunday as well as some Christmas presents that my Mom brought with her since she had to go back to Florida on Sunday and wanted to see us open the presents they got us. This first picture is Chance playing with the shakers Grandma G. got him for his birthday. He really likes them and knew jjust what to do with them, as soon as he opened the package he started shaking them all around the house. Up high and down low just like we do in Kindermusic class. He got this new Cars chair from my Mom, when he first saw it he said "cars" and ran over to the chair and jumped in.

Chance's Party

We spent the weekend with my Mom and Grandma so I haven't had time to post but a lot has gone on so there is a lot to talk about. So, we are going back in time to Friday and to Chance's birthday party. We invited people from our playground and we had 8 people come to the house. I was a bit worried about fitting all the people in the house but it was not a problem at all and we might have a playdate at our house again soon. We also discovered that Chance really likes cake. Not that it's a big surprise. But he ate lots of cake over this weekend. He had a cupcake on Friday and then birthday cake on Sunday and on Monday when we woke up he was sneaky, climbed up and ate even more cake. Chance had a good time at the party. He played and was very good about everyone else being in his space playing with his toys even his cars which I had been a little worried about but he was wonderful about the whole thing. Everyone fit jsut fine in the house so no worries there either. Chance opened a couple presents but we also saved some for his actual birthday on Sunday.

Happy Birthday to me

Well, it is my birthday today and so I say Happy Birthday to me. We spent the day having Chance's Birthday party so it wasn't much of a day for me. Scott made a wonderful Birthday video for me which was really better than a traditional gift. I think in previous years that would have been something I wanted to say but it might not have been entirely true but this year it is. Chance had a good time at the party and I will post more on that tomorrow with pictures. I also want to send a special thank you to Peter who was the first person to wish me happy birthday today.

Riding the Train at the Mall

On Tuesday we went to the Mall in Metarie. I don't much like the Metarie mall but they have a holiday train there that only costs one dollar to ride and the way Chance is into trains recently I thought we had to go. So off we went. As soon as Chance saw the train he pointed and said choo choo. He did that the whole time we were in line waiting our turn to ride. As soon as it was our turn, Chance ran over to the train and climbed inside all by himself. I buckled him in and since he did not seem to care if I went with him or not I stepped back and let him go by himself. These first two pictures I took before the train started moving are the only ones where he is looking at me all the other ones he is looking in toward the middle where they have a little village display with Santa's and snowmen. He was concerned in the beginning but he was very happy riding around and around. After the train stopped he wanted to climb into the middle display which caused some serious fussiness actually I think that is the mom in me talking and the reality is it causes a major tantrum (something which just started a week ago) so we went straight out to the car and went home. Which is basically what we were going to do anyway but I did not tell Chance that.

New Piano

The big gift we got for Chance this year was a piano. We ordered it online and it arrived on Saturday. Chance didn't even care about the pictures on the outside of the box so we waited till Chance was sleeping before opening it. Then after we had opened it and put the stool together we couldn't bare to wrap and hide it so on Sunday morning Chance discovered it in the living room. He immediately (you can see he is still in his pajamas) pulled the stool out sat down and started to play. I am still amazed at how in general he plays gently with just his fingers instead of banging blindly on the keys. He played it off and on all day pulling out the stool sitting down and then when finished pushing the stool back in, I am so proud.

SNOW!!!!

It rained all day yesterday, it was gray and icky so we stayed inside. It rained all night long too, waking me up through the night. This morning we got up and it was cold, very cold. The rain was still coming down. As I was cleaning out Chance's sippy cups to fix him some juice I looked out the window and noticed the rain was turning into sleat and as I watched it was getting lighter and whiter and I realized it was snow! I dropped what I was doing and grabbed my camera. As I shot the pictures the snow was getting lighter and lighter and finally was blowing around in the wind like regular snowflakes. It started to lay on and covered the cars the lawn in the backyard and everything else. It snowed for near three hours. We were already bundled up with under layers since we had a playdate today, which we canceled after the snow started. We went out in the front right after it started (picture #1) Chance thought we were going somewhere so he went over to the car and was confused. A little later we went out in the backyard (picture 2) the snow was covering the ground. We could make snowballs, we made one for Daddy and put it in the freezer so he can see it tomorrow when he comes home. Chance was really interested in the snow falling from the sky but did not want anything to do with the cold wet stuff on the ground. It covered the cars and the motorcycle, the trees, the flowers, just everything. I took over 150 pictures. I could not stop, you can see all the pictures in the "Snow in New Orleans" album, just follow the 'New Photos' link at the right.

