Andrewman The Superhero

He came up with the name.
And the cape-wearing is a daily occurrence now.
All boy right there.

Andrewman Stats:
Age: 3
Height: 3'3"
Weight: 35 lbs
Eyes: blue
Hair: light brown
Aliases: turkey, buggie, Drewdlebug
Occupation: Crime fighter and Dog Annoyer
Powers: eating, counting in spanish, building train tracks and lego castles
Weapons: guns (as in his arms) and a smile that will kill
Sidekick: panda the ferocious stuffed animal
Hobbies: flying around the house and sweeping 

Thanks again for the cape Uncle Matt. Pretty sure he's going to wear it until he's 27.

Drew's First Movie

We did it. We jumped on the Frozen bandwagon as Drew's first movie and, just like everyone warned me, that d@mn song is completely stuck in my head. I guess that's par for the course with Disney movies though.

Back to my point of this post. Drew is SUCH a good kid, but he is a talker... like constant chatterbox. During shows at home he narrates and likes to discuss everything that's going on. This is the only reason we hadn't been to a real movie yet. I was hoping that since Frozen had been out forever there wouldn't be many people still attending meaning less people to piss off if he jabbered through the entire thing. Wrong. It was a fairly full theater, but thankfully he did pretty well!

And in case you're thinking of taking your toddler to a movie, here are my tips for a successful trip:

  - Make sure the toddler is well rested. We went right after nap when he was still a bit sleepy and calm.

  - Get a gynormous popcorn. Like, the biggest they offer. This will keep your toddler from talking.

  - Sit in the back. This way you're toddler isn't too close to other people the screen.

  - Bribe the kid to pee right before the movie starts to give yourself a nice window.

  - Practice whispering for an entire week in advance, but understand you'll still shush them 79 times.

All in all, it went really well for us and I'm excited to see more with our little guy!

Sicky Sick

I made the mistake of saying out loud last week that we had escaped one of the worst winters ever without sickness in our house. Not even 24 hours later, I got a call from Drew's school that he needed to be picked up due to his temperature. #fail

He stayed home from school for a couple of days and we fought the sickness with every ounce of our energy. Resting, fluids, soup, meds, inhaler, humidifier and TONS of hugs and kisses.

Apparently, sometimes you can beat the bug and by day 2 at home, he really wasn't even that bad! I, on the other hand, didn't escape so luckily. I've been under the weather for a few days and it's quite annoying how minimal you can take while pregnant. I had Derek stop and pick me up 6 huge oranges and have been gargling with salt water every few hours. Thankfully, it's now down to just a deep cough and runny nose, but fingers crossed it goes away soon!

But instead of leaving this post as pretty pointless and riddled with sickness, here's a cute video of Drew singing his favorite song. Sure he might be off from the words and the sun makes his face hard to see, but it's still so adorable.

Have a great weekend!!

Throw Back Thursday - Maui Style

Forget looking at another snowy or cold post and let your eyes feast on sun and warmth!

Maui is one of my most favorite places on earth. With our Europe trip being at the top of my list, Maui would be tied for a close second with Costa Rica. I first went in 2003 with my family as a college graduation gift for me and a high school graduation gift for my brother. Then, in 2005 and 2008 we went with Derek's family. Over the years, I've pretty much done all luau's and excursions, eaten at most of the big restaurants and seen all of the best sights. Each time was unique and amazing, though, and I would enjoy going back 20 more times!

In case you know anyone going anytime soon, here are some of my faves:
Road to Hana day trip
Mama's Fish House restaurant
Banyan Tree in Lahaina
Teralani Sailing
Haleakala - See the sunrise and then bike down!
Old Lahaina Laua

These pictures are from 2008...

I think it's about time to go back!

Halfway There!

Kinda can't believe that I'm halfway there as of today! I have no ideas for the nursery, only two onesies for a girl (thanks to a dear friend) and a handful of name options. I felt so much more on top of it with Drew, but I'm sure I'll kick it up a notch soon. I went through a lot of emotions last week on having a girl and I'm still somewhat working through those. I don't know how to get into details without sounding disappointed, but I think it was just more the confirmation it was a girl, combined with the fact that I feel I only know how to parent a boy, combined with the sheer terror of pre-teen and teenage drama that comes with a girl. I'm not at ALL disappointed, quite the opposite. It's just the realization that it's going to be an entirely different world! I cannot WAIT to dive into cute, girly clothes after living with trucks and sports on shirts for the last 3 years though, but I think I'm waiting for it to really sink in. Either way, I still feel so lucky to have another one on the way and am praying daily that she is a healthy, happy baby!

