"What???"

Would you believe I was actually in the kitchen with Ian when this occurred?  I don’t think I had my eyes off him for more than 30 seconds.  That’ll teach me to pay attention to what I’m doing when I’m chopping vegetables.

Where do I begin?  This has been an awesome summer!  The Lingards visited in mid-August and we had so much fun with them.  They were a complete joy to have.  It was great to see Thomas, who recently returned from Africa.  Aside from the funny accent, he’s pretty much the same, only even cooler than before.  Ezra is 2.5 now and he’s a riot.  We really loved getting to know him.  It was especially fun to see Ezra and Ian together. 

The Lingards rented a beach house at Quintana Beach and we spent 5 wonderful days there lounging, sunning, swimming, and playing.  Matt brought his kayak and we all took turns paddling around.  It was so much fun.  Even Ian and Ezra got to take turns.  We also got to spend a little time around Houston with the Lingards.  It was great because Ian got to know his grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousin.  We look forward to next year’s adventure, which consoled us when it was time for them to go. 

In other news, life has been good for us.  At the beginning of September we were without a car for a week.  That was really difficult but interesting.  Matt rode the bus to work and I had to ride the bus to my doctor’s appointment.  What a day that was!  Three hours of bus riding plus three hours for my appointment.  My doctor was running REALLY late.  As soon as I arrived they suggested I come back, but after all my effort to get there I said I’d wait.  So Ian and I walked to Rice to see Daddy.  All and all I have to say he was a really good little guy considering the long day.  Also, the car thing prompted us to begin re-thinking our finances and plans.  No solid conclusions yet, but we’ll let you know.  

As of this Monday there will only be 6 weeks left in my pregnancy.  It’s really flying by and I’m so glad.  We got Ian’s room all set up with a cool car bed and the baby’s room is set up too.  I just hope that we do have a girl or I’ll be putting stuff away again.  In 3 weeks we will have our final ultrasound.  At that point I will believe whatever they say we’re having.  For now I remain a hopeful skeptic.  

In Ian news...he is doing great.  He knows a lot of body parts, several signs, and is very eager to communicate.  He is very bright and understands everything I say to him.  He’s a genius!  What can I say?  Also, he will be a dragon for Halloween.  Grandma Chase bought him a costume and Mommy is really looking forward to Halloween.  It remains my favorite holiday.  (See new photos on Flickr for a sneak preview as well as the chicken costume that didn’t win.)  

We are all looking forward to Christmas as we will be spending it in Utah this year.  We will bless our baby there and anticipate seeing a lot of the Chase’s there as well as Lingard/Neville’s.  The blessing will likely be Sunday Dec. 30th in Kayesville and my sisters will be hosting a baby shower the day before in Sandy.  

That’s all for now.  Love you all...E   

P.S. My birthday is October 11th.  Just thought I’d remind everyone. 

Havin' It Large!

The last month has been extremely busy for us.  First Grandpa Chase visited with us for a few days in the middle of June.  While he was here we went to Sonic every day and got $0.99 root beer floats.  Believe me, they taste way better than the more expensive root beer floats Sonic wasn’t selling.

About a week after we had Grandpa, Earl and Sarah, their three boys, my sister, Cathy, and her grandson, Cameron came to visit.  The three older boys were here to enjoy NASA Space Camp.  They had a blast!!  (No pun intended.)  While they were gone during the day we had our fair share of fun with Ian and Aaron.  We went to the Natural Science Museum, a kids play area at a mall, Battleship Texas, the beach, and I can’t even remember where else.  We really had a great time and enjoyed all the visitors we had.  

The best thing about having our family was that Ian had four cool older boys (4-10 years old) to play with.  It was great!!  In fact, I believe Ian was so inspired that he finally started walking two days after they left our house.  Of course, he started off with a Frankenstein walk.  But now he’s really getting around great.  He seems to really be enjoying his new form of mobility.  

The day after the Fourth of July, Ian and I flew to California to visit the Chase’s.  We stayed at Grandma and Grandpa’s house and had a great time.  Ian really loved having a giant new house to explore.  But his favorite thing of all was when Grandpa would take him to see the horses in the back yard.  

