A Dog's Life

Who knew dogs liked Thomas the Tank Engine?

A Good Day

We wound up having such a nice day. After the fair and a nap, Drew woke up so happy so we decided to go and pick out pumpkins. Same as last year, we went to Tangerinis Farm. If I haven't mentioned it before, I love love love this farm! It is just so pretty. We were there at the perfect time of day. They also have goats and a big sand pit with tons of trucks, so Drew was in heaven!

I brought the good camera and practiced some more with my new lens. I am no pro yet, but I am really liking the lens. I am also trying to teach myself Photoshop. I have been getting frustrated with it, so if anyone has any good resources for me I would love to hear them.

Same spot last year.

The following shots have been edited with Photoshop. It helped a lot where they were too bright.

We ended the day with dinner out and Drew was such a good boy. He now loves to talk to people at the tables next to us and is quite the entertainer. He ate most of his dinner and even had dessert! Andy and I can't stop saying what a good day it was. I am not sure if it was because everyone was in a good mood, or we did fun things, or that the weather was so beautiful; but we really enjoyed our family day together.

The Fair

Today we went to the Topsfield Fair. We have never been before, but Andy had heard that it would be packed! It was definetly true, traffic was backed up about 2 miles from the fairgrounds and it took us an extra 45 mins or so waiting to get in. We planned to get there when they opened, but after needing gas, Starbucks, oops mom forgot diapers, it was 10 minutes before opening when we got on the highway.

It was definetly worth the wait. We weren't able to go on many rides because Drew isn't 36" tall yet, but we all went on the merry-go-round and then I gave the rest of my tickets to a nice family who offered us their cup of chicken feed. (Definetly a fair trade; $8 worth of tickets for $.25 worth of pellets) Drew LOVED all of the animals. On the way there all he talked about seeing were the goats. I figured he would love the other animals too...which he did, but the goats definetly won by far! I am trying to convince daddy to buy us 2 goats. I promised I would milk them and make soap with it...hey maybe I could even make some money off of it.

Drew got an Elmo balloon which was to make up for not being able to go on the rides...$6 for a mylar balloon! And they didn't post the prices. We didn't bring the stroller with us, which was a big deal not to have it there as a back-up. But, sans stroller, I got to tie the balloon to my bag. I must have wacked a dozen people with it.

We were very impressed with the fair. I thought it would be more of a carnival, but I was wrong, it was definetly more of an agricultural fair. There were still plenty of concessions and rides, but that was fun too! We are excited to go back next year....with a 6 month old in tow!

Nothing Special

Drew is developing such a little personality. I guess this is a good thing, but after days like today it is hard to remember that. After a week of Drew having a cold, we were finally ready to head back to the gym and I had an appointment with a trainer. I told Drew where we were headed and instead of his usual "ok", I got "all done...gym!" this repeated over and over on our way there and got more emphatic as we got closer. When I pulled him out of the car he started screaming and I decided that we would skip. I still had to go inside and cancel the trainer, so the screaming got much much worse. Throughout the entire lobby you could hear Drew bellowing "HOME". Everyone looked at me like I was a monster for dragging my screaming child to the gym. Then, as we were walking out and passed the child care center he started asking to go and play with the cars inside! The audacity! The day didn't get much better after that with a handful of tantrums and a nap before lunch that only lasted 1 hour.

Eventhough I am exhausted and crabby, watching him do silly things like dance around the living room or laugh at his own "toots" (yes, he does that), makes it all worth while!

Here are some photos of Mr. Personality from last week:

Baby #2

The quality of this picture isn't so great, mainly because it is just a photo of the photo. I could have scanned it, but that would have been too easy!
The baby was bouncing and moving around quite a bit during the ultrasound. It was actually making it difficult for them to get a shot, but eventually cooperated.

