What A Messy Kid!

This boy sure is a pro at making a mess! Here are some of his cute messes lately:

Marker all over his mouth, arms and hands

Oatmeal pretty much everywhere. I should have just gotten him naked.

Peanut butter (he also had rubbed it all in his hair)

Baths are a common occurrence in this house! (usually more than once a day). Good thing he loves the water!

Inappropriate Things to Do When You Are a Potential Buyer Walking Through a Stranger's Home

I am posting this because I want to teach you all how to appropriately househunt. Actually I'm sure you all are polite, courteous people when walking through a home you may possibly buy and wouldn't trash or make a mess in someone's bathroom while you are househunting...especially when the owners are in the backyard! (What you are about to read are true events...no exaggeration...)

First Rule of Househunting: If you bring your small children along, please make sure they are well behaved. Do not let them touch a stranger's toys or pour water in them or pee or juice or whatever that was...(I found Chase's shopping cart moved from where I usually park it and filled with at least in inch of water or some kind of liquid...why are you touching my child's toys and pouring liquid in them and where did you even get a liquid from??)

Second Rule of Househunting: You do NOT own the house yet even if you did make an offer and you certainly do NOT own the things in it, so please respect the things in the house and do NOT touch! (I guess the people just let their young kids make themselves at home in Chase's playroom while they looked through the house, it was much messier than it previously had been and I truly do not apreciate strangers whose hands have been who knows where touching any of my stuff! Who knows what else those kids went through, they were here awhile)

Third Rule of Househunting: Again you do not OWN the house yet, so if you need to use the bathroom, it is very polite to ask the homeowner first, I would have gladly obliged. And if your daughter has a poo mess upstairs in my house and runs to the bathroom, takes off her own diaper/underwear full of poo and continues to poo in the toilet, it is always polite to flush the mess down the toilet, not leave it. In fact, you should be watching what your child is doing when you are in a stranger's house and be aware that she has run into the bathroom to make a mess of it. And when we smell poo all throughout the downstairs of our house (oh it was soo foul, worse than any of Chase's diapers) and hear water running for a full 5 minutes, please don't just rush out of the house with your daughter and say "Thank you, I'm sorry, my daughter is learning about poop." Own up to what happened and just tell us so I know what needs to be cleaned and dont forget to FLUSH THE TOILET!!!


I don't have any ill-will towards these people, I was just utterly shocked by their behavior. I thought it was rude to let their children play with all of Chase's toys and rude to not explain what kind of mess happened in our bathroom and rude not to clean it up a little and flush the toilet. And rude to let that foul smell permeate the majority of our house rather than turn on the fan! I am peeved that now I have to scrub the entire bathroom. I am peeved that Jason had to call our real estate agent to find out exactly what happened. We didn't know if she pooed on the floor in Chase's playroom, if she touched it or got poo on any of his toys. We had no idea what learning about poo meant!

I am sick of letting weird people walk through our house all the time. I curse the economy for being so bad that we have to sell our house. I want to stay, I want to stay so bad and I continue to pray for a loan modification instead. All we ever needed was a lower interest rate!! But if we have to go, I guess we are meant to go elsewhere. I just pray that next time we buy a house, we are there for a long long time and I don't have to put up with strange, inconsiderate people walking through it all the time.

Thank you for listening to my ranting and raving. I hope you can understand and I hope you never act like that or let your kids act like that when looking at homes.

Highlights of our Trip-Cedar Point

Chase and I are back home and slowly getting back into our normal life-which basically consists of errands, chores, cooking, going to the park, playgroups and playing in our backyard a ton. I have to admit, life is feeling pretty lonely right now after living in a house full of 4 young children and 7 adults. Chase had constant play companions and so did I.

The first highlight of my trip was going to Cedar Point Chase-free! I left Chase with my parents for the day and it was awesome to be free from mom-duties for a day. Cedar Point is an amusement park in Ohio about 2 hours away from my parents' house in Michigan. I went with 3 of my siblings (Chris, Ty and Brit) and my sister-in-law Kallee. Luckily Kallee was as big as a wimp as I was so I had someone to hang out with when I wanted to skip the big scary coasters. Here are some pictures of the coasters that I went on and the ones I opted to skip out of.

This is the first ride we went on called the Wicked Twister. It shoots you back and forth between these two towers that are over 200 ft high. Not my favorite ride, and it was the first one I was forced to go on after not being on a coaster in a few years! I screamed like a sissy girl the whole time.

