"GAM!"

Drew and Graham (aka Gam) have so much fun together. This photo is from last week at they playground. I have a hard time talking with his mommy (Lindsey) there, because Drew is all over the place. So today, we had them over for lunch. The boys had lots of fun together, and it was much more relaxing for the mommies. Drew loves to play a game he calls "get you". Basically, you just have to chase him around. He really wanted Graham to "get" him. He is too funny.

Beach Boy

The weather this weekend was perfect for the beach! We went to the Cape and Drew had so much fun. His cousins were there too, so it was a busy weekend.

I got Drew this bobble head sprinkler at CVS for under $5. It was definitely worth the money. He really enjoyed commanding everyone else to get in it. Luckily for him, Grannie and Poppie are suckers and did what he asked :).

While drying off from the sprinkler, Drew enjoyed digging in the driveway rocks. We couldn't walk out front without him asking to "dig dig".

Watering Poppies flowers

Drew got to take his first ride on the "big boat". It wasn't very far, just to the marina to fuel up, but he was very well behaved. He isn't crazy about the life vest, but I think it may be getting a little small for him.

We found a playground where Drew met a silly little boy named Bryce who kept telling Drew to "catch me!"....and of course, Drew loves to play "get you" so he happily obliged.

Drew's favorite activity with his cousins was the conga line. Drew is now constantly running up behind me and pushing on my but to get me to do it too.

We hit the beach on Saturday and Sunday. Drew was a little fish on Saturday. He didn't want to get out of the water, but he was shivering. On Sunday he played mostly just at the shore line, so he didn't get as cold.

Some Found; Some New

I found some older pictures on my camera that I believe I promised to share, but never did. These are from the Fourth of July weekend on Cape Cod:

We picked Daddy up from work on that weekend so we could get an early start to the Cape. We stopped next door first, where dad let him sit in one of the trucks! He wasn't as thrilled to be in the truck as he was to just look at the truck - but it was a good photo op.

Here we are at the Cape, he was all ready to go on the boat (life vest and all), but decided he would rather play with the toys some more.
As it turns out, Drew is quite the beach chair hog. He only seemed to want the seat that was currently occupied. He also left about a pound of sand on the seat when he vacated.

Drew burnt a lot of energy on the beach that day. He slept almost the whole ride back to the house in the boat. Most of the trip is "no wake", but even when it wasn't, he still snoozed away.

Here is a more recent picture of one of our daily trips to the playground. Drew asks me 50 times a day to go to the "pay-gound" and if say not now, he asks to go see his friend "Gam" (Graham) who is usually at the playground with us. He sure knows how to get what he wants!

Here is a picture from yesterday. We have some great farms in our town. This time of the year is the greatest, because they have fresh fruit and veggies. We go at least a couple times a week to get some produce and pay a visit to the goats (and stinky chickens). Here Drew is feeding the goat through the chute while the chicken is trying to steal the food out of his hand.
Drews buddy, Logan joined us on the farm yesterday. They then went to the playground and then back to our house for a wrestling match. I was very surprised when Drew tossed Logan in a head lock and took him to the ground. They seemed to be enjoying themselves, so I let them go.

"An-mals"

We made a trip to the zoo this morning. Drew had so much fun. The first thing we saw were the kangaroos and we got a good show. One of them kept hopping up and down the wall and he stopped in front of us, stood up and scratched his belly...Drew got a real kick out of it.

His favorite, by far, was the petting zoo. He got to walk around and torment all of the goats. I thought it would be fun to let him feed them, but I could barely get the feed out of the dispenser. One of the goats actually stuck his nose right in the dispenser before I could remove the food. After 3 goats jumped on me, I decided that it wouldn't be a good idea to let Drew hold the goat food.

We made it to the elephant show, where we got to watch "Dondo" do all sorts of tricks. I typically would have felt sad for an animal doing tricks, but she has been raised by the family that does the show since she was 9 months old (she is now 35) and they said they have not left her for 1 day since they got her.

Drew also got to ride the ponies and go on a ride....all by himself!

"Big Boy"

Drew keeps reminding me that he is a "big boy". He says it all day long...mostly when trying to lift heavy objects. Sometimes he says it when he wants to do something on his own (like climb up the slide when he knows he is not supposed to.)

He has been having semi-conversations with me lately. We will pass the horse farm on our street and he asks where the horse is: "nay?....go? (with arms in a shrug)....barn!" Interpretation: "Mommy, where are the horses? They must be inside the barn!

He has become accustomed to going through the Dunkin Donuts drive thru for Mom's iced coffee and 3 munchkins for himself. Whenever we go near DD he asks for "nonuts". The drive thru is right next to the commuter rail train and we have often seen it go by while waiting in line. So the other day I got :

"Choo-choo?....go?......oooh" ie: Aaaw, where did that train go?

I responded that it went to Boston....

"Bo-ton?"

"Yes, it brought all of the people to work"

"People?" he asks while holding up one of his Fisher Price Little People.....

