Betcha Can't Guess

Who took a step today?...Ok I bet you can. It was Chance! Chance stood up today and took a little step just one and then he stood there for another second to keep his balance and then sat down. Then in a minute he stood up and took another two steps toward the ottoman and then sat back down. Both Scott and I were sitting right there and saw both steps we clapped and praised him and he smiled and made happy sounds like he was proud of himself. We are proud of him he has taken his time to take his first step and now we are waiting for more steps tomorrow. He will be on his way in no time.

These pictures were taken the other day when we went to the Children's Museum for a playdate.

Tattoo Baby

Way back when Chance was born Dan got him a few gifts. These temperary baby tattoos were one of those gifts. Today we finally decided to put some on him. Since both Scott and I have tattoos Chance is no stranger to them. As a matter of fact I have a tattoo on my lower back and Chance is always pointing at it and sometimes lifting up my shirt in the back to find it. We gave Chance two little sparrows on his chest and a 'Mom' tattoo on his arm. He just sat there while we applied them and looked at us like "what are you doing?" but he didn't care too much. I thought they would come off after his bath but they are still there. I am sure they would have come off if I tried to scrub a little bit but since they do not irritate his skin we will leave them on as long as they will stay. We also colored eggs for Easter today and in this second picture if you look really hard you can see the red dye in his hair. After we finished the eggs we had fun playing with the cups of colored water. I will write more about that later but now I am going to go hang out with Scott on the couch.

Fun with a Box

We have been having fun as a family these last few days and today was no exception. Though mostly we just hung out today. We did go to City Park though. There is a playground that I had passed by a couple times but never stopped and so we went there today. Chance played for a little while and we walked around and looked at the water and the ducks. I want to go back sometime soon and maybe take some bread to feed the ducks. Also I will bring my camera to share the park with all of you. Near the end of the day Chance sometimes starts getting cranky so today we put him inside a Pampers box and Scott rigged a pulling system and off they went all over the house. Scott pulled Chance all the way to the front of the house and then all he way to the back again. Chance loved it.

We are Home in NOLA

We arrived back in New Orleans on Saturday. Scott touched down at the airport just three minutes before us so we were all able to meet up there and share a taxi home. Is was good to be home everything was pretty much the way we left it except for the house behind ours which was not there at all anymore. That house had been badly burned before we bought our house and they finally tore it down while we were gone. We are hoping to go into a deal with a few neighbors and buy the empty lot to give both of the neighbors a yard and to add on to ours. We will see how that goes. Right now we are going to work on putting a fence up since the old house was part of our fence. Yesterday Scott and I went to the Roller Derby while Chance stayed with a babysitter. He was really good and hardly cried at all when we left (or so I am told). Today we mostly hung out at the house. We had a picnic outside though. Scott and Chance and I sat out on the blanket eating and playing for over an hour. Chance also stood up many times today. While we were outside he stood up over and over. He knew that each time we would praise him and clap so he just kept standing up and waiting for us to clap. We started waiting longer each time to clap and he just kept standing longer waiting for us. He has pretty good balance and once today it looked like he was going to take a step but then thought better of it and sat down to crawl. We didn't do any St. Patrick's Day festivities But we all wore a little green. That first picture is so funny because he has his little front teeth sticking out. The second picture is his new smiley face for the camera and the third picture is Chance hanging out with his Aunt Kristy, wearing her hat.

Cute Times 10

Around Christmas Scott's Mom sent Chance an outfit which I thought was very cute but always looked too big for him. The outfit was a pair of denim overalls and a shirt. Today I pulled this outfit out of the drawer and put it on Chance. I am sad I didn't do it sooner because it is the cutest outfit he owns and I didn't even know it. These overalls take his cuteness and multiply it by at least 10. It fits wonderfully and even expands so it will fit him for a while longer. It is definitely one of his staple outfits now and he will wear it often until he can't anymore. We did more than just dress Chance today we also went to a really nice little Bar-B-Que restaurant. We had never been before but we pass by it all the time. They had High Chairs and good food, that is all we need to bring us back again and again. As a matter of fact I am thinking about it now and wondering when we can get B-B-Q again already.

