and then one day he decided he was a thumb sucker.

disregard the pink bib.

this is in fact chase.

max's pink bibs were still in the drawer from when she was a baby.

convenience people.

convenience!

.....

it appears chase has decided he's an occasional thumb sucker this past week.

it's cute.
REAL{ly}
cute.
{he started in utero, but i wasn't going down without a fight. my valiant effort with the binky made it 9 whole months, and i'd say he likes them both. thumb and binky. like vanilla and chocolate. both good. no need for choosing between the two. a swirling of sorts. but with sucking.}

particularly in his high chair,
is where he sucks his thumb the most.

before and after meals.
or during.
whichever.
in his car seat.
here or there.
in a house.
with a mouse.
in a box.
with a fox.
in a car.
in a tree.

A train! A train!
A train! A train!
in the dark.
in the rain.
with a goat.
on a boat.
he will suck his thumb
ANYWHERE!
you get the idea.

and he likes to drink his juice like it's moonshine.

with a backwards wrist hold.

my plant is short a few limbs,
and my curtain rods are uneven.
send reinforcements.

he fancies plants and curtains.

we're not in kansas anymore!!!

it's all in the wrists.

my famous pizza toss last night.

it's all in the wrists.

and apparently, biting my lower lip.

TGIF.

.................

for the first time in i don't know how long,

sandy city completely missed the snowstorm of the century.

i have been crying about it for the last two days.

the cities north of us in davis county have reported up to 23 inches of snow.

and we are not talking benches.

we are talking valley cities.

school cancelled even!

this never happens in utah.

it looks like we have about 3 inches on our lawn.
it's still snowing.
i haven't given up hope completely yet.
maybe mother nature reads my blog?

we bribed brennan to sleep in this morning with promises of sledding.

i can't believe it, but it worked.

at 8am he walked into my room with crazy hair, 

and i could have hopped on a sled in my pajamas i was so happy.
so today we will sled.
with the snowing falling on our heads,
and our bodies freezing cold.
it's gonna be great:)

max was here & brennan bribes chase {a video}

 makenzie maxine was here.

poor chap.

...

then brennan saved him and crowned himself.

real men wear pink.

brennan bribes chase with reese's puffs to watch him crawl.

we are all jazzed about chase crawling.

it's just so fun to watch him go.

you'd think we've never seen a baby crawl before.

take WITH food.

 and he was all, 

"Are you calling me fat???"

-elinor

....

dr. D was charmed by the baby man this morning.

it was the waving.

he always gets them with his waving trick.

and his fat rolls.

mindee and tangee {our favorite nurses} were swooning over his fat rolls.

at 21.1 lbs he was just half a pound shy of brennan's weight at 9 months.

except brennan was in the 90th percentile and chase is in the 50th.

height.

he beat brennan in the height {75th}.

which leveled out his weight.

we grow 'em big in the gibson home.

with an almost clean bill of health,

he was branded with a poke and a lightening mcqueen band-aid, 

and off we went to collect our third round of antibiotics.

this time it only took ONCE to gather them from the pharmacy.

phew.

it appears double ear infections have taken a liking to chase ray.

and the tenants will just not be evicted.

whoever heard of antibiotics not working?

lots of people i guess,

just not me.

so i handed Tom the pharmacist my visa card for the $61.25 more for another milky white medicine.

and some probiotic chewable tablets he recommended. 

b/c the way we've been going through antibiotics over here, 

i am sure we could all use a few for each of us.

for awhile.

and what the heck, i didn't even get to bask in the excitement of how much i saved this time.

no savings listed on my receipt.

pity.

i am sure i saved something b/c Tom told me i did,

but we were late to get brennan from preschool, and i wasn't listening well.

let's be honest, it's never been a strong suit of mine.

listening.

which is why i went running back upstairs to shovel spaghetti into chase's mouth in his crib, 

b/c after i put him there the first time, 

i came back downstairs to find on a 

large yellow label on the bottle that read:

take WITH food.

and then i remembered that YEP, 

Tom the pharmacist did in fact tell me that through his pharmacy window.

see, i am GREAT at listening. 

or remembering.

