Gratuitous Chance Pictures

Here are just a couple pictures of Chance being Chance. I know I've mentioned that he has been wearing his hats a lot lately but in this one he's wearing two hats, hit knit hat and hit fireman's hat and giving me a kissy lip face.



Chance has been trying to take long naps recently so I have been waking him up after a while. Well, the other day I went in and he was just so sweet laying there I took pictures until he woke up and told me to stop. "Stop taking my picture please Mommy" he said so I left him alone but he got up in just a minute after that.

Insectarium

Today we went somewhere we have never been before, the Insectarium. Last year the Audubon (zoo & aquarium) system of museums and parks expanded to include the Insectarium, which is one of the only museums of its kind in the world and has the largest collections of live and used to be alive insects in the country.

From the moment we walked into the lobby we were both captured by the bugs everywhere, the large marble entryway has wonderful metal chandeliers hanging down with little metal bugs crawling on them. There are pictuers of bugs, videos of bugs and sculptures of bugs. After we got our tickets and entered the hallway to the first room of exhibits Chance was caught again by two big dragonflies that fly back and forth while also going round and round above our heads.

Of course there is a bug motif but what about the real bugs? Well, they have plenty of those too. There was a giant ant farm (see above), giant beetles and spiders and leaf bugs and any other bug you can think of, we all touched big cockroaches and got up close and personal with a beetle that has big pinchers on his head (I can't remember his name).

The thing I really liked about this place is how each room has a different theme and they go all out not just a poster on the wall but the whole room will be transformed. Like the underground world, the ground was squishy, it was dark and cave like, the walls and ceiling was bumpy like it was made of rocks. There were live bugs in their habitats next to big fake bugs crawling in and out of the rocks. It was fun pretending we were really underground.

A favorite of Chance's was the VW Bug that he could drive (with one of our playgroup Moms in the back) it was located in a section of the museum that was made to look like a French Quarter building and described bugs in medicine, disease and extermination through the ages.

This is Chance getting an up close look at a kitchen cupboard and the bugs that live there (you don't want to know). They had lots of these bubbles giving you an up close look at displays and even inside insect cages.

About half way through they were giving out exotic samples. These don't look all that special but those things that look like chocolate chips are really chocolate covered crickets.

Evidently they taste like chocolate chips too because Chance ate two so fast I couldn't even get a picture quick enough, they were already in his mouth. I also tried oven roasted crickets (very tasty a little spicy) and cinnamon covered fried wormy things (yummy desert snack). You can't go to the Insectarium and not try at least one, they were really good, my question (which I'll ask next time) is how to you get them in the pan? Do you just throw them in, to you kill them first and if you do how they weren't squished which without chemicals is the only way I have ever considered killing a bug.


I think my favorite part was the end in the butterfly house. There was a elaborate system of doors and fans to get in and out, once we got in the air was heavy there was wonderful relaxing music playing with places to sit a pond with Koi and a bridge and flowers everywhere. Then you notice the butterflies, everywhere. They are on the ground and the walls, the flowers and fluttering all around. The Insectarium hatches their own cocoons so before we came in we were able to see butterflies working their way out of their cocoons. So today Chance learned that bugs come from eggs like birds, he called the cocoons eggs, then when we entered the butterfly house he jumped up and down when he realized these butterflies came from eggs just like we had seen in the previous room. It was awesome to see him learning science and biology and Lepidopterology - that's the study of butterflies and moths (learned a new word today) right before my eyes.

Showing off

Chance is turning into such a ham these days. It's no wonder since both myself and Scott fully admit we like being the center of attention and putting on a show. Chance has started doing funny little things like in this first picture where he is wearing two legos on his fingers one of which he says is Squidward and the other is Mister Krabs from the Spongebob cartoons. He has a new phrase that he says if you don't pay attention to him. "You hear me?" he says. I is so cute because he is trying to be nice and ask nicely if you hear him. Also he has recently decided he loves his Batman ball cap that Scott got for him a few months ago.

In the second picture we were driving the other day when he kept exclaiming "I draw it! I draw it!" from the backseat. When we parked I asked him what he drew and he said "Big letter D" and when I looked he was totally right he had drawn a pretty good big letter 'D' all by himself.

