Monday, July 31, 2023

On Monday morning, Chase and Nanaw waited till after breakfast to go for their walk because it was in the sixties. Chase played with his tube toys and joined them all together, as shown in the first two pictures. As they've done in the past few days, Chase and Nanaw had breakfast at the kitchen counter, rather than Chase eating by the computer. Nanaw is very happy about the no-device experiment. It's really good for Chase and helps Chase and Nanaw do things together and have good times together. They did an unusual thing on their walk: Chase took along his remote-controlled car, and running it was lots of fun. Unfortunately, Chase didn't have enough time to charge it completely so halfway through the walk, the car stopped running. Then, he had to carry it in the guys' bag with Lars. So he's charging it overnight tonight so it can work for the whole walk tomorrow. He's also bringing another remote-controlled car tomorrow. Chase watched Oddballs and Captain Underpants before school. School went well, with Chase doing a great job on math and English and state capitals. When Nanaw took Chase home, she told Mama he'd been saying for a few days that he had a headache. Mama is going to have him take his glasses with him and wear them when he watches TV.

Sunday, July 30, 2023

Chase and Daddy went to church on Sunday morning, before Chase's major, great Sunday adventure. One of the boys on Chase's baseball team was having his birthday party at Raging Rivers, a water park near Grafton, Illinois. Chase and Mama spent more than four hours there and had a great time. Mama even went on some of the activities. Chase said there were four slides, and he went on all of them. He said there was also a swirling pool. Mama said Chase really wore himself out. On the way home, they stopped at Jack in the Box in Collinsville, Illinois and got Tiny Tacos for Chase and Mama and tacos and a hamburger for Daddy. Mama said if she'd known Nanaw's diet was over, she would have gotten Nanaw some Tiny Tacos also. Well, maybe next time. When Mama and Chase got home from their adventure, Nanaw came over to visit. Chase and Nanaw played storms and disasters in his room. They have two new ones they hadn't played before -- volcano and earthquake. They also invented hail bullets, which Chase really liked. At 7:30, Chase was going to call his friend Hunter and play Roblox on the phone. 

Saturday, July 29, 2023

On Saturday morning, Chase had an eye doctor's appointment to practice putting in the contacts. He's been practicing with Mama's old contacts. He's getting close but hasn't quite succeeded yet. Later in the day, Chase and Mama went to the swimming pool, along with his friend Hunter. They had a great time, as always. Nanaw came over in the evening because her power was out, and she needed to work on website stuff for her church. Chase was in the living room, watching baseball games on TV with Daddy. Nanaw told Chase she'd play with him as soon as she was done with her work. She sat at their kitchen table with her laptop and used their electricity and WiFi. She did the most critical part first for the livestream, then decided to do all of the work she does each week for the website. When she was done, Chase and Nanaw went into his room to play. Nanaw wanted to read The One and Only Bob but Chase wanted to wait till next week. Nanaw said that was all right because they'd read 20 pages on Friday. They want to finish reading the book by August 15, the day before Chase goes back to school. 

Friday, July 28, 2023

On their morning walk, Chase took along Tee Tee, as shown in the first picture. Chase and Nanaw didn't see the kitty, and the book is still in the library book box. Later in the morning, they took Chase's remote control car outside to the driveway and played with it. They had a lot of fun zooming everywhere. Nanaw suggested that they take the car on their Monday morning walk, and Chase agreed that would be fun. Chase, Mama and Daddy were going to the demolition derby on Friday evening at the Monroe County Fair with Brady's family and Hunter's family. So Chase and Nanaw played demolition derby. Nanaw got out the baseball field from Chase's baseball players' set and spread it out on the living room floor. Then she put cars around it, added some fans, and brought in the fire truck and police car. Chase had a great time crashing the cars into each other. Mama said Chase had a lot of fun at the demolition derby and county fair, despite the heat. Chase, Brady and two of their friends, Sean and Ethan, walked around together, playing games. Chase won two rubber bananas at the duck pond, He told Nanaw that his lemur Lars was excited to get the bananas, his favorite food. 

