Just Monny

10 months

2010-04-16T10:33:00.011-04:00

I want to take a few minutes before Jillian turns 11 months (in just a few days - WHOA!) and write down a few things that she does at 10 months. She is changing so fast!

Getting around - Jillian started crawling at 7 months, about a month later than her brother, but it didn't take her long to learn how to pull up and cruise around the room. She still holds onto furniture or toys to get around for the most part, but in the last month she has started taking 1-2 steps at a time. She CAN walk, she just doesn't seem to see a purpose in it yet. She can crawl SUPER fast (almost faster than I can walk!) so walking just isn't effecient for her yet. Yesterday I actually saw her take 2 or 3 steps around Drew while she was playing with him, but I don't even think she realized she did it. So she is CLOSE! Drew walked a little over 11 months, so she will probably around the same track. She will however be standing in the middle of the room, bend down and pick something up and get right back up and sometimes even do a little dance.

Food - Jillian has NEVER been a fan of baby food. Baby cereal is supposed to be introduced from 4-6 months and I tried on and off from 4 months and she was a good 6 months before she was even willing to try and then she wanted it mixed nice and thick. The only jarred baby foods she really cares for are peas and green beans. (preferably beechnut brand peas - they are thicker!) She does not care for fruits and especially not baby bananas. With that said, she LOVES real food! She loves pieces of chopped up banana, beans, rice, potatoes, yogurt, cheese, vegetables, pancakes, and so much more! Her appetite for REAL solid foods just keeps getting bigger and bigger. She usually eats what we eat for dinner and if it is something she can't mush, I usually put it in a food grinder and spoon feed it to her. If it is something like pizza that I don't want her to eat, I will give her a stage 3 jarred dinner. She prefers the chicken noodle dinner if she has to have a "baby food" dinner. I had entertained the idea of making her baby food, but she just doesn't care for purees. When I use the grinder I only do the current meals food and just enough for her and it is still really thick, just mushed - just the way she likes it!

Playing - Jillian loves her toys and she loves to play with them - and correctly at that! It amazes me how she plays with toys and knows what to do with a lot of them without me even showing her. She loves loves loves Dolls! Anything with a face just intrigues her and she gets all excited. She also loves babies and other kids. It is hard to not compare kids, especially some of the things that other people may take for granted. It was years before Drew even noticed or cared that there was anyone else around, let alone look at them or try to play with them. Jillian LOVES to play with other little ones. She loves to laugh and giggle with them, follow them around and play. It is so much fun to watch her and her friends! I love it when she will initiate play herself. Yesterday she wiggled down off my lap and crouched down in front of the couch and the stood up and repeated over and over again, playing peek a boo!

Wrestling - I am seperating this from playing. We are currently trying to reach the balance of tough enough but not too rough. Having a BIG five year old brother that plays a little rough can be a problem for a sweet little girly girl, but Jillian can hold her own! Almost too well at times.

Personality - Whoa! This girl is full of personality! One of the nicest things is that just about every where we go, people comment on "what a good girl she is" she is quiet and happy just about anywhere. It always cracks me up, because chances are wherever we are she screamed the WHOLE WAY there in the car. She HATES the car, it is just awful. She stops crying when we get to a stoplight or a stop sign, but then starts up crying again when we go. I think she thinks she is going to get out when we stop! Sometimes I pray that I hit green lights all the way home, because I just hate to hear her stop and start, I just want to GET THERE! Drew was the exact opposite, he would cry when we stopped and was happy when we moved! Other than that she is mostly happy and sometimes just wild! She will not hesitate to cry or whine when no one is paying attention to her and then just smile when you look at her. She likes everyone to know she is there!

Communication - Jillian has a few "words" and signs and just amazes me! She says dada, mama, and darooo (drew), hello, and I think there are a couple more, but these are ones that she says on her own. Imitating she will regularly say, i-laloo (i love you), awe-da (all done) and it seems like just about anything else that we repeat to her multiple times! She babbles and makes noise just about all of the time and just has a good old time! She independently signs: more, all done, want, food, and is starting to do thank you. She is so much fun right now because she loves to imitate and will imitate just about any sign you try to get her to do! When she is eating and starts to get disinterested, you can ask her "Jillian, all done or more?" and she will answer by signing one or the other! And then other times if you are being slow to feed her or her plate is empty she will sign 'more' to you.

Sleep - Ugh.... She slept through the night until she was around 6 months and then it was over. Now we are lucky to get 3 or 4 hours in a row. Her sleep is weird though. She sleeps all night, but she sits up, tosses and turns and all while keeping her eyes closed. The problem comes when she sits up (or sometime stands up) and it is like she gets freaked out because she doesn't know what is going on and starts crying and screaming. If we get to her before it escalates she calms back down and goes back to sleep, but it goes on ALL NIGHT.

Growing - I don't know exactly how big Jillian is now. At her 9 month check up she was around 19 pounds, so I am assuming around 20 pounds. She is really just average, not real big and not real small. She was in the 50 percentile across the board at her last checkup. This is so funny for me since Drew was (and still is) always in the upper 90's. She is wearing 12 and 18 month clothes. She needs 18 month for length for her legs, but in dresses she still needs 12 months, at least until she starts walking because the skirt gets caught when she crawls. It is so hard to look ahead to what size she will need for the future because she has been wearing these sizes for so long. Drew was always 6-12 months ahead (at least) on clothes so he was easy to predict. Jillian is wearing a size 3 or 4 shoe, depending on the brand and thankfully doesn't appear to have a wide foot, so it is much easier to buy her shoes (and CUTE ones!)

Teeth - Jillian has her two front teeth on the top and bottom and her 2 top ones to the sides of her front ones have cut through this week. Those bottom two are real close too. So now, she has 6 teeth and I anticipate we are really close to 8! She didn't get her first two until 8 months and it looks like the rest are going to come in really fast!

Girly Girl - If it is pink or sparkles, then she is after it! She is all girl and there is no doubt! She will pick up a telephone and say hello and she loves her dolls. She is even "trying" to put clothes on already. Sometimes she will go through the clean laundry and try to put laundry over her head and one day even managed to get a pair of my underwear over her head and one arm through a leg whole! Won't be long until she is playing dress up!!

Trouble - I have to end with Trouble! Even just while typing this up real fast she keeps crawling down the hall. She keeps trying to touch the carbon monoxide detector and when I get close to her to try to redirect her, she stands up, takes a step, falls, and tries to run away! This is such a game for her. She is going to be a handful!

I should have made this into multiple posts, but if that was the case it wouldn't get done, so here you have the novel! LOL :-) I know so much will change in the next couple months and life is keeping us exceptionally busy and sometimes I don't have the time or patience to update the blog. Sometimes I need to keep up with life in the moment and don't have time to record all of the memories, the way I would like. The stomach bug hit our house this week and I am recovering and trying to rest today, which is why I had a few minutes to sit down today. I will try to upload more pictures soon!

Dino Cake

2009-11-02T23:25:00.003-05:00

Drew had his heart set on making this dinosaur cake!

He had a blast decorating it with candy!

Carefully checking the picture to make sure it was perfect!

His finished Dinosaur Cake!

Trick or Treat! ('09)

2009-10-31T23:00:00.003-04:00

We had a great time trick or treating with Grandma!

We went to a friend's neighborhood that has an awesome Halloween party again this year!

Here Drew is muching on a smore after roasting marshmallows!

....recognize the costume? Yep he is DADDY, for the second year in a row! We tried to get him to be something else, but nope, he insisted on being Daddy, so once again he is a Walgreen's store manager and he coudln't be happier! :-)

Our little ghost, all tuckered out!

Fun Times at the Farmer's Market on Halloween Day!

2009-10-31T17:58:00.003-04:00

We spent Halloween morning at the Farmer's market with Grandma!

Playing in the pumpkin house!

...and of course the Halloween wooden cutouts!

(look at the sleeping Jillian!)

Drew and I picking out apples while Jillian is sleeping away!

Drew liked the "Andrew's Farms" sign

Checking out funny shaped gourds!

Grandma's Here and she brought Presents!

2009-10-30T23:00:00.003-04:00

Grandma Cindy came to visit and brought presents for the kiddos!

This was Jillian's first experience with presents but she dug right into the gift bag!

Drew was a sweetheart and helped Jillian with her gifts

Look at my new dolls!

Thank you grandma for all of the new toys!!! They love them!

Jillian the Friendly Ghost

2009-10-28T18:40:00.002-04:00

Dressed up for the Halloween Party at Mommy and Me!

A little Halloween preview of our little ghost!

Cousin Andy's Wedding

2009-10-24T23:00:00.004-04:00

We headed to Athens, GA for a weekend trip for Tony's cousin Andy's wedding.

This was Drew's first road trip with his new travel pillow. He loved it, but when he got tired he always took it off of the seat belt. Kind of like he was afraid he would fall asleep if it was there, and yep.... everytime he fell asleep he wasn't using it.

Occupying himself at the rehearsal dinner by reading his books (and playing with his cousin!)

Jillian loving on Daddy and being her sweet happy self!

Drew and Tony walking to the wedding.

I didn't get any pictures of the actual wedding. I was too busy handing Drew skittles one by one during the ceremony to keep him quiet.

Patiently waiting for the dancing to start!

Dancing with the girls!

Time to take the sweater off...

...now back to the dance floor!

He had a GREAT time dancing with his cousin and needless to say he slept very very well that night!

The handsome boys!

The girls!

My handsome little man! He was pretty much done with pictures by this point!

Congratulations to Andy and Kristy! We had a great weekend in Athens and enjoyed visiting with all of the family!

Social Bug

2009-10-14T19:41:00.003-04:00

Once a week, I take Jillian to Mommy and Me.

