Hot Wheels!!!

Drew had the best evening yesterday! He was hanging out with our neighbor Blake and Blake offered to take Drew on a ride in his Power Wheels Jeep. It was Drew's first ride and he loved every second of it! We went around the block and then Blake got out. Drew took that opportunity to scoot over and take the wheel! What??? I was chatting outside with some friends and had just said that I wondered when would be the right time to get Drew his own car and then I turned around and he had taken off in Blake's. My friend responded "Looks like now's the time!" George and I agree he's too young for one but maybe when he's two.

Drew and his idol Blake. Drew is holding on to the yellow car because it's Blake's and he loves everything of Blake's!
Lauren, Drew and Blake. Cute photo!

Quick video of Drew in the Jeep. I felt like I should be supervising, not making home videos, so I only got a few seconds. Plus, he was getting close to the curb. He may need to work on his steering.

Grandma's New Pool!

We used the redneck pool idea again! We were looking for something fun and refreshing for Drew to do Sunday afternoon and this is what we came up with. He loved it and thought it was neat that only he got to "swim!" He got on his knees and bounced a million times. He really had a large time and we got a few laughs watching him. Pictures below...

Lounging in the deep end!

** Two other posts from the weekend follow this one...

A Drop in the Bucket

We went to the beach on Saturday and Drew played very well with his sand and water toys. His big goal was to fill a bucket with water so he went back and forth from the ocean carrying a smaller bucket of water and poured it into the larger bucket. You can imagine how long that took considering most of the water came out on the walk through the sand. Sometimes he made it back with quite a load but then poured it in the wrong spot. He finally finished and was quite proud of his work! George and I went on a dinner date later that evening and had a very nice time. We sat on the water and enjoyed the live music and a delicious dinner. I really liked my meal... until I tried George's! Yum, yum! I had major entree envy. We haven't stopped talking about it. It was an ahi tuna dish and although the tuna was delicious, the sauce made it! We've been trying to figure out what was in so I can attempt to replicate it. Fat chance but I'm willing to give it a try. It was just that good! It was so wonderful to go out to a nice dinner and not worry about Drew or relieving a baby sitter. Thanks Judy!

Fun in the sun (it was actually pretty cloudy but suited us just fine. Drew didn't get so hot and I didn't have to slather 50 SPF on him quite as much).
The bucket is full! Celebration time!
Date night.

Holding On For Dear Life!

Grandma, George and Drew. Drew wouldn't take his eyes off the ducks long enough to glance at the camera.

We went to Myrtle Beach for a long weekend to visit Judy and have some fun! We started off on Friday by hanging out at Broadway on the Beach, an attraction with rides, restaurants, an aquarium and other sites. Drew wasn't a huge fan of the rides but we had fun walking around, feeding the ducks and enjoying a really yummy meal. It's funny how young kids change their mind about what they like. Drew rode a carousel when he could barely sit up and thought it was the best thing. I've tried it twice in the last few months and it's not such a big hit. Another example was when he loved Santa Clause but a few months later despised the Easter bunny. You just never know I guess. Back the story at hand.... We had a few tickets for rides so tried various things. The spinning teacups were tolerable for him but the rocking pirate ship was a no go! As soon as George and Drew walked toward the ship Drew grabbed on to George's shirt and wouldn't loosen his grip. The ticket taker must have felt bad for Drew because she stopped the ride and gave him the ticket back. I felt bad for pushing Drew onto the rides but we figured he would love them. I guarantee none of the things we tried were near as wild as last weekend's Slip-n-Slide! One thing Drew did love was checking out the trucks at the John Deer store. That was a really cute place! They had hundreds and hundreds of trucks and Drew picked out a couple that Grandma got him. He wanted to play with them right away of course but we practically needed bolt cutters to get them separated from the packaging. Seriously, what is up with that these days? Every toy Drew gets takes an army to unpack. Judy and I worked on them all the way to her place with no success. Drew finally realized we weren't making any progress and went to sleep. It was a nice treat for him though when he woke from his nap.

Slip-n-Slide!!!

We went to Logan's 1st birthday party today and Drew had a blast playing with the water toys! Thank goodness for those toys because it was the hottest day this summer! We've been home 5 hours and I swear we're still trying to cool off. Drew went from kiddie pool to slip-n-slide to squirt hose and back to the kiddie pool, and on and on and on. He was king of the slip-n-slide!!!

Taking a break for some "buh (long pause) bulls."
Ready to get back up and hit the slip-n-slide again!

A video of Drew on the Slip-n-Slide. I want to make it clear that I wasn't a fan of Drew flying down that thing with one arm swinging around just begging to break. He was having such a ball though (George too!) so I kept my whiny mouth shut. I may have muttered one "be careful" but obviously nobody was listening.

Sweet, sweet Drew!

