I can't believe Drew will be one year old next month.  Time goes so fast!  I must be getting old - only old people say things like that.  Our little guy is such a pleasant baby these days.  He's so playful and fun and VERY mishcievious.   He loves to get into ANYTHING.  Unlike his big bro when he was a baby... Grant never dared go outside the boundaries or adventure into the unknown.  Drew - he's ALL ABOUT the unknown.  He's pulling up on the furniture, trying to climb, and generally gettin' into everything!  He's still crawling - kinda.  He never quite mastered the crawl, but believe me he gets where he wants to go with NO PROBLEM!!!  He uses his arms mostly to scoot, but ocassionally he'll bend his knees and really crawl.  No doubt he'll be walking soon - he loves to stand and lean on just about anything.  Just the other day he tried to climb a bar stool but it took a tragic turn when suddenly he fell backwards as the stool landed on him.  Welcome forehead bruise #25.

Here's our little Mr. Mischief at work:








And, by the way, he's diggin table food now and LOVES crackers.  They are usually all over the floor and his high chair - just about every day.  Not sure why I bother cleaning them up....



And just like his big brother, Drew LOVES to play with his daddy!!!!  Here are my three boys playing on the bed together.

Sooo cute!!!!  Drew is so playful these days - he keeps us laughing all the time.  His little cackle is contagious and one day he really had Grant and me rolling with his new favorite game - peek a boo in his crib.  Last night he wanted to play again at bed time... I couldn't stop playing it was making me laugh so hard!!  So bedtime was a little extended... but what a blast we had.

He's not quite nine months, but he had his checkup this morning. 
He's 21 pounds and 27 inches long.  Growin' like a weed and perfect!

He's really seemed to be growing up these last few weeks.  He's scooting around on his belly, getting into things like his favorite:  the Christmas tree!  He had his first official crawl on Sunday at Grandma Wanda and Grandpa Jack's house - to a very excited audience!

To top it off, he has five fully spouted teeth and one poking through. 

Here's an adorable picture (in my opinion) of the cute D-Mack in his bath tub.  Check out those arms!

Drew had a fun first Christmas as he was just happy to be there along side his big bro.    Here's some pics from all the fun...







Drew and Uncle Casey:







Helping Grant open gifts.

First of all, I've been told recently that this blog is turning into MY blog and not really DREW's blog.  SORRY!!!!  Here's what the little dude has been up to.  He's getting so stinking cute.  Wednesday will mark 8 months!  He's getting so big!

Grant and Drew decided to do some work on my laptop (Grant thinks he's big stuff because he can type his name and also lots of other random numbers and letters). 

Drew:  "Ok, Grant.  This is what we need to do."



Drew:  "Let me see what you've got so far."



Drew:  "No, NO.  That's all wrong.  Ugghh.  It's so hard to work with you."



Drew:  "OH NO!  Mommy caught us on her computer!"





I know... too much time on my hands.  You laughed though, didn't you?

This next picture is one of my FAVORITES.  He's so sweet - but look how sad he looks.  I just plopped him on the floor in the dining room while I tried to cook dinner.

A dose of perspective on life, I've recently found, can be achieved through the eyes of a three year old.  If ever you're feeling down, confused about the intensity of adulthood; put up a Christmas tree with a child.  It really doesn't have to be so complicated - Christmastime is magical to a child and should be for us as well.  It is, after all, about the birth of our Savior - what could be more magical?

Grant has discovered the wonder of the Christmas season - and because of his adorable desire to treasure every single thing, I too have re-discovered the wonder of the Christmas season.  Every ornament, every table top decoration, every Santa emblazoned book or toy, every song and every snow globe... they all spark excitement and evoke pure innocent joy in a child's eyes.  Three years old has GOT to be the best age to celebrate Christmas. 

Except that putting his Thomas train set under the tree is quite the source of contention in our house right now.  Thanks a lot Grandpa Jack and Grandpa Walter!!!  He thinks since his heroes have trains under their trees, he too should have one.  So what's the problem?  We have about two inches between the tree skirt and the branches of the tree.  Walt and I don't feel like reconstructing the lower half of the tree every other day.  Therefore, no train.

Here's some pics of my jolly elf helping me put up the tree:







Drew found a toy to play with while Grant and I trimmed the tree.






Back tracking a little...  Grant had sooo much fun helping Grandpa Jack put up HIS tree last Friday that he was absolutely worn out for the drive home.  See this great shot in the car:



More later...

Here's Drew holding himself up - looks like he's real interested in what's playing on the stereo.



And here's Grant trying to vacuum Drew as he plays on the floor.

I know I haven't written in a while - I have an excuse.  Business is booming and I'm running out of available work hours.  So, there you go.  Because the five minutes it takes to write this would just ruin everything.   But, apparently I have a few loyal readers who wait anxiously for each new entry.  Sorry guys - by now surely you've realized that I'm anything but consistent. 
ANYWAY, to the point of the post I go...  Halloween.  Drew didn't have all that great of a time.  He just wasn't super fond of his pea pod outfit.  I'm just not sure why - doesn't everyone like being shoved in a zippered outfit with no room for your legs and only a hole for your head?  Nonetheless, he survived and I even managed to gets a picture of him smiling.

Drew is eating baby food now and finally really liking it.  I don't think he realized it was food for a while.  But, now that he's understanding that, he very much enjoys it.  He even lets big brother feed him - and big brother LOVES to do so!

Just thinking about stuff tonight and reading others' blogs - mostly because I'm supposed to be working on an ad for a client and I'm procrastinating.  I started reading a magazine about how to spur creativity and then my mind wandered to some graphics websites that I'd been wanting to check out which led to looking at friends' websites which then led to making a grocery list and now here we are in the midst of the longest run-on sentence known to man! 

Anyway, I'm writing to say that I've enjoyed the boys so much this week.  I'm convinced that it's becuase I took a desperately needed break last weekend.  I went to Chicago with my sister and my mom.  We drove up on Friday, stayed in the Westin on Michigan Ave. and shopped all day Saturday.  My best pal Heather, who lives in Chicago (and SHOUT OUT FOR HER - JUST GOT PROMOTED TO CAPTIAN!!), met us on Saturday and hung out with us as we shopped.  It's always great to catch up with her as we hardly see much of one another these days since she's a busy pilot and I'm a busy ... uh.. something.  So, after we shopped we had a seriously fabulous dinner at "The Grill On The Alley" and then caught the broadway show "WICKED" which was AWESOME!!!!!   (If you're judging me right now, which you shouldn't do anyway, because you heard the book WICKED was racey -- don't worry, the musical is not in any way whatsoever.  It was very clean, hilarious, and brilliantly entertaining!)  Sunday we headed back home.  I got home about 5:30pm and was sooo excited to see my boys. 

I so needed that break!   I think I'm almost feeling like a person again!  Now it's back to reality as Walt has class this weekend, so I'm back to being a single mom for a couple days.