I get some good Mommy time to talk to adults and she gets her time to be social with her friends! She loves mommy and me and talking to and playing with her friends!

This is often how she greets the other babies! Here let me touch your cheeks.... I guess she is used to that!

This picture just cracks me up so I had to add it in too! It looks like she is about to knock out this little girl. She was actually just really excited and I got her in between smiles and squeels! :-)

Cute picture of big brother after school!

Pictures with brother

She sits up really well on her own, but sometimes when I walk away I prop up two boppy pillows behind her, this way if she falls back a little, she can still get herself back up and I don't worry about her knockin her noggin on the floor!

As long as I'm sitting....

2009-10-01T15:37:00.003-04:00

Jillian loves to sit up. She doesn't like to lay down, or lean back, she likes to sit straight up, preferably all on her own. As long as she is sitting, she is happy. Okay, so actually she is a very happy baby in general, but here are some pictures of her sitting up today. She is able to sit longer and longer on her own every day! She is growing up way too fast!!!

Jillian's first baby shower

2009-09-27T22:47:00.002-04:00

I took Jillian to a baby shower for a friend of ours. Her teeth were bothering her so she spent a lot of time chewing on the bottom of my ice cold cup of water and hugging her baby doll!

We are excited for a lot of our friends having babies in October! It is going to be a fun month and Jillian will be getting lots of new playmates this fall!

Baby Crunches

2009-09-20T18:20:00.003-04:00

Seriously.... this baby must have abs of steel! I don't know how she lays in this position for so long! She prefers to sit up, you lay her down and she is like "NO, I want to sit up, watch me try!"

Of course she can't QUITE sit up on her own yet. She can sit with her hand in front of her tripod style, but eventually gets tired and slides down. I'll have to get picturs of that soon, but my hands are usually waiting to catch her instead of holding a camera.

It's like baby yoga or pilates, or something. It just amazes me!

....and because I can't help myself!

Fingers and Toes

2009-09-15T20:10:00.004-04:00

Playing on her gorgeous new pink afghan made by her Great Grandma Graff.

Jillian spends a lot of time playing with her feet, chewing on her fingers, and occasionally trying to chew on her toes! :-)

Transportation Museum

2009-09-14T20:15:00.001-04:00

My friend, Bethany's husband was in Charlotte on business, so I met Bethany half way to spend the day with her and her boys. Halfway happened to be at the transportation museum! What little boy doesn't love a trip filled with trains, planes and automobiles!

This was an attempt to get a picture of the boys on the bench with the word "good" as to say "good boys" I took 5 or 6 pictures and they all turned out to be variations of this one, each boy doing their own thing, way to excited to sit still for a picture!

This was a fabric train! I had to get a picture of Drew on this train car.

Jillian enjoying her time in the stroller, watching the boys run around.

Drew flying the pretend flight simulator.

My kids standing in front of an antique firetruck display. Look at Jillian. She is staring at Drew. Drew is her favorite person and she watches his every move!

On the caboose!

We had such a great time at the transportation museum. We followed it up with lunch and a quick trip to Dan Nicholas Park to play on the playground! We had a great time with our friends!

Go Green Lions! Drew's First Soccer Game

2009-09-12T22:52:00.004-04:00

Drew in his spiffy Green jersey getting ready for his first soccer game!

3 and 4 year olds playing soccer is HILARIOUS! They have no concept of which goal is theirs, out of bounds, or how to play defense. The kids took turns playing goalie and he would get mad when they would run passed him out of bounds instead of trying to kick the ball towards him in the goal. The kids would be so excited about kicking the ball, they forgot about the goal! They don't keep score, but I don't think anyone scored anyways.

They play 4 quarters at 6 minutes each. Drew wasn't quite sure the first half and didn't want to play very much. One time he actually got the ball and was kicking it towards his goal very slowly and no one was trying to steal it from him! He was doing so good! One quarter he played goalie and daddy stayed close to help him focus.

The game was really guided with the coaches and referee on the field trying to help the kids go the right direction, stay focused, and have fun!

Enjoying his post game gatorade!

After the game, we stopped by Burger King for a bite to eat.

Baby Cousin Cooper turns ONE!!

2009-09-09T19:47:00.004-04:00

Happy Birthday Cooper! Wish we were there to celebrate your big day!

Here are a few pictures from when Cooper and Matt visited on the 4th of July! Can't wait to see you again soon!

Drew Cake

2009-09-08T23:33:00.000-04:00

Lately Drew has been more likely to eat some foods if they are arranged in a special way or spell out something. Sometimes I will cut his sandwich in the shape of a letter or make a face with his dinner foods. Pancakes are one of Drew's favorite foods, so they do not need anything special to entice him to eat them, but I couldn't resist surprising him one day recently.

Drew ate the D, and I said "Drew, what happened to your Drew cake, it's a Rew cake now!" He looked at me, picked up the R, ate it and said "NO Mommy, It's an EW cake!!" After eating the 'ew' only the heart was left and he said "look mommy, it's a love cake"

Needless to say, I have made 'Drew cakes' several times in the last couple weeks. It has become a new favorite.

(and yes, he eats them without syrup..... he only gets syrup when he asks, and usually only with his grandparents! I am such a mean mommy!)

Labor Day - Go Irish!

2009-09-07T23:26:00.003-04:00

On Labor Day, we took advantage of Chik-Fil-A's promotion. We all dressed up in Notre Dame shirts and headed got our free chicken sandwiches! Of course Jillian didn't get a sandwich, but we took the opportunity to put her in ND gear too!

First Day of Soccer Practice

2009-09-02T20:13:00.005-04:00

On our way to the first soccer practice

At first Drew got mad because someone else was using his ball. Eventually he got over it and learned to share and use other soccer balls. Tony stayed out on the field most of the time and they both had a great time! Drew's coach did a GREAT job. She is a preschool teacher and did a lot with the kids, kept their attention and made it a lot of fun for them.

Before long Drew was out having fun and running drills with his teammates.

He did such a great job!

Look at Drew go!

Jillian was perfectly content sitting on the sidelines with me. She sat blowing drool bubbles and trying to chew on the camera.

Happy Boy after practice!

Been a little busy.....

2009-09-01T23:10:00.003-04:00

I promise to catch up blogging soon.

It is on my forever growing to-do list.

Here are a few pictures to show you what I have been up to until then...

"Using our words"

Playing with Baby Sister

And enjoying this beautiful gummy grin!

The kids are learning to laugh and smile at each other and it is so much fun!

Baby in the mirror

2009-06-18T21:35:00.001-04:00

Jillian has found "the baby in the mirror"

she wasn't quite sure what to think of that baby

Then Drew took a turn holding her for a while.

Firestation June 2009

2009-06-16T16:11:00.000-04:00

At Drew's end of the year party at school this year there was a slideshow of each of the kids with pictures and what they wanted to be when they grow up. Drew's response this year was a fireman.

School is out now and we now have more time to meet up with our mommy's group. We kicked off the summer with a trip to the firestation.

Driving the truck

Here he is standing next to the tire on the truck. He is now taller than the tires. The tires have always been one of the things he was most intrigued with the last few years at the firestation.

Click here to see last year's pictures from the fire station. It is neat to see how much he has grown and changed in the last year!

This was Jill's first outing with the mommy's group. She slept right through it.

Handsome fella

Bedtime Prayers

2009-06-15T21:49:00.003-04:00

Before Jill was born, Drew would Thank God for "baby sister" every night in his prayers *twice* every night. He would say thank you for baby sister after mommy and daddy and after he mentioned Baby Cooper. I wondered if after the baby came if he would still thank God for her twice.

Now that baby sister is here, most nights Drew will hold her hands when he says his prayers at night.

He now Thanks God for "baby Jillian" after mommy and daddy, and then "baby sister" after Baby Cooper still.

Of course bonding time is over when the baby starts to cry.

Tummy Time

2009-06-07T22:24:00.003-04:00

Drew decided to see what this Tummy Time thing was all about!

In her bouncy chair after tummy time

Bubble Time!

2009-05-31T22:58:00.002-04:00

While Jill and I lounged on Grandma's back porch, Drew was having fun making BIG bubbles!

When the wind is just right that bubble wand can make some HUGE bubbles!!

Mae Faces

2009-05-31T20:12:00.001-04:00

Although Drew was her sweetheart, Drew never knew that his Great Grandma's name was "Mae" When he named his baby doll "Baby May" we thought it was sweet, but he was naming her after the month of May rather than his Great Grandma.
Since Jillian was born we noticed something. Every once in a while she makes what we call "Mae faces". She has a few specific looks that makes her look so much like her Great Grandma Anna Mae. Sometimes we think Great Grandma is in there! These looks have been hard to get on camera, but for those that knew Grandma, keep an eye out in the pictures for these "Mae faces"

(you can kind of see it in this pouty picture)

Brother Sister Gifts

2009-05-28T16:42:00.003-04:00

Before Jillian was born, we took Drew to Build a Bear and let him make a bear for her.

Here you go Jillian!

Jillian also had presents for Big Brother Drew that Mommy and Daddy picked out!

Drew LOVED the card that Jillian had "made" for him! He has read it over and over again!

Jillian got Drew some more pattern blocks and a new 48 pc Melissa and Doug floor puzzle.

Totally Sweet - 1 week old

2009-05-27T22:32:00.002-04:00

Jillian in one of the outfits that Uncle Matt and Aunt Amber sent and laying on one of my Daisy Layne Boutique burp cloths.

At her 1 week checkup she weighed 7 lb 6 oz and was 20 3/4" inches long.
Within one week she was only 1 oz away from her birthweight which was great! They want babies to regain birth weight within 10-14 days, so she was ahead of schedule!

