Chase's first Halloween wasn't a very big one, due to the fact that he was barely a month old, colicky as all get out, and I was still a blubbering postpartum mess. His second Halloween was marginally better, because we spent the day at the Phillies World Series victory parade, but he didn't get the whole "dress up in costumes and collect candy from strangers" part.
Which is why this year was especially fun. This year, Chase was all about Halloween. He was all about his costume. And he was all about the idea of a bag full of candy to call his own.
We practiced at home several times, reminding him repeatedly to wish people a "Happy Halloween," because I just feel like "Trick-or-Treat" by itself sounds greedy, and telling him all about the other people who would be outside, also dressed in costumes. He was excited, and ready to roll.
We started out our 2009 Trick-or-Treating Adventure in Bunny and Zay's neighborhood, where Chase got to see Mrs. Spiker (he calls her "Spocker," with no "Mrs." in front of it, which, I have to admit, always makes me laugh). We also got to visit the Newmans, including Ryan, Meredith and Bennett, who came out to Bucks County from Center City to do a little trick-or-treating of their own. After the Newmans', we traveled over to the Giallella's, then headed back home for pizza with the Chewnings.
As soon as their pizza was gone, Sam and Chase were ready to take the neighborhood by storm, although Chase was considerably concerned about the fact that it was dark outside. The Dads got them ready and off they went. It was a pretty nasty night, raining off and on and windy, but our little troopers lasted far longer out there than Laura and I anticipated. They were back about 45 minutes later, tired and happy to show off their loot. Halloween 2009 was officially a success!
Friday, November 6, 2009
Halloween 2009, Part III
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1:30 PM
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Labels: 2 Years Old, Baby Blogosphere, Holidays, Picture Show
Monday, November 2, 2009
Halloween 2009, Part II
Chase got to don his costume once more the very next day, because we got to celebrate Halloween all over again on Thursday at Creative Parenting. This time, all the kids were dressed up, and we were even lucky enough to have Daddy come with us to class! After arts and crafts time, Chase and his classmates all lined up outside with bells and marched around for a special Halloween parade.
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Christina
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4:39 PM
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Labels: Baby Blogosphere, Holidays, Picture Show
Halloween 2009, Part I
This past Wednesday in music class we celebrated Halloween. It was Chase's first time putting on his pirate costume, and I was amazed by how little he minded wearing it. In fact, he couldn't wait to get to class to show everyone what a handsome little swashbuckler he was. Not all of the kids dressed up, but a lot of them did, and it was cute to see them all together in their costumes.
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Labels: Baby Blogosphere, Holidays, Kids MusicRound, Picture Show
Two Thumbs Up
Last week, Zayde and I took Chase to his very first movie in a theatre. Zay suggested Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, which I was really excited to see because I love the book. However, I wasn't sure Chase would be able to handle it. Even though he has watched Shrek about a thousand times at home, he's never actually sat still for any of it, so I didn't have a lot of confidence in his ability to make it through 80 straight minutes in a multiplex.
But the little guy proved me wrong. We bought our tickets, purchased a giant bucket of popcorn, made our way to our seats, and Chase settled in for the entire movie. He vacillated between sitting in his own seat and snuggling in my lap several times, but he rarely took his eyes off the screen. He was just enthralled with the whole experience, and for the several days that followed, he was sure to tell everyone we saw about how he saw a movie called "Speddy a Meebaws" with Mommy and Zay, and that he ate "lotsa lotsa popcorn!"
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4:16 PM
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Labels: 2 Years Old, Firsts, Zayde Time
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
25 Months
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Christina
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8:42 AM
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Labels: Dear Chase
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Chase and Sammie
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Christina
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8:52 AM
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Labels: 2 Years Old, Baby Blogosphere, Life with Baby
Monday, October 12, 2009
Hail to the Lion
Since before Chase was born, Andrew has been jonesing to take him to his first Penn State football game. He couldn't wait to get him up to Happy Valley and show him all his old haunts, take him on a tour of Beaver Stadium, and teach him how to properly tailgate and cheer on the Nittany Lions. I, on the other hand, was not as eager. It's not that I don't love Penn State -- I do, believe me -- but while my own memories of Penn State football games were certainly fun, they also notably involved a lot of drunken students throwing 32 oz. fountain sodas every time the Lions scored, of vomit and urine and crowd surfing and getting shoved around in every direction. Not the kind of place a neurotic young mother wants to take her precious newborn son.
So we waited, a long 2 years, until this past weekend, when we packed up our car and drove up to State College for a fun weekend of Penn State football. We rented a townhouse with the Shipes, and tried to relive as much of our college days as possible with two rambunctious toddlers (note: this nostalgia tour basically involved ordering takeout from our favorite places, since a bar tour was kind of out of the question). We had a great time, starting with DP Dough on Friday night, tailgating Saturday morning before the game, watching the Lions demolish Eastern Illinois, and then enjoying a few Sins at the Adam's Apple while Chase and Brady graciously napped in their strollers. All in all, it was a fantastic weekend, a wonderful first for Chase, and I can't wait to do it again soon. We are....!
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Christina
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8:51 AM
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Labels: Baby Blogosphere, Life with Baby, Nittany Baby, Picture Show, Travel
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Construction Zone
This morning kicked off what I anticipated as a 3-day vacation from our kitchen. We are in the process of having new floors installed, after our refrigerator leaked and damaged the Pergo that the previous owners had put down when they remodeled the kitchen a few years ago (side note: anyone who tells you Pergo can withstand water damage has a problem with telling the truth; this was a relatively small leak that managed to warp the edges of the laminate all the way from one end of the kitchen to the other). This normally wouldn't be such an undertaking except that when the kitchen was redone back in 2005, they ran the floors all the way under the cabinets. This is apparently a no-no, so to replace the warped, mildewed and water-damaged floors, all of our cabinets had to be ripped out and lifted. Thus, the "3-day vacation" from our kitchen.
I imagined this 3-day vacation as a series of dinners out, and a respite from things like cooking, doing dishes, scrubbing pots and pans, unloading the dishwasher, wiping off counters and sweeping up floors. I was foolishly looking forward to it.
Flash forward to this morning when I realized that not having a kitchen is actually really inconvenient, not to mention noisy.
Ripping up floors is loud, as it turns out, which isn't conducive to nap time. And having plastic sheets hang in all the doorways to keep the dust contained, as well as no longer having access to luxuries like a sink or a garbage disposal or a dishwasher isn't a lot of fun. Throw in a wild toddler with no access to his playroom (all those cabinets, pots, pans, dishes and appliances had to go somewhere) and your 3-day vacation has turned into a big pain in the ass.
Here's our progress after day one:
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Christina
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3:28 PM
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Labels: Home Sweet Home, Life with Baby, Picture Show
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Le Petit Artiste
As I mentioned in Chase's 24 Month post, he's really taken to the easel and paint set that my parents got him for his birthday. Every morning since Sunday he's gotten up and asked to paint, and he's remarkably neat when doing so (relatively speaking, I mean, we are still talking about a two-year-old here). Here are a few pictures of the artist at work in his studio:
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Christina
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3:40 PM
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Labels: 2 Years Old, Arts n' Crafts, Life with Baby, Picture Show
Dizzy
Chase has recently discovered that running in circles and spinning makes him dizzy to the point of falling down, which he finds hilarious. Truth be told, Andrew and I find it kind of entertaining, too.
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9:23 AM
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Labels: 2 Years Old, Movies, Video