Andy really wants to figure out a "belly name" for this one. He doesn't like calling it "baby #2". I say that a name will just present itself. Andy named Drew "meatball" while I was pregnant because of an incident one day at work. I was in the cafeteria getting a dish of pasta for lunch when I went over to the counter where they make subs and asked if I could have a meatball...he said no, they were only for subs. When I stepped away from the counter and he saw I was pregnant, he said "oh...come back you can have one". Like I was going to go and eat a small child or something because he wouldn't give the fat pregnant lady a meatball. I snapped back at him "forget it"! Apparently by the end of the day I wasn't over it, because I ranted the story back to Andy and that is where he came up with meatball. If we ask Drew what to call it, he says "hot dog", which is pretty much his response to anything, but I think we will get off of the meat names this time around.

Answer!

....that he is going to be a big brother! (We're sure he really is excited about it). We are expecting somewhere around April 15th! I will post some u/s photos of baby #2 shortly.

Question...

What is the news that Drew is reacting to in this photo?

Great Great Great Grandma and Grandpa

Drew likes to add a few extra "greats" on there... I guess he just thinks they are terrific!

On Sunday, we went to Auntie Lauras house for a visit with my grandparents and Uncle Joe. We had a cookout and the weather was perfect! (Thank goodness, because no one wanted to be inside watching the Patriots!) Since Laura's birthday is today and Grandpa's this weekend, we also celebrated the occasions.

Corn Maze

I should put a counter on the blog with the number of times we have been to the farm. The truth of the matter is that we go a lot more than I post about. We have a really great farm in our town that has a huge assortment of vegetables and fruit, plus we get to feed the goats! Drew and I have been going just about once a week all summer. We are really going to miss the fresh veggies and goats now that fall is coming. But today, Dad came along and we did the corn maze. I have to admit, I was a little scared of the maze. I don't know if it was fear from watching "Children of the Corn" at a slumber party when I was young, or if it was fear of getting lost and claustrophobia (I think the latter). I started to change my mind as we were going in and a family came out of the entrance exasperated and they all said "good luck" or "you'll be done by the time he is ready for college"! We soon realized that they really just had no sense of direction. It wasn't that easy, but it really wasn't that bad. I was just a little nervous because Drew was going so fast and I was more concerned we were going to loose him.

When we got home, Drew was so excited to see a helicopter fly over the house. His face is pure joy! Hel-i-cot-ter!

After his nap, Drew and I went to the playground to meet some friends. Around 5:00 a group of 6 teenagers showed up and started playing on the equipment. This playground is geared towards toddlers, too young even for 7 year olds. First the swings, then abusing the too small see saw and slides. The final straw was when we were leaving and one of them tried cramming inside a cozy coupe! When one of my friends said "um, I think you're too big for that" he responded "yeah, well I am gonna try". Ok, so I am torn with thinking, yeah I was a teenager once and did stupid things, they weren't drinking or smoking or even swearing. But I would never act like such an idiot in front of adults...never mind adults with tiny children. I cherish this playground and I get angry when people litter so I knew I would worry all night that they would vandalize it once we left. So I made the decision to stop at the police station and rat them out. I feel like an old fuddy duddy (showing my age using that phrase too), but I determined that the interests of my own kid need to come first and I can't worry about being cool anymore (as if I did anyway). So what would you have done?

Sticky Fingers

Since winter is fast approaching, I have signed Drew up for Recreation Department classes through December. I have to admit, I am scared of winter this year. Once the weather changes and we can no longer to go the playground, I really don't know what we will do. We started Gymnastics earlier this week and Drew had a blast. Mainly he just hopped up and down all over the room, but it was fun to watch! No other moms took pictures, so although I had my camera, I didn't want to embarrass Drew on the first day. Today, we had "Sticky Fingers" which is basically a room that is set up with paints, glitter, play dough, shaving cream, "flubber", etc for the kids to make "art work" and create a total mess. The teacher really doesn't do anything, apparently we just pay her to set up and clean up the mess. After seeing the mess, we were getting our money's worth!. I had a bit of a wardrobe dilemma this morning because I didn't want anything destroyed, but I got over it and told myself to relax because there would be smocks......well guess what, no smocks! Someone took them home to wash and didn't bring them back! We had them by the end of the class, but by then it was a little to late.

