shhhhh! The Trash Man is Here

Every morning people drive through our neighborhood with a little pick up truck and pick up everyone's trash.  There are several "trash guys" that go into all the buildings and pick up everyone's trash from their trash cans that are in the stairways.  Our trash guy is extremely annoying and he doesn't do his job very well.  He always goes through our trash and leaves a mess on the floor.  The system in our building is that the owner of the building pays the trash guy once a month for everyone in the building, basically $1 a person.  When we pay our rent we also pay the landlord for trash pickup, cleaning of the stairs, elevator maintenance, etc.  Well, this particular trash guy insists on ringing our doorbell almost every morning to ask for more money.  Mind you, he only does this to us, not to the other Egyptians in the building.  So we've just stopped answering the door.  Whenever he rings the doorbell I tell Chase to be quiet so that the trash guy will go away.  One day this week the trash guy rang the bell and Chase said "Shhh!  The trash guy is here, don't give him any money."  Greg and I both cracked up laughing.  

One other funny story happened at the dinner table this week.  Chase almost always has a problem finishing his dinner.  He's too interested in getting down and playing.  One night this week he really wanted to get down and play so he said "Daddy, my stomach hurts and (he faked a cough) I'm coughing." Where do they learn this stuff? 

Basketball Goal

This is Chase with his basketball goal that he got for Christmas.  Mommy and Daddy are having just as much fun as he is with it.  

Christmas Crafts

Chase has been making lots of Christmas crafts at his nursery this month. Actually, I think it's mostly the teachers making these items because it just looks too neat and clean to be made by a 3 year old :-)

Christmas

I'm sorry to say that all of our pictures from Christmas Eve and Christmas morning somehow got deleted from our camera. We have a few from Christmas day that are posted below.

Chase got a set of Playdoh from his uncle, aunt and cousins. He loves to roll it out and cut different animal shapes out of it.

Daddy and Chase are enjoying his new set of fingerpaints that his uncle, aunt and cousins sent him. I think Chase had just as much fun dipping his whole hand into the bowl of water as he did actually painting. He loves to play in water.

Grandma and Grandpa sent Chase a remote control "Thunder Tumbler." He loves it and loves crashing into anything and everything. It does all kinds of crazy spins and the wheels light up.

He also got a couple of new movies and music cd's that he's been enjoying as well. His Gran and Aunt Ada got him a basketball goal that Daddy has been enjoying just as much as Chase.

It's Clean Up Time!

Yesterday Chase and I were just hanging out together at home.  After lunch, it was time for him to clean up all of his Legos that were covering the entire living room carpet and get ready for a nap.   When I reminded him that it was time to do so, he got very upset and said that he didn't want to clean up.  So I told him he could go straight to bed without watching a few minutes of one of his many VCD/DVD's.  Normally he would go ahead and clean up his toys so he could watch a show.  This time, he chose to go straight to bed.  He struts off down the hallway and I'm walking behind him, smiling to myself.  He climbs into bed, lays down and says "Mommy, you clean up?"  I really wanted to laugh but knew that I couldn't.  I told him no, the mess will still be there for you to clean up when you wake up.  He didn't like that answer :-)

It was REALLY hard for me not to clean up that mess because it's right in the middle of the living room, but I kept my word and left it there.  After his nap he called for me so I went back to his room.  The first thing he said to me was "Mommy, you cleaned up?"  I said "No, you still have to clean up."  He got mad and rolled over so I left him there and went back to the living room, laughing the whole way.  He stayed back there another 10-15 minutes and then finally decided to come out.  It took him another 10 minutes before he figured out that mommy was not going to clean up his mess and if he wanted to play he was going to have to clean up that mess first.  So, reluctantly he cleaned up all his Legos.  Later that night when he made another mess on the floor, he was a little quicker in cleaning up :-)  

Random pictures

These are kind of random pictures.  The first one is Chase perfecting his Spiderman pose.  The second one is a picture of him building a tower out of all of his legos.  He was so proud of himself when he finished :-)  The third picture is of his new winter pajamas that he wanted me to take a picture of.  Once again, he's squinting and you can't see his eyes :-) 

New Christmas Ornaments

Every year Greg's parents send us a Christmas ornament and they send Chase one.  This year's ornament for Chase was Po and Master Shifu from the movie Kung Fu Panda. If you click on the picture you can see the ornaments a little better.  Chase was so excited when he saw them.  He wanted to hang them on the tree himself and since they are not glass I let him.  Last year's ornament was Spiderman, which he still loves.  Thanks grandma and grandpa for keeping this tradition going!  

Strange Toys

We bought a set of cars and trucks for Chase recently.  Most things here are made in China and it's not the best quality.  When we were playing with these trucks we noticed that the ambulance had the word "MEAT" written on the side.  Then we noticed that the front of the truck said "MEAT WAGON."  The police truck has "JAILBIRD" on the hood.  Somebody in China has been watching too many old American TV shows.   I'm guessing that's where they came up with these sayings.  

Camels, donkeys and sheep, O Boy!

We just got back from the Christmas play at the local church and thought we would post Chase's first picks EVER! with a camel and donkey.  This whole week we have been playing up the play preparing Chase for what he would see so he wouldn't freak out.  We got seats on the far side where all the animals made their entrance.  Each time right before the animals would come Chase would get excited, but as soon as he saw them he would jump back into my lap.  At the end of the play all the animals were standing outside for photo opps and so I coaxed him into getting on the donkey.  This went waaaay better than I thought so I thought to myself, "Let's see how far I can push my luck with his excitement"  and so I persuaded him to get on the camel with daddy.  Mind you that I specifically told the camel guide that I did not want the camel to stand up -  I knew this would freak Chase out.  Of course, as you can see in the picture - it got up.  Surprisingly, Chase did all right on the way up.  On the way down, however, he descended - rather rapidly, into a screaming rage of craziness.  Afterwards, for about 10 minutes Chase wouldn't allow me to even hold him.  We're cool now though.  In fact right before bed he wanted to ride me like a camel.

Two years ago

Two years ago we brought our little boy home from Guatemala. He has grown so much in these two years. Anyone who has been around him much knows just how active he is. But he's also a very sweet and loving little boy. He's also a little jokester. I think he's picked that up from his Daddy :-) He is truly a blessing from the Lord and we are so very thankful that he is a part of our family.

Chase around the house

This is for Kaylee and Alia

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

more videos of Chase

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Play time with Chase

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com