X's, we've got X's

We received news today that we are awaiting the arrival of Chase's little sister Amaya Rose. She is our little double X miracle--such a miracle that we had to ask the technician a few times to verify that she had in fact said that there was a little she-baby growing in me. Of course, one person's opinion was not going to be enough, so when the doctor came in, I made her show me the girly parts again. I'm still in a mild state of shock and am constantly checking to be sure that the earth is still spinning on its axis.

Here are some pictures of baby Amaya--one full and one money shot. These will have to hold you over until she arrives via C-section on July 31. That leaves us a little over four months to get prepared for this new being--it's going to be a whole new world. I better get shopping--the pink is calling!

In this one, you're basically looking at her tushy, one whole leg and part of another. You can see where the tech typed "girl" in the upper left hand portion of the picture.


PS--Amaya is pronounced A-maya so basically A-my-A.

Farmer Chase

I've said it before, but it bears repeating: Chase is a farmer child trapped in suburbia. The kid just loves going to the farm and getting all dirty. Yesterday, he was very excited because he got to pet a mommy sheep and a fat bunny. Monkey trotted himself all over that farm and wore himself out pretty well. In the Mama dictionary of life, that's the true definition of a successful outing--when you tucker your child out to the point that he needs a 3 hour nap the next day to recover.

Love this picture with his little tush sticking out for all to admire.

No. More. Loud. Banging. Noises. Please.

And still with all of this thudding and house shaking going on, we're no closer to fixing this lovely detail that has been decorating my kitchen ceiling for a month now.

And you people wonder why I'm so grumpy.

Paint, Paper and Glitter = Unrivaled Joy

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up."
Pablo Picasso

He didn't get it from my side of the family

So, it's been an eventful last couple of weeks for our little noodle man. Not necessarily fun, but eventful. You see the little guy has been spending quite a bit of time in doctors' offices. Remember the little guy's spewing party that was described for you in detail during my Disney recap? And do you also recall how we thought it was due to monkey being allergic to the medicine, but the doctor thought croup? Well, it turns out that both hypotheses were wrong, but ours was the one that was closer to being right. Let me explain...

You see, when Chase was sick again after we switched antibiotics we knew that we were wrong. But when he didn't have any repeat occurrences after that first night of the trip, we thought it couldn't be croup since that was supposed to last for a few days at least, and he never really coughed all night long either. This put our little minds to work trying to think about what else it could be, and we came up with one common theme across all of his recent rashes, vomits, and wheezes: Honey Nut Cheerios.

So, we made an appointment with a pediatric allergist, and what do you know, the kid is allergic to almonds, peanuts, walnuts--basically all tree nuts. Now, we get to become very familiar with the EpiPen Jr., Benadryl, and ingredients labels while becoming less familiar with reese's cups, tagalongs & snickers bars.

On top of all of the appointments and blood work for the allergist, Chase got his 6th double ear infection of the year . So, off to the ENT we went. The doctor looked in his ear for 2 seconds and said, "He needs tubes." Apparently he's had fluid build up in his ear and an infection that never really went away. She also said that he's had some hearing difficulties which can help to explain why he often leaves off the beginning sounds of words. (uck, ase, ish) So, poor little guy has to go in for out patient surgery next week. We're told that the procedure itself is not too bad, but that Chase will still scream for an hour afterward because he's scared, hungry and just all around grumpy. Should be a good time.

Despite all of these recent health developments, the little guy is as happy as can be. We went to visit with cousin Nate over the weekend. They took us to an arcadey kinda place called Fun Expedition, and as you can see from the pictures, Chase wasn't letting his ears get in the way of his having a good time.




If anything, his time spent with medical professionals may have made him more loving. Case in point, on a recent trip to Lowes, the noodle thought the Tide bottles looked a little lonely, so he decided to hug them up a little bit. It looked just like the pictures in my last post except instead of a cuddly little bunny, he was hugging industrial sized bottles of soap. Being the generous soul he is, he couldn't contain his affection to just the laundry aisle, so he decided to spread the wealth to other areas of the store by snuggling up with paint bottles and yellow wet floor signs, too. My boy's a lover, not a fighter.

And they call it bunny love

Oh, I guess they'll never know

How a young heart really feels

And why I love bunny so

Redeeming Qualities

Here's a list of a few qualities and quirks of which Young Master Chase is currently in possession. Please note that despite the title of today's post, not everything on the list can be considered "redeeming".