The shaving cream table really ticked Drew off. All he wanted to do was play with the cars, but they were covered with sticky white junk! I must have washed his hands 50 times because he kept going back to get the cars out.

Drew, Graham and Caylee playing with the bingo markers. I guess I got too busy taking photos, because Drew walked over to another boy with the marker and dotted his back. I felt bad, I doubt those markers will come out....oops!

What Honey?

I find myself saying that a lot lately. Usually it is because I am so surprised at the things he comes up with. So tonight we were out playing in the driveway when Drew noticed that the lawn looked funny because we just had it aerated (for those who don't know, this is a process that pulls plugs of dirt out of the lawn and leaves small holes). He was talking about the dirt and pointing too it. I was giving him my usual "uh huh, right, dirt, yep, dirty...." when he started to say "down, down, down!" and ran over to me with an excited look. I asked him "what is down?" His response "Mickey Mouse". Huh? "Do you mean Mickey Mouse is down the hole?" I asked. He excitedly responded, "Yeah!" He brought me over to the lawn and pointed out the hole and repeated "Mickey Mouse"...."bunny?" (i.e could be a bunny hole too).

Here is the baffling part - the only time he has seen Mickey Mouse is on his diapers and I can't think of one book or tv show that shows mice or bunnies in holes in the ground. How does he know this? Is he reading books on animals and their dens while I am not looking? Maybe I missed the Curious George episode that explained this one, I just don't know.

Another concept that he has grasped on his own is hiding. This one could be dangerous...like when my keys go missing, or a cup of milk, or him! But he got a set of alphabet books from Grandma the other day (26 books in the box, one for each letter). He decided to slip each one of them under the couch and then run in to me and tell me they were "hiding." When I moved the couch to get them back I found many other toys that have been hiding a while...including "Emily" of his Thomas set who was replaced by a sap of a mommy that couldn't bear another day of him wandering around saying "Oh....Emme.....Go?". It was so sad, so I bought a replacement. Now he has 2 and is just blown away that there could possibly be more than one Emme.

This picture is from Sunday. Daddy and Drew playing in the front yard. Drew was decked out in his new Bruschi jersey. However, he is no longer that excited about the season..can you blame him?

"I Ceam"

Drew often goes through his list of requests while we are driving in the car; just to see if I will cave:

"Pay-gound" (playground), "Gam" (Graham), "No-nut" (donut), "Appa" (apple juice), "i-ceam" (ice cream).

He has been asking for ice cream more and more lately. I guess he has really enjoyed our occasional trip after dinner. Tonight I asked him if he wanted to go for a walk after dinner and he said no, so I offered up a trip to get ice cream and he was so excited!

I ensured that I had a towel down in the back of my "new cah" (as Drew calls it). He is still getting used to the silver Volvo, every time we see a blue Lexus he points and says "Mama!"

Drew now has lots of 2 and 3 word strings that he uses, mainly they are things that I say throughout the day, but he usually uses them correctly. "I'll get it", "here you go", "come on", "how you doing?". He has also become quite bossy lately. The other day he told Andy to "sit down" next to him in the drive way. He has been constantly telling me to "come". That is a tough one because usually it takes me quite a while to figure out what he wants me to "come" and do. It is stressful when he is yelling it at me over and over. Usually it is something he wants me to play with him, but if I don't read his mind perfectly he gets quite annoyed.

Although Drew can be a little demanding and bossy, he is always a good, happy boy and super affectionate. I get so many hugs and kisses and "I dab du" (I love you) throughout the day. He is also learning pretty well how to share and be nice to other kids. We had his friend Graham over last week and before he came I drilled sharing and being nice into his head. This week, we went to Graham's house and when I told him we were going over to play with his toys, Drew, on his own, said "nice". When we got there, he really minded his manners. He shared all of the toys and he kept bringing Graham cookies and his drink. When we left he gave him a big hug!

These two look like they are going to be trouble together.