Her weight was in the 25th percentile, height 75th, and head circumference 50th.
We had never seen such low percentiles! Drew was always in the 90's for everything. We will see how much she has grown at her 1 month checkup!

Memorial Day 2009

2009-05-25T18:07:00.004-04:00

On Memorial Day, we headed (out of the house!) to grandma and grandpa's house.

Drew spent some time in the kiddie pool and then him and Grandpa decided it was time to shoot some balloons!

and where was little Ms. Jillian?

loving on Grandma, of course!

Sweet Baby Girl

2009-05-23T18:53:00.002-04:00

Going Home (from the hospital)

2009-05-22T20:47:00.001-04:00

Mommy's Sweeties

Getting ready to go home

Drew helping us dress baby sister

....obviously Drew's attention span is short....

(look at him in the corner!)

Sweet Baby Girl

...like father, like son....

oh boy

Jillian Layne - Days 1 and 2

2009-05-20T16:33:00.006-04:00

Grandpa's Girl

Drew checking out Jillian's tiny toes

so proud

Daddy's Girl

Welcome Jillian Layne

2009-05-19T23:18:00.005-04:00

Jillian Layne
born 5/19/09
5:10 pm
7 lbs 7 oz
20 inches long

At my 1pm doctors appointment, the doctor sent me to the hospital for observation. She said that today was not baby day but that they wanted to make sure everything was okay. So we headed to the hospital and I was hooked up to the monitor. While the nurse was admitting me she noticed that I was having regular contractions. They weren't painful and weren't anything that I would have complained about or even noticed that they were coming regularly. They decided to give me fluids since I was a little dehydrated to see if it would make the contractions stop. Instead of stopping, the contractions became more intense and 4-5 minutes apart. The doctor came in and decided that we should go ahead and have the baby today. We figured by then it would be the evening before we had the baby since I was having a c-section, but the next thing we knew I was being prepped for surgery and told that we would have a baby within the hour! They had an opening in the OR and had an anesthesiologist available, so we had to take the opportunity. Tony called mom and had her bring Drew up to the hospital and they arrived just in time to meet baby Jillian.

Within just a few hours after being told that today was "not baby day" we got to meet our baby girl. Turned out to be a blessing that we went ahead with the c-section one week before our scheduled date. The doctor said that I had a partial placental abruption which was the cause of the unexplained bleeding that I had been sent to the hospital for observation for.

Proud Grandma

Brand New

Proud Big Brother

Warm Spring/Summer? Day - Washing the Car

2009-04-25T22:57:00.001-04:00

We have suddenly been hit with upper 80 temps this Spring. It feels like Summer!

My Friday goal was to figure out how to disassemble Drew's carseat and clean it, clean the infant carseat, and get them both re-installed. I had tried to take Drew's booster/car seat contraption apart before to wash the cover and just couldn't figure it out (so it was WELL overdue for a cleaning!). While I was wrangling with the carseat, my sweet neighbor who works at the police department came over offering to help me install the seats. I told her I would love her help.... once I figured out how to take them apart!

I eventually got it apart and threw the covers in the washing machine and Drew cleaned all of the bases and plastic pieces. I was so thankful that he was there to do all of the scrubbing and rinsing! While Drew was busy scrubbing I was able to work on getting the car cleaned out.

While I was busy vacuuming the car, and the car seats were drying in the sun, Drew found other things to wash. He had a great time playing in the water!

Finally, I closed the car doors and he was able to wash the car!

Of course, only a small amount of the car got washed, but by the next day it was covered in yellow pollen again.... an ongoing battle this time of year.

While he scrubbed the car, I was able to get the carseats reassembled (shew!) and installed!

.... one more thing checked off of the "get ready for baby sister" checklist!

Mommy's Birthday 2009

2009-04-20T22:40:00.000-04:00

Sunday we talked about how my birthday was tomorrow (Monday) and Drew and I made cupcakes. All seemed good.

Drew got up today and was so excited! He remembered it was my birthday and told me Happy Birthday over and over. He went into the kitchen and his first reaction was.... "where's the cake?" We had cupcakes, but apparently that wasn't good enough. He wanted cake, candles, and balloons. Those are apparently the proper ingredients for a birthday.

We had a great day, Grandma came over, took me to lunch, picked up Drew from school, we went shopping, and of course, Grandma let Drew get a cake and candles for me for my birthday!

Come on folks.... it's time for cake

Drew said I was 2, therefore needed 2 candles.... who am I to argue with that....

Clapping after he sang me Happy Birthday and blew out the candles for me.

Apparently, Drew will be making sure we celebrate birthday's for us for a few years!

Big Brother Tour at the Hospital

2009-04-19T22:29:00.002-04:00

We took Drew on the Big Brother/Big Sister tour at the Hospital today!

A nurse took him on his own tour of the hospital rooms, nursery, etc.

Checking on the babies in the nursery.

He could have stood there all day!

Here he is with his certificate and his mask and hat.

He's officially ready now! :-)

Beautiful Easter Day

2009-04-12T23:23:00.008-04:00

The day started with the sound of the crib mobile and Drew reading a book in his room. In true Drew fashion, he must finish what he started and did not get up until he was done reading all 64 pages. He had gotten up, covered up baby May in the crib, turned on the mobile and began to read her a book.

We went to Grandma and Grandpa's for lunch and Daddy took Drew for a bike ride around their neighborhood. Drew has finally figured out how to peddle the bike, but still looks at his feet the whole time and needs someone to steer for him. He is getting there! Won't be long!

Coloring Easter Eggs - Easter 2009

2009-04-10T21:37:00.003-04:00

Drew completely blew me away this year with the Easter eggs. He completely took over, knowing exactly what to do, leaving me with nothing to do but take pictures!

He had a system. He would pick up an egg, write on it (usually with his tongue sticking out), carefully put it on the dipper, put the egg in the coloring cup. He continued this until all 5 cups were full, then would take each out, then repeat. I was thankful that I had boiled 3 extra eggs, so he had 3 full rounds of coloring. I don't know what he would have done if he would have been three eggs short on that last round!

Playing Catch Up

2009-04-09T07:47:00.005-04:00

I was able to get my computer to work for more than 5 minutes last night so I quickly uploaded pictures from the last month or so. My laptop is on its last leg and will randomly shut off at any given time right now. It is very possible that I won't make it through this post without it dying on me. It only seems to work on random days, when the moon is aligned just right.... or something like that.

So a quick update:
Drew -
Drew is doing well. He is 100% daytime potty trained and we are so proud, if we could just convince him that he doesn't need to change his underwear every time he went to the bathroom, then it would be even better, but progress, people!

He has decided that holding a crayon, marker, etc isn't the end of the world and has drawn us a few pictures and written several words, all willingly and without screaming.

School is going okay, class is bigger than ever, and they have added another assistant teacher. He has his good days and bad days. He has a problem yelling at kids for not doing things the way that he wants them to, but he seems to be getting over crying everytime someone else cries, and is starting to share and interact with friends on occassion.

He seems to understand that Baby Sister's arrival is coming soon and is being a big helper. We have tried to really include him in helping get ready and he is really excited. He will look at a calender and knows that she is coming in May and will tell you that is when she is coming.

Tony-
Tony is doing well, he is enjoying his new store and his health is doing really well. He has adjusted well to his insulin pump and has even put back on a few pounds!

Kelly-
Well, I am doing fine. C-section date is set for May 26. We are hoping to make it that far. The baby dropped significantly a couple weeks ago and I have had some contractions as well as some other pre-term risk factors. When I was pregnant with Drew I was on bedrest for the last three months. Luckily the doctors haven't put me on bedrest yet and if I can make it another 3-4 weeks then I will be able to escape bedrest altogether. The doctors are watching me every week now though. I am trying to take it easy on days that seem a little rough, with lots of braxton hicks, regular contractions, swelling, fatigue, etc and not push myself too much to try to avoid bedrest as well as preterm labor! I am taking it one week at a time right now. Next appointment is next Thursday so we will see what that day brings!

Check out the posts and photos I just uploaded from February, March, and April....

Anticipation....

2009-04-08T00:35:00.001-04:00

Drew came across my old "kid sister" doll (you know, the girl version of the "my buddy" doll) that I often use as a sample in my slings at craft shows. He put her in baby sister's crib and she stayed there for a few days.

When Drew woke up yesterday morning he came out to the living room carrying "baby May". (May as in the month the baby is coming). He informed me that she needed her diaper changed, so we went and got a diaper and I let him pick out clothes for her. We got her dressed and he decided she needed a bottle. I gave him a bottle and at first he was resistant because he said that there was no milk in it! He eventually climbed up in the chair and pretended to feed "baby May" a bottle and burp her!

He then decided she needed a nap and put her down in the crib.

After school he was playing with her. I didn't catch all of his "conversation" but I heard him say that she needed to go to "time out". He sat her in the corner and there she sat for the night!

Story Time

2009-04-07T00:54:00.001-04:00

While I was making dinner tonight, Drew wanted to read me a story.
Here he is reading "Go Dog Go" one (of the many) books he can read without any help.
He does such a good job reading!

Pictures by Drew - April 5, 2009

2009-04-05T00:59:00.001-04:00

I turned on my camera to download a receipt for a mystery shop and found pictures that Drew apparently took with my camera. It's funny to see the things that he finds picture worthy!

Easter Egg Hunt/Scramble - Farmers Market 2009

2009-04-04T01:10:00.010-04:00

We headed out to the Farmers Market for the 2nd year in a row for their Easter Egg Hunt. I really think they should call it a scramble though. It is really brutal. They rope off a big area, dump a bunch of eggs in and then kids run in and get as many eggs as they can. The real hunt comes in when you try to find your child after the eggs are picked up!

