The Lanums Lately

this little light of mine

Dear Chase,

Today you are 15 months old! Time has gotten away from me and I figured I'd better write some of this down or I'd forget it all!

You are unlike any other kid I've met...you have just have the sweetest, most loving personality. You're a great eater, a great sleeper, have a penchant for all animals, eat and breathe all things basketball, and give amazingly sloppy kisses. You're everything I could ever ask for in a little boy!

This month you got your first haircut...I had to have Domenic cut the "mullet" off the back of your head. We left your spikes alone- it's kind of your signature 'do these days, though we've seen it laying down recently and it almost makes me sad! Your hair is soft, fine, and poker-straight! Don't worry, Mommy's hair was exactly the same when she was your age.

You are SO into basketball, and just last week started saying "backaball"!!! It is so cute, you dribble, shoot, and throw SO well! You always want Reece to bring the hoop from his room into the living room so you can play. You love watching sports on tv (all sports are backaball) and chasing high-bounce balls all over the house. We could make a million jokes about you and your "balls"....

You have said quite a few words now, including: ball, moo, quack, woof, roar, basketball, no no, mama, juice, more, num num, yum, dog, dada, and Reece! You also nod your head yes and no and like to say "mmm hummm" if we ask you a question! You are learning baby sign language at school and we're trying to enforce it at home, but I think you'd rather just try and say the word!

You and Reece were both pretty sick this month with conjunctivitis in your eyes, bronchitis, and a sinus infection. Just as you got healthy, you started cutting all kinds of teeth! You have one bottom tooth and have cut your front top two and another two on the bottom! I feel so bad that they're coming all at once, but why did you wait so long to get these guys?!

You want to do everything that your big brother does and play with everything he plays with, too. This kind of ticks Reece off a little bit, but he's working on it! You've started climbing up on couches, beds, lego bins, and laundry baskets. We have to watch you because you're quite the little dare devil! You love the slide at the park and go down by yourself. Reece usually stands at the bottom to catch you and you LOVE it! I just know you two are going to be the best of friends after you figure out how to share your toys with each other!

Chase, you are such a little love. Although it stunk that you were sick, I loved the extra one on one time I got to spend with you. We snuggled and ran errands together, read books, and ate ice cream. I think you liked the quiet time, too! I know that these days of snuggling are fleeting, and soon you'll be out playing basketball and will want nothing to do with me...and that'll crush me....but always remember that I was your first kiss, your first love, and your first best friend.

I love you!

Love,

Mommy

Lately

Lately we've...
Started school
Started Gymnastics
Gotten Chase his first haircut
Started pulling Chase off the bed because he's climbed up there
Been eating Popsicles trying to stay cool
Busy with photo shoots
Started writing our own name
Been interested in Police and Firefighters
Been peach, ketchup, and sausage fiends
Tried two new foods (and gagged on one of them)
Been loving life!

So Proud

We parused the dollar spot at Target today and found a dry-erase board for learning letters. Reece was thrilled and got to work as soon as we returned home. I realize he's THREE, but I thought maybe we'd get an early start on letters and numbers.

I should interject here that Reece has shown little to NO interest in art (he likes it, but doesn't really care what his finished product looks like). Today he busts out with "dot, dot, smiley. Arm arm leg leg"--- I quickly glanced to see what he was working on. HOLY SMOKES! A "recognizable" figure!

He's continued with these people alllll day and I just love them! We've got a lot of work to do, but there is just something so raw about these first drawings that are so special!

random musings with a 3 year old

Reece is at this awesome age where he says the funniest things, and I figured I'd better start writing some of these things down:

The other morning I was steaming the floor and putting the dishes away he said "you're cleaning because someone is coming over? Right Mommy?" Yes, Reece, because I only clean when guests come. At all other times we live in a constant state of filth. Sheesh.