While we were there we got to spend time with Uncle Eric, Uncle Craigie, and Aunt Cathy and their families.  We even got to spend a couple days with Patience and her kids.  Ian loved seeing Cameron again.  He also had a great time playing with Peyton, Ella, and Madison.  

We went swimming, to the mall, to a water fountain, and for a couple carousel rides.  Ian went on his first ever carousel ride, which he loved.  Patience bought him his first ever candy.  It was a giant, red, ring pop and he absolutely loved it.  He pretty much devoured it in no time, while still managing to get it all over his face and clothes.  And Ian got to play in a splash fountain with his cousins and Mommy’s best friend’s kids for the first time ever.  He was a little unsure at first.  But once he got the idea, Ian ran around charging into the bursts of water while laughing gleefully.  

All in all it was a great trip!!  Ian also loved spending time with his cousins Katelyn, Shelby, Davis, Ryan, Jennifer, and Laura.  Although these kids are older, they were really good with Ian and played with him and had a lot of fun too.  It was so fun to see everybody.  We wish we could see them more often.  

Happily the fun doesn’t stop there for us because we are now looking forward to our visit with the Lingards in August.  We are so excited to get to see Thomas again (after more than 2 years), and of course everybody else too.  We think Ian and Ezra will have a lot more fun together this year since they are both well beyond the Object Permanence stage.  Anyway, that’s all for now.  We’ll give an update after our next batch of visitors.  We are so excited!!  

Oh yeah, we were told we are having a girl a few weeks ago.  But I’m not convinced.  We’ll be having another ultrasound on Monday so I’ll let you know.  Bye. 

All Kinds of Mobility!

Lots has been going on around here.  We visited the doctor in March and found out we’re having another baby.  I am due November 12th and we are so excited.  Since 5 weeks into the pregnancy until the present I have had horrible morning sickness.  It’s been worse than I remember with Ian.  Matt has been so wonderful cooking and helping out around the house and with Ian.  Fortunately though, I am finally starting to feel better.  At least there are days when I feel good as opposed to feeling sick everyday. 

We celebrated Ian’s 1st birthday on April 23rd.  We just had cupcakes and presents.  Ian mashed his cupcake all over his hands and tray and then didn’t seem to like the mess.  He was more interested in destroying it than eating it.  Also, he liked opening presents.  He just didn’t like us taking his new toy away so he could open the next one.  

The Saturday before Ian’s birthday we went to the Colorado River and went canoeing.  We have been searching for out-door activities we can do with small children.  We bought a baby PFD, borrowed a canoe, and set out paddling.  It was actually a lot of fun and worked out really well.  Ian didn’t like the bulkiness of his PFD though.  Also, we learned that we have to tether anything we give Ian to the inside of the boat.  He likes to throw things overboard.  We had a fun time retrieving his bottle,  which happened to be the only one we had brought with us.

A couple weeks later we received a child’s bike seat from John and Jeanne.  We spent a whole Saturday building our bikes (they were disassembled from the move) and then figuring out how to attach the seat to one of our bikes.  As Matt says, “It always takes 10 times longer the first time you do something”.  Anyway, we took our bikes to Rice University and biked around the campus perimeter, which is gorgeous.  Matt’s tires were losing air and Ian hated his helmet, but our first bike ride went really well.  Since then we’ve gone every Saturday and we really enjoy it.  And, of course, now that we’re all set up it takes no time at all to get out the door. 

Ian hasn’t started walking yet but he gets around.  He crawls really, really fast and he sometimes is known to travel by bike, canoe, and jogger, in addition to the conventional automobile.  He’s taking even more notice of Roxy.  He likes to crawl all over her and she just tries to get away.  Also, he’s become very attached to his dog blanket.  He asks for it all the time.  And then when he gets it he clutches it, strokes his face with its’ ears, and makes these little sighing noises.  It’s very cute.  But we will be in big trouble if the dog every goes missing.

I’ve posted new photos on Flickr.  You can check them out by clicking on the photo link on the “About Us” page.  Also, look for a video of Ian’s birthday in the next couple days.  That’s all for now. 

