Time to Chase

Considerate.  Helpful.  Attentive.  Sweet.  Energetic.  

Masculine.  Intelligent.  Observant.  Fast learner.  

Wonderful son.  Best big brother.  

My Chase.  

This is Chase's post, if you haven't figured that out.  He will be 10 in 21 days.  As the oldest child, he is the trail-blazer, the experimental child.  He and I know nothing else.  He is the one who made me Mom.  The first kick in my belly, the first doppler heartbeat, the first sonogram pic, the first, the first, the first... etc.  10 years ago, Chase had his very own geocities website, with weekly updates and pics, from pregnancy to birth to kidhood, very blog-like really, and then geocities went away and the internet got more intense and life got more intense, so anyway, after a brief hiatus, he's back! 

The beginning - 10 days late, 25 hours of labor and 3 hours of pushing.  8lbs, 12 oz.  Purple and screaming.  Him, not me.  Well, maybe both of us at some point or another.  Hair like he was a member of the Beatles.  Sideburns like it was the '70's.  Hungry.  All. The. Time.  Cried louder than the neighbor's lawnmower.  97th percentile.  Built like a Viking.  The first child, nephew, grandchild for most of his fam.  Sat at 4 months.  Crawled at 7.5.  Walked at 9 months.  On the move.  Won't sleep through the night without help.  All boy.  Ate dirt.  Rides cars, wagons, bikes, tractors. 

                                    

                                      

14 months. Threw fits.  Banged his head on the floor.  Threw more fits.  Banged his head some more while we stood and watched in amusement.  Go ahead, boy, why don't you do that on the kitchen floor instead of the carpet.  He listened.  He did it.  Head-banging went away.  Still doesn't sleep through the night.  Loves Elmo and the Doodlebops.  



2 yrs old.  Potty-training.  Hit the cheerio!  Aim for it!  Aim for it!  Great job!  Why are you hiding in the corner??  Yup.  Half of potty-training complete.  The other half won't come for a while. Playgrounds.  YMCA classes.  Long walks with Mommy.  Stroller- roller-skating with Tia and Mommy.  Sticks, guns, rocks, dirt, cars, trucks, tractors.  He knows his alphabet and numbers.  He went to see Thomas the Train and the stork struck again... Mommy's holding a baby and Chase is not happy!

                                            

                                     

                                     

3-5 yrs old.  Tolerant of baby sister but not so interested.  Power Wheels.  More tractor.  Swimming.  YMCA toddler sports classes where he can run, jump and play.  Hotwheels cars and the crane from Santa Claus.  Outside play is best.  Writing his name.  Sight words.  Worksheets.  Painting on the big easel.  It's always a road with police cars and construction vehicles.  The only paint colors he needs are yellow, brown, red and blue.  


5-8 yrs old.  School!  High marks.  Teacher says, "Excellent listener and classroom helper."  His Dad and I turn paper over and double check child's name.  Really?  Not that's he bad, he just more of an "average listener" at home.  Hot tempered.  Stomping.  Arms crossed.  Back-talk.  Learning to deal with emotions.  Gets sister in trouble and then begs for her to have a light sentence.  Earned another sister.  Big helper with the new baby.  In school, no problems.  Nearly top of the class.  Highest tier for reading, math. Stays after school to play chess. Sports.  Flag football, baseball, basketball, soccer.  Try them all to see what you like.  Baseball wins.  A new crush in every class.  Pretty girls.  Chase is shy.  Worries about new situations.  Gets over it fast.  Does well despite worrying.  Makes friends.  Does chores.  Is helpful.  

                                             

                                        

                                          


9 yrs old.  Over 4ft tall. New school year, new crush.  Helpful at home.  The stork found us AGAIN.  Claims he wished for a baby brother and it came true.  Helpful with youngest sibs, competitive with closest sis.  Still sensitive.  Feelings hurt easily.  Anger and temper improving, learning to deal, walk away, count to ten.  4th grade.  Big man on campus.  Trombone.  Baseball.  Alpha Club.  Will finish chores faster than lightning for the chance to play video games, play outside with friends, play Nerf guns with friends. Will finish chores slower than molasses if there's nothing terribly exciting waiting.  Asks," Mom, what can I do to help?"  Can pick up his Mom.  Has outgrown his growth chart on the wall.  Keeps room relatively neat with the exception of that pile of clothes that never seems to make it to the basket or drawers.  Does not see a problem wearing same clothing several days in a row. Nearing deodorant.   Hates deodorant.  Blushes when talking about his crush.  So knowledgeable about stuff.  All kinds of stuff.  Still highest tier in school.  Great grades.  Advanced scoring in state testing.  Loves SWAT, police, anything military, G.I. Joe's, LEGOs, Nerf guns.  Chocolate marshmallow ice cream.  Meatball sandwich.  All kinds of fruit.  Cabbage.  Mashed potatoes.  Sandwiches with lettuce, tomato, ham, cheese and sometimes something spicy.  Eating more and more spicy.  Tries everything.  Helps Mom cook.  Loves his family, all of them, near and far.  A joy to be around.  A treasure to those who know him.  Overall super-fantastic kid.  