{sometimes}

whichever.

{and he's crawling today. like REALLY REALLY crawling. like this morning he was just kind of crawling. more than saturday's 4 crawls. but this afternoon he was full on CRAWLING. i'm excited, but i know i shouldn't be. so i'll just be excited today. and maybe a little bit tomorrow still. maybe for the rest of the week. ok, i'll just let you know when i get un-excited. b/c now that he's doing it, i love it. i love it b/c i love watching his little chubby self move around my living room floor. and through the upstairs hall. with drool coming out of his mouth, and big excited noises when he gets to where he wants to go. i know it's crazy, 

but i'm just going to keep enjoying crazy. b/c crazy has made me pretty happy so far.}

tubes? did i hear you say tubes???

i'm sorry,

i wasn't listening:)

second chances

i told sean that i wish i could go back to when max was 3 weeks old again.

so i could hold her the entire day and never put her down once.

i still look into her face and see that tiny little baby face staring back up at me.

after trying to wake her up for half an hour monday afternoon with no success,

i lifted her out of bed,

carried her downstairs,

and held her in the rocking chair for another half an hour while she slept.

not 3 weeks old,

but still just as great.

when she finally woke up she was not happy.

 5:48pm and the girl was just waking up from a nap.

made for a rough night,

but i'd go back and do it all over again.

once a sleeper,

always a sleeper.

god bless makenzie maxine.

4 crawls to neverland

last saturday night chase crawled 4 crawls to sean's phone.

usually he only moves one leg and one arm and falls onto his tummy.

then starts in on his rolling to get where he wants to go.

my mom, sean, and i were sitting around him in our respective chairs and started cheering in unison.

then i wailed in agony.

b/c even though he's not crawling everywhere yet,

i can feel him changing.

changing from my perfect baby that can do no wrong.

to a baby that's going to move around all over getting into trouble.

i'm happy and sad all at the same time.

but just happy for now:)

so proud of my little baby man for learning to crawl.

{heaven bless my late crawlers.}

i get around.

the week of christmas chase became mobile.

not crawling.

rolling.

he can roll himself from one side of the room to the other.

from one room TO another.

and once or twice ALMOST down the little stairs.

it is funny funny funny business to watch.

you can't help yourself from busting up b/c he's so fast about it.

last week we found him in the pantry trying to help himself to some granola bars.

he's a man that knows no one is coming, so he'd better get himself where he wants to go.

{katie tells me that brennan did the same thing when she babysat him at this age, 

but i have no memory AND no blog post of it. tragic!}

spiderman in training.

{brennan was so excited that chase got a spiderman outfit for christmas.}

{the little vest is my favorite part.}

"well actually, i didn't..."

this morning sean overheard the following from brennan while he "relieved his waters."

...

BRENNAN

"dad, i gotta go pee!" 

{runs} 

"dad, i put the seat up!!!" 

{silence for 5 seconds.} 

"well actually i didn't...

but i am standing up on my tippy toes, tilting my penis down, so i don't pee on the seat.

AND i didn't touch the potty!!! or my penis!!! so i DON'T have to wash my hands!"

SEAN

{from around the corner}

{SIGH}

"brennan, you need to put the seat up and wash your hands every time."

BRENNAN

{yelling}

"but i didn't touch the potty!!!"

SEAN

{SIGH}

ME

{when sean relayed the story to me an hour later}
"i know, i know...we have some work to do before kindergarten...

but man, he's a funny kid."

this is not for the neat and tidy of heart.

 STEP 1

scoop the oreo with peanut butter as shown.

STEP 2

drunk the entire oreo in milk for awhile. 

i like mine to not crunch after. do as you like.

you must hold the oreo next to the peanut butter {i had to re-position & rotate after my picture}.

if you don't hold it near the peanut butter, step 3 will not work right.

this is important.

be a rule follower here.

