Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Our second born, Joseph Chase

Chase arrived on the first day of Sept. two weeks early and almost 9 lbs! Right from the start we knew Chase would be different. He was born with red hair and a temper to go with it! I once again was convinced he would be a she even though the sonogram clearly showed boy parts. I was in denial, I had cried for a week after I found out we were having another boy. But this time I was prepared and fell in love instantly!

Chase is completely the opposite of his big brother. You could reverse everything about Patrick...and voila...have Chase! Chase looks a lot like Patrick and they can share most clothes now but their ways are, oh, so different. Chase is a sneaky, brave, mischievous, funny, 100% boy! He loves balls of any kind and is tough as nails, he is fearless. He gets hurt all the time doing crazy stuff. He jumps off the couch but forgets about the table that is in front of the couch. He climbs to the top of the monkey bars and lets go. He swings upside down on the swing and lets go. He loves strangers! This is scary but he will give almost anyone a hug or kiss without bribery. He fights like a 6 yr old and is not intimidated by a 12 yr old. I watched my 10 yr old nephew pick on him for about 5 seconds then I waited and watched as Chase picked up a bat and chased that 10 yr old all over the place. I let it go for about 5 minutes knowing the older one could out run the younger then I took the bat away. That nephew now completely respects Chase in a new way. Chase's first sentence was "HE HIT ME!" talking about Patrick and acting as if 'how dare he'.

Chase was a terrible baby, he had colic for 4 months! He cried almost every night from 9p-2a from the day after we brought him home until Dec.10....yes, I remember it clearly. Colic is not for the weak and no, your baby doesn't have colic if he is "fussy". Believe me, fussy is great...colic is horror!! I seriously could relate to moms that harm their children, thank God I didn't hurt him but it took all I had to keep from it and I had to break down and tell the doctor that before he would help me. He tried, but nothing took it away. It was BAD! So, from the beginning Chase was different.This child has a sense of humor and uses it often...to his advantage. He has so many different faces and voices he uses to match his mood. He picks things up easily and can imitate others well. After he spends the day with his friend, Cash, he talks just like him for days, on purpose! He says, "My talk like Cash!" He thinks it's funny and so do we.

We have to watch Chase like a hawk. I think he plans his next adventure before finishing the first. We were outside one day recently and I darted in to grab my cell phone and came right back out. He was behind me on the way in but apparently got side tracked in the laundry room. I came out and saw him walking towards our koi pond with something in his hand. As I got closer, he stopped on the bridge and held out his hand. OMG! He had a full scoop of Gain washing powders, slowly tilting his hand toward the pond. I screamed, "NO, NO, NO". Staring right at me with a look that says " you are there, I am here..whatcha gonna do?"..he dumped the WHOLE scoop in the pond and shyly smiled. I wore his butt out! I mean, I beat that child! We have 20 fish, some are 16 inches long! He cried, he did. Then said " mommy, it mells good." then he ran to play. Randy had to come home from work to drain 1200 gallons of water and wait to see if any fish were gonna die. They didn't. We had bubbles for days and the backyard did 'mell' good.


Chase destroys all things and eats all things. He rips pages out of books ( this causes Patrick to go ballistic) and he eats the eraser off every pencil he comes across. He breaks every crayon in half and says "see, we have two" and he doesn't like order...he destroys order! He can sniff out candy or gum within a mile radius. Doesn't matter where we hide it, Chase will eventually find it and eat it. This is a good thing at supper time, he will try anything and usually likes it.


Chase still doesn't sleep through the night. He is almost 3 and I can probably count on 2 hands how many times he has slept straight through the night. We have tried it all and will try anything else anyone suggests. He goes to sleep in his bed and does so easily but he always wakes up by 3 a.m. In the beginning, we would check on him, settle him back in and he would go back to sleep only for another hour or so then back awake screaming out. We would do this over and over. Then we ignored him...that lasted a total of one hour...no sleep for anyone! Now that he is in a toddler bed, when he screams out for us we simply say "come on". He crawls in the bed with us but he is back awake in less than an hour most nights. We pat him and say its OK...off to sleep we go. I have no idea why he does this and I really don't care at this point. Eventually he will grow out of it, we hope!


Chase is very independent and wants to do whatever it is you are doing. I have posted a picture I took of him imitating his Paw Paw smoking a cigar. He had found a piece of Lincoln logs and we were all outside, my Dad was smoking a cigar and the next thing we knew Chase was imitating him with the Lincoln log! This was less than one week before my Dad passed and I remember my Dad laughing and saying "I don't know if we should be laughing...I am proud he wants to be like me but I hope he doesn't pick up smoking from me". We laughed so hard watching Chase trying to be like Paw Paw and Chase was in his own world oblivious to anyone around him. He was concentrating so hard on holding his hands right and blowing smoke. I snapped a few pictures with my phone and I am so glad I did! Chase will most likely remember nothing about his Paw Paw but the picture is worth a thousand words!


This is our second born. This is Chase. We couldn't possibly love him more!

1 comment:

  1. Okay-that is pretty funny about the Gain powder and the koi pond. I bet it did mell good!!! I love the picture of him and the lincoln log imitating Paw Paw. awwwww. I am glad you are doing this- It helps me feel closer to you guys.

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