Sonogram Today

I was so nervous as I haven't really felt movement yet.  I always feel movement on the later side but this seemed really late.  All looked great - what a relief!  AND IT IS A BOY!!!

Cute

Chase is so excited about Christmas, as is Callie but I expected that.  Callie had wanted to decorate for a few weeks.  We got some stuff out two weekends before Thanksgiving, put the little tree up the weekend before Thanksgiving but waited until the Wed before thanksgiving to put the big tree up and finish decorating.  They have loved it all.
Chase calls everything hoho.  He has always called Santa that.  Sometimes now he says hoho santa clause.  He says hoho tree, hoho hat, hoho rain deer, hoho lights.  Too funny.
Last night Shannon was deer hunting so I let the kids eat while we watched Rudolf on TV.  Callie said to me does Santa really have reindeer and rudolf? I said I think so, as far as I know.  She said I think they just made him up when they made this show.  She was wanting no comment from me, just a statement.  It was the first time we have had any doubt of anything like that. 
On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving we took the kids to Chuck E Cheese - had been a long time and was a great night to go.  We got done at 7:30 so went into the mall for awhile before heading home.  Santa was already there.  They were so excited but once closer, Chase got shy and then Callie got shy so we talked from a couple feet away, no pic.  We walked out and there was a sign advertising pics with Santa.  Chase pointed out hoho.  I said yes that is what we wanted you to do - that little girl is sitting with Santa and you would be here and Callie here and we would get a pic.  He said I want to do that.  So we walked back thru - glad it wasn't busy and he sat right beside him with Callie on his lap and we took like 5 pics to pick from.  They were happy as could be - I have no idea what happened!

Unrelated to Christmas but Chase likes me to lay down with him at night and sometimes he likes to snuggle and get a close to me as he can.  One night he scolded me - don't put your hair in my nose!

Hanging Out

Matching snow man PJs.

Shannon has been playing boomboom with the a lot!

When we built the bar this is what I envisioned but we have rarely used it so when they did the other day I had to get a pic, even though it is out of focus.

Tubes

I made an ENT check up appointment for Chase (had to wait over a month to get in) because while he hadn't had many infections, I wanted to make sure his hearing was OK.  He couldn't seem to hear when in the back seat, even though Callie could.  When we were laying down at night or up in the morning before everyone else and I would talk quiet he would say "Talk louder Mom."  Seemed strange to me for a kid his age.  The ENT said both ears were full of fluid and did a hearing test that should have shown a bell curve line but instead was a flat light.  Said he was hearing like he had his fingers blocking his ears.  They could put tubes in the next week.
So yesterday was the day.  He couldn't have anything to eat or drink after midnight.  Chase likes milk in the night sometimes when he wakes up and of course that night he woke up.  I told him we were out of milk and would get some first thing in the morning.  He wasn't happy but finally accepted it and went to sleep.  The next morning I was in the shower and Shannon had already left.  Chase came charging into the bathroom "we no out of milk mom!" Bless his heart he had woken up, remembered, and checked.  I told him we were going to the doctor to look at his ears and we had to wait until afterwards to have milk.  He charged off to get milk.  Knowing he couldn't get to the cups and the milk jug was too full for him to drink out of (yes he has been caught doing this) I finished showing before going to check on him in the kitchen.  What did I find?  Faithful big sister getting him a cup with the milk jug out ready to pour.  I explained he couldn't have it and he was so upset.  Callie again to the rescue entertained him till it was time to go.  She has been so much help with him lately from the initial ETN appointment to getting fingernails clippered she has explained and entertained and helped so much.  It melted my heart to see her getting him milk cause he so desperately wanted it.
On the way to their he said after I done at the doctor I get a lot of french fries - you want to please that kid get him french fries.  So to sonic afterwards we went.
He did great with getting the tubes in and didn't seem to have a clue anything happened.  He went to the nurse fine and wasn't too upset when he woke up.  Just ask me where I had been.  I stayed home with him until lunch and then Grandpa John watched him in the afternoon while I went into work.

Potty Trained!

Who else looks this cute doing their business!

I think we are officially potty trained!  We had played with it over the summer and he would go but then 5 min later he would go again.  He just didn't have the control.  So we gave it up and have messed with it some this fall but not a lot.  I did notice though that he would not go poop unless he had a diaper on.  So, sometime around the beginning of Nov I decided we didn't have much on one weekend and he was getting too close to 3 and he obviously knew what he was doing.  When we got home on that Friday night I took his diaper off.  He did great going peepee on the potty that evening.  The next morning I took his diaper off when we got up.  It wasn't long until he ask that I put a diaper on him.  I told him we were not going to wear a diaper, he would go in the big potty.  I knew he needed to poop.  So he went into the bathroom and wanted the ring on the big potty.  He sat right down and pooped!  He hasn't looked back.  I think we have only had one or two accidents since then.  He does pee sometimes at nap time.  Not too often but enough we usually put on pull up on him and he still wets at night.  At home he has been in underwear only when awake and at Mary's he wears a pull up but always comes home in the one he went in.

After doing so great that first weekend, I knew the transition to Mary's house was key as he would have a pull up on and not underwear like at home.  Alex at Mary's had a Thomas Book that Chase had accidentally gotten home with once and he really loved it (could NOT understand why Alex's mom took it home).  So we told him that if he went on the potty at Mary's he could have a Thomas book. I really wanted to find that book but struck out at walmart, biglots, and dollarstore - not much left in Pittsburg.  Hastings has so many and the kids books are not organized.  Just when I was about to give up I say a box of Thomas books.  It was a set of four and exactly what he LOVED.  So he got a book each night that week as each day he had no accidents.  I was so excited to find them --- and to have potty training out of the way!

School Party

With Halloween on Monday, they did their school party on the Friday before, and they do birthday parties on the Friday after their birthday so she had a separate party this year.  I had a friend's teenage daughter make her cake pop treats to take.  She was so excited and they turned out so Cute!!!