Chase is 15 months old!

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL WHO READ THIS BLOG!

We have started to celebrate St. Nicholas day as a way to create traditions that we celebrate in our Bloomington home. St. Nicholas brought Chase some animal refrigerator magnets and they have been a hit! We also celebrated St. Nick's day with our friends Chelsea, Oliver, and Quentin and had a lovely time. We had a vegan feast to accommodate our guests and it was delicious!

At 15 months, Chase is up to all sorts of changes. As this picture (above) demonstrates, one of them happens to be assigning sounds to animals. This means that Chase primarily "moos" at most animals, though Oliver taught him how to growl, too. Chase is also quite adept at pointing and saying "this" as a "please may I have whatever I am pointing at" phrase. It definitely helps to have him communicating a little more. He is walking full-time now, meaning my heart stops 5-10 times a day as he totally wipes out and I'm convinced he has injured his brain. So far, so good.

THE BIGGEST NEWS?!? Chase is mostly sleeping through the night. Cue the Hallelujah Chorus, see the heavens break open with angels smiling down upon us. It finally happened. It only takes a long sleeve cotton onesie, fleece footed jammies, a fan, a small heater, and sometimes the humidifier to make it happen, but hey! It IS possible. We are starting to feel human again, but I suspect it will take some time before we feel totally normal.
Chase has been enjoying interacting with the Christmas decorations in our home. The aluminum snow flakes in the picture above are from my Grandma Dunnuck. We put them up in the arch between our living room and kitchen and they flutter as people walk through. Ryan and Chase have created a game where they blow on them to make them twirl. Adorable.
Chase also loves the nativity scene (not pictured). I grew up constructing an elaborate nativity scene with any animal one could think of taking part. While our nativity scene isn't quite as elaborate, Chase loves looking at the sheep, cows, donkeys, and camels. He loves looking at the ornaments on the tree, too. He has learned that Santa Claus goes "ho ho ho", which sounds more like "go go go" coming from Chase. He also finds things to "moooo" at on the tree, though we are unsure of the association. The bottom 1/3 is undecorated except for a few bells that Chase is allowed to put on and take off. He has been a very good listener about not touching or pulling on the tree. I'm pretty shocked!
I couldn't help but put this picture in. Chase and Ryan are two peas in a pod. I couldn't be happier to see them loving each other.
This is Chase in his Christmas sweater pre-family photo shoot. He's 15 months old now, and I can hardly believe that he was just a little squirt last year. Time has flown by.
I love this picture. I hope it is on our holiday card (should we get organized enough to make one).
We wish you all a very merry Christmas and the happiest 2011. Thank you for being part of our lives!
Love to you all,
Elizabeth, Ryan, and Chase