Recently the father of a friend of mine passed away and Reece told me that "Jesus came and picked up Aunt Lisa's daddy". I've never really discussed death with him before, aside from "killing" an ant, so I said "yes, yes He did." Then he asked me how Jesus got here and I said he flew down from Heaven to pick him up. He said "mommy! Jesus doesn't fly! He drives a sleigh like Santa!" How do you even try to correct THAT?!

If we're driving and someone slams on their brakes in front of me, Reece will yell out "uuuuuugh! That is so annoying!" yeah, I think it's annoying that people can't drive, too!

Going grocery shopping is a hoot-- if there is something he wants (usually, the most expensive thing in the store: Naked Juice, fruit and cheese platters, organic potato chips...) he'll say "look, we can get this! It's buy one get one!" Guess I've been couponing a bit too much lately...!

I also love how he equates BIG things to being "asspensive"...BIG toy trucks are asspensive. Little Matchbox cars are not. This must mean that little diamonds are not asspensive.... I will make note of that!

Lastly, we recently went to the YMCA waterpark for the day. Our day was shortened, however, because someone decided to let one loose in the pool. "Whyyyyyyy would someone DO that? Does this even LOOK like a potty? Thats ass-gusting!"

I love this age!

milk bottle cookies

Chase's birthday theme this year was "Milk and Cookies" (I'll put up a whole birthday post later!) but as soon as I posted this picture on Facebook, I was getting messages left and right on how to make them. So, I suppose I won't hold out on my secret creations any longer :)

First of all, I wanted to carry the theme through and couldn't find any containers I liked. Mason jars were a bit too big. These containers are actually Starbucks' Frappuccino bottles, emptied out and cleaned out! There, the secret is out!

Inside I layered the following:

1/3 cup flour
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp baking powder
3 tbsp white sugar
4 tbsp quick-cook oats
3 tbsp chocolate chips
1 1/2 tbsp brown sugar packed

For the tops, I used some natural muslin and jute to hang the recipe tag. It read:

Cookies for ONE (or two!)

Combine contents plus

one egg and

one tsp vanilla.

Bake at 350 and enjoy!

The custom labels were made by Michelle at Etsy shop MTipsy and I just loved them! I printed them on clear sheets of sticker paper (Avary sticker sheets). I believe the size is 2 1/2" x 2 1/2".

I just adore how they turned out and I may recycle the idea again for Christmas!

a love letter to my little love

my dear chase,

happy birthday! today you are one year old. time sure has passed quickly, and as i reminisce, i just cannot remember what life was like before you were in it. i can attest that our house was a little bit cleaner, our produce bill was a (lot) less, diapers and wipes remained in their respective packaging, and the poor dogs could sleep a little more soundly without being poked or prodded. it has been quite a year, and it has been amazing seeing you change from a wobbly newborn into a toddling, talking, smiley one-year old!

you are nothing short of amazing. you have these electric eyes and amazing smile that light up your face...and the room that you're in. some of the time i cherish most is when i pick you up, you put your thumb in your mouth and lay your head on my shoulder. i know those days are fleeting, so i hold tight to them now and take them as i get them. i love how you stare at me when you're having your night-time bottle, and how you reach up to stroke my face. i love how you coyly look up from doing something "naughty" and flash us a (still) gummy smile. that smile is going to keep you out of a lot of trouble, and you know it!

when you were little i would carry you in the baby bjorn and would rub my cheeks on your bald head. now you have this awesome tuft of spiky hair on the top of your head that everyone wants to touch and rub! you are just SO kissable. your calm demeanor and intense stare juxtapose your wild hair quite nicely!

chase, you have completed our family. we know you were meant for us; you were meant to be our son and you were meant to be reece's little brother. we are so lucky to have a little love like you in our lives.

i love you more than all the fishes in the sea...

love, mommy

it was a dark and stormy night...

...but we managed to get some fun in outside before the storm came! (this was before he tasted the chalk).
Reece was drawing a ball for Chase!

