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.

"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!