Drew @ 29 Months

Bless your heart, sweet boy. Your world has been turned upside down in the last 4 weeks, and you've handled it better than any of us expected. Your love for Hannah is so evident! You ask almost every day to hold her and rock her, kiss her, and pat her. You say, "Bless Hannah!" when she sneezes and if she starts crying, you say, "Okay, Hannah. Okay..." However, if she starts crying while your movie is playing, you start saying, "Noooo, Hannah! Hear TV!!" Quite funny!

Several of us have noticed that you've seemed to calm down a little bit in the past week. It's a nice and welcomed change since you go "90 to nothing" all day long! You're minding better most of the time, but you still go nuts when company comes over. You'll do anything for attention when a new person sets foot in the house--including hit your head on the floor. Yes, you do that. ;)

My favorite recent improvement is your eating habits! Mr. Picky Pants has decided he likes something other than goldfish, hot dogs, and chicken nuggets. In the past week you've tried (and liked!) lasagna, enchiladas, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, and fish sticks. Woo hoo! It's a start!

You still love to help with any and everything, especially laundry. You have some crazy sensitive ears and hear each time the washer or dryer stops, and you immediately let us know about it. You love changing the clothes out and then putting the clean ones in the living room floor and rolling in them. Funny boy! You also love to help with anything in the kitchen: stirring something, mixing, pushing buttons, etc.

You are learning so much! You are saying 7-8 word sentence out of the blue. Seriously, 4 months ago you could barely say more than a few words. Now you're making full sentences and telling short stories. I LOVE IT!

You are very interested in the potty even though we weren't pushing it AT ALL. You almost always poopoo in the potty now (yay for fewer disgusting diaper changes!!) and usually only teetee in 2 diapers a day. You stay dry for long periods of time now, minus the nighttime. We're so proud of you! You've basically potty trained yourself.

Colors are your favorite thing right now. You name every color on every item you see. The ones you know best are: orange, red, green, blue, black, white, purple, pink, and yellow. Brown and black confuse you a bit, but you're getting it.

You count some now. You make it to 6 without a problem but then you skip to 9. ;) However, you can recognize all your single digit numbers plus the number ten when written out. There are certain letters you know and will verbally recognize them when you see them somewhere. You impress us every day!

You dislike having your picture made and being told to stop doing something...which happens a lot. You're still into EVERYTHING!


You are so much FUN right now! We're so excited to spend Christmas with you this year and hope you start making memories to last the rest of your life! We love you dearly!!!

Plethora of Topics--with Pictures!

How'd you like that post title? It was the most unique thing I could come up with in 3 seconds. I could very well split this up into several posts by topic, but why do that and make you open up so many different windows on your google reader? See, I wasn't being lazy. I was thinking of you. ;)

I've become so lax about putting pictures on my blog (I hear Drew's relatives giving a hearty "Amen!"), so I decided to upload a few today to update our sweet readers on our busy lives.


Here I am at 31 weeks, I think. It's all a blur these days. I really have to think about it when someone asks, "How far along are you?" My husband has to correct me and add a week onto my answer half the time. How's the pregnancy going? Well, I'm starting to remember why the third trimester is not-so-much fun, but thanks to being at SAHM, the back pain this time around is much more manageable, although still VERY present and accounted for. ;) My ribcage feels bruised all the time from my uterus pressing into it, but stretching out usually resolves it for a while. Everything else is going splendidly. I'm happy to report I only gained 1 lb in the last 2 weeks (a huge WOO HOO) and am measuring "right on the money," per my OB. Speaking of OBs, since I'll be delivering in a different hospital, I switch to start seeing their doctors in 2 weeks. I'm a little nervous about that. I'm just afraid my expectations are going to be more than what they want to meet....but we'll see. I wish we had a birthing center nearby. I think that'd be optimum for what we're wanting. However, I'm just leaving it in God's hands. He knows what's best for me and Hannah, and He's going to pave the way for His perfect plan. If that doesn't bring peace, I don't know what will!

Here's Hannah's room before with some of the furniture moved out already.

(See all the computer equipment on the bed? The hubs needs an office. And there appears to be a ghost in the bottom right hand corner.)
\

And here it is after 2-3 coats of cotton candy pink paint....

(where the floating mirror once was...)