Just dying to be like his brother on his bike!

lemonade

I have NOT been in a blogging mood for the past few weeks...okay, the past month or so...it's been so crazy around here (and work, and my little photography business, and swimming lessons, and planning my little cookie's birthday party...OH MY!) that I am finally getting a chance to catch my breath.

With that, I'm ordering myself an epiphanie camera bag.

In all seriousness, it has been one crazy adventure after another and I cannot wait for summer to get here! Mother's Day weekend was especially fun---my friend Ashley flew down from Wisconsin and offered her time and talents to help me tag-team a photo shoot to raise money for my Breast Cancer 3-Day account. She needed a "vacation" and I needed someone to kick my butt to get a fundraiser going---so YAY!

We had such a great time (I can't even begin to write about how awesome she is) and raised about $500 for the 3-Day! We took some amazing pictures of some of my favorite photographic subjects to boot! The picture above is one of my favorites I took of Reece that day. I love the colors and the dirt under the fingernails. Swoooooon.

Ash also took our family pictures, which I have BIG plans for! Hopefully I will have everything framed and printed by Chase's birthday so you all can see!

Sorry for the completely disjointed post today, it's kind of how my mind has been the last few weeks!

unfair

Trey tells me that Reece probably ignores me because I've got the camera in his face all the time.

"Not true", I tell him. Half the time I don't even want him to look at me...I want pictures of him being him.

I mean, if he were looking at me I wouldn't have gotten the most amazing shot of his lashes today. It's almost unfair that he has lashes this long, perfect and curled...

I say "all's fair in love and pictures"!

through his lens: our cruise

It's no secret now that I have very few pictures from our cruise. I let Reece have his own point and shoot camera the last couple days of the cruise and I'm glad I did! While there are thousands to choose from, these are just a few raw pictures I thought were beautiful. He has NO idea what he's doing, but I love seeing what was important to HIM, and from a child's point of view.

Cheesy self-portrait...CHECK!

The carpet in the Windjammer. I didn't notice it. Apparently HE thought it was news-worthy.

The tile around the tide pool in the waterpark.

Be careful, mama!

A new-found love for soft-serve.

Textures.

Our view.

Little brother's got new trix.

The bar where we shared a (virgin) daiquiri.

Daddy monster.

Coincidence that he got some of these shots?

Yes.

I can't help, though, but marvel in the beauty of things that I overlooked on the ship while I was trying to get MY perfect pictures. Thank goodness for little boys.

8 months

Dear Chase,

Last week you turned 8 months old! Where has time gone? I promise you just a few days ago you were nestled in my arms whizzing all over me in your 0-3 month onesies. Now I can't stretch a onesie to fit you (length-wise)!

You weigh about 20 lbs, wear 6-9 month clothes, and a size 3 diaper. You are GROWING so big and you have about 2 lbs on your brother when he was this same age!

You are just the sweetest thing. You have the best temper and rarely cry. We've seen "that" side of you, though, so you aren't fooling anyone! As long as you are eating, or drinking, or army crawling toward food you are good to go. Anything will do, peaches, nectarines, strawberries, leaves, hairballs, price tags, dog food...it all constitutes food, and in your book, food is happiness!

You want nothing to do with your toys, you'd rather fight your brother for his. Reece gets so angry with you when you snatch up his sword or his tractors or try to make your way onto my lap when we're reading a book that HE chose. Both of you get irritated with each other because you're both insanely strong-willed....however, I did catch a glimpse of you holding each other's hands in the car the other day and my heart melted. I know someday soon you'll be sneaking off together to get into something naughty and you'll be the best of friends!

You crawled tonight for the first time! You've been army crawling for a couple of weeks and have even pulled yourself up onto the train table and the couch. I think you're going to be an early walker...you want to be in everybody's business and are just so curious about everything! You can whiz all over the house in your walker and grab things off tables, chairs, and out of garbage cans. You're so quick and keep us on our toes!