Making Friends

Remember when I talked about making friends? Well here are two videos of Chance and two of his friends. We watched Alyssa (one of the little girls in our playgroup) the other day for a couple hours. Chance and Alyssa had a great time, they played from the moment she arrived without incident. In the first video they are twirling a jump rope and jumping up and down. They don't quite understand how it's supposed to be done but i suppose it doesn't matter because they are still having tons of fun.




The next video is Chance and Noah (from our playgroup) playing at the park, this video isn't very long or very good but it has Chance in it (for a second) so here it is. They had a great time running around the park together.




This last one is another of Chance and Noah (he's on the other side of the X's and O's). Evidently Tic-Tac-Toe isn't what Chance wanted to hear but you see he's ok with X's and O's as an answer.

Such a Monkey

A few days ago we had a playdate at the Monkey Room. This place is so great and all the kids just love it. Chance played and played, after a while he drug me inside the play area which is where I took this first picture. These big balls hang from the top of the play space, Chance likes to climb on top and swing around until he can't hold on any more. Now that he is getting older he is really enjoying playing with his friends. They pair up more now to play all kinds of things together. In the second picture Chance and Octavian are playing in the little kids area of the Monkey Room.

New Shoes

We had all been talking about needing new shoes so the other day when we were at Target. Scott said "let's all get new shoes" so we did. We all got brand new Converse shoes, Chance and mine are exactly alike just different sizes and Scott's all black and soft. It has been so long since I have had tennis shoes at first they felt weird with all their padding and bendiness but that was over fast because they are so comfy.

Hanging out

First i have to say Happy Belated Birthday to Scott's Mom. Her birthday was yesterday.





The last few days Chance and I have just been hanging out, well we have been doing things but staying low key. Yesterday we went to a playdate at Mariah and Iggy's house ( one of our playgroup members). It was tons of fun, Chance and all the other little guys were very good sharing and playing together. We also made a cool craft, we just put paint in a ziplick bag squished it around then taped the top and hung it in the window to make a stained glass type panel.


Now we are having another down day playing inside waiting for Scott to get home tonight.




Picture #1 is me showing Chance how to squish the paint around in the bag.
# 2 the finished product and # 3 is Chance and Octavian playing the bushes at Nancy's house. They where playing in there for a long time, they were jungle explorers.

Photobooth pictures

While trying to stay warm yesterday Chance and I got inside Chance's Thomas play tent in the living room and set the space heater just outside the door. It warmed right up in there so we played and even ate our lunch in Thomas. These are some pictures I took of the two of us then I made them look like those photobooth picture strips.

Cold, Cold go away.

My goodness it has been cold here the last couple days. Well, more than a couple, it's been really cold for a week now. This morning it was 22 degrees but with wind chill it felt like 13, our little feet are freezing. We have been doing our best to stay warm, staying inside most of the time. It's been hard not being able to go to parks which we love so much, Chance really needs to get out and run around but we have been keeping busy inside the house with lots of fun projects and playing with all Chance's toys.

We have made it out of the house here and there too on Friday we went to the Children's Museum with our playgroup and on Thursday we even made a quick unplanned trip to Chuck E. Cheese while purchasing supplies to fix our couch. We also made a quick trip to Target to get another rug for the front of the house to help keep the place warm.

While at the Children's Museum we explored their brand new area all about the unique architecture of New Orleans and then building and architecture in general. They have a whole little shotgun house (the type of house we live in) and a creole cottage that are both perfect size for little guys, I couldn't get a good picture of Chance inside one of the houses because he was having too much fun playing and running around in them.


Scott left for Houston today where he will be all week, but we are just happy it isn't a long trip, he will be back either Friday night or Saturday morning. Chance and I have little things planned all week, playdates and the library and other things to keep us busy and hopefully warm too.
P.S. for those of you interested in our pictures I added a widget to the blog at the right that shows a slideshow of the most recently uploaded photos to our Flickr account.

Picture #1 is Chance buildding a tower with his new blocks, staying busy inside.
#2 is him inside a big bubble at the Children's Museum. he pulled the rope all by himself.
# 3 Chance practicing his city planning in the new section of the Children's Museum
# 4 at the Children's Museum, he played with this for nearly half an hour. He grabbed the ping pong balls from the bottom and put them in the cup at the top then watched them roll all the way down back and forth.
# 5 Scott and Chance playing games at Chuck E. Cheese
# 6 this is our couch with a new look. We covered the hole in the top back adding the black fabric over the top and front. This was our first time doing anything like this but it's still sticking so we give it two thumbs up.

