Chase-Salerno Family Events

Declan had a blast helping to celebrate godfather Uncle Jim’s birthday! He enjoyed Aunt Tracey’s yummy spaghetti birthday dinner, and then ate LOTS of cupcakes he helped to make for the big occasion.

Daddy and Declan spent a little time at a local preschooler’s Truck Day event where the kids could explore different kinds of cars and trucks. You can tell the engines are off if he’s smiling. When the driver of the semi turned on the truck, Declan was in the driver’s seat and not quite sure what to make of it.

What can I say – the kid loves tractors!

I thought it would be fun to post a couple of different times this week to give folks that stop by the blog some new photos to look at and so that others can try out their new blog subscriptions.

Today’s photo captures Declan’s sheer delight as he holds one of the frogs that lives in Grandparents Salerno’s little fish pond. This frog gets quite a workout whenever Declan comes to visit!

We had a wonderful time in Houston this weekend! Now that Declan’s two, he rides in his own seat on the airplane – he loved that!

With weather a “balmy” 92 degrees every day, we took some time out for ice cream at Marble Slab.

Declan enjoyed spending quality time with Auntie Vanessa and Uncle George during the weekend – here he is trying to figure out where the sound comes from in Uncle George’s trumpet.

Here, he’s “helping” Uncle George play the right notes…

Declan had a blast at the Houston Children’s Museum – he can do so many more things than he could when we visited the last time, in October 2004.

The purpose of our visit to Houston was to host a baby shower for George and Vanessa in celebration of their soon-to-be-adopted-daughter from China. Here Declan demonstrates his party self in a Chinese t-shirt (symbolizing strength and courage) in honor of the big event.

After the party, he had a good time counting fingers with Grandma and Grandpa Chase.

And here he is on the ride home, reading magazines just like Daddy!

Here’s a preggers pic of me at 16 weeks. I’m feeling great, especially on days I take a nap!

We went for a walk during the weekend and were invited to spend some time at Linda-Brook’s father’s farm (Dan Guenther). Declan had a great time visiting pigs, chickens, collecting eggs, and riding (stationary) tractors!

Declan also had a chance to help Mommy with some chores during Daddy’s long weekend off. Here they are, grinding spelt flour for our banana bread.

We can’t believe that some of our leaves are turning already and that we actually wear a sweater around here once in a while! Weren’t we just complaining about the heat recently?!

We continue to make progress on the house and are madly trying to do what we can before the snow flies and the new baby comes – here’s a picture of Declan apparently “supervising” the installation of some pantry trim. He often points to the trim now and says, “Declan did it – Declan worked hard,” and if you press him enough, it seems “Daddy helped,” so there you go. Poor Mike.

We got a new answering machine and Declan has been having WAY too much fun with the old one. It’s hilarious to watch and listen to him – he pushes various buttons and randomly records his voice, or plays it and does whatever “it” says from a previous message. So he says “Hi” to himself about a million times, and if he hears himself counting, he joins in. When he hears my recorded voice suggesting he turn it off and listen to himself, he turns it off, so he never gets through all of the messages, then he starts over again. This can go on for quite a while!

We had a good time this weekend visiting friends at a Labor Day barbecue, and Declan got to spend some real quality time with friends, including his beloved godparents Tracey (seen here), Jim, and friend Aunt Karen.

At the party, we also got to see Rosie, 2 1/2, who was up for the weekend visiting with her family from Nashville. Here’s a picture of the two toddlers laughing together on Saturday, followed by a picture from a couple of years ago when they first met.

We are looking forward to our upcoming trip to Houston this Thursday to throw a baby shower for Uncle George and Auntie Vanessa who are adopting a baby girl from China. In honor of this new soon-to-arrive cousin, Declan is learning to use children’s chopsticks and loves to use them for everything he eats, from cereal to soup.

Mike calls Baby #2 “Secondo,” a la the movie Big Night. It’s probably better than what we called Declan when he was in utero – “Meatball.”

After having researched the potential effects of ultrasounds on fetuses, we decided that we would not get any routine ultrasounds this time around with the pregnancy. So, of course, we ended up having to get one after all, after some health questions came up last week.

We were thrilled to learn that everything is fine – the heartbeat was a healthy 170 beats per minute, the measurements were lined up exactly with the baby’s age (12.5 weeks on 8/24), and we discovered that we have either a thumb-sucker or a nose-picker, depending on what you can make out from the pictures. When Mike and Declan came in to see the images, the baby actually seemed to give them a little wave, and Declan waved back. Seeing the pictures seems to have made it more real for Declan that there’s an actual “baby” in there.

Here are two of the images we got that day – enjoy the world’s first look at Baby #2!

Declan had a fun visit with Grandma and Great Grandpa Chase this week. He insisted in sitting in “Gumpa’s” lap and they spent a lot of time drawing, with Gumpa fully instructed in *which* pictures to draw and *where* to draw them…..”No, Gumpa – right here!”

Declan enjoyed some creative time with Grandma Chase, too.

At Mike’s Rod & Gun Club Family BBQ, Declan learned how to play, and cheat, at the Bean Bag Game.

We had a wonderful lunch together with Erica’s friend and former boss “Tante” Eileen and friend and former colleague “Tante” BJ. (West Point is where the three of us last spent time together, for Eileen’s daughter Karen’s beautiful January wedding with Major Kevin, who is now serving in Afghanistan until April.)

IBM had a special day for employees of Mike’s division and their families up at Mohonk Mountain House, and Declan enjoyed his first boat ride!

OK, so what do we do when we’re not visiting with friends or family and just hanging out at home? Well, here you go…..

“I’m riding my motorcycle, Mommy!”

Playing with his new wooden “sounds” puzzle from Tante Eileen.

Declan’s winter sled has been stored behind the house since, well, winter. One day he dragged it out and asked Daddy to pull him around the yard, “Daddy running – Daddy running fast!” Here he stands happily next to his (apparently) all-season accessory.

Here’s one of our favorites! Background: Declan enjoyed wearing goggles so much during his recent swimming lessons that we got a pair for him. We thought it was a “swimming” thing, but it seems that he just loves them in general and wears them all the time.

So, this is one example…Mike calls it “You Can Never Be Too Safe When Making Cookies!”

Here are some pix of Declan with his buddy Liam and Liam’s mommy Jennifer; concentrating on eating a cupcake at Liam’s 2nd birthday party; and playing baseball with Papa.