You are an amazing addition to our family. You have these electric hazel eyes with amazing lashes. Your smile could melt glaciers. I have NO idea how I ever thought I'd have to "share" my love between you and your brother. Each of you have my full heart and I love you (as Reece says) "more than all the clothes in my closet...and that's a LOT!!!)

Love,

Mommy

perfect park day

We were given an overcast day today so we put on our sweatshirts and headed to the park. "The playground without sand" as Reece likes to call it! Chase loves to swing and people-watch...Reece loves to do anything where the wind is blowing through his hair. He's 100 mph all day, every day, inside, outside, up, down, and all-around. I wish I had his energy!!
As for Chase, we're awaiting crawling from him...any day now, literally. He "army crawls" all over the place, snacking on bits and pieces he finds along the way. He gets up on his hands and knees, but hasn't moved forward yet (backward, yes!) We are hoping he'll be moving in 2 weeks when we go on our cruise! Then I'm sure I'll be wishing I could take back my words :)

Last week brought new changes, as Chase moved "up" to the baby room and out of his beloved teacher, Ms. Carol's, infant room. Chase has slept SO much this week...I think he's worn out! While the move is good for him (and he got to move up with his BFF Liam!) we will still miss the kind heart of Ms. Carol immensely! I remember I was emotional when Reece's first "teacher" resigned, there is just something so special about the person who loves on your little one while you're at work!

We're enjoying our beautiful "winter" this year in shorts and in the sunshine!

arrrrrrgh

Reece is into all sorts of role-play these days...this weekend he ran the range of everything, from baby tiger to "real" pirate and everything in between. I love how his imagination works ('sept when I'm making dinner, trying to talk to Trey and all I hear from the porch...yelling...is "hey Mommy say 'come out, baby tiger...come OUT baby tiger....COME OUT baby tiger...Mommy, say COME OUT BABY TIGER!'").

Yesterday we had to run to Target for something (surprise, surprise) and we were looking for foam swords to replace our pirate sword from Disney. I couldn't find a foam sword, but I found these fantastic swords in the party favor section...of course I had to buy two because Chase just HAS to have everything his brother has (did I mention he's growing up way to fast?!). Two swords later we're heading to the fabric store...swashbuckling little old ladies, bolts of tulle, racks of satin ribbon, and "aaaaaargh matey"-ing everyone in sight. Two people stopped their cars in the parking lot, rolled down their windows, "said "arrrrrgh matey", locked eyes with me, and laughed.

....and I smiled. They're mine, and this is my life. Arrrrrrrrgh-en't I lucky?!

...right?!

The theme around our house these days is "better late than never". It's been horribly hectic and we just keep adding to our busy-ness...this week I signed Reece up for indoor soccer (squee!), scheduled 7 photo shoots for Valentine's Day, put the finishing touches on Philana's guestbook table for her wedding on Saturday, cared for a toddler with the stomach flu, took on a new project at work, and...in the midst of all of that...accidentially chopped a hunk out of my left index finger on my paper-cutter at work.

Like I have time for THAT.

Chase is 7 1/2 months now, but I just got around to making his milestone picture for 7 months.

Better late than never, right?!

i knew he could do it

His bike has been sitting in the garage since Christmas day. The directions still in the zippered pocked on his handlebars. The tires had nary a touch of dirt on them. He had been excited about it on Christmas morning, but when he tried to pedal...and went nowhere...he parked it and forgot about it.
Every now and then I'd ask him if he wanted to ride. "No, it's too hard", he'd say.

This morning, while I sipped Starbucks and my littlest nugget finished his nap in the driveway, he told me he wanted to get on his bike and go. I wasn't sure if my heart could handle the frustrated tears or the meltdowns when he pushed the pedals backwards (which are the brakes). Reluctantly, I set my tea down and hoisted him onto the seat.

