What's in a name

Remember when we did the giveaway a little while ago and I asked you to ask questions? Well, my dear friend, Kate, asked where Chase's name came from. I guess I've never really talked about it on here. I'll give you the long version :)

Hubby and I went to a baseball game in 2010. I think we had just found out I was pregnant. We definitely didn't know the sex of the baby. It felt like we would suggest a name to the other person and the other person would always veto it. We couldn't agree on any names! One of the players on the San Diego Padres at the time was named Chase Headley. I suggested the name Chase and Hubby didn't veto it but that was kind of the end of it.

Fast forward a few months and we have moved to nor cal and are looking at houses but still don't know the sex of the baby. I was convinced we were having a girl so my mother in law decided we would name her Izabella. She didn't know how popular the name was. So as a joke when we were looking at houses we would talk about where Izabella's room would be. I remember we went out to pizza and were talking about different names. My mother in law's maiden name is Ames and I suggested that name (this was before Ashley's bachelorette season). We have very close family friends whose last name is Chase and I remember that being suggested but again that was the end of it.

In December, I went to my first ob appointment in nor cal with my mom. Since I was 20 weeks at the time they wanted to do the ultra sound that day. Since hubby was at work mom and I closed our eyes when the tech went exploring to find out the sex of the baby. She printed a picture of the goods and wrote what the sex of the baby was and put it in an envelope. That night when Hubs got home we opened the envelope together in front of my parents and on video and then called his parents. I was so shocked when Hubby said, "It's a boy!"

We had already decided on our girl name so I was a little frustrated that we had to pick a boy name. We can all agree that boys are more difficult to name right? Since my name was the 11th most popular name the year I was born and I usually had another Megan in my class I wanted a more unique name. Hubby's name was #101 so he wanted a more popular name for our son. I ended up printing two copies of the top 100 baby names for 2009. I gave one copy to Hubs and I took the other. We were supposed to circle the names that we liked.

I remember starting off a little slow. There were a few names I liked and a few I didn't like and crossed off. At some point we said pick 10. After Hubby had sat down with the list he said there was a name that he really liked. I was excited he had found a name he really liked and hoped it was one I liked too. After we had circled our top 10 names, we compared our lists to see if we had any names the same. We had TWO names the same. You can see why it was hard for us to decide on a name we both liked!

I asked Hubby what the name was that he realized he liked a lot was and he said it was Chase. Luckily it was one of the two that we both liked. One Dec. 24th, 2010 we had pretty much decided we were going to name our son Chase. We didn't tell anyone at first because we didn't want to hear people's opinions or have people talk about the name behind our backs. We also kept the other name as a backup in case the baby arrived and didn't look like a Chase.

When we were admitted to the hospital we told them the baby's name was Chase and we never really discussed whether or not he looked like a Chase once he was born. We started calling him Chase the second he arrived.

Help! Pick my outfit for today!

Which outfit should I wear to the wedding we are going to today? The bride and bridesmaids are wearing cowboy boots and the groom and groomsmen are wearing jeans.

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I don't care it is September, I'm getting ready for Christmas!

Since we moved into a new house this year I figured why not put all the things I need on my Christmas list! I like to dream big!


My Christmas list so far:
Dslr
Workout video I can do with Chase
Bar stools
Sectional
Case for sunglasses
6 vinyl or non cloth placemats
Pizza cutter
Curtains
5ftx8ft beige rug

Sleep training

I think I might have said I wasn't going to talk about sleep any more. It is our issue and today I'm sharing some good news! Last time I think I asked about cry it out. I was exhausted from walking around with Chase and knew he needed to learn how to put himself to sleep. My sister-in-law's sister had the answer I was looking for.

She told me about the pick up/put down method which I tihnk is in an old version of the baby whisperer. When you see the baby is tired, they are rubbing their eyes or whatever they do when they are tired, you go in their room and do 15 minutes of quiet time. I'm sure you've heard the different bedtime routine things. We started Friday morning with nap #1. Our nap/bedtime routine/quite time is rocking in the rocking chair reading or listening to music. Sometimes he's too tired to sit and listen to me to read so we just rock and listen to music. After 15 minutes I swaddled him up turned on music, said, "It's bedtime, goodnight" and put him in his crib. The first time we did it I'm not sure if I did 15 minutes of quiet time. I also don't think he was tired enough. He hung out in his crib for 30 minutes before getting upset. Then it took him about 45 minutes to go to sleep. With the pick up/put down method you can go into their room and pick them up to calm them down as often as you like but you can walk around or jiggle them. She said it shouldn't take longer than 45 minutes for them to fall asleep.

I'll be honest it was awful. I thought he would do a lot less crying than he did. I'm not sure if we even needed to do this, but we did. It took him 55 minutes to fall asleep for nap #2. Things got all messed up that day and I was trying to put him down for nap #3 way too late. My sister-in-law's sister said they get 2.5 hours to nap. The crying/falling asleep part counts for the 2.5 hours. I think I made a mistake with that part the first day. My husband came home and that made things more difficult. It was taking longer than 45 minutes so we gave in and walked him around.

We tried again the next day with nap #1 and Chase fell asleep while I was rocking and reading. So we thought we had trained him. He was probably just tired for all the crying the day before. But the good news is that Chase and I are working on getting him to put himself to sleep. Today he put himself to sleep for naps 1 and 2 and didn't cry! I have faith that he will be putting himself to sleep for all his naps and bedtime soon!

