Wilder Update!!

I have many pictures that I need to post, but to be quite honest I haven't uploaded them to the computer lately....what a slacker! The past couple of weeks has been full of fun things for Chase. He still isn't in school, so he is soaking up some Mommy and immediate family member's time and love. He will possibly start school within the first few weeks of August; that's if I can make the best decision on where he should go.

Well on to more important things......we are POTTY TRAINING our little guy!! YIPEE! We read the 3 Day Potty Training Method and we started on Saturday. We talked to Chase about it, bought some "goodies" and stickers, set up the bathrooms to meet his needs and basically just said prayers to help us get through it. Unfortunately, I woke up Saturday morning with an awful summer head cold. My head felt like it weighed more than my whole body. It was miserable to lift it off the pillow, but I was determined to continue on with our plan. The remainder of the weekends are booked with plans. Despite my misery, we let Chase "throw away all of his diapers" in a trash bag (Rich stored the bag out of sight....we will pass them along to someone who may need them) and then we let him pick out the big boy underwear that he wanted to wear!!! He was excited. Maybe so excited that within 10 minutes he had an accident :o) We gently talked him through it and we picked out another pair of undies. We had a couple more accidents the first day, but he did actually use the potty too, we were very excited!!!! He actually stayed dry for almost 6 hours, including during his 2 hour nap. Day 2 was great. I thought the best way for him to learn how to stay dry during the night was to sleep on the air mattress beside his toddler bed. I checked him at 2am and 4 am and he was dry both times. I heard him stirring around at 6am, but I was a zombie at that point, so I reached my hand up there for him to hold and fall back asleep....I think at that point I should have taken him to the potty because around 6:30 when he woke up, there was a wet spot in the bed. He had fewer accidents and used the potty more throughout the remainder of the day. Pooping in the potty has been quite interesting, (no accidents, just funny) but hopefully that will get much better.

Today is Day 3 and so far, no accidents. He woke up this morning with a dry bed and has pee-peed in the potty several times. Fingers are crossed that this method has "clicked" and he is in the home stretch of being officially potty trained. YIPEE!

Feeding the Ducks!!

Yesterday Rich was at home stuck in bed with the tummy bug--yuck, yuck! That gave Chase and I the opportunity to take pictures at the Gardens before his nap. Before dinner we walked to the neighborhood pond to feed the ducks some goldfish. We were so happy to see the Mommy duck with her 4 babies! We will visit them again soon. Chase kept asking where the "Daddy" duck was. How cute?

I just love black and white shots of their hands and feet so much, so of course this is one of my favorites from our adventure.

Changes

I changed some of the garden photos to black and white. I may choose one of the tree pictures along with the one with him holding his blankie near his face and *color* the blankie, while the remainder is still black and white. I am having a difficult time choosing one pose to blow up. Also, the last photo I used more of a lighter gray scale than a true black and white. Enjoy!

Bicentennial Gardens

I have been wanting to take Chase to the Gardens to snap pictures, so today was the perfect day since Daddy was at home with the tummy bug! Chase was very cooperative and had a blast. I also wanted to use his paci and blankie in some of the shots. I thought they looked sweet....and before too long, the paci will be history (NOT blankie), so we had to get some good shots of how much he loves his Pie-Pie! I think most of the pictures turned out great. I still have some editing to do and I do want to turn some into black and white, but here are the raw images. Enjoy! My little boy is getting so big. I plan to take him to the Arboretum to get pictures soon.

I LOVE the pictures of him in the tree!!!!! I cannot wait to zoom, crop and change colors on these. He looks simply adorable with his blankie and paci in the tree.

My little LINUS with his beloved paci and blankie. I will cherish these forever. I swear I had no intentions in the truck to use those 2 things in the pictures, but I wouldn't trade these shots for anything. I will have the rest of his life to get pictures without them, so I took full advantage.

Fire Safety Lesson at the Library

Yesterday we tagged along with Marie and Kaylyn to the public library to learn about Fire Safety. What a fun time! We got to see firefighters, a ranger, Smokey the Bear, and a Firetruck. The kids were also given a coloring book, pencil with topper, a sticker and a tattoo. Chase talked about that BIG Bear and the Firetruck all day long. I think the Mommy's even learned a couple of things too.

Playdate with Bryson

Bryson and Dawn came over on Wednesday to play with Chase so I could work a few hours. I think Bryson loved the cat.

Chase's 1st Movie Experience!!!!!!!

Tuesday, July 7th, Chase and I went to the movies. YAY! It was Chase's 1st visit to the movies (big t.v.). The local movie theatres are offering cheap and free movies for kids this summer, so we decided to take advantage of it. I opted to go to the cheap ($3) theatre instead of free. One reason, I figured it would be less crowded since you still have to pay something and the second reason, is because that price includes a popcorn and a drink for the kids and adults (the free movies do not include that). I decided to take Chase to see "Horton Hears A Who" because neither of us had seen it, so it would be a real movie experience for us both. He owns a Horton stuffed animal, so I figured that would help him associate with the movie, so we brought it along with us. Chase was fabulous!!!!!! He sat in his booster seat like a big boy, Horton sat in the drink holder, and he enjoyed his snacks like a real movie-goer! I took the plunge and let him try popcorn. I still think he's too young, but he did very well and I had watchful eye the entire time he held it. He eventually moved on to enjoy the mini M&M's I packed along with his water bottle. He asked 100 questions during the movie. "Mommy, where'd the el-phant go?" "Oh no Mommy, what happened to el-phant?" "Mommy what's monkey doing?" It was very cute. I can't wait to take him back again. We will probably go in two weeks when they are playing Curious George! It was a wonderful experience to share with him.

Happy 4th of July

Rich, Chase and I drove to Buena Vista, Virginia last Friday (July 3rd) to visit at Papa and Nana's house and to join a clan of other Wilder's. We had a wonderful time visiting with everyone! Chase was able to see family that he has only met a few times before, so it was great to see him interact with the family. It was a very relaxing visit. On Friday, we stayed around the house and chatted outside while Chase and Haylie played. On Saturday we visited at the house for a bit, had a cookout, and went back to the hotel so Chase and Haylie could swim before we headed to VMI (Virginia Military Institute) for a festival and fireworks. Chase called the fireworks "Big Boom." The festival was awesome. We actually had no clue they had so many kid friendly games, booths, food etc. We arrived around 8:30pm and to our amazement, it was so kid friendly. We would have gone earlier if we knew. We only had 30 minutes to walk around. Just enough time for us to see the hot air balloon and for the kids to get into a bounce house. I would have loved to arrived earlier so we could have rode inside the hot air balloon. Chase loved the fireworks and talked about it the entire ride back to the hotel. On Sunday, we did a quick visit to say goodbye, eat lunch and drove back to Greensboro! What a great visit!

The kids playing with Granny Jan! Granny Jan also brought them "presents" ...Chase was so excited!

Chase enjoyed driving Papa and Nana's cars over and down the bridge.

Chase took a 2 1/2 hour nap on the couch ....he was such a tired little boy on the 4th!

How sweet is this?

I love his "cheese" look in the above picture!

It started raining about 15 minutes before the fireworks, but that didn't stop us from smiling!