A Year of Memories–Drew Turns 1

What a year it’s been!  Our life has been busier and more full than ever before.  Drew’s personality is coming through more every day and it is unbelievably fun to be a part of his and Connor’s life everyday.  I feel so lucky! 

Drew is getting big too.  He is officially moved down the scale from the 90th percentile at birth (8lbs, 10.5 oz. and 21 inches at birth to 19.7 lbs. and 31 inches at 1 year).  That puts him in the 50th percentile for height and 25th percentile for weight.  Its probably the fact that he has to keep up with his brother that he has gotten skinnier.  He lights up our lives with his laugh and I ABSOLUTELY love when I am in another room and can hear he and Connor laughing together next door.  I love that they are becoming friends!  It’s what every mom hopes for and waits for and it’s so fun.  Now, I won’t lie and say that they never hit or kick or scream or yell at each other…. that wouldn’t be believable!!!

Other Drew stats (as of September 15th, 2012):
- He currently has 2 teeth!  That’s it….2.  Connor had a full mouth but Drew just gums everything to death.  He can eat any table food we give him now including steak (you’re talking about my kid – of course he’s had steak!)
- He has been walking for 1 month.  His first steps were on his 11 month birthday and he has been nearly running ever since. 
- He can both climb the stairs and come back down them! 
- He’s learning to play more independently although he still thinks there’s still nothing like hanging out with his big brother!
- His personality is coming out more than ever….. so fun to watch this development!

Funny Drew stories:
- When you tell Drew no, he has a variety of reactions.  Sometimes, he shakes his head no back at you or waves his finger (picture a pointer finger from a mom waving back and forth).  Other times, he will just melt into a ball of tears because he’s so sad that you told him no.

- While these boys are almost perfect (ok… just kidding) there are times that they will fight.  Connor will sometimes hit Drew and get sent to time-out.  Despite being recently beat-up-on, Drew immediately follows his brother to time-out because he loves him that much!  He goes over to give him a hug 

- I was helping Connor reach something in his bedroom when I heard Drew screaming from the playroom.  I ran in there to see if he was ok and when I did he screamed one more time and pointed at something he wanted on top of the toy kitchen.  Once I handed it to him, he smiled, went “humph” and happily walked away.  (No baby/toddler was harmed in the making of this post…. he was fine all along just couldn’t get what he wanted and was determined to find a way!!!)

Here’s your picture fix of first birthday festivities (I know… I know…. but late is better than never )

So good!!!  MMMMMMmmmmmmmm……

Connor Turns 3

It’s hard to believe Connor is 3 years old.  It feels like yesterday that we brought a little 6 lb 11 oz bundle home from the hospital or celebrated his baptism surrounded by friends.

Today, he weighs in at 28 1/2 lbs and stands at 3ft 1 in tall.   He loves airplanes and telling stories (which we are LOVING!).  He knows how to count to 20 and all his letters.  Now its Mommy brag time…

• He can spell his name!  Dina surprised him with a “Connor” cup last year when we were in San DIego and he loves it!  He sits and says the letters over and over.  The other day, the cup was sitting on the counter completely out of sign and Connor said…. “Mommy, I want my C-O-N-N-O-R cup”.    Since then he’s spelled it a few more times over!  It completely surprised me!
• Left / Right – So we work on little things all the time like counting and letters and patterns and shapes and right and left.   I figured the last one was a push since there are some adults that still need to hold up their thumb and finger to figure out the “L” .  However, Connor’s got it!   One day he said to me “this is my right hand”. 

Funny Stories---We are headed out on a flight on Thursday to visit my Grandma.  Connor was so excited to go on the flight yesterday that we had the following conversation:

• C:  Mommy when we going on the airplane?
• M:  Thursday
• C:  No, we go today!  Go on airplane today!
• M:  We can’t go today, we have tickets for Thursday.
• C:  Then go get the right tickets for today!  We go today.
• M:  We can’t go today, nothing is packed yet.  (With that, Connor turned around and grabbed a random stack of clean kid clothes off of the couch that I had been folding) and said,
• C:  We all packed now.  Let’s go!

