Our Cuddly Bug

In the last few weeks, my heart has been glowing with Drew's newly articulated display of affection-he is now cuddling! I have gotten small glimpses of the hugs and cuddles before but could never be quite sure if he was loving on me or just reaching, grabbing and my neck just happen to be there when he did. Now he is nuzzling in to us and resting his head on our shoulders for sure! I was able to snap a few pictures the other day when he was giving Daddy some love. ;)


Drew playing on the floor with Mom. He likes to lay his head on me so that his cheek rests on my cheek.


Drew is now learning how to sit up. We do not have it mastered yet but he makes big improvements every day. Today I sat him down and gave him the Valentine's balloon that is floating in our kitchen. I put the string from the balloon in his little hand so that he could be the one holding onto it. Soon he was flapping his arms around and excited to see the balloon bounce around him. All the flapping about caused his sit to go to a "tripod" position and then he did a roll to the ground capturing the balloon between his legs. According to Drew, it was great fun!

EVERYTHING must go in the mouth. He is in mid bite here.

Starting to get a little grouchy.

Got it!

To Blog or Not to Blog...

I know it has been a long time since we have posted and it is not because little is happening. I guess I am still trying to decide if blogging is my favorite thing. I do upload pictures to facebook every month or two, for those who just need a Drew fix. For now, here I am after a long blogging dry spell.



Life is good around our parts. Drew is growing and changing so much. I think he is somewhere around 16 lbs now and feels longer than ever to me. When I hold him, his little feet often barely catch the top of my pants reminding me how tall he is feeling. His face seems to be thinning out a little more and I like to think he is getting more baby hair fuzz on top although Kristin tells me that he is still pretty bald. His baldness is so sweet. Eric always says "I love our little bald headed bug so much." Drew is also proud of himself learning to keep his head more stable. When being carried around, he loves looking around, keeping an eye on the bichons, finding the baby in the mirror and of course watching TV. I have to keep an eye on his little hands. He is always reaching for anything close by. When we look out the windows he is latching onto the blinds, when I take a drink of water, his little hands are batting at my water glass. He is also known to stick his hands into our plate of food if we are not watching.

Yes he is getting curious about food. His little eyes follow forks to our mouths and reach for glasses. In the last month in a half he has been getting a little solid food a day. It is so endearing to see him eat and open his bird mouth wide as if to say "feed me" or "I'm ready", but we are in no hurry with solid food. I am making all of his baby food and have really found joy in making it for him. I use my Christmas present, The Magic Bullet, and some baby food ice cube trays for freezing. I have found after destroying some regular plastic ice cube trays that something more sturdy would be necessary long term for the baby food. So far Drew eat peas, green beans, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, prunes (yes, prunes...and he likes them) and he tried carrots tonight.




He is working on some teeth also. No teeth yet, but he is working on them. Everything goes in his mouth but he loves soft plastic teething toys the most.



Along with new loves, is his love of his sleeping bear. Babies choose what their little favorite thing is going to be. We thought for a long time it was going to be his "lovie" which is a small silky, fuzzy blanket that he sleeps with. I left a blanket that has a bear on the top and a blanket at the bottom in his crib. I thought nothing of it but soon he had claimed it and then preferred it. He snuggles with it, bear hugs it in his sleep and sleeps with it over his face. I think the bear is his "lovie" now. :)

Drew helping Mama on a shopping trip for a baby shower.

I watch little Ella on Monday mornings for a friend so the babies get to play together. Maybe Drew will learn some "moves" (scooting, crawling, pulling up, JUMPING in his jumper) from this older woman. :)

Sweet Little Lion

Halloween turned out to be a very busy but fun night. Lindsay joined us for Halloween festivities which included pumpkin carving, seed roasting, cookie baking, haunted gingerbread house building and a visit to Mom and Dad at their church's fall carnival. Drew was the cutest lion there by far but I am pretty partial :)

Lindsay was brave enough to jump right in there and gut the pumpkin...way to go!

The building experts! The house ended up looking quite scary (and I really mean a little sad) as the walls started to collapse as we iced and roof.

No cowardly lion here!

Drew trying to figure our what is going on

So this is what it feels like to have hair!

Drew with Grandma and Papa

Thanks Aunt Emily for the cute hat and bib combo for Halloween day!