This is an old wooden coaster called Mean Streak and one of my favorites. I actually kept my eyes open and raised my hands in the air. It's more my type of ride-you still have fun big hills to go down but they aren't quite as steep as most of the coasters at Cedar Point.

I love this one called the Magnum though it scares the heck out of me! This is about as steep and high a hill I will go down. It's a very steep 200+ ft drop.

I skipped this one! I already went on it a few years ago and was on the verge of tears the whole time going uphill. It has a VERY steep 300 ft drop. I know, I've turned into such a wuss in my older age.

This is called the Dragster. I never EVER have any interest riding this coaster whatsoever. It's 400 feet high, and shoots you straight up then straight back down. Kallee and I rode on the very tame ferris wheel while the others rode this.

It was a fun day and I did enjoy the rides I went on (except the Wicked Twister). I wish Jason were with me, I know he would have loved every single ride. I'm crossing my fingers for a trip to Disney World within the next 2 years so we can start introducing Chase to coasters. Plus, Disney World has rides that are more my style (as in, not sooooo extreme)!

Father's Day, Anniversaries, and Whatnot...

I really should be napping or cleaning (I'm thinking more along the lines of napping but I will probably clean) but I needed to post quickly to acknowledge 2 happenings this week:

1. Father's Day

2. Our 3-year anniversary

So Father's Day was yesterday. I pretty much was Jason's personal chef the whole weekend and made him anything he wanted. Saturday we had ribs, coleslaw, mashed potatoes and corn on the cob. Sunday morning I made french toast, corned beef hash (homemade) and eggs over easy. It was a stressful breakfast. Jason did not like the hash and wouldn't really eat it, all his little heart desired was the canned kind and I tried to be all fancy making it from scratch. It really wasn't that good though, the recipe called for way too much onion. Then my eggs over easy were a little disastrous as well. I was watching tutorials from chefs on how to make eggs over easy just like in restaurants. First, you have to make clarified butter by melting a stick of butter and skimming off the top foam once it's melted. Then you cook the eggs in the butter and rather than using a spatula to flip them you just give a simple flick of the wrist while holding the frying pan. I was not good at this and my egg landed on top of the gas burner, which was on. Sunday night I made manicotti, broccoli and rolls. I will post all these recipes on my cooking blog.

I am glad all that cooking is over. In between all that cooking, we went to take a walk around a local pond and feed the ducks. Once we got there, there were a million people there and Chase did not care one bit about the ducks. We stayed about 10 min then came home. Chase got his daddy cookies, ice cream sandwiches and a Wii game. I got him a pass to play golf while we are gone and scheduled a massage for him. We sure appreciate all he does for his family and adore him. He's got looks, brains, ripped arms and abs, a sense of humor, creativity, he knows how to fight and shoot guns (he was in the army, after all), can throw Chase high in the air...I mean, what else can a girl and son possibly want?

As for our anniversary, it's on a Wednesday and I leave Friday to go out of town. Jason will probably work late and I will go to bed early so I guess we will have to celebrate when I get back! After 3 years, I am still in love with my husband so that's a good sign! We rarely fight though I do have my days when I'm grumpy with him. He irritates me, I irritate him, we live together so that's bound to happen! But at the end of the day, all I want is to cuddle up to him while watching TV and kiss him goodnight when I go to bed. I am grateful our kids have such a great role model to look up to. He is extremely talented-he can paint, draw, talk in all different kinds of voices, fix almost anything, and make any shirt he wears look good. I love him and can't wait to see what the next 3 years holds for us (I'm thinking another baby, and I'm hoping for a better economy so we will be able to buy a house again in 3 years!)

3 years ago...wow I looked so much younger!

Chase with my dad...we want to wish him a Happy Father's Day! I have a lot of good memories...my dad would always put on his records and spin me and my sister around really fast, he would play kick the can and football with us, take us on bike rides. He always makes Chase laugh. I'm sure Chase is going to have a blast with him in a few days!

Chase with his daddy last Father's Day. We need to get a good picture for this Father's day still! Look how cute and little he was...I seriously tear up when I go back and look at pictures of Chase as a baby.

Jason's very first time holding his baby boy. This picture makes me a little emotional too.

Craving

I know I'm taking a blogging break, but I just had to share that I am craving another one of these...

