Team Trade?

Just to show that our house isn't exclusively Dodgers, Yankees or Twins... Drew was sporting his Brewers T-Shirt that our cousin Jodi sent a while back (He just fit into it).

I have no clue what he's doing in this picture - my guess is he was about to flop himself on the ground in protest to yet another picture before even walking out the door to day care.

Happy Memorial Day Everyone!  We're returning from our annual Memorial Day Camping Trip - so expect to see a lot of great photos over the next few days.

Scrapbook Saturday - Rehearsal Dinner

Here's the second installment of pages I created a few weeks ago during my scrapbook retreat.  This one was from our Rehearsal Dinner - and the only known shot of Dave before his Bachelor Party.

The paper is one I had from a while ago, but I've not done much scrapbooking about anything other than Drew for... oh... nearly 3 years.  The title "Always and Forever" is a rub-on, there's a "brass" embellishment that's a heart right below it - and then 3 "gems".

The matting for the photos is a "wine"color - as our wedding them was Wine.  I then took a corner punch to trim the corners of the matting - and add a little design.

In the center I added a small journal section.  This was my next to last page after scrapping for nearly 12 hours.  I think my creative juices were starting to dwindle.

Rescue 911

There's a new favorite book in the house, and the moment he wants us to read it is when we're intently watching all of the season finales - or trying to carry on a conversation with each other.  It's one of those noisy button pushing kind of books.

But there's a very good thing about this book also...

Drew is also learning what to do in an emergency also.  Grammy got this book for us shortly after Drew was born and she'd heard a story of a toddler who saved a family member thanks to reading this book.

So it's a great book and has a valuable lesson... if only we could read this on our time and not our child's.  Oh yeah, there is no such thing anymore.

Grape "Stomp"

Sunday afternoon was a nice day - even it it was a bit windy.  We've had ridiculously cold weather, far below normal for this time of year.  In fact it's still raining... but I digress.  To take advantage of the last nice day for a while we decided to take Drew through his "Spinners" on our way to pick up our much overdue wine shipment.

Wine tasting with a two-year old is quite an experience, but he's done it since he was a baby so I think he's used to the ritual.  To burn off some energy (otherwise known as the do-anything-I-can-do-to-avoid-a-nap-dance) we let him jump around outside.  Once that got old he happily picked up every pebble he found on the driveway and threw them into a bush.

Mom and Dad on the other hand were seen holding their glass of wine and periodically saying "No Drew", "Don't throw that there", "That's dirty", "Stop picking your nose after you've had your hands in the dirt"... well you get my drift.

Then as a way to let him run and get even dirtier - we let him loose into the vineyard for the photo op.

It was a great way to spend a decently warm Sunday afternoon.

Our Guitar Hero

Drew is our new little rocker.  Grammy and GrampC have a banjo in their family room that's off limits to the kids.  And for whatever reason this weekend, Drew decided he wanted to play guitar.  So Grammy handed him a little ukulele that Uncle Matt brought back from his recent trip to Hawaii.

Drew was a fan of the "guitar" - which he asked Grammy to initially "turn on".  Apparently my child knows about electric guitars?

Here's Drew strumming his guitar -

And then his impersonation of a rocker playing over his head...

I think Drew has found a new toy to play with when he heads to Grammy and GrampC's.

Long Time No See

This past weekend, Drew headed to Grammy and GrampC's for the night so Dave and I could attend a wedding for a friend from college - who I also happened to work with at a station in Santa Rosa.

The reception was at Huddart Park in Woodside, and thankfully the rain held off, but geez was it cold.  I managed to snag an area where there was sun for a good chunk of time, and I refused to move off of my "real estate."  That is until the sun moved and the entire area was covered in shade.

But while at this reception I saw a few faces I haven't seen since graduating from college in 1998!  Sorry for the blurry picture - Dave took it after he was scolded for getting in the way of the first shot.

Yes, that's John, Me, and Sam Adams.  Of all of us who were Broadcasting Majors (including Mark the groom) only Sam remains in the business - way to go!

