A Little Business and A Lot of Fun

Last week I had to meet my boss in Phoenix for work for a couple of days. As work trips go though, our schedule was fairly light with only two scheduled meetings. So Robin thought she'd bring her family and I brought Drew while Bill planned to join us on the weekend. As it turned out our work schedule ended up being even less than we thought (just Thursday morning), which paved the way for even more fun than we thought we'd have.

So Thursday morning the kids and John went to the park, while Robin and I went to our meeting. By early afternoon, we were strolling around Old Town Scottsdale looking at shops and having lunch. Drew was happy to report that they had fed his Nilla Wafers to the ducks and pigeons at the park that morning.

Robin's husband was able to get us discounted rates at a very nice resort with beautiful grounds and multiple pools, so Thursday afternoon we lounged by the pool. I'm not sure you can beat swimming in an outdoor pool in November. I love Arizona.

Drew had lots of fun in the water, and was quite content to swim on his own with his life jacket, telling me "I can do it by myself" one more than one occasion. At least that meant I was able to get pictures.

He especially enjoyed following after Robin & John's kids (Sammie & Nick) in jumping off John's shoulders.

Ready...

Set...

Go!

Relaxing in the small hot tub

Friday brought a trip to the Phoenix Zoo, rated one of the top 5 zoos in the country for kids. We started on the endangered species carousel. Though Drew doesn't look too upset in this picture, he screamed for at least half the time the ride was moving that he wanted to get off. He eventually calmed a little bit when we started holding hands and he seemed to get a kick out of Mommy repeatedly saying Up and Down in as silly a voice as I could manage.

The great thing about the zoo is that it is right in the desert, so you get to walk through all kinds of desert life. Here's Mommy & Drew with some cacti.

We saw all kinds of great animals, including baboons, which Drew laughed at because I kept telling him to look at their funny butts.

And squirrel monkeys, which I think were my favorite. If they weren't prone to biting I would have been tempted to put one in my pocket.

Sammie and Nick are quite the animal aficionados so Drew learned a lot from them at each exhibit.

We were a little disappointed that the petting zoo only had goats and no opportunities to feed the animals, but Drew happily pet one of the goats anyway.

Included in the children's area of the zoo was a Fisher Price Little People Discovery Farm that had all the characters, animals, and vehicles included in the Little People Farm set. We had to drag Drew away.

Then we saw the real thing--yes, a real old fashioned tractor. What more could a little boy ask for? He exclaimed "Mommy, the wheels bigger than me!"

We ended our trip to the zoo with a couple of very special experiences: camel rides and petting stingrays. Drew and I went on the camel first but Robin & John have those pictures, so here's Drew with John, Sammie, and Nick. I was shocked that Drew wasn't scared to get on the camel. I mean, this was the same boy who freaked out on the carousel. But he climbed right on with me and laughed the whole time. When we asked if he wanted to go again with John he couldn't have climbed the steps fast enough.

Here's Drew in Sting Ray Bay. Again, no fear from the child. I propped him up on his belly, showed him how to touch the rays and away he went. At first he was content to just pet them, but when Sammie bought little fishies to feed to the rays Drew was not to be left out.

Unfortunately, Drew didn't really grasp the idea of the rays' mouths being on the bottoms of their bodies. I tried to demonstrate how he should hold the fish, but I think he was reluctant to put his hand that deep into the water. Here one sting ray came up to the side of the pool to retrieve the goodies that were in Drew's hand. I don't know how many of you have fed stingrays but the vacuum-like method of eating they have is a very weird feeling in your hand.

On our way out we had to walk right past the carousel again, and in the 5 hours we spent at the zoo Drew must have forgotten that he was scared of it to start with, because he ran right after Sammie and Nick to get on a second time.

Before dinner on Friday night here's a couple pictures of Drew near the fishing lagoon on the resort property.

Again, find the boy some ducks, and he's a happy kid.

Daddy arrived late on Friday night and we spent a few hours on Saturday at one of the other resort pools, this one with a water slide. We were fortunate to be there on the weekend that this pool reopened after some renovation, because the slide couldn't have been a bigger hit. Bill and Drew must have gone down it at least a dozen times.

After a few trips down the slide, the sun and 2 straight days of no afternoon naps caught up to Drew and he snuggled up with Dad for a little pool-side snooze.

After naptime and a outrageously priced pool-side lunch, Drew and Nick headed for the sand box near the pool and proceeded to load up, dump, load up, and dump sand for about 20 happy minutes.

Then Drew decided it was time to get back in the pool. Here is his mid-air jumping in with Daddy at his side.

Drew and Dad enjoying a leisurely piggy back ride with the gorgeous palm trees in the background.

