Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Chase and Nanaw's adventure for Wednesday was a visit to the Train House. Chase's first activity was to run around with the circus train -- he loves to do that. Miss Linda was so happy to see Chase and Nanaw, as usual. Chase played with the train tables and went down the slide. For a long while, Chase and Nanaw worked on building a train track. Chase is getting really good at knowing how to put together the track, and he seems to have fun figuring it out. Once again, Chase and Nanaw spent a long time in the reading area, reading the Chugga Chugga Choo Choo book and playing with Miss Linda's stuffed puppy and bunnies. Sometimes Chase is so sweet and gentle with the stuffed animals, and other times he pretend blows things up and uses his pretend guns to shoot things -- what a split personality he has. Chase got his popcorn, and then he and Nanaw went into the caboose for Chase to play with the typewriter. It was another delightful day at the Train House. But later in the day, something not so delightful happened: Because of a severe thunderstorm, the power went out in Columbia at about 3:40 in the afternoon. Mama and Daddy picked Chase up because they were going to dinner in Millstadt with some of Mama's friends. They came back to Nanaw's after dinner to have Daddy manually close her garage door because of the power outage. Chase's power went back on at 9:30 p.m., and Nanaw's power went back on about 10 p.m. Nanaw was very happy to have electricity again, and she really appreciates electricity even more now.

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Chase started out the day in his usual way -- at least usual lately. After Mama left for work, Chase went to his room and turned on his television. He seems to want to play in his room and watch TV in there. Nanaw and Chase had breakfast together in his room, then Nanaw worked with HTC on getting her email fixed. Next Chase and Nanaw got ready to go to Powder Valley. It had rained a little in the morning on the way to Powder Valley, and Chase hoped to use the new umbrella Nanaw bought for him at Warrenton Walmart Sunday, but the rain had stopped by the time they got to Powder Valley. They walked on the trail first, before going in to look at the displays. Inside, they visited the frogs and the turtles. Chase was excited to see the huge turtles swimming around in their aquariums. The Powder Valley staff had just cleaned the aquariums and fed the turtles, and the turtles were much more active than usual. Chase played hide and seek downstairs by beaver display, calling it his hiding place. Chase had a nice, long nap today -- that helps keep him in a good mood.

Monday, July 11, 2016

Mama spent the night at Auntie LaLa's house, so Daddy brought Chase over to Nanaw's house on Monday morning. Chase had his new friend Duke, the puppy from The Secret Life of Pets with him, and Daddy said Chase hadn't turned loose of him since Mama got him for Chase on Saturday at McDonald's. Chase and Nanaw spent a lot of time in Chase's room today playing together. Nanaw even moved another TV in there so she can watch her programs while Chase watches his programs -- Chase thought that was a good idea. Later in the morning, Chase and Nanaw went to the little park by the library. A little boy and girl were there playing, brother and sister probably. Chase had a good time playing with them for awhile. Then for some unknown reason, the boy began to growl and roar at Chase, and evidently it scared Chase. He came over to Nanaw and said he wanted to go home -- something he never ever does. So they left and went home to play in Chase's room. Chase seemed to still be really tired from his busy day yesterday, and he took a nice, long nap. When Nanaw took Chase home, he wanted to play with the new Play Dough stamper toy Mama bought for him when she went shopping with Auntie LaLa. Mama also bought Chase some gummy things that looked like pretend band-aids -- very funny.

Sunday, July 10, 2016

Nanaw went to visit Chase Sunday evening when she got back from Aspenhof. Mama was at Auntie LaLa's, and Chase and Daddy had just returned from an exciting day of adventures. Nanaw had adventures, too. Uncle Mike, Aunt Becky, cousin Robbie and Cheyenne came out to Aspenhof to get rid of the huge tree branch that fell down during a storm a couple of months ago, blocking access to the front deck. Nanaw is excited to have it gone. Chase and Daddy went to Grandma Pat's house first on Sunday, then to Uncle Chris's house. At Uncle Chris's, Chase and Daddy went swimming, and Chase got to swim with Elias and Cessie. Daddy said Chase ran around playing all day and really wore himself out. Chase and Nanaw played with Chase's new toys: Duke from McDonald's, from the movie The Secret Life of Pets and two Paw Patrol pups (Marshall and Chase) Mama bought for Chase at Walmart on Saturday for sleeping without a diaper for seven days in a row.

Saturday, July 9, 2016

Nanaw went to visit Chase early on Saturday before going out to Aspenhof. Chase, Mama and Nanaw played with Mama’s Ants in the Pants game, once Mama found it. She looked all over for it with no luck. Then she decided to look again in the bottom of the hall closet. And miracle of miracles – she found the game in the closet. Chase was very happy to play, but as usual, he made up his own rules and played the way he wanted to play—funny kid. Next, Chase wanted to play color changing cars, and Daddy suggested they take the cars and water outside so that Chase could splash water wherever he wanted. Everybody went outside to watch Chase splash water, Then Mama went to the grocery store, and Nanaw left to go to Aspenhof. On Sunday, Mama was going to Auntie LaLa’s house for a sleepover; Chase and Daddy were going to Grandma Pat’s and Uncle Chris’s house. Daddy said they probably would be home about seven, and Nanaw said she would come visit then, if it was okay.

Friday, July 8, 2016

On Friday, when Nanaw picked up Chase, he gave her a hug, unsolicited hug, something that's very unusual for Chase. The hug made Nanaw so happy. Chase and Nanaw had their previously planned adventure of a trip to the Train House. They left home early to get there before the Train House opened so that the Creation Station wouldn't be sold out. There was a line of people waiting to get in, and Chase has never stood in a line like that at the Train House. So he was very fussy about it and started to cry, saying he didn't want to wait. Nanaw managed to calm him down a little, and fortunately, the doors opened soon after that. It turned out that there wasn't a very big crowd at the 9:15 Creation Station session so Nanaw and Chase wouldn't have had to get there so early. At the Creation Station, they played with the tracks and the train tables. They sat in the reading area and read the Chugga Choo Choo book again. Chase had found the Dalmatian puppy and the four baby bunnies, and he lay down with them in the reading area and pretended they were taking a nap. Chase and Nanaw had promised Mama that they would make a craft for her at the Train House so they sat with Miss Linda and made an ice cream truck. The main thing on the craft was an ice cream cone with chalk-colored cotton balls covering the ice cream area. Chase delivered the craft to Mama when Nanaw took him home, and Mama was very happy about the craft.