Standing up for real

Ok last time I said he was standing on his own pretty much but now he is standing on his own for real. Two days ago Chance was crawling across the kitchen floor when he jsut stopped and stood up. He stood there for about a minute and then just sat back down. That day he must have done that same thing about ten times. Then yesterday he did it again a bunch of times and so far this morning he has done it once. It is definately a big step toward walking. This kind of standing is different than accidently letting go of the table or couch while cruising because he is so deliberate with his actions and he is usually standing in the middle of the floor with nothing around him to hold onto. You can tell that he is really thinking about what he is doing and working to keep his balance. He doesn't fall over either he just sits back down and goes on about his business. Which is usually the business of play. Everytime he does this we all clap and praise him and let him know that he is doing a good job. It doesn't matter much that I can't upload a picture to this one because I haven't gotten a picture of him doing it yet. He just stands up whenever he thinks its a good time without any warning so I am never ready with the camera. It looks so strange to see him standing up by myself. It makes him look so little.

UPDATE: pictures, pictures, pictures. He stood up three times in a row.

Build-a-bear

I can't get a picture to upload with the dial up here at Mom's house but I thought a couple updates without pictures were better than none at all plus I will add the pictures after we get back home. We have still been just hanging out here in Florida for the last little bit. We are going back to New Orleans on Saturday which is the same day Scott is arriving Home. The other day Chance and Mom and I went to a new shopping center a little south from here where they have a Build-A-Bear Workshop. I still have some of a gift card left over from a Birthday present two birthdays ago and so we used that and built another bear. Chance enjoyed crawling around the store and watching but he wasn't all that interested in actually building the bear this time. After we got home however he hugged his bear and gave him some lovies.

UPDATE: pictures added Yeah!!

Standing...pretty much

He isn't even holding on, he is just touching my pant leg. He just isn't ready to let go. We got him to stand on his own holding his sippy cup but no pictures of that. This is the best I can get with a camera in one hand

Florida

Chance and I flew to Florida on Sunday. We flew non-stop into Miami then my Mom picked us up at the airport and we made the drive back. That was so much better than having a layover and then another flight plus it was less expensive. We picked up some chicken nuggets at McDonalds for the drive back to Fort Myers. Chance ate three whole chicken nuggets! I thought he would sleep in the car but he stayed awake the whole time so he only got about a fifteen minute cat nap all day on Sunday since there was also too much excitement to sleep on the plane. Monday we just hung out at the house all day not doing much but playing with the new toys that my Mom bought him when she found out we were coming to visit. We have a geocache out here and we did go check on that and place a couple TBs that I had been holding onto. On Monday Scott drove from New York City to Syrcuse, NY where he will be working until the 15th of March. I was worried that he would have to drive in the snow and ice but it was clear and in the mid fifties per Scott's report so he made it safely to his hotel. Also Yesterday we went out and put Chance's feet in the pool it's pretty cold to go in but Chance can't stand looking out the sliding glass doors all day and not being able to go out at least once, so we took him out. It looks like rain here today but if the rain holds off we are going to go to Barnes and Noble to visit old friends after my Mom comes home from work.

Nick Your a Star

Nick used to work with Scott at Waterman in Fort Myers. Then when BitCentral was looking for new people Scott recommended

Nick. So now Scott and Nick work together again. Nick is a great guy and became a good friend of ours while we were in Florida. He came up to visit / get trained by Scott on new editing stuff this past week. We had a good time jsut hanging out and I kept Chance out of the way when Scott and Nick had to work. Nick was really good with Chance and Chance really seemed to like Nick. Even though he hasn't gotten any of that stranger anxiety stuff they all talk about. This is a funny picture because Nick has his laptop and is listening to Scott while using Chance as an armrest which he doesn't mind at all as a matter of fact Chance thought it was fun (being used as an armrest)