Happy Halloween!

Two words for everyone:



Drew's fever is now gone thankfully! So trick-or-treating we will be tonight!

Still Sick

Just a quick update on Drew's health. We did go to the doctor, and he has the same crud that's just going around. No - not the big bad flu, nor did they test him.

It was a VERY rough night for him (and me) as he can't breathe through his nose, and that was waking him up every hour or less. Let's say I managed to nap from 4:45-7am before I had to leave for work.

The fever reached 104.6 after his nap, and he woke up this morning at 101.7. Let's hope we can lick this before Trick or Treating tomorrow, or we're going to have to cancel his candy grabbing plans.

It's Potty Time!

It's a right of passage all toddler must make - and Drew is finally making progress on his passage.... of bodily functions that is.


OK well not so much is going into the potty, but he IS sitting on the potty by his own choosing! Of course it could be because he knows he can have some M&M's just for sitting there. This is a BIG deal since only 2 weeks ago the sight of the potty chair caused massive screaming fits. And forget about asking him to sit on it.

So hopefully before long you'll hear about him going #1 and #2 and he can put those big boy undies to good use! Just what you wanted... to hear Drew's bathroom tales.

Update on Drew's illness - yesterday afternoon when I got home from work (Dave was watching Drew after lunch), his fever reached 103.6. At this point it was too late to take him into the doctor. I decided to take him in today, but am now reconsidering. He did get sick around 6 this morning and it was to get rid of the phlegm I suspected was there. So now I'm reconsidering the trip to the doctor's and exposing him to even more of the gunk going around. We'll play it by ear today - I'm hoping he's now peaked the worst of the fever (only 101.2 this morning when he woke up).

Ran Out of Steam

We got the call yesterday at lunchtime, that Drew was running a fever at day care - 101.6. So I picked him up and brought him home - where he happily played for HOURS.

But he started running out of steam while playing with his cars in his prime spot... One minute I heard the little hot wheels sliding across the kitchen, the next moment I saw this:

You may recall he did something similar when Dave was on nap patrol a few weeks ago.

So I carried him to bed where he took a 2 hour nap. He woke up with a persistent 101+ degree fever. He's also talking like his throat hurts, so we're monitoring him right now. There's a lot of crud going around, not to mention H1N1 fears.... so we'll see.

Overnight his fever reached 102.6 - and I gave him some more motrin and we cuddled until he fell back to sleep about an hour-and-a-half later. He woke up this morning 98.8... so let's hope it stays that way!

Breaking Out the Polka Music

It's time to bring out the lederhosen, beer, brats and polka music - it's Oktoberfest!

Sunday it was the annual Oktoberfest celebration, and being the good Germans we are, we celebrated with a big feast and beer after the service. (Some of us didn't partake of the beverages after the party the night before - see yesterday's blog for more on that one...).

My morning started extra early, so I could make German Potato salad - my first attempt, and Dave said it turned out OK - I can't stand the stuff.

But as is tradition over the past few years, Dave (who is a German-wannabe on this particular day of the year), put on a little improv skit with another member of the congregation.


I wasn't able to catch much of the show, since Drew was busy climbing the amphitheater steps, and even was corralled by another member of our church, trying to climb his way into the street - I was snapping the above shot.

Before he tried to make his grand escape, I did catch a few shots of the action.


Finally, after Daddy's skit was done, he came out and we caught a cheesy smile shot.

We managed to get our food, but then had to scarf it down quickly, since Drew was having a hard time falling and staying asleep in my arms. The past two days apparently took their toll on him - he slept for nearly 3 hours!! Mommy and Daddy squeezed in a 2+ our naps ourselves - at home that is.

The Monster Bash

Saturday night, all the ghouls and goblins were out for an early Halloween bash at a former co-worker of Dave's. The house was amazing - set up for Halloween, in virtually every room of the house - did I mention their house had 7 bedrooms?!

Drew, was a baseball player - we have to minimize the "costume" with him, or else it's a total meltdown. Mommy was a Greek Goddess, and Daddy, was the Joker.

Without taking a nap, Drew arrived at the party zonked out. We tried to put him to bed, but he woke right up. So he mingled with the other party goers until he finally crashed at about 8pm.

