Bowling Birthday Here We Come!

Since the big 3 is coming up faster than I can imagine, we asked Drew what he would like to do for his birthday party...bowling or Chuck e Cheese? bowling!!!! Can't you just see it? - a bunch of preschoolers trying to bowl. I really need to remember the video camera for this one. Next dilemma - who do we invite? Of course, we want all of our friends' kids to come so that's a no brainer. It's so nice having all the kids about the same age. Next, school...hmmm, can't just invite one or two kids from the class, so I guess we'll invite them all (not too bad - only 5 more). So anyway, I finally got the invites done and we took them to school for the kids in his preschool class. I told Drew that not everyone at school would get an invite because the toddlers and infants are too young and little to play. But big strong boys like Drew get to bowl. He's very excited but doesn't really want to give up the invites yet. So his teacher Miss Erin says she will help him put them in the mailboxes later. Then the doorbell rings and one of the toddlers and his mom come in. Drew blurts out - You can't go bowling because you are too little! To which I am now mortified and his teacher is laughing. I tell him that we don't need to talk about it and promptly leave before any more conversation about bowling. And as I'm walking out I start thinking about all the hurt feelings (Drew's and others) to come over birthday parties for years to come. Why does no one talk about these things BEFORE we have kids?! And lord, how do these things get so out of hand so quickly!?

A Little Tough Love Goes A Long Way!

The scene - a cold, snowy winter weekend. Dad - gone snowmobiling. Mom - home with Drew. Can you see where this is going???? So we had a great weekend but were going a bit stir crazy Saturday night. So we decided to go to Target, of course. Drew is, partially trying to push some buttons and partially inquisitive and taking full advantage that mom's a bit tired of saying Drew all day and trying to shop. So we check out at Target and trek through the snowy, slippery parking lot. Of course, my remote for the car now has a dead battery and I HAVE to unlock the front door to open the back door and Drew is not in the cart because it's full of stuff. So, as cutely devilish as he can be, he inches toward the front bumper of the Jeep. I, in a stern voice, say, Drew, come on! It's cold, I have to put the stuff in the back and you have to get in the car! Ever so slowly, he inches toward the car, as if to say, I'm gonna run from you mom. I, more sternly, say, DREW COME ON! and start to take a step, and with that, he takes off to the front of the car. Remember, slippery, snowy parking lot. And now, a car coming down the next lane...CRAP! Drew, STOP!!!! Get back here NOW! I skate around to the other side of the car, where at this point, he's trying to get back to where he was, and I'm having a freakin' heart attack. I finally catch up to him, back in his original spot as he's saying, Mom, I'm trying to come back! Now luckily we've bought him a winter coat that has a fleece liner and a winter exterior. It just so happens the outer shell is not zipped - perfect handles! I grab both sides of those "handles" get right down to his level and YELL, a lot! Blah, blah, cars, snow, scared mom, hurt Drew, slippery, snow, CARS, HURT, DREW...you get the idea! To which his cute face turns to fear and he starts BALLING!!! Perfect, I've done my job! I'd probably be more happy but my blood pressure is still through the roof and the adrenaline has not worn off yet. I scoop him up, put him in his car seat, and shut his door. Proceed to the back, open it, only to hear lots of crying (doesn't matter tho, I'm still hot!). Slam the back shut, move the cart, and finally get in the car. Mom, I don't want you to yell at me...whimper, whimper, sniffle! Well you know what Drew? I'm going to! THAT IS NOT OK! YOU CAN NOT RUN OUT IN THE ROAD blah, blah, blah, do you understand me!?! Yes, mom. Sorry mom! Mom, can I open my window so I can let the snow in? NO! ok, mom. I love you mom! OK, buddy you can open your window, but I'm still mad! thanks, mom. Hey look it's snowing in here! Can we play memory when we get home? (I'm still rolling my eyes!)

I won't cry for you guys!

