Carnival Fun with a New Friend

We took Drew to the park this weekend for the fall carnival. You may recall me blogging about our trip to the spring version of the carnival when Drew was extremely reluctant to go on any rides. Why take him back, you ask? Well, we made some new friends in the last month. At the park on Labor Day Drew and a little boy about his age named Ryan enjoyed running around the playground after each other, while I chatted with Ryan's mom and dad. Since then we've had a few playdates at the park together and decided we'd meet at the carnival to see if there was a little more courage in numbers. It worked out very well.

The boys started out easy with the train and the cars/trucks/motorcycles.


Then they got brave enough to try the flying saucers that went up and down in the air. This was Drew's favorite! He loved being up high, especially when he could see the other saucers that were below him.


Drew wanted to hit the superslide, so he and Daddy did that.



Ryan wanted to go on the rollercoaster next. Drew had not enjoyed that on a previous trip to the carnival and we tried to talk him out of it, but he was adamant about going on with his friend. As you may be able to tell in the picture, Drew was not a happy camper.


After a lunch break for some yummy and so-not-good-for-you carnival food, we let the boys hit a few more rides. No surprise that Drew wanted to go back to the flying saucers and the slide. He had such a big smile on his face while flying through the air.


As for the slide, Bill thought Drew could try it by himself. I was hesitant, but Drew certainly wasn't! He took the tickets from me, handed them to the man, grabbed the burlap mat and started climbing the steep stairs. He did hold up the line a little bit as his little legs couldn't move quite as quickly as the big kids behind him. But he happily slid down all the way!


Ryan wanted to go back to the rollercoaster a second time and Drew was not interested in a return visit, so he stood on the sidelines this time. Actually he watched atop Bill's shoulders so he would have a better view of his friend's rollercoaster ride. He was much happier watching the rollercoaster go round and round.

At the end of our time at the carnival, Bill and Drew walked to the car to get inside with the air conditioning while I picked up a funnel cake to go. Bill told me when I met back up with them that all the way to the car Drew said "I had fun Daddy" or "I had good time Daddy."

Retreat

We had a last-minute opportunity to go to a marriage retreat this past weekend. Those that are in the Army will know that the unit chaplain sometimes organizes and fully sponsors weekend retreats for different audiences (single soldiers, married couples, single parents, etc.) throughout the year. Bill had several of his married soldiers sign up for the retreat but we got the call on Friday morning that there was a last-minute cancellation from another company and we packed our bags.


The resort we stayed at was really beautiful and the rooms were out of this world. It's entirely possible the suite we had was nearly as big as our house! And Drew and his guys didn't seem to have any trouble making themselves right at home.



He amused himself for quite a while with the cushions from the pullout couch as well as the extra pillows (he stacked them, jumped on them, hid underneath them--what fun!). Here's a few pictures.







Child care was provided during the training sessions. Drew happily (most of the time) played with the ladies from CYS. The retreat training focused on Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families. It was quite nice for Bill and I to have the opportunity to focus on our relationship and our vision of our family. I'm sure we're all guilty of it, but sometimes life gets so busy we do more talking than actual communicating. Fortunately we discovered we are mostly on the same page. All our meals were provided and it was wonderful to not have to worry about cooking for a couple of days.


It would seem Drew thoroughly enjoyed the weekend as well because all the way home in the car on Sunday he kept saying "I wanna go back to the hotel." We told him we were going to a different hotel "The Hotel Cherkauski". It appeased him until we pulled up in front of our house...oh well. We have various upcoming travel plans and other local fall adventures planned so I'm sure Drew won't lack for entertainment.

Biking His Way around the Cul-de-sac

I know I just posted a video of Drew riding his bike, but since Drew's friend Ian, who lives in Ohio now, liked his video so much in the last post, I thought we'd add another one.

Though Ian's mommy and daddy are very good friends of ours, Drew and Ian only got to spend a few months together when we were both stationed here in Arizona. Since then, they are left with viewing pictures and videos of each other. So go toddler friendships in the Army.