It really seemed like there wasn't as many eggs this year, or maybe there was more kids, or maybe it was just total chaos! Drew only got about 5 eggs, but I think it was a little better than last year even though he got fewer eggs. Last year he was in the 2-3 year old division and they were allowed a "helper" in that division. I think it was a little more fair in the 4-6 year old division without helpers. It was still chaos though! Drew did seem to understand the concept this year though and he had a blast!

Easter Playdate at the Park

2009-04-03T01:54:00.001-04:00

My mom's group had an Easter playdate at a local park complete with an Easter egg hunt, lots of yummy food, and playtime at the playground. It was a beautiful day and we had so much fun!

Spring Break Zoo Trip March 31, 2009

2009-03-31T02:00:00.003-04:00

Drew was on Spring Break and I thought it would be nice to take him to the zoo one more time by himself before baby sister comes along. So mom and I took Drew to the zoo for the day!

Checking out the bamboo at the zoo

Drew just wouldn't give us a good smile......like the eyes.....

Drew was really concerned about this baby monkey on the back of the monkey statue.

Nevermind those two Elephants RIGHT THERE, this elephant book is much more interesting!

Cheesy grin in the Helicopter!

Posing with the giraffes

Drew and Mommy

Watching the Garden Grow....

2009-03-30T02:36:00.003-04:00

Drew was cleaning up his sandbox, and instead of coming straight inside, this is where I found him.

...hey Drew..... What are you doing?

"I'm watching the garden grow"

The boys....Hard at Work...

2009-03-29T02:45:00.009-04:00

For an early birthday present, mom and dad brought over the supplies to build us a garden!
Dad, Drew, and Tony worked hard to build us a garden box in the backyard.

the finished product - Great Job Boys!!

Grandma cleaned up the patio and put new sand in Drew's sandbox while the boys were working on the garden. Drew finally had enough helping with the garden and decided to play in his sandbox.

Yardwork

2009-03-10T07:42:00.005-04:00

Just a little over a week after our Biggest Snow Ever, here is Drew outside at Grandma and Grandpa's house on a beautiful day in his shorts doing yard work. He was raking the leaves out from under the bushes, putting them in the bucket and dumping them in the dirt. Notice his cute gardening gloves!

Most Snow EVER!

2009-03-01T03:08:00.001-05:00

"making tracks"

Drew trying to sweep the sidewalk clean! We DO own a snow shovel (they are hard to come by down here!) but Tony took it to work with him. It was a good thing too, he got stuck trying to pick up one of his employees for work!

We had the most snow that we have ever had since we lived here! We had about 6 inches! Unbelievable! I was afraid that after the last snow that Drew wouldn't like to play in it but I found some mittens and he had a blast! He loved "making tracks," throwing "snow boulders," and making snow angels!

Snug as a Bug....

2009-02-23T07:34:00.004-05:00

Snug as a Bug..... in a Laundry Basket

Drew has developed a habit of emptying laundry baskets, grabbing a blanket, and climbing in. Apparently, getting cozy in a laundry basket is a current favorite of his!

He asked for...... crayons.....

2009-02-18T07:28:00.004-05:00

Drew came home from school and asked me to get the basket down that had crayons and other art supplies. I brought it down, tried not to make a big deal of it, and sat it down on the floor. He then proceeded to..... COLOR! He didn't scream and seemed to almost enjoy himself! I didn't even care that he was on the carpet, I just stood back and watched. I was afraid if I said anything that he would stop. Normally getting him to hold a crayon or any sort of artistic utensil is a fight. He has some sort of perfectionist fear of messing up and gets upset, but not today, he colored to his hearts content and then proceeded to play with play doh!

First Snow of 2009

2009-01-20T21:44:00.000-05:00

Maybe Blizzard is stretching it a bit, but the way the Southerners deal with snow is a little bit different than up North.

Note: The amount of snow on the grass....we got less than an inch.

School was called off for the day. Everyone ran out to wipe the grocery store shelves of milk and bread, in preparation for being snowed in.

I took Drew out to play in it. You never know here, this may be all we get for the year, so we have to enjoy it while we can! The place with the most accumulation was the patio table.

Drew was a little in shock at how cold the snow was.

"Mommy it's cold and icky!"

shivers...

He decided to taste it,said it was yummy, but didn't try any more...

Maybe it is more fun to just look at the snow.

Drew saw a few flakes of snow falling and tried to catch them with his tongue.

Even though we have lived here for so long it still amazes me the way everything shuts down when snow is in the forecast. I understand that the people here do not know how to drive in snow and do not have the supplies to deal with it, but it is funny to me to have a snow day for less than an inch of snow. I was at the grocery store on Monday afternoon and they had a big display of sleds. People were buying them left and right, and yes I saw people trying to sled in this snow.

In the end Drew decided it was more fun to "pretend" to make snow balls and throw them because it was definitely less cold and wet! We did enjoy our day of being "snowed in."

My Sweeties....

2009-01-15T10:14:00.000-05:00

My big boy and my baby. Drew is very adiment these days that he is a BIG BOY, not a baby. I guess that is a good thing, and will hopefully make the transition to being a big brother a little easier. I still have a hard time believing that my "big boy" is 4 years old! 4 years old seem so big, like he is not a little boy anymore. Right now he is so sweet about his baby sister. He talks to her through my belly button, which is apparently the direct hotline to her. He hugs her and kisses her goodnight.

(my belly at around 20 weeks - halfway there!)

Waiting for Grandma...

2009-01-13T10:03:00.000-05:00

Drew and I headed to the airport to pick up Grandma. Drew was so excited to go to the airport (and to see Grandma).

Grandma's flight was delayed and Drew was fairly patient...

He basically had free run of the place while waiting for grandma and had fun playing in the baggage claim area.

Notice the escalator in the background of this picture. Every time a flight came in Drew sat on the floor and looked up to the top of it and said "No, not Grandma" to everyone that came down it! He got a lot of chuckles from people who were sorry to dissapoint him. Grandma did eventually come down it and he was SO EXCITED!

18 weeks

2009-01-02T07:46:00.004-05:00

Here is the video of our ultrasound this week that the doctor gave us for those who are interested. If you have the sound on you can hear the heart beat. It gets a little muffled because the baby was rolling around a lot. I edited it down since it was so long. Our baby was extremely active but we still got a few good shots. Baby was healthy and has no problems that they can tell of at this point! Due date is still May 31st.

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-01T18:07:00.007-04:00

Drew had his Fall Party at school on Wednesday and since his costume wasn't ready yet and the other costume that he owns was a little big for school, I gave him a couple options. You would have thought he would have chosen the construction guy complete with hat and tools, but no..... he chose Daddy. So we pinned up one of Daddy's work shirts, grabbed one of Daddy's ties and some of Drew's khaki pants and there you have it!

Drew was SO PROUD to be Daddy. When asked what his costume was he said "I Daddy"

Drew wanted nothing to do with a new costume for Friday, he insisted that "I Daddy" So we continued with the Walgreen Store Manager costume again on Friday night!

We went to an AWESOME Halloween gathering at a friend's house last night complete with roasting hot dogs, marshmallows and lots of play time outside. We then went trick or treating in their neighborhood and we had the absolute best time!

Trick or Treating with Daddy! This was the first year that Drew had a concept of what was going on. He had a blast getting candy and hanging out with his friends!

Hop on Over....

2008-10-23T09:01:00.003-04:00

For those of you that don't know, I have another blog that goes along with my website.
http://daisylayneboutique.blogspot.com

Be sure to keep an eye out over there for specials and giveaways! Today, there is a giveaway over at www.three-peas.com giving away 3 of my Holiday Baby Bibs - so be sure to join in on the fun!

What else did you expect?

2008-10-23T07:23:00.004-04:00

How else would a weekend of quality time with grandpa (that started with an afternoon of learning to shoot a bow and arrow) end? With a trip to Bass Pro Shop of course!

Here are pictures that Grandma took on Sunday. He came home to tell me that he "pet a moose" Yep..... I see that...

And what trip to Bass Pro Shop would be complete without a trip to stare at the giant fish tank and waterfall... Someone really needs to take this boy fishing..... hmm.... I'm sure someone will take care of that soon...

WHAT IN THE WORLD!?! Okay it is just a video game, but come on! This boy clearly has an idea of how a site works on a gun, at least he doesn't have his hand on the trigger. Okay grandpa, Please - lets wait to teach my boy to shoot a gun for at least a few more years!

Archery 101 - It's TIME

2008-10-21T09:19:00.006-04:00

For those of you that have known me, my whole life, this post will NOT surprise you. For the rest of you, yes, my father is teaching my son to shoot a bow and arrow at 3 years old. Because yes, by 5 years old he should be out hunting with Grandpa.....right? Well, maybe not, but you better bet there is some tromping around in the woods with Grandpa in the near future!

This weekend, Grandpa decided it was TIME. Time to teach Drew to shoot a bow. Grandpa has been saving this old recurve bow since Matt and I outgrew it many years ago, just for this occasion. He had been holding off because he thought that he didn't have a big enough target, but he dug out the old bow and a few little arrows and headed outside anyways!

Here Drew is mastering the one finger above, two fingers below technique. When Grandpa got out his bow later, Drew proceeded to repeat, "two fingers below" to Grandpa to remind him how to pull it back. Only problem is Grandpa uses a release, not his fingers, but Drew reminded him anyways.

Next time they will work more on positioning of his arms and drawback. Clearly it is a little off, but they were more concerned about keeping the arrow on the string and proper finger position.
I love this one. Drew's eyes are all squinty after he let go of the string. He was so intense!

LOOK! He hit the target! No need to worry about the size of the target!