You just never know who you're gonna get these days. Two weeks ago we were getting ready to go to bowling and Julie, the babysitter next door, came over to play with Drew. He cried for 5 minutes, to the point where I knew if he didn't stop, he would be throwing up all over me. Daddy gets him settled down and off we go, after we make it very clear to Julie, as always, call us if he isn't fine after we leave. Of course, he is, but ya know. Enter last Saturday night...mom, I want Julie to come play with me. She will, this evening. mom...I WANT Julie to come play with me. So we call. She's running late and her big sis Trina is going to come over for a while before Julie gets there. Drew is not happy...he does not want Trina, he wants Julie. And so I thought - here we go again. Then Trina says, Julie will be over in a few minutes, she's just finishing her shower. And like that, Drew is fine and says, I won't cry for you guys tonight, mom and like that we are headed to the door and he's headed off for a game of Life. He stops, turns and says, have a good time, mom! And like I said, you never know who you're gonna get. Don't get me wrong, I really like who I got on Saturday, I'm just afraid of a week from Saturday!

Can we make a pecial treat, NOW?

We finally went out and splurged on a new blender that can handle making smoothies. I thought this would be a good alternative to candy in the evening (since between Halloween and Christmas has run abundant). We already had frozen fruit from when I tried to make them with the old blender that spun the fruit instead of "smoothing" it! :> So we had our first on Monday (dad was still home) and they were good. The next day, Drew and I made them and added a umbrella straw to our special treat. Wednesday we added the whipped cream uncle Scott brought over for Christmas dinner, and of course the umbrella straw. Thursday night, Mike came home from Ohio and after Drew's bath, he asked if he could make 'pecial treats now. We said sure. So he slides his great Ikea stool over to the blender and grabs the measuring cup. Opens the freezer and gets the ice, then opens the yogurt, stirs it, adds that to the blender, gets two scoops of fruit, one of juice and breaks the banana in to the blender. Mike is, of course, looking at him like how in the he** do you know how to do that?! Then Drew looks at dad, um, this is the scary part, can you turn it on for me? Mike was just glad he could help with something!

Oh, same night...Mike thinks V8 would be a good thing for Drew to try (warm, out of the pantry). One sip and - YUCK, this is really not good. This is bad daddy. I don't like it. So he gets some berry juice and takes a sip...mmmm, much better daddy. this is much, much better!

Drewisms

After thinking about the cute things that don't come out just right, I've decided to start a list:

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ - now i know my abc's no by no by no by no!

Ipsy, ipdy spider went up the water spout.

It's a booty, don't touch it!

A Little Motherly Advice

I was just thinking about Sunday. We had to go to the grocery store (it had been awhile) and daddy needed water for his fish tank. So Mike & Drew got a car cart for the boys and water jugs and I took a regular cart, yippee for me! I hate those big germ filled carts that don't hold anything and are hard as hell to steer. So anyway, the boys got the water and met me in the deli. It didn't take long before he wanted to get out and could get out of the cart since he was in the car portion. We made a deal (which is 95% of our conversations these days) and agreed that if he stayed close to mom and dad and only picked up the things we asked him to, he could be out of the cart. Enter conversation from Thanksgiving with my wonderful Great Aunt Betty (who knows everything - seriously!) She said she should have written a book for all the young new parents who don't know everything, starting with, don't let the kid out of the cart at the store! And trust me, we've had our moments where I regretted letting Drew out, but Sunday was not one of those days. He did a great job of listening and only got the items we told him were ok. With a few suggestions of his own, like marshmellows. We got several compliments about what a good boy he was and how smart he is and of course, how cute he is. It was a proud moment...up until we were in check out and had one little blemish. He did one of his loud sounds (can't remember which one now) and the cashier looked up horrified! She was young, and obviously not a parent, cuz she acted just like I would have 3 years ago. :>

Oh, so the point...Betty is right, don't let the child ever think it's ok to get out of the cart. My bad! I regretted the choice about 2 minutes after I did it!

So, how was your day at work, Mom?

Oh, my little angel is just too cute sometimes...and sometimes not. Like right now, I'm trying to write the blog and the pitter patter of almost 3 year old feet are coming at me and asking to get up. Dern It! (And now he's saying oh, a D for me mom! cuz he saw the D and asking where he can find the D)Ddddddddddddddd...(thanks for the help Drew!) yyytg7ttg6t v 78o78 08pnm-j9000jk Then he says - I can push the D whenever I want, right? NO!!!