Robin and John really wanted to bring their kids to see an Old West kind of a town, so we drove about 45 minutes south of Scottsdale to Rawhide. One of the first things we went to was a "Tales of the Old West" show that included some pretend gun fights, unfortunately with not pretend loud sound effects. Drew was not a fan. So we left that part early. Fortunately he enjoyed the other exhibits/activities. Here he is in front of the stage coach ride we took. We were even lucky enough to sit up on top.

Here's Drew in front of the train ride. Drew and Nick decided it would be a great idea to sit near the front of the train, which sounded fine until the exhaust fumes came pouring into our faces. It didn't seem to faze his excitement level though. Along the train's tracks were several old wagons, some with all 4 wheels and standing up, and others which were broken. Drew pointed out each of the ones with broken wheels and said about the others "But that one not is broken."

Closing out the night before dinner was a sunset burro ride through one end of town.

It was a really fun few days and we'll likely head back to at least the zoo when Bill runs the Tempe marathon in January.

Tumble Tots

The indoor pool that Drew does his swimming lessons at is closed for the month of November, so I started looking around for another activity that Drew might like and could burn some of his abundant energy. While I don't want him to be one of those completely overscheduled children who doesn't even know what to do when they have free time, I do think a class or two here and there is a good way to expose him to different activities, get him socializing with other kids outside of his preschool, and have him learn to listen to other authority figure's instructions. Anyway, I discovered a Tumble Tots gymnastics class. Given Drew's recent love for somersaults and walking on his hands while we hold his feet, we figured we'd give that a try.

I took Drew to a trial class a couple weeks ago to see if he'd like it before we signed up for a regular class. He was thrilled! He went right into the gym area without me and listened to his teachers' instructions very well. The majority of the things they asked him to do he had never tried before, and I thought he picked most of them up pretty well. After the trial class he couldn't stop talking about going back to the gym and jumping on the trampoline, hanging on the monkey bars, etc. etc. Then, the first class we walked into he would not let go of my leg. Fortunately there is a Mommy & Me class at the same time as Tumble Tots so they let me stay with him until he calmed down, which took through the entire warmup and the first station of exercises/skills. The second class, same reaction, but I was able to leave him after just the warmup. It's like it takes him a little while to remember how much he loves doing the activities.


Once again, my camera has failed me in terms of quality photos. I don't know if it's the distance from which I was taking the pictures or the lighting in the gym or the fact that Drew was in motion the whole time, but most of the pictures I took are either fuzzy or awkwardly colored. I was able to do a little something with the dark pictures with my photo editor, and here's a couple anyway.


Drew on the mini trampoline. Before that he had climbed the little ladder in the bottom left hand corner, and that was, by far, his favorite activity of the day. The boy loves ladders. He points them out in stores, on TV, in books. I'm thinking this could be dangerous at some point.




Drew negotiating the mini balance beam. He was supposed to hold the balloon in front of him with both hands, but he needed at least one of those hands for balancing.



Drew practicing a hand stand (aka the Spider Man wall)



With a little help from his instructor he holds it for 5 seconds.


Drew watches intently as his teacher demonstrates the skill of the day on the big trampoline.

Drew gives the seat jump a try. And then, his second favorite activity to the ladder, he gets to jump in the pit of what he calls "comfy blocks".

Not pictured because I didn't bring my camera the first week is Drew "hanging on the monkey bars," an activity he tries to emulate on door handles and the island in between our kitchen and dining room.

Since my camera failed me a bit at the gym, Drew showed off a couple of his other skills here at home.

"Cartwheels" Yeah, I know they don't look anything like cartwheels, but he's getting the idea of putting his hands down and kicking up his legs. He does better with it at the gym when he can watch someone demonstrate an actual cartwheel. Mommy and cartwheels are two things that have never gone together, so Drew's out of luck on that at home.

Crab walking...something I am able to demonstrate and which Drew finds hilarious

This was supposed to be Drew stretching out both his legs up in the air and holding his toes with his hands, but he didn't feel like cooperating. Still, the picture was too cute not to include.

Interesting Tantrum

Before school this morning Drew was in need of a bath, so we poured the bubbles and turned on the water and scrubbed him up. After a little playtime, I managed to convince him it was time to get out of the tub and wrap up in the towel. So I wrapped him, picked him up, and cuddled with him on the couch for a few minutes before moving on to the next thing on our morning to-do list: getting dressed.

There was some clean laundry waiting to be folded next to us on the couch, so I started showing Drew various options for clothes to wear to school that day. His Mickey Mouse jeans, numerous pairs of comfy pants, his second favorite sweatshirt, etc. Drew said no to everything I showed him, then declared emphatically that he wanted to wear his towel to school. I replied "Drew, a towel? To school? That's silly. You wouldn't be able to play because you'd have to hold up your towel all day."

