A weekend of wonders...

We just had a feeling that this would be the weekend that Drew starts to crawl...he has been sooo angry and frustrated that he can't get what he wants when he wants it. So just like that, he figured it out tonight and it's like he has been crawling for months! We took this video right before bed, after several hours of coaxing him to crawl, so his patience was a bit tried. Drew also decided this weekend that he no longer will tolerate baby food--in fact, he throws an absolute fit when we try to feed him anything other than the "real stuff" (that is, whatever we are eating). He is a big boy already! And Chloe...well, she might as well be a toddler going on a teenager. I coaxed her into going to the carwash with Daddy so that I could nurse Drew in peace today by bribing her with a sucker...and when Daddy heard her chomping on the sucker instead of licking it, she simply rolled her eyes, sighed heavily and said, "Just drive, Daddy". It's like we can already see what she will be like in 15 years!

Here we go....

Hopefully this fun video of Drew's new favorite activity (rolling into a sitting position) will help to make up for the fact that I haven't blogged in so long! It has been a challenging month with my dad's heart attack and extra travel related to that, in addition to a busy time at work.  So check back soon for my best attempts at making up for lost time!  We are so excited about Drew's new talent, although it comes with its own set of challenges--um, like what we do at bed time when we lay him in his crib and he just rolls into a sitting position and smiles up at us! Uh-oh, we sure are in for it!

Chlo & Jos

Chloe attended her first birthday party for a friend of her own today, and it was a true experience for all of us! The party was for her friend Jack (from Nancy's house), but besides being friends with Jack, Chloe is beyond obsessed with Jack's older sister Josie. Chloe and Josie have been best friends at Nancy's house since Chloe first started going to Nancy's...so practically her whole life. Chloe emulates everything that Josie does, and it is a true joy for us to watch how she acts around Josie. I love seeing her hold onto Josie's hand and show her things that she's excited about. They even had to go to the bathroom together! Here are a couple pictures of the "bff" girls at the party...and in case you are curious about the title of the post, Josie calls Chloe "Chlo", so Chloe calls Josie "Jos". It's so funny...they even have their own little language!

More new pics

Here are some more new pictures of Chloe & Drew. Drew's favorite new activity is standing up holding on to the music table--it is amazing to us because Chloe was so much older when she first started being able to stand up by holding on to something. Drew absolutely loves to be able to stand and see more of what is going on--he gets so excited that he starts waving his arms and then falls down...but he is always more than eager to get back up again! Thanks to Nana for suggesting that we try standing him up! Also, he is loving his Stage 3 food--we have yet to find something that he won't eat!

Snow Days

Here are some pictures from the big ice storm that hit last week...after 36 hours without power and several days of dicey drives into and home from work, we finally had some real fun in the snow. Chloe experienced the joy of snow angels and rolling around in the snow. Oh, and of course the joy of throwing it! Especially on her brother...which you can tell from the new picture at the top of the blog! Brian took a few neat pictures of the ice that coated everything--it was pretty to look at for sure, but it became all too real for us when the whole neighborhood lost power due to a tree falling on the main line to the street. Luckily we only had to survive one night of "camping" in the family room, all huddled around the space heater that was running off the generator. Who would have thought we would need that again so soon after we bought it in September??? Well, it certainly is an adventure we won't forget anytime soon!

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Drew is 6 Months!

I know it is cliche is say how fast time flies, but when you are referring to the time that your second child is a little baby, that saying is definitely true. We just can't believe that our little baby Drew is now getting so big...we've even stopped calling him "baby Drew" most of the time--now he's just our "Drew-man". He loves to sit all by himself (although we finally figured out that a fall-safe pillow behind him was a good idea) and he can pick up his passy at will and put it in his mouth. He lunges forward for whatever is in front of him (even Chloe's Island Princess doll!), which occasionally results in a face plant to the ground! He is eating all sorts of fruits and veggies now, and the doctor told us to even start him on Stage 3 meats. Despite eating CONSTANTLY, he's still in the 50% for weight, although we're starting to see some "chunk" on his thighs! He is still the happiest, sweetest baby I've ever seen (except of course when he is hungry!) and he loves his big sister the most. I can't believe that half of his first year is over already...I'm half finished with nursing...and he's half of the way toward another birthday! Here are some new pictures of just how big he is getting...right before our eyes!

