2 Milestones for Chase

Chase has his first upper tooth. He was actually fairly happy and normal this week. I was kind of surprised that it came in without much of a fuss.

The other milestone is that Chase is walking. He can go about 4-6 feet while walking and then he usually falls down. We are very excited. It is so fun to see him develop.

Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!

Ramblings about Chaser...

Chase is in an interesting stage. Most of the time he is quite pleasant and happy, but if there is something that he wants he will definitely let you know. Many time this will involve screaming, kicking, and throwing himself on the floor. This is not so pleasant.

He is talking so much. He tries to copy us all the times. He says quite a few words like: dada, mama, hot, no no, uh oh, papa (grandpa), hello, B (Bridget), tree, and many other words that we would probably only understand. I was noticing in the nursery tonight that he was by far the most talkative baby. He was the youngest baby there, but he was by far the most chatty.

He is a very social little guy. He is always trying to play with the little kids in the nursery or whenever he is around other kids. Most of the time the little kids don't even give him the time of day. It is kind of sad. I am happy that he is friendly and likes people.

He is trying to walk right now. He zooms around our furniture, but when he lets go he just wants to flop to the ground and crawl. Tonight he was standing up in the middle of the room and trying to walk. He would take 2 or 3 steps and fall down. I think he is on his way. That will be exciting to see him walk.

Hope you all are enjoying the Christmas season!

Get Smart!

We were so excited to see that they made the movie Get Smart with Steve Correll as Maxwell Smart. My brother and I used to watch the old TV show on Nick at Nite. It was one of our all-time favorites. We loved the "cone of silence." I really wish Nick at Nite would start showing these types of shows again. The shows the have on are not very good. It is kind of disappointing.

They just released all of the shows in a DVD set this year. Right now they are quite expensive, but I will be buying the whole series when the price falls a little bit. I can't wait to watch them again.

That is my little bit of nostalgia for the week ("would you believe")! :)

A Little Praise for My Little Man

I am going to brag about my little guy for a minute. He is such a joy at the moment. He is so easy right now.

He is sleeping well. He takes 2 naps a day, and he WANTS to go to bed around 7:00 PM. He rarely fights us on sleep anymore.

He is learning to play with toys and keep himself entertained. That is a blessing because I am able to get stuff done.

I drag that little boy all over creation running errands. He rarely complains and is so patient. He either sits in a cart or his stroller goes along for the ride.

He travels so well. We have taken him on long car rides and we hardly ever hear a peep from. He loves to ride in his car seat, and listen to music. It is fabulous.

He is also starting to take some steps. He is trying to go to quickly and just tumbles forward after about 2 steps. He usually laughs while he is falling. Pretty cute.

Anyway, brag over. Have a great weekend!

Touching Poem

A Different Christmas Poem

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.

Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.

My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know, Then the
sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.

My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.

A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.

"What are you doing?" I asked without fear,
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"

For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..
To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,

I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."

"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.
No one had to ask or beg or implore me,

I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at ' Pearl on a day in December,"
Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."

My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ' Nam ',
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.
I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.

Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue... an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.

I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..

Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."
"So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."

"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son."

Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.

For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."

New look for the holidays...

We changed the look of our blog to help start off this Holiday Season. Have fun decorating your homes and listening to Christmas music. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our friends and family. We hope you have a blessed day!

Love,

The Greens

Empire Mine

Upon the recommendation of our friends Sarah and Nick Moulton, we decided to head to Empire Mine last week for a little afternoon trip. It is absolutely beautiful. The grounds are kept perfectly. It is so peaceful and serene. We enjoyed every minute of our time there. If you get a chance to go up to Grass Valley, take the time to stop and visit. You won't regret it.

We took lots of pictures. Enjoy!











Chase's Favorite Attraction

His Second Favorite Attraction

Squirmy Wormy

Down in the Mine Entrance

Happy Birthday, Chase!

Yesterday was Chase's first birthday. We just spent the evening together as a family. We are going to celebrate it with family tonight and have a little party.

Chase has been such a blessing to us. He has brought laughter and joy to our home. There is never a dry moment over here. We love him so much. Abe and I were talking about him last night and we both summed up the past year with "we just love him so much" and "he is so cute." (That is our biased opinion of course) We both do know that God is the Giver of all good gifts, and that our son is no exception.

I am putting together a little photo slideshow of the past year. Here are a then and now picture. This is how far Chase has come in the last year.

Then:

Now:

This is for the moms!

This is so funny. Enjoy!

A little update...

We got back on Monday evening from our little trip. We had a good time. I will finish updating about the rest of the trip very soon. Starting on Sunday morning Chase had a fever. He ran a fever the rest of the trip. It varied from 99-103 degrees. It was still high on Tuesday, so I called the Dr. and made an appointment. We were told he had a virus.

That night he seemed to be feeling better, but I started feeling really bad. I ended up getting the stomach flu. It was a really bad night. I started to feel better by Wednesday evening. Chase seemed to be feeling pretty good. Well, early Thursday morning after drinking a bottle he threw up in our bed. He got the stomach flu as well. Yuck! He has been pretty sick. Thankfully, he only threw up twice.

