Happy Halloween!

I can't believe it's already Halloween! Not complaining really - it's going to be a fun filled weekend. Trick or treating tonight and a Halloween Party tomorrow. I'm tired just thinking of it! Actually, it's a beautiful day which is why I thought to blog about it. We've actually been really lucky for each of Drew's Halloweens.

The first one, well honestly I don't really remember the first one now, oh yeah, we didn't do much cuz Drew was just 8 months old. And Ryan handed out the candy.

The second one, my Aunt Cindy was here. We both took Drew, in his stroller, around to a few houses in the neighborhood. It was fun, but a bit cold. I remember Cindy had on her favorite pair of earrings and she lost one of them. She had a turtleneck sweater on and we figured it helped push the earring up and fell out. So, a determined Cindy took the flashlight out in the complete darkness and much colder night, trying to retrace her steps in finding the earring. Yep, that's what I said too, "OK, good luck with that. It's worth a shot - I guess?" Anyway, she came back empty handed and was kinda bummed about it. In her normal positive energy fashion she decided to keep wearing the other one, just in case the first found it's way back to us. A couple days later, somehow the second one decided to join the first, and as Cindy saw it - it was fate they both be lost together. It actually put her mind at ease that both were now gone.

Drew's third one (last year) we met up with Miles & John and went through the neighborhood together. It was nice having an older kid with us kept Drew going and not whining too much about getting tired.

This year we are headed over to a friends house. I guess they really go all out in their neighborhood and since it's Friday, we figured what the heck. The party tomorrow is hosted by one of the daycare families. We heard from several other parents last year, it was a great time, so we're going to make an attempt at it. Hopefully Drew won't be too tuckered out from T or T's tonight.

Happy Halloween & TGIF!!

Happy Birthday Aunt Betty!

Today is my Great Aunt Betty's 75th birthday...Happy Birthday Betty! She's not only my Great Aunt, she's just Great! Having family spread all over the country, we don't make many regular plans for holidays. The two we do - Easter & Thanksgiving - are always at Aunt Betty's house in Clarkston. It always seemed like it took forever to get there but of course, as you grow up, it's a quick hour trip and awesome to get to the country and look out her big windows to see nature. We've seen deer on several occasions taking a stroll through the front yard. Drew's had Easter egg hunts and nature walks. It's just a great place. Anyway, a shout out to Aunt Betty - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

We are offically adding to the family

Did I get your attention with that one? It's not what you think...my dad called last night and is planning on coming down to Ann Arbor to find a job and live with us for awhile. Funny - I had to tell him he had to behave while he is here and he has a 3 yr old to think about. Funny - because the tide has changed, it's my turn to make the rules and stick to them. He agreed and said he'll be down in the next few days. So wish us luck. It's not a permanent situation, but that's what it's about, right? Helping family in need. I don't think it's going to be the easiest situation, but I have faith it will all work out. I mean in all honesty, we'd do it for a friend, so why not for dad? He's got his baggage, but I'm hoping he can pull it together and find something quickly. And, maybe, just maybe, do a few things we need done around the house too. If anything, it's made me clean out the den, so that's a positive. And it will give Drew a good chance to hang with grandpa and have fun while he's here.

Holy Addictive Batman!

It was a Batman filled weekend. Seems like forever that we haven't had plans to do something on a Saturday night. So we sat around and played Legos Batman longer than I'd like to admit, but it was a good lazy weekend. We did go out to dinner at the Macaroni Grill on Saturday and Drew was EXTREMELY good. We had a twenty minute wait just to get to the table, but he enjoyed watching the chefs prepare the food and put it under the warmers. Of course they give you awesome bread and olive oil, which Drew liked - Mike & I were quite surprised. Then our appetizer came out and Drew thought that was dinner. By the time we got dinner, he was full.
Sunday we worked on blowing some leaves and cutting down the hostas. Drew had a blast hiding in the pile of leaves and was a big helper with the pruning too. Uncle Scott came over Sunday night just in time to exhaust him for bedtime. We watched Dirty Jobs and Drew passed out about a minute later at 8:30! woo hoo!!!