Fall Activities with our Little Pumpkin

This month has been so much fun with all of the fall activities that go along with it. We had our annual Sunday school costume party in the middle of the month. Drew dressed up as a little lion, I was a cat and Eric was the hat (we were the Cat and the Hat as a couple). It is so cute to see his little face in the middle of his lion mane! The costume also includes some extra puffiness at the bottom making him look even bigger. We can't wait for Halloween night to put it back on him and take him up to Mom and Dad's church carnival.




This weekend we found a cute little pumpkin patch and grabbed some pictures of him the patch. He is getting better about holding his head up but balancing on pumpkins proved to be a little more challenging.







Tonight was our church Fall Festival. Eric and I worked one of the bounce houses with some other members of our class. We got to see plenty of friends and lots of little ones dressed up having a good time!

Ember and Drew saying hello

Drew with sweet Lezah

Jonathan and Eric manning the bounce house

Worn out after my first fall festival :)

4 Month Check Up

Our little bug is growing so much and it is so fun to watch. The older he gets, the more he does. I have the best of intentions to write in his baby book to keep track of everything (and I have written down plenty of it) but he is always doing new things. It is hard to keep up.

Eric spent 10 days in Hungary the first of the month so Drew and I had 10 days of just mom and baby time. Praise the Lord that the sweet baby started sleeping through the night September 29 (just a couple of days before Eric left). That was SUCH a big help! I know 5 hours is considered sleeping through the night but I am talking about really sleeping. He is now sleeping 8-9 hours at a time and we are tickled! This made all the difference in our time while Eric was away. Sleeping through the night may be the most important of his new talents but it is certainly not the only thing new he is doing. He has also learned to suck his thumb. He has been working on figuring that out for about a month but he has it down and loves it now!



One of the first times he found his thumb, he fell asleep on his play mat by himself. Normally he can not find his hands while he is sleeping because we still swaddled him before bedtime. We found in the beginning, that this was the best way to help him sleep and wondered how we would ever stop swaddling him since he loved it so much. I guess he was just ready to have his hands free so it was a very easy transition. Since he was sleeping through the night, I didn't want to rock the boat and change too much of his routine at one time so we just gave him one arm at a time out of the blankets. He now gets both arms with just the little body wrapped. :)


Drew always has plenty to say on his changing table. The newest noise that he is making is blowing air through lips making them vibrate. This accompanies many other bellows and howls. He loves to smile but we have not had much luck getting it on camera. I catch this one yesterday on my phone.


He went in for his 4 month check up Thursday. He was actually 4 months 1 week if it matters. He weighted 13 lbs 15 oz and is now 25 inches long. For his length he is in the 41 percentile! Not shabby for this little 7 week preemie.

A 29th Birthday Celebration (a second time)

Yes this is my 2nd time to celebrate my 29th birthday. Just two years ago we celebrated the big 2-9 early since my mom always thinks I am turning older than I actually am. See the blog post

Blog from Birthday 2007

Eric surprised me by borrowing the Interstate limo. He had decorated the inside with streamers, balloons, noise makers, beads, sparkling grape juice with champagne flutes and a special birthday crown! Kelly and Kristin secretly stumbled across some old CDs I had in high school and college and made an ol' school mix CD especially for the drive! The limo was complete with green mood lights to match its loud exterior. Eric was our personal chauffeur! Everyone was so impressed by his driving abilities! We cruised over to Gloria's for some Mexican food and fun on the patio. We arrived there with the windows down and music blaring. Everyone on the Gloria's patio turned to see the celebrities disembark from the limo. One of the most special gifts of the night was a card from Drew. It was decorated with various Dinsey stickers and appeared to be written by him. He has also included a picture of himself with his paci.

Mom and Dad were nice enough to watch Allison and Drew all evening. They are always eager and willing to help out any way they can. I love you Mom and Dad! We had a wonderful evening and so much fun! This will always be a night to remember.

Kristin, Kelly, Katie and Lindsay

Up front with Eric and Frank

So many good options...oh what to choose?

Eric and Amy before dinner

Eric, Kristin, Amy, Lindsay, Katie, Kelly and Jimmy
Photograph by Frank

Baby and Mama Talkin'

Drew and I have time throughout the day where we just talk to each other. His favorite sounds right now are "woo, goo and agoo". He loves to copy the sounds that I make and I copy the sounds he makes. He is cute how he is becoming more responsive and smiling more. For all of you who have been asking, he is at 13 lbs now!