Snow is really rare for New Orleans the last time was in 2004 on Christmas Day and the time before that was 1989. It usually snows about every 20 years. More info here. They say we got near 2 inches this time.
It started raining again a few minutes ago washing the snow off of the sidewalk but the grass, roofs and cars are still covered. This was so cool but I'm glad it is supposed to be 77 degrees on Sunday.

At the Park.

We had to snag another day at the park on Monday. The weather was much nicer than I thought it would be but we did not even need jackets. Chance had a great time as usual. We also took some bread to feed the ducks and this is the first time he actual threw the bread instead of eating it, I guess he was not hungry today. Also, last night and today Chance did something he has never done before. He Spoke! and by that I mean he did not just say words he actual said words asking for the specific thing. Last night while he was in the bathtub I had put in a bunch of his toys but I left out his cups. Well, he stood up, pointed at the bag of toys and said "cup" it actually sounds like 'cuc' and I asked him if he wanted his cup, he said "yes, cup." I think he has been working on that word for over a week. Last week we heard him practicing a word but we thought it was 'truck' because he was playing with his cars and trucks at the time. Turns out it was cup. Then this morning Chance pointed to the front of the house which usually means he wants to watch TV so I said that we weren't going to watch TV right now that we needed to eat breakfast. Then he pointed again and said "Cars." We had started watching the movie Cars before bed last night but could not finish before bedtime so I asked him if he wanted to watch the movie Cars and he said "yes, cars." This is the first time (other than mama and dada) that Chance has ever actually used words instead of just saying them randomly.

A walk in the Quarter

Last weekend we went for a walk in the French Quarter, Just walking around seeing the sights since it wasn't too cold. We all had a good time walking around.

In the sink

So, the other day we were in the kitchen and Chance had taken off into the living room. He was quiet for a while so we went looking for him. This is where we found him. He had used his stool to climb on the toilet and then onto and into the sink.

Pictures with Santa

First, Chance was back to his old self this morning. Donna, one of the playdate moms who is a photographer had her annual Photos with Santa at her house. We took Chance since he was feeling better. Chance did not really want to sit with Santa so we ended having me sit next to Santa and Chance sat on my lap. After a while we warmed up but never really loved Santa still all-in-all much better than spending tons of money at the mall and waiting in line and everything. Chance had a better time playing with his cars though than meeting Santa. The second picture is Chance sitting in the chair where Santa sat. We got a few good picture though and I will post them when we get them back in a few weeks.

Fun with Laura Numeroff at the Children's Museum

When we woke up this morning Chance came into the bedroom but he didn't want to play with his cars he just wanted to crawl in bed with me that seems a little weird but we both fell back to sleep and didn't wake until almost 9am. Chance was a little warm and obviously not quite himself but we got dressed and he started perking up. I asked if he wanted to go to the Children's museum and he said 'yes' so since he seemed to be feeling better we went for a while.
He had a great time playing at the train table like always. He didn't seem to feel bad at all. Just running around having a good time.
Laura Numeroff was at the museum today reading her new book "if you give a cat a cupcake" and signing books. We did not go down to the theater to hear her read because Chance was having a great time upstairs and there were lots of kids down there too. But after she finished reading we went down to have her sign our copy of "If you give a mouse a cookie." My Mom read that book to me and I have been reading it to Chance. It was really cool to meet the author and have her sign a book for Chance. While we were in line Chance fell asleep on my shoulder so after we got our book signed we went on home so he could sleep before we go to the airport to pick up Scott.

Playdate in the Park

Today we went down to Danneel Park for a playdate. It was cold this morning so we bundled up. Chance isn't much into wearing his jacket so he got a few extra layers of clothing built in to his outfit which he did not seem to mind. After we got to the park though and started moving it did not seem so cold. Chance has also developed a new love of swings this park has four swings and he wanted to try each one. I would put him in the swing and after a few minutes he would ask to get out, but after I pulled him out of the swing he would just walk over to another swing and ask to get in that one. We would do this over and over until he got to ride in all four swings. Special thanks to Grandma G for pushing for a while so I could talk to some of the other playgroup Moms. After the park we went home and took a nap then it was off to the gym. Chance got to play in a whole new area while they were working on the room where the childcare usually is. He played with the other kids in the Spacewalk Room. which is were they usually have birthday parties with one of those big blow up bounce houses in it. I think he had tons of fun because he did not even notice when Grandma G. and I walked through the door to come and get him. After the gym we came home for some dinner, after a workout we were all hungry. It is supposed to be in the 30's tonight and then get warmer until Wednesday when it is supposed to be 71 degrees (that's more my kind of weather). We are going to bring out the extra blankets tonight.