With shower gifts lying in the floor ;)

I loooove the color! It's exactly what I was wanting. I spray painted her curtain rod yesterday; now all I lack are the clips and hanging the curtain to be finished with that part.

My husband is quite the talented man! Here's the start of Drew's twin bed...


Pretty good job for a first timer, right? He says he's gonna be like Jesus and be a carpenter. ;) All he lacks is the foot board and supporting pieces and paint. After that's done, Mr. Drew is gonna be the proud owner of a big boy bed!

A couple of weeks ago we had church service outside on a Sunday night. It was meant to be a cool, fall evening, but you can see by the red cheeks on my son that it was definitely not cool! However, we had a really good time.

My little boy who has never been fond of swinging got right into the swing and had himself a ball for about 2 whole minutes. His attention span usually isn't longer than that for anything, so I was impressed!




Drew has a thing for sweet little girls. Here are two of his favorites...

Ms. Anna Grace! Known by Drew as "Ann Gace!" He screams her name each time we drive by the church building. I have to also lovingly remind him that we go there to worship Jesus as well. ;)


And this is Mya, the little girl Drew is obsessed with hugging. Half the time they are hugging, he pulls her over onto the ground. So now he says, "Hug My (with no "a"). No, no, no push."

I've bee n thinking Drew would really love to jump in a bounce house...

I was wrong. He wanted his Daddy to hold him the entire time! My little daredevil is becoming scared of a few things. Surprising!

Kacie and Judd were able to come down last weekend for Hannah's adorable shower (separate post coming soon!) and we decided we would all go eat a late dinner one night while 2 different grandparents watched each grandchild. We met for dinner at 9pm (starving!) and I ate my weight in food. No kidding. I almost had to be rolled out to the car. Andrew and I got into the truck and I said, "Why don't we just drive around for a while? It's only 10:20." Y'all, by 10:23 I was falling asleep in the front seat, so these old timers rolled into the house at the late hour of 10:30. We finally got a date night and we came home at 10:30. Nice! I was so full that I was miserable! The good news....the company that night couldn't be beat!



And lastly, here's my little dude sporting a small piece of his Halloween costume. Can you guess what he's going to be? (Now that I've typed that, I think the tag shows the answer...)


Whew! So now we're caught up on pictures & recent events! We hope to get out to the zoo and pumpkin patch soon so I have no doubt I'll be behind again very soon! Stay tuned for Hannah's shower pictures!

Daddy Chooses the Zoo

Well, Andrew's time has come. He's in the last year of his 20s! He chose to celebrate his birthday by taking off work and taking me & Drew to the zoo.

Remember, Andrew works from home, so our normal "alarm" is Drew's giggling over the monitor around 9:00am. He wakes up at 9am like clockwork. Well, on Andrew's birthday Drew gave him a big, fat present--Drew slept in until 10:15am!!! And therefore, we did too! I was so shocked to roll over and see that my body had actually allowed me to sleep in like that. We got up, got ready, loaded up the push car, and headed to Memphis. We had so much fun that day! We figured out that Wednesday is a lot better choice for visiting day than Thursday & Friday. We were actually able to park near the entrance and not be shoulder-to-shoulder with 5000 other sweaty zoo-goers.

I am really excited about taking Drew to SDC in a few weeks, but have been a little nervous about how he would do with rides. Not long ago, he FREAKED OUT over a silly carousel that he was crazy about 2 months earlier. Well, yesterday this was him unable to take his eyes off the carousel because he wanted on it so badly!

So we purchased the tickets to let him ride. It went like this:





I'm not so worried about SDC!

Well after all that excitement, we headed over to the rides section of the zoo which was none too impressive, but finally found the ticket lady, made a purchase, and held our breath...


Success! He gets to stay in the family after all. He likes rides! He kept yelling "Whoa!!!" as the ride spun him around 1000 times.

Oh, then we saw this adorable little guy....



How sweet, huh? ;)

All in all, we had a splendid day with daddy! We'll be celebrating more this weekend!

Spring? Is it really you?

Come stay a while!

We are loving the warmer temperatures coming our way here in north Mississippi. Last week it was in the 70s for several days...we're talking shorts and t-shirts! We tried to take advantage of it while it lasted by getting outside whenever possible.

One day Daddy took Drew to the zoo by himself. Since mommy's crazy tendencies weren't there to stop them, they played in the wading pool!


