Happy Halloween!

Can you guess who we are??

100 points if you can guess WHY we chose this theme... (it was based on a nickname I call Drew, and B.A. Laura and Grandma can't give it away!)

More to come tomorrow, including an awesome video!! Yay!!

Treat!

This is what he did the instant I put him down for the first photo... started grabbing the blocks. Oh how things change in just one month! He actually managed to grab two blocks in one hand, by the way! The u and the r!)

 Wish I hadn't cut off the m or this would be my first pick for the belly shot

 Action shot!

 Who me? I'm cute??

 Of course I am!

 Oh, hi Puppy!

The last two photos made the "final cut" for the official four month photo. I love how much he's sitting up in the first one, and love that it shows how he's really noticing and grabbing things now. The belly one just shows off such a perfect sneaky little smile. Put together I think they're a really good picture of Drew at four months. The only thing that would make it any more Drew is if something were in his mouth! (Oh wait, that hand is pretty close!)

Don't forget to check out the "Monthiversary" page over there -----> to see those last two photos in the line up with the others from month one onwards!

Trick

Four Monthiversary photos? Nope, not yet! Haha, what a mean trick, eh? I'm still choosing which ones I like best, then I have to edit the two I pick into a nice single photo for the Monthiversary page.  Here's a little teaser though...

I love everything about this photo- blocks scattered everywhere, the dog toppled over and butt up in the air at the back, Drew sunk back, sucking on the blanket with his fingers through the holes.... As horrible as it is, it illustrates how much harder (but fun!) it's getting already to do these shoots (and also finally gave me the brilliant idea to tape the blocks together, duh... what have I been thinking all along!?). I did get some pretty cute photos though!

If you're lucky you may just be able to come back tonight for your "treat"! (And probably an ever better treat tomorrow when you get photos of Drew in his Halloween costume!!!)

Tennessee Getaway

So if you were worrying that I'd missed Drew's four monthiversary, have no fear! I didn't miss it! Well, not entirely. We were out of town in Nashville, TN for an overnight getaway. I didn't miss his four monthiversary, I just spent it snuggling with him upon my return home instead of trying to get cute pictures.

But no worries, pics are on the way! I'm in the process of trying to get some today. I got a few this morning, but we had a small accident.... Mommy thought she could put Drew in his bouncy chair for a few seconds while she changed the "set" and learned why she always yells at Daddy to buckle him in (Jason was awfully nice about not rubbing that one in my face!). Drew had a little topple (the little bugger is trying really hard to sit up these days!), but thankfully he was more scared than hurt as it was a very short fall onto carpet. :( Mommy still feels horrible though.  He's happily napping right now and we'll try again a little later.

In the meantime, here are a few pics from our trip.

Neely's BBQ Ribs!

Jack on the Rocks

 You can see some more of our photos here.

Yup, we took a trip without Drew! I can hardly believe it myself. But he was in good hands (THANK YOU NONNY!!) and I got lots and lots of updates while we were gone. See? Here are a few pictures she sent:

Uncle Connor

Drew HAD to wear camo to visit Nonny and Poppy of course!

I missed him horribly, but it was great to get away just the two of us. If you came to our wedding you may remember that instead of the tables being numbered they were labeled with names of places that Jason and I had visited together (along with a picture of us in that place). We love to travel. And not just big travels; mostly we just like to visit little towns that are within driving distance for weekend getaways. We took this overnight trip to Nashville so Jason could see Rifftrax Live, a take off of a show he loves called Mystery Science Theater.

And we did have a great time (Jack Daniels tour, anyone?), but the trip was difficult too. And not just because I missed Drew oh so much (it practically hurt physically the amount I missed him!) but because I still had to pump every three hours or so. I didn't get to enjoy sleeping in and doing nothing because I had to set an alarm to get up and pump. (I didn't really enjoy my sleep anyway because of a combination of missing the sounds of my sleeping boy and a news clip that we saw right before bed about bed bugs).  Nor did I get to enjoy a "schedule free" day since we kept having to plan where we would be and when so we could fit in time for me to pump. I suppose we'll save the next overnight trip for a time when Drew's no longer breastfeeding!

Stay tuned for Four Monthiversary photos to come!

A Toy Story

This is one of Drew's favotire toys. And by favorite I mean at least it holds his attention for more than ten seconds.