I also ran into a former coworker from the station in Santa Rosa - and unfortunately my frozen brain didn't think to grab a picture with Chris.  I haven't seen him since I left that station in 2002 - so 8 years!  So it was great to catch up with him, and meet his fiance!

It was a great evening, but this former Minnesotan couldn't handle the cold anymore so we left and cranked on the heat.  (Technically the reception I believe ended when we left - so I look at it as not overstaying our welcome - rather than being a wimp.)

It really was in a pretty area - and before the reception Dave and I took a little nature walk and snapped a shot using the timer....

I'm "Puzzled"

Frankly I'm puzzled by this new puzzle obsession Drew has.  Well since he was about 13 or 14 months old he's played with the same group of puzzles that his grandparents gave him for Christmas.  Fast forward a year and a half, and he's still enjoying them.

Except now he loves to "drive" them over the edge of the couch to form a lake of puzzle pieces.  He's pretty good about picking up the pieces once asked - except for about 3 puzzles which are a little more difficult to put together.

Only now it's like he's using these puzzles to discover his depth perception or even his peripheral vision.  And he's obsessed with how he does this.  And heaven forbid he catch you watching him as he does it.

Dave managed to catch a glimpse of this on video...



He usually raises it far above his head and ever so slowly brings it back down below his chin without really moving his head.  Odd child, but we still love him.

Scrapbook Saturday - My Gloves

Here's the start of 10 weeks of what I did while holed up in a hotel doing nothing but scrapbooking!  Oh such a rough life....

First up a page I called "My Gloves" which is what Drew called his bandages after he burned his hands in the fire pit while camping last August.

I have a "sandy" colored paper as the background and then layered it with the maroon-like paper - which happened to be a piece of scrap left over from a different project.

I picked out the four pictures taken at the campsite shortly after returning from the ER, and matted them with blue cardstock.  The three images in a row are measured about 3x4 inches. 

The hands I used for journaling are from a new cricut cartridge my Mom picked up - I think called "My Community".  I have a dark blue matting, and then a beige foreground.  The "My Gloves" heading is just the reverse matting color and the font is from a new cricut cartridge I picked up last week called Ashlyn's Alphabet (I was pretty excited about this - I got it online for under $30, including shipping).

This was one of my favorite pages I did last weekend.

When Your Uncle Has Too Much Time.....

I think Uncle Matt has had far too much time on his hands these past few weeks.  Every time I turn around I'm being texted something from his iPhone.  Turns out Uncle Matt has an app that lets him take your photo and put it on any other image.

Well it's my brother's mission in life to drive Dave insane with all the anti-Dodger, pro Giants pictures he can get a hold of.  Lucky for me I get the texts - since Dave's phone won't accept MMS messages.

I've only saved a few pictures.  One of the funniest I had to censor for my readers....

Then there are other baseball pictures...

As if you didn't know it... my 2 year old is ripped!

The photos of my child and husband were taken at the beginning of the month when we were at Grammy and GrampC's for the garage sale.

As I said, I think my brother - Uncle Matt -  has way too much time on his hands.  Shouldn't he be serving and protecting his community instead of spamming my phone?

Bust Me Up Daddy!

As I mentioned last week, Drew has a few hilarious new sayings - one of them that cracks us up is when he waves his fist in the air and says: "I'm gonna bust you up!"

Well this past weekend while I was away, Dave and Drew were horsing around and Drew tried to instigate something with his Daddy.  He waves his fist in the air and says the was going to bust Dave up - and started wailing on him. 

Dave didn't immediately respond, and Drew in his little sad voice says: "Daddy... Bust me up!"

And we wonder why Drew has a hitting problem at day care....

We Cropped Until We Dropped

What a weekend - my Mom and I literally cropped until we dropped!  As a belated Mother's Day gift to ourselves we decided to hideaway and get some much needed scrapbooking done.

