Go Pirates!

Happy Labor Day to everyone! Although Drew was here last football season, he didn't get to participate much in the festivities at that time. So far, this season is different! "Uncle" Jason & "Aunt" Michelle (also East Carolina alumni) came over Saturday to help Brad pull on the Pirates as they took out Virginia Tech. Brad's old roomate, Ron, even brought Drew an ECU football on his way to the game in Charlotte which Drew enjoyed pushing it then chasing it around the den throughout the game! Here is Drew watching the game with his first football: Brad with his 2 babies - pulling on the Pirates. Drew even got his first bite of cake this weekend, thanks to the yummy dessert that Michelle made! Here is a video of Drew feeding himself cake for the first time:
Drew is a pulling-up machine these days! This is how we find him just about anytime that we put him down in his playpen or crib (makes it a bit harder to fall asleep for naps): And this video is dark, but I like it... it was him waking up from a nap today:

So many updates

Sorry for the lack of posts - so much has happened these last couple of weeks & I am so far behind in my updating! I will try to cram in as much as I can!

Drew has had a big week or two. He recently went to the doctor and he now weighs 27 pounds, 3 ounces. He is 31" tall and his big ol' noggin' is 19" around. All three continue to place him in above the 97th percentile for his age. Two more teeth have cut through the top for a total of 5 right now. He started to pull up a little about a week and a half ago, and he is getting quite good at it now. Now, he can go from crawling to sitting (which helps in the pulling up quite a bit). He loves to stand up, and-with guidance-he tries to take steps!!! He moved up to a different section of day care and he is starting to feed himself *very small* bites of "real" food. He goes back for another swallowing test on September 8th, and hopefully we can advance that a little more and get rid of that thickener (which makes it quite difficult for him to get liquids from a sippy cup). His babbles are sounding more and more like words each day and he continues to be a very mellow, sweet baby.

Drew has had a LOT of fun these past couple of weekends, too! 2 weekends ago, Brad and I flew to Chicago to be in our friends Bryan and Esther's wedding. We are very lucky and grateful that Meema, Aunt Lynda and Aunt Weegie all came up to look after Drew. We missed him and talked about him alot during the weekend, but we also knew he was in quite good hands and getting a WHOLE lot of attention! Brad and I had a great time at the wedding and also while exploring Chicago a bit. Here are some pictures of the fun (sorry the format turned out like it did!) Thank you Aunt Weegie, Aunt Lynda and Meema!!!

Do you think he was the center of attention, or what?!?!Aunt Weegie feeding DrewDrew loves his aunts - and his swing!And here are a couple of pictures of Mommy and Daddy away in Chicago:
The BeanBrad at Wrigley Field with our good friends, Jason and MichelleThe groom, Bryan, with Jason and BradMommy and Daddy all dressed up with Jason and Michelle - just before the weddingThen, this past weekend, Sammy and Elena were down for interviews at a couple of schools in GA and SC... hopefully we can hopefully get them down South soon! We met them at Meema's house - it was a nice treat to see them and see Mimi and Nicholas (Sammy's kids - Nicholas is almost 3 and Mimi just turned 1). They are so cute and have grown sooo much. Unfortunately, I took all of my pictures on Meema's camera - so as soon as she posts them online I will put them up.

On the way home on Sunday, we were able to swing through Columbia and stop at my good friend Sarah's house to see her, her husband and meet her sweet little one, Daniel. Sarah and I have been friends since the first grade (24 years!!!! yikes!). She had Daniel in February - so he and Drew will grow up the same age too! =) It was wonderful to see them, though too brief, and Daniel is quite a cutie.

Daniel checks out this new guy moving in on his toys
A cute picture of Sarah with DanielThe closest we could get to all 4 of us actually looking at a camera!
Whew - we have been busy! I hope everyone out there is well!

Bumbo butt

This is what happens when your baby is:
a) able to crawl
b) strong enough to flip over to his belly and
c) 5+ pounds too large for his Bumbo seat (but his Mommy crams him into it anyway!)

Some videos

As promised, some videos (from the beach). The first one shows his commando crawl (what we do for entertainment and footage, huh?) and the next one shows him swimming with Daddy in the pool. Enjoy!

9 months old!

Can you believe it?! And we got to spend it in the doctor's office. Drew officially has his first ear infection. We are very fortunate that he has made it 9 months before getting one, but put that with two teeth that are cutting at the same time and it makes for one pitiful little boy. Hopefully his medicine will kick in and clear up this infection soon. But, even at his "worst" he is still the best and the sweetest little guy ever!!! We are currently downloading some video, so hopefully I can make it work and get a video up on here soon - nothing today though, sorry!!! Drew has mastered the commando crawl, and he has started to push up on all fours to get his tummy off of the ground this week. He is such a curious little boy - and he really does seem to try to figure out how things work. For example, if we are swinging in the swing he will grab on to the chain, look it up and down, watch it as it moves, study it... and the cabinet doors - he will crawl to them, open them and just peer inside - he just wants to know what is in there! It amazes me how he remembers how things work too - if he has to press or turn or pull things to make them work - and he can get so determined and focused on certain tasks. He also remains very good natured - generally calm and separation anxiety is not a concern yet. He loves to look at his dog and his friends at day care and when you are able to win over a laugh it is something that just truly melts you! (He had me crying I was laughing so hard at him laughing the other day - awesome!!!) So, that is our Drew-Drew in a 9-month nutshell. Hopefully some new pics and videos will be up soon!

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...