Thursday, July 27, 2023

Chase and Nanaw took their walk on Thursday morning before breakfast because it was getting hot. After breakfast, they played one of Chase's favorite things -- restaurant. They moved his kitchen, the dishes, the food, and his stuffed animals out to the living room and set everything up. They also  brought out the money and the credit cards that they'd made. The first picture below is the restaurant setup. The second picture is Biggie the lemur with his meal of chicken and corn, with grapes for dessert. Nanaw helped the animals with their orders. Chase was the waiter and the chef. They stopped playing with the restaurant for a while in order to go to Dollar Tree. There they bought a tube toy for Chase, and one of those grow things that you put in water to grow; this one was either an alligator or a crocodile. When they got back to Nanaw's house, they played more restaurant, then put everything away. Chase watched Teaching in Room 9, and they were delighted to see Mrs. Forth doing a segment on writing. She's always been Chase's favorite so they're going to try to watch her again. Chase watched more of the Oddballs series, and he's just fascinated with it. School went well, with Chase getting better and better at math. The device-free days are going perfectly. Nanaw is so glad they're spending time playing together rather than Chase spending so much time on the computer. The third picture is a selfie that Chase took for Nanaw. 

Wednesday, July 26, 2023

Nanaw thought about the YouTube issues and the things she'd seen Chase watch on YouTube. On their morning walk, Chase told her a lot of the yelling and screaming guys on YouTube also did a lot of swearing. So Nanaw decided she didn't want Chase watching YouTube. As she thought about it, she realized she didn’t want Chase to spend so much time on the computer when he's at her house. So she told Chase that today would be a device-free day. He cried a lot about that at first but then he calmed down and was okay. Nanaw explained to him that she didn't want him to spend so much time on the computer. And the day ended up working out perfectly. Chase had breakfast with Nanaw at the kitchen counter and watched a movie, Captain Underpants. Then Chase went to play in his room, along with Nanaw. He played with his Ultimate Garage and then started watching a Netflix series called Oddballs. He ended up really liking the series and watched nine episodes. He and Nanaw had lunch at the kitchen counter, and it was really nice. Nanaw enjoyed spending more time than usual with Chase. School went well. Mama picked Chase up at 4:30 because Nanaw had the Spectrum technician there to fix the Internet.

Tuesday, July 25, 2023

On Tuesday morning, Chase and Nanaw had breakfast before they took their walk. And they saw the kitty! They were so excited to see their friend but very worried about him wandering around in the street. Chase and Nanaw don’t know why someone would let their kitty go out in the street. It's too dangerous. Mama sent two pop tarts along for Chase. He had one for breakfast, and then Nanaw said he could have the other one for tomorrow's breakfast. But he must have forgotten about that because he ate the second one as a snack. School went well except they ran out of time and didn't get to read The One and Only Bob. Chase showed Nanaw some videos that he had uploaded to YouTube: one of Lars, a couple of Roblox games, and a fireworks one. Nanaw told Chase he should ask Mama and Daddy's permission to upload videos to YouTube, and he wasn't very happy about that. He texted Mama about but not Daddy. Mama said that after Nanaw left, they would talk about it. Mama sent Nanaw a text saying that they weren't happy about Chase uploading videos without asking their permission. So Chase couldn't upload any videos for a month, and then they would talk about it. So they didn't say no. And if Chase promises to never do something like that without their permission, maybe they'll let him upload videos to YouTube.

Monday, July 24, 2023

Chase and Nanaw went on their morning walk really early on Monday, even before breakfast. They didn't see the kitty cat and the book was still in the box book library. Chase had a sausage and pasta frozen meal for lunch, and he liked it. School was good. Chase did some pages from the new English book and math book. He's doing well with the Spanish writing and the prayer writing. He's also doing well with the decimal problems, even the more difficult ones Nanaw found online. He's going to take the decimal test one more time this summer, right before he goes back to school. Mama is off on August 11, and they may go to Columbia Bottoms to look at the sunflowers. They went last year but couldn't find any sunflowers. In the evening, Mama asked Chase if he wanted to go swimming. Chase said yes and asked Daddy if he wanted to go. Daddy didn’t feel like going so Chase said he didn't want to go. Then Mama said she would go swimming with him, and he changed his mind and decided to go. They swam for about an hour, and both Mama and Chase had a good time.

Sunday, July 23, 2023

Daddy and Chase went to church on Sunday morning, and it was Chase's turn to serve. Later in the day, Mama and Chase went to the Columbia swimming pool for about an hour and a half, which made Chase very happy. Mama played with Chase, which also made him happy. They mostly played with the ball in the water. Mama sent the three cool pictures below to Nanaw. For dinner, Mama made one of Chase's favorites, homemade hamburger helper. Mama wanted to send some of the leftovers to Nanaw's house for Chase's lunch but he said no. So Mama put some in the freezer, hoping he would change his mind in the future.  Nanaw came to visit around six, after having dinner with Papaw in the cemetery. It's 18 years ago today that he went to heaven. Chase and Nanaw played Math bingo with the guys and had lots of fun doing that. Then they played with the fish thing Chase got from Shedd's Aquarium in Chicago. It has lots of cool things, like sharks, a lobster, a turtle, a walrus, a stingray, a starfish, an octopus, and other sea creatures. Then Chase and Nanaw played fishing with the guys, using the snakes as their fishing rods. Next Mama went to Dairy Queen and got a caramel thing for herself and blizzards for Chase and Daddy. Chase was happy about the chocolate milk Mama got for him this week -- it's the kind that he thinks tastes like chocolate ice cream. LOL

