Happy Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day, from all of us!

Love,

Tim, Katie, & Chase

Cameras

I officially hate our camera. It was great when it was just me and Tim and we sat still and posed for every picture. Now that we have Chase, ours is driving me nuts. Once I press the button it delays about 3 seconds, or sometimes says "processing" for like 30 seconds. Inevitably, by the time the picture is taken Chase is rarely still in the picture, and if he is, he's usually looking away, lunging at the camera, or has a stoned look on his face. I have to take about 50 shots to get one good one. Anybody with kids have a great recommendation for a camera that actually TAKES the picture when you press the button?? (a lot to ask i know)

I'm thinking about buying this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Canon-PowerShot-SD1100IS-Digital-Stabilized/dp/B0012Y6958/ref=wl_it_dp?ie=UTF8&coliid=I1P6WTE9K6D7RE&colid=2252I829QWASA

or this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-Cybershot-DSCW120-Digital-Optical/dp/B0011EA9FA/ref=wl_it_dp?ie=UTF8&coliid=I6BY181CT4JI3&colid=2252I829QWASA

If you have any experience with either of them, please let me know!

Shots hurt

I felt so bad about Chase's immunizations yesterday that we stopped and got him his first ice cream cone.

Chase & his cone
Playing in itBig bite
He doesn't understand the concept yet that you have to hold it right-side-up
Mmmm!
Messy boy
A bath to clean-up (you can see 3 of his 4 bandaids. so sad!)
Daddy & baby
Daddy & baby playing in the mirror

Also, Chase had started getting his legs stuck between the bars of his crib. It really scares him, and he wakes up screaming bloody murder. It's hard to even get them out at all. We took down his bumpers at 6 months like doc said. If anyone has any advice it would be much appreciated!

Mischief

Chase has been busy recently. He can say 10 words consistently and there are a few more that he says, but we're not sure he knows what they mean (ie: "what?") He is about 6 months ahead in language development, so like Tim, may be speaking in complete sentences by 18 mos. We discovered this morning that his mysteriously missing binkys (about 20 of them) have all been thrown away. Tim found Chase throwing his binkies into his diaper pail and shutting the lid, which I guess, means "bye-bye binky. I'm done with you!" Not a bad deal for us. :) He's also done with bottles and I feel like all of the sudden I have such a big kid. Tim had some jugs of water on the floor full of water for his fishtank, and there was a tiny hole in the top of each. When he took off the lids to refill his tank he found about 20 cheerios floating on the top. Chase also threw a ball into his cereal today and I am pretty sure we have reached toddlerhood. If he had it his way, he would survive solely off bananas and mandarin oranges. He's toddling around and so far is quite graceful. I'm hoping to avoid knocked-out teeth and black-eyes as much as possible.

The end of this video is my favorite. Watch the very last clip very carefully (watch what he does with his shoulders and the sound he makes). I think it is so funny, but it is easy to miss. He's sure developing a 'tude.

(if you want to see the funny part, you can just skip to 1:25 on the video)

January 8, 2008

A year ago today, at 7:26 pm, Chase Ryan Hemingway was born. 8 lb. 7 oz., 19 inches long, he stole our hearts. It seems surreal that it has been that long, but it sure has. I couldn't hold him after he was born, but Tim stood right next to me with our brand new son in his arms; I looked into his bright blue eyes, and I fell in love. What an adventure the last year has been. I have loved every minute of it. Watching Chase grow from a tiny baby into a little toddler has been truly incredible. He has such a happy and bubbly personality. He loves people. He never cries when Tim and I leave. He has such a positive personality and always has a smile to give. He is truly a joy to have.

Happy Birthday Lil' C! We love you!!


Update:
We had decided not to do a big party since Chase and Tim both came down with a nasty bout of Rotavirus as soon as we returned from vacation. However, Chase was feeling 100% better by Thursday and we decided to invite some family over last minute. It was fun to have them join us. Chase got a 'crawl and cruise musical jungle' from mommy and daddy. It is awesome!! There are lots of fun places to put all the little balls, and to watch them go down the tracks. He wasn't a big fan of his cake. He thought the icing was nasty, and didn't like the mess of it either. With some encouragement we got him a little messy and got some good pictures. The rest of us ate mint chocolate chip ice cream cake which Chase absolutely loved. Apparently intuition told him his cake was a free one from Albertsons...