Drew is really getting the hang of steering now and clearly doesn't want any help from Mama anymore.

Catching Up...

It's been busy here lately, so I thought I'd do a catch-all post of what we've been up to.

Drew started a new school right after Labor Day. We had hoped to get him into the preschool age class at the on-post Child Development Center, but the wait list was too long. So we found another preschool that we felt comfortable with that's closer to our house than his old daycare and that had immediate openings. Drew cried a little the first two days I dropped him off, but the teacher said he was his happy normal self within minutes of me leaving. After the 3rd day he now happily goes to join the other kids in whatever they're doing and barely notices I'm leaving. His teacher has "helpers" each day that help with various tasks in their class. So far Drew has been the froggie helper (feeding the class's pet frogs), snack helper, and line leader. He's so proud of himself when he tells me "Mommy I was Miss Ashley's snack helper today!" and he's still talking about feeding the froggies the first day. He seems to be having trouble remembering his new friends' names though, because whenever I ask who he played with on the playground or who got to feed the froggies he says "Some people."

Another nice feature of Drew's new school is that the playground has tricycles for the kids to ride on. Drew had figured out pedaling earlier this summer, but still sometimes resorted to his Flintstone method of bike-riding. I think the tricycles on the playground have improved his pedaling. Here he is in the driveway a couple of days ago.

Drew and Daddy's museum Saturdays have been replaced the last couple of weeks by a shopping trip to Phoenix and a visit to the Tucson zoo. It amazes us we're still able to shop for Drew while he's with us. Bill just kept telling him the toys and books were for Daddy. At the zoo, Drew loves to feed the fish and ducks. Here he is on the elephant statue.

Drew has also taken to singing quite a bit lately...copying the Wonder Pets theme song, the songs they learn each day at school, and his favorites (Pop goes the Weasel, Wheels on the Bus and Ants Go Marching). Here's his version of Happy Birthday. And after Drew finishes singing you can hear Drew's latest take on how old Mommy is. I had hoped adding the one to thirty might magically make Drew figure out the difference between 30 and 40, but as you'll see in the video, no such luck.

I had a pretty low-key but nice birthday that included an hour long massage and dinner out with Bill, Drew, and our friend Mishja whose birthday is 4 days before mine. My boys also got me a great birthday gift, in addition to the massage, of the first two seasons of Friday Night Lights on DVD. I love that show. Can't wait till it premieres Oct 1st!

Morning at the Park & Surgery Follow up

We spent our Labor Day morning at one of the parks in town. The summer heat usually prohibits playing outside for any extended period of time, but this morning the temperatures were only in the upper 70s. Seemingly perfect weather for playing outside...that is, until after I spent over an hour standing in the beating down sun. Yes Drew managed to get nice and sweaty while running and jumping and climbing. He could barely be bothered to stop for water breaks every now and then.

Who can drink water when there's slides to be slid down (or climbed up as the case may be)...

Bars to climb... Bridges to run over... And monkey bars to swing across? He started out just wanting to hang on the monkey bars and then I helped him cross it once. Then while this Mom was helping her own kids cross it Drew got right in line and she was kind enough to help him too.
Drew is so funny about swings. He typically begs to go on them and after 30 seconds or less is screaming to get off because he's scared. Today was no exception. We were headed to the car after over an hour at the park when Drew spotted the swings and pleaded with me to go on them (even though he said he had to go potty and refused to go in the public bathroom at the park). He promised he could hold it so we went to the swings. He could hardly contain his excitement over getting on the swings and then after I pushed him a couple of times and took this picture he screamed to get off. He's such a funny little guy.

Oh, and for those who asked, after his surgery Drew had to wear his big bandage for 5 days, then he was okay with just a regular band-aid. With a shower the morning of his surgery, we were able to get away with just one additional shower while he had the bandage on. He was quite amused at the concoction of plastic bags and tape that Daddy fixed up.We head back to the doctor for his follow up appointment tomorrow but everything looks good to us and he has full range of motion in his thumb, so we expect to get the all clear from the doc.