STEP 3

bite so you are getting half Oreo and half peanut butter in your first bite.

this is also the step where you will know if you let it soak in the milk long enough for your liking.

STEP 4

drink half of the milk.

your oreo will be dripping all over.

it's okay. be ok with it.

i hold my dripping oreo over the cup while i'm drinking my first half of milk.

the milk drips down my hand and wrist. things are cramped, sometimes the oreo touches my nose,

but i like to hold it over the glass.

STEP 5

redunk the other half of the oreo, especially if it wasn't soaked enough during step 3. {see step 3 above}

if it wasn't crunchy enough, let it soak a little longer, but don't squeeze your oreo too hard b/c then it will break off and be swimming in your milk. if this happens, don't panic. calmly get a spoon and scoop it out. 

it may end up being genius to have dropped it.

don't skip this redunk. it's worth the risk of losing it in the milk. 

you must resoak so that it's freshly covered in icy cold milk for your last and second bite.

STEP 6

take your last bite.

STEP 7

drink the rest of your milk.

....

i always ALWAYS have at least 2 oreos in this fashion.

right before bed, when i'm really hungry:)

a time honored tradition since senior year of high school.

you're welcome in advance.

a volcano in my humidifier

 my entire family falls asleep at 8:45pm, sean included, and i decide to try to clean out the humidifier with vinegar and baking soda. b/c i know vinegar is the greatest cleaning agent on the planet,

but i think maybe the bubbling from the baking soda will make it work better.

and i always loved when we did that in the third grade to make a volcano anyway.

and then alicia reminded me that one's a base and one's an acid, 

so they were probably counteracting each other.

of course!!! i was never good at connecting things like that in science class.

and then linsey testified that if you give her a bottle of dish soap, water, 

and vinegar she can clean just about anything.

and to vinegar, soak, and rinse 2x {hot water.}

and then laura said to let the vinegar sit and then go at it with a toothbrush, 

but that really she usually just throws them out and goes and buys a new one from walmart.

and then my mom said soak, soak, soak in vinegar. and scrub, scrub, scrub,

so i dumped it all out and started again with a huge pool of vinegar in the base of it.

but then i couldn't help myself from making another volcano b/c it was so much fun to watch it bubble up,

but then i decided i'd better get serious about cleaning it out if i wanted it to work in the kid's room tonight,

so i dumped it all out again and filled it with the last of my vinegar.

and then sean walked in and was all, "what is going on? what are you doing???"

with one eye open and still half asleep.

and i just smiled really big and started giggling.

bottle of vinegar and baking soda=$10

group texting my friends on a sunday night 

and science experiments in my upstairs bathroom all by myself=PRICELESS.

and very therapudic:):):)

brennan officially graduated from sunbeams and moved into the CTR 4 class in sunday school today.

he was beaming through the halls tonight as we were leaving church.

with his CTR ring on.

{"Choose The Right"}

{aka make good choices and keep the commandments}

{and by "tonight" i indeed mean TONIGHT. b/c the sun was actually setting 

as we walked out of church. the 2-5pm church block is brutal. 

1 week down. 51 more weeks to go. 47 if you don't count stake and general conferences. 

but who's counting anyway?! wait...}

i was so excited for him i was bursting.

i told him i had always wanted one when i was little.

he told me he can "look at it on his finger, and then his brain will remember to choose the right."

{on the way to church he told us his brain talks to him sometimes.

and tells him stuff.}

i found one at the bottom of the alta canyon swimming pool in elementary school and made it mine.

a ctr ring. not a brain.

it turned my finger green,

but i loved it.

the ring.

but not like gollum or anything like that.

then in high school and college i bought fancy silver ones that are sitting in my jewelry box upstairs.

i have come full circle.

with ctr rings and volcanoes.

i need to go dig out my old ctr rings.

i wonder if my humidifier is done soaking in vinegar yet...