Mommy and Daddy, well they let the drinks flow, and were having a great time while the little one slept - so much so it was a pretty rough morning the next day....

Here are a few fun shots from the Monster Bash.

Drew getting ready to fall asleep for the night


Dave and I with the party hosts


The Goddess and the Joker

It's a Phase Right?

What happened to my "angel" of a child? He is now an opinionated stubborn little boy.

Here are two recent examples - yesterday morning while trying to get dressed, he refused to wear what Daddy had picked (Captain America T-Shirt and Jeans). He was fine with the jeans, but the shirt just wouldn't cut it. Enter tantrum #1.

So Daddy picked a second shirt, it had cars on it - usually a hit, but not this particular morning. Tantrum #1 turned into tantrum #2, when Drew tried to plead his case with me in the bathroom while I was getting ready. In desperation I took him back to his room, and we sifted through the mountains of shirt options he had - I even pulled out his "Mr. Grumpy" shirt thinking that this occasion called for it, but NOPE. Needless to say I was quite happy to drop him off at day care yesterday morning, wearing the same "despised" car shirt that set off his mood.

Oh, he has these episodes where he MUST pick his shirt about once a week with me, this one was just over the top compared with most.

Case number two - on Wednesday evening while Dave was at softball I decided it would be a brilliant idea to walk from our house to Target (a 45 minute/2 mile walk - one way) so I can pick up some much needed wipes. The way there, no problem, Drew thought it was so fun to scream at all the passing cars and purple flowers.

On the way home it was another story. I didn't realize we were going to be gone so long, so I picked up a Pizza Hut "peckeroni" pizza for him at the food court so he could eat it. First mini tantrum, he no longer wanted it. Fine. He had goldfish for the walk home.

Since it was starting to get chilly with the sun setting, I put his jacket on. It worked for about 10 minutes, then enter tantrum #1. I'm not sure if the sleeves were in the way of his eating goldfish or what set him off. But rather than get the looks from drivers-by for not attending to my screaming child, I decided to take his jacket off. It was going to get dark quickly, so I could avoid the looks I was getting for letting my kid outside at that hour without a jacket.

Oh, and 1/2 mile from home, Drew threw tantrum #2 - he no longer wanted to sit within the confines of his stroller. AHHHHH so I had to carry all 25-pounds or so of him while pushing the stroller one handed. Do they give tickets to people who look like they're drunk trying to push a stroller and carry a toddler? If so, I'm sure I'd have been stopped.

Needless to say that was quite an adventure, and my spaghetti arms and legs are still feeling it.

Please tell me this attitude thing is just a phase and he'll outgrow it. He won't be this opinionated and stubborn forever will he? (Humor me if you have to)

#1 on the "Bedtime Read" List

Since we took the crib apart in Drew's room, and moved it to the floor we've really established a great bedtime routine. He lays in bed, we pick out 2 stories (or he gets one story read twice), put the music on, turn the lights out and say our prayers.

Amazingly it was at this time he made the switch from board books to regular page turning books. He took no interest in them before, but now it's something extra special.

And his favorite - Winnie the Pooh and the Bumblebee Chase. The nice short story is cute, but I'm not sure that he really pays attention to the story. He loves the wheel that he gets to turn on most of the pages.

He asks for this book every night and gets it most of the time, and often on the days when he gets this book - he could care less about book number 2.

I think it's time to hit up the library and see if we can find any more "turn-the-wheel" kind of books!

Some of his other favorites right now include:

• Anything with Elmo - which we have a few from the Target $1 section
• Llama Llama Red Pajama - which he got for his birthday (great pick Jodi)
• Anything with the ABC's in it - he has fun pointing them out.
  

So I think we're getting to the point where we can pack away some of the board books. He finds them so "last year". Kady is going to get another set of hand-me-downs I think! We need to make way for the big-boy books.

Happy Birthday Kady!

It was one year ago today, that I snuck into the hallway strolled the halls of Delta Sutter and heard my little niece make her grand entrance into the world. Now she's showing Drew that she'll be giving him a run for his money in the near future.

