New Bed!

When we were in Portland for Christmas we experienced Ikea for the first time and saw this bed in their catalogue that we really wanted. Unfortunately we do not have an Ikea store close enough for us to drive so we had to has the bed shipped to us, but even with the shipping cost it was less expensive than anything we found that we like here in town. Our new bed arrived today! As soon as it arrived we got to work putting it together. It did not take nearly as long as we thought it would thanks to this great suggestion in the instruction manual. That is the real picture form the manual only the names have been added that's to Scott and his Photoshop. This is the first bed we have owned since being together and that is a long time now. We have had futons and mattress' and box springs but never a real bed. Yeah for us! Other than put the bed together we did not do much today but hang out around the house and hang out together. It has been great to have Scott home for so long to just hang out and get to know each other again. Chance really likes having him home too. Chance and Deedle played well together again today. Deedle still needs his beauty sleep because he is so young, he is learning fast that he has to find a spot in another room to sleep when Chance is awake because Chance does not understand that he needs to sleep and so he goes over and pokes him to wake him up. Other than that they are doing great.

Goin' To Get Deedle The Movie

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Deedle Arrives

Yesterday we drove up to Alexandria, LA about a four hour drive where we got a hotel room. We drove on a lot of back roads through really pretty scenery. It was a long ride for Chance, it was his first long car ride without a pacifier (more on that later) but after we got there he had a wonderful time exploring the hotel room. We went swimming in the hotels pool. Chance had a good time wondering around the outside of the pool with Scott and then climbing down the stairs and jumping in with me. This morning we packed up and drove the extra 9 miles to pick up Deedle. He is sooooooo little. Rosco was about twice his size when we picked him up as a puppy. As we drove back to New Orleans Chance would periodically point at the cage in the seat beside him. We stopped a few times on the way back to let Chance and Deedle stretch their legs. Each time Chance would talk to him and pet Deedle, he was very cute. After we got home Chance followed Deedle around and he followed Chance around the house. Chance kept getting down on the floor to be at his level and talk to him. He did pretty good petting him except he tried to pick him up a couple times which is understandable since Scott and I would pick him up to move him around. They were very cute together. Deedle kept running between his legs and Chance kept talking to him and getting down on the floor to be close to him. Chance also walked around on his hands and feet to follow Deedle around. Now Chance is asleep and Deedle is sleeping on a pillow on the floor in the living room.
In regards to the pacifier a little over a week ago Chance chewed a whole through his pacifier. Then I gave him another and another which he chewed through as well. He is teething and so I bought him another set of two pacifiers and told him those were his last two. He chewed through the first one that day and the next one the next day that was four days ago. He has not had a pacifier since. The first night was a little rough he went down ok but when he woke in the middle of the night it was hard for him to go back to sleep. Since then it has been getting better and better. He has also started sucking on his toes which is funny. We had not intended to start breaking him from pacifiers just yet but we can't go out and buy new pacifiers everyday either. He is doing ok with it though and we have been praising him for doing such a good job.

Motorcycle

While outside Chance used his new climbing skills to climb up onto Scott's motorcycle. Scott helped him out and they sat on the motorcycle together while Chance pushed all the buttons. They had fun hanging out. We are still really working over the yard. We now have a compost pile and two bushes, a pepper plant, some rosemary and some Confederate Jasmine vines that we are going to weave through the fence when we get that up which we think is going to be next week. We are also getting some bananas on our banana plant, I can't wait to actually be able to pick them and eat them. I do not know how long it takes for bananas to ripen but I think we will be eating them soon. I am writing this on Scott's laptop because mine has died. Someone, I will not say who but he is in both of these pictures, dropped liquid onto my laptop and even though we have let it dry out it will still not turn on and

so it has passed on to the great laptop heaven in the sky. We are looking for cheap laptops to get a quick replacement. Also, today when I sat down to start this entry it began to rain and we had hail pretty good size too. It set off car alarms but we did not see any damage.

18 Month Checkup

Today was a big day for Chance, this morning we went to the park with our playgroup where Chane had a good time wondering around and playing on the equipment. He also got o pet a friendly little fluffy dog in preparation for picking up Deedle this weekend. After the park we came home where he took a quick nap and then we were off again to the Doctor's office for his 18 month check-up. He was very good for the whole visit but about halfway through he was ready to leave. He kept making a sad face ad pointing to the door. He was very good for the doctor. He practiced his fast walking skills, the Dr. said he will be running in no time. Everything checked out just fine. She said he was healthy and

he did not have to get any shots this time which was good news for Chance. He is 33 inches tall and weighs 28 lbs 2 oz. still tall for his age but he is well proportioned. We asked her about hm no having as many words as we hear he is supposed to have but she put any worries we may have had to rest. He showed her while we were there that he understands a lot and that he is communicating by pointing to his juice cup. He makes good eye contact and is very interested in what you are saying and doing and all these things mean it is nothing to worry about if he does not have quiet as many verbal words right now. That he will start talking soon enough and usually with late talkers once they start you can't make them stop so we will be in for a lot of fun when he does start really talking. Anyway all is well with Chance and he does not have to go back to the Doctor until he is 2 years old. This first picture is a little blurry but this was taken this morning while he was playing on the bed and it provides a sneak peek at our newly painted bedroom, we are still making some finishing touches before the unavailing and the second picture is of him at the playground today.