"Yes honey, exactly"

So my "big boy" is truly getting big - here are some photos to prove it:

Drew found the Bumbo in the basement and now loves to tote it around and sit in it. He usually gets stuck in it, so he has to roll himself out.

I don't remember what this face was in response to...probably because everytime I pull out the camera he wants to see the "BABY" inside of it.

The Boss

As I had mentioned, we took Drew for a haircut on Saturday morning. It took them all of 3 minutes to cut around the ears and the back, but I am glad I had it done.

Saturday afternoon, we visited our cousins Matt (not pictured), Mike and Scott. Drew has so much fun playing with his cousins, but he does turn into a bit of an animal!

On Saturday night, my best friend Susan babysat Drew for us so that we could go see Bruce Springsteen with Laura and JR! We really made out in the deal...they bought us the tickets and we had a free babysitter!! We had so much fun - even in the torrential rain and thunderstorm that passed right over us. He didn't go on until about 9:30 (scheduled 7:30), but eventhough he was supposed to stop at 11:15 he played for an extra hour. We left around 11:45 so we wouldn't take too much advantage of the free child care...and who am I kidding, we were pretty tired..

Drew had a blast playing with Susan and was pretty good going to bed for her (so we are told).

Sunday was rather low-key with a few trips to the playground for a child begging for pay-gound!

Superman, Fluff, Bottom, Hair

"Look at how well I can color!"

The one thing Drew has been eating for lunch consistently is peanut butter and jelly. I was happy because the protien in the peanut butter provided some sustinance. Well, much to my dismay, the pb&j has been a hit-or-miss lately. So, I bought some all natural "marshmallow creme" from Whole Foods (tastes just as sweet as the original "Fluff") since it only has slightly more sugar than jelly, I don't feel that bad about it. He loves it! It just makes a HUGE mess.

Drew has learned to go down the stairs on his "bottom" and loves to proclaim that he is getting on his "BOTT-UMMM" before going down. He insists that Andy and I go down the same way. He also proclaims it when going down the slide on at the playground - the other day he yelled it all the way down the slide "boottommmm...." everyone who was in earshot got a real kick out of it.

We are planning on taking Drew for his first haircut tomorrow. I know you are probably saying "what hair?" It is still pretty thin but there are parts in the back that are getting so long and stick up like crazy - as you can see from this picture of a sweaty Drew after the playground.

Silly Boy

While I was unloading groceries, rather than having Drew pull out the eggs and crush the bread, I gave him his own bag with a few canned goods in it to put away. He did it beautifully...then he decided to do some grocery shopping of his own and completely clean out the bottom of the pantry. He is such a good little helper!

Drew has become fascinated with clocks and says "tick tock" whenver he sees one. He loves wearing Daddys watch and "tick-tocking" around the house.

In order to ensure that Drew watches as much tv as possible, we got him his own chair. Hopefully he will be a full fledge couch potato by age 2!

Yes, We Are Still Here

Sorry for the absence. I have been slacking this week. Drew is still up to the same tricks, with some new ones too. His vocabulary is just astounding us. He trys to repeat just about anything we say and he is starting to figure out his colors and numbers (blue, one and two). Its a start.

This week we tried to get most of the outdoor activites done early so that by the time the heat hit at the end of the week we could spend some time indoors in the a/c. We went bluberry picking at the local farm and Drew had so much fun. He got the hang pretty quickly because we have a few blueberry bushes in our yard that he likes to pick from. He ate almost every berry he picked. I felt a little guilty when I walked in to pay and he had a purple stained face.

We have been going to the playground every day and Drew is getting much more independent - going down the slides by himself and making buddies (getting shoved around a little too). He now asks to go to the playground (pay-da). Of course his wish is my command whenever he brings it up - spoiled boy!

He has become obsessed with airplanes (aah-de) and runs to the window whenever he hears one. If we are outside he points, jumps up and down and says "aah-de...go go!

Along with all of the smart, cute things he is doing...the awareness of his likes and dislikes are leading to the occasional meltdown or tantrum. I have decided that toy stores are off limits when he is with us. He had a severe meltdown leaving the bookstore because he had to leave behind the beloved wooden train set that they have. It was by far the worst meltdown ever! I got lots of the "what are you doing to your child?" looks on the way out.

Here are some random shots from the week:

I think this is Drew's version of a wink. He gets such a cute little grin on his face when doing this.

"Have an O, Daddy"

In an effort to reduce me having to tote around my big bag wherever we go, I got Drew this backpack. It is perfect for a drink, snack and my car keys when we hit the playground. The only problem is that i am usually the one with it strapped to my back. But when he does wear it, it is just too cute!
On Friday we had the first phase of our driveway paving done. They showed up at 6:45 with 4 trucks, an excavator, bobcat and a steamroller. It was so loud, but Drew slept until 7:40 - the latest in a very long time. I just don't get it, he will sleep through that, but if we creak on the stairs he jumps right up. When he did finally wake up, he spent most of the morning in the window or front door watching the action. Big Trucks = Big Smiles!

This is Drew's "I know I am not supposed to be doing this" face.