What's new with Drew

Drew is way too mobile these days. He's everywhere and gets very frustrated when you try to keep him from going where he wants to go. Everything goes into this boy's mouth these days as well. He particularly likes the little leaves that fall off the tree that hangs over our patio. He puts them in his mouth and it looks like he has a little yellow tongue hanging out. He is pretty good with his fine motor skills. He can put balls into the holes of the dinosaur toy that we have and loves to help clean up toys. He grabs them one at a time and helps Jack when it's clean-up time. His top left front tooth is in and the right one is right behind it. He loves to give high-fives and thinks most everything this family does is a total riot. He's working on all of his sounds. New ones are Bah, and La. We just wish we had a volume control for him because everything tends to come out at rock concert level. Jack plugs his ears when he gets too loud. He can walk around the room while holding onto furniture and stand in the middle of the room on his own for a few seconds. It won't be long before he's taking off and we'll have a whole new level of head injuries to deal with.

Watching the Chef

I had a captive audience last night while cooking dinner. They enjoyed having water and a snack while watching me cook dinner. It's the best way I knew to keep and eye on them while Nick was finishing his finals.

Drew prefers a sippy cup with a straw so we are just going with it. If Jack leaves his drink unattended and there is a straw attached, he can make it disappear in seconds!

Monterey Bay Aquarium

The baby Great White shark

Walking to the Aquarium with Nora and David

Making friends with a sting ray

touching the starfish

Best picture we could get of the three of them

Staring at the Jellyfish

Fun was had by all during the trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium that we are fortunate enough to be able to visit once a month for free thanks to the Marina Public Library!

My Museum

We went to My Museum on Fri. with our new friends Lauren, David and Maddie. Jack and Drew had a blast with all of the fun kid stuff. We will be going back again soon!!!!!!!

The Boys and Elmo

Jack and Drew have enjoyed playing with Elmo live ever since Mom went to Costco and got new batteries. The toy takes six of them but is always a huge hit!

Drew the Pianist

Drew really enjoys playing piano. Whenever it is open he crawls right over to it and plays a little tune that really isn't half bad. This time he decided to add some lyrics. I think an appropriate title would be "AHHHH DAH DAH!" I guess I could have made it easier for him and moved the bench out of the way :)

Elbow kisses

Jack's bedtime routine is pretty much the same every night. We go upstairs, brush his teeth, open his window so he can see the moon (if it's out), read stories, turn off the lights and turn on his light show and music. Then he always says, "Mommy, sing me a song." I always ask him which one and he usually says, "The Moon Song." He really means Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star but calls it "The Moon Song" because there are pictures of moons and stars playing across his ceiling in his bedroom to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle. After his song, I tell him that I have to go but will see him in the morning. He raises his little elbows into the air and asks, "Mommy can I have elbow kisses?" and every night I kiss his elbows goodnight about five times each. I'm not really positive how this started to become routine (probably he became too independent and no longer wanted to kiss me goodnight, so I started kissing funny body parts to get my way) but it's a very sweet way to end the day with Jack.

Attack of the Biter Biscuit

Drew has a thing for biter biscuits. You know, those disgusting things made for babies that they absolutely love because they feel so good on their little gums. As a parent, I feel that there must be a less messy version of this biscuit somewhere. I mean seriously, does it have to turn into paste in their little mouths. Whenever Drew has one, Jack has to have one too. I usually take Drew's shirt off and then head straight for the bathroom to soak and scrub it off. Tonight I gave one to Drew and took his shirt off. Jack just had to have the same thing. This is what Drew ended up looking like. Thankfully Jack just ate his instead of sucking on it then rubbing it all over his body like his little brother did.

Trucks in the Kitchen

The past couple of nights, Jack and Drew have been migrating toward the kitchen with their trucks to play. They actually play really well together for the most part and I don't even have to keep a close eye on them. They also do this in their bathroom upstairs before naptime! Notice that the caterpillar is Drew's favorite.

