A First Birthday

over a year ago, i would receive a daily phone call around 10:00 every morning. for three months i would wait for the call from mam and pap asking if moses was still in his papoose. since my papaw really, truly wanted me to name the baby moses, i laughingly went along with the name when they called.the bedrest thing really had them upset so they had to check (sometimes twice a day) to make sure drew wasn't ready to come. mamaw insisted that i put the police/fire/ambulance service numbers in my phone in case i went into labor at home by myself. what a difference one year can make!



before i had drew i was so sure i would not be a good mom. i was certain i had no idea what to do. what if he got sick? what if he cried all the time? what if my baby was a boy? i didn't know how to take care of a boy!




well, i'm still not sure i'm as good a mom as i can be, i guess time will tell. i know i try my best to be everything drew needs....lately that has been the person who puts him down and steps away when he starts to throw a tantrum. as for my worry that he would get sick, we made 4 trips back to the hospital during drew's first 4 days home because of jaundice. (i know that's not technically "sick" by many standards, but to a new mom, it's sick.) drew did cry for the first 8 weeks nonstop...morning, noon and night. and, to my surprise, he was a boy, ha! i was certain it was going to be a girl....maybe because i wasn't sure what i was supposed to do with a boy. (and how the heck was i supposed to take care of a circumcision?!?!)




luckily, drew is resilient. we've made it almost a year and i am still stunned that we just celebrated my baby's first birthday. to tell the truth, i'm a little sad. i'm happy that i have such a happy, healthy baby, but i'm sad because i just can't believe a whole year has past.


we celebrated drew's birthday today though his birthday is actually the 18th. my family was able to come down and we all ate, opened presents, had cake, took pictures and laughed. drew got a "rock, roll and ride" tricycle from tim and i, books and clothes from mom and dad, clothes from gig and uncle, a car hauler/animal truck from rue and josh, a great uk outfit from abby, push cars from bob and kathy and an awesome time out bench with a parking meter "time-out" timer, (that one was hilarious) from mam and pap. mam also brought him a potty chair for future use....too bad we can't teach ruby to use it too.




we enjoyed our day so much and were so glad our family came out in the nasty, cold weather. :)
pre-party snack




drew & his papaw



drew & his mamaw

drew & momma

drew & aunt rue playing with new toys

on his new time-out bench....only mamaw would give this one!

drew & gigmaw

the cake didn't quite turn out the way i had pictured, ha! betty crocker does not live in this house.

getting ready for cake! all that practice blowing out candles and in the end, he tried to grab it instead of blowing it out....oh, well.

mamaw feeding him more ice cream.

“Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for awhile and leave footprints on our hearts. And we are never, ever the same.”

This weekend's 5K

part of the crew

the rosencrans'
(drew crashed shortly after this for a 3 hour nap!)

i'm not sure what all the deep conversation is about....

post-race



what's really in that cup???

at the beginning...this was "stomper girl". i could hear her coming a 1/2 mile back because she stomped when she ran. :)

drew and daddy

wow, the morning was fabulous for our run yesterday. i was worried it was going to be cold and rainy but it ended up being a beautiful, sunny fall morning. the run was great and we were already making plans to do it again next year.

we also received some great prizes. my favorite has probably been my new mug made by a local potter for the run. tim has already said how much he likes it about 14 times....i guess i'll have to let him use it, too. :)

thank goodness tim was able to come and watch drew while i ran. he's a lifesaver and such a good daddy. he's always willing to help with drew -- even the dirty jobs. on the way home we got tickled talking about drew's gassy problems during the awards. at one point tim even had to take him to the car to change him but when he got there, the diaper was empty. so, he bundled him back up and brought him back to the rec hall where we were getting our prizes and awards. unfortunately, drew continued to let stinkers...we got a kick out of it because tim was standing back in a corner with about 20 people crowded around. i guess they all got some nice air freshening back there.

this is definitely a run that will be on my agenda for next year. it was a nice atmosphere, good socializing for a saturday morning and hey, you can't beat the free starbucks!