My Baby Cousin Cooper

2008-10-04T21:03:00.011-04:00

Bonding Time with Baby Cousin Cooper

Drew and I tagged along on the super quick trip to pick up Mom from Uncle Matt's house. There was a lot of driving involved but it was worth it to see the newest member of the family. Drew did absolutely wonderful with little Cooper and loved holding him. I love the way that not only Drew is looking at Cooper, but the expressions on Cooper's face in these pictures.

In this picture Drew is holding Cooper's hands and singing the ABC song to him.

Me with Drew and Cooper.

Surprisingly, Drew was never jealous of sharing mommy or grandma and grandpa (or Uncle Matt!).

How many men does it take to change an itty bitty diaper????

Apparently Grandpa and Drew needed to supervise and make sure Uncle Matt was doing it right.

Bonding time with Uncle Matt

It's in his eyes....

2008-09-17T10:34:00.006-04:00

Well, with all of this wonky weather that we have had lately, all of our allergies have been going crazy. Poor Drew has had incredibly itchy, red eyes. His eyes were very red and swollen for a couple days, but didn't have the gunk or pinkness of pink eye yet and I was convinced it was just bad allergies. I decided to keep him home from school yesterday just in case, besides the fact that he would have just been miserable with how puffy his eyes were.

Well, I took him to the doc just in case, and sure enough by his 3pm appointment he started getting the pink eye gunk in his eyes. So he now has to have the antibiotic eye drops for pink eye put in his eyes, four times a day. Four times a day, you would think that we could have a better way to cure pink eye than pinning down a small child four times per day! The part that cracks me up is that the directions say to keep eyes closed for 1-2 minutes after putting drops in....yeah, right..... After the 4th dose I was able to hold his hands to keep him from rubbing his eyes and ask him to close his eyes and count to 30 with him, but that was as far as he could get. But the good news is that his eyes aren't nearly as red today.

The doc is having us give him Zyrtec every morning now. It should help him keep from getting pink eye over and over this season since he rubs and itches his eyes so much from his allergies. I guess any germs and viruses that he rubs in his eyes can cause pink eye.

On another note, he is to stay out of school for 48 hours. That would have him going back to school on Friday. Friday he has no school because of a teacher workshop, so Drew has a mini vacation.

Only a few more days until my boys eyes are back to normal!

Baby Cooper is home!

2008-09-13T10:34:00.004-04:00

I JUST got this picture from mom. She went up to stay with Matt and Amber for a couple weeks. How CUTE is Cooper?! He is so precious! I can't wait to hold him and spoil him! After all he is my only nephew!

I told Matt that Cooper has to love me as much as Drew loves Matt. Drew thinks the world of Uncle Matt..... so Matt have you already been telling Cooper how awesome Aunt Kelly is!?!

Love you guys!!!

If you think I dropped off the face of the earth.....

2008-09-13T06:57:00.002-04:00

So I have been slacking off with blogging lately. Maybe it is the fact that I have been going to the gym after Drew goes to bed at night during the time that I usually blog, or the fact that Drew has had some regression that has taken more attention lately, or that Tony has had more testing going on to figure out what is wrong with him, or that I had a brand new nephew born this week. I don't know, but I am trying to play catch up today so bear with me!

Thank you for all of the phone calls and emails to check to see if there was something wrong with the blog and to check on us. I will try to do better this month! Check out the back posts, there is too much catching up for one post!

The thing about change....

2008-09-11T08:05:00.004-04:00

We see regression at certain times, primarily when Drew is getting sick, but also when he is understimulated, overstimulated, extremely tired, when there is a lot of change and a little bit sometimes when he is going through a growth spurt. When he is going through regression we see him having tantrums, screaming, not using his words, spinning in circles, hitting his head, lining things up more than usual, tipping his head to one side, and he makes a constant humming type noise. We see his OCD kick into overdrive where he likes things 'just so' and gets VERY upset when things don't go exactly as he plans.

It's also important to remember that just ONE YEAR ago, Drew was not talking at all except for a few random words. He did not know how to communicate at all and would basically tackle any one that took anything from him. One year ago his favorite activity was taking all of the cans out of the pantry and lining them up in the kitchen floor. His progress in the last year has been amazing. He now has some pretend play skills, can request things, has a HUGE vocabulary, will share (usually) and take turns (usually), and he can even read.

(picture from last Winter - Drew loves the snug feeling of being in the cube)

The problem comes with the changes in the school system's Pre-K program this year. Basically it boils down to a class with 12-13 kids (last year I think there averaged about 5 in the class on a given day). Drew does not do well in large groups. He does best in structured activities in small groups. He can handle other children as long as it is structered and guided. Drew has been regressing since school started. He did so well last year, but I think with the smaller class size he was getting more attention and guidance. Yes, he needs to learn to be independent, but he needs the skills and guidance to know how. He still needs someone right there to know what to say when someone takes something from him, or what to do when he uses his words and asks to play with something and the kid says no.

It is so sad to see Drew this way. His teacher thought he might be getting sick, I guess because that is the only time she has seen him regress before. I even took him to the doctor yesterday to have them check his ears, urine, etc. Turns out he is 100% healthy. Nothing physically wrong. He got his flu mist while he was there, and the pediatrician recommended that we add a probiotic like Culturelle to his daily regimin which includes a multi-vitamin, magnesium, and two mega doses of fish oil.

Drew's teacher says he is not getting along with his classmates. Doesn't want them being around him, and screams when they are playing with what he wants to play with. I know this is frustrating for her because she didn't see this side of him last year in such a small class. But this is who he is, he has autism, he has problems with social skills, this is what he needs help with. We are just hoping that the school year only gets better or we find a better solution.

Daddy and Mommy update

2008-09-10T19:17:00.001-04:00

As many of you know, Tony has had his ups and down this last year with his health. He has had stomach problems pretty much every week since November of last year. Over the last few weeks Tony has had more appiontments and testing done to try to figure out what is wrong. On Friday, he went in for an endoscopy. He now has to take 2 medications for his stomach to see if it helps. Hopefully over the next few weeks he will be feeling 100 times better!

Tony has also started seeing a new endocrinologist for his diabetes. Tony has not had a typical case of diabetes and was originally diagnosed as type 2, and then 1 1/2, and now 1. He was only diagnosed with diabetes in the last few years. The confusing diagnosis often made it hard for diabetes educators to help him and keep it under control. This new doctor is awesome. We had to wait a long time to get into him and he doesn't usually take new patients. It has been really great to basically "start over" with care. This doctor was really proactive in helping Tony figure out what is wrong with his stomach and thinks that his diagnosis last winter was wrong. He has also been proactive in getting Tony an insulin pump. We have received the pump, but Tony has to wait for his appointment next week to learn how to use it. Not only is this new doctor awesome, but the diabetes educator is a Registered Pharmacist and that makes Tony happy.

Tony was also pulled out of his Walgreens store in March to open a new store that just kept being pushed back. Great News! This week he has been in the new store getting it ready! It has still been pushed back another week, but construction is finishing up and hopefully they will start stocking product in the next couple weeks.

In August started babysitting a few days a week to try to get a little cash. Between the rising prices and all the medical bills, we really needed it. It isn't a lot of money, but it helps with the gas and food. I babysit a little boy who is 15 months old. He is an absolute sweetheart and such a good boy. Drew and him get along 90% of the time and play really well together.

Baby Cousin has arrived!

2008-09-09T23:55:00.000-04:00

Baby Cousin Cooper arrived on September 9th at 10:00 pm. He was 7 lbs 5 oz and has the cutest reddish blonde hair. I can't wait to see pictures of the little cutie and the new family.

Drew is still basically taking credit for him. It is so cute. He says MY Baby Cousin. We have talked about that he is outside of Aunt Amber's tummy now and his name is Cooper, so now he is "MY Baby Cousin Cooper" He still hasn't dropped the Baby Cousin. I can't wait to see him!!

Hooray for Grandparent's Day!

2008-09-08T21:26:00.007-04:00

Today was Grandparents day at School. Grandma and Grandpa paid Drew a surprise visit. They took some pictures of him in action in the classroom. I cropped out all of the other children, since I didn't have their parent's permission to post, but I guarentee you he is not the only one in the class!

Just realizing that Grandma and Grandpa were in the room!

Drew's speech teacher doing Circle Time

Look Grandma!

I love you Grandpa!

Fixing the doll house

Back to School

2008-08-25T21:55:00.010-04:00

Today was Drew's First Day back to School. This is his second year of Pre-K at the Elementary School, as he started last winter after he turned 3. He is in the 3 year old class again this year. Next year he will be in the 4 year old class, and then off to Kindergarten in the fall of 2010!

This is what Drew thought of my idea of taking some cute first day of school pictures..... obviously this didn't go so well... Just imagine a cute little smile on his cranky face....

Once we headed for the door, Drew was a little more happy to let me take a picture. He looks like such a big boy!

Let's go already! I just want to note that his backpack is actually much smaller than a normal size backpack. It still looks huge on him though! The funny thing is that I don't really think he grasped the concept of the summer vacation from school. Every few days during break, he would put his backpack on and say "go to school." He was definitely ready to get back to school!

It was starting to rain, so while we waited outside for a little bit, Drew was playing with the umbrella.

Of course his little engineer brain had to take a minute to try to figure out.

Drew had a great first day!

Last Summer Hoorah!

2008-08-22T23:36:00.004-04:00

Today was the last Friday before school starts! Tiffanie from Three Peas and I decided to take the kids to the zoo for one last hoorah before school started. Her son and Drew are in the same class at school, and love to get together to play. We packed up her 3 kiddos and Drew in her van and headed on a little road trip.