I think we are almost well. It has been tough, but thankfully Abe was able to stay home for 2 days to help us get better. It is nice to feel somewhat normbal again. That is what has been going on in our lives for the past week. That is why you haven't heard from us. :)

Our Little Get-Away:Part 1

On October 7th, Abe and I will be celebrating our 2nd wedding anniversary. I decided to surprise Abe with a weekend get-away. He did not know where we were actually going until we were 33 miles from our first destination. We are currently in Fort Bragg. We will be leaving here today around 3 PM to head to Eureka. We are going to explore the Redwoods and the other beautiful attractions in the area.

When we were driving yesterday, we passed through Lucerne. We were able to see the Lucerne Christian Conference Center. Our church has had many Family Camps at this location. We decided to stop and take a look around. It truly is a very interesting place. It is quite pretty. Here are some pictures of our little detour.

Here is the ghetto water slide at Camp Lucerne. This thing has caused quite a few injuries through the years. I would have thought they would have torn this thing down. Guess not!

We thought that we would give Chase a little break from his carseat, and let him "drive" for a little bit. He has been such a trooper so far. He hardly complained at all during our 4 hour drive. We only stopped this one time in Lucerne. He travels really well. We are really happy that he is with us. What better could we spend our 2nd anniversary than with our little man.

10 Month Professional Pictures

Once a month we go to have Chase and Bridget's (she is Chase's aunt) pictures taken at JcPenney's Portrait Studio. This month the pictures turned out exceptionally well. We were very pleased.

By the way, the wagon is Bridget's. We carted that thing up to the studio. It was quite a scene. Thankfully, we go early in the morning, so there were not that many people in the mall!

I posted these pictures just for Stef Arnold! :)

10 Month Check-Up and Update

I thought I would give Chase's regular 10 month update along with an update about his Dr. appointment that we went to today.

Today Chase had his 10 month check-up. We got a great report about our little guy. He is super healthy. It has been such a blessing to have my grandma (Chase's great-grandma) come with us to see Dr. Yu. Chase is quite attached to her, and she is very comforting to him.

He is growing like a weed. He weighed in at 21 lbs. 11 oz (50th percentile). He is 30.5 inches long (90th percentile). The Dr. let us know that he was late in getting his teeth because he has been in such a huge growth spurt. He mentioned that the average baby gets their teeth around 6 months of age, and that the average child's growth slows down around that age. Apparently, Chase didn't get the memo. :) There must be some connection between growth and the teeth coming in. I always learn something new at his appointments.

We also discussed Chase's sleeping issues. He said that sleeping habits can be genetic. It appears that he takes after the Green side of the family. He can operate on very little sleep. He said that the average baby sleeps 15-18 hours a day. Not our little guy. He sleeps about 12-13 hours a day.

The worst part of our visit was the trip to the lab. The Dr. wanted to have Chase's blood drawn for some routine tests. After poking him in both arms and not having any success, they decided to prick his finger. We sat through 10 minutes of screaming (really loud, pathetic screaming) to get the little bit of blood for the tests. It was horrible. I felt so badly for him. He was thoroughly exhausted by the time we left.

As of yesterday, we started giving Chase Motrin every 6 hours for his teething discomfort. This has done wonders for his disposition. We have our happy little guy back. He has been so fussy lately. He was actually able to play and entertain himself for longer than a minute or two. He took a pretty good nap this afternoon. I am hoping that his teeth will break through, and that he will be relieved of his discomfort.

As the months go by, Chase gets more and more active. He never stops moving during the day. Some of his favorite activities include getting into cabinets, pulling books off the shelf, pulling clothes out of drawers, unfolding the laundry that mommy just folded, climbing stairs, getting into Aunt Bridgie's toys, and walking around our furniture. I am just shocked about how active he is. I think I was used to taking care of girls. They seem to be a little more sedate. It is truly a challenge to keep him safe and entertained.

We are still getting up with Chase 1-3 times per night. We pretty much always feel tired because the interrupted sleep is just not conducive to feeling rested when we wake up in the morning. We are making it though.

Chase can wave "bye bye." If you ask him to clap, he will start clapping his hands. He can also say "ahhhh." We ask him to say "ahhhh" and he can copy us. Very cute. He can say "mama" and "dada." However, it difficult to know if he actually knows that he is saying our names. He definitely knows who certain people are. If we ask where Bridget is, he will look right at her. He also can identify where we are in a room.

This has turned into a long update. I am sure I have forgotten something, but that is all I will say for now. We are grateful that he is healthy, and that his development seems to be progressing normally. That is something that I never want to take for granted. The Lord is good!

Tooth!

After much whining, moaning, and drooling, Chase finally has his first tooth. Jess and I heard a clinking noise when Chase was eating some breakfast this morning, and after removing the spoon, we could see his first tooth.