I'm a Beautiful Princess!

Here is a picture of Chloe showing off her new princess dress-up outfit from Santa. This was the first time that she had the whole get-up on...since this picture was taken about a week ago she has to put her princess shoes on whenever we are downstairs, and she loves to point her wand at Daddy's head and say "bippity, boppity, boo!". My favorite part is how she puts the shoes on and says so proudly, "I'm a booot-i-ful princess!". I most certainly agree with that!

"Say 'Moo!' Cow!!!"

We had a wonderful New Year's Day with the Harves' clan in Indiana. Despite Chloe's ear infection and Drew's chest congestion (which the doctor confirmed today is just a bad cold, thank goodness!!!), we had a great time visiting with 0ur extended family--Chloe of course made herself right at home with Nicholaus' toys and his GIANT bag of crayons, and she even got to visit the barn...her very first farm adventure! She was a little unsure of riding in Greg's big diesel truck, but the promise of seeing the kittens in the barn was enough to keep her going. She got to sit in the tractor and pet the kitty's....but she just couldn't understand why the cows wouldn't "moo". The wouldn't even do it when she demanded to them---"Say Moo, Cow! Moo!!!" I guess cows just prefer to moo when they darn well please!

Ice Skating...We Tried!

Well we had this crazy idea that we should introduce Chloe to ice-skating this year (and by the word "we" I mean me, of course--Brian thought it was crazy right from the beginning!), so we actually attempted it for the second time this week. The first time we tried to go to Fountain Square downtown was the same night as the tree lighting, which we thought would be completely dead, but we couldn't even see the square for all the people! Anyway, I thought it would pretty dead on a weekday after Christmas, but of course I was wrong again! After waiting in line for over a half hour (which is enough to do any 2-year old in for sure!), it was finally our turn to go skating. Chloe was very excited about it until she actually tried to stand up in her skates, and then she was even less excited once she and I went on to the ice. In fact, I pretty much had to support her entire body weight the whole time...but as you can tell from where this story is going, our little experiment didn't last too long. As you can see by the look on her face in the last picture, Chloe had her fill in her 20-second introduction to skating! But Drew-Man (his new nickname) sure looked cute in his new winter bear outfit!

Christmas Take Two

Here are some more pictures...this time from Christmas Day. Having a 2-year old in the house is a constant source of entertainment on any given day, and Christmas was no exception--we absolutely never knew what Chloe was going to say next! I think her favorite gift was her special (ie. fake) set of makeup and nail polish that she can use in mommy's bathroom instead of getting into mine all the time (good job, Santa!), and the best part was how she went over to the fireplace, where Santa had left her a thank you note for the cookies, to check her "list" to make sure it was on there! I guess I had said that the makeup kit was on her list to Santa and so she thought that Santa had left the list behind on the hearth....anyway, she had to check her list after every other gift to make sure it was on there! Thankfully, they all were....you know that Santa, he remembers everything! :)

Christmas with the Harves' Family!

There are just too many pictures to choose from to document all the Christmas fun at our house this year...but here are a few of our favorites! From putting the finishing touches (ie. their "handprints") on the gifts that Chloe & Drew made for everyone, to having lots of fun on Christmas Eve listening to Great-Grandpa and Grandpa Creech play music, to opening all the fun gifts from Santa, this certainly was a Christmas that we will never forget. I don't think that Brian and I have ever quite experienced the true magic of the season until we saw it for the first time in Chloe's eyes--the wonder and excitement that she felt was enough for all of us!

Jingle Bells

It's been a lot of fun teaching Chloe all our favorite Christmas songs--here is her version of "Jingle Bells"--her favorite part is saying the "ha ha ha ha"!

