14 Months & Counting

The days are sometimes long, but WOW these months fly by... Drew was 14 months on the 26th and he is growing up SO much this month! He is officially off formula...for GOOD! We took him off just after his 1st birthday but then the milk allergy/reflux issue came back and he went back on it instead of whole milk. He is now off formula and doing great with soy milk. He drinks it out of his straw sippy cup during the day and a couple nights ago it was his first night bottle with all milk. The night time bottle is the only one he is getting now and that will most likely continue for another month or so. He is doing a great job walking, he walks/runs faster than we do! He is not crawling at all anymore. He is getting 3 molars right now. We noticed 1 bottom one a couple weeks ago and when tickling him last week, we noticed 2 more on the top! We think he says about 8 words now. They are not perfectly pronounced but he makes the same sound for them and we can understand what he needs/wants. He says dog, duck, mama, dada, juice, shoe, ball & brush (for toothbrush). He also makes the "ruff, ruff" sound for dog, the "quack, quack" sound for duck and the "vroom, vroom" sound when a truck is driving by us on the road. It is amazing watching him grow and learn!

A Magical Christmas!

It truly was a magical Christmas for us this year. Drew has just been so much fun! He is really enjoying some of the toys Santa brought, mostly the learning house and his new cell phone. Go figure, the $10 stocking stuffer would be one of his favorites! We started some of our own family traditions this year and have had some great quality time together this past week. Christmas Eve, we went to church and then came home to give Drew his late nap. We had a prime rib dinner and then each opened a present. I picked a pair of Skechers for Will to open, he chose a Harry Connick Jr. Christmas CD for me to open and we let Drew open the learning house from Grandma & Grandpa and then we put it together so he could have it to play with on Christmas morning. We read "T'was the Night Before Christmas" in our Christmas PJ's before Drew went to bed. It was a wonderful night.

Christmas morning we woke up to come down to the learning house, his rocking horse and his new red anywhere chair. He immediately started playing with the house. We all had breakfast and then continued to open our presents. It took us a long time to get through them all! We had Will's Italian family's traditional Christmas meal consisting of ravioli's, wedding soup and rice balls. We just relaxed at home today and had so much fun watching Drew play with all his new toys! We had an amazing holiday together.

Santa Baby

Christmas is almost here, and we are all very excited around our house! We have way too many presents under the tree for a family of 3... especially for a child who does not understand the concept of Santa yet!!! Santa has lots of presents for us all this year though, I guess we've all been good... (well, Drew has anyway!) We always want our kid(s) to wake up at their own house for Christmas morning, which means we will not be traveling to Boston for the holidays anymore. We are trying to figure out what our own family traditions are going to be. Christmas Eve we are going to church and then we are going to cook a prime rib for dinner. I baked one of Will's favorites for dessert, lemon squares...(not sure if those are really Christmas like) We each are going to get to open one present, but you are not allowed to pick which present, someone else has to pick it for you. We all have new Christmas PJ's this year. We have decided that once Drew understands about Santa, we will have to use a specific wrapping paper and different tags. Other than the really large presents, we like everything wrapped. This year Drew will have his rocking horse and his new chair that will be unwrapped. We are also thinking of putting together the play house from Grandma & Grandpa for him to have in the morning. On Christmas day we plan to wake up and see what Santa brought us, have some breakfast and relax for the morning. We plan to have Will's Italian family's traditional meal which consists of Italian wedding soup and ravioli's. Christmas is finally here!

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Seriously too many gifts this year!

2 Busy 2 Blog!

Drew with his Elmo balloon that mommy brought home from shopping.


Ugh, as a friend gently reminded me today---I have not blogged in *forever*! I guess I have been too busy wrapped up in this holiday season that is among us all. I love it. Truly. But it DOES keep me busy. I have gotten my 2007 ornment(s) for the tree, gotten Drew's Santa pictures taken, and still want to snap a few of him in his *too cute for words* Christmas outfits! I can't wait to see him in his new Christmas PJ's on Christmas morning too!!!! I am completely done shopping, I finished on Sunday. I got to shop alone on Saturday and Sunday, so that really helped! Saturday I got to sleep in and then go shopping by myself, then on Sunday Will got to sleep in and watch the Patriots game in peace while I took Drew to a birthday party. (In case you didn't know, the Pats WON again!!!)