sunday mornings

"There are many persons who look on Sunday as a sponge to wipe out the sins of the week.” - Henry Ward Beecher

sunday mornings are spent by the majority of people i know getting ready for church. this is how i grew up as well. we'd all get up, get showers, mom usually fixed a good breakfast and we fought over who was going to get more time in front of the mirror or with the hairdryer. (4 girls in the house and one hairdryer makes for a morning of not quite christian like attitudes.)
anyway, though i am thankful mom always took us to church, now i am equally thankful i can choose to not get up and go if i don't want to. my sunday mornings are much different now. they usually involve getting up at the crack of dawn (as i do every other morning), changing the morning diaper, then changing another one 20 minutes later after hearing a tell-tale grunting while drew crawls around, feeding the dogs and getting them outside for their morning romp, then running to make coffee as fast as i can.

now, tim is usually not home on weekend mornings....either off working or riding one of his bikes--mountain or dirt. this leaves me to do most of the morning chores, keep up with my own little irumba and make sure the dogs don't eat/chew/bark/run off to somewhere they shouldn't be.

this morning has really been no different...we did the diaper dance (while drew tries to bounce like tigger the whole time), then the dog duty, and finally COFFEE! once i got all this done, i gave drew a few things to play with and sat down to watch him....not good. like you ever just get to sit down and watch them. i immediately found my pant leg being pulled on and when i got up to get him, he took off at a crawl dale earnhardt would be proud of...as i followed, i realized drew was pretending to spit in the floor. a few weeks ago this was funny. we would pretend to spit and he would start laughing uncontrollably. now, he's trying it out for himself. this will probably end up with a report from the babysitter at some point and time....maybe i should warn her now.

after the spitting, he has also decided he is going to "roar" at everything i say. i'll say his name to get his attention, he turns around, smiles and roars....it's hilarious. thanks to mamaw and hayley for teaching that one the other day, it's gonna go perfectly with his halloween costume.

i love sunday mornings.

tidbits

well, today was a gorgeous day. after last night i certainly didn't think i'd be saying that...drew decided he was going to stay up ALL night so we got very, very little sleep. (get ready, tommy, i know you're worried enough already!)

i guess i should start with last night. some of the girls from work picked me up and we all went to a movie then dinner. we went totally chick-flick and watched nights in rodanthe. the theater had only women and i'm very happy for all the men that didn't have to attend....they were spared many sniffles, sobs and sighs. the movie was good though i had an idea how things were going to end.

after the movie we all piled in and went to ruby tuesday's....after several wrong turns, ha! i was beginning to wonder if all the crying pam did had affected her driving skills. we ended up closing the place down and lucky for us, we were the only ones there. i think we did everything we always tell our kids not to do. we did not use inside voices for one...i think they probably heard us back in the kitchen. it was a very good time, enjoyed by all and i hope we do it again next month.

i ended up getting home around 11:00 and when i walked through the door, i could hear drew screaming at the top of his lungs. this scared me to death since tim was upstairs and obviously hadn't heard him. i ran into the bedroom and scooped him up....this was the beginning of a very long night. he wanted to play until 1:00, then when we would try to put him in his bed he would start screaming all over again. this isn't typical of drew so i knew something must be wrong. the only time i could get him to sleep was when i held him from 3:00-5:00 this morning. the whole night i kept having flashbacks of those first colicky months and i shuddered like it was a nightmare. oddly enough, he's been in a very good mood all day for a little boy that had no sleep last night. we realized about halfway through the night he was getting another tooth when he chomped down on tim's finger....that explained the screaming and not wanting to go to bed.

after a night of no sleep, i got up, put my running clothes on and was off to meet the girls for our run at eku. i just knew it was going to be a horrible run for me because of the no sleep thing but it actually ended up being good. we started a the stadium and ran the perimeter of campus, all the way down lancaster to downtown, to madison bank and back the same route to the football field. after our run we checked out the wellness center (which was very nice and i coveted the rock wall!) and then did something i've never, ever done before.....dun, dun, dunnnnn -- we weighed ourselves in the locker room on their industrial sized scale. not that i haven't weighed myself before, but i won't even let tim see my weight, much less another girl! jennifer and jeanne, you are sworn to secrecy and if that information ever gets out, i'm coming for you....:)

when i was on my way home my mom called and said she and mamaw were coming down....i went home, took a quick shower, got drew ready and headed back to town to meet them for lunch. we also went to wal-mart and i discovered something quite interesting. (i'll mention it later in my list of tidbits to think about.) we went to penney's where i got drew his first halloween costume, then headed home. whew, what a busy day! all this time, tim stayed home and stained the deck....what a guy!