"Dad! You're the coolest! Mom would freak out if she were here! She would only be able to think about how nasty this water might be! "


I love these chubby feet!

A few days later Drew and I played outside for over an hour. We rode in the wagon & car, swept the sidewalk, and ran around and around the house. Nothing makes my little one happier than being outdoors.


Then last week, it was a gorgeous Thursday! Andrew took off 2-3 hours from work and we headed to the zoo again.

A real man wears a pink backpack...with his wife's name monogrammed on the back...from high school. Love you, hun.

Drew was most impressed with the bamboo leaves, "animals of the night," fish, monkeys, and the cheetah. He even attempted to say "cheetah" several times--quite a feat for a little one who would rather do than talk.

When I saw this huge tiger, I thought of Sher Chan (sp?) from The Jungle Book!


We took a leaf off the tree for Drew. He played with it for the rest of the trip. I think we need to plant A LOT more trees in our yard if one leaf will provide that much entertainment.

One of my FAVORITE parts of the Memphis Zoo is the ability to eat lunch with the monkeys. The restaurant has a glass wall between the monkeys and the eating area. One of the monkeys came up right by us and played with Drew for the longest time. Drew kept jumping up at down, waving at him, and making his monkey noise. It was so fun to experience that through a child's eyes.

I didn't have my SD card in my camera (duh, Audra!), so I took a video with my Android:






We had an incredible day that day was. It was fun to see Drew's mind working as if he thought, "That thing looks like the monkey in my book at home! I bet it makes the same noise!" Big light bulbs going off for him!

Drew is getting to be so much easier to take out to places since he can sit/stand in a booth to eat, walk around on his own, and has a longer attention span. I have a feeling this summer is going to be FUN. We've actually planned a vacation in July with my mom and dad and Kacie, Judd, and Caroline. We're heading up to a condo in Branson for 4 nights/5 days. I haven't been on a real vacation in forever, so I'm REALLY excited! All this warm weather makes for so much more to do!

So come on, Spring. Come in. Sit down a while. Make the summer heat wait a while. We enjoy your company around here!

A Break from the Ordinary!

We headed to Greenville this past weekend to spend time with Andrew's mom and celebrate her birthday. It was really nice to do something out of the ordinary. We played at the church's playground on Saturday when God blessed us with 65 degree, sunny weather. What a nice day!








We also visited our favorite firefighter, Trey, while we were in town. He let Drew try on his hat and sit on his truck!





Then we got to celebrate Grammy's 59th birthday!


Happy Birthday to the world's greatest Grammy! We love you!

Andrew got to have a little country boy fun while we were there. He probably needs to do this more...




While Andrew waded through disgusting waters, I made Drew a new jon jon with a lot of help from Ms. Debbie. Doesn't it look simple and easy? Well, you would be wrong. It took me about 5-6 hours to make this. Ms. Debbie assures me I'll get faster with practice. At 5-6 hours/project, I'm not sure I'll be making TOO many more!

I think I'm going to get an appliqued monkey on the front. What do you think?



Well, Veggie Tales is circling for its second cycle this morning, so I better run! Hope you all had as great of a weekend as we did!

Random Update

(click play!)


This is the, "Mommy, QUIT TAKING MY PICTURE!" look.


Drew LOVES his daddy, and soaks up the attention when Daddy is home on Saturdays. When Daddy went out to cut the grass Saturday morning, Drew had a conniption fit! He was just screaming at the back door, banging on the windows as he watched Andrew ride up and down the backyard. Against my better judgement, I let him ride for a few minutes. Andrew was on turtle speed, so don't worry. ;) He did great! But whew--he smelled like a BOY when he got back inside! Straight to the tub we went...





Drew is in the LONG process of molar cutting. It started last week, and I was informed today it can last a month! He's drooling EVERYWHERE again. We go through several outfits a day since he refuses to wear a bib. Also, I'm guessing his gums hurt too badly to chew, because in the last few days, he's stopped chewing his food and attempting to swallow it whole! Not good! While I was eating with Heather today at Abbay's, I thought I was going to have to do the Heimlech on him (not kidding) because he swallowed 2 pieces of macaroni whole! Then he just sat there with his mouth open, unable to make any noise, and choking! Thankfully, he coughed it up. Anyone else had this problem? It's driving me to tears! My usually happy baby is fussy and whiny 80% of the day!

Hurry up, teeth! I need my smiling, happy boy back!