Saturday, July 22, 2023

Mama said they left Chicago about 8:30 a.m. Saturday morning, and she thought they'd be home by 2.  But they got home about 1:30. At 2 p.m., Mama took Chase over to the other Chase's house for the baseball team's swim party. Chase said the whole team was there. He had a great time, and he even got in the hot tub, even though he doesn't usually like hot tubs. Mama and Chase stayed till a little after five. All the boys got baseball cards of the team and extra ones of themselves; Chase gave Nanaw one of the Chase baseball cards. They went to McDonald's to get dinner, and Mama called Nanaw to tell her when they would be home so Nanaw could come visit. Mama, Chase and Nanaw sat together at the kitchen table while Mama and Chase told Nanaw all about the trip to Chicago. They bought Nanaw a souvenir cup with the sightseeing sights on it. Mama, Daddy and Chase said it was a wonderful trip, and they want to go back again. Daddy wants to take a river cruise on the Chicago River. Mama reminded Chase that he's serving in church tomorrow; he'd forgotten. After Mama and Chase had finished telling Nanaw all about the trip, Chase and Nanaw went into Chase's room to play storms and disasters with Chase's guys. Chase was happy because Mama promised to take him to the Columbia swimming pool tomorrow. That boy really loves to swim! The first picture below is from yesterday -- Chase in the Chicago hotel room. The second picture is at the baseball team swim party. The third picture is Chase tonight. And the fourth and fifth photos are Chase's baseball card.

Friday, July 21, 2023

Mama says: "The hotel has free breakfast. Today they had bacon and tater tots. Will likes their cheesy eggs. They have bagels, muffins, etc. each day and some good pound cake thing. This morning, I took a walk for about 20 minutes and found a grocery store and two Subway shops, plus I found the place for us to catch the train to Wrigley. The boys walked back to the store with me and got sodas. We left around 10 to catch the train to Wrigley. The game is at 1:20 and the Cubs pitcher is really good. Although the Cards lost yesterday, it was cool to see a game at Wrigley and to see Robbie's Claudia. We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Chase and I liked our tacos but Will, not so much. When we get home, Chase is going to a baseball team swim party at the other Chase's house." Nanaw tried to send the picture of Sam and Sylvester on their walk several times to Mama but the picture wouldn't go through.

Thursday, July 20, 2022

Mama texted Nanaw that yesterday she saw a small Yorkie in a stroller -- so Mama can't tease Nanaw about her cat stroller anymore. On Thursday, they went to the Bean, the aquarium, and the Promenade, and then played miniature golf,  They walked everywhere, and Mama said she had over 25,000 steps on her Fitbit. Here's what Mama said: "I woke up at 5:30 and Chase was awake - it’s a little dark for him to sleep. He’s up and dressed already!! We went to Pizzeria Uno for lunch -- it's a block over. Chase had spaghetti with huge meatballs, which were good. Will and I had deep-dish pizza. We have leftovers for later. We're going to go see if the lobby has their happy hour again. My feet were hurting so after lunch, I laid down and watched TV while Will and Chase went down to the pool. Chase brought all the guys in to snuggle with me. Will walked to Shake Shack to get shakes and cheese fries. Chase swam for another 30 minutes in the evening." Tomorrow, they're going to a day baseball game at Wrigley Field to watch the Cardinals play the Cubs. Mama will probably make friends with some Cubs fans like she did in St. Louis at Busch Stadium. 

Wednesday, July 19, 2023

Mama and Chase brought Sam, Sylvester, and Tyler over to Nanaw's house on Wednesday morning for their sleepover with Nanaw while Mama, Daddy, and Chase go to Chicago for a major sightseeing tour. They'd been there earlier in the year for a hockey tournament and wanted to go back because Chase had heard about the Bean but didn't get to see it. (The Bean -- its official name is Cloud Gate -- is one of the largest outdoor structures and weighs 110 tons. Its mirror-like surface reflects people, trees, lights, sky, and everything around it. It's shaped like a kidney bean, hence the nickname The Bean.) Here's what Mama said: "When we got to Chicago our room wasn’t ready. We left our stuff with the valet and walked around a bit. We went to Sugar Factory- Chase got a lot of jelly bellies and I got chocolate-covered almonds. After we got our stuff in the room and chilled, we went to the hotel lobby for happy hour - the lobby is on 6!?! Chase had 2 breadsticks. (They had soup, salad, chips, and cheese) Then we walked to Navy Pier. Chase had cheese fries, and Will and I had burgers - all very good. We walked back (about a 25-minute walk each way), then went to the pool around 8:30. It was cold so I didn’t swim long. Chase and Will swam for about 30 minutes." The fourth picture below is of the view of Chicago from their hotel room that Chase took and sent to Nanaw.