Baby #2 is a.....

So we decided to have a 'technology reveal' with our immediate families to share this moment with them. With Drew, Derek and I just opened the envelope at the Melting Pot and I wanted to be a bit more 'fun' with the reveal this time! I ordered cupcakes in Dallas and Kansas City for our fam to pick up with the help my of my friend, Virginia, who told the bakeries the sex. Then our parents and siblings all got on our laptops, ipads and phones to share in the occasion at the same time. The cupcakes each had a filling with either pink or blue and one bite in you could see what it was! Here are the Ohio, Kansas and Texas cupcakes...

I didn't even think about the fact that it would take Drew longer than us to get to the center, so I had to include the part where he finally got there and yelled out the color!

Enjoy! (there is sound)

Needless to say, we are all SO excited to meet this little one in just a few months!

Tatas or Frank & Beans?

In just a couple days I'll be revealing the sex of Deuce to all of my lovely blog friends, but first, I wanted to host a fun poll and see what you think! 

I'd love for you to take 2 seconds and vote on which gender you think Deuce will be. Will Drew have a baby brother or baby sister?!?!?

Boy or Girl??

Boy

Girl

Poll Maker

Then stay tuned as the contents of this envelope will soon be revealed!

Andrew the Archaeologist

Normally, crowds don't bother me. Most toddler places are always going to have tons of visitors on the weekend and why should that stop us from letting our kid enjoy them? Derek, on the other hand, does lose patience a bit quicker with big crowds, but I digress.

The Great Lakes Science Center was offering free admission on Saturday and I was excited to save the $40 fee for the 3 of us and enjoy a fun couple of hours with Drew there. After some breakfast, we made the drive to downtown but literally both gasped at the site once we pulled up. There was a line wrapping around the building with hundreds of people waiting to get in and parking looked like it was an absolute madhouse. Derek and I made a snap decision to punt the idea and head over to the Natural History Museum where we wouldn't have to be squished in like sardines. Since all of Cleveland was at the Science Center, we basically had the museum to ourselves and it was great!

I know it's a dark picture, but how awesome is this face?

Drew making our dinosaurs kiss. How sweet is that? There was a kid slamming dinosaurs around and trying to rip their heads off next to us and here's my kid making them gently smooch. I melt.

They even have this kids area where fake bones are buried in the sand and you have to uncover them with brushes. Drew could have spent hours doing this.

Interesting fact for the day; my mother actually studied archaeology at the University of Kansas, where almost everyone in our family attended! I know it's a bit different than searching for dinosaur bones (ie: searching for human things, but still... kinda the same concept). She graduated with a degree in psychology, but was only a couple classes away from double majoring in archaeology as well. She even spent a couple of months at a site in Missouri in the heat of the summer digging away at the soil trying to find pieces of anything from prehistoric Indian days. Random right? But such a cool piece of my family history if I do say so myself!

No More Exercise

Ever since my non-pregnancy highest back in 2008, I've been a runner. I ran 4-6 times a week for years up until 20 weeks pregnant with Drew and loved what it did to keep the weight off. (Throw in a few more miles when training for the half I did back in 2008). I've mentioned on here before that I honestly don't love running, but I absolutely love what it does for my body. After years of step classes, ellipticalling, yoga, etc, it was the only thing that helped me get down to the lowest I had been since high school and I was hooked.

Fast forward to this pregnancy where around 10 weeks it was already beginning to feel very uncomfortable running, so it was on to the elliptical and lifting each day Mon-Friday. I absolutely didn't want to gain 49 pounds again, like I did with Drew, and was going to keep up cardio until the end in order to help those pounds from creeping on.

But last week, my hopes of exercising during this pregnancy came crashing down.

Now let me make one point very clear: I will do ANYTHING to help foster a healthy baby growing in this belly. Period.