So anyway, I pick Drew up from school today and he says, what did you make today? (referring to dinner) I didn't make anything yet, we have a couple choices. We can have leftover dirty rice - no - leftover tacos - no. We could make fish sticks and mac n cheese - Yippee! can I help with you? (yep, that's how he says it) Sure buddy, if you're careful. OK! So we make dinner, and everything goes well (also kills about 25 minutes so that's great too). We sit down and Drew looks at me - So, how was your day at work today, mom? I stop eating my very nutritious 1970s dinner and said great bud, thanks for askin'! I'm guessing it came from all the nights when dad or I ask him how school was that day, but I thought it was too cute.

Then back to reality. I try to blog, which you'll notice never happens at night because of the interruptions (see above) and sure enough that one lasted 10 minutes because somehow his Spongebob on Demand had clicked off. Dern it! (Drew started that saying) Could it be the almost 3 year old little hands pushed the buttons? Nah!

Is this my tanwich, mom?

OK, so all of us as parents know that we are terrible - making our poor, cute, innocent children recite their mispronounced words over and over again because it is too damn cute not to laugh at. Or having them do "the put away the clothes dance" over and over because it too is too damn cute to waste on the fact that in a few days they might not want to do it anymore. What's "the put away the clothes dance" you ask? It's hard to articulate but imagine a little boy so excited to help mommy put away the clothes he says, I PUT AWAY THE CLOTHES and does the fastest twist he can muster. Slightly bent over moving his arms kind of like the running man and kind of like the twist. If you aren't smiling at this point, I'm sorry you don't have ANY sense of humor!

Now on to words...Drew really amazes us with his vocabulary. I try hard words with him all the time and they come out clear enough that it's not really cute and funny...until the tanwich. Specifically, the salami tanwich! It started with the Very Hungry Caterpillar. One of the things he eats is salami or as Drew said it - sagalami. So we practiced...say, Sa-lami Drew. Sa-ga-lami. nope, try again, sa-lami. sa-ga-lami. After several tries, we moved on to the next word. The next day, the same results, sa-ga-lami. After a few days, he did it! SA-LAMI but the only way it works is if his head goes back with the SA and comes forward with the LAMI. And the tanwich thing...that's the best way I can explain it. It really doesn't give it justice, but again, you get the point!

Christmas 2007

We were really looking forward to this Christmas since Drew "got it" this year but then we hit a snafu - so much snow at grandpa's house we decided to wait for the roads to clear. Luckily Santa was smart and knew not every child would be at their own home Christmas morning. So on Christmas Eve we were hanging out when we noticed someone walking near the tree line at grandpa's house, and he was wearing a red suit! Wow, it was Santa coming to see who was in the house! And Drew saw him!!!! Oh boy, was that cool. There was Santa checking things out so he knew that some presents would have to be dropped off at grandpa's house and some at our house.

Christmas morning wasn't exactly how I had envisioned it though. Drew woke up with a tummy ache and wasn't really in to everything. It all worked out though - gave us all time to wake up and make some coffee. Then on to the presents! And surprisingly the tummy ache went away just long enough to open everything and started to come back when everything was opened.

Mom! I didn't push the buttons on the snow 'bile

We got to use our snowmobiles a few days before Christmas. Since it was the first start up, it of course, took forever to get them going. Gotta love mice! Anyway, Mike got mine going first and I drove it around in circles around Grandpa Santa's property to get the feel of it. Then Drew wanted a turn. So I put him in front of me and instantly his hand goes up to the throttle. Luckily it takes a lot to first get it moving. So I make sure to tell him NOT TO TOUCH ANY BUTTONS when he's on a snowmobile ride. OK!~ I really didn't get any riding in since Ryan was with us and was obsessed with riding. Then daddy took Drew for a few rides and every time he got back...Mom! I didn't push any buttons on the snow 'bile! Literally, every time! It was cute and he loved it. Mike went back on the trails with Drew and at one point could tell Drew wanted to tell him something so he stopped. Drew turned around and said - dad, when do we get to go fast?! So they did. Not as fast as dad would have liked but fast enough, I'm sure!