New games

Chance has started playing a new game. He turns his head to the side and then when he catches your eye he pulls his head back up straight again. Sometimes he leaves his head sideways until you turn your head sideways too then he pops back up straight. It is kind of like a form of peek-a-boo. He is so cute when he puts his head to the side though because he usually also makes a funny face as you can see in these pictures taken yesteday and today. He mostly plays this game in his highchair but he also plays it in the stroller and sometimes just while sitting around for fun. I was able to snap this last photo of his teeth while trying to get the shots of his new little game and had to include it. He doesn't have any more teeth but the ones on top are all the way in now so when he smiles you can see them almost every time now. They are so cute.

Barkus

Today we went to the Barkus parade. Barkus is an all dog parade that runs through the French Quarter. It is so cute. Like all the other parades for Mardi Gras they have a theme, this year it was Indiana Bones Raiders of the Lost Bark. They have floats and throws and costumes. The only difference is Dogs are wearing the costumes and riding on the floats. Their owners are throwing the throws and pulling the floats. For those of you who don't know Throws are beads, stuffed animals and other things that people in the parade Throw to the crowd. Chance really liked the parade, he loves animals. Scott carried him in the backpack most of the time and then we took him out and I held him and he watched the dogs in the parade. The weather was really nice for the parade not too hot but it wasn't cold either. There was a cute English Bulldog all dressed up just riding on one of the floats, it made us miss Rosco. Chance got a lot of beads, a tennis ball and a tiger mask. He did not want to wear it very long but I did get a couple pictures of him in it before he pulled it off. It is amazing how they get all those dogs together and we did not see one dog fight. That is pretty impressive in itself. Scott had the camera for this parade and he took a lot of pictures of the parade and the surroundings, you can see the rest of the pictures by following the New Pictures link and checking the Mardi Gras album. Where we watched the parade was in front of the Saint Louis Cathedral School. It was a pretty cool sight to see the nuns out watching the parade so I had to add the last picture on this blog. The first picture is before we left for the parade and then Chance at the parade, he was not looking at the parade in the third picture he was looking back at Scott. Watch out! It's a dangerous Tiger! He needs his milk of he gets anger.

Saturday Parades

Today we beat the cold and went out to the parades. It stopped raining but it was still grey and overcast so we bundled up and brought a blanket. In the beginning Chance was not sure what was happening but he was amazed by all of it. He watched the bands and his eyes got wide when the floats went by. We caught lots of beads and other things. I learned that having a baby at the parades gets you a lot of stuffed animals. We watched Ponchantrain and then folowing that was Shangra-La. Chance stayed warm with all his layers of clothes and then when the wind picked up a little with his blanket. All the people were very nice, a bead landed on him and scared him, when I picked him up to comfort him is when the people on the floats started giving him stuffed animals. We came home with 6 stuffed animals, a football, a plush soccer ball and an oversized plastic pacifier. He made a haul. Tomorrow we are off to Barkus which is the all dog parade that goes through the Quarter.

Eye looking better

These are just some fun pictures of Chance and his eye. Which is looking a lot better. It did not get black like I thought it would. Now only the scrapes are a little red and the rest of his eye is just fine and the bruise on his forehead is almost completely gone. The first picture is from yesterday and the second one is from this morning. I don't know if you can really tell the difference in the pictures but his eye is getting better everyday. He is getting closer to walking too. He does not take steps yet but he has started letting go of things on purpose, standing there for a second and then grabbing onto something else. That is just the next step before taking steps.

Guitar Playing

Every time Scott plays guitar Chance has always been very interested. He crawls over and wants to touch the guitar and pull the strings. Well last night when he went over to play with the guitar he was really trying to mimick what Scott was doing. So Scott showed him how to strum. Chance would strum the strings while Scott played the chords. It was so cute and really cool to watch him and see him learning. Chance would watch Scott for cues of what to do next and would check to make sure he was still doing it right. If scott would strum the low strings then the next time Chance would strum the low strings too. You could tell that he was listening and then trying to make the same sounds. Chance really had fun playing the guitar and Scott and I were excited that he was really listening and playing along.

swollen but ok

Today Chance woke up his cheery little self as usual but his left eye was almost swollen shut. The bump on his head had completely gone down though leaving nothing but a little bruise. I gave him some Tylenol to help with the swelling and put some neosporen on his scratch and waited to see if the swelling would go down. He talked and played like normal and did not even seem to notice that his eye was swollen. Throughout the day his eye got much better and by the afternoon it was barely swollen at all. Also, Dan watched Chance for a couple hours around his nap time and I went down to city hall to get a business license and register my business name. It took nearly four hours of walking from office to office and building to building trying to find exactly where I was suposed to be but I finally got a license to conduct business in my home. I will have to go back to register my business name officially since every single person in that office was at a retreat and the temp secretary had no idea how to help me but at least I know which office and building to go to when I do go back. By the way I am starting a travel agency for those of you who do not already know. I will have a website soon and will be able to facilitate all your travel needs. When I get the website up and running I will tell you more about itsince I will then be more ready to actually work with you to book travel. Also, I was reminded that I never told you all what happened with the gas leak and heater situation from a few days ago. A man came from the gas company in just a few minutes after we called them and fixed the gas leak. The leak was under the house but actually from the pipes for Dan's side of the house. The gas man fixed the leak in just a few minutes and that was that with the gas. Fixing the gas did not fix our heater though and we pushed through the night with one little electric space heater and a lot of blankets. It was about 39 degrees outside that night and it was about that inside. The next morning we called a repair man who showed up in a couple hours from the time we called. The heating and cooling units each have their own special fuses and one of the heating ones was blown. He changed the fuse and gave us an extra for next time then his job was done. We had heat again! It was a cold night but at least now we know what to do next time.