King Cake Playdate

On Wednesday we had a playdate at our house to enjoy King cake for Three Kings Day. Three King's Day is said to be the day that the 3 wise men reached the baby Jesus after following the star for twelve nights. The twelve days between Christmas and Three Kings Day are the twelve days of Christmas talked about in the song of the same name. Is that enough history for you?
Anyway, New Orleanians celebrate Three Kings Day by having a party (bet you could have guessed that one) and eating King cake. Also, in New Orleans Three Kings day traditionally signals the beginning of the Mardi Gras season with two parades rolling that night.
We invited our playgroup to our house where everyone had a good time playing and eating cake. I have to say King cake is really, really yummy, two thumbs way up, we bought one filled with strawberry cream cheese, it doesn't get much better than that.

Picture 1 is Chance with our new members, twins Daisy and Darla who Chance just loves, he pats their heads and gives them kisses. Picture 2 is Chance eating King cake and one of the moms, Erica with her new little guy Rocco who is in the carrier.

Fireman Hat

Remember back when we visited the firehouse, Chance got a fireman hat but he didn't want to wear it at all? Well now he doesn't want to take it off. He wears it forward and backward around the house, we wears it in the yard and he has even worn it to the store a few times. He likes it a lot now. These are a couple pictures I snapped of him while we were at a store just a few days ago.

Playing in the leaves playdate

With all this cold weather moving in the leaves are falling off the trees like mad. Because it doesn't get cold till late in the year (or early since it's January) the leaves don't usually fall from the trees in Autumn but hold on till Winter when the cold really hits. With so we decided to have a playing in the leaves playdate at Nancy's house. It was super cold but raking all the leaves into big piles warmed up the Moms and playing warmed up the little guys. They all had so much fun jumping in the leaves and throwing them up in the air. We also had cupcakes with icing and sprinkles for them to keep their energy flowing.

It worked because even with all that cold weather the little ones played for nearly and hour and a half in the leaves.

Pictures 1 and 2 are obvious, in picture 3 Chance and Nancy are tickling Octavian. The little ones were great helpers when it came to moving the leaves from one section of the yard to another to make one big pile, in Picture 4 Octavian is filling up the little wagon for Chance to pull over and add to the pile. Picture 5 is Chance stuffing his face with cupcake.

New Year, New Project

Happy new year everyone. With this new year starts a new round of life and the opportunity to live it to its fullest everyday. If I have one new years resolution it is to live everyday to its fullest and live more in the moment not in the past or what the future might be but in this moment and what I can do with it right now. Along those lines we have started a new project (well, mostly Scott has started it for now). Our house is covered with aluminum siding. It is the only house in our neighborhood full of historic homes with aluminum siding. Most houses have been taken back to their original wood. Ever since we moved in we have wanted to see what was under the siding on our house and if possible take all of the aluminum off to bring ours back to wood and closer it's original look. Well, yesterday Scott started on this project, we picked a small wall at the back of the house and he started ripping off the siding, it was scary and exciting since we really had no idea what we were going to find. We were both pleasantly surprised to find the wood in such great condition. On the whole wall there are only two little spots that will need to be repaired and maybe replaced which is amazing considering we think the siding has been on for about 50 years. Scott did a lot in one day pulling off siding and sanding, then on day two he sanded a little more and put on a coat of sealer to keep the wood safe from the elements while we work on the rest of the house before we are able to paint the whole thing, which will be fun because we get to pick our own colors and our neighborhood is full of an array of different colored homes, green, purple, blue, yellow, orange...so we can pick any color we want and not even look out of place.

In the first picture you can see the aluminum siding at the top still on the house, the green on the right is some insulation then the bottom is the beautiful wood of the actual house. Scott stopped working for just a moment so I could take this picture. In the second picture all the siding is off the house so now you can see the wood at the top and the bottom has been painted with the sealer. The third picture is our first wall to complete what we are calling Phase 1, which is remove siding, sand and sealed. We are planning to move on to the next wall this week but Scott is taking a few days off to let his back and shoulders rest, he worked hard.