       

                                               

And that's my Chase!  

So proud of him, everything he does, everything he is!  

Another Day, Another Couple of Dollars...

... for those who work hard, of course!  Today the kids learned the value of not just tossing everything in the trash.  Of sorting, pulling apart, cutting up and stripping down things with recyclable metals in or on them.  Of taking the time to identify what can be recycled.  Of learning to live with it piled up in an unsightly manner while we grow a big enough load to take to the scrapyard.  And at the end, the kids each get a little bit of money to put in their bank accounts after all their hard labor.  Not to mention, recycling is a good thing. 

Plus, the scrapyard is a cool place.  Diggers, big claws, loaders, dump trucks and more.  The kids did math as they learned about the pricing of each metal.  We made guesses and bets as to how much of each kind we had and had a nice wager of Chuck E. Cheese coins for he (or she) who guessed closest to the grand total.  These kiddos did not make out too bad for collecting almost a year's worth of scrap.  And my driveway has grown in size.  Which makes me happy.  

Farmhouse is down to the studs.  Mostly clean.  Ready for some major love.  We hope to get groovin on that as soon as our drawings are done and approved by the township.  

Too lazy for that cord and pics again... check back another time!  

Going to see Monster Trucks tonight - tons of fun!

Shards of Excitement

By definition, a "shard" is "a piece of metal, ceramic, rock or glass with sharp, jagged edges" so I guess technically, excitement can't have shards.  But in my blog it DOES.  So there.  And it sort of almost fits... see, there are SEVERAL exciting things happening around here.  But each has its own jagged edges.  Perhaps that's too deep for this conversation.  I digress.  Following is a brief list of Exciting Things: 

1) School is officially over June 14th.  Worksheets and instruments continue, however, much to my kids' dismay.  Not a lot, but enough to keep their little spongy brains active over the summer.  

2) Square Foot Gardening is moving right along.  Potatoes, onions, lots of lots of peas, cucumbers, tomatoes, sweet peppers, hot peppers, melons, carrots and one lonely pumpkin vine are growing.  Not everything is actually IN the square foot garden yet tho, due to Patti the Fatti and her 5 growing spawn, who would rather call my garden the Groundhog Buffet.  Once the fence is around said Square Foot Garden, then it can all go in there and be a garden in Square Foots. 

3) The baby is walking.  Did I write that right?  Hello, brain, please process this.  Yes, the baby is walking.  Not all the time, not everywhere, not yet.  But steps are being taken.  And it is all Aunt 'Ria's fault.  Aunt Ria lived out here until she graduated PSU last December and flew away to the Hot, Desert State of Texas for her job.  And so every now and again we Facetime her and her man, Jacob.  One day during a Facetime session between Aunt 'Ria and RJ, she told him (and I witnessed it!) - "You better be walkin', kid, when I get out there next week!"  The next weekend when Aunt 'Ria and Jacob flew out to good ole PA, RJ was NOT walking.  I admit, I was a wee bit worried.  We had a very nice dinner on May 18th at Mimi's house with a whole bunch of family and Aunt 'Ria decided to show RJ how to stand up and let go.  I'm sure she was cracking up inside, having obviously planned this, to swoop in and teach him something to make his mother go nuts.  He let go and he fell.  He let go and he fell.  And then, the little booger took 3 steps toward his Mama!  A few minutes later, he took 6 more back towards Aunt 'Ria.  So at 9 months and 10 days (to be exact), the little crapper is walking.  And each day since, he lets go and tries out a few more.  And walks chairs across my rooms.  And stands up, grabs things off tables and benches and tries to walk away with them.  And basically just stands and laughs at me.  Because he knows he is a little pooper, a mischievous elf, full of tricks and pranks to make Mommy go insane.  Because he is preparing to learn how to run away from me. While laughing.  Because, like the way he giggles when he's told "no," he's planning to walk/run/skip/jump around the house and yard like the rules don't apply to him, until my hair is gray and my nerves are shot.  He knows when he's caught, when he's doing something he shouldn't be (pulling the blinds, rocking the stools, eating crumbs/leaves/dirt off the floor, going around the gate - still not sure how THAT happened - and going up the stairs and oh so much more) and when he's busted he just flashes a dimply grin and crawls away FAST in the other direction.  So what exactly is he going to do when he can RUN?? Seriously, don't answer that!  

So do you see what I mean?  Excitement, with jagged edges?  Shards.  