After we both got off work on Friday we headed over to a nearby Embassy Suites where we checked into our room, and then immediately headed down to the Manager's Reception - a.k.a free booze and appetizers.

Then we went back up to the room and opened another bottle of wine while we unpacked our plethora of scrapbooking supplies, and laid claim to where our crap tools would sit for the next two days.  We then sat up chatting for a few more hours then headed to bed.

Saturday morning we did the responsible thing and headed to the hotel gym.. where I again was met with a shortened run thanks to the hot air.  I think I'm destined to be an outdoor runner - not on treadmills.  After working out it was off to our free made to order breakfast and then down to business - 14 hours of non-stop scrapbooking.  OK we did take about a 2 hour break for the Manager's Reception again (more free booze!).

Here's a snippet of what we did all day...


Yes wine makes cropping all that much better!

This is just a little bit of my mess... the table is doing a great job hiding all the other crap that's on the floor, and if I'd have turned the camera around you could see all of Mom's crap.....

Here's a page from the book Mom's working on....

And then here's everything I did.  I'll have a detailed look at all of these pages over the upcoming Scrapbook Saturday posts...

We kept saying how great it was to have 100% uninterrupted time for scrapbooking.  Usually when we get together we're dealing with children/spouses/guests/phone calls/making dinner/getting home by a certain hour etc.  We really want to do this twice a year - and perhaps inviting others.  This hotel had adjoining rooms!  So we can all share our crap with each other! (Hint, hint to our MN family fellow scrappers....)

Slugger

While Mommy was away, the boys will play.  And what would they play?  Why baseball of course! They hit up the local park and Drew ran off some energy and crushed the ball!

I have to admit, he's quite the slugger with his new aluminum bat and tee.  Here's a video for you to see for yourself.

Scrapbook Saturday - Baptism

I'm awfully excited - right now I'm making more scrapbook pages with my Mom.  As a little Mother's Day present to ourselves we're holed up in a local hotel scrapping our heart away.

But to keep you satisfied until I can show off some of the pages I'm currently working on... here's one from Drew's first year album.  It's his Baptism.

I started with a paper I found and really liked - but it was awfully busy.  So I decided to cut out "mats" and slide the picture behind the background paper.  I then found a little piece of artwork and printed it off adding the date.  Simple enough, but also shows that I was a "rookie" when I created this page.

Kids Say the Darndest Things

It's almost scary that I can now have an "intelligent" conversation with my 2 1/2 year old.  Of course you'll be chatting along with him and he'll throw something random out there.  Here are a few unusual comments Drew has made in the past week or so:

• "I feel so much better now" - this very sleepy, yet excited declaration was said as I pulled into the garage and he woke up after dozing for the 10 minute ride home from day care. 
• "Frank peed on me" - Drew said this as he was throwing his bath toys into the tub, and one of the Fisher Price guys (who is I guess was christened "Frank") had water leaking out of him. Apparently left over from the previous bath.
• "I'm gonna bust you up!" - picture Drew saying this with his fists raised in the air.  This is what he tells Dave when he's about ready to wrestle or wail on him.
• "Mommy the sun is bothering me, put it in time out.  Stop bothering me sun!" - said often on our way to Day Care in the morning and the sun is blazing into the back seat of the car.  Drew is usually trying to "block" the sun using his hand.  Problem is, he's blocking his right eye, and the sun's beating him on the left side.
• "Mommy kiss my teeth" - he asked me to do this over and over after he did a face plant at day care, tripping on his own feet.  Then Drew proceeded to get mad at me because I didn't "make it small again".  Apparently he has a little bit of a fat lip on the inside.
• "Mommy, do you remember the garage sale (or any other random event)" - Drew apparently has a great memory!  He remembers so much, right now he's intent about talking about the garage sale from 2 weeks ago.  But he talks constantly about our Disneyland trip last September, our trip to Kansas City, the plane ride, and even our original Virginia trip when he saw his little girlfriend Leila!
• "Daddy lay with me for 5 more minutes" - Said at bedtime when Drew doesn't want to be alone.  I thought you ask for 5 more minutes when you wake up in the morning.  Oh yeah - that's what we say to DREW in the morning.... Mr. Early Riser.
• "Mommy/Daddy, I'm so proud of you" - after Dave or I come out of the bathroom.  I guess if Drew's potty training the whole family is potty training.
• "That's my school! That's my school!" - while this isn't normally funny, the part that IS funny is that he thinks a water truck is his school (they're adding onto the church/preschool).  When we try to point out the building that really is his school, he tells us no, it's not. *sigh* there's still  no reasoning with a 2 1/2 year old...
• "Mommy you go for a run like Rocky?" - said after I got back from a morning run.  He's infatuated with Rocky!
• "Mommy, you do exercises!" - As he jumps onto my belly while I'm doing crunches, or puts a toy on my abs watching the toy go up and down.  This is followed by his version of push-ups.

