Christmas 2013

Oh what fun Christmas was with a 2 year old this year! Drew still didn't fully understand, but for the most part he was really in to it. We read "The Night Before Christmas" and "The Christmas Story for kids" every night leading up to Christmas. He loved to point out Santa Claus in the first one and Baby Jesus in the second one. I loved to hear him say "bay cheesus" and point to Mary and Joseph. He still asks to read "bay cheesus" every night, but after he met Santa Claus, he stopped asking for "The Night Before Christmas". Ha! He talked about Santa the entire way to see him. He told us Santa was nice, that Santa says Ho! Ho! Ho! and that he wanted to set on Santa's lap. However, when we turned the corner and he saw him, he was definitely not a fan. On the way home he told us that Santa was scary and then later that night I asked him to tell me what Santa Claus says and he responded with "walk away Sanka Cwaus!"....

Christmas Eve was just the three of us and we started our own little tradition. Andy grilled steak, we made cookies for Santa and just had a quiet night at home.

Once Drew was in bed, Andy and I got to work getting his gifts together for Christmas morning. Since this will be our only Christmas in the rent house, I wanted to make sure I included a picture of the set up and where we were on Drew's second Christmas.

Drew's big gifts were a train table and a tricycle. He wasn't sure what to think when he came down stairs. Watching his face put it all together was pretty cute! He immediately went to the train table, but it only took about a minute before he wanted on his "mycycle". He was so fascinated with those two things that he didn't open all of his presents and stocking from us until the night after Christmas.

He finally tore in to a few packages and we got some "oh wow's" and enthusiastic "what is that's". 

After we finished Christmas morning at our house, we went over to my parents house for lunch. This is a newer tradition as well and we love it! Mimi goes above and beyond to make it a perfect day. She even put out a place setting for the kids. How cute!

Marlowe was cute in her apron and oven mitts..

And Poppy was pretty cute in his new headphones too!

Thought this was a sweet picture of Uncle Lance and Drew playing with his new wooden train. Drew thought he needed to be eye level with it to make it move.

Mimi and Poppy bought Drew a new pair of tennis shoes. I am pretty sure I have talked about the favorite red shoes that he was so obsessed with. Well,  I think we finally have a replacement. He opened these and immediately put them on! He hasn't asked about the red shoes since then! Whew!

Drew got this pillow for his Mimi. Couldn't be more true! She is too good to us and we couldn't be more thankful!

I wanted to add this next picture, because it is the only clip of a picture I have of Drew in an actual Christmas outfit. He wanted that shirt off as soon as he walked in the door. 

And, I couldn't leave out our family picture in front of Mimi's tree..

Later that afternoon, we headed to Berryville to see Andy's grandma and do Christmas with that side of the family. We draw names for that Christmas and Drew got a fun little steering wheel from Aunt Dessa, however, I think he enjoyed his QT with the Emerson girls even more. They love him so much and the feelings couldn't be more mutual. 

We had a few other Christmas celebrations before Christmas day. One weekend we spent the night at Andy's mom's house to celebrate with her. He got a cozy coupe car and loved hanging out with Uncle Tim and Daddy while they put it together for him. Doesn't he look so big here?

He also loved hanging out with all the girls...

This picture was the next morning as we were getting ready to leave. Could these two be any sweeter? 

One other family Christmas we went to was my mom's side of the family. We get together on a weekend close to Christmas with her brother and their family every year. We were too busy playing Dirty Santa for me to get any other pictures, but I was impressed with GleeAnna's skills in holding both of these boys at the same time. 

We truly had the best Christmas! We are so very blessed with the best family and friends to celebrate with and I'm so thankful that Drew gets to grow up with all of these memories and traditions. 

Drew is ALMOST Two Update

I am so far behind on our blog! We have been crazy busy over the last month. We sold our house and have been packing, moving and getting settled for the last few weeks. We will be renting a house for 6(ish) months while our new house is being built. At this moment, we are just as exhausted as we are excited! I absolutely cannot wait to get in to our new house, but my goodness, I completely underestimated how insane it would be to move with an almost 2 year old. I will say, Drew has done really well with this transition. Something I was worried about and obviously shouldn't have been! 

Because it seems like it has been so long, I think it's time to do another Drew update. We are under four weeks of turning TWO. I'm pretty sure this second year went by faster than the first year. And we have had a ton of fun! At almost 2, Drew is:

