Falling For Chase

Well, recently I've noticed some interesting things about my son. I bring him with me when I go into work at the gymnastics studio during the weekdays, and Kyle picks him up from there. So when we get to the studio, I take Chase out of his car seat and sit him on the spring floor where we warm up the classes and stretch out. He really loves watching other kids, especially when they're running and jumping and doing crazy things. Well everytime one of the children trips or falls when they're acting crazy Chase starts laughing hysterically! I feel so terrible because while everyone else is asking the child "Ouch, are you ok?" my baby boy is laughing his head off at the poor little tike! I told my mom it's all her fault, and I will tell you why.
Let me take you back to when I was growing up in Arizona. At this time my good friend Juliana, who grew up in Brazil, was living with us and going to school in the U.S.A. for her senior year. Anyhow, I was about 16 years old, and we were sitting as a family in sacrament meeting on a beautiful fast sunday. A wonderful little women probably in her late 50's or early 60's stands up to make her way to to the stand as she's walking up she catches the heel of her shoe on the carpet and trips, almost falling flat on her face! You can hear the majority of the congregation gasping and people near her asking "are you ok?" BUT if you were to look at my mother and Juliana they were laughing hysterically! I was mortified and just sank down on the pew, luckily they were not very loud so I don't think many people noticed. In my mother's defense though, she did explain that in Brazil they don't take stuff like that as seriously as us Americans do. They just make light of it and try to find the humor in it. Kind of like a "laughing with you not at you" type of thing. Still, a little mean isn't it? I made Kyle fall down for Chase and I video taped his reaction so you can get an idea of how funny he thinks it is when someone falls! Sorry the video isn't the best quality, I couldn't get blogger to upload it.

The second thing I've noticed is unique about our little Chase is this...


whenever he's in his car seat he puts his feet up like this very casually and just relaxes them up there. I don't even think anything of it anymore but apparently it's not the norm, because we always get people stopping and saying "wow, that's different!" or "mommy, look what that baby's doing!" This is one of the many reasons why we call him "Monkey" sometimes he loves his feet!

Playing on his new toy, he really did enjoy it a lot more than the picture shows!

Bath time, still a favorite!

Such a little water baby! He's happiest when he's surrounded by his favorite element!

When I think of summer I think...watermelon!

Well summer's almost here and I am so excited! Yes, I'm excited because of the sunny warm weather, (or smoldering hot in these parts) and vacations and getaways, spending lots of time with family, and watermelon season! Maybe some of you can relate, but I have 3 fruits that top my list for favorites and I wait all year round for each of them to be in season. Watermelon is my number one then nectarines, and oranges third! I adore watermelon and I could probably eat an entire one on my own in one or two days (I'm sure Nicole's probably gagging just reading this).
Anyhow, I let Chase try his first little taste of watermelon and I think he enjoyed it. They're not quite in season yet, but it was still really sweet and yummy! Here are some pictures and a video of Chase having at it!

Like father like son

There's really not too much for me to post about right now, not too much going on. Which I suppose can be good or bad. Good in the fact that at least nothing bad has happened lately and things are running rather smoothly. Bad in that we're a little boring right now. Here are our most recent family findings:

1. Chase turned 9 months old on the 8th of May. He's in the 98th percentile for height and 50th for weight. We've done sign language with him since he was about 3 months and he can now officially sign "milk". Hopefully he'll be a signing pro in a few months time.
Almost every time Kyle and I take him somewhere someone says "Wow, he really looks just like his daddy doesn't he?" My response, "hmm, you think so?" I went through 9 months of servitude! Where are my genes in all of this?! I've posted some pictures of the little guy so you can be the judge.

2. We are looking for a house to rent or buy. Our lease will be up in August and we are so tired of living in noisy apartments. (As I'm typing this our upstairs neighbor boy is skateboarding...ON THE BALCONY!) I'm sure I'll hear Chase jabbering from his crib in a minute. There's no way he'll be able to sleep through this! We're hoping to find something in our ward because we absolutely LOVE the ward we're in. So we've recruited a real estate agent to assist us in our search. We'll see how it goes.

3. Chase is now talking in his crib which means I better be quick before he realizes his crib isn't very much fun. I got a job! I started about a month ago and it's been going really well. I'm a gymnastics instructor. It's a lot of fun for me but also a little draining to take care of a 9 month old baby all day then do gymnastics for 4-5 hours in the evening. I can't complain though, it has been a great blessing and I don't think I could've found a much more accomodating schedule for being a stay at home mom.