This is one of my faves! Two pairs of cute eyes! Of course you know which ones are my favorite though!

And a video to add to the fun.... yes, it's sideways, because I can be unintelligent like that sometimes (see how I avoid the word stupid? That's the teacher in me...). Really I just wasn't thinking and of course I can't take a vertical video! And now I don't think there's a way to turn it. Oh well! You can just tilt your head and it's as good as if I hadn't been stu...oops, unintelligent!

P.S. I LOVE the way he looks like he's trying to talk back to me in the beginning. He has started doing this a lot. :)

That's better!

This hat is much better! Not only is it a lot cleaner (Jason does keep his nice hats... well... nice! His nice hats actually have their own hanging rack and and everything!) but it also seems like a good time to yank this one out! I suppose if the Braves can't make it to the World Series we might as well cheer on the Giants. What do you think B.A. Laura?

Wordless Wednesday: Nom nom Part 2

Oops!

Wow, my grammar and editing in my previous post were horrible. Sorry! It has all been fixed (I think, though I've made corrections 3 separate times now because I keep finding errors). My brain is other places these days I guess! Like with my almost 4 month old son! (Case in point, I just typed "3 year old son" instead of "4 month old son". Where did that come from!?!?)

Stand still!

Oops!

Drew has been doing this lately when I try to burp him over my shoulder. He ends up locking his legs and "standing" on my lap. Usually his butt is sticking out more than this (and usually I don't have to hold him at all). How is he growing so fast!? Sometimes I wish time would just stand still for a bit. Everyone tells me to cherish these moments, but how do I do that when it all happens too fast!?

P.S. You've caught me at my loungey best here. Old faded jeans, baggy tank top showing my wide-strapped bra (sexy!).... actually, my loungey best is more likely to include flannel pants instead of jeans, but this is pretty close! Apparently bragging on my child means I give up any caring about what I actually look like anymore!

Put a lid on it

I can't believe I let my husband put this nasty hat on my son's head! But it's his favorite hat. And even after I've scrubbed it by hand and then thrown it through the wash (twice) it still looks more or less like this. Of course I'm not technically allowed to wash it, because that washes all the "luck" out of it, but every once in a while it's simply unavoidable. I'm sure Drew will have a favorite grubby old baseball cap one day. And I'm sure I will bug him about it as much as I bug Jason about his (and I will probably also secretly wash it).

Sunday Service

Hi Mom! I'm ready for church! Aren't you ready yet?

Tiling and styling!

Jason and I actually managed to accomplish a small remodeling project in our house, which, as far as I'm concerned, is no small feat with a) a baby in the house and b) pretty much no handiwork skills.

We actually redid our entire downstairs bathroom, or "powder room" for my Canadian counterparts. It all started because of a wobbly toilet.  It was so bad that I would get up off the toilet (which, at 9 months pregnant, was a little too frequently) and it would make a huge noise, then I would hear water running... not a good sign. After Drew was born Jason's mom came to visit and helped us pull out the toilet to replace the seal underneath.  It turned out that there was a leak, and it was pretty bad; the hardwoods under and around the toilet were pretty much destroyed.

So we decided to pull out the wood and replace it with tile.  Who puts hardwoods in a bathroom anyway? (Don't even get me started on the hardwoods in my kitchen... I love the wood, but between leaking refrigerators, dishwashers, back doors where wet animals come in and out, and of course said animals' water bowl, they're just about destroyed too!).  We picked out some tile that would match the chocolate brown walls in the bathroom....

Then we realized those walls were in horrible need of being repainted too (and what better time to paint than when the toilet and sink are out of the way!). My main reason for wanting to repaint the walls was because the previous owner had used a flat paint, and that paint showed every drip of water from shaking water off hands and dripping it over the towel.  Even though many of you were happy to see it go, I actually liked the chocolate brown, but I finally admitted that a closet-sized bathroom is not the place for dark enclosing colors (I should mention that aside from our master bathroom all the colors in our house are from the previous owner).  I was going to get a glossy version of a slightly lighter brown but I finally relented and decided to paint the walls with the same neutral color the rest of our house is painted with (so boring!).

Because I picked such a boring wall color I wanted to spruce up the rest of the bathroom. I wanted to incorporate the dark brown that I loved, and thought I'd also pull in some of the red from my living room and kitchen. Jason, however, was not happy about that prospect because he knew it meant spending even more money.