Tuesday, July 18, 2023

Chase and Nanaw didn't go for their walk on Tuesday morning because Nanaw had to get the house ready for the cleaning lady. At 10 a.m., they had an appointment at the eye doctor's for Chase to again practice trying to put contact lenses in his eyes. One time, he got really close. The lady, Courtney, who is helping him is extremely patient and helpful and kind. She says Chase is patient, too, and is really determined and trying. She says he'll eventually be able to do it. Mama will set up another appointment when they get back from Chicago. Chase and Nanaw went downstairs a little before noon. They had school from 2 to 4 in the schoolroom. Chase brought the guys with him. School was good. Nanaw switched things around by starting with reading The One and Only Bob. That's usually the final thing each day. They did some work in the new English workbook and the new math workbook.  Mama, Daddy and Chase are leaving for Chicago tomorrow morning at 10. Before that, Mama is bringing Sam, Sylvester, and Tyler over to Nanaw's house for their three-day sleepover. 

Monday, July 17, 2023

When Mama brought Chase over to Nanaw's house on Monday morning, she brought along his groceries, even though he's only going to be at Nanaw's two days this week. Chase brought along his contact solution so he can practice holding his eyes open and pretend he's putting contact lenses on his eyes. He has another eye doctor appointment at 10 o'clock tomorrow to work on this again, and Nanaw is going to take him. Mama said she'd arranged to purchase a membership in the Columbia swim club so now they can go swimming whenever they want. She arranged with Brady and Hunter's mom for them all to meet at the pool in the early evening and swim together. Chase and Nanaw didn't go for the walk because the weather looked so awful, like it would rain again. Nanaw had a 10 o'clock appointment so She took Chase over to his house. Daddy asked Chase if he'd walked, and Chase said no. So he and Daddy went for a walk around the neighborhood. When Nanaw picked Chase up, she told him she had to go to Walgreens and to the library. Of course, Chase wasn't too happy about that but it all worked out because at the library he decided he wanted POP Tarts from the vending machine, and he was totally happy after that. In school today, Nanaw used the two new workbooks in English and math she bought. They're good but they'll be skipping some of the pages to find things that will interest Chase and teach him new things.

Saturday, July 15, and Sunday, July 16, 2023

Interestingly enough, Mama, Daddy, Chase and Nanaw all had a time away from home on Saturday and Sunday -- and mostly not together. Nanaw came to visit Chase on Saturday morning, and she and Tyler, the cat, watched him play Job Simulator/Restaurant and baseball downstairs on his VR, and then they played with the stuffed animals upstairs. Chase and Daddy left a little after 11 a.m. on Saturday morning to go out to Silex to spend the night with Elias and his dad. They took Sam and Sylvester with them. Also there in addition to Elias was Uncle Chris (whose house they stayed at), Uncle Chuck, and Uncle Will Bill. It was a guys' weekend. Daddy and Chase brought KFC for lunch, and Chase had more for dinner. Elias's swimming pool was open with a new liner, and Chase says they went swimming twice, which he really liked. Chase had brought along his Wiffle ball bats and balls and his strike zone. He thinks Elias liked his strike zone, and he did well with it. Chase said they left Elias's house at about 10 a.m. Sunday morning. Mama's adventure was to go to Uncle Mike's house for a driveway party with Uncle Mike's neighbor Kent. Before the party, Mama and Uncle Mike walked to Paul's Market to look around. (Papaw and Nanaw used to go there to buy wonderful steaks.) Aunt Becky made popcorn for the driveway party. Then Aunt Becky made her wonderful homemade pizza for dinner. Mama slept in Irina's bed (Irina is still in Europe) and got to see the cat, Tucker. The German Shepherds, Cheyenne and Apache, came to visit Mama, and she liked that. On Sunday morning, Mama and Uncle Mike went to Old Towne Donuts and bought lots of delicious donuts. Mama brought some home -- three of them had sprinkles and those were for Chase. Nanaw went out to the little house on Saturday and came back Sunday and went to visit Chase in the late afternoon. For a while, she watched him play his Xbox. Next they played hockey with the stuffed animals. Then Chase wanted to go in the living room to rest. He and Elias stayed up till 11:30 Saturday night, and Chase was really tired so Nanaw went home. 