She's Like the Wind

I often hear from people that they could never be a runner or run races the way I do.  I kind of chuckle because until about 3 years ago, I said the same thing!

To give you some background on my anti-running campaign, it all started when I was in 6th grade and I passed out at school after running a single lap around the track for PE.  That's right I hit asphalt right in front of the teacher and the class - and when you're about 11 years old that's mortifying.  So I didn't try hard in PE after that.

Fast forward to when I was in 9th grade and I had a seizure at school - not as mortifying to a 14 year old as being carried out on a stretcher to the awaiting ambulance as school is being let out for the day.  They determined the seizure was due to my migraines, and tried to treat them with a wide array of medications - some of which were for epilepsy and absolutely drained the life out of me.  I couldn't participate in PE - yahoo!

Then as I was an adult, and looking for ways to shed the unwanted extra weight, I started doing work out videos, going for walks and dabbled in running while I lived in Fresno.  However I never had any method to my running madness, so I quickly gave up.

While Dave and I were trying to conceive Drew, I decided to shed the pounds, re-joined Weight Watchers and looked into various ways to help me earn a lot of Activity Points (those who are familiar with Weight Watchers know what I'm talking about).  That's when I found the Couch-to-5K program from Cool Running.  Essentially it takes you from being a couch potato to being able to run (or jog like I do) a 5K race.

When I saw how it was easy enough to start in spurts, run for 60 seconds and walk for 90 seconds, and gradually increase I was hooked. It also gave me direction and discipline.  Something that I hadn't had previously.  It was even better when I found Podcasts telling me when to walk or run - and no longer have to keep staring down at my stop watch - ok the music wasn't my favorite, but it got me through and kept me motivated.

I have since graduated from the C25K (abbreviated for couch to 5K) twice, once before having Drew, and the second time when I started running four months after having him - I waited until after breastfeeding.  Um, it hurts when you're... shall we say.. full.

So for all you nay-sayers who say you could never run - I said the same thing too.  Now I find it to be a great stress reliever, ALONE TIME for me (which never happens unless I run), and the results on the scale and with my clothes are another great motivator.  So don't knock it until you try it.  I'll see you on the roads or at the next race!

Potty Training Reward

Every kid I've come across has a fascination with something.  Books.  Movies. Elmo. Lightning McQueen.  Flags. Video Games. 

Well for Drew this fascination comes in the form of a windmill - otherwise known by Drew as a "Spinner".  Well Since Drew did so well last week on the potty training front at day care, his reward was to go see the Spinners.  Dave and I initially thought - heck we have to pick up a wine shipment in Livermore, why not just drive through the Altamont Pass, get a good look at the Spinners and grab some lunch in Tracy.

Well we hit pay dirt with the Spinners.  Drew was in heaven when we pulled off the freeway so he could see his beloved spinners up close and personal (OK they were in the distance still - but he could gawk at them outside of a moving vehicle for once).

It is sooooo windy on the Pass (duh, they're lined with windmills for a reason right?), so this Mama ended up having to take her wind whipped hair back into the comfort of the car, while Daddy and Drew marveled at the Spinners going 'round and 'round.  Seriously Drew was in heaven!