Face Injury

Today We were working in the yard and Chance was playing out in the yard with one of his little cars. We have four steps leading from our back door down to the ground and Chance had been playing very near them. A couple times he tried to go up them and each time I told him 'No' and he got down. Well the last time he had his knees on the first step and I told him to get down. He put his foot down and twisted the wrong way planting his face right on the pavement. He cried of course and I ran over to pick him up. I hugged him and took him inside. I could see there was blood around his eye so I wet a paper towel to dab his eye and get a better look. I sat down and gave him a bottle to feel better. He was not crying at that point. His left eye was not really cut the skin on his cheek bone was scraped like a burn from moving on the pavement and he has a little mark on his eye lid. He took a few sips from his bottle and was so ok that he started wiggling for me to let him back down to play. I sat him down and he went right over to play with his car and try to go back outside like nothing had ever happened. He has a bump on his head which is definately going to bruse and a small scrap on the left side of his head. He is also going to have a black eye, his cheek and eye lid are swelling a bit but he can see fine and there was no damage to his actual eye at all. He went about the rest of the day playing and having fun like nothing was wrong. We even went back outside because he wanted to go back out so bad. He just looked out the door and pointed and whined till I let him go back outside. He played with his car some more and got all dirty. It looks so bad and when I look at him his face looks so sad but he is still just his cheery self. It was bath night so he got all the

dirt off of him and he played all his usual games with one added in, He played peek-a-boo with me over the side of the tub which he initiated and you can see how happy he is about it in the last picture. He also said a new word today "This." It is kind of funny because he holds something out and says "This" with a little question mark at the end. It is one of those things you don't think of but you say "this" a lot. "Is this what you want?" or "This is your sock." or "This is Mommy's coffee" so he thinks lots of things are called "This" now. I feel so bad for him but he is such a good (and tough) little boy that I know he will pull through without any trouble. He went to bed tonight just like always. He is such a sweetheart.

Krewe De Vieux

We had a busy day but at the same time it seemed like we just sat around for most of it. That is ok though because we got to spend the day together hanging out. We sat around all day waiting for the delivery of our dishwasher which finally came two and a half hours late. Right before the parade and so they had to park two blocks away and wheel the dishwasher to the house on a dolly. I am so glad they did though because now we will have a dishwasher up and running tomorrow. We bundled up and walked the two and a half blocks down the street to the parade route. Krewe De Vieux is what the locals call the local parade. It is the raunchiest and the smallest and the most fun. There are no motors, everything is pulled by man or beast and they have the best bands out of all the Mardi Gras parades. Chance had fun. His little face and hands were cold when we were done but he was watching the lights and all the people dressed up in funny costumes. He got a stuffed animal and some other cool stuff as seen in the loot photo. When we were walking back to the house Chance talked and talked, he was telling us all about his favorite parts of the parade. We even got back home in time to put Chance to sleep on time. He had some fun with Scott on the couch first though to wind down a little bit. He did not seem to mind the cold. We are really glad though that this parade was only a couple blocks from the house so we did not have to walk far. When we returned home we found that our heater was not working and we could smell gas outside the house so we called Entergy and they are here now trying to figure out what is going on, we will keep you posted on that too.

Joe Joe the Monkey

Today I put Chance down for his nap and when I did he grabbed his little Monkey that lives in the crib and pulled it close to him for a hug.

I had to grab my camera and take a picture or two. He usually grabs his little blanket and when I go in to his room in the morning or after a nap the monkey is moved around the crib but I never really see him move the monkey around. This time though he reached for the monkey and hugged it close to him. He is so cute hugging his little monkey.

Teeth Pictures

The other day we noticed that Chance has even more teeth now. He has two on the bottom front, two on the top front and now he has one on the top to the left of his two front ones and the one on the right side is about half way through the gum. I need to learn the names of the teeth so these blog posts will make a little more since. This first picture doesn't look like a very happy face but if you look closely you can see lots of teeth in that little mouth. We got him some shoes yesterday and he has been having fun wearing them around the house. We have a big day today. We are getting a dishwasher put in today and we are going to the Krew De Vieux parade tonight. It will be fun. I will try to take pictures of the parade tonight.