1. He is getting more vocal, but he isn't very forceful with his chosen words. For instance, if you ask him what a train says he'll say "choo choo" in this very soft voice. It's almost as if he's afraid of being wrong, so he waits to see if you agree with him before he says it any louder.

2. Some of Ace's (Chase's) favorite words are choo-choo, uck (duck), ruff (dog barking),
growln (crayon), us (bus), ish (fish), woo-woo for truck sirens, and bubBLES with a very pronounced accent on the second syllable.

3. His favorite things to eat are cheese and bread. One can usually persuade him to eat yogurt, waffles, and french fries, too. Little man is still not a fan of the veggies although we can sometimes sneak shredded carrots in by pretending they are grated cheese.

4. He loves to color with his growlns, read his ooks, and play with the choo-choos and ucks. He also loves putting puzzles together. Turning around and around with his arm in a perfect ballet 4th position is his most favorite form of exercise. We call it his circle dance. You can also count on him for a round of applause upon completion of any song you may sing--but The Wheels on the Bus is his favorite.

5. The little imp has been going through a bit of a defiant phase. He knows that he's only supposed to use his growlns on the paper, but lately he has been giving me an evil little smile as he colors the ottoman, table or floor instead of the paper. This of course means that I have to take the growlns away which leads us to the next item on our list...

6. Bugger's got quite a bit of a temper that he often unleashes in a little tornado of screams and body thrashings the likes of which I did not think was possible outside of the Looney Tunes Cartoon Medleys. This would be the reason for our recent purchase of not one, but two 720 capsule bottles of Tylenol at Costco this week.

7. But darn it, the boy sure is cute, isn't he?

If there's going to be another one,

I'd better make sure I have this one trained well before that day arrives. This week, we're working on our "picking up after mommy" skills.



Next week, we'll move on to the ever important techniques of "making mommy a snack" and "giving mommy a foot rub".

Now selling

Chase has opened the box office for his one-toddler performance extravaganza. During the show, he will preform such feats as the circle dance and the shoulder shrug--there may even be some Evil Knievel-type stunts on his mini ATV. He's been working very hard on his routine and is anxiously awaiting opening night.

As you can see, he's already begun setting up the auditorium, so you're sure to have a great view of his theatrics.

As an added bonus, he will provide coloring books for your intermission entertainment.



Order your tickets today!

For those who haven't yet had the pleasure,

I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce you to Bean, Baby Bean.


The little legume is 14 weeks and 3 days old. Those first few weeks with the little guy (or girl) were pretty rough, but things have settled down a bit. I have the usual medley of pregnancy symptoms that I could talk about in excruciating detail if you'd like--just let me know.

One thing I will tell you about is my raging appetite. Within the last couple of weeks, my desire for food and drink has grown to mammoth proportions. And when I get that hungry feeling it's never an "Oh, I could eat something now" feeling. No, it's a "Feed me now or I will chew your head off" kinda hungry. Don't you just envy those that get to live with me?

Let's do a little case study, shall we? This is what I ate yesterday:

7:15 Rice Krispies and a NutraGrain Strawberry bar
8:00 Orange Izzi and a handful of Noodle's cereal
9:00 17 oz water
10:00 V8 and one pink starburst
11:30 Chicken (cold cut, not breast) sandwich and strawberries. Caff free diet dr. pepper mmm
11:50 2 Laura's Wholesome Junk Food bites
12:15 Various handfuls of chips, pretzels, almonds
12:30 3 little bricks from a giant Hershey bar and 2 graham crackers
1:00 Tuna & Eggsalad sandwich, more cf diet dr. pepper
2:00 17 oz water-handful of skittles
3:00 17 oz water
5:30 Outback...mmmm....bread, salad, 1/3 steak, most of my veggies
7:00 ANOTHER tuna/egg salad sandwich--for those keeping track that's 3 sandwiches today
7:15 glass of 2% milk
9:00 9 oz water
10:00 Rice Krispies

See, I wasn't exaggerating was I? I also think I've met my tuna limits for the week, bummer cause I'm so craving the tuna salad. Anyway, I've read that this month is the month that the little one grows more than he ever will, so I'm going to blame my food inhalation on that. I'll think of a new excuse for next month.

And so the saga must end

And now for the conclusion of the The Mellon Disney Chronicles. There isn't a whole lot to say about the last day, but I was feeling better so at least there are more pictures to make up for the lack of snappy dialog.