Let me pause for a bit and warn you that this post is going to sound completely vain and totally narcissistic. I know that. Before you judge and consider leaving an unnecessary comment, let me please explain. You see, I wasn't blessed with a good metabolism. Actually, I was given a quite crappy one. I've struggled with weight my entire life and wasn't really 'happy' with my body until the last few years (except right after Drew's birth obvs). So being told that you can't exercise, except for 'casual walking' is quite scary.

In actuality, this has nothing to do with how I look. I'm simply terrified of getting gestational diabetes from putting on too much weight and just don't want to feel like a fat slob through the summer. So many people have said 'enjoy this time' or 'eat that ice cream and don't worry about it', but I just can't. I love food more than most people do and avoiding snacking and sweets is just not a trait I have. Without MyFitnessPal or running and only walking casually, I'm going to blimp up. Period. And there's nothing I can do about it.

Let me reiterate this point: I will do ANYTHING to help foster a healthy baby growing in this belly. Period.

So really, other than to document this pregnancy on the blog, I'd love to hear feedback of how you coped with placenta previa. If you had a marginal case, like I do, did yours shift to a normal placement? Were you able to get back into exercise if so? How did you avoid putting on too much weight due to limited exercise? Thanks friends!

Homemade Corn Dogs

I try to make as much food for my family as possible, but let's get real. Sometimes work is too cray cray and the ease and speed of packaged dinners wins in the nightly debate of what to eat. That being said, whenever I see a recipe that I can easily use to replace a staple in our family, I'm on it like white on rice! My friend Sarah posted this homemade corn dog recipe last week and I knew the boys would love them. They are so much healthier than the boxed corn dogs I buy Drew and I love that we can use turkey dogs as opposed to the fatty hot dogs within the boxed kind.

Ingredients: 

1-8.5 oz. box of Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix

1 egg, slightly beaten

1/3 cup skim milk

1 TBS honey

3 Oscar Mayer Turkey Hot dogs, each cut into 4 pieces 

Directions:

1. Spray the wells of a mini muffin pan with cooking spray.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. 

2.  In a med bowl, combine the mix, egg, honey and skim milk.  Allow to sit for 3 - 4 min.  Stir batter.  

3.  Fill each mini muffin well with about 1/2 TBS batter.  Place a piece of hot dog into each well, pressing in.  

4. Top each hot dog with about a tsp. of batter, covering hot dog.  

5.  Bake in oven for 10 - 15 min.  or until golden brown.  Allow to cool in pan for 5 min. before removing to platter. 

Like Sarah, I didn't use a mini muffin pan, rather a regular sized one and they still came out delish. One little box of jiffy corn mix only made about 10 of these, so I'd recommend doubling the recipe to feed a family.

Enjoy!

3-Day Weekend

I sooooo look forward to February and March each year when I remember I have a ton of extra PTO days to use or lose and I get to take random days off! Long weekends are the best. 

Here's a quick recap of what we did...

Visited the rain forest at the zoo:

Watched KU stomp TCU with other Cleveland Jayhawks:

Enjoyed a new NA beer that was fairly decent:

Visited the library near our new neighborhood to read some books and enjoy some puzzles:

And painted the playroom:

Productive yet relaxing. 

Cozy yet fun.  

Perfect.

If You Need a Good Laugh...

I'm NOT one for cat videos or memes normally, but watched these last week and seriously couldn't stop laughing. What's the logical thing to do besides sharing them with my blog friends?

Fully watch them both. (they are super short)

You'll thank me later.

Happy Day of Love!

Keeping with tradition over the past few years, Derek and I will be enjoying a home-cooked dinner tonight that includes juicy filet mignon and twice baked potatoes. We just went out to eat for my bday and personally, I would prefer to enjoy my NA beer and dinner with comfy clothes on by the fire.

Someone would NOT smile for Vday pics this year, but he still looks adorable so I had to share this one.

I also wanted to show off Drew's valentines for school. Who doesn't love donuts?

Also, had to let you know about these babies that I got for Derek from etsy! They are metal collar stays with our name and wedding anniversary date and I adore them.

I must give the shop owner, Bonnie, a big shoutout. She's one of the easiest and sweetest etsy sellers out there and I'd highly recommend you stop by her shop: Die Cut Metal Creations!

