Sunday Funnies

Man, I love this funny 2-year-old stage. Chase's been talking for a long time, but now she's really absorbing and repeating back everything she hears around her. We have hilarious conversation all day and I wish I could share everything she says but that post will be really really long since the child is basically a parrot. She's also a sweet little darling and loves to show her affection through both her action and words. Behold:

Whenever I'm out of her field of vision for a minute, even if it's for a short potty break, she will tell me when I return "I'm so happy to see you, Momma!" And it normally comes with a big hug. Oh, yeah, I have it very good.

She's been watching a lot of TV these past couple of months because I didn't feel well and picked up all kinds of funny things from "My Friends Tigger and Pooh" and "Blue's Clues." For example, if I'm being goofy around her, she will say "silly old Momma," and something that requires a bit of thoughts behind it gets "think, think, think" in her Thinking Chair. Oh, we also sing "The Wonder Pets" songs all day long. They are surprisingly very catchy.

I finally caved and let Wil turned her car seat around on the drive home back from Paris. My goal was to keep her rear-facing until 35 lbs, but it proved to be very challenging physically for both Chase and I to accomplish. She's gotten so tall that I had a hard time putting her in her seat without bumping her head on the door frame several times before I could finally cram all of her long limbs into that confined space. Plus with me getting bigger everyday and easily winded, the task of going anywhere in a car was becoming more and more dreadful. Chase didn't really sleep much in the car anymore either, so any long drive with her was increasingly traumatizing for both the screaming kid and stressed out parents, and we thought she might be a touch more cooperative if she could see where she was going and things that were around. The first time she saw her forward-facing seat, her eyes got as big as giant saucers. Wil was still making a few adjustments to the straps and she exclaimed "Papa turned my seat around!" She's still saying that excitedly every time we get into the car, which only adds to Wil's "My Papa is My Hero" points.

The first things she saw in her "new" seat were cows grazing in a pasture. That was it. For the next 4 hours, it was "I Spy" but only with cows. White ones, brown ones, spotted ones, big ones, little ones, momma with babies,...etc. And because the first cows she saw in her seat were from the outskirt of Paris, the first time we saw a herd of cows after our trip, she informed me that we were back in Paris again! A few days ago after an outing with her father that took them through a scenic (cow) route, she came bouncing into the house and could barely contain her excitement telling me that the cows were happy to see her and wagging their tails. Tonight on our way back from dinner, we had to stop and let her say hi to our village cows. "Look at the cows, Baby" she told her baby doll while holding her up to the window. "They are playing and the babies are drinking milk!" We couldn't stay long because a storm was coming through and our boys weren't a big fan. As I was telling her that we had to go, she yelled out "night night Cows. I have to go to the house to check on Brutus and Paddy. Storms make them nervous."

My neighbor has a couple of horses that live across the street from our backyard. Chase loves them and we have to visit them whenever we can. Today we witnessed one of the horses successfully operated something that looked like a water fountain to me (although Wil called it a water trough) and were mighty impressed. Chase told him "good job, Mr. Horse. I'm very proud of you!"

In the car, Chase only wants to hear one song--"Papa Song," which is actually Usher's "U Got It Bad." One day Wil was singing along with the CD and I suppose she just thought that Papa was Usher. It was cute about the first 500 times, but now Papa is desperate to show her that he also sings variety of other songs that she can choose from.

I can go on and on about this amazing little kid, but I think I'm going to head to bed early and upload a video of her singing the Beatles' "I Will," which she has dubbed "Chasey Song" because I had been singing it to her since she was still in utero. It's beyond adorable and worth the wait :).