On Saturday we celebrated her big birthday at my Sister's new apartment (well they moved in July - this was the first time we'd seen it). It was a fantastic day for a party, the sun was out and it was quite warm actually.

I'll let her post the majority of the pictures and tell the story, but from our side... Drew LOVED sharing Kady's new couch with her. In fact he kept trying to boss her back to sit by him, but you know women... they have a mind of their own.

Like any normal toddler, Drew was very excited about presents - in fact he was more excited about Kady's than his own only a month ago. We did our best to keep him away and prevent him from taking the tissue paper out of the bags.

However once the presents were all opened, he spotted "the one" that he wanted to leave with - and I mean walk out the door at that very moment and take it home!

Yes, it's an indoor ball pit. I guess we're cheap and we convert his blow-up pool into a ball pit in the winter. But now that he's "2", he's ready for the big kid ball pit - and one with Tinkerbell no less!

Guess Aunt Connie was onto something when she said we'll have to make sure to add that to his Christmas list - sans Tinkerbell of course.


Then it was time for the cake. And while Kady wasn't so sure of it, Drew was in the background cheering her on, busting out with "You can do it!" at the most perfect moment. Of course there were a few chuckles from the crowd - this kid has comedic timing down to an art.

Kady on the other hand was like Drew when it came to the cake - she made a small dent, no smashing or mess.

It was a wonderful party, and it has to be said - it's so much nicer to attend these family birthday parties than throw them. Much less stress!

Toddler Dictionary

Who can resist chuckling when chatting with a 2-year-old. They have their own unique way of communicating, as they learn different words and create their own language sometimes. Drew is no exception. In fact sometimes you need a Drew-dictionary to know what the heck he's talking about.

So here are are a few of what I'll call "Drew-ims".

• Waden - also known as baden. You and I call it water

• Johnny - also known as The Wiggles, Yellow Wiggle, Sam or Greg

• "Dahhhhdeeeee" while looking in the bathroom drawer handles - this is a game Drew has played while looking at himself in the bathroom fixtures since he was about 9 months old. Still entertaining after almost a year and a half.

• Overdere - also known as over there

• Geeboo - also known as peek-a-boo, which he does know how to say
  

• Big Slide, Little Slide - the bump in the road as you cross a particular intersection near our house and go up the hill. The "bump" causes him to jump a little in his seat, and likely his little tummy does a little maneuver, which causes him to giggle and say "big slide" and then the second part of the hill (without any tummy tingling bumps) is "little slide".
  

• Manny - also known as Manny Ramirez of the Dodgers, or any baseball player who is up to bat for that matter.
  

• Pinners or Spinners - Otherwise known as windmills or pinwheels
  

• Hit It - This means he wants to play baseball with you, and you will likely be the batter

• Ookiepook - Drew's male "organ"

• Boogoo - see ookiepook

• Da - wooden spoon. You can often see Drew taking the "da" out of the dishwasher or drawer yelling "daaaaaaa" around the house.

• Booger Eye - (said in the whiniest voice possible) this means tears are in his eyes and preventing him from having his normal vision. And it's also a request for you to wipe the tears.

He's coming up with more and more Drew-isms every day. I'll continue to gather some of the best for future posts.

But I leave you with a great story from yesterday morning. I was in the bathroom getting ready for work, and Drew comes walking in, and says "Mama, you awesome".

I chuckled (proudly of course) and said "Aww baby you're awesome too". To which Drew left me to continue playing. Do you think he'll still feel the same when he's 15?

Silly Supper

Alright so here in California we call it dinner, but we're coming up with the title in honor of our Minnesota/Wisconsin readers.

On Friday I had to pay up on a NFL football bet I had with Dave (we have a weekly wager on who picks the most correct football games - and I lost. This week's wager, dinner out at the place the winner picks). Well Dave picked Tahoe Joe's - a steakhouse.

Drew was in a fantastic mood, and gobbled up the Chicken and French Fries we ordered for him. He was so good, that he was chatting with the little boy in the booth nearby, who was celebrating his first birthday.

After dinner was over and we were paying for the check, Daddy and Drew were hamming it up for the camera....