We started by having breakfast with JoJo and the Little Einstein characters. Now, if you know who these giant-headed beings posing with my kid are then you must have a kid under 5 who watches a lot of the Disney Channel. If you don't know who they are--count your blessings. I'd elaborate on how much Chase enjoyed these encounters, but I'm pretty sure that the pictures are self evident.






After chowing down, we walked around the park a little bit catching pieces of the High School Musical II show. You may remember the picture of Chase carrying his monkey from an earlier post, but it's one of my favorites and I'm sure you don't mind seeing it again.






Soon it was time to catch a soft showing of the Disney Playhouse show. Soft because it was a rehearsal as the official opening of the show wasn't until later in the week. This show is perfect for the under 5 group because it incorporates characters from all of their favorite Disney shows: Mickey and gang, Handy Manny, Little Einsteins etc. Chase was really excited at the beginning, but it wasn't long before I saw him rubbing his eyes and yawning. By the end of the show he was cranky and whiny, so we scooted out of there early and headed back to the hotel for a nap. Just too much excitement for the little guy that morning.






After naps, we went to the pool for a bit.



Then we headed to Downtown Disney for dinner at Earl of Sandwich. Probably Drew's favorite part of the trip...he had to try really hard to refrain from getting a second sandwich. We saw some lego creations, Drew lost his sunglasses, I went to the World of Memories store for some scrappy goodness, and then went to the large toy store where we were big spenders: $5.95 on a trinket toy phone. And there were no pictures taken here either. What can I say, I think we'd all had enough of our disney trip by then...which was perfect timing considering we were due to fly out the next morning.

The trip goes on,.. La de da de de, la de da de da

Where were we? Oh yes, I was lying on the bathroom floor sure my body was going to kill me in its attempt to save me from whatever poison had made its way into my system. Well...I am my son's mother, so can you guess what happened? Yes, my final upchuck was around 12, and I slept through the night--fitfully, but I did sleep. By morning I was able to hold down sips of water and a few saltine crackers. When Andy woke up, he added Pedialyte to my menu. All I can say about that stuff is "Yuck, Yuck, Double Yuck". I'm sure kids think it is great, but Mellons most certainly do not.

As one can imagine, I was very dehydrated and therefore very weak and tired. I slept most of the morning away, but roused myself to face the Magic Kingdom by noon. I am a trooper. Unfortunately, the park was more crowded at this time of the day, so our three hours didn't result in a lot of sight seeing, but we did enough to make Chase happy.

First, we toured Mickey's house, and then we played at Donald's ship. When Chase saw the train, he decided that he wanted to go on it, so we took the round trip around the park. The little guy enjoyed the scenery although it was mostly the backs of other rides and trees. Doesn't take much to please the little guy.

Finally, Drew took the Noodle on the car ride. This may have been the highlight of the entire trip for the monkey. Andy said he loved the ride, and if Dad tried to slow down, Chase would hit him on the head until he sped up again. Makes me cringe at the thought of him having his own license one day, but I have a good 15 years until I have to face that. Anyway, Chase's obvious joy at this experience was well worth any discomfort I may have felt that day. As further proof of my discomfort, I offer this little factoid. Of our 3 hours in the MK, I took a grand total of six--yes 6--pictures. Since Drew rarely takes pictures unless I shove the camera in his hand and pout (which I didn't even have the energy for pouting), that is all we have of our trip to the most magical place on earth. Here are two of them:





And now, I must tell you about one of the cutest things I've ever seen my child do. But first, I have to give you a little back story. As you must know, my appetite was not the best on this particular day. By the time we left the park at 5ish, I'd only eaten a few crackers, a few spoons of oatmeal, some jello, a little yogurt and 1/4 of a Minnie Strawberry Popsicle thing. After all of the walking around, I was ready for some kind of meal type food, but I wanted to eat something that I was familiar with, something I knew I would be able to tolerate. What is Mellon's favorite fast food--McDonald's. Mmmm. Drew was kind enough to stop at the giant happy meal looking one on the way back to the hotel and get me a Cheeseburger Happy Meal and some chicken nuggets for the little one. Here comes the cute part. When we arrived at the hotel, I had the McDonald's bags in my hand when I went to get Chase from his car seat. He took one look at the bags and smacked his little lips several times. It was so adorable, and is further proof that I'm a bad mama that the kid recognizes a fast food bag as containing yummy food. When I had to set the bags down to free him from the confines of his chair, he grunted at me, as if to say, "Don't even think about forgetting that yummy food Mama". As if I would ever leave a perfectly good cheeseburger uneaten.