We then hopped back into the car and headed to Tracy where we had a VERY yummy buffet lunch and then hit the shopping center they call Outlets.  Our shopping excursion lasted far longer than expected, and we never did make it to Livermore to pick up our wine shipment.

Oh well, it was worth it to see how happy Drew was go go back over the Altamont Pass and see even more Spinners going in the West Bound Direction.

"What the Turtle?"

As if my son wasn't already a little mimicker, he has now picked up some bad "speaking" habits from someone at our house - who shall remain nameless (but for the record it isn't me).

It started the middle of last week when I go to pick up Drew from day care, and Ms. Stephanie mentions Drew dropped an F-bomb. She wasn't sure she heard him right, so she asked him to repeat it a few times.  For a while now Drew has said "What the Heck" - but this time while he was already sitting in time out, he blurted out "What the F*#@".

After Ms Stephanie realized he was actually cussing - she tried to explain to Drew that it was a bad word, and we don't say that.  She wanted him to say "What the Turtle" instead.

Fast Forward to Saturday morning and while Daddy was sleeping in (not that this is different than any other day) but my angelic little son was climbing on his little chair and says clear as day "What the F*#@!"  I instantly begin scolding him how we don't say that word - and Drew announced "We say 'What the Turtle'".

I said yes, he can say "What the turtle", but if I hear him saying the bad word again I will wash his mouth out with soap.

Drew starts processing this as all two year olds do, and rather than using his "inside voice" he thinks aloud and says "We don't say 'What the F*#@' we say..." I didn't let him get that far when I scolded him again for swearing.  Thankfully hasn't done it since.

Of course we were out and about later this weekend and he yelled "What the Turtle".

Needless to say, the nameless person who taught my sweet, adorable child this potty mouth is in the doghouse.  And of course denies ever cursing in front of said child.  Uh, huh.... right...... that darn Elmo is swearing on those videos again.

Karakoe Madness!

On Friday night we had an impromptu evening with Drew's Day Care Provider - Ms Stephanie and family.  We went over there to BBQ and have some libations.  Oh and some of the fun of the evening... karaoke!

Let's just get to the point.  We can't sing, but we had some of the most fun that night as we've had in a very long time!  Here are the photos  - and the evidence to prove it!

Before the music got started the kids were playing in the Spider-man Jumpy House.  Drew managed to last maybe 5 minutes before he twisted his knee and was a mess. (Drew has his back to the camera, and Troy is the face you see).

Now onto the blackmail, I mean the great fun the adults had that night...

Enough embarrassing photos, time for the embarrassing videos....

First up, Dave and Brian.  Singing a "We Are the Champions"



Then it's the ladies turn to make a fool of themselves.  "1-2-3" by Gloria Estefan.



I think that's enough embarrassment for at least a year....

Scrapbook Saturday - First Halloween

OK so I've been on a two week hiatus with Scrapbook Saturdays - my apologies.  But I'm back with a few weeks lined up.  And what I'm most excited about - is the Mother's Day gift to ourselves.  My Mom and I are locking ourselves up in a hotel and scrapbooking the weekend away.  With a little R&R thrown in there too...

So here's another page from Drew's first year book - his first Halloween.

I started with an orange paper, with a black paper, and then another orange overlay.  I put some embellishments in the corners - and cut out a few of Drew's photos and placed them in the middle.  The part I really like is the squares I used for the letters. 

It was a tool from Creative Memories - the square punch.  It has two sizes, so it's perfect for this very effect.  The stamps were from a set my friend Lisa owns. 

My 2 Year Old Read to Me!

I've mentioned before that our Day Care Provider - Ms. Stephanie has been working with Drew on his sight words.  He knows more than 60 words by sight alone - he can spell a good about a third of them too.

Last weekend at the garage sale, my parents were getting rid of an old/extra copy of a Dr. Seuss classic.

