Bye beach!

This is the last post from the beach... 208 pictures taken makes it the most I think I have ever taken on a vacation, especially to a place that I have been many times. Drew is taking a final nap before one last swim, a walk on the beach and a long car ride home. Yesterday he started clapping, which is sooooo cute. He smiles and usually squeals and claps his hands together - especially when he starts eating. He is now crawling at 3x the speed of when we first got to the beach (video will be posted soon of this!). He also now reaches out to be picked up or reach from person to person. He changes so fast. So here are the last of the beach pictures - back to reality (and less times for posts unfortunately) tomorrow.
Drew had such fun playing with Meema these last few days!!He especially loved to have her read to him.Noooooooo!!!! Don't eat it!!!!Chillin' with Mommy"When can we come back?!"

Meema is here

Meema got to the beach on Thursday and we have been having a good time with her. Unfortunately, no one else was able to join us - but that just meant Drew got even more attention from Meema! We went to the aquarium yesterday - Drew would follow those fish and wave to them. Here are more pics:
At the aquarium - "Hey fish"Daddy showing Drew a horseshoe crab up closeThe jelly fish were cool (but only in a tank - the washed up ones all over the beach this week weren't so great)Mommy & Drew - ready to hit the beach!Family picture (minus that crazy one-eyed dog, of course)You knew we had to do it!

Mid-week at the beach

There are not too many new pictures to share right now (though Meema and crew are due in today, so I am sure that is about to change!) but a couple of cute ones. Brad's family left on Tuesday and we haven't done a whole lot since (which, actually it is pretty nice not to do much!). Drew's schedule is getting more and more out of whack as the days go by, but we'll get it back on track soon enough. He still seems to know when 6-7 am comes, despite how late he stayed up the night before! Here are some pics:
Drew's new surfer doMom's can't avoid booty shots!What is a beach trip without crossword puzzles?! This is one of Drew's favorite books to pull off of the shelf

Family vacation time!

I am writing from the beach during our first real family vacation! Because I know there will likely be a *lot* of pictures, I'm going to try to break it up a bit with several posts. We met at Surfside Beach with Brad's mama (Nana), sister and nephew on Friday night. Since then we have already had a great time and looking forward to a week more of sun and firsts! =) So here are some pictures (though it is hard to narrow them down!):
Drew checks out the water in Daddy's arms: Drew gets his feet wet in the ocean for the first time:Drew loves to wave at everyone now:Nana is comfy!"What is this stuff and why won't Mommy let me eat it?"Drew's first trip to the putt-putt course:Balcony photo shoot: "Isn't my Aunt Sistah pretty?! I'm sweet on her." Wooohoo! A fist full of hair! Those swimming lessons paid off-Drew loves the pool:
Stay tuned as I know there will be many more beach pictures to come!

8 months old!

Well, as mentioned in the previous post our computer has been "down". It has officially changed from down to out, and we will have to start the seach for a new one. So, computer time has been really limited both for updated blogs and even downloading pics - so unfortunately no new pics for now, but I know some of yall have been waiting for an update. Drew is doing well (besides a fussy morning thanks to a big top tooth that is pushing its way on through). He is getting this crawling thing down and is quite fast. He now waves all of the time - but not really to say hey or bye, just all the time! One thing I've really started to notice this week is how his fine motor skills are really developing. He can use his little fingers to grab onto tiny little strings on the floor and pick them up. He is talking *a lot* now - squeals and babbles all day long. We are all looking forward to a trip to the beach next week, where there will definitely be many pictures taken to make up for this lapse!

Our mass-less inchworm

Let me explain...

Mass-less. A few people knew that after Drew's swallowing study, the Radiologist reported he may have a mass or lesion in his pyriform sinuses (pockets down in the bottom of his throat), and we were sent to an ENT last week. Of course, those words made us worry so we were very anxious about this appointment. Our big boy braved being scoped (and Mommy & Daddy braved watching him - actually Brad held him during it) and besides a little evidence of reflux, the doctor thankfully thought that everything looked OK. So, everyone is in agreement that they think Drew should outgrow this trouble swallowing by the time he is 18-24 months old. That may be a long time, but we can handle that in light of something that could have been much worse. So thank you for everyone's thoughts and prayers during all of this!

Now, for the inchworm part. Drew started crawling this week! But, he hasn't yet figured out the typical crawling method. Instead he puts both feet under him, pushes his bottom up in the air and then falls forward. It definitely gets him from point A to point B, and he is getting faster everyday. He already loves to get to things that he seems to know he shouldn't be getting into, so we have to keep an even closer watch on him now. Here he is getting into Daddy's stereo (out of all of the colorful toys that sing and move, he is just drawn to these black knobs!):

In other news, Drew's second tooth has come in down on the bottom beside his first. You can kind of see his new teeth in this picture:

Drew's "Aunt" Jenn came to visit him recently. He hopes she comes back soon!

Our computer has been down since last week, so I have a lot of catching up to do with pictures. Drew enjoyed going to the park last weekend - he loved the swing!

Our little engineer tries to figure out just how this swing works.

Weeeeeeeeeee!
One of my favorite things to do on the weekend (it is sad that he will soon be too big to take naps on me!):

Drew and his best friend:

And yes, baby, it does...

Sleepovers, drumming, honey and teeth

Whew, what a busy week. Let's start with what Drew is doing new... He pushes around in complete circles constantly on the floor (always counter-clockwise), but still no crawling. This morning, we noticed that a little bottom tooth is starting to break through! So those cute little gummy grins are soon going to be replaced with some pearly whites. =) Also, we had to go to Brenner Children's Hospital this week. Our pediatrician was concerned that Drew might be aspirating a bit when he is swallowing, so she wanted him to have a swallowing test there. (Ironically enough, yes, this kind of test *is* what I do for a living... but it is much different on babies instead of adults - and especially on your own baby!). It turns out that some of what Drew has been taking by bottle is, in fact, going into his lungs. So we now have to thicken all of his bottles to a honey consistency. All of these colds that I was blaming daycare for may have been caused by this, so hopefully now that we've figured out a cause they will be a thing of the past. He doesn't seem to mind it - still eating like a champ - and they say that he will likely soon outgrow it. Also, Drew has really started to enjoy "drumming" now, especially with our pots and spoons! He thinks it is so funny. Here are some drumming pics:

Last weekend Drew had his first sleepover with his girl, Miss Scarlett. Scarlett is the baby of a friend of mine from work, and she was born a week before Drew. She and Drew did so well together - they kept pretty much the same schedule and both slept very well (separate cribs, mind you!) Here are some pictures from his PJ party:

Drew and I taught Scarlett what the drums were all about.

They both slept so well all night - what little angels!

Mommies and babies

And, Drew decided today to type his own message to all of you as he was sitting on my lap at the computer:

rf v , bo y bvyhhhhhhb h gvb iu

Love, Drew