Crunch's Birthday

Last night we were able to go VIP style to the Timberwolves game in the Cristaldi's suite. It was Crunch's birthday, the mascot for the Wolves. All the mascots from the MN team were there putting on quite the show for all the kids, it was pretty cute. We all had a great time watching the game, the mascots and enjoying everyone's company. Drew loved his first game, it was a lot to take in.. the lights, the sounds and all the people. He was really serious watching everything.

We are excited to enjoy more sports this summer with the opening of the Twins stadium. We bought a package about 10 games to see. We are excited to finally have an outdoor stadium and enjoy the Minnesota summer evenings.

Drew is 4 Months Old!

Our little baby is 4 months old, already!? There are days I want to shout... "please.... stop growing up, stay a tiny sweet little baby forever"! I love this stage, I love the exploration, the snuggles and the milestones. "Baby" Drew is as sweet as they come. Todd and I both just look at him and melt. He smiles all the time, and giggles all the time. I truly think baby giggles are the best thing in the whole world.. really, it is. When Drew is laughing, you can't help but to light up and laugh along with him. I love it. Todd and I both agree, it is generally the highlight of each of our days.. watching Hannah make Drew laugh.

Drew is rolling over these days, and still loves the bottles. He is starting to hold toys and try to figure everything out. We have his 4 month check up on Tuesday, but weighs somewhere around 16lbs ( yowzers!).His hair is slowing starting to come in, and his eyes are still blue for today. He has a great smile, and great laugh, and is an awesome snuggler. He still loves to have his hands in his mouth at all times.. his poor little hands are all red from all the moisture all the time. ... He is a typical happy 4 month old... we look forward to letting him try out some rice cereal this month!! That's is always a fun mess to look forward to!

We are comforted by the fact that all the teachers at school continue to tell us they just love Drew. As a parent, you think that the teachers just tell all the parents that so they feel good about leaving their kids at school for the day. I will honest, no one ever went out of their way to tell us how much they loved having Hannah at school. With her, we got a lot of... "Hannah is an emotional one" or... "can you pleasssse tell me how you get Hannah to sleep"? .. and that came along with a look of plea on their faces. On a daily basis, we get told how happy he is, how much they love his smile and how much they all love holding and playing with him. It makes me feel good each day.

Happy 4 Months Drew, we love you buddy!

Today's Milestone..

Drew rolled over today, I had no idea it was in me, but for the second time in 3 years I got all giddy that our little baby is making progress in his development by "rolling over". It is funny if you think about. I have no idea why rolling over is such an accomplishment, but what I do know is that it is reassuring you have a normal baby, doing normal things, within the normal guidelines those pediatricians love to tell you about. I would normally post what I think is an adorable picture of Drew, but as I have mentioned, Drew hates the camera. No crying, no tantrums, just the look of pure fear that you don't want to put him through if you don't have it.. it feels some what painful to put him through for some reason. Drew and Hannah wouldn't be more different. I swear Hannah would just see the camera in my purse and put a grin on her face, and Drew... fear.

All else is going well here. Todd is out of town on his first work trip since Drew was born. Surprisingly, all is going well. I was expecting the worst... tantrums, crying, chaos... but I have two happy kids that seem to be taking it easy on me this week. I hope this trend continues, cross your fingers for me.

Caught on camera..

So our little Drew is a happy guy, one of the happiest babies I have ever seen. He smiles non stop, loves life and is content with just about anything. This is a world of difference from his newborn days, and a world of difference from Hannah was she was the same age. All you have to do is look at Drew and he smiles, many times he is in a deep sleep and just sleeps with a smile on his face, I love it. It makes me melt each time I look at him just because he is so darn happy, you can't help to smile back. One would with think with such a happy baby I would have many pictures to prove you. Not exactly. Drew could be giggling and laughing until he sees a large black lense coming at him with the potential to flash right at him. Each time I try to take his picture his general reaction and look is like a deer in head lights. It is frustrating because I want the world to see how happy he is, and what an adorable smile he has. So, finally a little off centered, we have a smudge of a smile caught on camera. We'll keep trying to get his cute little smile on camera, but man.. it is a lot of work!!

What's Hannah up to?

You saw here first, Hannah's art work :) Grandma and Grandpa got Hannah a big box of arts and crafts for Christmas. She is loving putting together all the projects and creating cow and frog puppets, a clay donkey and a chicken tissue art ( in case you can't tell what they are).

The christmas present has been a big hit in the house, and to be honest, they are kind of fun for mom and dad to do with Hannah too, it is nice quality time together. However, I think I have yelled over to Todd multiple times while working on something with Hannah commenting on how the box says ages 2+. I would like to know what 2 year old is able to mold clay into a donkey? And, the projects don't come with any directions, you are suppose to look at the picture on the box and figure it out. Hmmm, 33 years old and struggling with a few of those art pieces. I am not sure what this says about my artistic abilities?

What's Baby Drew up to?

Loving his entertainer ( this was new to him last night) we weren't sure who had more fun, Drew or Hannah. Hannah wanted to show Drew each and every toy.

Trying really hard to hold things!!!

And he likes to hang out at the gym, his little gym for now!