Friday, July 14, 2023

Nanaw did some things around the house on Friday morning, and she and Chase ended up not going on their walk until after 9:30. It was really hot and humid outside so Nanaw took a bottle of frozen with her to keep her cool. They stopped and talked to neighbor Steve for a minute (he's the one who owns Jose and Puss-Puss, two cats who have e run of the neighborhood and often visit Nanaw's cats). Steve said he remembered when Chase was little and Nanaw would take him for walks in the stroller. Again, Chase ran a lot of the way home -- very fun. For lunch, Chase had another one of the frozen dinners Mama bought for him. This one was cheeseburger mac. Today, instead of doing the math packets, Chase did the decimals test again. And he got every right -- a 100 -- an A+. Quite a difference from the 71 -- D -- he got in class. He was very excited about it, and so were Mama and Nanaw. Now, the only time he'll take the decimals test again is the last Friday of summer school. But he'll continue to practice decimals in summer school. Nanaw ordered another workbook from Amazon; this one is a 6th-grade math workbook. He drank almost all of his water today so that's good. He was in a fun mood today, and he and Nanaw had a good time.

Thursday, July 13, 2023

Chase and Nanaw went early for their morning walk, going before breakfast because Nanaw has an appointment this morning at 9:30. No kitten and the book is still there. Chase has been doing something cute on their way back to the house: He runs home. Mama and Daddy had been wanting him to run to get more exercise so he seems to enjoy running back home. They also have been after Chase to drink more water. So Nanaw gave him a jug of water with 32 ounces for him to drink today. He'll also drink 16 ounces of milk, so he'll have at 48 ounces of fluids. The two pictures below are of Chase with the 32 ounces of water and then the empty jug. He was very proud of himself for drinking all his water. He's also very excited about his adventure this coming weekend. He and Daddy are spending Saturday night at Elias's house out in Silex. Mama is spending Saturday night at Uncle Mike's house, so they're all having adventures. Chase did really well in school today. As usual, he did especially well in his English worksheets. Nanaw bought an English workbook from Amazon that will arrive Saturday. Chase and Nanaw were running out of free online worksheets. He's getting better and better at math so that makes Nanaw happy. We had some stuffed animal problems today. First, Nanaw found Lars on the couch and took him over to Chase's house. Then later in the evening, Mama texted Nanaw that they couldn't find Tee Tee. Nanaw found him on the dining room table amidst the school papers. Chase and Nanaw are going to have to be more diligent about making sure all the stuffed animals make it home safely.

Wednesday, July 12, 2023

Nanaw stayed in bed later than Chase on Wednesday morning. When Nanaw got up, she was surprised and happy to see that Chase had fixed his own breakfast. He fixed Froot Loops cereal and chocolate milk. Nanaw told him where to find the string cheese in the fridge and told him she'd give him his vitamins in a few minutes. They went the kitten way for their walk and still no kitten. They checked the library box and saw that Nanaw's book was still there. For lunch, Chase had one of his very favorites, Cheetos Mac and Cheese. He also had broccoli and applesauce. In his math pages for school, Nanaw had added some more difficult decimal division problems. She used ChatGPT to provide some difficult division problems and ChatGPT came through. Chase had a 7 p.m. hockey lesson. Mama thinks Chase isn't drinking enough water, so Nanaw is going to fill up a container each day for him to drink. 

Tuesday, July 11, 2023

Chase and Nanaw went the kitten way for their walk on Tuesday morning but no kitten was in sight. For lunch, Chase had 5-cheese zita, one of his favorites. Nanaw had a 1 p.m. appointment so she took Chase over to his house at 12:45 and picked him up at about 2 o'clock. They started school a few minutes after 2. Chase is doing well in math; he's studying decimals, fractions and equations and getting almost all the answers correct. Nanaw was excited that Chase was spending the night with her. Mama and Daddy were going to the Sunset Overlook for the Queen of Hearts fundraiser for Chase's school. In the evening, Chase wanted to watch the All-Star game at Nanaw's house. He couldn’t watch it at his house because it was on channel 2 and Direct TV is not currently carrying channel 2. Chase wanted Sonic for dinner (as always) so they went to the drive-through. Chase had 2 pretzel twists, cheddar bites and a Sonic Blast with M&Ms. They watched the game in the computer lab on the TV, and Chase also watched it on the computer on YouTube. YouTube was ahead of the TV broadcast so Chase knew before Nanaw did that the National League won for the first time in 12 years. Mama sent Chase's Halloween jammies, one of Nanaw's favorites, so Nanaw was happy.