Even though all vacation cliffhangers have come to pass, if you have nothing better to do, you can still tune in next time for the not so exciting conclusion of the Mellon Disney Chronicles. There will be more pictures if that's a determining factor.

Mickey, Minnie and Goofy--Oh My!

When last I left you, the globe trotting noodle was once again spewing his stomach contents all over the room. He had another rash, but wasn't wheezing as he had been the night before. This of course was a relief. I stripped him down and held him until he calmed down. Then we snuggled together on the bed while we waited for housekeeping to bring us a new crib sheet. It wasn't long before the little guy was ready to go back to sleep. We put him back in his bed, crossed our fingers and left the room. Our plan was pretty much our standard MO--we'd just have to wait and see how he did.

Guess what...he slept through the night and was fine in the morning. Deja vu anyone? Perhaps he's allergic to bed time? Whatever the reason for his miraculous recovery, we were certainly planning on taking advantage of it as who knew what would befall us later in the day. So we packed ourselves up and headed to the Animal Kingdom Park.

Once inside the park, we headed straight for the Safari ride per our Disney with Kids book suggestion. The lady that wrote the book said that not only would the line be relatively short at that hour, but also the animals are most active in the morning. True dat sista! We got to see lots of animals including lions, elephants, hippos, rhinos, giraffes, and flamingoes. Chase had a good time sitting on dad's lap watching all of the scenery go by. Mom was a little terrified that he was going to bounce right out of the truck, but Drew seemed to keep a pretty good hold on him.






After standing in line and sitting on the ride, we decided that the little guy could use some running around time, so we went to an uncrowded area and let him take in the sights at his own pace. His most exciting find? A drain cover with a puddle around it. I could have stayed in Virginia for that particular attraction. But hey, whatever keeps him happy right?







Once Noodle had throughly explored the puddle and its splashing capabilities, we headed on over to the character trails which were fairly empty because the big Lion King show had just started. Let me tell you, this kid loved those characters. He was trying to push his way to the front of the line to get there sooner. When we started to leave, he tried to turn around and run back. I think if he had been given the choice, he would have moved in with Mickey and left Mom and Dad far behind.






After meeting the peeps, we enjoyed more park displays and then headed to the Boneyard playground. Chase's new love is to knock on doors, so he spent a good deal of time waiting for someone to open the locked door. Never happened, but he didn't seem to mind too much.


The little bugger moves so fast these days that I couldn't ever get a good face picture. One time, I had the perfect shot lined up and just as I was about to take it, his father put the Monkey in his face and ruined my picture. Bummer.





By this time, our tummies were growling, so we headed to the Rainforest Cafe. Here is where our day begins its rapid decline. The restaurant is not run by Disney and therefore the level of service is not up to par with the rest of the park. They were understaffed and so slow to seat us--which on its own isn't so bad, but then they were snotty about the line advancing too far into the restaurant. Hmpf.

We were finally seated, ordered and began noshing on our appetizer, when I detected the undeniable scent of a stinky bottom...Chase's not Drew's. But this wasn't your run of the mill dirty diaper, this was a complete blowout, all over the clothes dirty diaper. One's mood can quickly deteriorate when she is standing in a public restroom trying to change a wiggly, screaming toddler covered in doodoo. Blech. Needless to say, I wasn't too interested in finishing my lunch after that.

So back to the hotel we went for naps with the intention of possibly heading back to the park to catch a show or two later that day. So much for intentions...

It started out pretty mild. First, I was just tired and a little queasy. When the little guy woke up, I suggested we visit the hotel park for a bit to give myself time to feel better. But at the park, I was so weak and dizzy, that I had to sit down. I told Andy that I needed to lie down, so I headed to the room which of course was 5.8 miles away from where we were. I barely got in the door when my entire lunch made it's way back up in a most violent fashion. I continued to be best friends with the toilet bowl for the rest of the night as nothing that touched my stomach wanted to stay there--not even water. Even when there was nothing left to bring up, my body insisted on continuing to try to rid itself of the offending matter, even if it meant I was just hurling up my own stomach acid and fluids. There was a point in the night when I was lying on the bathroom floor and I thought to myself, "Well at least we got to go to one park while we were here. Now if I have to spend the rest of our vacation in the hospital with an IV of fluids at least I'll have those happy memories to look back on." And then I proceeded to vomit once more.

Will Mellon survive her food poisoning ordeal or will she spend the rest of her trip glued to the porcelain throne? You'll have to check back tomorrow to find out!