Make my heart smile and melt moment--- I was getting the kids dressed this morning and Connor pointed at me and said, “You my friend”. and then said the same to Drew “You my friend.”.  Then he wrapped his arms around my neck and said, “Mommy, you the best!” 

He is growing up!  Sometimes he seems like such a big boy and sometimes he just comes up to me and wants to snuggle (I love those days).  Here’s your pics!

Bye Bye Saturn–----Hello Avon

August was a big month of change for us.  After more than 11 years of everyday life with the Saturn, we decided to sell it.  It served Dan & I well over the years, through days at Santa Clara and early days of dating when we had “matching Saturns” (of course there’s a picture of that….

It survived many commuting days to and from work and to and from Walnut Creek from San Jose or Milpitas when we lived far apart.  While it isn’t the car we brought Connor home from the hospital in, it was in fact in the driveway when we got there.  It got loaded on a truck and made the 1100 mile move to Montana.

And now, its time to say goodbye. Thanks for the good memories!

And with the close of one chapter, we opened another.  It just worked out that literally the SAME DAY, we officially purchased a float raft!  Some of our friends here were selling the float raft together with a trailer and the great price convinced us to do it!  We’ve talked about getting one “someday” since the day we moved here, knowing it would be hours of future family time where the boys would actually want to hang out with us.  It will also be a blast when we have friends come to visit (who’s going to be the first friends in the raft??? The race is on )

We got the raft in the middle of August and we’ve taken it on two trips now… with lots of sun and success!

Inaugural trip on the lake so we could make it however far Connor could handle!  He hasn’t been on it on the river yet, just cause you can only get out at set take outs and he may not last long enough (at least not quietly and being willing to listen and not run around too much).  Maybe next summer he’ll have graduated out of the “two’s” and be ready to listen for a river float trip.

Brian, Dan & I got to check out the river though and had a fantastic day!  Looking forward to many more trips and lots of visitors to check it out too!

Summer Fun

We’ve had a busy and fun summer!  Can’t believe it’s already the official end with this being Labor Day weekend. 

LA Trip – Lisa & John’s wedding - We had so much fun meeting up with all of our friends in LA.  Each of these trips remind me how lucky we are to have friends that are basically family.  We know we can rely upon each other.  Connor’s highlight was the end of the evening.  John took the time to show his plane to Connor and even let him climb in the cockpit!  Connor was grinning ear to ear (and John was pretty smiley too ). 

Lisa – you’ve got a prize.  I wish you both so many happy years together.  Loved being able to celebrate your day together!

We got to spend our anniversary in the California sun enjoying the early evening at Hermosa Beach and returned to the same park where we had pictures with Connor over the same weekend 2 year prior.  Then we got to enjoy our anniversary dinner with Tara & Michael at their favorite little mexican restaurant.  Thanks guys!

Our trip concluded with a little unplanned excitement when our non-stop flight had a 6+ hour layover in Boise. Our flight had some engine trouble but luckily everything worked out fine and we arrived home safe and sound, just a little later than planned.  At least one of us had a great time with the experience.

Seattle – In the SUN!   Shortly after returning from LA, we hit the road for a long weekend in Seattle.  As a break during the long drive, we stopped at a rest stop so the kids could play for a bit in the grass.  Sadly, Connor missed a bump and face-planted.  Luckily, he is one tough kid and made it through his first ER trip very happily.  He now has a matching Harry Potter scar .

We got to see lots of friends as we met up with Liss and Matt for a fun evening at a wine club event, we got to enjoy an evening with Lynz & Bob & Mike Byer (randomly in town on his way through to Alaska on a family cruise) and got to see Lynz  & Bob’s new house (which is so charming – I LOVE all of the Craftsman detail!).  We had f=lots of fun hanging out with Dan’s family.

 

 

 

 

 

A little time in West Seattle

 

Future Broncos ???-

LAKE Time - We’ve gotten to spend some great weekends at the lake just relaxing. A little fishing, a lot of relaxing! Neither phone nor internet work really well so it’s a great way to unplug!

Other Summer Fun -

Mowing the lawn with bubbles

Pool time