On top of collar stays, she does tons of jewelry, the cutest pet ID tags and many more hand stamped metal items!

I LOVE Winter!

And now back to reality; I HATE winter. Actually, I don't mind it too bad and growing up in Kansas am quite used to the cold and snow. But up here in Ohio, it's a bit colder and we have more snow. And this winter? Just ridiculous.

It's so sad waking up every morning and glancing at the 10 day weather forecast only to see there's NO hope in sight. We're never going to hit 40 degrees up here and I'm beginning to think spring won't even happen this year.

(No, I don't still have Christmas decor up, these pics are from a few weeks ago)

Thank GOODNESS for 4-wheel drive and a city that's pretty good at plowing!

Lamest Birthday Ever

{Cue the dramatic violin music}

Gone are the days of birthday nights on the town staying up until 4am and ordering brunch at noon when you woke up. Now it's adult stuff like kids activities, work and no time for fun.

I supposed 33 isn't really a big year and being pregnant makes it harder to enjoy some birthday drinks, but I still pouted that Derek had to work almost all weekend. That being said, he did surprise me beautiful flowers and his 11th annual birthday cookie cake. Yep, he bought me my first one back in 2004 and always would hand deliver them to work each year. Unfortunately now I have to share now not only with him, but my in-sinkerator toddler as well. Momma doesn't like to share her cookie cake.

We also braved the snow storm to enjoy a delicious cinnamon roll from Panera before heading to Sky Zone with Drew. That whole 'trying not to gain too much this pregnancy' isn't working out too well for me.

I did see all of our family members through skype/facetiming so that always makes it a good day. Drew also took a great nap and was able to get some stuff around the house in comfy clothes, so I'd say that was a win.

I ended the night with my Kaliber NA beer and the most depressing birthday meal ever; kids corn dogs, mac n cheese (leftover, not fresh) and canned pineapple. Pathetic, right? Thankfully there was cookie cake to devour after and a comfy bed to pass out in by 9:30.

I guess in the end, it wasn't that bad. Cinnamon rolls, cookie cake and comfy clothes are actually an awesome trifecta!

Fun with Dogs

Anyone else mess with their dogs from time to time?

This is a little game I call 'The Ear Fold' that only works with Bailey.

Cute, right? #sheisagoodsport

Scrub a Dub

Why is it that bath time is always a happy time? Except for the first few weeks of life, Drew has always enjoyed baths. Even if he's in the worst of moods, it never fails that plopping him in some warm water will turn it around.

It's also just relaxing for me. I basically sit there and watch my son enjoy playing with his $1 bin toys, but the best part? He's confined to a 2 foot by 5 foot(ish) area meaning I don't have to chase him around or wonder what he's up to in the next room. It's my time to sit in a warm, snugly bathroom while watching my little guy make faces and crack himself up.

Kissably clean cheeks, soft tushes and wrinkled fingers. {swoon}

Super Bowl

Way back in the day when Derek and I lived in Kansas City, we hosted a Super Bowl party each year. I love an excuse to get together with friends and enjoy the most unhealthiest food possible. We haven't done much in the past few years up here in Ohio, but this year decided to have a few friends over again. Unfortunately a couple friends had to cancel so it ended up being a low key evening with two other families and WAYYYYY too much food.

I've always had one rule about what food is ok to bring to a Super Bowl get together: It has to be fatty and unhealthy. Period.

Sure, I always put out some fruit to balance out the grease, but there's nothing better than splurging for a few hours on wings, dips, pigs in a blanket, rotel and sweets!

Oh, and for any of my preggo friends, if you haven't tried Kaliber, I highly suggest it. After trying some non alcoholic wines and being quite disappointed, this might be stocked regularly in my fridge. It's made by Guinness and has quite a yummy taste.

And on another note, I was somewhat hoping Drew would enjoy watching the game with us this year. And I was also secretly hoping he would stay in the play room with his friends so that we could enjoy some of the game commercials. Nope. I was 0 for 2. Instead, he and his friends proceeded to bring in the loudest toy right where the adults were watching and "make music". Tis the life of parents with toddlers I guess.

Good thing we have DVR so I can watch all the commercials and half time show tonight!