January is OVER!

I started January with a long list of resolutions and I've been working hard at them! Some of them have proven easier than others. One goal I had was to cut down Chase's TV time. This kid loves watching shows, but he also has tons of energy and imagination and loves playing too. So I decided to put more effort into keeping the TV off and surprisingly (to me) Chase has done GREAT with it! For the most part he's still pretty happy and we've been able to come up with lots of good activities to fill our time. He still gets to watch a little bit when I need a serious break!

 Hudson learned this new trick- crawling around the house with a sippy cup stuck firmly in his little mouth. He's now completely done nursing and is seriously ecstatic about drinking cows milk from a sippy cup!

 This trick is less endearing, and much more destructive. Hudson can open our fridge. And he tries to get into it at least 20 times a day. When I stop him he throws his head back and cries really hard and makes me feel like the meanest mom in the world. Hudson has always been very passionate about food. I think he feels like he's finally found the gold mine of where we keep the food and mean mom just won't let him at it!

Tuesday night as Ben was tucking Chase into bed they had their normal conversation:

Ben: How was your day today Chase?

Chase: doog (how he says GOOD)

Ben: What did you do today?

Chase: Daddy! I didn't get to GO ANYWHERE today!

(Lest you feel bad for him, we did actually go on a walk that morning, and then later that afternoon his little friends came to play, finishing off the evening with Papa coming to visit, so we actually had a lot of excitement that day!)

So the next morning we quickly remedied that! The last Wednesday of the month the zoo has a free day, so my friend Marissa and I packed up our kids early that morning to get there just after they opened. It was awesome! (and a little cold) We saw some awesome animals (especially that polar bear who was doing tricks like crazy for us!) and Chase and Corbin literally ran as fast as their little legs could go all over the zoo, all the while Hudson napped in his stroller.

 Chase kept asking to see zebras and a crocodile. I'm not sure the Hogle Zoo has either. And we purposefully did not take him to the reptile house because snakes freak me out (and he didn't ask to see them either). As soon as we got home and Ben asked him how it was, Chase quickly replied with:

We didn't see a crocodile! Or a zebra!

Papa got the exact same response when he asked him how the zoo was! Chase actually had a great time and really loved all the cool animals we DID see that day. Then my dad asked if I took him to see the snakes. Before I could even answer, Chase pipes right up to say:

No, I have to go with my daddy if I want to see the snakes.

I go with daddy and we see snakes, crocodiles and zebras!

Later that night when Nana was talking to him on the phone he told her the same story:

We didn't see snakes, zebras or crocodiles! I have to go with my

daddy to see snakes, zebras and crocodiles. I have to go with my daddy and NOT HUDSON!

So apparently Chase has some intense feelings about how the next zoo visit will go down. This kid can be hard to please sometimes!

We had a few fun visits from Papa this week! Most of them went down like this:

We love Papa's visits!

And that's how we made it through January!