Category: Chase Adventures

This little person peed down the air vent AGAIN.

Sometimes, Chase is so sweet and innocent.

Other times, he is not.

We used to have trouble with Chase peeing in various places outside. Like he’d just pull his pants down in the middle of the playground and go, or he’d be playing inside and then I’d suddenly discover him outside, peeing off the front porch. Yes, disgusting, but after many time-outs, he has finally learned that he should only go in the toilet.

HOWEVER, the other day, I was overwhelmed by the stench of pee in Chase’s bedroom. Being a parent and all, the odor of any type of excrement is no stranger to me. But this was an exceptionally strong smell. I tried to figure out where it was coming from… I removed his sheets, looked in every crevice to make sure there wasn’t a used Pull-Up hiding somewhere (he still wears them at night), etc.

Finally, I opened the window to let in some fresh air, at which moment the odor was especially pungent. I looked down, and there I saw the air VENT…. I opened it up and searched around, not finding anything in there. I asked Chase if he had hidden a Pull-Up in there, but he said no. And then, after a little pause, he admitted, “I DID go pee-pee down there, though. Yesterday.” (According to Chase, “yesterday” means within the past few days). AACKk! At least he was honest, right?

I lectured him about it, aired the room out, & sprayed some air freshener. After a day of airing out, the stench seemed to be gone. Well, I think it’s gone… unless we’ve become desensitized and don’t notice the smell anymore… Someone please come over and tell me if our house stinks!

No, he isn’t peeing in the photo below. Surprisingly enough, he has never peed in the infamous, ever-present mud puddle at the park. He does like to pick up chicks there, though.

AW, just look how sweet he is with his baby sister! That’s one thing that has been SO wonderful (thus far)—he totally loves Charlotte, shares all his toys with her, and enjoys entertaining her. They have quite the tight bond already. (No, he doesn’t actually use a pacifier.)

So, do you think we should have allowed Nathan to leave our kid in the trash can on the corner of Center and University last month? I mean, Chase HAD taken off his shoes RIGHT before we had left for the carnival, & suffered the natural consequences of spending the whole evening barefoot. Although I shouldn’t label it “suffering”, because he rather enjoyed it… I don’t think he learned his lesson. OH WELL!

Yes, we still love Chase, anyway. Life would be so boring without him.

The other day, I was wondering where Chase was, because it was quiet in the house… And believe it or not, i found him in the laundry room, pulling the clean clothes out of the dryer and putting them in the laundry basket. As soon as he had heard the dryer beep, he had rushed down to get to work! I was blown away.

He dragged the basket out into the family room, and dumped it out, ready to be folded! I told him “thanks!” & “good job,” and in return he gave me his classic silent thumbs up.

Another time recently, Pace was washing the deck, and Chase decided that the bucket would make a good bathtub. This is how Pace found him. (I still wonder how Chase’s body fit comfortably in that little bucket!)

The other day I found Chase had fallen asleep at nap time with these two water guns in hand:

And today I found him asleep with these (pieces of a breast pump):

I guess he just wants to get in touch with both his masculine AND feminine sides. 🙂

I feel very grateful that my two children are alive and well. Besides a couple of very minor colds, we have been completely healthy this winter season (thus far). Also, because of his curious and exuberant personality, I am glad that Chase is alive! Really, I’m amazed that so many little ones make it to adulthood despite all the perilous things around like household appliances, cars, siblings, etc.

The other day I was trying to straighten my hair and I’d had enough of my constant companion Chase getting into all the bathroom things. So I put my wonderful ionic hairdryer on the cool setting and let him “style” his hair. I got back to doing my hair right next to him, until I heard him say, “Mom look at THIS!” WELL he found it amazing that the water in the toilet made huge waves when he put the hairdryer up close to it (like 1 inch away). AAAAGGHHHHH! Heart attack!

I immediately grabbed the hairdryer from him, slammed the toilet shut, told him why we don’t do that, and tried to push away the lingering thought about the “Warning: Risk of Death by Electric Shock” tag I had seen so many times when using the hairdryer. *shudder* So my original intention was to be a “good mom” and let him do something fun and interesting (since he definitely won’t go play on his own), but it turned out to be a scary little incident. And THAT is why I usually resort to my quick, no-maintenance, wavy ponytail! Yes hello Frumpville! haha

This is what our funny boy is all about. In that first photo he said he was in his “sleeping bag,” in the second photo he had made a “trail” out of my thank you notes, and in the third one he was getting into my cheap jewelry and calling himself “beautiful.” I’ve been jotting down some of his funny lines because there are just so many that make me laugh regularly!

A few days ago we had a particularly interesting incident. Chase said he had to go #2, so I told him to use plenty of wipes to make sure he got all clean afterwards. I had just refilled the box of Cottonelles, so I knew he wouldn’t run out or anything. A few minutes later I heard him holler from the bathroom, “Mommy the toilet won’t flush!” I ran in there to find that he had taken the *WHOLE* stack of wipes out of the box and had tried to flush them. My first emotion was anger, but then I took a deep breath and asked him why he had done that. He replied, “My parents told me to use all of those.” I then had to chuckle, because I realized that he was just following orders! I HAD told him to use “plenty” of wipes… Then I stopped chuckling when I had to reach down into uncharted, disgusting territory to dislodge and remove the pile of what had previously been perfectly good wipes!  I guess I can’t complain when he was just trying to be obedient. A little TOO obedient! 🙂

While I was looking through these photos I realized that we had a pretty busy day on Saturday! Pace and I got lots of stuff done, and Chase did, too. He got to do some finger painting:

And some baking (we made Christmas sugar cookies– Chase loved the dough):

And he got to meet Santa for the first time! We haven’t taken him before because we haven’t really cared, but this year Chase told us he wanted to give a little snowflake ornament to Santa. So we gave in. Chase was really shy when he actually met Santa, though! It was funny. He got a candy cane anyway!

He also got dog poop all over his shoes and pants at the park, but I didn’t take any photos of that… Thanks Pace for cleaning off his shoes so I didn’t hurl!

Chase and I twisted Pace’s arm a little last Saturday, so we ended up going to Cornbelly’s at Thanksgiving Point! It was pretty fun, although Pace and I commented in the middle of the David Archuleta corn maze that it felt like there had already been a big party and we had missed it… Because the Cornbelly’s event has been going on for over a month, so it was kind of "well-used" I guess you could say.

But Chase especially enjoyed the afternoon! There were all sorts of things for kids to do; he particularly enjoyed the cow train, the big slides, and the giant jumpy "pillow." Pace mentioned that he wants to put one of those in our backyard now so he can hold wrestling matches on it :).

Yesterday we were looking at countertops at the store, Chase was standing by us, and somehow the guy showing us the samples accidentally punctured Chase’s eye with the point of a ballpoint pen he had in his hand. The white of Chase’s eyeball got a tiny puncture in it; thank goodness it didn’t happen on his cornea or pupil or anything… But I still get so sad because Chase gets injured multiple times every day, sometimes much worse than others (as in this case)!

Anyway, It seems as though this is nothing that would affect his vision, but I am wondering if it could get infected somehow. Mainly I am just wondering about your opinions– should we take him in to an opthamologist to check for infection, or just let his eye heal? I ask because I’m not the type that likes to go to the doctor for just anything, especially because it’s expensive and annoying. Pace called the guy at the store who did it, asking him to pay for the doctor’s visit, but the guy was defensive and it sounds like that might not work out… Opinions about Chase’s eye situation?