So I managed to buy only a few small things- a new towel (you can't use a tan towel with tan walls), a soap dispenser ($5 at Target!), a can of brown spray paint, a bottle of "antiqued bronze" metallic paint, and some red/orange glass marbles. I painted the mirror frame, the trash can, the towel hanger, and the toilet paper holder (which were all gold) with the antiqued bronze metallic paint, then spray painted my wicker baskets brown.  I almost bought a wall hanging for the wall (actually, I DID buy a wall hanging, and promptly returned it) before I realized I already had one sitting around doing nothing after getting knocked off the wall in my entry way (picture Jason walking through the house with a lawn mower... okay, okay, it's just a push mower, but still!). It was even better than the one I had purchased- the interlocking rectangles looked perfect with the little red rectangles on my towel. Instead of buying candles I filled the votive holders with brown stones I already had and the cheap red/orange glass marbles I had purchased.

I wish I had before and after pics, but I didn't think of it at the time. At the very least, here is the color the walls were (they were the same color that is currently in my upstairs guest bath, or Drew's bathroom I guess I should say)

And here are the hardwoods (against a darker chocolate brown)

And voila, the new bathroom:

It drives me nuts that some of the rectangles are crooked

 

Many thanks to "Poppy" for all the help ripping out the hardwoods and installing the tile.

And many thanks to Grandma for helping to fix our horrid painting job!!

Grandma had to borrow some painting clothes from me. Guess what? She's wearing a shirt I used to wear in 6th grade!

P.S. Those of you who have been to my house may be thinking, "that bathroom has been finished for a month! Why is she just posting pictures now?" Well, things were "finished" for a month but we finally got the last finishing touch put on last week- the wall hanging. I couldn't possibly take pictures until that was finished!!

Friday Night Football

Drew's scoping out one of his future careers!

New habits are hard to take!

Drew seems to come up with a new "sound" every couple of weeks.  When he first started making noise it was this "agoo" kind of thing. Then he started with the raspberries. For a little while it was tongue raspberries. Then it was lip raspberries. Then there was what I called the "baby dinosaur" which was a weird whiny/squeaky noise. Now... well.... check it out...



Yeah... ouch! He's doing this when he's happy, when he's mad, when he's bored.... While it's cute, and kind of funny, it's also incredibly ear piercing! And it makes us "that couple with the squealing kid at the store."  In fact, Jason and I were shopping at Wal-Mart when Drew mastered this art of inserting needles into eardrums. Jason ran off to find something while I meandered around looking for something else. When Jason found me again he informed me that I was incredibly easy to find... all he had to do was follow the squeals! Actually, I think the easier way to find me would have been to walk the opposite direction of all the people with grimacing faces.

Another new habit of Drew's isn't nearly so annoying. In fact, it's kind of cute and quircky...

He sucks in his lower lip... and just sits there like that.  I don't know why. Maybe his lip tastes good? I don't know, but it's cute and funny.

There is another face he makes where he scrunches his nose and puckers his lips, but I have yet to catch it on camera. I don't know why he makes that face either, but it always makes me laugh.  I tried to snap a pic of it, and this was all I caught...

What are you doing Mom?

It's fun to see how he changes every day and how he develops his own little personality. I truly am blessed to get to witness and be a part of such an amazing thing!

Wordless Wednesday: Nom nom

Roly Poly

Yup, he's done it! He rolled over! We actually didn't witness the first time.  Jason went to go get him the other morning and then called me in to see him like this...

That same day he started rolling all over the place. Mostly from his back to his front, though he did manage one front to back roll as well (though that's the one that's supposed to come first...)

Funny thing is he HATES being on his tummy, and yet he won't hardly stay on his back anymore!  If I lay him down to play he almost immediately rolls over then starts SCREAMING because he doesn't want to be on his belly.  This has also caused him to wake up earlier than normal.  This morning I woke to annoyed fussing instead of his usual happy coos.  I walked in to find him angrily on his belly.  I guess he needs to perfect that front to back roll as well!

Looks like we're going to have a mobile baby before we know it!  On top of the rolling he's also REALLY interested in crawling.

If he gets a good foothold he can launch himself a good couple of inches. I'm not ready for a mobile baby, but perhaps I should start thinking about doing some baby-proofing!

Hopefully there will be a video to come if I can actually catch him both rolling AND not crying angrily.