Mommy & Drew watch Baby Einstein before bed.

Drew rearranges some ornaments for us!

Santa Claus is Coming....

Drew went and told Santa tonight what he wants for Christmas. I can't imagine what he told him, since the child seems to have every.thing!!! A couple Christmas presents have come in the mail from Grandma & Grandpa and Will and I are all done shopping for the little guy. Amazing how much babies change in the first year! Here was Drew last year with the same Santa, at only 6 weeks old! This afternoon Drew got on his new dressy black shoes, his SUPER cute plaid pants (if I do say so myself), his white dress shirt, and his black velvet jacket. OH.MY.CUTENESS!!! Seriously, he looked so handsome tonight, I just couldn't believe it! We picked up daddy from work (since we were driving right by his office) and we went to have Drew's picture taken with Santa. Then we did a little shopping and then had dinner at P.F. Changs, I heart P.F. Changs! I always love my meal there, and tonight...the dessert....Ohhh, the dessert! I now heart banana spring rolls at the Chang!!! It was so cute, in the car driving earlier today- Drew started throwing his hands up in the air (similar to his "Tom Brady...Touchdown" move) when the verse "the windows on the bus go up and down" when listening to "The Wheels on the Bus". Every time the windows would go "up", Drew's hands would go up! How smart is he??? Genius!

Hmmm, what do I want for Christmas this year???

Buddies

We took Drew and Leyton to Willow Bend Mall yesterday so they could play together. We let them play and then had lunch and a little shopping. We let them play again for a little bit before we headed home. These little guys have been friends for over a year now, wow! Drew needed black shoes for Christmas and I found a pair at Janie & Jack (thanks for the tip Jen!)

My Future's So Bright...

Drew has to wear mommy's old, hip, super cool shades! Well at least I think they were. I remember wearing these blue glasses years ago. Did they help the sun stay out of my eyes? Probably not. Did the help with the glare? Maybe. But were they cool? Oh yeah! (I think!?)

ICE!

The Friday after Thanksgiving, the 3 of us did a little holiday shopping in the morning and then after Drew's nap we headed to the ICE exhibit at the Gaylord Texan. The ICE! exhibit featured 2 million pounds of ice, which is all hand-carved by visiting artisans from Harbin, China. The 14,000-square-foot exhibit had a three-level ice slide (which Drew was too small to go on), a gingerbread family, penguins, and a walk-through Nativity scene. Drew was still not feeling the best and cried through some of it. It was only 9 degrees inside! They gave us special jackets to wear and we wrapped Drew up in one. Needless to say it was a quick walk through for us, and it was an expensive walk at $20/per adult!

13 Months & Walking!

It's official, Drew took his first steps on Saturday. I could tell all last week that he was so close, I was so happy that he did it when his daddy was home from work to see him! He took about 5-6 steps in our bathroom on Saturday the 24th and has taken steps every day since. Last night he took 15 steps in our bedroom, what a big boy! He still likes using his walker to zoom around with though! He can now point to his nose and belly when you ask him. Yesterday in the car the music had only begun on the song "If you're happy and you know it..." and he started clapping his hands, so cute! The kids' CD's in the car have made things so much easier, that and him facing forward.

Drew has been having fun playing with all his new toys from his birthday. I just took out 2 more toys this week from the closet. He doesn't really know the difference between all the toys and there were just so many to put out at once. We are struggling with ideas for Christmas presents for him since he got so many toys this year for his birthday. I am sure we will think of something!

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a very nice Thanksgiving here at our house. It was just us 3 this year. Normally my mom, stepdad and brothers come but they were just here last month for Drew's 1st birthday. Our meal turned out really well and we had homemade gravy for the first time :) Here is a picture of Drew almost taking a step towards daddy in the kitcken while our turkey was cooking! Our friend Jen's dog Bella is staying with us this weekend. We took Bella and Guinness for a walk with us while our apple pie was baking.