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.

Funny Shaped Head

So today we got up early, got in the car and went to the Doctor. Chance did good getting up and out so early. He ate his eggo waffle in the car on the way and when he got there he played in the waiting room with the other children waiting as well. We were a little worried (how could you not be) but we waited and finally they called our name to go into the examining room and wait some more. After taking his weight and temperature again then they took his blood pressure which was something they had never done before. All those things were normal. When the Doctor arrived he introduced himself too the three of us, then he felt the back of Chance's head. Chance just sat there for a minute then he started pulling the Doctor's hands away but that was ok because the Dr. then turned to us and said heis fine. That it was not fused skull plates simply because the bump is not where the plates meet. That sometimes babies have bumps that will even out as they grow and that this bump is nothing to worry about at all and it is just the way his head is shaped. Yeah!!!

This first picture is from a pillow party we had in the living room floor yesterday, Chance thought is was much fun.

Monkey Business

I got a recipe from my Mom for Monkey Bread not too long ago and this morning we made some. It is very sugary and I think I am going to work on a variation without so much sugar but for now it is sticky and very sweet. It is a great dish for kids to help with because you have to roll pieces of dough in Cinnamon and sugar before placing them in the pan, a great activity for little ones and I remember doing this job when I was little. I showed Chance how to roll the dough and put it in the pan but he would have none of it. He watched and then wanted to help but when he felt the dough squish between his fingers he said 'no' and handed it back to me. He loves to get dirty but doesn't like things that are too wet or squishy. So he ended up just watching this time.

15 month check up

Yesterday was Chance's 15 month Doctor's appointment. He turned 15 months old on the 21st. Chance played for a while in the waiting room with a little boy who was his same age, they played with the blocks and shared very well even though I haven't had much opportunity to teach Chance about sharing with other kids yet. He was much bigger than the other little boy and it turns out that Chance has had his biggest growth spurt between his 12 months appointment and his 15 month appointment. He is 34 inches tall and he weighs 27 pounds. I hate to argue with the scale but it seems highly unlikely that he only gained .13 of a pound in the last three months. I think it is a little off because he stood on the scale for the first time instead of laying on the baby one and he was moving around a little. Anyway that putts him in the 95 percentile for height and the 85 percentile for weight. He is a little chunky monkey. He was very good while the Doctor was examining him and he even showed her how he can stand up all by himself. He was fine with everything except when the Doctor laid him down to check his belly, he doesn't like to lay down unless it is nap time and he was sure it was not nap time. He got three shots and a finger prick again to check his Iron and Lead levels. His Iron is good and we will get the results from the Lead soon though it was OK last time. He got a Chicken Pox shots and an MMR and one other that I can't remember right now. He cried for his shots and once he caught on he tried to push the nurses hand away before she even got to his leg with the needle. It was so sad but it was over quickly and he recovered just as quickly. He was so good and (they know that he loves books) that the Doctor gave him a book and two stickers to take home. He ran a little fever for the rest of the day and so we spent the night watching cartoons and the old Batman movie on the couch and then Chance went to bed a little early. This morning he was happy and healthy an ready to go again.

There was a little bit of scary news during his visit to the Dr. too.

Chance has a bump on the back of his head it has been there forever and as far as I was concerned it was just the way his head is shaped. At this visit the Dr. asked me if it felt bigger to me which it doesn't it is getting bigger as his head is getting bigger but I don't think the bump itself is growing. She was concerned and said that instead of her ordering X-rays that are really hard to get in a little one anyway that we should make an appointment with the Neurosurgeon that they have on staff and ask him what he thinks. She said it could totally be nothing but that sometimes the plates in a baby's head will fuse too early. After I got home I looked this up on the trusty Internet and found that yes this happens more than you would think but if that is true then it would need to be corrected with surgery. I will keep you all posted on that. Our appointment to see the neurosurgeon is Friday at 9am. For now I am going say it is just the way his head is shaped until I find out differently for sure, still I can't help but worry a little.

Easter Parade

We all got dressed up and put Chance in his stroller to walk into the Quarter early this morning to be ready for the Easter Parade. It was a cool but sunny morning so it was perfect weather. We arrived just in time as the parade pulled around the corner. This is a very fancy but not very big parade. Nothing like Mardi Gras. It has been going on for years and by that I mean like over a hundred. In the French Quarter is St. Louis Cathedral people have been worshiping there since 1727 and the seat of government for the area was right next door for a while which was also where the Louisiana Purchase was signed. Lots of people still worship at the cathedral, it is a beautiful place. The parade was begun like most of the Mardi Gras parades because the higher class people wanted to give something back to the lower class people. And so it goes today a bunch of ladies in their Sunday best and Easter bonnets ride through the French Quarter on their way to the cathedral in carriages and convertables handing out stuffed animals and candy to the children on the streets. It was a lot of fun. I held Chance and he got lots of stuffed animals, he smiled at all the ladies as they passed by. They are going too fast for him to get comfortable grabbing the prizes himself so I take them and then hand them to him he then usually gave each one a hug. When we got home he ate some of the candy he was given which made a mess but was much fun. He also played with his stuffed animals on the couch for a while before taking a nap.

Happy Easter

We are planning to head out to the Easter Parade today. We hope everyone has a lovelly Easter.

Streetcar Ride and Aquarium

Usually when we go to the Aquarium I drive

and park in a parking garage pretty close to the Aquarium since they don't actually have their own parking. The Aquarium is not really that far from our house it is only just on the other side of the French Quarter but when you walk all the way there and then walk all around to look at the fish and then have to walk all the way home it is a lot of walking. I just discovered however that there is a streetcar line that stops about five blocks from the house and will take us straight to the Aquarium. Also this streetcar is only $1.25 for Adults (parking in the garage is $5.00). This is perfect for us, so Scott, Chance and I took the streetcar to the Aquarium. It was very pretty, this line runs between the french quarter and the river making for perfect views. Chance loved it. He sat on the seat next to me and let the wind blow through his hair. He was smiling and looking all around. The Aquarium was pretty busy since kids are out of school for Easter and so we didn't spend much time there,
we ended up walking back home. It was a fun leisurely walk. Once we got home Chance just wanted to go out again but we stayed in for the rest of the day. Chance loves being outside. He took a couple more steps today and stood up a lot of times. He is also saying a lot more things now that we are really trying to pay attention to what he is saying he says 'Mama', 'Dada' and 'No' a lot then he also says 'Up' and 'dis' and lately he has become fascinated with stop lights when we have to stop at a red light in the car he points and babbles but today when we were walking with him in the backpack he pointed and babbled at the stop light and I said "it's red" and he said 'red' just like that. He has started copying what we say like that a lot more even though I am not sure that he knows exactly what the words are yet.