I'm not sure why...need I be reminded of the colic, sleepless nights, constant nursing, bleeding for 4 + weeks, no time for cooking, cleaning or showering, a completely ruined, flabby body, 20 + lbs to lose...on top of taking care of a 2 year old?

But I still want one. Jason says no. Not yet. I say, they take 10 months to grow inside me. Come on guys, tell Jason it's time for another little spawn of his! And pray for a non-colic one this time.

My New Blog

I've started another blog, which is really just a record of all the recipes I really enjoy. Once I have a ton of recipes posted, I am going to make a blog book from them which will become our family cookbook. This is another project I've been meaning to work on and I'm feeling good that I at least have it started! If you are looking for an easy dinner to make or a yummy treat, feel free to check it out. 99% of the recipes are Jason-approved....and you know if Jason likes it, it must be good!

The address is realyummyfood.blogspot.com.

Done Blogging

I just wanted to announce to you all that I am taking a blogging break for a few months. I need one. I have other projects to get done that need my focus now (like Chase's baby book...should probably get that done before he's 18!) So don't expect any updates too soon, unless we have some big news, like we're moving or I'm pregnant. We hope you'll miss us!

Before I go, I will leave you with one last post and a few cute pictures to hold you over. Chase had his 18 month appt today and here are the latest stats:

Height: 32 in. (5oth %)

Weight: 24 lbs 14 oz (45th %)

Head: 48 1/2 cm (70th %)

Despite his picky eating, the Dr. said he is growing great and is right where he should be. But the poor guy has to go in for a circumcision revision next week. I'm a little sad for him. He has to get strapped to the board and cut all over again (because of scar tissue). Wish your little buddy good luck! I know he's going to scream his head off just from being strapped.

And another ironic note (I'm almost afraid to type this because I know I'll get scrutinized by some people, but what do I care. It's not my fault) but Chase needs speech therapy. It's ironic because in case you don't know, I am a speech therapist! But I am happy to get help. During my schooling and in my internships, I never learned much about working with kids younger than 3. Now if he was already talking and just needed vocab help or articulation therapy, I could totally do that. But since he's still nonverbal, I don't really know what else to do except what I am already doing which is looking at picture books and pointing out new words, describing what he's doing when he's playing, saying new words over and over (like when I give him milk I'll say milk 4 or 5 times and do the sign for it before giving it to him), and even doing sign language a little. The doctor said his daughter wasn't talking much either at Chase's age and he called Kids on the Move, got her speech therapy and by 20 months she could say a ton of words. We will give it a try.

Here's some things Chase loves to do at 18 months:

-He loves learning how to use something and then doing it on himself, such as brushing his hair and using the ear thermometer to check his temp. But this morning he found dad's q-tips and tried to clean his ears just like he sees dad do every morning. It was cute and I laughed a little but was worried about him jamming it into his ear and bursting his tympanic membrane.

-Anytime I yell "Bentley time to go potty" Chase runs straight to the door to let Bentley out. I know soon Chase will be telling Bentley to go potty.

-He loves to sit by himself looking at books. Then as soon as I come around he won't sit still, probably because he knows if I look at a book with him I'm going to make him learn!

-He still is such a cuddly boy and wants to be held lots.

-He absolutely loves running around and screaming with his pals (right now his BFFs include Cohen, Peyton, and cousins A.J. and Jordan)

-His favorite snack is dry cereal...and cookies of course!

-His favorite show is Yo Gabba Gabba. He will actually sit through a whole episode and is mesmorized the whole time. He even dances a little to the music.

-He enjoys pushing my steam mop around on the floor. Soon I can start giving this boy some chores (I hope)

-He almost has a mouthful of teeth! His incisors have come through.

-He calls Jason mom still.

-He laughs hysterically whenever Bentley chases his tail or runs wild in the house.

-When he wants a drink, he goes to his cabinet, pulls out a sippy, then goes to the fridge to try and open it. So independent!

-Hates getting his diaper changed and teeth brushed. He cries like he's being tortured during these activities.

-Loves loves loves to climb! I'm pretty sure he's climbed on everyone's kitchen table at every house we've been to for a play date.

-Loves to play with his water table. He dunks his whole head in, splashes it everywhere, and drinks the dirty hose water.

He is absolutely disgusted by this food

Seriously...homemade buttermilk pancakes with chocolate chips, strawberries and whipped cream! You seriously aren't going to eat that??

I just love and adore this sweet boy

XOXO!!!!