I think that's about it for now, as I said before, rather uneventful. We're just enjoying our little man more and more every day and loving how strong his personality is becoming. I love each age more and more as he grows older and I can't believe he'll already be a year old in August! He's such sweet baby and we just love him to pieces!

Chase and Nemo snuggling before his nap.

Chase and his daddy being goofy! What do yo think? Any resemblance?

Trying to pull off the shirt I just put on him. Defiant little one! THAT he gets from Kyle.

Kyle has also been known a time or two to make this exact face! Actually I don't really know why he hangs his tongue out all the time, but I think it's cute (as of right now). Ask me if I still think so when he's a toddler and I might not think it's as endearing.

Tagged!

This one's all about me! Random facts that I'm sure no one cares to know. I really don't think that I'm a very interesting person, and now this is going sabotage what little mystery I have left! For Katy, I will go through with it and do as I am asked. Just a little back ground for the picture that represents this post. It is of me (obviously) I had just found out I was pregnant with Chase. I had just got off work from Bio Medics and went straight to Wal Mart to get a pregnancy test and lo and behold...positive! So in this picture I was asking Kyle if I had the pregnancy glow, and he took a picture! So anyhow here goes the seven random factoids about moi:

1. I love the smell of hospitals. I know that's really weird but it's because I really like the clean smell they have. Like someone rubbed the whole place down with rubbing alcohol. (I like the smell of rubbing alcohol too).

2. I always have to have hand sanitizer on me. One time I forgot some and I had to stop at Target to get the closest stuff to Pure Works I could find. Whoever invented Pure Works is a genius! I know Katy would agree with me.

3. When I eat Skittles I seperate them into their own colors/flavors and then I proceed to eat them starting with the biggest pile and ending with the smallest. I never mix them and eat them together. I have no explanation for why I do this, I just always have. I don't have anything against mixing them and then eating them, I just won't do it.

4. I have super senses. Kyle calls them "spidey senses". I am extremely sensitive to smells and I can usually smell things before anyone else can. I have 20/13 vision, basically meaning I can see something at 20 feet distance as if I were only 13 feet away from it. That definitely comes in handy when Kyle's driving us somewhere and he's not wearing his contacts. I know, scary!

5. Since grade school I have been interested in penmanship and not just my own but everyone elses. I like good, neat handwriting! This little fact about me got really bad when I was a QA. It drove me nuts when the guys I'd work would write illegibly. My own handwriting changes from time to time because I get sick of how I write certain letters.

6. I've always wanted light colored eyes. Every single one of my siblings has light eyes and I got brown. My grandma used to call my sisters "bright eyes" and she would say my eyes were brown becuase I ate too many chocolate chips as a baby!

7. I absolutely love breakfast! Favorite meal of the day. When I was younger, my mom would come to tuck me into bed at night and I would ask her what we were having for breakfast the next day (not even joking). Still to this day when I go to bed I think about what my choices of cold cereal are for breakfast the next day.

...and that's that! Now it's your turn. If you read it you're it! I want to know what some of your random little facts are too!

Drop down and give me one!

We run a tough house at the White house! We don't give any handouts just because you're 9 months old. Sometimes when Chase gets a little out of line I tell him to "drop and give me one!" Being the obedient child that he is, he drops and gives me a good strong push up! Ok, not really everyone knows I'm a softy when it comes to this little guy! Recently he's started doing push ups. He used to only do them a couple times a day now he does them everytime he's on his belly, all the time. He's so close to becoming more mobile that it hurts me, because I know he wants to explore so very badly!

Here he is doing a push up. Look at that form! I think he looks like a little male gymnast in this picture with his fitted onesie and comfy gymnastics pants. I like to start them early!

...and another one. Keep up the good form Chase!

He's gotta relax sometime!

These are the vintage baby blocks I made for Chase. I'm very much NOT a crafty person but I so wish I were. I've always wanted to be one of those moms who makes baby quilts for each of her babies before they're born and then she beautifully scrapbooks all of their wonderful memories. On birthdays and special occasions she concocts magnificent cakes and dinners and makes them the most adorable stampin' up cards you've ever seen with embellishments and layering and cute designs! Oh that would be the dream...but indeed I fall short in having the money to afford the supplies and the know how and creativity to put it all together. I saw a Martha Stewart show where she had Ashley Steele (a very crafty lady) on. She showed how to make these adorable vintage blocks for your children. I thought they were so darling and I set out to make them right away. It took me 3 days to finally finish them and voila! This is the finished product! Chase really loves them. I think it's because they look decorative and like something I normally wouldn't let him play with, but little does he know I made them for him!