Apparently Bishop reads my blog...

Perhaps I shouldn't complain about my calling on our blog... I am no longer the nursery coordinator and Tim is no longer in the Elder's Quorum Presidency. We have been officially shunned from our ward. Kidding, but, today our stake was redivided. We have been moved to a different ward (which unfortunately meets at 1pm- we were really looking forward to 9am church!!) which meets in a different building. We are a bit sad because we have really enjoyed our ward here; although I do look forward to going to Sunday School and Relief Society. (Watch fate smack me in the face and say "Didn't want nursery? How about Gospel Doctrine teacher?"... Yikes!!!)

I just found it funny that this happened the day after my latest post... is all.

Katie



UPDATE: 1/18/09- Tim has been called as Gospel Doctrine teacher... :)

Happy New Year & a myriad of thoughts

I thought it was time for an update, but I always feel overwhelmed when I haven't blogged for weeks and never know quite where to start. We spend the holiday at my parents house in Colorado and really enjoyed it. Having Tim off work for 17 days was phenomenal :) We played a lot of wii and wii fit as well as numerous games of Killer Bunnies and Bingo, went to a bunch of new movies, and mostly relaxed. I really looked forward to Christmas Sunday especially. Unfortunately, I was somewhat disappointed. I have decided it is much harder to feel the spirit at church when you have a little one who thinks board books are cool anytime EXCEPT church time; and who just wants to crawl around on the floor. I can tell you absolutely ZIPPO of what was said at the meeting... I spent it mostly having an anxiety attack and trying desperately to keep Little One quiet. My parents live in one of those wards where every shoe scuffle is discernable. In our own ward, Chase can scream at the top of his lungs and no one even notices. (remember... we have 5 nurseries). It was highly nerve-wracking for me and I wish I had gotten a little more out of the Christmas meeting. I have been feeling lately like church isn't as... inspiring as it once was for me. Some days I wish I could go to Relief Society and Sunday School and just listen! So Bishop, if you are reading this, I would like a new calling please. (Just kidding!)

Chase and Tim both have the stomach flu right now and are feeling pretty crummy. Trying to be a good mom is hard. Trying to be a good wife is hard. But trying to be a good mom and a good wife while your kids & spouse are both sick is (i'm convinced) impossible. As I feed Chase off my own fork, and commonly share drinks with Tim, the question of if i will get sick or not, is not really a question. I just hope that I don't get sick until they are better and can fend for themselves. (Pretty sure Tim would have Beto's for dinner every night if I wasn't around). Chase's birthday is coming up this week and I'm hoping the little guy is feeling better for his big day.

Chase has taken a few steps alone but he still prefers to crawl. He loves walking behind his little push-toy lion, and he can climb a whole flight of stairs in less time than it takes you to realize he's not in your lap anymore. He's talking a lot and stills says cracker, mama, dada, and papa. He loves animals and calls the kitties: "keese" or "caw". Dogs are "daw", and bottle is "baba". He signs 'milk' and 'more' and it still blows me away. I think it is the coolest "milestone" I've seen. I don't know why the signing more than the walking or talking or rolling over, but when he did it it just hit me so hard that our little baby is turning into a big little person. He has a well-baby tomorrow so I will update this with his measurements and all that great stuff. We weighed him on our scale today and he came out a little over 20 pounds. I'm wondering if our scale is on crack, because he seems to be a good-sized kid; but should have tripled his birthweight by now (making him... 26 pounds). We will see about that.

Christmas cards were a bit of a flurry this year, so whether or not you actually got one, we love you all and are grateful for the part that you play in our lives. We hope you all had a wonderful holiday season (Tim will get mad at me for saying that, so "Merry Christmas" as well), and a Happy New Year!

UPDATE: 1/5/09- Went to the doctor today: Chase weighed 21 pounds exactly and was 29 inches long. His percentiles are getting lower and lower but since he was so late he was very high percentiles when he was born, and is probably just "slowing down" to his actual genetic potential. Good news is, our scale is not on crack (good news for me and tim that is). Had blood taken from his arm for an iron & lead test, and screamed bloody murder. Not looking forward to immunizations next week. Doc diagnosed Rotavirus, not the stomach flu and said it should hopefully be gone within the week. Hoping to give kiddo some birthday cake on Thursday!