Sledding

Chase was so happy to be back in the snow home in Vermont. He was especially happy to be reunited with Livi and Audrey.

Livi and Audrey were having a pleasant time sledding till we came out and crashed the scene.

Three kids in the sled is too many!

We had some sledding races and Audrey won.

Dave got the award for making the most sledding extreme face.

Christmas Loot

Chase was super psyched to see all the presents under the tree on Christmas morning.

But, he got kinda worn out after opening several presents. I decided to keep several wrapped up and save them till his birthday. Who cares if he has Christmas tree wrapping paper in July?

He was revitalized by playing in Grandy's trippy mirror-covered bathroom.

Gingerbread Chase

My mom got Chase a gingerbread house making kit for an activity to complete during our stay. But, the kit was hard and included making the dough, waiting, rolling out the dough, cutting out shapes, cooking them, waiting, making frosting, fitting the house together, waiting, decorating, waiting and then eating. In the end, I became very possessive and only let Chase touch some broken pieces. I did the rest!

These are the gingerbread people before Cyrus ate half of them.

I forgot to take a picture of the finished creation. This one is pretty close though.

First Skate

Mrs. Popper gave Chase an antique sled that was perfect for taking on the ice in Mountain Lakes. But, even before we got to the lake, Chase was pumped about sitting in the sled while Dave fixed the 100 year old screws.

We had a great time skating and, hopefully, Chase has some idea of what is in his future. He better pick up this sport soon because we will not always be doing all the work pushing him around.

Star

We got to Grandy's house just in time to help her decorate her tree. Chase got to put the star on top. At first, he did not quite realize that "on top" meant the tallest branch and he tried to place the star on the second tallest twig.

But, we explained it and he corrected himself pretty quickly.

Merry Christmas!

Baby and Bear

Steph makes bedtime a lot more fun for Chase than we ever do. She took these pics to prove that Chase never whines and is only happy when she puts him to bed.

In this picture, Chase is reading himself a book....

....then, he reads it to Baby...

...then, he shows it off to Bear.

Blue Bath

Steph brought over some bath tablets that turned Chase's bath water blue. He really seemed psyched to try them out.

The result was a little crazy. Whoa blue! The picture above looks like Chase is wearing a blue thong.

Holiday Concert

Chase had a holiday concert at his school last week. Dave and I both left work to watch Chase (and every other kid in the program who was under two) sing "Twinkle, twinkle". The song took about 30 seconds; my commute back and forth to Charlotte took 36 mins.

Chase sat on his teacher's lap for most of the concert just staring at us. At any point, he could have come over and sat with us. But, it was as if he thought we were an illusion. He just stared and stared.

This video is not great quality but the two things that I find funny are 1) how Chase totally sees us and is like "what the heck?" and 2) how he moves his mouth to pretend that he is singing.

Scary Santa

Chase posed with Santa again, this time to benefit the Humane Society. At first, he was scared out of his mind by Santa. But, when Dave also cuddled up, he felt better.

Body Parts

So, I teach Puberty and Sex Ed in the middle school where I teach. I recently explained to my students how important it was to use technical terms to describe genitalia. I gave them the example that even my 1-and-a-half-year-old son knows the "right" words. I guess I could show them this video as proof.

Cookies

I brought Audrey and Chase to a friend's house to make Christmas cookies. First, the kids used their booger-y hands to roll out the dough and to cut cookie shapes.

Then, they tasted the frosting before, after and during the application process.

Finally, we came home to eat the cookies and to catch each others' colds!

Choo

Here is a video from the Polar Express. Chase seemed to not be able to process why all the adults spontaneously broke into song every once in a while. To be honest, I thought it was a little weird too. My weekend thrills certainly have changed since Chase came along.

Tree Trimming

We went to help Audrey and Livi decorate their Christmas tree since we are not getting one this year. It was lots of fun, except Chase took off every ornament that someone else put on.