Ian's 12-Step Program

A lot has happened since I last blogged.  Most notably, we had Jeanne (Matt’s Mom) with us for 8 days in February.  That was so much fun.  We really enjoyed having her.  While she was here we made great use of our Texas State Parks Pass and went to Varner Hogg Plantation (There was only an Ima Hogg, no Ura, Craig).  We also explored in full the USS Battleship Texas and visited the San Jacinto Battleground, site of the famous battle with Santa Ana.  In addition we went antiquing, to the MAC store, the Houston Holocaust Museum, and the Houston Zoo.  Whew, we were all over the place!  Having Jeanne here gave us a great excuse to forsake work and just get out and go.  

In Ian news...Ian has finally started signing.  Yes, after months of faithfully signing words like “milk” and “more” Ian started signing back in February.  I started making signs while speaking certain words when Ian was 4 months old.  within a couple months it was clear that Ian understood the signs, but he didn’t make the signs.  I knew he understood milk because making the sign elicited an excited response similar to Pavlov’s dogs.  

In short order he seemed to have a signing explosion once he learned to make one sign.  His first sign was “dog”.  Within a couple weeks of that he was signing “bird”, “more”, and “milk”.  He has also added “fan” and “light” to his repertoire.  Presently we are working on “drink”.  

Incidentally, his favorite sign is “more”, which seems to usually mean, “Give me some food!”  Ian wakes up from his nap and looks at me very matter-of-factly while signing “more”.  Sometimes he applies “more” to other things.  Like when Daddy tickles him or spins him around he often asks for “more”.  So “more” is sort of a catchall that refers mainly to food and sometimes to a thing or action he wants. 

To get Ian through church or car rides we usually bring little snacks for him.  We discovered these Annie’s Bunny Grahams that he loves.  In the last couple weeks, however, we’ve noticed that Ian always wants “more” of these Bunny Grahams.  In fact, he seems to prefer them to anything else we feed him.  As we started to go through a box a week we realized that he was addicted to them.  The little bunnies were even spoiling his regular meals.  So yesterday we decided NO MORE BUNNIES.  Cold turkey.  We cut him off and so far he seems to be doing really well.  Now when he asks for “more” I scoop him up, put him in his chair, and give him a meal.  He can snack on Cheerios, but that’s it! 

Bunny-Free one day and counting!  We’ll let you know how it goes. 

Movin' Right Along

With each passing day Ian grows a little more independent. He has truly discovered why it’s so cool that he can crawl. This past week he has started venturing out into other rooms of the house. He wants to explore, open cupboards, and take things out. For us this means that the game has changed, yet again. So Ian is helping us learn the new rules. Also, it seems like every few days he starts the process of cutting a new tooth. All in all Ian is an absolute delight. He laughs and smiles easily and has great balance. We think he’ll take after mom and be skateboarding by the time he’s four.

Here in Houston it is absolutely soggy! We had a brief reprieve from the rain over the weekend but then the rain returned in full force. So basically Roxy is totally shack whacky because I haven’t been able to get her out for a walk. Still we love it here and are enjoying the novelty of this experience.

Matt and I are still enjoying budgeting together. We’ve learned that we make about $500 less per month than we did as students both working. We couldn’t figure out why things seemed tighter even though we were spending far less than we used to. Bingo!! Duh! Even though we feel greatly blessed and very wealthy. We both feel like we have everything we ever wanted and we lack for nothing. We truly feel rich.

Still the realities of our income vs. expenses pose some wonderful challenges, even opportunities. How can we reduce our expenditures and save money? Well, we’ve looked at our gift budget and decided we could be more creative. So, “Family, you can look forward to some pretty nice home made creations and bargain buys!” Also, there’s thing like yogurt and croutons, which I’ve decided that I can add to our repertoire of home made goods.

I made home made yogurt from organic whole milk this past week. It rocks! It’s way better than any yogurt I’ve ever purchased. Ian loves it. I am going to buy 2% milk and start making it for the whole family. This brings the cost of our yogurt down to like .30¢ per 6 oz. as opposed to 90¢ for good organic yogurt. And then I mix in some home made jam or other fruit into the yogurt and it’s so sweet and delicious. You don’t even need an incubator to make yogurt. But lucky me, my Mom bought me one a while back. If I can just perfect the art of boiling milk then I’ll be good to go.

If I can think of any other money saving or procuring tips I’ll pass them along. Until next time...be happy and have fun!