Drew playing in the sand at the kid zone at the zoo.

Drew getting brave on the playground at the zoo.

Yes, we did see animals, I just didn't take pictures of the animals. I guess I was more concerned about getting a few pictures of the kids. We never did manage to get all of the kids in one picture together. We had a great time though and it was a beautiful day. It was still a little warm (right around 80 degrees), but it was the coolest day we have had in a LONG time.

On another note.... Today is Tony's Birthday! Happy Birthday Daddy!!

Drew woke Tony up this morning saying 'Happy Birthday Daddy!'

Stop the Itching!

2008-08-07T09:46:00.002-04:00

Poor Drew, he has had eczema for as long as I can remember. We have done the basic hydrocortisone for the last year and it really hasn't made a difference. Drew has finally started sleeping more than 4 hours per night and for the longest time he now gets up around 2 am every night screaming. We realized in the last few weeks that he is also itching like crazy when he gets up. He usually will go back to sleep, but after a lot of fussing. He is just miserable. We also notice that when he takes a nap, he wakes up itching and scratching.

I finally decided enough was enough and talked to the doctor about it. She gave us a Rx for an eczema cream (which insurance will NOT approve-lovely) and a Rx for an antihistimine to give him before bed and naps. She is also having us give him fish oil and milk of magnesia in addition to his multi-vitamin. She said that there is studies about fish oil with autism and with eczema so it definitely is to his benefit.

The dose he has to take is pretty high. She told me it was going to be hard to find a pallatable fish oil for him, but I found one! Looking at the ones in the regular store (chewables) he would have to have 10 or more per day and that bottle would go fast! So Drew and I headed to the Vitamin Shoppe and the salesman recommended Carlson for Kids fish oil. It is a liquid and Drew LOVES it!! It is lemon flavored, and he loves it so much that I can use it as a bargaining tool! It was not cheap, but it should last us quite a while.

The great news is that as long as I give Drew the antihistimine he sleeps through the night. He is sleeping 10-11 hours per night on a regular basis now and does not wake up itching. I have forgotten to give it to him a couple nights and every time he wakes up at 2 am.

Zoo Trip with Aunt Alyssa

2008-08-05T22:35:00.000-04:00

Drew had a great time with Aunt Alyssa this week. Of course, I'm sure Alyssa was ready to get home to sleep in without Drew running around like a wild man at 6 am, and screaming "wake up lazy beans." Poor Alyssa, it's a good thing she isn't a light sleeper! ....and Alyssa, he tells anyone who is sleeping, 'wake up lazy beans' so it isn't just you. He seems to get a kick out of waking us up in the morning by saying that. Drew is such a morning person.

Alyssa and Drew got plenty of bonding time over the last week or so. Drew loved cuddling up with Aunt Alyssa and playing computer games at night. Alyssa quickly realized, that Drew really DOES know how to read, as he would recite her IM's back to her as she typed to her friends. Nothing slips by him.

Alyssa got some great vacation time, relaxing, going to movies, shopping, shopping, more shopping, and having lots of fun with Drew!

We packed up the car and headed to the zoo on one day of her trip. It was super hot, but we had lots of fun. After the zoo, we headed to the pool to cool off. Here are a few pictures from the zoo.

We had a great time having you here Alyssa! Hopefully we can do it again next year!

Aunt Alyssa helping Drew onto the Elephant Statue.

Drew driving the helicopter

Alyssa taking a break in the misting tree.

Drew hatching out of the eggs.

Alyssa and Drew talking about the monkey.

Alyssa took this picture of Drew and me. We hardly ever see pictures of me and Drew, because I am always the one taking them!

Thanks for visiting Alyssa! We had a great time!!!!

Pool Party

2008-07-27T21:21:00.002-04:00

Drew had a blast swimming at a pool party playdate today!

He LOVES the water!!

Stop Wording!

2008-07-26T09:43:00.003-04:00

Well, we made it home. We had to leave a little earlier than planned to get home to watch DEA dog. But we had a great trip! We even brought Aunt Alyssa back with us, so I am sure we will have a great time this week!

I do apologize that we didn't get to see everyone. It was a busy week and we didn't stay in town the whole time so it was hard to get around to everyone.

As usual, it was a long ride home, but Drew watched a few movies and slept just a Little bit.

When Drew wants quiet, sometimes he says "Stop singing!" Of course with his southern accent, he says 'stop sangin'. Yes, my boy has a southern accent, not so sure how, but he does. It's kind of funny sometimes.

On the car ride home, apparently Daddy was talking too much and Drew held his hand out and said "STOP WORDING!" It was so funny and he was so serious. We decided he meant Stop Talking.

Thursday at the Fair

2008-07-26T09:14:00.008-04:00

We didn't spend too long at the fair on Thursday. We spent part of the day with Grandma and saw a little bit of the tractor pull, but after watching a few tractors, Drew was more interested in reading all of the seat numbers on the bleachers, so we headed for a last lunch at the fair and a quick walk around before we headed back for naps.

Walking to the fair with Grandma and Daddy.

Before bedtime, Drew went on a stroll through the backyard with Grandma and Great Grandma. He found a golf ball in the backyard with the letter J on it.

Hugs to Grandma.

Drew heading to check out the pelican (statue).

Drew was very intrigued with Great Grandma's hiding place for her gardening tools!

One of Drew's favorite things about staying at Great Grandma's House was picking little tomatoes every night! That boy LOVES tomatoes!

Wednesday at the Fair

2008-07-26T08:57:00.009-04:00

Wednesday at the Fair was Kids Day and full of great activities for the little ones. I didn't do such a good job taking pictures today, but here are a few.

Kids Day also means $1 Ride Day! Drew was able to ride the carousel with Daddy. He had such a good time riding his zebra!

Drew exceeded the 42" minimum to ride rides by himself! Can you believe it! He is such a big boy! He rode this car ride 3 times Wednesday. He had such a big smile on his face the whole time he was "driving!"

Riding the Helicopter with Aunt Alyssa. He told her every time the went "up" and "down"

We spent some time at the fair in the evening with Tony's Dad. Apparently I didn't take any pictures (bad mommy), but I must say that Grandpa is a sucker! He carried Drew around and let him drink his pop. He just can't say no to our little sweetie! :-)

After the Fair we headed to Great Grandma's House to stay for a couple nights. He loved walking through the backyard and checking out the flowers with Grandma!

Checking out the Goose on the back porch at Great Grandma's House. He talked to the goose (honk honk) and tried to ride it.

Checking out the Golf Ball in the Gator's mouth under the bench.

(just a statue....don't panic)

Monday at the Fair

2008-07-22T17:16:00.011-04:00

Monday, Drew got to spend part of the day at the fair with my friend Bethany's boys. The boys are so close in age and make great playmates. We walked through most of the animal barns. I say MOST. I did not walk through the pig barn. I have always had a fear of that barn....I don't know why. Bethany stepped up and took Drew through and he even fed a pig an animal cracker! My boy is so brave!

This year the fair had a tiger show. We never had a chance to see the actual show, but the boys had fun watching the tigers exercise and stroll around in between shows.

Drew LOVED "milking" this cow. Of course he really studied it and had to figure out how it worked, but he thought it was so neat!

Checking out the sheep.

Drew loved petting the baby chicks

Toddler Driving School - This was such a blast! We were lucky that there wasn't a huge crowd and Drew was able to play on the course for a while. I was SO PROUD of him! He stayed on the "road" so well, followed the signs and watched out for oncoming traffic. They even gave him a little "drivers license" certificate.

A little boy's wonderland.... Taking an evening stroll through the tractors with his popcorn and a sucker.

Finished off the day by watching Uncle Matt pitch horseshoes. Drew loved watching right from the fence.

Sunday at the Fair

2008-07-22T16:46:00.006-04:00

Tony is still waiting on the access road to be paved for his new store so we decided to hit the road and head to Indiana for Fair week! So far it has been awesome to share the fair with Drew. He has loved every minute of it.

There is nothing like the Fair in Elkhart County anywhere else. The "fairs" where we live are more like a little carnival and do not even come close to the same experience.

Today we went to the fair with Uncle Matt. Here are a few pictures from today.

Drew and Uncle Matt checking out the sheep

Uncle Matt, Drew, and Daddy as wild animals.

Drew loved watching the baby chicks at Young McDonald's Farm

Drew was serious about checking out this tractor!

My Little Fire Fighter

2008-07-15T14:43:00.010-04:00

Today our mommy's group headed to the fire station. Drew absolutely loved it last year, so I knew it would be a hit again this year!

This time they let him try on the fireman clothes! How cool is that! They were so heavy that the fireman was basically holding Drew up and when he put the hat on him, they were actually holding it.

Once again Drew did love the BIG wheels on the trucks. He is still obsessed with the wheels, but this year he also spent a lot of time checking out all of the gadgets on the truck. He even managed to turn a gear on the side of the truck and accidently made water come out. He even did this under the supervision of TWO firemen. I was right there and luckily caught it before he made a big mess. The firemen were completely surprised that he was able to figure it out. Don't underestimate my kid!

LOOK - TWO WHEELS!!!

Drew was so funny. We made cookies this morning to take to the firemen. He was fine handing them the cookies, but when we got in the car to leave he said "I can't find it" "I can't find the cookies" He was so upset that we didn't take the cookies back home with us. Poor guy, he loves his cookies.

And YES, he is wearing his truck outfit for the third day in a row. It was washed yesterday though. The first thing he did when he got up this morning was look for his "truck clothes"

Mommy Made It

2008-07-13T11:20:00.007-04:00

It started with this pirate outfit. Last week, I made Drew this pair of shorts and appliqued the shirt while he was taking his nap. He has worn it 3 times this week. I think mainly because it was a little big and he can put it on himself, plus he likes to count all of the pirates and stars. If it was dirty he would go dig it out of the dirty clothes and put it on anyways.

