Houston, we have a walker.

I think I have mentioned this before, but it has been close to impossible to tell when a "first" happens for Drew.  Do you count the time he moved one hand and one knee before he fell on his stomach as a "crawl?" Do you count it as "sleeping through the night" if he woke up at 5:30, or does "night" end at 6am?

But on Saturday, September 3rd, Drew walked.  The kid didn't start with one or two steps, which might have made it hard to tell.  He took 6.  He was just standing in the hall holding some non-toy (cell phone? remote? wireless mouse? I can't remember) and I encouraged him to come to me, and he did.  Granted he only moved about 2 feet in those six steps.  But they were legitimate steps.

So then I decided to bribe him with food.  I brought him downstairs, put a goldfish on the ottoman at the end of our bed, plopped him down on his feet, and watched him take 4-6 steps to get it.  Several times.  The problem with the bribery method is he was so excited about the goldfish that he would try to move faster than his legs could take him, fall on his hands, and crawl to the goldfish. 

The good news is he continued the trick on Sunday when Rob was home to see it, so I have backup on my claims.  Sunday we watched him cruise around the furniture in the living room, let go, take a couple of steps to another piece, and continue on.  No coaxing or goldfish necessary.

I think my life has just change dramatically yet again, but I'm too excited to care. :)

Another first!

Can you figure out what it is?

Here, let me give you some more context.

That help?

No??

What if I give you a hint-  not pictured is a 70 year old man.

Nothing?

Ok fine- I'll tell you.  It was on this blessed day that a 70 year old man, on the way to pay his check, stopped by our table to tell us how well behaved our son is at restaurants. 

I'm going to revel in this one, because I know that in not too long other restaurant patrons are going to be glaring at us as our son just behaves like a boy.  So I'm taking this compliment.

Memorial Day Weekend- Friday and Saturday

WHAT a weekend we had!  Lots of events and celebrations- probably our busiest weekend since Drew was born.

We started the weekend on Friday afternoon when we went to Vicki's to celebrate Austin's graduation from Westlake.  Rob's grandparents, aunts, uncles and some cousins were in town to celebrate, so we got to enjoy some good time visiting with them.  The graduation wasn't until 8:30 at night (!!), so Drew and I left after the dinner to come home and put him in bed.

Saturday morning was a first for Drew- attending his first birthday party!  Our dear friend Sam(antha) turned one and had a farming party, complete with tiny pony and petting zoo!  Needless to say, Drew was in overdrive that day. 

Rob met us at the party, and I decided it wasn't fair to make Drew wait to go to the petting zoo, so we went in ahead of time.  I sat Drew on the ground and the chickens and bunnies came to visit.  As did this guy.

This guy sniffed around on him, but his pants, but his shirt and then bit his EAR!  Drew started crying and jerked his body away from the goat and ended up falling into the pin that was keeping the animals in and started crying even more.  The good news was the goat didn't break the skin (or even leave a mark) and after I scooped him up he stopped crying in about 30 seconds.  So since he is obviously fine it really was one of the funniest things I had ever seen.

Once the party was over (and naps were had all around), Drew and I went downtown to the Omni Hotel for another first- SWIMMING!  Auntie Melanie was in town for Memorial Day and wanted to see the little man, so we headed down there.  The pool at the Omni is on the roof and is a lot like being in Vegas.  Drew was the only person there under legal drinking age (and our group was the only one not filled with silicone).  All the adults were just standing in the pool, holding a beverage and chatting.  I am sure I was getting some looks, but I didn't notice because I was too busy dealing with a squirming baby and wrestling a diaper bag.  Which probably made me all the more obvious.   But the bartenders up there brought me glass after glass of sno-cone ice, which D loved, and he really enjoyed the pool.  We will have to do it again soon-- but someplace more child friendly!

Monday needs some background, so it's coming soon.  Now I will leave you with a precious picture of my farmer baby....

Mother's Day Recap

What a great day it was!!

I started off with a run in my new running shoes. (Sidenote- the salesman was quite impressed that he brought me 8 different pairs of shoes to try on and I chose the most expensive ones without having any inkling they were the most expensive.  Story of my life.)  I felt like I was running on a cloud that was immersed in a swimming pool, since the shoes fix the cushioning problem, but not the humidity.

On our way to church (which is over 20 miles from our house), Rob (driver) looks at me and says, "Where is that feature on your car that tells me how many miles to empty?"  I pull it up and instead of a number it just has four asterisks, which I think means "Lady, you are running on fumes.  Get thyself to a gas station STAT."  So we had to turn around and head back towards the house to fill up.  Once we are all gassed up we leave our neck of the woods at 9:15 for a 9:30 service.  We hit the last few chords of the last song, but made it before the sermon so we consider it a win. 

After church we went to grab some Mexican food.  Drew's new thing is gumming the tortilla chips, which he was doing a good job of until he started choking on one, so I stuck my finger in his mouth and caused him to throw up.  Nothing like a little scene!

We came home and did something that hasn't happened since Drew joined our family- we ALL took at NAP at ONE TIME.  I'm pretty sure that was God rewarding us for our perseverance with getting to church.

Then Vicki and Austin came over and Rob cooked short rib, mashed potatoes and creamed spinach.  Drew gave me a card with our blog address on it and I found the precious letter he wrote to me (Rob swears all he did was spell check).  But Drew also gave me one present all on his own.....

For about 2 months now he has been having teething symptoms and I would tell people "I think, perhaps, he is teething.  Both Rob and I got teeth around 5 months, so...."  And then nothing.  And I said this more than once.  I was totally losing credibility.  So for Mother's Day Drew decided to work really hard and let that tooth go ahead and come through.  So I was pretty excited about that, but that little bugger is SHARP.

Rob and Drew, thank you for all you did to make my Mother's Day special.  I'm lucky to have you both.

Solid foods: NOT a hit

Drew has been giving us some signs that he is ready to start solids.  For instance, he desperately wants to hold his own bottle when we are feeding him.  The other day when there was about an ounce left I went ahead and let him, and he ended up a mess.  But he was pretty proud of himself.

Our pediatrician told us to hold off starting cereal until 5 months unless he was acting hungry after he finished his bottle.  Well, he was acting pretty hungry, so Saturday night we decided to give rice cereal a run for the money.  It was NOT a hit.  At all.

[This is where I spent 2 days trying to upload a video to the blog and it never worked.  Sorry.  It was quite funny.  Here is a picture of the second or third try of rice cereal.  It still wasn't a hit that day, either.  This picture was taken between the screams.  He really isn't happy.]

On another note, I LOVE having friends with kids around my age.  At 1:30 on Saturday morning I posted "my son has reverted to newborn" on facebook.  46 SECONDS later I had a response (Hi Courtney!).  Made my entire night.

Rubber Ducky, You're the one!

As I mentioned on here a couple of times, Drew's umbilical cord hung on for dear life.  Most kids lose it 1-2 weeks after birth.  Not Drew-- he kept it until 9 weeks, and only lost it then because Rob pulled it off (I was there- it didn't hurt him).  So we got to start the whole "bathing in a bathtub" thing later than most.  Everyone told me he would probably take some time to get used to the idea, since he was getting in so late.

I think it's fair to say he at least tolerates the bath.  He has never cried in the tub, but has yet to smile in it, either.  He SCREAMS when I take him out, though, which I totally understand.  That is the worst part of a bath/shower- getting into the cold air when you are nice and warm. 

Because our only bathtub is upstairs, D is now spending a lot more time in his room.  He loves the mobile mom and I painted for him, and I think he likes his crib.  Now if we could just get him to sleeping through the night I would be ready to put him up there for good!