Drew has been so sweet and fun this week! He's always a sweetie but some days I am amazed at what a good little boy he is. He was so cheerful and charming everywhere we went and never failed to make strangers smile. In between playing with his many trucks, blocks and other fun toys, he would surprise me with kisses and hugs. That never gets old! He has started clapping and cheering for himself when he kisses me because he can tell how thrilled I am. Drew was extra perfect yesterday when I spent most of the day cooking and cleaning in preparation for Bunco. The ladies in our neighorhood play and it was my turn to host. I felt bad that Drew had to mostly play by himself and watch Shrek III again but he didn't seem to mind. He even went to bed like a champ at his normal time while 16 ladies were chatting loudly downstairs. Luck would have it that George was out of town so couldn't help with Drew during the last minute rush to get things ready at 7:30. Luckily my sweet sister came to help and play as a substitute so it worked out great! We had a ball and sweet Drew slept through the whole thing! I took Drew on a lunch date today to Chick-Fil-A to thank him for being so good. He was so excited to play that he hardly touched his food. I planned to save it for after but looked down a few minutes later and it was all gone. Surely a little kid ganked it. Or did I eat it? Disgusting.

Drew got a couple of new toys, pictures below...

Mr. Fix It in his toolbelt and hardhat! Flipping burgers on his new grill from CC!
CVS just opened around the corner and Drew is a huge fan of their shopping carts!

If the shoe fits...

Drew loves wearing our shoes these days. If he sees a pair lying around the house, he stops what he's doing and puts them on. Here's a few shots....

Crocs in crocs?
If you're wondering why Drew isn't wearing pants it's because I don't bother putting his pj bottoms back on after changing his diaper in the morning :)

My little flirt!

I was so happy when Friday rolled around, not because it was the start of the weekend but because Drew was finally feeling better. I wrote in my last blog that we thought he had a tummy ache from too many ravioli but found out he had a little bacterial infection from swallowing too much water at the pool. It wasn't the best few days around here! Poor Drew was clammy, extremely tired, and downright irritable. It worked through his system and by Friday afternoon he was in great shape and back to being our happy boy! George and I were relieved because we had a date planned for Friday night and didn't want to leave Drew with a babysitter if he wasn't feeling well. Things went great with the sitter and we're pretty sure Drew is in love!!! He didn't even know I existed once sweet Jillian walked in the door. He batted his eyelashes at her, showed her every single toy in the house and begged her to carry him around non-stop. She is the tiniest young girl I've ever seen so I was worried she wouldn't be able to lift him. She assured me it wasn't a problem but I wouldn't be surprised if her back hurt all weekend. We saw her at the pool this morning and Drew recognized her right away and did his flirting routine again! She went on and on about how sweet, cute and fun Drew was and it really made me proud. I knew they would get along well when Drew pulled out his Cars book and she asked him about Mater, Sally and all the other characters. We'll definitely call her to babysit again. The rest of the weekend flew by with trips to the pool (we did a much better job of making sure Drew didn't swallow any water!), dinner at our neighbors and a barbecue with the Mom's club this evening. One of the highlights of the weekend was going down the water slide at the pool and seeing my Drewby at the end. He got so excited about George and I going down the slide. He would raise his arms up and scream with delight when he saw us fly down. And I mean fly down! They must have waxed it since the last time because I don't recall almost soaring off the side. One more thing, I got my hair chopped off as you'll see in the photos. I can't believe it keeps getting shorter and shorter! My stylist raised her prices so maybe she wanted me to get my money's worth?

Here's a few pictures from the weekend...

Drew loves giving kisses! He makes a cute "mmmmm" noise when he leans in because he hears me do that. Sweetie!

Yummy ice cream sandwiches at Andrea's house!

Dinner and a movie... sort of

We have had a nice week so far! Judy came to visit and Drew was very happy to see his Grandma! We went to the pool and Drew showed off his skills for her. It's a family joke that I can't swim worth a toot so Drew must have gotten his love for the water from George. We also did some shopping and went to a delicious dinner at Magianno's and ate family style (aka: the food keeps on coming!). We ate like pigs and Drew must have had one too many ravioli because he was up crying all night. We assume he had an upset tummy. We were all exhausted this morning but Judy went home as she had planned and Drew and I kept our promise to attend Bee Movie with the Mom's Club at our local theater's Family Fun Festival. They are right about the "Family" part but the "Fun Festival" portion was a joke! We pulled up to the theater fifteen minutes early and couldn't find a parking place. I should have turned around and went home but figured what did I have to lose, it was a free movie after all. Turns out, I lost my patience, my mind, a sippy cup and came close to losing Drew two or three times. Every screen inside the multiplex was playing Bee Movie so when one theater filled up, they directed the herd to another one. Can you picture the chaos? I was sweating and annoyed by the time I ordered our $1 popcorn and drinks and then found our friends. Things seemed to settle down when the movie started and all was well for about 45 minutes. Then the audience started getting restless and while some kids were crying, many others headed for the empty space right in front of the screen. I didn't understand the fascination but there must be something fun about running in the dark. Drew was part of the pack of course and I had a hard time keeping my eye on him. I was more than relieved when the film ended and we headed for the door. Little did I know the fun wasn't over! It took ten minutes to make our way through the jam-packed lobby to the front door and by that time Drew was exhausted from all the "fun" and lack of sleep so things started to get ugly. I've never been so happy to see the Volvo and Drew must have felt the same way because he fell asleep immediately. He's been in a good mood ever since and we had a fun afternoon coloring and playing with his new Cars interactive books from Grandma. Oh, and I gave him a haircut! Busy day!