I was reading about stranger anxiety on babycenter.com last night and read this article How do I teach my baby to soothe himself to sleep? I love this part, "You can't really teach your baby how to self-soothe, but you can provide him with the opportunity to teach himself. Given the right circumstances and the right stage of development, usually between 3 and 6 months of age, it will happen on its own. It's like learning to crawl: If you always carry your baby, he'll never have a chance to discover crawling, since he'll never be on the floor long enough to figure it out. It's the same thing with self-soothing: If you always nurse or rock your baby to sleep, he'll never have a chance to learn how to soothe himself to sleep." I also believe this, "What happens if you've given your baby plenty of chances to self-soothe and he just can't seem to do it? Take a step back and try to figure out why. Perhaps he's simply too young and doesn't yet have the developmental ability to self-soothe, just as a 3-month-old can spend hours on the living room floor yet still won't be able to crawl .In this case, wait a few days, weeks or even months before trying again. Or maybe your baby is too tired — and thus too overwrought — to settle down by himself. In this case, try moving his bedtime a bit earlier so he isn't a complete wreck by lights-out. Finally, think about whether you're really giving your baby an opportunity to find ways to soothe himself, or are rushing in to comfort him at his first peep and depriving him of the chance to figure it out on his own."

Question number two

The lovely Rebekah asked if I have always lived in California and what my favorite part about living here is.

My parents met, fell in love, and got married in California. They moved to South Dakota after the wedding for my Dad's job. He worked in the tv industry. After South Dakota they moved to Kansas where my Dad was a news anchor and they had me! (sidenote: My Mom never even thought of having my Dad stay in the hospital with her and I when I was born. He went to work the next day and announced my birth on the air) A few months later they packed up their two cats and me and headed back to California to be closer to family.

They ended up buying property and building a house in the same town as my mom's sister. Since I'm an only child growing up close to my cousins that are close in age to me was a lot like having sisters. When I was in 2nd grade we moved to a bigger house about a mile away from our first house. The new house was in a different school district so I changed school districts in 3rd grade.

In high school I wanted to have the four year college experience and I was desperate to move out! I went to college 90 minutes from my parents' house. It was just far enough away that I felt like I had left home. I went from a girl that was desperate to move out to a girl that talked to her parents on a daily basis. I think they were glad their only child fell in love with a local boy. All parents worry their child will fall in love with someone that lives far away right?

Well that local boy took a job after college 8 hours away from my parents' house in San Diego. We thought it would be a few year adventure and liked that he had a predictable schedule and wasn't traveling a lot. The economy tanked right after he got that job. He was lucky enough to hang on to the job, but it left us stuck in San Diego for four years. We had friends and family there but I missed my parents and cousins. I remember one year we didn't go home for thanksgiving I called them crying hysterically.

Obviously, we loved living close to the beach in San Diego. There are so many great restaurants and tons of things to do. The weather is wonderful. We experienced two pretty big earthquakes and were evacuated for a fire while living there.

When we started talking about starting a family, our plan was to ask for a job transfer after the baby was a year old. God had a different plan. Hubby got a job transfer to a location really close to where I grew up when I was 4 months pregnant.

We always planned to move back to be close to our families. We never knew we would be as close as we are. So we bought our house in a town that was first, close to work and Hubby wouldn't have to get stuck in traffic on the freeway, and also in a nice area with good schools and parks.

Since moving back it seems like we are always on the go and I love every second of it! We try to let Chase see his grandparents as often as we can. We love that we are close to San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Napa, Tahoe, Reno, etc. In San Diego you were close to LA and could drive to Vegas. We like that we don't really have to worry about hurricanes, tornadoes, and natural disasters like that.

Hope that answers your question!!! If you are a new follower and have any questions, introduce yourself and ask away!

Vlog number 2

Chase and I recorded a vlog answering questions from Caroline at Simply Smithwick's vlog.



Here are the questions you are supposed to answer:
1. How did you and your husband/bf meet?

2. What is your job?

3. Where are your favorite places to shop?

4. What is your favorite thing to do on a date?

5. What is your go-to meal to cook? (post recipe if possible)

You should record one too!

Question #1

When I hosted the giveaway recently I asked people that entered to ask a question. I figured it would give me stuff to blog about. The lovely Tara asked how I met hubby. I actually blogged about how our relationship started a few years ago so I should probably tell you all again.

The story begins my freshman year of college. I was a liberal studies major. As a freshman you have to take some general ed classes, but there are some teacher versions of some general ed classes as well. I chose to take the teacher versions whenever I could. The first day of my teacher biology class I sat down by some girls that looked nice. We started talking about what year we were and where we lived. I found out one of the girls lived in the same "village" as me. I said, "We should be friends!" (yes I am a dork, but that is why this girl, you, and everyone else love me) Honestly, that isn't something I would normally say. Definitely glad I did!

The girl I met in bio, lets call her R, and I did become friends. We had several classes together and lived really close to each other. She took another teacher psych class with a girl named B and they too became friends. When we were all deciding where to live my friends and R's friends coincidentally decided to live in the same apartment complex.

R and I became close friends. We talked about everything. Her roommates, their friend's their boyfriends, things they were up to in their classes, etc. Our sophomore year, R had a birthday party.


I have a terrible memory. We went out a lot in college. Lots of people had birthday parties. We took lots of pictures. Maybe I remember a lot of the details of R's party because we took pictures that night, I don't know. But I remember what I was wearing, how I did my hair, etc. I remember walking into my friend's kitchen and being introduced to B's boyfriend, Hubby! I also remember thinking, "Wow! He's hot!". You guys know, you have seen his pictures ;). But I was no longer in the business of home wrecking, so I think I took some jello shots and continued on my merry way.

Hubby remembers this night too. That is why we say it was love at first sight. He remembers meeting me and thinking I was pretty. He doesn't remember meeting any of my roommates (that is pretty strange because they were pretty hot!). Weird huh?!

I think I have some new followers. Don't be shy! Introduce yourself! If anyone has any more questions about me, the fam, or hubby and I, ask away!