TGIF

Well it's finally here...Friday! Oh how I love Fridays. Now if we could just get to 5pm, I'd be THRILLED!!! Not really anything new to report. Mike comes home from Ohio today. As Drew put it last night, "Isn't that exciting!!!!"
My dad may be coming to stay with us for awhile. That was quite the conversation with Drew. It's been a while since Drew's seen my dad and when I said grandpa may be coming he said - grandpa who? - as if to say which one? I said Grandpa Santa cuz that's what we call him, to which he replied - "is he bringing presents?" Ahh, kids! Anyway, apparently there's no work on the west side of the state, so hopefully something will work out here. We'll see how it goes - cross your fingers for us!
Tomorrow is the last day of soccer. I haven't checked in to the follow up classes so I think we'll give it a rest for now. Don't want the poor kid to hate it if he's doing it every Saturday morning for months. He also has expressed interest in Hockey - cha ching. And since we are not exactly smooth on the ice, we've enlisted our buddy Aaron to teach Drew how to skate. I'm sure we'll be able to "help" the first few times, but I'd rather him see how to do it correctly vs what NOT to do. Actually, Drew mentioned last weekend that he wanted to call Aaron and get together. I told him we'd wait a bit, at least until college football is over, which I guess at this point for Michigan, was last week. Go STATE!
Yes, this post is all over the map. I'm scatter brained and desperately awaiting 5pm! TGIF!!!!

I just love my little man!!!!!

As previously mentioned, I was worried about how this week would go. It's been awesome. Last night we had to pick up a friend from school because his parents had a function and his babysitter couldn't come until 6:30 or 7. Of course I have to work until 5 this week and was concerned about timing. So I raced from work and picked up Drew, then went to Mitchell to pick up his buddy, then went to McDonalds for dinner. Figured it was a treat for the boys and and I wouldn't have time to make dinner and feed them before Crystal came for Miles, but if not, Miles wouldn't be eating until after 7 and that wouldn't be great either. On the way back Miles asks if they can watch a movie in the car, I say no since we are so close to home. He asked how we put the movie on and I show him where the buttons are. Drew interjects that there is also a remote for the movie player too. I tell him I'm not really sure where it is, "it's floating around somewhere in the car." Well let me just tell you that led in to a whole conversation about how I was wrong, because the car isn't water and you can't float without water and...and...and...needless to say, I promptly agreed I was wrong with my figure of speech and let it go - sorry, I digress. So we had dinner and Miles got picked up. We played some games, worked on some puzzles and got pjs on and went in mom's bed so we could watch Planet Earth, Shallow Seas. It was a good one, but as usual, my smart and curious Drew was either asking questions about what was what, or telling me what he knew about what was on. Mom, mom, I just have to tell you one more thing...about 20 times. He'd get up and act like a whale so he could show me how they blow out of their hole or tell me what animals we can touch and which we couldn't, and that we can touch fish but only for a minute, "like this", showing me, then telling me we have to let them go cuz they can't breath out of the water. Some animals can breath out of the water, and some animals eat other animals, and well, you get the idea. I can't believe how much is in that brain already. So at the end of the show he gets upset because he couldn't hear some of it. I said, "why not?" "Um, because I was talking mom! that's why I didn't get to hear it all" he says, with the most pathetic voice. After telling him we'll watch it again another day he seems ok with it and goes to sleep.
Oh, and before bed Drew talked to dad to tell him good night. He's really quite funny when he's on the phone because he paces back and forth. Like that's what you're supposed to do when you are on the phone. I haven't noticed if we do it, but I assume one of us must. In the conversation, dad tells Drew how much he appreciates Drew being such a good boy while mom is gone and Drew responds, "well I told you I would dad" as if, you fool, duh!!!!
This morning went well too. Drew didn't wake up on his own so I woke him up at 7. A little slow moving but in a good mood. On the way to school he reminds me, yet again, we need to get the blower out and move the leaves. And that Bill needs to and Willie needs to...yes, all the neighbors need to. Then he asks me when it's going to snow. I tell him in a few months. Then he says, dad put me on a red thing. I have no idea what he's talking about. He says, a long time ago. Which is the equivalent of yesterday or 2 years ago. So I say, oh, that's silly. He said, no it's not mom! I said, What are you talking about? My red thing...in the snow! OHHHH, your sled!? YES MOM! Again, I can't believe the things in that brain!

