End of Jan and Begin of Feb 2011

 My friend Kate from college and her husband and little boy (who is just a couple month younger than Chase) came down to visit on the last Saturday in January (29th).  We had a great time together and I am so glad they made the trip down.  We even played outside some as the temp got up close to 70 degrees.  I didn't break out the camera but here are two tired kiddos after their bath that night.

 

Fast forward to Monday, January 31st.  All day at work/school the talk was about a snow storm that was going to hit.  The forecast had begun a few days before calling for a possible dusting of snow and by the afternoon on Monday they were calling for 12-20 inches and by late afternoon we were in a blizzard warning.  It was nuts and I really kept thinking this won't happen.  Schools were called off for Tuesday before we let out on Monday and it hadn't done a thing yet.  How many times do we get our hopes up for  snow day and wake up to nothing.  Not this time.  They were right.  Tuesday it was like white out conditions the snow was coming so fast and blowing so much.  Here is Shannon's truck during the day. Max loves the snow but the blowing snow that day was too much even for him.

 Callie was supposed to go to a birthday party on that Monday night but she came home from school with a fever so we didn't get to go. It was a cupcake decorating party at a local bakery - bummer.  She ran a fever with really no other complaints except for an eye that kept getting yuckier.  Nothing was open on Tues, not that we could have gotten there anyway.  Wednesday Shannon, his brother, and dad worked with the little tractor and shovels almost three hours to try and get us out.  Thursday Shannon took Callie to the doctor in the truck.  Yucky throat and pink eye so eye drops and antibiotics but it was really Saturday before she was getting back to herself.  We were out of school the rest of the week.

 We broke out the finger paints on day while snowed in.  Chase wasn't sure what to think at first so I got him a paint brush.  It didn't take long then before he had his hands in it.

 Chase diapering him baby.

 Playing trains together.....

 So I had them pose.

 Callie "helping" Chase watch Elmo.

 Finally made a snowman on Sunday.

 We went back to work the next week on Monday and Tuesday with virtually no snow melted away only to get more snow Tues night into Wednesday so we were out on Wednesday and Shannon was still out Thursday.  Finally over the weekend the melting began and now this Thursday the forecast is for the temp to be back up near 70 again!

Saturday night the Clevenger family came over.  This pic is blurry but I had to share cause they were so cute eating their brownies.

Curling Iron

On a snow day Callie decided she wanted me to use the curling iron to curl her hair.  Not sure why but I jumped on the chance hoping that it would make her more likely to let me when I wanted her hair fixed for something.  You can't really see the curls in the photo too well though.
Chase on the other hand loves to use this curling iron as a weapon.  He was "shooting" it when I tried to take this picture - he is yelling "stop ma".

PTO Skate Night

The PTO has a monthly skate night.  I checked into it at the beginning of school but since Callie has never been skating and I heard it was pretty crowded we decided not to worry about skate nights.  Until last night that is - Callie came home from school intent on going.  I could never skate good and now 20 years later and more lbs heavier than we need to talk about I am sure it would not be pretty and I would have no idea how to teacher her.  So Daddy and Callie went off to the school skate.  They left a little after 6.  I knew it went until 8 but thought they would be home way before that.  I was about to call to see where they were when they got home at 8:20.  I am not sure who was more excited or had had more fun but skate night was a definite success and I am guessing will be a monthly thing now.  Several of her friends were there, including her two BFFs :-)  Shannon said she had done great learning to skate.

A side note that I wish I had stopped to take a photo of - I was doing some cleaning while home alone with Chase and he really wanted to help.  Give a 2 year old a little water in a squirt bottle with a couple paper towels and he is the happiest guy around!  So intent on cleaning.   I would suggest a place to clean and he would say OK Ma.