okay, here are the tidbits i had to think about today:

• i realized when we were at wal-mart it was the third of the month...if you have ever worked in the law/court, bank or pharmacy (or wal-mart) business, you know what the third of the month equals....checks. not working people checks, the other kind of checks. well, my realization was that with drew's one tooth sticking out like a badge of honor, we fit right in with the other wal-mart clientele....
• while running, i think i get into such a zone that i probably ran out in front of several cars while crossing the street. that's a little scary.
• drew's favorite new things to do are to climb on anything and everything, including the treadmill. he knows he isn't supposed to do it...once he gets up on it, he turns around to see who's watching, then smiles and laughs like he's really done something. today when i went to get him off for the hundredth time, i realized the treadmill is covered with dust. (bad sign #1) i went and got something to clean it off with and as i was wiping, i found an old french fry stuck under the belt....(bad sign #2). what does that say about my recent physical activity when the treadmill is covered in dust and french fries???
• i thought i had ruined the bathtub two days ago when i was cleaning the carpet
  shampoo-er. when i emptied it, all the water just sat in the tub and wouldn't drain. this afternoon i was finally able to work on it (since most of the water had finally drained). while using all my might with a plunger, trying to work out whatever was stuck in there, i look over to see the lever for the drain is pulled halfway up. i felt like such an idiot! i always put it halfway up when drew is in there so the water stays warm but doesn't get too deep....i guess i forgot to put it back down. tim found this hilarious.
• the last tidbit goes along with the weighing one from above....given i wanted to cover the scale readout with both hands so jeanne and jennifer could not view my worth, it's odd that i came home and ate half a pizza all by myself after also going out to lunch at red lobster with the fam. why is it that we do that? am i the only one? when i still need to lose the last of this baby weight, i go home, eat a horrible lunch and a horrible dinner....oh yeah, i had a brownie and two mini-candy bars, too. and even though i don't feel good about that, i've even considered a hot fudge cake. ha! i guess if you're gonna do it, do it right.

Tornado Alley!

Oh my, did I get myself into a mess tonight...As soon as Drew went to bed I decided it was time for me to start tackling my latest obsession: making Drew his 1st birthday cake, custom-style. Now, to most this would probably seem fairly simple however, I don't really enjoy cooking all that much. Actually, I just don't enjoy the cleaning up, the cooking isn't that bad. I can cook, my mamaw made certain of that, I just hate cleaning all the stuff up afterwards....and don't tell me you're supposed to clean as you go because that's a bunch of bull. I clean before, during and after and there's still a big mess.

So, back to my original thought....for the last few days I have been thinking a lot about Drew's upcoming birthday, (well, it's not until November but my OCD requires that I be well prepared), and trying to decide what kind of cake he will have. Since he loves dogs, I have decided to make a dog cake with cupcakes with dog themed shapes that are covered in that really cool, smooth icing professional decorators use. My friend Shannon also has her son's 1st birthday coming up (this Saturday) and she came to show me the cake she ordered for him yesterday. I didn't see it, but it is going to be a Very Hungry Caterpillar themed cake. I looked at the link of the lady's previous cake designs and was a bit overwhelmed. First, there's no way I can afford to purchase one of her custom cakes and second, I am really into doing special things for my first 1st birthday as a mommy.

