More Silliness This Time Out Of The Car

We were at a restaurant by Niagara Falls and although the view and food were good the service was a bit slow so we were looking for fun things to do to keep Chance occupied. Aunt Kristy won the award for coming up with the best idea. She taught Chance how to turn himself into a little monster with horns and long teeth using a few french fries.

More Silliness In The Car

Neither one of these pictures are very good but it is hard to get a totally still picture in a moving car. This first one if just me and Chance taking a silly picture



This next one is Kristy and Chance playing head-to-head Tap, Tap, Revenge on Kristy's phone. Chance is better than one would think.

Washington D.C.

After meeting up with Scott in Baltimore we drove back about an hour and spent half a day in Washington D.C. I hadn't been to D.C. in many many years so I was happy to see the sights a little and of course show Chance the landmarks that he might recognize and at least be able to recognize next time he sees a picture of them. That is one of the great things about travel. People learn and understand things better when they are exposed to them repeatedly and in as many different ways as possible. I love being able to see pictures of the White House (for example), see it on TV, talk about it and then actually be able to take Chance there and let him see it for himself. He knew that was where President Obama lives but didn't quite understand why we couldn't go in and meet him and his kids.
We had a great time walking around if only for a few hours. I don't even remember who this statue is in honor of but it was the first one we came across and Chance wanted his picture taken so I took one of him in front of it:



Then he wanted to take one of me so he did:



The next place we went was the Lincoln Memorial. I wasn't sure what Chance was going to think but his response to the Lincoln Memorial makes me very proud of him. First we had a fun time walking up all those stairs and then when we got inside he immediately wanted to know who Lincoln was, most four year olds are content with a simple answer but Chance is not he wanted to know exactly who he was and when I told him Lincoln was a president he said "like Obama?" Then he wanted to know if there were other statues in the building and when I told him no, because Lincoln was such a great guy and did so many great things that he gets this whole building all for himself, he took a step back, looked all around and said "wow". He asked me what the writing carved into the walls were and when I told him they were speeches that Lincoln had made he asked me to read one so I read the first paragraph of the Gettysburg address to him, he didn't run around he stood right there and listened then asked me questions, "men are created equal?" So I tried to explain that what he means is everyone in the world just like everyone in this building little ones and big ones, boys and girls, red hair, brown hair, no matter what color their skin is, they all have great potential and all deserve your respect.
After we looked all around the Lincoln Memorial we sat on the stairs looking out over the mall at the Washington Monument for a while. I am usually not much for views of man made things but there is no denying this is a pretty awesome view.



And here is one of the two of us while we were sitting on the stairs but Chance didn't really want to be in this one:



We made our way down the stairs and started across the mall toward the White House. Our first stop along the way was the Vietnam Wall. Again Chance was very interested asking about all the names and loved the statue of the soldiers nearby. We made our way along til we got to the White House. we couldn't get too close because evidently someone had jumped the fence the day before but we paused to take a look before moving down the mall on the other side slowly back toward the car. We got an up close look at the Washington Monument and the World War 2 memorial which I had never seen before. It was getting dark as we walked up to the WW2 Memorial, it is might impressive with it's fountains and dramatic lighting. Highly recommend checking it out at night. As we continued down the walkway Chance noticed that we would be walking passed the Lincoln Memorial he asked if we could walk up and see it again. Instead of going in again we walked right down in front so we could look up and see Lincoln all lit up looking out on the mall. No matter what your opinion on Lincoln is there is no denying that is an impressive sight. I got down on my knees next to Chance to be on his level so we could look at the Memorial together. When I did he hugged me and said "It's better than I thought it would be" That little boy is so amazing, I am in awe of how a four year old can genuinely seem to be taking all of it in on a level you naively think a small child incapable of. I am so proud of him.

Seeing Daddy in Baltimore

While on our mini vacation we were able to hang out for a day in Baltimore with Scott. We didn't actually have a lot of time together because he was flying out the day we drove in but we spent a few hours walking around the harbor, ate lunch and hung out for a while at the hotel. We all had a great time seeing the area and Chance had a particularly good time hanging with Daddy at the hotel as you can surely tell from this picture, just look at that happy face.

Silly Pictures of Chance

There are so many silly pictures of Chance out there, in fact as a 4 year old that is pretty much what he does...be silly.
In one of the hotels we stayed in while we were bringing in out things and getting settled in Chance was looking around the room then I heard him say "mommy, look at me" repeatedly (one of his new favorite phrases) so I looked over to where I thought he was and he wasn't there. I walked over and looked closer and this is what I found:



Here he is just wearing a paper hat (pulled over his face...silly boy) that is oh so true.

Chance Drawing Videos

Last week while we were on our mini family reunion vacation there was a lot of time in the car. Chance is a great little traveler and we all had lots of fun finding things to do to keep him occupied. After a while we started making videos with my phone. Chance really liked making them then watching himself in the video. We made quite a few more than these two but I thought I would only upload the cream of the crop.

This first video is Chance drawing a Volcano. Volcanoes are his new thing to draw, actually he has been talking a lot about them lately. making them out of blankets and pillows. He said he wanted to go see a volcano so next time we hit Hawaii, Chance is going along.



And this video is Chance drawing the classic monster truck. His monster truck is getting a bit more sophisticated these days. It used to be just two wheels and a straight line but now sometimes there is a cab at the top and other times (like in this picture) there are little lines all around to show movement.

Video of Chance making funny faces

I took this in the car while driving. We are on our way to Niagara Falls via Baltimore before heading to the family reunion in Kentucky next weekend.

Sleeping Baby

OK, he's not a baby anymore but as we all know when they sleep they automatically look littler and sweeter for some reason. Chance has given up the formal nap time, a few months ago the afternoon nap just became much more of a struggle than it was worth since he seemed to be doing fine without one throughout the day. Well, turns out what he seems to need is a nap every other or every third day because I have caught him just falling asleep in strange places.

all right on the couch isn't really a strange place but

between the couch and the chair is! He likes to hide in this spot because he can still see the tv but he thinks no one can see him. Well, he did some sneaking around the couch and crawled into his little hiding spot which I saw him do then he sat there for a long time and when I looked over at him he was fast asleep. It didn't look very comfortable so I pulled him out and put him on the couch but I had to grab a couple pictures before I did.

The many faces of Chance

Here you can see Chance demonstrating Angry Face (top left), Sad Face (TR), Happy Face (BL) and Monster Face (BR). He is becoming very theatrical. He has started trying to be sneaky by actually crawling along the ground then freezing if anyone looks at him (if he's frozen you can't see him) he freezes his whole body often including his eyes. He has also started miming things. Sometimes when he is trying to tell you something it turns into a big game of charades, it's fun to figure out what he is trying to say and he is pretty good at moving and explaining with his body so it's neat to see the way his brain is working to put together things and explain them to you in a creative nonverbal way.
I think I might make a simple game of charades so we can all play together.

In Florida

I'm not going to go into the long story right now because I want to just right into the cute things Chance has been doing lately but the short story is Scott and I are separated and Chance and I are living in Fort Myers with my Mom. If you have questions feel free to email me and I will answer.

Now, Chance has been going in the pool pretty much every day we have been here this Summer. He loves it and is taking big steps toward actually swimming. Since we live in a house with a pool now I am hoping to get him swimming lessons soon and I think with just a few lessons he will be really swimming. Right now he can keep himself afloat for a little while and just started making forward progress so it won't be long before he can swim all over the pool.

Kristy heads up the pool maintenance and Chance has been there to assist every step of the way. They make a good pool cleaning team. Chance follows her around the pool and does what he's told so he actually does end up helping more than you'd think.