Say Cheese


The signature muscles move

Running in Circles

Looking for ways to entertain himself, Drew came up with this one on Wednesday night.

Yes, throw all your flash cards on the ground and run circles around them. Five minutes later he was having a fit because he couldn't find "1". For some reason he always has to know where "1" is at all times.

Oh, keep in mind having flashcards strewn across your floor and running on top of them can be a hazard. He ate it about half-a-dozen times, but kept on going.

Drew Finds His Shadow Again - Daddy

Daddy left for a business trip on Monday afternoon - headed for Seattle. Everyday when I pick Drew up at day care he asks to "Go see Daddy".

So I say "Daddy's bye-bye, he's working". Drew gets home and runs for our office where Dave's usually working on the computer. I guess it's hard to explain the concept of working far away to a 2-year old.

Well Dave got home last night after Drew was in bed, me too for that matter. And this morning when I got up for my run, Drew happened to wake up also. Lately when he wakes up, you can hear this pitter-patter of him crawling out of his bed, to the doorway.

Daddy does the same occasionally, crawls out of bed and meets Drew in the hallway. Well Drew was squealing with delight when he saw Daddy was home!

"Daddy you wake up!" screams Drew as he runs into Dave's arms. It's moments like these you realize how much Drew loves his Daddy, and how big a part of him he is. I go to Drew to get my good morning kiss, and he refused to let go of the bear hug he had on Daddy.

Apparently my batting skills these past few days wasn't as good as Daddy's, he was asking to have Daddy "hit da bat" already this morning.

I think we're both happy to have Daddy home again!

In this picture, Drew is flapping his hands like an "airplane" - taken Saturday at the pumpkin patch. Yes another shameless way to get a few more patch pictures in...

Race to the Finish

Finally after living here for five years I've managed to run in one of the biggest races in our community. The Primo's Run For Education. The tax deductible race raises money for local schools - and I ran for the elementary school where Drew will eventually go.

This race was quite "eventful" - start to finish. First to prep for the race, I put on my stopwatch only to realize the batteries died. So I ask Dave to borrow his.

We were also running late to get me registered - parking was kind of impossible. After picking up my race bib, and being told I can only get one safety pin, I try to pick up my race shirt. Problem is they ran out! It turns out there were more runners than they expected - 5,000 last year and more than 6,500 this year. So my name was added to the long list of "maybe we'll order you one". Boo - that's what everyone does races for... the shirts! To say, "hey, I was there." (It was a nice long-sleeve one this year too, I'm quite disappointed by that).



You can see me in the center of the picture wearing a darker blue shirt and the headphones. Obviously I made it to the starting line, no problem. Notice I'm wearing Dave's blue stop watch. Well as the race starts and I try to click the button on his stopwatch - and wouldn't you know it, his dies too!

Ok, no problem. They'll give me times along the route - they have in every race I've been in so far (about a half dozen or so). Nope, they didn't do it. Ok I can get through that, I'll just try to naturally pace myself rather than watch my clock.

It gets better too. Would you like to know the best "eventful" part of the race. I wore the wrong underwear. I barely crossed the starting line, and they fell past my butt! Yes I ran 3.1 miles barely hanging on to my droopy drawers. The whole time I'm running, I'm thinking - these people can see my underwear line way past by @ss.

Despite everything I crossed the finish line making my best personal time... 32:13!!

While Dave and Drew were there to cheer me on, neither saw me cross the finish line. Dave felt horrible about it, but he suspects the balloon that Drew was given sailed away at about the moment I was finishing (to his defense, I didn't figure I'd finish until around the 34 minute mark).


I still managed to get my congratulations hug and kiss from Drew - albeit 15 minutes after I finished since I couldn't find them in the crowd. I didn't realize they never saw me, and Dave thought I fell and was still trying to get to the finish line.

Despite a crazy race for so many reasons, it was still quite a successful one!

The Patch Part 2

Warning: Another photo heavy blog...

So there was plenty more to do at the Pumpkin Patch we went to on Saturday than just explore the rows and rows of pumpkins. Drew made it an art to explore the other side of G&M Farms.