And then there were two

Mike's hiatus from traveling is officially over. He's back in Ohio this week and will be gone more in the weeks to follow as it seems for now. I was a bit concerned since it's been since May and Drew is so much more aware of things, but he took it in stride last night. We flew through the evening without any whining about dad being gone. He even he was going to be a really good boy while dad was gone.
We got home to a package at the front door. It was a new game from Grandma...perfect timing. A cute Noodleboro game about manners. The rules are simple, ask politely for a token from the picnic basket and match it to the game board. "please, can I please have a token from the token bucket, please? Thank you" It was pretty darn cute. After several rounds, we moved on to dinner, then Drew cleaned the dishes before I loaded them in the dishwasher, then on to Legos Batman for a bit, on to a 40 minute bath giving me time to call my mom and check in on the horrible fires happening in L.A. (they are fine so far, about 7 miles from the house), then watch a little tv and finally bedtime.
Bath time has gotten pretty comical lately, I've been letting Drew play in the tub while I go get laundry, etc as long as he sings to me or yells out "hello mom" every few minutes so I know he he's fine. So after he's finished getting washed up, he wants the curtain closed and he goes nuts with the toys. What a racket - a wonderful, funny racket, but racket none the less. Anyway, as I'm on the phone, I hear him talking about how fast Elmo is going in the tub, then he loudly sings, "good job, thanks for keeping my occupied!!!!" over and over to Elmo. I couldn't help but laugh out loud and hold the phone up for my mom to hear. Just what I needed after a long couple of days...elmo keeping him occupied.
This morning Drew woke himself up and came out to find me..."Is it a stay at home day, mom?" I tell him no, and he seems fine with it. Again, a bit surprised. He sat down, watched some toons...Flintstones & Jetsons to be exact, ate breakfast, got dressed, and brushed his teeth. All of this with only few reminders from mom. Ahhhh, I love my little man!

What a week!

Last weekend was our Halloween camping trip. It was awesome. Cold but sunny, nice during the day and snuggle weather at night. We had a great time and Drew loved getting all that candy. We seemed better organized this year. 9 families came and we set up the crockpots in the middle of our circle of campers. The kids had a blast playing with each other and were even more independent so it was a nice trip. We took a nature walk through the forest, painted pumpkins, walked in the parade...fun, fun, fun. This year we were smart. Since Drew was Jango Fett (Star Wars), we knew it was fairly pointless to go down to the judging so when we got near our area, we headed away from the festivities to give Drew a rest before trick or treating. He was pretty pooped by the end as his costume started hanging off the shoulders and dragging on the ground, making it more difficult to walk his tired little legs.
It took us forever to get out of the campground on Sunday. Not only was everything frosty and wet, the decorations had to come down and the camper winterized. We were glad we decided to do it all while it was up, but we were all ready to be home. Drew & I fell asleep almost immediately, and Mike watched the Bears & Nascar.
The rest of the week has been crazy...viruses at work have taken up most of the week. If I have to reboot a computer one more time this week I may snap!
Tomorrow we go to our second to last soccer lesson. It's supposed to be a great weekend...70s and sun. UM plays Toledo, so maybe we can pull out a win and Saturday night bowling. Maybe we'll even get some yard work done although after this week, some sitting on the couch mindlessly watching tv sounds much better.
TGIF!

Wow what a great morning!

I guess Drew must have remembered this is his last day of school this week. Tomorrow we are heading out for our last camping trip of the season...HALLOWEEN CAMPING! We look forward to this trip the most every year. Then we wake up freezing and wonder why! :>

Sometime in the middle of the night Drew came into our room. He didn't wake me up, so I'm not exactly sure when. As a matter of fact, I don't think he remembered it either because the first thing he said this morning..."mom, did I sleeped in my new big boy bed all night?" I said, nope buddy, but you started out there, so that's a good thing. He closed his eyes again and I walked out. A few minutes later he comes out..."mom, feel my diaper." Oh, pretty dry Drew good job. "I have to pee mom." Oh great dude, go pee. After the pee break, he finds me again, "mom, can you get me dressed this morning?" Sure bud, let me go get your clothes. Clothes in hand, I go searching for him and find him...BRUSHING HIS TEETH!!! Without being prompted, asked, begged etc. Wow! Then breakfast...Mike asks him what he wants..."ummmm, the cereal with the little marshmallows." Of course dad comes back with, "how 'bout donuts?" "YAY, yeah, I want donuts and I want to get them myself" Off the couch he comes running in the kitchen to make his breakfast. I had to leave at that point to go to work, but can someone tell me - What have you done with my child?! Not that he's not just the most wonderful thing ever, but independence in the morning is not always his strong suit. We usually have to make things a game or race to have things go well, so certainly we were proud when it was all spontaneous! Woo hoo!!!