Bouncy Bounce

Here is a cute video of Chase bouncing in his exersaucer. Daddy is in the background bouncing up and down, and Chase is copying him.

Cruising!

Our little guy is cruising around the house. He can walk around the room holding onto furniture. It is really cute. We think he is getting close to walking. He is experimenting with letting go of stuff while he is standing.

Last Sunday night while we were in the church nursery, he was standing at a little table. He started to walk and push the table around the room. We will probably get him a toy to push around the house.

Everyone that observes our little guy always says that he is getting close to walking. It is exciting to seem him grow and develop!

Photo Slideshow!

My cousin (Wesley Stone) took some really cute pictures of Chase today and put them into a slideshow for us. It was really good, so I thought I would post it for others to enjoy. Thanks, Wes!

Tonight's Bath Time

Daddy gave Chase a bath tonight to give me a break. Abe yelled at me to come in and look at Chase. This is what I saw:

Friends!

It is so nice to have friends that will encourage, exhort, listen, and be supportive. I am very grateful for friends and family that are there to help us on our journey in this world.

I received a card from a dear friend that was so kind and sweet today. It made me grateful for the gift of friends that God has given us.

-J

Drive-In Movies

Last night on our way home from shopping we drove by the drive-in movie theatres. Abe has been saying for a long time that he wanted to go with Chase. He looked at me and said lets just go right now. I immediately took him up on it. We exited the freeway, and went to go look for some dinner. After picking up Jack in the Box, we were on our way to the theatres.

There were lots of people in line, but we finally made it to the counter where you pay. It turns out that it is "cash only." One of the problems with spontaneity is that you can be unprepared. Neither of us had any cash, so we had to turn around. We were so upset. As we were trying to leave, the exit lanes were full of cars coming into the drive-ins, so we were just going to sit and wait for the traffic to clear. It looked like it was a 45-60 minute wait. I told Abe to go ask one of the gals at the counter if there was another exit. She said there was only that one exit. We told her that we had no cash, and that is why we were leaving. She asked us if there was something that we wanted to see on her side of the drive-ins. We said sure, and she let us in for free. It was so kind of her.

We saw Daddy Day Camp and we started I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, but it was way too late to start another movie on a Saturday night. These were not our first choices, but beggars can't be choosers. Chase was awake for most of the first movie, but we had changed him into his pajamas which were nice and cozy. He was all ready for bed, and he eventually fell asleep in his carseat. We had a great time, and we will be going back soon with cash in hand :). It was a great experience!

Splish Splash

We got Chase a little inflatable pool to use at home on our porch. He likes the big pool, but sometimes it can get a little overwhelming. This is nice because he can splash and play with toys a lot easier. He is actually spending more time trying to climb out of the pool. That is one thing that I forgot to mention in his 9 month blog. He loves to climb on things and stand up. He climbs on everything-the bathtub, my legs, the couch, bookshelves, kitchen drawers, etc. Here on some pictures from this afternoon.

9 Months

Well, today Chase is 9 months. It also happens to be my mom's birthday as well. We had a very full day. We went to have his 9 month pictures taken at JC Penneys. My sister (Chase's 4 year old aunt) also has her picture taken at the same time. They do a really nice job. It is getting much more difficult to have Chase's picture taken because he doesn't want to sit still. 2 months ago he just laid there and could hardly sit up on his own. A lot has changed. After pictures, we went to lunch at Plutos. Yum yum! We went home had a nap, and then ran out and did a few more errands. Tonight we also had a barbecue at my parent's house to celebrate my mom's birthday. Happy Birthday, Mom!

The biggest change since last month is that he is now crawling. He started scooting about a month ago, but last Friday he just got up on his knees and started crawling. It is so cute. We had to put little Robeez (leather slipper-like shoes) on him because he was rubbing his toes raw from scooting. I felt like a horrible mother. The little shoes totally solved the problem. He is always on the move. When he is awake, he is always moving all or part of his body. Head, hands, arms, legs, tongue, etc. It is pretty hilarious when he gets all of his extremities moving at once. Abe calls him our little "spaz."

The other big change this month is his struggle with separation anxiety. He never used to care who held him. For example, I could leave him in the nursery at church with no problem. Not anymore. He screams when I leave him in the nursery or the kids' room at the gym. It is awful. We are working on that. He is ok with certain people who he is familiar with (i.e. grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, etc). However, he is beginning to reach for me even when Abe is holding him. That is not going to fly around here, so he is going to have to mature a little. It is really strange to see him change so quickly in that area.

Time is flying by so quickly. Parenting is definitely becoming more challenging as he gets older. However, it gets more rewarding as he becomes more interactive. I am trying to treasure every moment. Sometimes I am tempted to resent the tiredness and all the work that goes into raising him, but I remember that this time is very short.

Here is a picture taken just now of our little guy sleeping after a long, hard day! :) We love him lots and lots. What a blessing!

New Blog

I am currently working on setting this thing up. I hope to use this instead of the myspace blog. We will see how it goes.

-J