Christmas Day

We had a great Christmas morning with Brody and Chase. Brody's big gifts from Santa included Woody and Buzz Lightyear. He, along with every other 3 year old, loves Toy Story. Brody still loves Lightning McQueen and Thomas & Friends and got many gifts geared towards them as well. Brody also did a great job of helping Chase open his presents.













Here are some other highlights of the Holiday Season.

Chase Is Eating Food

We were very fortunate to have Aunt Stephanie watch Chase the last few months after Laura returned to work. Chase had so much fun playing with Cousin Jack everyday. Stephanie did a great job and we can't thank her enough. Stephanie is getting ready for her second baby, so Chase spent the days last week with Laura's friend Trina and her son Declan. He has such a great time there as well. We are really blessed to have such great caretakers for Chase. That is definitely part of the reason why Chase is such an easygoing baby.

All credit goes to Trina for getting Chase to eat baby food. She worked some kind of magic to make it happen. Now he is doing terrific. He eats cereal, butternut squash, carrots, and this week we are trying green beans. Laura cooks up a big portion of each and puts them in the blender. Next, she puts them in an ice tray. Two cubes are one serving, so we are left with 6 servings in each tray. Laura will be first to tell you that I was skeptical, but it has worked out very well. And she will quickly point out that it is all organic.

Chase's 6 Month Update

Chase had his 6 month checkup yesterday. He is growing up so fast. He weighed in at an even 17 lbs and he measured 26.5 inches. He is just a little bit lighter than Brody was at this point.

Chase got off to a little bit of a slow start with baby food. We gave him carrots yesterday for the first time. He wasn't that big of a fan. Hopefully he gets the hang of it soon.





Brody has been a terrific big brother to Chase. We haven't had any jealousy issues which is a relief. I can't tell you how much he loves his little brother. Here is a video of him reading one of his favorite books, Go, Dog. Go!

Halloween

Brody has become a big fan of the Cars movies. So naturally, Brody was a member of Lightning McQueen's Pit Crew for Halloween, while Chase did a great job as Buzz Lightyear. The boys went Trick-or-Treating with cousin Jack in Coral Ridge. There were still some massive puddles from the floods the night before, but Brody and the gang toughed it out and got some great candy for Mommy and Daddy to enjoy.

Disney World

Brody and Chase took their first trip to Disney World last weekend. The whole family had a terrific trip. I must admit that I was a little concerned that Brody would be scared of the over-sized Disney characters, but he was very excited to see them and wasn't scared at all. Chase was great as usual. He isn't much of a fussy baby anyway, fortunately this trip was no different.

There is just so much to do at Disney World that you can't do it all in just one trip. We visited the Magic Kingdom and Epcot, so we will have to go back to see Animal Kingdom and Disney Hollywood Studios.

Brody's favorite ride was The Seas with Nemo & Friends at Epcot, but he really enjoyed just about everything we did.



I was a big fan of Epcot, thanks to the International Wine and Food Festival.









A special treat for Brody!

Pumpkin Patch

We visited the terrific pumpkin patch at the Bethany Christian School in Fort Lauderdale. Here are some pictures from our visit.

Chase's Baptism

Chase was baptized on October 8th at St. Anthony's Church in Fort Lauderdale. We had a great reception at The Melnicoff's house afterwards. Thank you so much to all the attended. It was a very special day.

Chase's godparents are Tara Melnicoff and Bill Kroski.







Here is a bonus picture of Chase wearing his Gators outfit. The problem is that we haven't won a game since he put it on. Uh oh!

Chase's 4 Month Checkup

Chase had his 4-month checkup a few weeks back. He is growing steadily. He is up to 15 lbs, 8 oz and he is 25 inches tall. He has been a little under the weather, but he is starting to feel much better now. His sickness is messing with his sleep routine. He has been waking up at around 6:30, which is about an hour earlier than usual. Lets hope this doesn't become 5:30 when daylight savings time goes away in a few weeks.

Visit with Carly and Landon

Chase has been doing great. He gets bigger and bigger everyday. His sleep patterns have been terrific during the day and at night. We thought Brody was a good sleeper, but Chase is just as good if not better.

Brody and Chase got to meet our friend Carly's son, Landon, for the first time. He is a cute kid and we had so much fun seeing them. Here are some pictures of our visit.











Here is a cute picture from our visit with Kim.



Finally, here are a few great pictures of Chase and Brody from a couple of weeks ago.