Christmas- Take One

We have returned safely from a wonderful week in the Rigby home. There were presents, hunting (although no killing- thank goodness), shopping trips, and lots and lots of ping pong games (my father treated himself to a ping-pong table for his birthday).
Chase did really well! I think he enjoys all of the activity at my mom's, always a new face to stare at and new toys to play with. If you saw all of my mom's baby supplies you would think she had an infant herself, but it makes visiting so easy and relaxing. Before Thanksgiving dinner we had our Christmas celebration. Chase fell in love with each gift and was reluctant to move on to the next one. And of course his favorite toy was a clump of ribbon my mom had tied to one of his gifts.
The biggest hit of the trip was Ping-Pong. I have never seen grown men act so serious and competitive over ping-pong before. Ryan was eager to show off his skills and my Dad was just as excited to meet the challenge. All day and night, wherever you were in their 3,000 sq ft house you could hear- bdunk, bunk, bdunk, bunk, bunk, bunk, bdunk- Oh man! My brother and Luke are also strong competitors. Luke even developed a Ping-Pong tournament, where sadly I was eliminated by my heartless sister.

Mommy, Music, and Me

My saving grace- music class. Not that the class is so amazing, it is fun and I know Chase enjoys it, but because we have a scheduled activity every week to look forward to and because I have made some new mommy friends. During the class we dance, play with instruments (including big drums), twirl scarves and even bounce big colorful balls to the rhythm. Our teacher is very boisterous (and can even be a bit bossy- I got yelled at last week for shaking both of my egg shakers instead of just one- oops!) Chase loves looking at the other kids mostly he tries to touch their hands but I have to watch him carefully because he also has a fascination with touching eye balls. More importantly we have met lots of kids Chase's age with nice Mommies. We have been out to lunch several times, had playdates and been shopping. Our class is almost over so I have been researching some new options for the winter.
We are really looking forward to Thanksgiving next week. We will be traveling up to my parents house for the weekend. After Thanksgiving dinner we are also going to "celebrate Christmas" since we will not see them Christmas day. Ryan will probably do some hunting with Jason. And the girls will be going on our annual shopping trip :)

Fall Fun

Here we are enjoying a wonderful fall weekend! Chase is very curious about the falling leaves. Everywhere we go the leaves are blowing around. We set him on the ground to play with the leaves and he actually got a little dirt under his nails. It was really cute, although I had to scrub him carefully before the hands went into his mouth. The weather here has been great- cool but not cold. I am very nervous about what we will do when winter actually sets in :(

New Video- http://www.dropshots.com/day.php?userid=130613&cdate=20061113&ctime=100141

Grammy Love

We just finished up the most wonderful week. My mother decided to come for a visit- alone. Not that I don't love my Dad, because I do- deeply, but it is nice to have some girl time. We got to shop and visit my Aunt Christy and a museum in the city. She even made it in time to come to music class with us. Chase loves his Grammy very much. They play and laugh at each other so much that it is impossible to feed him when she is around. He will settle in to eat and then fling back to see what she is doing. He can't stand to take his eyes off of her for more than a minute for fear he will miss something exciting. The real problem is my mom can't resist him, whenever he looks her way she can't help but do something silly to make him laugh. It is pretty funny! The second picture is my mom participating in our evening mail activity, where Chase rips apart a magazine. He gets so wound up that he screams as he grabs handfuls of paper trying to shove everything into his mouth. He is quite excitable!

Show Mommy How The Piggies Eat

It all started so innocently. Ryan made it home early for dinner and we were sitting peacefully feeding the baby peas and carrots. I remembered this article I had just read that said you should let your baby experiment with their food. So I put some food on his tray. It was so cute, he was just pushing it around, making a mess. We got pictures and then I grabbed the video camera. As I flick the on button I hear a choking noise and turn to see Chase with his fingers down his throat. I pulled them out, but it was too late. He started puking, throw up was going everywhere. I started screaming for Ryan, who was in the bathroom. We finally got him out of the highchair and he just looks up at us like, "woo, what just happened" then smiles.
I have been teasing that Chase is battling bulemia.
Other than that, this week has been busy with music class, playdates, and friends from college. We have been practicing how to crawl but so far we can just get up on our hands and knees. I can't wait to see him crawl but the idea of having to chase him around all day is a bit scary.