(Here's a link to some pictures of similar cakes that are covered in fondant:

http://www.pinkcakebox.com/ )

Last night I came home and began researching these cakes and what I needed to do to begin my project. First, I had to find out what that fondant stuff was and where I could get it. Now, I could have taken the easy way out and ordered some, but it costs an arm and a leg and I wanted it now. Waiting 3-4 days for it to be delivered was not an option....again, OCD. So, after some searching, I found out how to make the fondant, yes, as in homemade. After going to Wal-Mart before picking Drew up today, I headed home and began getting my things ready. Now, my house is definitely lived in and is not the neatest with a baby, 2 dogs and a husband throwing things everywhere, but after I began my fondant making, this is what it looked like:

As the process went along, I began taking pictures of my work. Here is the fondant after I got it all kneaded and rolled out...

After separating and putting food coloring in half....

And finally, my kitchen after clean-up...ahhhh.

I have decided I would practice my cake making skills on Hayley and my dad this weekend. My dad is turning 50 next Sunday and Hayley will turn 19 this Sunday. We are having a big cookout and Mom and Dad's and she's having a cake made, etc., etc. I decided since I had an occassion, I would do a trial run. I am going to make cupcakes, ice them, then cover them with the green fondant. After that, I will attempt to make flowers to go on the top. Whether that comes together is a different story. When I get them done, I will post more pictures....maybe. We'll see how they look, then I'll decide if I would be too humiliated to post them!

The weekend

"Why do some people use the phrase "Non-working Mother"? Obviously these people have never had children!" Anonymous

This weekend Drew, Waylon and I stayed home all by ourselves. For those of you that know me well, it's not often that a weekend passes by that I don't go home to see my mom and mamaw, not to mention Josh and Hayley. However, with soaring gas prices and the prospect of packing all our things up just for a night or two at home, I just wanted to stay home and be lazy instead.

So, while Tim was off early Friday morning to go camping and ride dirtbikes with the boys, Drew and I settled in for a long weekend at the house. He tried watermelon for the first time but I don't think he ever actually got any in his mouth. He spent half and hour trying to pick it up off his highchair tray....that was hilarious. Finally, I just let him suck on the piece that I had eaten and it worked out much better. Later Saturday night, he went to bed early, around 7:00, only to wake up 45 minutes later, ready to rock and roll. We sat on the deck, Drew in his walker, me with my Us Weekly supply, and enjoyed the music from the neighbors for about an hour and a half. (As a sidenote, no, Drew could not roll off the deck down the step, and yes, I was watching him very close....I know my mamaw will be freaking out when she sees he was in his walker on the deck. :)).

Thanks to Tim's mom, Kathy, for providing me with all the magazines...sometimes my only connection to the outside world. I have to be able to read about the tribulations of all those celebrities in order to keep my own life in perspective, right?

By the end of the weekend, Waylon was sick of seeing the camera out, especially when he just wanted to play with Louie...minus one leg and a tail. Poor monkey. Finally, he just relaxed in the recliner and took a nap....I was wishing I could do the same.
All in all, it was a nice weekend and I liked not having to pack up the house in order to take Drew somewhere for the night, even though I missed seeing my family.




Waylon wishing I would leave him alone.





He's such a ham...anytime he sees the camera he smiles. :)


My weekly supply...I'm a junkie. (Thanks for getting me started Angie!)






He loves the bears on his walker...he talks to them the whole time he's in it.

Thank you, Kelly!

Drew and I had a nice break in our day today when Kelly let us come over to the pool. Drew was much happier this time because he was fresh from a nap. He splashed, kicked and mostly just chilled in the sun. He had such a good time watching the boys play with each other.
Kelly's house was so gorgeous! It just reminds me what a wreck mine is though with all the baby stuff everywhere. I love seeing other people's homes and how they have them arranged but I always get so nervous when someone comes to my house because I feel like it's always so messy and cluttered. Ahh!
Since Landon was taking the pictures, you can't really see Drew's face for his hat. Maybe we'll get some good ones next time. Anytime he lost his teether or rubber ducky, (thanks to Angie, he loves it), he got so ticked...he's a little impatient and I just can't figure out where he gets it from...lol.
When we got home I thought Drew would be worn out and take another quick nap. Though he fell asleep as soon as we were in the car, he woke up when we got home ready to play. I got some cute pictures of him playing with his towel in the floor. I know when he's finally able to crawl I'm in big trouble!