This week I made him this backpack. He had one backpack that I had made about 2 years ago, but he LOVED this fabric when it came in, so I thought he needed a new bag. He has hardly taken it off all week.

I had some extra fabric from the bag and the lining so I thought I could make him shorts and a shirt from it. I appliqued trucks from the truck fabric on pockets on the back and side of the shorts. He loves his Truck Shorts and Truck Shirt!

I have decided that I should really make him some more shorts and matching shirts while he will still wear them! It is hard enough to sew for boys and he won't want mommy made clothes forever!

Fun in the Sun - at the Waterpark

2008-07-12T13:42:00.008-04:00

This morning we headed to the waterpark at the Y when it opened to try to beat the crowd. Drew had a blast! He sat down with me after lunch and immediately fell asleep for his nap.

Drew was NOT happy when it was time to go!

Handsome Fella!

2008-07-08T19:16:00.004-04:00

Well, it was time for another hair cut. Let's just say, poor Drew has to feel A LOT better! I knew he needed a haircut but didn't realize how "fluffy" it had gotten. I took Drew back to Big Leage Cuts, which is where I took him last time. They have TV screens at every station and they are GREAT with kids. They change the television to Noggin or something appropriate and it has gone so well both times we have gone there. The worst part is always just getting that cape around his neck! Drew even loves waiting there. He loves to read the numbers on all of the chairs, which are actual stadium seats.

I used to always cut Drew's hair myself, but it usually takes more than one day to finish the cut because he is so antsy. If I have a few extra bucks it sure is easier to just have it done in one quick sitting and it be GOOD. Maybe when he can sit still a little better and not freak out by the sound of my cheap clippers, then I can cut it again, but for now....I will stick with this place!

Oh - and by the way, it is a men's place, but they told me that they cut little girl's hair too...

The word game

2008-07-02T18:37:00.000-04:00

Back when Drew first started reading, I thought that surely I was imagining it. That he had just memorized books and pictures. So I bought these flash cards without pictures to see if he really did know how to read the words. Sure enough he knew them, he has known most of them for quite a while now, but last night he wanted to play "the word game" as he calls it so I thought I should get it on video. He also has several books that he can read by himself now too! He knows all of the letter sounds and is really good at sounding out words too.

I love the fact that he truly LOVES letters, words, and reading. We don't push him at all. He is constantly trying to read new words and sound them out. We can't go anywhwere in public without him trying to read every sign. We can't walk past door mats in stores and restaurants without reading the door mat. You probably didn't realize that there are so many door mat's with store names on them, I didn't either until Drew started reading! We are always holding people up at entries because Drew has to read the door mat!

Here's a video of "the word game" last night. Excuse the sloppy editing, While the video is over a minute long, I still chopped out quite a bit so it wouldn't too long for you!

Playin in the sand

2008-07-01T20:33:00.000-04:00

Well Tony is working out of town this week so Drew and I are staying at Grandma and Grandpa's. Here are some pictures of Drew playing outside in the sandbox after his nap. He's still a little sleepy here, but I am just thankful that he has decided to start taking naps again!

Drew focusing on the truck. Playing at eye level is Drew's favorite way to play!

tools of the trade

playing in the sand

still not quite awake from his nap

I was messing with the settings on my camera and got this close up of this lady bug.

Another one....

2008-06-28T22:00:00.002-04:00

Ear infection that is. I decided to take Drew to the doctor on Friday and sure enough he has another ear infection. For some reason his fever has been a little rough the last couple days. Alternating tylenol and motrin every few hours and the fever still breaks through sometimes. Overall he is still really happy and very bouncy. He has had two days of antibiotics now so I am hoping that tomorrow will be a little better. Poor guy.

It's funny, while I don't take for granted the progress Drew has made, sometimes it is easy to forget where we were a few months ago. I say this because when Drew doesn't feel well, it seems to bring out some of the things that I have not seen in a while. He has been lining things up again, spinning, jumping all over the place, and tuning me out more than usual. He also only slept 4 hours last night, which we haven't seen in a while. He has been averaging an almost normal 10-11 hours plus a nap!

I also think that he hallucinates when his fever is so high. Mom says that I used to hallucinate when I had high fevers, so I guess it is possible. He talks about weird things and even about ghosts and monsters when his fever his high.

My silly boy...

2008-06-27T06:10:00.004-04:00

What a whirlwind potty training has been. Some days he is great all day and only wears a pull up at night. Some days he even wears underwear for his nap. Somedays he asks for a pull up for nap time. Some days he even goes in public with underwear on and is fine. Sometimes he still has accidents and sometimes he has a lot of accidents at grandma's house. I guess he is too busy there. Sometimes we still use a timer at home. He still asks me to set it sometimes, which I think is funny. It is just part of the routine. After undies are put back on we set the timer.

We have been working on him putting his own underwear on. He could really do the whole process by himself if he could just get redressed by himself. Sometimes he puts them on inside out, sometimes backwards, sometimes inside out AND backwards, but we are getting there!

Yesterday was a funny day. After his nap he got up and was dry and after a while he went into the bathroom all on his own. I kind of just stood back across the hall and watched. He took his pull up off by himself. Looked at it a little funny and dumped the poop that was in it into the toilet all by himself and threw away the pull up. Then he got on the toilet and pooped some more! Afterwards he went and got some underwear and put them on. Then a little bit later he stopped what he was doing, looked up and said "it's time to potty" and took off running to the bathroom. I went to check on him and he said "had an accident". He didn't make it, but he still took his wet undies off and hopped up there. I was so proud of him. He then got another pair of underwear, and after about 15 minutes he took them off, went to the drawer, pulled out a pull up and put it on. He was done with potty training for the day.

Yesterday evening Drew also had a 102.2 fever and wasn't feeling well. So I hope he isn't coming down with something. He has been acting "off" for a few days now though, so I am concerned. This morning his fever was at 100.1 when I took his temp, but I think it was on its way up, but he has had his tylenol and is starting to be bouncy again.

This is a picture I took of Drew getting into trouble last week. He quietly snuck off with the peanut butter jar. He is really struggling being out of routine from school and has been really "pushing it" the last couple weeks. Normally if he wants peanut butter he gets the jar and two spoons and brings it to me. (He brings one spoon to 'share' with mommy) So anyways... He is even sitting here as I type this talking about the peanut butter saying "drew peanut butter no spoons trouble bad drew" I think I got the point across....

This same day he also got in trouble with the soap. He was just pumping it all over his hands. I guess he realized it was time to rinse it off and then started the water and there were suds EVERYWHERE! I will say though, if you have a child that does this, he has done it with both regular liquid soap and the foamy kind, and the foamy kind is MUCH easier to wash off.

....Drew cracks me up, he is sitting here trying to read as I type and just sounded out MUCH as MUKH. And now he just read Drew cak me up...guess I should stop now...

Day at the Movies...

2008-06-18T21:46:00.004-04:00

One of the great things about summer is FREE movies! I do love that about living here in the summer. Several of the local theaters offer free movies during the day on weekdays. They are usually movies that have come out within the last year or two and it is great! Last year we took Drew and his little friend S to see Curious George and Happy Feet, both of which they loved. We were surprised at how well they sat through the movie and really enjoyed it, especially considering they were just 2 1/2. Well surely at 3 1/2 they will love it just as much....right? Well, so we thought. We took them yesterday and we didn't make it all the way through before we had to go. (at least it was free). I must say though, I think it was just a poor movie choice, it was not a good movie for them and it did not keep their attention. So I do think we will try again another week with another movie.

I think the kiddos enjoyed the fountain out in front of the theater more than the movie itself! Here are some pictures. The boy in the middle of Drew and S is one of my friend's sons. It is funny to see that he is a year younger than those too...It's amazing how much they grow in a year! ...and yes that is my child to climb into the fountain....ugh....boys will be boys...

20 minutes at a time...

2008-06-16T11:43:00.003-04:00

So we started potty training. Drew is wearing big boy undies. We set the timer for 20 minutes. Every 20 minutes the timer goes off and Drew drops everything he is doing and runs for the potty. What truly amazes me is that he can actually go every 20 minutes. He manages to get something out. I thought 20 minutes might be too close together, but he is actually going every 20 minutes. We have had a couple of accidents, but we are getting there! We have only used Pull Ups at night for a few days now!

Well there was another Pull Up used after Daddy was left alone with Drew and there was a stinky accident. Daddy put a Pull Up on Drew, I guess out of fear of it having to clean up another accident. But Drew did not have an accident in the Pull Up and when I got home it was back to undies!

Yesterday about 3 minutes before the timer went off he started saying "go potty" and running to the potty, and he actually went! Turns out he had started to dribble in his undies, felt it and realized what was happening! So I am thinking of lengthening the timer so he has to hold it longer and maybe will have to tell us when he has to go, since he is starting to get the concept. Right now he isn't having to tell us, because we give him plenty of opportunities.

....and because I am a mean mommy, here is a picture from the other day. He picked up Daddy's ESPN magazine while on the potty and he was covering up his boy parts so I decided that it isn't too embarassing....right?

Oh Boy....Potty Training....

2008-06-12T20:59:00.001-04:00

So I decided that once school was out it would be potty training boot camp. Well since he was kind of sick earlier in the week, I haven't really pushed it yet.

A couple days ago (before school was out), Drew decided that he didn't want to wear his Pull Up, that he wanted to wear undies. Well after going through 4 pairs of undies in about 20 minutes, he decided he wanted a Pull Up. The main problem being that he would start to go. Stop. Run to the potty. Wouldn't finish. New undies. Same thing. Over and Over until he finished the job on his bed and we had to wash the sheets before bedtime.

