First Beach Trip For Drew

When we got to the beachfront cottage it was perfect weather! And then a couple hours later the rain came. Our entire first evening at the beach was drizzly and the weather showed no change for the rest of the week on our phones. Fortunately, after the first day, we had barely any rain, clouds or sprinkles and enjoyed sunshine and warmth every day! Knowing that this time of year is traditionally the 'rainy season', we lucked out and really had gorgeous weather for 90% of the trip!

We couldn't resist taking Drew down to the beach as soon as we arrived despite the fact that we were all still in normal clothes. He went right to work picking up the shells and tossing them in and loved the little waves rolling over his baby crocs.

The second morning we ventured to the Ding Darling wildlife preserve for their drive through viewing. We saw SO much and would definitely recommend this for anyone visiting Sanibel. There were tons of birds and chameleons, but we also spotted an alligator, a crab, a snake, some huge pink birds and even a few manatees! 

Because we were only going 5mph, Drew was able to ride up front on Grandma's lap and watch out the window. Boy did this kid LOVE doing that. He checked out everything along the drive and it was so funny to watch his excited little facial expressions when he would spot something new. 

More pics to come of the rest of the trip!

Back from Sanibel

After 2.5 weeks away, it felt SO good to crawl into my bed on Sunday night. Work has been CRAZY so no long posts or time for picture editing over here just yet. You'll have to enjoy some Instagram pics for now.

My parents took our family to the beach to celebrate their 40th anniversary and my brother's med school graduation. It was beautiful and we had a GREAT time there. Drew loved the beach and we did something fun every day while still relaxing here and there with a nice cold beverage in hand.

Thanks again to my parents for the wonderful trip and I'll elaborate more in my upcoming posts on everything we did and add more pictures!

Deanna Rose Visit

I'm pretty sure after this last trip to Deanna Rose Farmstead we might have to invest into some baby goats. Last time we went, Drew was just a little guy who wasn't mobile, but definitely still enjoyed watching the animals. This time, our little walker got to go inside the petting zoo and interact with the baby goats.

It was CRAY CRAY. Like Drew was in his happy place and squealing nonstop and I was laughing at his little personality. Oh my gosh was this kid loving every minute of walking around and patting swatting the goats. He had to literally touch each one and squealed with delight as they pranced in front of him. I think we were in there a good 15-20 minutes but could have stayed all day. 

This place will quickly become a staple of our visits to KC. It's free, full of animals and has plenty of hand-washing stations for a mothers sanity. 

Thanks again for the trip Mimi and Grandpa! We all had a blast!

Busy Week

This handsome man has had quite a busy week with "Mimi's daycare" all last week! I worked from KC after I attended our annual company meeting and Derek's mom took care of Drew during the days all last week. I don't think she realized how much work it actually was and is thankful he took 3-4 hour naps everyday! I'm surprised I didn't catch her with a glass of wine and some ice packs each night, but it's probably because she's a champ.

I know for SURE that Drew has loved the one-on-one attention and would rather Mimi's daycare any day over normal school, but that can't happen living thousands of miles away. :( 

We are just so thankful that she was willing to watch Drew this week so that I could come in for my meeting and we could spend time with both sides of the family. Grandparents are the BEST!

And so is crawling all over them...

But Drew's favorite past time all last week? Playing in cabinets. And when I say that he did this quite often, I mean pretty much anytime we were near the kitchen. He had one particular cabinet in which he would take out each item and walk them over to us, then return them back into the cabinet once empty. Not my idea of "fun" but someone absolutely loved doing it!

On top of hours of playtime with Mimi, Drew took tons of walks, went on a run with mommy, played at the park, dined al fresco and even saw a buddy!  I was lucky enough to see my good friend Jenny and her little boy Carter last week for a playdate. Carter is just about 6 months younger than Drew, but is already quite the mover and shaker. He is such a darling little monkey full of adorable smiles!

More pictures to come from other KC festivities, but overall it was a great time in KC with friends and family!!

Doctor Bean

MY BROTHER IS AN OFFICIAL DOCTOR! We've all waited years for this day and now I can say that he is a real doctor! On Saturday night we went to his hooding ceremony and yesterday, the actual graduation followed by a lunch hosted by my parents. It all has felt somewhat surreal over the weekend because in some parts of my  mind, he's just my little brother who needed help tying his shoe or reaching a high shelf. He busted his a$$ during med school to graduate with awesome grades and all that hard work has paid off.

Next year he is off to Dallas to begin his residency journey and we can't wait to visit during those cold, Cleveland winters!

CONGRATS BEAN! 

We are so very proud of you.