Such as flowers..... this sunflower really caught his attention.


And some really cool red flowers near the wagon.


Drew happily rearranged the autumn set-up they had inside the barn. In this photo, he's moving the Indian Corn. Must be in his Native American roots.


This was probably his favorite part - playing in the corn box. He could've stayed in there the whole time if it weren't for the other rowdy kids.


And the next favorite thing - the train ride Drew and Daddy took. He's still talking about all the bumps and hills days later. I think this one made an impression.

And finally, Drew went bull riding. OK he really rode a tin cow, but hey what do you expect from a 2-year-old.


Talk about a fantastic afternoon! If we could swing it, we will try and get back down there. He really did have a great time. Oh, and every time he sees a pumpkin he says "pumpkin patch".

Out of His Gourd for Pumpkins

Warning, this is going to be a 2 part heavy photo filled blog!!

On Saturday, We took Drew to our favorite local Pumpkin Patch - G&M Farms in Livermore. It's a nice large patch with so many cool things to do - popcorn box (sandbox), animals, pony rides, train rides, hay maze, corn maze and more.

Today's pictures are going to to focus on the pumpkin patch portion of the trip.

My little animals


Trying to find the Great Pumpkin


Who needs cow tipping when you have pumpkin tipping!


This one's a little to big for tipping Daddy.


Daddy & Drew admiring the pumpkins


Airforce planes headed toward Fleet Week in SF - flew right over us


It was a fantastic trip. We spent about 2 hours here, and Drew absolutely conked out before we hit the freeway. Check out tomorrow when we give you a glimpse of the other fun stuff this pumpkin patch has to offer.

Friday Free

Another Free Friday! Today though it's my attempt to win something, and you have a shot too.

My cyber friend Helen (I mentioned her last week, who has the weekly Saturday Savings post), is offering a pair of Women's PJ's! All you have to do is leave her a blog comment to enter.

Check out the details here...

Good luck to you, but me too :)

Earning His Keep

We're working hard on teaching Drew to earn his keep and pick up after himself. He's already "mastered" helping with the laundry - just loading and unloading the washer and dryer. He's also helping with emptying the dishwasher.

One thing that's a little slower in teaching him - how to pick up after himself. In the morning and evening, our kitchen floor is often covered in hot wheels... this is nothing compared to how it normally looks.


As I was trying to cook dinner, and asked Drew to clean up -- this is a very slow process. He picks up each individual car, spins the wheels and then puts it into the case.

So he was working on putting his cars away, and moments after this shot was taken, he dumped over all the cars he'd just put into the case. UGH boys!

Daddy's Biggest Fan

Monday night was one of Daddy's softball nights (he plays ball on Monday and Wednesdays - separate leagues), and in a rare occurrence the game was early enough we could cheer him on. Of course the two pictures I took of Daddy showed more of the fence than of him. So you get to see how Drew passed the time.

He happily played with his cars across the bleachers, walked across the bleachers, and made goo-goo eyes at one of the girlfriends of Daddy's teammates. A couple of times he'd cheer on his Daddy, or if it was another player up to bat - he's shout "Go Manny". Oh, it didn't matter what team they were with.

Unfortunately we didn't win - lost it in the final inning. But Drew had a fantastic time! And of course ate up all the attention he was getting.

We're Gonna Win Twins, We're Gonna Score...

Drew is probably as excited as anyone that the Twins are now the AL Central Champs. As you can see he continued cheering well into his bath following last night's 12 inning win against the Tigers. What an intense game!

Well we all were cheering last night, however starting tonight there's a new battle brewing in our house. That's because Mommy's Twins are going to be playing Daddy's Yankees - yes Daddy has two teams he supports (for the record, Mommy does to - the D-Backs).

The difference is, in games where it matters, Mommy has the better record - picture it D-backs/Yankee's World Series, circa 2001!

Drew happily watched last night's game with us. Of course everyone who came up to bat was "Manny" - as in Manny Ramirez of the Dodgers.

Needless to say there will be a lot of baseball on at our house for the next few weeks (as if that's anything new between April and November), but now it's getting interesting that both of Dave's teams are in the playoff's and one of mine.