George, Drew and Grandma watching Cars. Drew loved it!
Drew doing some crafts today. He enjoyed coloring but was thrilled when I gave him a stack of old address labels for decorating his paper.
Drew was desperate for a haircut so here we are at Styles by Stacy!
Photo of my salon :)
Drew points to CC during our first live video! I got my Daddy a web cam for Father's Day and we finally got everything all all set up. What fun! Drew said "CC" perfectly clear and pointed at her!!!

Video of a favorite new activity - paper airplanes!!! Drew digs it!

Chillin' on the couch wearing his Geaux Tigers visor we made at the 4th of July party.
On the way to Uncle Tom's birthday dinner. Yippie!

Big kiss from Aunt Cristie!
Family photo.
Me and the babies!

It's Sunday evening and we are lounging on the couch watching a movie. It was a busy holiday weekend for us. Yesterday I watched Whitley while Tom and Cristie went to a movie and then we all went out to dinner to celebrate Tom's 35th birthday. We went to downtown Durham and Drew really enjoyed exploring outside of the restaurant. He had a blast looking at people, running in the grassy areas, and watching the waterfalls. I was glad to see him burn off his fried Mac N Cheese wedges considering I felt guilty ordering that for him. I knew he would like it so thought it would keep him busy for awhile. It did!

George and 7 other neighbors decided to play golf this morning. Us Mom's didn't want to miss out on any fun so we planned a playgroup and then a trip to the mall for lunch. Drew was sweet as can be at the playgroup and didn't mind at all that most of the toys were girly. He managed to find one truck and he and another young boy were attached to it like glue. Luckily they played very nicely together. From the sound of things in another room, some of the other kids weren't in the mood to share and there was a little altercation surrounding a Barbie Doodle Pro. I remember seeing at least 3 or 4 other Doodle Pros but I guess there was something special about that Barbie one. The tantrums stressed a couple of the Mom's out and one ran to call the mall to see what time they open. She ran back in with a "We're in luck, they open at 11am on Sundays!!!" and everyone ran for the door. All of the kids seemed to be much happier once we settled in at the food court and filled our tables with burgers, fries and pizza. Ahhh, what full bellies will do for cranky kids (and Mom's)!

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July everyone! I hope you had a good one! We went to the pool Friday morning and then our neighborhood had a party in the evening. Unfortunately, it ended suddenly when a bad storm hit. We still enjoyed ourselves for a couple of hours and Drew had a blast playing with the other kids and doing a sun visor craft. Actually, I enjoyed decorating the sun visor and had to keep Drew from wiggling out of my lap the whole time. He was much more interested in the faster-paced activities going on like tricycle races. He also made up a game of his own, I guess it's called "run in circles around the man-hole cover until you fall down and then get up and do it again." That kept him busy for at least ten minutes so I was finally able to engage in a conversation. I had just introduced myself to a new couple in the neighborhood when Drew got bored with the man-hole game and found a Barbie Hot Wheels. He jumped right in of course so I had to run off and supervise while mumbling a "Nice to meet you." George was manning the grill so wasn't able to help much with Drew. At first I thought it was nice of him to volunteer for that job but then I began to think that he outsmarted me and knew chasing Drew was going to be a lot harder than standing over a hot grill. Hmmm. A few fireworks went off before the storm hit and Drew proved to be a good audience with his "oooohs" and "ahhhhs!" Here's a few photos from the night...

Drew and his friends eat at one of the kids tables.
Yummy dessert! Drew didn't finish it so shared it with Stella. She made quite a mess...
Drew and Stella. He was so grossed out by her mess that he took back his invitation to Panther Creek High School's prom of 2024.
"What do you mean I'm too young for a tricycle?"
That's not a night sky, it's a wicked storm that crept up on us and cut the party short. Good thing someone offered to host late night.

Fun day at the museum!

Drew and I met Cristie and Whitley at the NC Museum of Life and Science today and had a wonderful time! The museum has lots of hands-on exhibits for kids and Drew took full advantage! Drew and Whitley were both very good at the museum and we actually stayed longer than planned because they were having such a great time. It was a fun day and we look forward to doing other things together this summer while Cristie is off work.

Gotta cut this blog short, I need to break up the party in Drew's crib. He fell asleep on the way home from the museum but the transfer from carseat to crib was a big flop and he didn't fall back asleep. Guess the cat nap was enough because I can hear him banging on the wall! A few pictures from today...

Drew pauses for a picture while making some racket with the wind chimes.
"Is that me?"

Tuckered out! Whitley fell asleep with bottle in hand.

Drew checks out some butterflys in the butterfly house, one of our favorite parts of the museum!
Outside of the butterfly exhibit.

Cutie!
Time to go! When Whitley fell asleep Drew decided it was time to head home and pushed her stroller toward the door!

Little video of Whitley and Drew.