In totally unrelated Farmhouse news, we are almost, near, kind of ready to start putting the thing back together.  We are finalizing the drawings to give the township for the back addition and discussing the front porch.  We still have not been able to come up with any pictures of the original porch so we will just have to wing it.  It will be grand and beautiful.  We are sure of that!   

Pics next time, someone is gnawing at my leg.  

Shameless Vacation Display of Photos

Weekend getaway at Spring Gulch Campground, Lancaster, PA with our Super-Fantastic Neighbors -

RJ hanging out at the playground.

Riley had a blast, Mom was not too thrilled with Roger wearing Riley in the wrap for a bike ride.  

Discount Mini Golf!  Woot Woot!

Indigo lines up a shot.  Boys vs. girls, losers clean up tomorrow's breakfast.

Ice cream sundaes with all the fixin's 

Choo-choo!

I see a dimple!

Many, many MANY falls off bikes.  Indy had the most falls, Chase lost the most chunkage.  He almost passed out when I took out the first aid scissors to cut off the dirty skin flaps. Cool.  

PS - We only were on the side of the road ONCE this trip... must be a new record or something!  A little water and the truck was happier.  

How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck?

A lot has been going on around here. As if you expected any other answer.  Today was a noon dismissal for big kids, which means my 2 plus the 1 I babysit plus my 2 neighbor kids are all playing in the backyard.  RJ is asleep after being robbed of his morning nap earlier and Riley is putting stickers on cards made out of construction paper.  Now, perhaps my memory is playing tricks on me, but in MY recollection of my childhood, my brother and I and whoever else we could scrounge up from our street (a long, winding unpainted road with few houses on it and even fewer kids) would head out to the backyard and eventually the woods on summer days, afternoons and weekends.

We would be out there for HOURS and had no problem whatsoever coming up with things to do.

We might have had a random toy or two, or dress-up stuff (I was ALWAYS in the Army), but mostly we had NO props, just our imaginations and our creativity to make what we needed for play out of sticks, leaves, rocks, etc.  So how is it that every 3 seconds one of these kids is at my back door, asking for this, or that, or can we do this, or how about that?

 I actually just locked the door.  Really, I did.  Our back yard is not as big as what I had growing up, and there are no woods attached, but there is a hill, a small almost-sortof-wooded section behind the shed, a concrete patio WITH basketball net, scooters, sidewalk chalk, there's the digger box and there's THE YARD.  AND EACH OTHER.  Why is it SO HARD to figure out something to do????   Honestly, unless I am totally wrong about this, and Matthew (my bro) and I were at the back door bugging Mom every 3 seconds for something and I just have no memory of it, I am a bit worried!  This is our future out there having trouble with inspiration.

So the locked door thing has worked.   After shaking my head at some confused and long faces while typing this, they are all now happily playing TOGETHER in the digger box.  Whew.

In other news, our resident groundhog, which according to google is ALSO the woodchuck (seriously? did not know that!) has brought her new spawn out into the world for the first time this week.  Patti the Fatti, who lives under the shed, has babies every year and they only hang around for a few weeks so its really neat and educational to watch them and learn about them.  This year Patti the Fatti (who used to be Peter until she procreated) has 5 little chubby rodent babies that come out and explore the yard.  They climb on bikes that are lying sideways and then fall through the spokes.  They climb into the PowerWheels cars.  They climb on the steps that lead up to the trampoline.  And meanwhile, Patti the Fatti travels off and leaves all her babes to fend for themselves.  Oy.  I guess she is not getting Mother of the Year!  So we spent several minutes the last few days precariously leaning and craning ourselves to see over each other and watch them from inside so that we don't make any sound and scare them back under the shed.

Chase's baseball team WON 7-3 on Tuesday which was awesome.  Indy learned a new song on the violin.  She is getting really good and can play without looking at what her fingers are doing.  The 4th grade band has their dress rehearsal in front of the rest of the school today and parents were invited so I went (other-kid-free of course).  They all did so well, I was very impressed and Chase even gets to announce one of the songs.  The laundry (which I hate with a passion!) was so backed up that it was traumatizing.  I have announced to everyone that from now on we are going to dress like the Amish so that we can cut down on clothing.  The school's Spring Fair is this evening, with carnival games, food and inflatables and so I said to the kids yesterday that the laundry must Absolutely Completely Totally No Exceptions be DONE before we will even THINK about playing with friends after the noon dismissal and before going to the Fair.  And they did it.  WooHoo!!

Check out our new pics and have a great weekend!

Piles of laundry everywhere. I don't really think this picture quite captures what we were dealing with...

Riley in a nutshell... passed out on top of books and more books.  

I put RJ in the saucer so I could go shovel some dirt out of Roger's truck into the garden, and 5 minutes later he was asleep. 

Chase in the 4th Grade Celebrity Shower at the Spring Fair.  It's a big deal.  For 4th Graders.  His buddy Jacob is in with him.  

Riley and cotton candy.  

Thanks for stopping by!