And what do you know? He took off. Fast. Down the driveway, up the driveway, around my Jeep, clipping the corners of grass, across the street, down the street, into our neighbor's driveway, through a puddle of water, and back again. His jammied little tushie rode like he had done this a thousand times before.

I could grab a few photos of him as he zoomed by (yes, helmet-less, and yes, we do have one, and YES he wears it now....don't worry!) and went on his way again.

This kid reminds me SO much of myself. He's a perfectionist in every sense of the word. He's so stinkin' stubborn--when he gets something wrong, or he's frustrated by something he sets it aside and comes back to it and does it better than ever before. He says he "can't do it", lets it go, and then when no one is looking he just gets up on it and goes....

...and I love that about him.

so what happened?

It's been an interesting past couple of days around here...days we'd rather forget than remember, but I thought I'd let everyone know exactly what happened and why Chase was in the hospital Wednesday night!

I picked Chase up from school on Wednesday and he was inconsolable. Because he rarely cries, this was somewhat alarming to hear him screaming. At first we all thought "ears"--as he would cry when we put him down or picked him up. After 3 hours of screaming, Trey brought him to the ER at Sarasota Memorial to find a source of his pain.

**side note** WHY do these things always happen after office hours or on the weekends? I swear it's a conspiracy...

Anyways, Trey took Chase to the ER where he went through a series of tests (bloodwork for kidney function, ultrasounds and x-rays of both arms because that seemed to be where the pain was) everything came back within normal range. The only thing they could find was a little constipation, which Chase always has. Everyone was stumped! Because he couldn't calm down and his condition wasn't any better, they decided to admit him.

Now, I'm not sure if you've EVER had to see a baby get an IV, but I bet you could just imagine. It was HORRIBLE. After that, I hugged him and we both fell asleep in the hospital bed together. Trey had returned home with Reece so he could get some sleep too.

When he woke up Thursday morning, it seemed that a little rest did his body some good. We managed to get a couple smiles out of him and he drank a big bottle. They checked both his arms and couldn't find any breaks or dislocations, so possible muscle soreness? Who knows. It was so frustrating for him not to be able to tell us what was wrong, and even moreso to no know any answers from the pediatric doctors.

He's still a little sore under the arms, and we're still not sure what happened or where he's actually hurting, but that smile says a LOT...it is leaps and bounds better than how he was feeling the night before. He ate and slept well again last night, so i'm hoping he's on the mends...seeing your baby in pain is about the most HORRIBLE thing in the world!

my "mommy" gift

I posted the other night on facebook that I was finishing up my "mommy gift" for my boys for Christmas. I had several people ask me what they were and since I'm sort of a "visual" person, it was hard to explain!

These are just sentimental collages I made for them, they're 20"x20" and I think this is going to be my gift to them for several years...I even found 20"x20" frames at IKEA so I can switch the pictures out every year!

There is no rhyme or reason to any of the pictures, they're just pictures I LOVE of my boys ;) So, there ya go, and now you know! I'm sure they won't care...ha!

it's elf on the shelf time!

Oodle, our "Elf on a Shelf" has been rather mischevious this year! My sister, Rhea, bought the Elf for Reece's first birthday. He started out rather tame, but now it seems he's really up to no good while we're sleeping....check out what he's been up to this week:

Had some Italian Ice and hung out in the freezer. Good thing he had on a scarf and earmuffs!

Toilet-papered the bathroom. What a mess! Reece just stood in the doorway with his hand on his hip shaking his finger and scolding Oodle!

He brought some snow from the North Pole and make snow angels in the kitchen!

He used Mommy's sharp sewing scissors to cut paper...and cut himself! Bad Oodle!

Eh, just "hanging around"! (*side note- Oodle MADE me clean the fan blades...YUCK!)

Putting out the blazing fire of a (north pole-scented) Yankee Candle!

*It's hilarious because I've been posting these on Facebook each night and now people are expecting things from Oodle! I have to be sure to keep my game up until Christmas Day :)