End of the Year Wrap Up

As we wrap up the year, I have to say we have truly been blessed.  Our little man is growing and progressing every day.  He's on track with all his milestones except for speech.  He hasn't picked up very many words and we are still waiting for that "speech explosion" which I am sure will come.  Other than that, he's amazing in every sense of the word and we are so blessed to have him in our lives!!

At 22 months (today), Drew is:

• 35 inches (95th+ percentile) and 30 pounds (50-75th percentile)
• Solidly wearing 2T clothes
• Sleeping around 10-12 hours at night and one 2-3 hour nap per day
• Eating pretty much everything but vegetables.  His favorites include chicken noodle soup, spaghetti (he will eat more than me), potatoes, bread, chicken and turkey and fruit.  The kid still loves his fruit!!
• Still loves anything electronic or electrical.  Remote controls, light switches, radio alarm clocks, and anything where he can push buttons.  
• He has so many facial expressions, its hilarious!
• Is running, climbing, jumping on everything.  He even managed to climb out of his crib a few weeks back and into the top drawer of his big dresser (where he threw everything out of it) and on top of it as well where he was able to get a book that put up there for safe keeping.  Oh boy!!!  Momma isn't ready for a big boy bed!
• He loves zippers.  Loves to zip and unzip pajamas, coats, anything with a zipper.
• Loves his "guy" which is a black and white panda bear his nanna made him.  He goes everywhere with him.
• Loves playing with play-doh but doesn't want anything to do with crayons yet. 
• Loves to watch game shows on TV including Wheel of Fortune and the Price is Right.
• Is an amazing kid who we love to watch grow every day!  

At 16 Months...

At 16 months, Drew:


• Is walking up a storm and causing general chaos every day. He loves to play in the cabinets and open and slam them shut on a regular basis. He also loved to play with the blinds cord. Of course, we watch him very closely with these and don’t have any in his room within reach while he is in the crib. Very excited for this phase to pass!

• Loves to turn the light switch on and off as many times as he can, especially when he is in his crib.

• Still has only about 6 words but he is understanding so much more. When I say, “Let’s go brush your teeth” he runs and sits on the bathroom floor. If we ask him where is mimi (owie in Maltese) is, he can point and tell us. He knows his hair, feet, shoes, socks and raises his hands and shrugs when he is all done.

• Loves to be outside either walking around the backyard or playing in his pool. He also loves going for walks in his stroller.

• Favorite foods are fruits. He loves all kinds and can eat them all day. He also likes baked potatoes, barbecue chicken, and macaroni and cheese. He’s not a fan of veggies but I can still get him to eat a green puree every once in a while. We do consider him to be a really good eater though. Hopefully, that continues!

• Cracks himself up on a daily basis. He honestly thinks the things he does are hilarious and it makes me laugh every time he does.

• LOVES to be snuck up on and be scared. He screams with delight and tries to run from you! He also loves to be chased and tickled.

• Is a pretty good sleeper but is definitely just now dropping one nap. He usually goes down between 7 and 8 and will sleep until 7 or 8 the next morning. He will usually take a 3 hour nap in the afternoon as well.

• Is an amazing kid and I am so happy to have him in my life. :)

At a Year Old...

At a year old, here is what Drew is doing:

• Pulling up on everything and anything he can get his hands on.
• Has taken a few steps and likes to walk assisted through the house.  He can stand on his own as well but doesn't have the confidence to try it on his own yet.
• Is consistently saying 4 words:  momma, dadda (his favorite), nanna, baba.
• Has gotten 2 more teeth on the bottom right for a total of 10 teeth.
• Is being much more fussy when it comes to eating.  Some of his favorite foods include blueberries, cheerios, oatmeal, bananas, goldfish crackers, puffs, and oranges.  As soon as he sees the box of cheerios come out, he gets very excited and starts going "mmmmmm" as he opens and closes his hands. 
• For anything he doesn't like, he will actually pull it out of his mouth and throw it on the floor.  This includes any type of meat, cheese, egg, and cottage cheese.  He sure is making it difficult getting protein in.  We've resorted back to purees for now just to get some in.
• He's on 3/4 milk and 1/4 formula.  He's ready to be on milk full time but I am not 100% ready to let it go cause I know it contains the nutrients he needs.  We have a well visit check this week with the pediatrician so we'll see where to go from here.
• Overall, he's a very happy kid.  Unless he's tired or happy, he's smiling and doing a lot of "talking".
• He's had a bit of a sleep regression since he's figured out how to pull up in his crib and can't figure out how to get himself back down.  We've been trying to teach him!
• He's still comfortably in 12 month clothes but I have a feeling he'll be in 18 month soon.
• He knows his shoes and how to turn the light switches on and off.
• He's truly amazing and we love every single second we have with him!!