Baby Drew has been busy trying out all his toys. He loves the mat, the bouncer and is starting to get acquainted with the megasaucer. Poor little guy has been pretty sick this week. 3 doctor visits later, we have been told RSV, Croup or Bronchiolitis, which to me means no one knows what he has, except everyone is in agreement it is a respiratory virus and is it not pnemonia. While he has been under the weather, our little guy has been a trooper and continues to have smile on his face throughout most of each day. Hopefully he kicks this virus soon and is back to his old self. It only took one week of daycare for him to get sick. We are dreading the rest of this winter. And this morning, Hannah woke up with a temperature with a runny nose and a cough, oh, and Dad too. Will this ever end?

And the Party goes on...

Sunday evening was Hannah's Build a Bear party with her friends from school. All the girls loved it. There were lots of screams and giggles post sugary icing and cake. Each girl picked a very very pink animal and outfit, it was cute.

Drew and Hannah right before Build a Bear, Drew missed the party sleeping right through it.

Saturday night Hannah had Bella and Eleanor over to play, table was all decorated with princesses

And finally our mini party goers Drew and Mia. They kept checking eachother each, it was cute.

Until next year, Happy Birthday!

Happy 3rd Birthday Hannah!!

3 years ago life was different, I was different, everything was different. I could watch the news and not tear up over a story of a missing or hurt child, because quite frankly, I didn't know what that really meant. I thought a great Friday night was going out with friends and having too many drinks, or snuggling up on the couch with Todd after a really good dinner where you don't see kids at the tables with crayons and spilled milk. I thought the best part of a winter weekend was sleeping in until 9am ( or later) and going straight from the bed to the couch to watch some really good (bad) tv marathons for the day. We both worked way too much, and put too much emphasis on success at work and how that reflectd on who we are.

And today, we have a 3 year old little girl who has rocked our world! From the moment she arrived, we both fell in love, and continue to fall more and more in love with our little girl each day. She has changed some much over the last year, her personality has come to life and she has turned into a little girl. Hannah does not stop talking ( she may have gotten this from the Dice family) and she has a lot to say about everything. The days of manipulating a 2 year old is over, she has gotten too smart for us. She says hilarious things each day, and things that I am constantly surprised by. Yesterday I was trying to get her to finish her banana at breakfast. After going back and forth and her refusing to eat it, Hannah finally said to me "Mom, I don't want to fall asleep. Snow White ate an apple and went to sleep. You keep making me eat this banana so I got to sleep, I will not eat it". I love these kind of conversations we have. However frustrating, it makes me realize how creative and strong willed she is, and I love she has those traits.

I could write for hours about all the funny things she says and does each day, all the things she does that make Todd I just look at eachother and smile, all the moments she makes me proud to be her Mom. I could also write for hours on how much she has learned this year, and just as importantly, all the things Mom and Dad have learned through Hannah about ourselves.... Parenting is an adventure, patience is a virture, and whoever invented the "quiet game" is my hero. To capture to essence of Hannah, I will summarize my hours of thoughts into... she LOVES princesses, she is all girl, loves to dress up, pretend play, bake, play with her girl friends, be silly, play games, being a big sister, and play with Murphy. Hannah is an awesome big sister, I am pleasantly surprised each day how she has never shown any jealousy with Drew. She loves to kiss him, hold his hand, play with him and now goes to visit him at school in his room each day. We are so lucky. Drew is lucky.

In 3 years, we have learned what true unconditional love means, how a great Friday night is quality time with your family, and hoping you enjoy some really good belly laughs from your kids. Sleeping in is a thing of the past, but allows you to enjoy more of your weekend. And success isn't determined by your last promotion, but the happiness of your family.

Hannah had a great start to her birthday weekend yesterday. We celebrated in the morning with a powdered doughnut, balloons and her favorite present from Grandma and Grandpa, a princess doll set. We ended the evening with pizza and more presents. Tonight Eleanor and Bella are coming over to play and tomorrow is her party at build a bear. Should be an action pack birthday weekend of fun.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart. We love you to the moon and back! We hope you enjoyed your special day, and we thank for you bringing joy and happiness to our lives. We love you sweetie!! Happy 3rd Birthday!

XOXO

Mom, Dad, Drew & Murphy.

Drew's 1st Day of School

Today was Drew's big day, and Mom's big day too. Drew's first day of school, and Mom's first day back at work. Drew did awesome today, and was a charmer for all his teachers and friends. He got an excellent grade, ate well, slept well, and smiled for everyone. Mom on the other hand, was not happy to see him go to school. Together over the last 13 weeks, Drew and I have every cuddle, every coo and every hug together. It was hard to drop him off today, driving to work, I had butterflies in my stomach, with worry that no one will cuddle him and love him as much as I do during the day. When I picked him up today, I was rest assured, he was loved.

What started out as a rough day, ended as a great day. During bath time tonight we put Drew in his baby tub and Hannah on the other side of the tub. Hannah kept throwing her rubber ducky into this bath tub and would yell "ducky in the tub". For whatever reason, Drew thought it was hilarious, so Hannah did this over and over again. Each time, Drew seemed to laugh harder and harder. It was the first time we saw Drew with some pretty sincere belly laughs that you just can't help to melt over. There is nothing sweeter and cuter than seeing your tiny little baby with the giggles. I just keep thinking about it and smiling myself.

Well, we got through day one at school, now we can look forward to Hannah's birthday this week, I still can't believe she is going to be 3!

Happy New Year 2010

Happy New Year!! Hannah and Eleanor or should I say, Snow White and Snow White celebrated the beginning of 201o today with some play time, laughter and a few meltdown tears just for fun. We had a nice day of hanging around the house, watching some football and spending time with friends. I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe New Years!!