Fun things to Remember

Chase calls Callie:  Ca-Cal
At night when I rock him we have to go thru:  Dada nightnight, CaCal nightnight, Max nightnight, Mama nightnight, CHASE NIGHTNIGHT and lately even hotdog nightnight, Paul nightnight, Mary  nightnight and all the kids at day  care individually nightnight.
Going in to get him in his crib and he is standing there holding his puppy, blanket, cup and passy....and if he wants to rock then he says ro-rock?
Chase points to the TV when it isn't on and says Show?  Then he wants hotdog (mickey mouse)?
Chase points to the Computer and says Elmo?  Elmo off?  He really likes watching the video clips on PBS website - it entertains longer than most things and I have some great video of him dancing to one.
He has figured out that if I let him leave his jammies on when I change his diaper in the mornings then we are staying home but if I change him we are leaving so he fights and doesn't want changed.  Then if he has his hotdog or train pjs on he really doesn't want to change - one day I gave in and let him were his hotdog jammie shirt to Mary's house.  I found a cute mickey shirt for him so we have that now at least and he has two train shirts.
His FAVORITE show that he first saw over the holiday break was a mickey mouse club house episode where they road a train to pick up Santa or in Chase's terms - hotdog, ChooChoo, Hoho.
He is really starting to talk a lot more.  At his two year appointment he was still 90% percentile in length and head but average in weight.  They asked if he was putting words together and I couldn't think that he was.  Since then I have noticed and he puts a lot of words together and especially lately is really communicating better.

Winter Days

There is not much better than snow days when you can all stay home together and have an unexpected day off.  I think the kids were both still in PJs at lunch and sometimes supper.

Chase just wanted to sit in his 70s mobile - how he has missed it.  I didn't get an pics of them sledding.  The loved it.  Chase had to sit backwards so the snow didn't come up in his face and he didn't play long.  Callie on the other hand would stay out until we made her come in. 

The days together made for some good sibling play time.  They do so well together when Callie wants to play with him.  But he never doesn't want to play with her so the bickering begins when she wants to do something without him.

Callie was so excited to do the basketball little raiders cheerleading.

Chase can't quite figure out that you have to move the train to the crane.....

Legos have been a big hit at our house lately, big or little.

Callie all dressed up and performing for us.  She didn't have school on MLK day so Grandma Linda kept both kids at our house.

This past weekend we went to Mackaroos in Joplin - bounce house.  The kids had so much fun but of course I forgot my camera.  In hind sight though it may be best that I forgot it cause after playing together and having fun, Callie wanted to move on to the bigger things that Chase couldn't do without help and she just isn't big enough to be that help.  I thought I could distract him but he just wanted Callie so I paid and joined in the fun.  And it was fun - I told Shannon next time we are both paying at the beginning.  It was a workout too!  However Callie wanted to go on the biggest one so off we went.  It was not pretty, she got scared, helped me none so I would pull myself up and then pull her up each level to the top.  At one point Shannon called out time limit - not funny.  My arms were so exhausted they were shaking by the time we got down.  So I didn't need the pics that would have been taken of that.  Callie wanted no part of that again.  We had a blast though.

Chase's 2nd Birthday

We had Chase's 2nd birthday party on New Year's Day in the late afternoon/evening.  He got a recliner to go beside Callie's - hopefully to cut down on the fits over the chair!

He loved that he had a big boy cup and straw.

While we sang happy birthday to him he had this cute look on his face.  When we lit the candle he wanted to touch it and even though we tried to stop him he got it a little with his finger.  He promptly put both hands behind his back and wanted nothing to do with it.  Callie blew it out for him.

I tried very hard to make the elmo cake.  He loves Elmo.  Callie did too at this age but she called it Melmo.  It tasted great even if it didn't look quite like the pic I was going for.

After the party!

We waited and gave him his birthday presents from us on the 4th - his actual birthday.  Callie and I also made cupcakes and frosted with the leftover elmo cake frosting for him to take to daycare and us to eat that night.

Daddy is loving Chase liking the tractors/farm equipment.  I have had to cut him off from ebay purchases of orange tractors.

Christmas 2010 vs 2006

At my parents house.  What a difference 4 years makes.