Holiday Fun

It is hard to believe that we are this close to Christmas--I realize that I have a lot of blogging to catch up on! December has absolutely flown by for us. The first part of the month we spent passing a cold around to each and every member of the family (oh joys of the season!), and then when we finally felt better we rushed from holiday party to party. We are trying our best to capitalize on this being Chloe's first Christmas of really understanding what the season means. In addition to making out her own list for Santa, she is helping to wrap presents for others and bake cookies for friends. Tonight we went to the zoo and did some of the holiday activities there, which included stories with Mrs. Claus and a visit on Santa's lap (you can see how that went over for yourself!) Of course, Chloe had no problem taking the candy cane from him after she was done throwing a fit on his lap. :)

Turkey Day!

We had a great Thanksgiving yesterday--here are some pictures from the day. Brian cooked the turkey in the smoker and it turned out beautifully! I think he was a bit nervous that I didn't have any contingency plans (ie. a backup turkey in the oven!) but it couldn't have turned out better. And luckily I didn't burn the house down when I lit the sweet potato casserole on fire trying to broil the marshmallow topping....I guess it should have occurred to me that using the broiler in our double oven is not a good idea when you have a large casserole that almost touches the top of the oven....oops! Anyway, we had a great time and the weather even cooperated enough for Chloe to show off her new moves on her bicycle...no one can ride a bike in a dress quite like she can!

Fall Fun

Chloe helped Brian and I rake the leaves in the yard this weekend, and we were having so much fun that I almost didn't get any pictures before Chloe had reached her limit and needed to come inside. Her new que that she is getting tired is that she tells us "my eyes hurt". So I knew I only had a few photo minutes left when I took these pictures. And unfortunately poor Baby Drew missed the whole thing because he was taking a gigantic 3 hour nap! (Could it finally be that elusive tooth finally coming through that is making him sooooo fussy??) We finished up the day with some quiet coloring activities, and it made my day to see Daddy coloring princesses along side Chloe. Of course, Daddy didn't quite understand why Cinderella simply MUST have a pink face...but he went along with it just the same. (Here's a hint to all of Santa's helpers--Chloe is in love with ANY Disney princess!)

Peas Please!

At his 4 month check up last week the pediatrician told us we could go ahead and start giving Drew some veggies since he eats so well and is tolerating cereal. I have to admit I was a bit skeptical because Chloe was 6 months before we started giving her veggies, but we went ahead and gave it a whirl this weekend. As you can tell, he absolutely loved his first bite of peas! I can only imagine how bland the cereal must be that he thinks mashed up peas is such a better alternative...but I'm certainly not going to complain if he turns out to be a good veggie eater!

We had a great time this weekend in Columbus for Matt & Mamta's wedding--and Chloe had a wonderful time with Mama and Papa. She was so excited to go to their house she could barely stand it, and as soon as they came to pick her up she was tugging at their shirts saying, "I'm ready to go, I'm all packed!" We took Drew with us to the wedding and he definitely exceeded our expectations for the night--he even fell asleep in Brian's arms during the reception. But when we put him in his car seat to sleep while we went dancing, we came back to find he had pulled his blanket all the way over his head (see first picture!) as if to tell us that it was a little too loud! Of course, that is the way we feel sometimes when both he and his sister are squealing at the top of their lungs! Our luck ran out a bit on our way home from Columbus because our car had a dead battery and we had quite an adventure to finally make it home with both kids in tow...at the end of the day we need to pay back at least 2 good samaritans and we definitely got a good lesson in patience!! (What a great first dance song, Matt & Mamta)!

Our little Picasso

It wasn't until we played back the video we took during Baby Drew's first "cereal" meal that we realized it might be time for us to do some one-on-one activities for Chloe. All during the background of the video you can hear her talk about how she eats "big girl food", not baby cereal--clearly an indication that she was getting a bit jealous. As luck would have it, I had just enrolled us in a "Pint Sized Picasso" class at the Y where once a week we get to make crafts together and play along side other toddlers. Here is a picture of Chloe showing off her artwork--a painted pumpkin (paper bag), falling leaves on a tree, and a beaded necklace. Here also is a picture of the pretty bouquet that Chloe & Drew (with a little help from Daddy!) so thoughtfully got for my promotion at work--if only I had a video of Chloe saying "con-gatchy-ations"!!