• 99% potty trained (in both areas). He has done so, so good this last month. We have been working on it since he was 21 months and he would have good spells and bad spells, but he has gotten pretty hard core here lately. He has surprised us several times... sitting through 2 hour car rides, asking the lady in the nursery at church to take him to the bathroom when we had put a diaper on just in case, etc. He really makes a big deal about it now too. He will run out of the bathroom with his arms in the air yelling "i peed! i peed!" This past Sunday at church, we let him sit in "big church" with us because they had the kids Christmas play. He was being pretty quiet, so after the preacher started his sermon we let him stay in there with us. About 5 minutes in, he proudly (and loudly) announced to us "i nee poop!"
• Very independent. He is completely dressing himself, except for his shirt. He puts his own underwear, pants, socks and shoes on and is really good at it! He has even started getting particular with what he wears and wants to pick out his own clothes and shoes. It is almost always sweat pants, a long sleeved t-shirt and these cheap red tennis shoes that I am so ready for him to outgrow! We have shed some big tears and had some big fits to wear these red shoes. Most days I don't fight it and let him wear them with whatever else he has picked out, but there are times that the red shoes just won't work! I keep checking the toe of them to see if we've had any progress... we're getting close.
• Counting to 20, but usually only goes to 16 by himself.
• Singing his ABCs and is getting better and better at recognizing the letter when he sees it. He doesn't have all of them, but he's very close.
• Speaking in full sentences that are hilarious... "i want off my jacket"... "where is duke? right daya"... "oh no. i broken it"... 
• Very polite! He almost always says please and thank you when he is supposed to. "goldfish, pwease?"... "taintu, mommy" 
• Very caring. The first time I noticed this genuine concern and caring was a few weeks ago. He was sitting on my lap and I had read something that made me emotional. He stared at me for a little bit and said "mommy, hug?"and gave me the sweetest hug! Talk about a mommy melting moment. He has kept doing it since then. If he thinks someone is sad or mad, he wants to give them a hug. He has also turned this in to a little game. He has started doing things to people he knows he's not supposed to, so that he can immediately give them a hug. He was doing this with his little Mickey Mouse doll earlier. The conversation went something like this "no Mickey. Stop it. Walk away Mickey"... pause... "Mickey, hug? kiss?" 
• Still loves Mickey Mouse. This and basketball "backetbow" are the only two things he will request to watch. He knows all of the characters names on the show and likes "doofy" almost as much as Mickey. 
• Extremely active. He is constantly sprinting through the house, jumping in place, flying into a pile of pillows face first, using his little golf clubs to hit a ball, playing basketball with whatever he can, climbing up and down the stairs... he is 90 to nothing pretty much all the time! 
• Loves music and loves to sing. While I got ready for church on Sunday, he used my hair dryer as his microphone and serenaded me with Twinkle Twinkle. Baa Baa Black Sheep is still his go to, but it is slowly fading out. He loves Wheels on the Bus, Twinkle Twinkle, Ring Around the Rosy and his newest one is Where is Thumbkin. I am waiting for the perfect opportunity to get that one on video. The way he sings "here I am"... and moves his little fingers is so cute!

I am sure I will have some to add to this list over the next few weeks, but this is a good start to count down to the actual 2 year mark. He is something else and we feel blessed beyond words! 

Because it is late, I will have to do a picture post later this week. I am too tired tonight! I will end with this sweet picture of the 3 of us with Andy's grandma at Thanksgiving. 

Halloween 2013!

Halloween was so much fun this year! With the help of my co-workers, we decided Drew would be a scarecrow. I made him a straw hat, threw on a burlap collar, added straw to his pants and arms, then painted his face a little. He was so cute and loved getting to participate this year. I forgot to take a picture of his bucket when he was finished, but he loaded up! You can't tell how packed it was from these pictures, but there was a ton of people and it only took him a few minutes to get used to it. He was such a big boy!

He was super sweet with Aubrey. He really wanted her to have a piece of candy...

We tried really hard to get a picture with Kenzie, but this was the best we could do. This was towards the beginning and he was ready to go!

He loved walking around our work and trick-or-treating for the first time, but I think he loved passing out candy that night at home just as much. Every time the door bell would ring, he would sprint to the door and say "titta-tee" (trick or treat) to whoever was there, hand them a piece of candy and then slam the door. I didn't get good pictures of that, so I'll leave you with a video! (You will notice the little scarecrow had his own little outfit change when we got home!)

Drew's Favorites

Drew's favorite things at 22 months old (this Sunday):

Singing - he is a good little singer! His favorite songs right now are his ABC's and Baa Baa Black Sheep. He skips portions of his abc's a lot of times, but he still keeps the tune and fills in as he goes. He also loves to participate in "if you're happy and you know it", "skinnamarinky dinky dink", "ring around the rosey" and "the wheels on the bus". He does the motions to all of them and tries to keep up with the words. 

Mickey Mouse. This is the first character or show that Drew has loved. He still isn't that interested in TV, but if he thinks Mickey Mouse is going to come on, he is locked in. He will enthusiastically answer "yes" when Mickey asks if he wants to come into his clubhouse. He joins in on the magical words "mischka, mooshka, mickey mouse", yells "oh toodles" when prompted and sings along with the "hot dog" song with his arms in the air. He grins from ear to ear when he sees Mickey pop up on the screen. My mom went to Orlando a few weeks ago and brought him back a little Mickey Mouse doll that he loves to carry around and has started sleeping with him.

Shoes - Loves his shoes and always wants them on. He is adamant that he puts them on himself too. He got his first pair of cowboy boots recently and his reaction when he put them on was hilarious. He stomped all over the house and wouldn't stop looking at them. He also likes to get in to our closet and try on our shoes. Especially if they have laces that he can pretend to tie himself. 