Walking...or Should I Say Steps!

This was a big weekend in development for Drew and momma is so proud! 

Drew took his first steps over the weekend!!!  It was amazing to see and though I dont think he quite "got" that he was walking and he was a bit wobbly, he definitely did it!  Mom, dad, Steve and I were all gathered at Steve's folks house for a late birthday celebration and we had him standing up.  Mom stood a few feet away and prompted him.  When she did, he let go of me and he took a few steps on his own to get to her!!  So I guess that wouldnt be walking but more stepping.  Either way, I was proud.

He's also pulling up on everything he can find so I would definitely say he is on his way!  Now all we need is for him to end this food strike and we'll be good to gp!  Ahhhh, life with a toddler.  Wait, a toddler?  When did that happen???

Finally, I bought Drew a pair of sunglasses over the weekend since he loves to play with our glasses so much.  I figured if he had his own pair, he might leave ours alone.  Not so much but he does look super cute!!  Gets me so excited for summer!

My Biggie Boy!

In just the last few days, I feel like Drew has made huge strides in his development.  It's such a joy to watch him and he seriously amazes me on a daily basis.  Here are some of things he is doing now:

• Pulling up!!  Yep, finally!  Little dude pulle dup twice yesterday like he's been doing it his whole life!
• Crawling on all 4's.  He's perfected the army crawl for some time now but just recently, he's taken to crawling on all 4's.
• He'd much rather crawl than roll. 
• He still loves to walk, walk, walk to the point where he has callouses on the bottoms of his big toes.  We're trying shoes to see if that helps.
• He'll stand on his own for a few seconds as well.

Steve and I tried to get a video of it multiple times yesterday and every time we got the camera out, he'd throw a massive fit.  Stinker face!!

So proud of him though!

11 Months Old!

On occasion, I have been known to worry about Drew's development because at 11 months, he is still not pulling himself up so when I went into Drew's room to get him after his nap, I see this:

So while it's not technically pulling himself up, it's definitely progress and we'll take it.  Even though he isn't pulling up, he is doing so many things, including:

• Walking assisted through the entire house.  It's all he wants to do.  Walk back and forth through the bedroom, into the bathroom, through the kitchen and family room and then again.  He loves it!!!
• He's eating a ton of new foods and he is doing really well.  He seems to really like breakfast foods just like his dad.  These include waffles, pancakes, toast, etc.  He also really likes pastas, mashed potatoes, chicken, bananas, blueberries, and oatmeal.  He also loves his puffs or little fishies as well. 
• He's still drinking about 24-26 oz of formula and he isnt doing so well with his sippy cups.  He would much rather drink right from a glass.
• He still really likes to kick his legs.  Whenever he gets bored with a toy, he'll crawl to a wall, put his butt up against the wall and kick.  We try to re-direct and it does work but it's a favorite past time for Drew and he does more often than I would like. 
• He says about four words now.  Momma, Dadda (his favorite), Nanna, and baba.  
• He's cruising pretty regularly between toys now.  He likes to go between his play table and his bouncer then back again.  He does pretty well!
• He still likes to jump in his bouncy as well.
• He's fascinated with remote controls and cords.  We have to make sure they are all picked up or hidden or he'll go directly for them.
• He loves to have his hair combed in the morning or after his baths.  He also loves to have his face washed after he's done eating.
• He knows how to high five and we are working on waving hello and goodbye!
• He loves, loves, loves music.  In church, he will sit contently on anyone's lap and listens to the praise band play.  I am sure it helps that Grandpa Todd and Uncle Jeff plays in the band as well.
• Although he still has off nights, he is doing great in the napping and sleeping department.  All we have to do is lay him down and say goodnight and he'll go to sleep.  He's sleeping about 10 hours at night and taking about 4 hours worth of naps during the day.  He's even sleeping in the pack n play at Nanna's house!!  That's big news!
• When you catch him in the right mood, he loves to give big, wet kisses.  I love em!!!
• He loves to have screaming contests and in most cases, he will win!  The boy is loud.
• We estimate him to be around 24 pounds and 31 inches but will find out for sure at his one year checkup in March.