Happy 16 Months

Happy 16 months sweet boy. I didn't really do a 13, 14th or 15th month post so I thought I would throw one up now. You have changed so much since turning a year old talking all the time and walking nonstop. You are a very busy little man who still has a sweet side that could melt any hearts. The favorite part of my day remains to be when I pick you up from school and you see me come into the room. The pure happiness you exude makes my heart flutter as I know our bond runs deeper than anything.

At your 15 month appointment you were about 25 and a half pounds so you're probably just under 26 about now. The level of learning you are doing each and every day catches mevoff guard sometimes when you repeat or say something new. It's impressive how smart you are and how easily you catch on.

Just know that you are the highlight of our family and that we love you so very  much.

My Little Helper

Child labor?

Park Pics

First I have to post a few more pictures from our Legoland adventure on Sunday! My brother-in-law, Matt, captured some great shots and here are a few of my favs:

Last night we took a ride in the wagon to the subdivision park and enjoyed the wonderful weather. Both myself and Drew's grandpa have been sick and it was nice to get out of the house for a bit.

And my fav taken with the Instagram app...

Thanks to the best in-laws ever, I'm feeling much better today! I was able to get to sleep early these last few nights while they take care of Drew. Fingers crossed these new meds zap the rest of this nasty sickness!

Weekend Fun

Drew is loving being in KC and getting tons of attention from his families on both sides!

We started the trip off right with some incredibly messy, but delicious spaghetti from Garozzo's at Mimi and Grandpa's house.

The next day we had our favorite grilled cheese from Panera followed by a ride on a carousel and a chocolate chip cookie with Grandma and Poppa!

We ended the weekend with a trip to the new Legoland Discovery Center with Mimi, Grandpa, Uncle Matt and Matt's girlfriend followed be lunch at Fritz's! I honestly think Drew could have spent hours longer at Legoland he was having so much fun. A couple of rides required his height to be 3 ft so we'll have to wait until next year for those, but he had SO much fun with what he could do! It's definitely worth the cost for all our friends in KC!

Best moment? Falling head first into a pit of legos...

Stacking Man

So I was reading another friends blog about how easy it will be to forget little quirks about our children someday unless we write them down. My blog is a perfect way to keep track of the small things as I hope Drew will enjoy reading this Journey down the road.

So the 'little quirk' for today is how Drew LOVES to stack things. From blocks, to books, to his stacking cups, watching his little face concentrate is just precious. He has a great attention span with toys, but when he's stacking items, he sits even longer thanks to his fondness for the task. 

As he carefully selects which item goes next on his stack, he often will change his mind and switch to another item. These rings pictured can stack in whatever order, but his stacking cups have to be in the correct size order. He knows this, and will take all the time in the world to get each cup in the next correctly until they are all in. 

I'd say that's one smart cookie. 

WE SURVIVED

Drew and I flew to KC all by ourselves and survived!! I had TONS of gadgets, toys, snacks and milk, but still was SUPER  nervous about flying on the 2 hour flight with him. He's flown so much, but only with Derek and I both around to help. This time I was solo. AND he is a walker. AND fighting sickness along with 2nd molars coming in.

I looked on a lot of websites about ideas and items that would keep a kid busy and ended up spending about $30 at the Target $1 bin for little trinkets.

What's funny is that he really didn't spent too much time with anything I brought, rather just loved watching out the window and flipping through the Sky Mall Magazine! I did have to whip out the pacifier though as it really helped keep him calm. He currently only gets it for sleeping, but a mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do to keep her baby happy right?!

He was definitely getting antsy by the end and took a huge poo right when we landed, so I'm glad we didn't have to make it farther, but we made it nonetheless. Although we will miss daddy tons during our visit to KC, we're relishing in time with the grandparents, aunt and uncles!

A Kid & A Dog Cage

I'm sure a lot of my readers prefer to just look at pictures rather than read what I've written. In this case, however, I really hope they read this. For the record, all of the pictures below were snapped of Drew doing this completely on his own! Although I'm sure there will be time outs when he's older that I'd love to just stick him in there for a bit, that was not the case. (j/k people.... I'd never stick my kid in a cage....)

Anywhoo- Drew has become obsessed with Lacy's cage in our bedroom. I mean crazed. Despite having tons of toys in every room around the house, he insists on speed walking straight to her cage once it's in sight. His little wheels begin to turn in his head as he opens the door for the first time and thus begins the process. 

Open the door. Climb inside. Close the door. Look around. Open the door again. Climb out and slam the door shut.

I must say that it's adorable watching him perform these feats. It's such a repetitive but somehow interesting process for him and the looks we get mid-act from inside the cage are quite funny..

Whatever floats your boat little man!