Waiting for Baby Girl

My best friend, Susan is having her first baby (a girl) in March. I can't wait to meet her! Yesterday, her sister and mother threw her a beautiful baby shower. The food was delicious, and the decor was just precious (if you knew her mom you wouldn't expect anything less).

The hostess and her beautiful baby girl, Ella

Grandma-to-be

Caitlyn is still the skinny one :)

Birthday Fun

Drew's second birthday began with a very exciting milestone. He woke up in his big boy bed for the first time! The transition has gone extremely well so far...but I don't want to jinx it, so I will go into further detail at a later time.

When he woke up, we went downstairs where there were birthday and Valentines surprises waiting for him. We definetly indulged the Thomas obsession for his birthday...I say, why not? He had a Thomas balloon, a Thomas card with a tatoo in it, a Thomas DVD, a new Train (Molly) in his valentine present, and a Thomas birthday cake! His birthday gifts were the dvd and some new "racing cars". The other part of his gift was a new play table..but I had to get him some fun stuff too because a table and 2 chairs didn't really seem like much of a gift to him. We had also gotten an easel, but after we decorated and put out the Valentines gifts and birthday gifts, we thought that it may have been too much - so we are going to wait on that one and just bring it out at a later time.

I made belgium waffles with berries for breakfast and then we headed out to the Children's Museum. We did the same thing last year, and he enjoyed it just as much.

Auntie Laura came over after dinner and had cake with us. We went to a really great bakery for the cake and it was sooo good! Drew ate quite a bit of it and was on a big sugar high for a while.

We ended the day with another very successful night in the big boy bed. Transitioning him on his birthday has sent Andy and I into a big emotional mess - our baby turned 2 and he is no longer in his nursery! I guess it was like ripping off a band-aid, but it is hard to look back and see how much he has grown.

The balloon was the first thing he went for.

At the Childrens Museum - "Boats Afloat"

Back at home, doing some paperwork after his nap.

More Thomas stuff from Auntie Laura - actually, the BIG gift from Auntie Laura and Uncle JR is tickets to go see Thomas Live in April! I may be giving birth at the time, but I still wanted tickets for me and Andy as well...how could I miss that?
The cake was adorable! We are going to order from them again when we have Drew's party...a kids party in March.

We are so proud of our boy! These 2 years have gone by so fast, and I imagine will only get faster. We are excited to see Drew change over the next year as he becomes a big brother! We love you, Drew!

Drew's 2!

I couldn't let Drews second birthday go by without a photo montage.....Feb 14th, 2007 - Moments after arriving into the world.Aug 2007Feb 2008 - Drew's 1!Aug 2008 - Drew at 18 months

Feb 14th, 2009 - Drew turns 2! (And sleeps in a big boy bed for the first time!)

Winter Vacation '09 -Part 5

On our 4th day in Florida (Sunday), we drove to Key Largo to visit with Andy's parents. They rented a house at the Ocean Reef Club. We were pretty lucky on the car ride because Drew slept almost 3 hours out of the 4.5 hour drive. At one point he woke up a little and the sun was in his eyes so he pulled his hat down over his face. He continued to sleep like that for about 2 hours! Andy and I couldn't stop laughing. He only got antsy in the last 20 minutes..this we learned after we got there, was because he had leaked through his diaper. We now know that orange juice (which he had consumed a lot of that day) and Drew do not mix well. He can have sips, but big glasses are a definite no-no. The skin on his poor tush literally burned! This happened once before, but we didn't associate it with the orange juice. Luckily I found some A&D ointment that cleared it up right away, but the poor kid still doesn't want us coming near him to change his diaper.

The house Grannie and Poppy had was beautiful and the Club is such a great place for kids. There was a kids "pool" on the beach that he sat at the edge of and built sandcastles. The water only went up to his waist so he could run around by himself. There are also 2 other pools that we could go swimming in and a playground right in the sand. Drew hasn't been able to run outside like that or go on a playground in a few months so he really lived it up. I didn't get any photos in the big pool, but our Drew has become quite the little swimmer. He likes to go completely on his own and can get pretty far, pretty fast.


We were shocked, but thankful, for how quiet it was there. Last year, we went closer to school vacation (and the economy was not such a disaster) and there were tons of people there. This year, there were only a handful of children and not that many more adults.
We were happy that we chose to add an extra day to our trip because of the snow. We had considered doing it anyhow because our trip crossed over with Andy's brother Scott's trip. They arrived on Tuesday, but not until late in the evening. Since we decided to leave on Thursday instead, we got to spend a full day with them. Actually, the men went out fishing and had their best trip EVER! (Although no photos to show of it...hmmm....) They had 8 sailfish on, and landed 5 of them. They also landed 1 bonito, 1 mahi, and 1 lemon shark. Needless to say, they were thrilled! While they went fishing, Drew and I soaked in one final day in the sun.
We were so thankful to have time with family AND have such terrific beach weather.

Overall, we couldn't have had a better vacation. I am sure some people thought we were nuts for taking Drew to Disney (especially with me being so pregnant), but we were so happy to see him have a good time. Although I am sure he won't remember it, it is still worth it to us. We figure that we won't be able to go back again until baby #2 is at least 4 - because chasing 2 of them is a different story. I think there is also a piece of me that is happy to have given Drew a week of our undivided attention because of the guilt that I am already feeling about what is about to happen.

Our lives are going to change pretty drastically in just a few short months, so I think we are all thankful to have taken the time to slow down and really enjoy each other before the exhaustion and stress really sets in...eventhough we can't wait for you baby boy!

Winter Vacation '09 -Part 4

Day 4 was our final day in Orlando. We got up early, finished packing, ate breakfast and headed back to the Magic Kingdom. The photos above are at our hotel pool. These ducks are pretty smart. If I headed south for the winter, I too would find a heated pool to hang out in!
We made it to the park right before opening and were able to see the opening ceremony.
Poor Drew...we took him on a ride called "Snow Whites Scary Adventures". He probably would have been fine, except I told him it might be a little scary. Well, that is all he needed to hear and he got a little frightened saying "Mommy, it's scawey". Drew's last ride was the "racin' cars". He liked to go to the fence and watch every time we got near them. I wasn't too crazy about him going on, but dad assured me that they would be careful. I guess I was wrong, because he had a great time!

One more post to go - the next one will be from our trip to Key Largo..