This little man is our dream come true and we love spending every minute we can with him!!  Thank you LORD for this miracle!

Cheeeeeeeeeeeeese!!!!!

Drew is getting such a little personality!  I love it!!  He's making all these different facial expressions and the best is when you tell him to smile.  His eyes get all smooshy and he gets this big grin on his face!  Here's what we get:

He's getting to be so much fun.  I really love to see how he changes almost daily now.  Love that little dude!!

Crawling!!

On a very sad November 14th, the day Grandpa Shaw passed away, we did have a glimmer of positivity.  Little man decided to crawl for the first time!!  Well, it was 1/3 army crawl, 1/3 real crawl and 1/3 face plant but we are still proud as ever of our little guy!

Here's a pic of Drew getting ready to go:

And some video!

My Little Linebacker!

Drew's 6 month stats:

Weight:  20 lb, 9.5 oz (95th percentile)
Height:  29 inches (100th percentile)

We got ourselves a big 'un!  Maybe he'll be a professional football or hockey player with that size and make his mom and dad lots of money!

We are getting ready to move him to a convertible seat because neither of us can handle carrying him in his infant carrier for much longer.  The boy is heavy!!  The problem is we have to buy 3 seats since we need one for my mom too.  Oh and a new lightweight stroller for her too.  Babies are so expensive!!  But he's well worth it!    

Yikes! I am a Bad Blogger!

It's been way to long since my last update and my little dude is doing so much these days!!  Pictures to come soon but here are the higlights:

• He's rolling both ways now very proficiently and likes this as his normal mode of transportation.  He gets up on his arms and you can tell he is trying really hard to figure out how to crawl but then he just gives up and starts rolling everywhere.  He can roll across the room in like 15 seconds.  No more leaving him on the floor unattended!
• He's doing a lot more babbling.  At 6months old, we had our first words!  Mamamamamam was first, followed by babababa.  Now everything is dadadadadada. 
• He loves to play with Sonny!  We put him in his exersaucer and Sonny will come up to him.  He'll bounce and sonny will bark and then he'll giggle like mad.  They'll repeat this for 20 minutes sometimes!  Very cute.
• His favorite game is peek-a-boo.  He loves to be scared.  He'll start laughing uncontrollably when you sneak up on him!
• He's become very clingy lately.  Especially with Steve and I.  We cant leave his sight or he starts screaming until he is picked up.  Once we do pick him up, he clings for awhile and then relaxes.
• At six months, he has his two bottom teeth and I think we'll have top ones real soon.  Hylands teething tabs has really helped...at times.
• He's sittting up for very short periods but you can see his improvement in this area almost daily.
• He's doing pretty well with solids.  He loves his oatmeal and barley and loves green beans and sweet potatoes.  He also likes apples and pears.  He's not into carrots or peas but will tolerate them since the kid just loves to eat.  I find him watching me a lot closer now when I eat and he even opens his mouth so I am not sure if he is ready for more yet.  We'll be moving on to meats and other foods in a few weeks!
• He's standing up in his first wedding!  We have his tux and shoes and he is ready to go.  Can't wait for Aunt Theresa and Uncle Nick's wedding!