Go Twins!

Oh and for good measure another random shot of Drew from last night.

Not By the Spit on My Chinny-Chin-Chin

Oh, the things Drew will do to avoid eating dinner if it's not a jelly sandwich, pizza or chicken and french fries.


No, he's not grown a goatee, rather that's what happens when you blow bubbles for about 10 minutes consecutively in an effort to avoid eating your veggies and meat.

While we're making headway on Drew's eating habits, it's a long battle. He's now moved to eating PB&J's and grilled cheese, but won't touch any other sort of meat or fruits and vegetables. Of course if he doesn't eat what we serve him, that's it. No snacks and no dinner substitutes.

In Transition

What's different about this room?

For starters, the crib is MIA. That's right, we've officially removed the crib. Since Drew's 2 year well visit last month, Drew's slept on the crib mattress on the floor (if you recall he'd developed a bad habit of sleeping in our bed - and he became phobic about his crib). Despite following Dr.'s orders we kept the crib assembled. One because I was hoping Dave would take it down, and two, I haven't had a chance to do it myself.

Well after weeks of waiting for Dave to make the move, I had to take things into my own hands. The crib which has called this room home since I was about 14 weeks pregnant, was disassembled, by me (if you want anything done, you've gotta do it yourself, right?).

So until we find a big boy bed for Drew, he'll continue to sleep on the floor on his crib mattress. At the moment he's not complaining too much - and I'm being picky about the furniture that will call this room home next (I want a trundle bed that matches all the current furniture in this room).

In the process of taking down Drew's crib, I had a purging experience. All the "baby" toys were put away for storage in the attic/garage. I went through the toys in the front room and Drew's toy box, and came out with this:

Believe it or not that blue tote is filled to the brim with rattles, teething rings, and other baby toys. Do I have my house back? Not by a long shot, but at least it doesn't look like Toys R Us completely threw up in our house.

So while I'm happy to have things thinned out around here, I'm sad to see the end of yet another phase. My baby boys is now a big boy. *Sigh*

Free!

Who says you can't find anything for free anymore?


That's just a small sampling of some of the things I've collected over the past week or two - not shown are things I've already put away or used, and figured I'd spare you the open packages of tampons, pads, paper towels etc.

This batch of goodies includes: 2 sets of cards, flushable wipes, 2 sets of shampoos and conditioners, Fiber One bar, Kashi Cereal, Honey Nut Cheerios, Fiber One Cereal, 2 sealed packages of feminine products, and a cereal bar. Since this photo, I've received 2 Weight Watchers Magazines, Parent's Magazines and so much more!

How can I do this you ask?

I have a list of resources my cyber friend turned me onto (and yes we've met in real life too). With her Saturday Savings weekly post she showed me how you can find the good deals. To check out her weekly tricks tune in here every Saturday morning.

Here are some of the websites/blogs I frequent for deals, coupons and freebies.
Frugal Freebies and Deals
Shop4Freebies
Money Saving Mom
Thrifty and Chic Mom
Freebies 4 Mom
Saving with Shellie

Another way to score something for nothing - a website search engine called Swagbucks. You use it in place of Google, or Yahoo, and you earn points just for doing a regular search. You can redeem the points for things like airline miles, gift cards, apparel and much more. To get started just scroll to the bottom of my blog, create your own SwagBucks Account, and start searching!

What can be easier than getting free stuff for searching the net?

Backyard Bombings

Oh boys will be boys. The action continued on Saturday with boys weekend, with some water balloon action. Or as they've now come to call it - throwing bombs.


It was quite hot this weekend and the boys were looking for any way to stay cool. Cure for the heat: a pool full of water balloons. As I mentioned yesterday, Dave was trying to fill these while Drew was napping, so that when he woke up they could have some "backyard bombings".


As all men are, Drew is excited by the size as well.... of the balloon he's holding that is. Poor little (or should I say big) balloon didn't have a chance. It was thrown to the ground moments later.


I just loved this last picture of Drew. Looks like the boys had a lot of fun. How can I tell? Um, the balloon carcasses are still littering our backyard. Apparently they had too much fun to clean up!