This afternoon he stripped all his clothes off including his Pull Up. He really just wanted to be naked, but I got him to pick out a pair of undies to wear. He wore them for a while and then wanted to be naked. So when I took Dea dog outside to go potty, I asked Drew if he wanted to go potty outside like Dea. He did not go pee-pee outside, but I did get a cute picture. :-)

I am really hopeful that since he wants to wear undies that this will be easy. We'll see how it goes! I think since the weather has been so hot, he really doesn't want to wear the Pull Up, so hopefully the hot weather is perfect potty training weather...I really don't want to buy another box of Pull Ups this summer!

Fun with Dea dog

2008-06-12T15:14:00.002-04:00

Well, DEA dog came to stay with us again this week while grandma and grandpa went on vacation. They are coming back to get her tonight. Drew has had fun with her again this week. He has even figured out how to play basketball with her! We are so lucky that Dea is so gentle and careful with him. Here is a video of them playing together this week.

This one's for Cinnamon

2008-06-11T19:49:00.004-04:00

also titled:

Drew and the Pig

Drew's pretend play skills are getting so good! I am constantly amazed at him. He would have never done something like this a few months ago.

Cinnamon gave Drew this pig the last time we were in Texas. The other day Drew found a wet wipe and started cleaning the pig.

If you watch carefully you will see: * DEA dog, *Daddy in his stockings, *the spot on the carpet that Drew took a green sharpie marker to one night while we were sleeping

He did it AGAIN

2008-06-10T18:12:00.002-04:00

I should put a note on my calender to check the fridge settings a couple times a week. I should know better.

I opened up the freezer to get some ice cubes this evening. They were all kind of small and stuck together. I thought.. Hmmm... that is strange, then I looked down and popsicles were dripping all over the freezer. I have no idea how long it was turned off. But I know last night he had a popsicle that was completely frozen, so it couldn't have been too long.

This is not the first time this has happened. Last fall we thought the fridge had died and even went and bought another one. We realized before it was delivered that the setting was changed to zero and were able to get our money back. So at least this time I knew where to look....and who the culprit was.

So now I have to dump all of the food out of the fridge and freezer when Drew goes to bed. I am waiting until he is in bed because I am afraid that he will want the food that I am pulling out.

Goodness.

Daddy's first day...

2008-06-06T14:54:00.004-04:00

Daddy's first day back to work...
Tony went back to work yesterday for the first time in quite a while. He has been out on disability due to his legs and then his surgery. He was in good spirits yesterday and was happy to get back in the swing of things. He said his legs were a little sore but his feet felt awesome!

The doctor said his legs would stay sore for a couple weeks, but he should be fine to work. His ultrasound came back AOK, with no blook clots and everything looking just as it should. His legs were a little swollen yesterday, but he was standing on them for a lot longer than he has been in a long time, not to mention the tenderness from the surgery.

We are so thankful that the surgery worked out so well and hope he continues to feel great!

Because I couldn't pick just one...

2008-06-04T13:17:00.009-04:00

Cookie Monster Strikes Again

2008-06-03T18:10:00.006-04:00

While one batch of the cookies were in the oven, I was loading the dishwasher. Next thing I know I see Drew tip toeing out of the kitchen. I turn around and look at the cookie sheet. One of the cookies was gone.....one of the raw uncooked cookies! I told him to put it back. He whined a little, and slowly walked back to the stove. He acted like he was going to put it back on the cookie sheet and bam, shoved the whole thing in his mouth.

Here are some pictures of Drew "patiently" waiting for the cookies to be done cooking. I especially like the last one! I couldn't get him to look at the camera, he was too interested in the cookies in the oven.

Growth Spurt

2008-06-02T21:07:00.002-04:00

Seriously, if Drew isn't going through a growth spurt, then I don't know what the deal is.

He comes to me every 1-2 hours and says
"I hungry"
"me want a popsicle"
"want a cereal bar"
"banana"
"want dinner"

sometimes he says these things while signing "eat" or "hungry"

Yesterday he ate 2 bowls of cereal at random times of the day, 2 cereal bars, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a hot dog, applesauce, most of his dinner (chicken, etc.), 3 popsicles, and some other random snacks.

...and today was pretty much the same way

Most days Drew is a breakfast eater. He may eat three small breakfasts before lunch and then barely eat anything the rest of the day. He loves breakfast foods: pancakes, eggs, cereal, etc.

I wonder how tall he will be by the end of the summer

Memorial Day Memories!!

2008-05-31T19:10:00.013-04:00

I know it is a little late but this week has been Crazy! Here are some pictures from last weekend. We were invited over the Three Peas Household for a cook out and some play time. Drew goes to school with the little boy standing by him on the tractor, they have become little buddies. Drew had a blast playing and fell asleep on our ride home (even though we live just a few minutes away!)

Tony's Surgery

2008-05-29T20:13:00.003-04:00

Just a quick update.

Tony had his surgery yesterday on his legs. It took a little longer than we thought it would, but it went well.

He says that his feet have not hurt at all, just the pain in his legs where they did the surgery. He should be sore for a few more days and then he should be good to go! Tomorrow he goes in for an ultrasound to make sure that everything went well and that there are no blood clots. Then we go back again next Wednesday. He is walking fine but he has been in more pain today than he was yesterday. They did give him some pain meds which seems to help, but he can definitely feel them wear off. He has had to wear super cool thigh high compression stockings since the surgery and is not allowed to take them off until after his appt. tomorrow, then he has to wear them during the day for the next week or so. They are super cool (not so much) and he has been wearing them with his shorts and sandals. (silly man) :-)

Houseguest

2008-05-29T19:55:00.006-04:00

We have a houseguest and Drew is SO SO excited! Her name is DEA (we call her Dee). DEA is Grandma and Grandpa's black lab. Since they were going out of town, they dropped her off to stay with us for a while. (DEA was a police dog that was rescued, thus the name)

Drew was SO excited the first couple nights. He would not go to bed because he wanted to play with her. Drew read books to DEA, played with her, and did not want to leave her side. When it was time to go to bed, Drew dragged her dog bed into his room and put it beside his bed.

Do you notice that he has a plate out for each of them. Each plate had one banana and one apple. What a good job of playing, sharing, and pretend play! (even if it is with a dog!) He is even trying to share his Thomas blanket with DEA - How Sweet!

The next morning this is what I found in DEA's bowl. I guess Drew was trying to help!

Drew is having a blast with DEA. They are such a good pair. DEA has always been very protective of Drew since Drew was born. When they are outside together she is very aware of where Drew is and if he goes to far. In the house she comes to get us if Drew seems the slightest bit upset. She is so tolerant of him trying to ride him like a horse, laying on him, and playing with him. When they play ball she even drops the ball for him and never jumps for the ball until he throws it for her.

.....and NO..... I am not getting a dog for Drew. He can visit DEA whenever he wants.

(I know, I am a mean mommy)

Let's go Take a Bath....and.....POTTY

2008-05-25T10:49:00.003-04:00

Okay so I realize by the title it sounds like he is going potty in the bath, he's not, just hang in there...

Yesterday we were at Grandma and Grandpa's and since it was getting late I was afraid he would fall alseep on the way home so I wanted to get him in his pajamas. He had been playing outside and really needed a bath so I told him he needed to take a bath. He got up from what he was doing and said "Go Take A Bath" and ran to the bathroom. Before I caught up with him he already had his Pull Up off and was climbing on the toilet. I decided to stay back in case he would stop if I got to close. Next thing I know I can hear the PEE in the POTTY!!!

I cannot believe that he went in there, took his Pull Up off by himself, climbed on by himself, and actually Pee'd! Usually any of those steps cause lots of screaming and crying.

WOOHOO! GO DREW!!!

So as he was sitting in the bathtub splashing around I reached over to pick up his Pull Up to put it in the trash (he missed that step)(NOT COMPLAINING THOUGH!!!) There was Poopy in the Pull Up! I can't believe that he Pooped in the pull up then took it off and pee'd in the toilet.

My goal for the summer is to have him as close to fully potty trained at least during the day by the end of the summer. Maybe he is finally getting ready! At his three year check up the doc said with him it was more important to push communication than potty training. We still try to push him to use the potty whenever we change him, at least make him sit on the potty, but he never ASKS to go.

Wish us luck!

Cutie Patootie!

2008-05-22T22:43:00.005-04:00

Drew had his follow up at the urologist today (for the kidney ultrasound and the VCUG). The good news is that the tests were great! (we are so relieved!) Basically we don't know what it is that caused the infection but it is gone and we know there are no abnormalities in his urinary tract or kidneys.

They wanted a urine sample....yeah right. What is with these people! After about 20 minutes in the bathroom trying every trick that I could, I decided just to let him go back to the exam room bare butted. Some of the staff thought I was nuts, but whatever. So yet another doctor's office has seen Drew's cutie patootie walking around. Eventually the doc caught up with us and told us not to worry about it since we had him retested a week ago and it was fine.

Two cute things that happened today....

On the way to the doctor's office he says, "go to doctor, then IHOP"
Poor baby.... When he had his ultrasound and VCUG we bribed him with IHOP and look what has happened.

Sitting in the waiting room, a girl sat down across from us (maybe 8 or 9 years old). Drew gets up and goes and sits down next to her. He puts his hand on her arm and just says "Nice to meet you"
(What a HUGE thing that was for him to do!)

....catching up....

2008-05-21T23:15:00.002-04:00

I seem to have a habit of saving posts as drafts, thinking I will go back before the day is over and edit them.... not sure why I do this...

So I am catching up right now posting from the last week, so sorry for the delays....