Escape Artist

I caught Drew trying to escape our house yesterday.
It's scary how close he is to reaching the door knob!

Almost free!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't worry Mom, I like it here too much to leave!

Cooper's Third Birthday Party

Jack attended Cooper's 3rd birthday party on Fri. The Presidio Fire Dept. made an appearance and Jack had the time of his life.

Sitting in the truck with Cooper

Waiting for someone to take him for a

ride.

He got to sit on the front with

the hose!

Bye Bye Firetruck!

Jack takes cake eating pretty seriously!

More backyard fun

The boys are enjoying out little bit of summer by playing with balls and chalk together outside. Drew is more intent on trying to eat the chalk than actually drawing anything and ends up quite the mess by the time they are finished. Jack is working on drawing a "J" for Jack and circles. He's getting pretty good at both. Drew is no longer confined to the blanket I put down and enjoys crawling across the patio. It looks like it really hurts but he seems to enjoy it immensely.

Jack's new beach ball, also a clearance item!

Happy days!

Balloon fun!

Though the back-up balloon was for Jack, I had to blow up the back-up's back-up for Drew. I got these balloons for a quarter each on the clearance rack at the drug store and they were worth all fifty pennies. Check-out the fun.

Jack's New Do

I finally got around to getting Jack a haircut. We just went to Great Clips and were in and out in record time. Jack is very good at sitting still as long as he knows that there is candy and a balloon to follow. He got his wish, a lollipop and a blue balloon, which of course popped the minute he took it into the backyard. Tears followed but luckily mommy had a back-up in the house.

The "why" phase

Jack has entered the "why" phase. He will now ask me questions and after every answer instead of asking "why?" he asks, "How come?" which to me is just a fancy "why?" The only thing that can stop the barrage of questions is distraction. Other popular phrases these days include: "I have a question for you," "I'm so glad I found you," "Look Mommy, it's a baby brother!" No Mommy/Daddy "We don't throw ___Toys_____" or whatever else we toss. "Look it's a baby, he's sooooo cute"

Boo!!!!!!!

The other night I could hear Drew moaning in his crib, it went on for a while so I finally went up to check on him. I peeked in the door and saw that he was standing in his crib and looking at himself in the mirror, still moaning. I opened the door and said, "Drew, what's the matter?" I scared the pants off him! He jumped into the air arms flailing backwards and fell over and started really crying. I then got the giggles because it was a hilarious sight and after I picked him up he started laughing too. When he laughs really hard he giggles and then sucks in his breath and sounds like he is wheezing. This made me laugh even harder so I had to calm myself and him down so I could get him back to sleep. I wish I had it on tape.

Library Storytime

Jack enjoys storytime at the library. Not so much for the stories as for the dancing and the playground out front. Every time the librarian picks up another book to read Jack says, "One more story and that's it! Then time to play at the playground and have a juice and a snack." At least he sits and listens. If not for the love of stories, for the love of what comes after.

Bending over to pick something up

Drew can now bend over from standing while holding onto something and pick up an object.

Jack Attack II

It is officially summer here in Monterey with temps in the upper 70's and low 80's. Jack's room has become a sauna so we have been leaving the window open just enough to get a breeze but not enough for him to fall out. Since there is no screen, we found a locking system so that we can open the window but he can't open it any further. It had been working out well until one day when Jack was supposed to be napping, he decided to throw everything that would fit out the window. I was ready with the camera this time

The look on his face says it all. In trouble and all toys gone. If you click on the picture above, it will give you a close-up of Jack's face.

Pool Day!!!!!!!!!

I have found the perfect pool for the boys and we finally had a weekend warm enough to get it out. It has a slide for Jack and the pool part is shallow enough for Drew and it's big enough for Jack to go down the slide with Drew in the pool. Fun was had by both boys. It's perpetual fall here however so it's impossible to keep all of the fallen leaves and twigs out of the pool so it soon became a mess. It was even harder to keep all of this out of Drew's mouth. It hasn't been warm enough since, so we are still waiting for another pool day to arrive!