Ball Popper

Here is new video of Drew squealing at the start of the ball popper. He has the same reaction every single time, it absolutely cracks us up.  And this is the same shrill squealing noise that he is famous for at dinner time--unfortunately for us he only has one volume level so far!

May pictures

Here are a couple  pictures of the kids from this month...Chloe is showing off the balloon that she got me for Mother's Day (but let's face it, it was her balloon!), Drew is sporting his Reds gear, and he is showing off his new skill of smashing food all over his highchair, tray, and oh yes, his hair.  I wonder if this is his way of "signing" back to me--so much for trying new ways to communicate! 

Dinning room project - complete!

I wanted to share some pictures of the recently completed renovation of the dinning room.  It has taken several weekends to complete, but the finished project is definitely worth it.  Jenny did a fabulous job of decorating it (despite the change in color incident).  A huge thanks to Pa Pa for all his help (and to MaMa for giving him up) and also to "Mr. Ed" the carpenter.  The furniture is being delivered on Friday and Jenny can't hardly stand it she is so excited.  

"Make Me a Deal"

Some recent pictures of the kids...Drew is having fun with golf balls (you should see him crawl with them in his hands!), and Chloe is making sure that her baby is fed and that there are no monsters in the basement. Chloe had the quote from the weekend....when she asked for her standard "special treat" after going number 2 in the potty, I tried to get out of it since she already had cookies for dessert. Well, you can imagine how that went over. But instead of totally throwing a fit, she pouted, crossed her arms, and said, "Well, then, make me a deal". So I did. A special treat in return for cleaning up her toys. Now that is compromise at its best!

Drew is Cruising Now!

Here is some video from the weekend--Drew is loving his push toy now! He was pretty unsure about it a couple weeks ago, but now he is loving the fact that he can walk to where he wants to go...until he runs into something and gets stuck! As usual, you'll hear Chloe in the background trying to upstage the attention Drew is getting...somehow I don't think she is all that deprived!

There are no words for this one....

You know how sometimes the most hilarious pictures are the ones that you take when no one is "posing" for the picture? Well, this is certainly one of those moments. While Chloe is definitely the "pick" of this photo, my favorite part is actually how Drew is peeking out from behind her in the background....that boy always has to be part of the action! He has learned how to point to what he wants now, and can stand on his own for a few seconds. And, just as if to melt my heart on Mother's Day, he learned how to point to me and say "ma ma ma ma ma".....what could be better?!

Mother's Day 2009

Here are some pictures from our family get together for Mother's Day and Brian's birthday. Brian had a great time using his new flash for the camera, and I'm having fun learning about how to crop and edit our pictures in our new software. It's time consuming but a lot of fun! Anyway, we had a great time and it was a beautiful weekend!

It's in the genes...

Chloe was a big helper to Papa and Daddy this weekend as they kicked off the first home improvement project of 2009...painting the dining room.  Chloe was a natural with the drywall mud...except when it came in contact with her fingers or face, and then it was icky!  

Easter Weekend

Easter was full of entertainment this year! From Drew showing off his new ability to crawl anywhere and pull himself up on virtually anything, to Chloe's true performance as the princess of the day--it was not lacking in excitement! Chloe loved her own personal egg hunt, and Drew loved getting into all of her stuff.  We all had a great day but I think we are still recovering from how worn out we were!

Visit with Aunt "Julia"

We had a great time during Aunt Julie's (ie. Aunt "Julia" as Chloe calls her) visit over Easter weekend.  As usual it was jam packed with activities, but we had a wonderful visit and the time went by way too fast! Thanks for such a great time, Aunt Julia!

Newest Reds Fan

Drew celebrated Opening Day by sporting his new Reds shirt....ok, it's actually a hand-me-down from Chloe, but that's just a technicality.  There certainly aren't many more things that she can pass down to him at this point...so we certainly enjoyed seeing him ham it up in his new shirt!

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!