Yes! He is mine!

Lately I've been living with a kid that wants to wear his Beatles t-shirt - a lot. And, he gets a little irritated when the local radio stations are not playing Beatles music. With his love of Beatles music there is no doubt that he's Gary's son. I just haven't been sure he's mine.

BUT yesterday he did something that made him truly mine...he didn't want to leave our state museum. Okay, not a big deal to some, but to his mother the history/social science major - it was huge! Granted, my spiel on the Great Depression went straight over his head, but he still seemed to enjoy himself.

Growing up, my family came to the capitol city every year for the annual teacher's convention. It was where we did our back to school shopping and where we got to play in a pool for a few days. What I lived for, though, was going to the museum. It's nice to know Chase enjoys it, too.

And, it's nice to know that he's mine.

Scary movies

My mom will leave a room when a movie gets a little too suspenseful for her tastes. Chase reminded me of her this weekend while he was watching the first Harry Potter movie. He's not a huge fan of Lord Voldermort so he used our hands, arms, whatever was available to cover his eyes.

You made me love you - I didn't wanna do it...

We are now the owners of a 2000 Mercury Villager. We've been fighting the urge to buy a minivan, but the power of the 3rd row seat finally won us over. It was hard for us to trade in our 95 Ford Explorer. It was a good vehicle and it was the one that Gary and I fought over to take to work. We are both happy with our decision, although, it was a strange feeling to pull into the mall parking lot while jamming to Def Leppard's classic song Photograph in a minivan!

Other than spending Chase's college fund, we've been enjoying some nice weather - finally. Here are some other things we've been up to:

Chase has mastered the art of taking pictures with my cell phone. He took the one of Gary and me and even the one of himself "sleeping" (pretty good, huh?). Today he took a picture of me in the bathroom. I've decided not to include that photo in the blog.

He has cast some spells on me as a little Harry Potter.

He's been practicing some guitar with his dad.

AND the main reason I haven't been blogging is because of the 3 year old that has taken over my computer with his obsession with SesameStreet.com!

Todd!

Here's what happened when I sent the ultrasound photo to my brother. He sent the photos back with the following comments:

"I dunno... kind of looks like a boy to me..."

"Well, maybe you're right. It could be a girl..."


Someone has too much time on their hands at work.

Color us pink!

We had our first ultrasound today and are still in a little bit of shock...we are having a girl! I asked Chase yesterday what we were going to have and he guessed it right. He's usually right - or at least adamant that he's right!

Gary comes from a family of three brothers and there are three grandsons so we weren't expecting the XX chromosome to win! And in all honesty, we really didn't have a preference one way or the other. We are prepared mentally and financially for a boy but a little girl would be nice to balance out some of the testosterone at family gatherings!

I'll go back in next month and have another ultrasound just to confirm the gender. She wasn't too cooperative, but the technician was pretty sure it's a girl. With Chase there was no doubt that he was a boy. Since this one was a little more modest I'm guessing it is a girl!

Bowling

Here is Chase's first experience bowling. He was so excited to wear his bowling shoes that he put them on right away. They really only look cute on a three year old.

Happy Birthday, Bro!

Happy Birthday, Todd! It was great to see you this weekend. I asked Chase what his favorite thing was about the weekend and he didn't hesitate to mention seeing the sharks with you at the Underwater Adventures.

We are exhausted from our drive back so I'm going to go to bed. There were about a dozen cars in the ditch from Minneapolis to Bismarck. I'm guessing they were all Minnesota cars.

It is nice to know that you are now also 3 years older than me and not just two. Enjoy being 36!

Boom Boom Song (AKA - Solsbury Hill)

The song above is one of Chase's favorite songs. You can click on the picture above to watch a live performance by the artist Peter Gabriel. Chase loves to put it in our CD player and sing along to the lyrics. He calls it the Boom Boom song due to the refrain, "My heart going boom, boom, boom..."

It is great to know that he really likes the song because this was one of Gary and my favorite songs before Chase was born. And those that know us well, know that we put this song on a CD we created to take with us to the hospital when he was born. The CD compilation was called the "Cleatus Collection" since we called him Cleatus the Fetus. We're strange, I know.

I also think of this song when we brought Chase home for the first time. I couldn't wait to get out of the hospital and to our new life as a family. The line, "Grab your things I've come to take you home" reminds me of holding him in our kitchen and sobbing because he was finally home. Yes, I was highly hormonal at the time. I don't think I've been the same since!

Enjoy. It's a great song.

Prayers and reflections

I received an email this morning from my friend Gwen about an email (called prayers and reflections) she receives weekly at work. She said, "I usually read it and delete it, but the first quote on the list reminded me of Chase, so I had to send it to you. Maybe Chase was a disciple in a past life?"

The quote was:

Jesus promised his disciples three things-that they would be completely fearless, absurdly happy, and in constant trouble.

- G.K.Chesterton

She's got him pegged.