Drew was busy for the entire garage sale playing with items he never touches at home or at Grammy's.  So in his "digging" he spotted this book and recognized some of the words on the cover from his flashcards and various movies.

As a little experiment, I had him read me this story.  We opened the first page (which repeats the title), and he spotted a few words right off the bat - "red" and "blue".  Then I had him follow my finger as he actually read the words in the right order.

He read about 6 or 7 pages before he started to get antsy and hit a few harder words.  So off he went to dig into more stuff we were trying to get pawn off on other people.

My Mom is my witness - he was literally reading this book.  Is it too soon to send our applications to Ivy League Schools?

Celebrating Cinco de Mayo

It was a date night at home for Cinco de Mayo this year.  The couple - Drew and I (Daddy ditched us for the night for softball - the 7pm game that stretched into the wee hours of the morning).

So to celebrate we had to start with some cervezas - for me, not Drew.

My date was busy avoiding me at first - playing with his letters.

Finally dinner was ready.  Well it was dinner for me - Drew is not into enchiladas. 

Instead Drew settled on a Lunchable.

Not bad for a Cinco de Mayo celebration for two.

"I Don't Love You"

I thought for sure I had another ten years or so before the "I hate yous" and the "I don't love yous" started.  I mean isn't that classic teenager behavior?  OK I'll even go so far to say as the tween years.  But at two?

Last Thursday, I got my first "I don't love you Mommy".  OUCH!

The offense - leaving Drew to lay by himself in his room at night.  You know the parenting technique of tucking your child in, and then going about your evening?  Apparently that's a big no-no in Drew's book.

A few days go by and bedtimes go fairly smoothly, and then wham on Monday night while Dave's at Softball I get it again: "I don't love you Mommy".

I tried to reason with my toddler (that's an oxymoron if I ever heard one - reasoning with a toddler...) that it's not nice to say you don't love Mommy, that it hurts Mommy's feelings.  I asked him how he would feel if I said "I don't love Drew".  I asked if he liked that - and of course he said "no".  Then proceeded to say again, "I don't love you Mommy".

That's when I gave up and said "Ok, good night."

Just a little note..

Since Drew started going to day care I received daily notes about what he did.  Things like when he ate, when he slept, his diapers and anything interesting to note.

Now that he's pretty much potty trained we don't get these reports anymore, since every day is essentially like the next.  About the only time we get a note, is if she needs something like pull-ups or if he did something interesting.

On Friday I received the following Note:

Worked on his numbers today.  He knows 1-50 and probably up to 100 he just doesn't want to finish his numbers with me.

Knows 60 of the words on my sight words flashcards.  That's not counting a few colors that are not in it.

Knows about 10 Presidents.  (Kills me he knows some that I don't even know)

We started on spelling shapes today.  I bet by late next week he will know those too by sight.

Wow!

"I'm Priceless"

This past Saturday it was Garage Sale Day at Grammy and GrampC's.  It's the annual, clear-the-crap-out-of-your-house-and-make-what-you-can day.  Our final take home - $46 and change. 

Drew was mighty fiesty early in the day - after going to bed late, and getting up at 5:30am.  Needless to say at 9am, he was in desperate need for a nap, but that didn't happen.  So as the good parents we are, we tried to sell him at the garage sale.  However if you asked him how much he was, he's say: "I'm priceless".  Thanks a lot GrampC for teaching Drew that one - we could've at least made an extra $10.

To keep Drew out of our customer's hair, we managed to entertain him in Grammy and GrampC's front yard.  First it was teaching him how to roll down the grassy hill.

Oh and the hula hoop, Grammy wasn't able to sell that one after all - Drew laid claim on that one. 

We did however sell one of Drew's old toys that he played with for the first time as some guy came up to buy it.  I congratulate us for distracting him enough to say goodbye to it, and we pulled him in the house for a well timed "juice break".

Another great distraction... the pipe near the front tree that apparently housed Oscar the Grouch.  Drew kept yelling into the pipe "Hello in There"!

It was a great day to just hang out outside, enjoy family and well, make a few bucks.