18 Months Old

Chance is 18 months old today. He is running around like crazy, he still is not at a full run but he is working on it and everyday he is getting faster. Scott came home on Friday night so we all just hung out today. We do not have many plans for this weekend but we have a full week this week, more on that later. Anyway, Chance is communicating a lot more as well instead of crying he is actually trying to tell us things. He will point or take our hand and walk us to something then point when we can not reach whatever he is after. His word count is still not very high but he is communicating a lot and he understands over half of everything that we say, he also follows direction well and he has surprising me recently by understanding things that we ask him to do that we never have asked him before just by understanding the individual words we are saying so we are not too worried about him not saying a lot of actual words, we will see what the Doctor says on Monday which is when we take him for his 18 month appointment. He is also drawing well scribbles and circles which seems to make a difference in this list. He became more picky with his foods a month or so ago but it is actually loosening up a bit now. He also self feeds with a spoon and a fork and as he learns to use a fork he is becoming better with it than he is with a spoon because things fall off of a spoon when you turn it and if yo poke it right the first time then things do not fall off of a fork. he brushes his teeth no problem and will take off his shirt with little to no help as well as his diaper and thank goodness there was nothing in it the time that happened. He climbs on all kinds of things as I have posted before but has yet to climb out of his crib which is a good thing. He has started taking toys apart and putting them together and all I have to say about that is, poor Mr. Potato Head. We are not worrying about the potty training yet but he might be showing signs I am not sure yet. I found this list here. Chance found the paint roller and began rolling it through the house, thankfully it was a new roller.

Most toddlers should be able to . . .


Draw a scribble well

Run well

Become picky about certain foods

Say at least 15 or 20 words

Feed self with spoon

Some toddlers will probably be able to . . .


String more words together to make phrases or puts together pairs of words

Talk more clearly

Brush teeth with help

Take off an article of clothing alone

Jump around

Some toddlers could possibly be able to . . .

Take apart toys and sometimes puts them back together

Show signs of potty training

Climb out of crib and high chair

Take off clothes

Draw circles

Understand two part directions

Ducks, Playground and a new Friend

This morning we spent around the house. Working on painting our bedroom. I have mentioned we are doing that right? If not

then after getting a good start on the yard we have started working on painting our bedroom which should be done by this weekend. I will post pictures here when we finish. Anyway, after Chance's nap today we went to City Park, even though it looked like rain it missed us completely so we had a good time. I bought a loaf of bread to feed to the birds while we were there. There are waterways that run all through the park and there are always birds around but this is the first time I have taken anything to feed to them. The first place we stopped there were lots of birds around which turned out to be too many. As soon as they saw the plastic bag the bread was in they came waddling toward us. There were about 30 of them ducks and geese and pigeons all coming toward us. The geese were as tall as Chance and with so many of them I decided we should go to another area of the park so we got back in the car and drove around to the playground area. Chance had a good time playing, he is starting to climb up the steps and walk around on the play areas which is still a little scary for me but he loves it. We fed the rest of the bread to some ducks that were floating in the water near the playground - much less aggressive ducks I might add. Near the end of our time in the park a dog befriended Chance. He was there with another family but he kept bringing his tennis ball over to Chance and dropping it at his feet. Chance did a wonderful job gently petting the dog.

Sunflower

Check out my metroblog.

http://neworleans.metblogs.com/2008/06/10/a-sunflower/


P.S. Chance is doing 100% better. By the way he acted today you would never know he was sick yesterday.

Sick Baby

Chance was not feeling well today. He ate breakfast with no problem but as the day progressed you could tell he was starting to feel sick. I put him down for his nap early and when he woke up he was running a fever. We just vegged out for the next couple hours. He was laying around on the couch when he got sick. It was the first time he has thrown up I think all the other times it would be considered "spit up" when he was little. It was so sad because you could tell how stunned he was after it happened because he had no idea what had happened. I ran him a bath to clean him up and he felt much better for a few hours after that but then around 6:30p he started lazing around again. So we rested on the bed while I folded clothes and then I gave him some Tylenol and put him to bed early. He has been sleeping peacefully ever since. These pictures were taken a couple days ago. Syed, Becky and Sherri brought this truck for Chance when they came to visit. He loves pushing it around the house and climbing into the back of it.

New Heights

I am not sure if I told you this but the other morning we walk into the living room and find Chance standing on the arm of my desk chair leaning over my desk to reach something on the top of the hutch across the back of my desk. I ran in and grabbed him and all was well. This morning I walked in and found him sitting on top of Scott's desk. He had used Scott's desk chair to climb up there too. Since he was not in any immediate danger of falling I took a moment to get his picture.