Trucks, cars, school busses, trains - If he sees any of these things while we are driving, he will point them out and then make the noise. We read a book every night before bed called "Trucks go..." and he is so fascinated with the "big tucks" in the book and all the noises they make.

Running - He will often just take off running. It's like he's decided to get a random workout in or something. Occasionally we will hear him say "ready set go". It's cute because the first two words are really drawn out and "go" is super fast and loud. He is a fast little thing too! He kicks his feet up almost to his little booty and books it.  

Puzzles - I say it a lot, but he is such a worker. He loves puzzles and anything he can "work" on. He will not give up until he is finished and if he gets stuck he will say "help please" and he watches very closely. Such a determined little guy!

Snacks - Drew loves to snack. He takes after me with his love for chips. And he takes after Andy with his love for... pretty much all other snacking. He isn't too in to candy or sweets just yet, but he does appreciate them every now and then. I will say candy corn has been an exception this year!

Playing chase - He will run through the house, begging you to chase him. If you stop, he will say "help please. help please." until you start chasing him again. He wears us out with this little game!

A few sports  - He loves to play with his little golf clubs and makes really good contact with the ball. He swings his golf club left handed, so we think he may be a leftie. He likes to throw and play catch with any ball that he can. He's got a pretty good arm, but we are still working on catching.

Rough-housing - I don't really know how to sum this one up. He just likes it. One night last week, he literally spent 20 straight minutes climbing on top of Andy on our bed and immediately jumping into a pile of pillows face first.

Water! - The boy can drink a ton of water. I tried giving him a juicy juice box and he handed it back to me and asked for water. I bought the capri sun flavored waters, and he likes those, but he still prefers plain water.

Saving the best (picture) for last...

Making people laugh - He loves when he catches us laughing at him. The look on his face when he realizes he has done something funny, is so sweet. This past Friday, he ended up in my closet with Cassie and Halle and came streaking thru the house in part of my Halloween costume. When he figured out that we were all laughing at him, he wouldn't let us catch him and ran through the house like this for quite a while!

Parent Teacher Conference & A Little Potty Training

Last week, Drew had his very first Parent Teacher Conference's... ha! Yes, Parent Teacher Conferences for a 21 month old. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it turned out so great. They fill out an entire packet of information broken out by category. Drew got checked as "mastered" in putting on his own shoes and pants, hand washing, scraping his plate, chair management, hammering, sorting and recognizing colors and shapes. He is listed as "practicing" in all the other areas. He has only been in this class for three months, so we were impressed!

His teacher had all positive things to say about him and said "he is her social butterfly that loves to make his friends laugh". Hearing that, might have been my favorite part of the conference. I feel like I pegged Drew very early on as having his daddy's personality and sense of humor, and I think I might be right!

One whole page of the packet was for potty training.... eeek! I had planned on casually talking about potty training at the 2 year mark, but after talking to her she convinced us that he was ready now...

She told us that if we would work with him that weekend and send him in underwear the following Monday, they would hit the ground running and work full time with him at school. Woah! She was very encouraging and positive about it, and we knew we had to give it a shot. So, we are just starting week 2 of full on potty training. He is doing much better at school than he is at home, but we've had a lot of successful trips at home too. I'm not going to lie, it has been a little exhausting and frustrating at times, but we were prepared for this to take some time and we are committed! I hate to jenx us, because it was only one day, BUT I feel like the little guy deserves a little horn tooting. He went ALL DAY today with ZERO accidents at school or home! Talk about a happy day at the Daniels' house! Way to go Drew!

Of course, I have a ton of underwear pics and I couldn't resist sharing a few cute ones with you. Every little boy needs an underwear picture in his cowboy boots, right?

What a little stud!

Drew's First Razorback Tailgate

A few weeks ago, Drew got to go to his first tailgate! Andy and I weren't sure about taking him at all this year because, well... we knew it would be a lot of work! He is a busy little man and just from experience at the softball fields this past spring, I knew he was going to give me a complete work out. He is all. over. the. place... in most settings. BUT, the little man gave us a nice surprise and he honestly couldn't have been more perfect. He fit right in and loved every minute! All the other kids got to come to this tailgate too, so it worked out great!

All the tailgate kiddos. Drew is trying to escape the picture.

First tailgate as a family!

Cute pic of Andy and Drew.

Andy's friends, Michael and Parker, kept Drew very entertained throughout the day. Andy went inside the game and they were a huge help! Lots of tickles...

A lot of racing... Drew would say "Seeet, GO"

A few Rubbermaid tote rides...

And even a back massage!

He did a lot of this... which made everyone nervous.

 He got to hang out with Aubrey...

 His Emerson cousins... (not sure where my picture of him and Sid went)

And his Uncle Tim...

I think one of his favorite things all day, might have been the muffins. Dessa brought these huge muffins from a local bakery and we know for sure he ate five of them. He would walk by the food table, grab one off the tray and literally not miss a beat.

 He had such a BIG day and we are so thankful we decided to take him. Such a fun experience for all of us! I think it is safe to say, he was completely pooped by the time we even put the car in drive!