He was not to be dissuaded, shouting even louder no's to the various other clothes options I tried to convince him to wear, and saying "I WANT TO WEAR MY TOWEL TO SCHOOL." I thought maybe Daddy could convince him that it was a little silly to wear his towel to school so we called Bill at work and I put Drew on speaker phone to tell Daddy about his idea for what to wear to school. Bill repeated what I had said, and Drew seemed to understand, but as soon as we hung up the phone and I attempted to tickle Drew free from the towel, the child went running, with his towel of course, to one of his hiding places (between our washer and dryer). The poor kid cried and screamed about wearing his towel to school for a good 10 minutes before finally agreeing to put on some real clothes.

Inside A Child's Mind

Driving home from a short trip to Tucson last night, Drew pointed out the big moon in the sky. Then he asked us whether he could climb all the way to the moon. We explained that the moon was very far away. Seeming to understand that, he very adorably asked whether Daddy was big enough to climb all the way to the moon. When we explained that not even Daddy could climb all the way to the moon because it was too far away, Drew said "When I get very big I can climb all the way to the moon."

More Family Fun in PA

Here's a few more pictures from our time in PA.

Jenn with Madison & Drew

Liz & Madison

Drew after waking up from his post-wedding nap

Drew having so much fun with Aunt Elizabeth and Aunt Jalene that he barely notices Mommy and Daddy are at the reception and not there.

Drew and his beloved new guitar. Grandma Mary and Aunt Jalene found this during their trip to Mexico in August and just knew it would be perfect for the little boy who couldn't get enough of his Uncle Ryan's guitar the last time we visited. They were right--he hardly put it down the whole time we were there.

New day, same game. You can't really see, but Drew is pointing at the big tower, telling Madison to go for it.

Aunt Elizabeth, Drew, & Madison

Aunt Elizabeth, Cousin Madison, Drew (and his stylish hat), and Uncle Ryan.

Apparently all the play time and picture taking has left Madison too tired to even hold on to her sippy cup. Here she is with it just dangling from her mouth.

The trip also included a trip to Aunt Elizabeth's soccer game, helping Grandma and Grandpop in the kitchen, various other family visitors, and too many hugs and kisses to mention. Unfortunately the camera didn't capture them all.

Wedding Day

On November 1st, Bill and I were very happy to attend the wedding and reception of one of Bill's oldest friends Joe and his new wife, Nadia. They were actually married in the same church in Wilkes-Barre in which Drew was baptized.

I decided to bring Drew to the church for the wedding since Bill's friends would otherwise not have an opportunity to see him. Here Drew and Grandma wait for Daddy to walk down the aisle. Fortunately he didn't feel the need to shout out "Daddy!" or anything like that. He was fairly well behaved, though his entertainment during the homily was pulling all my hair in front of my face. Really should have had a photo of that.

Unfortunately the majority of pictures I took in the church turned out very dark or with an odd yellow-orange hue. Here's a not-very-high-quality photo of the newly married couple.


Family shot outside the church

Drew, Grandma, and Uncle Mark outside the church. Since Bill and Joe have known each other for so long, their families obviously have too, so Grandma and Grandpop, and Eric and Liz were invited to the wedding as well.


Unfortunately Eric missed being able to attend the wedding by about a month. As I mentioned in the previous post, he is in the last month of his tour in Afghanistan. Since Bill was occupied with wedding party stuff for the whole day, Liz and I spent the day together. There was a few hours between the wedding and reception, so we headed back to Bill and Mary's house. I changed my dress and Jalene, Elizabeth, Liz and I spent most of that time having girl bonding time over hair and makeup. Here's the end result of our primping.

Jenn & Liz at reception

Jenn & Bill at reception

We took advantage of Bill's sisters' babysitting and stayed at a hotel near the reception hall, even heading out to a bar with other wedding goers after the reception. We stayed out way past our normal Saturday night bedtime, but had a great time (we're not so old after all)! It's always nice to have a date night out.

Our best wishes to Joe & Nadia and our thanks for a great party.

A Belated Recap of our Halloween Fun

I can't remember if I mentioned it or not, but the reason we flew to PA at this particular time was because Bill's buddy Joe, from back in the days of Cub Scouts, was getting married and Bill was in the wedding party, just as Joe was in ours. It worked out well that it was the same weekend as Halloween and Bill's family was able to see Drew in costume in person. Especially nice is that Aunt Elizabeth is young enough to still be of trick or treating age and Drew had a built-in Halloween pal.

So Halloween began with a trip to Aunt Elizabeth's school for Daddy, Drew, and Grandma to watch Elizabeth march in the Halloween parade. You can't see her sash in this picture, but she was dressed as a homecoming queen.

Aunt Elizabeth, Halloween 2008

They returned around lunchtime, just about the same time that Bill's brother's wife Liz and daughter Madison arrived from Delaware (Eric is currently finishing up his National Guard Tour in Afghanistan). We had not seen them since last December just a few weeks after Madison was born when we flew in for her christening.

Liz, Madison & Eric at Madison's christening, December 2007

Godfather Bill, Madison, Jenn, & Drew at christening

While Drew enjoyed seeing his cousin then, he found her to be much more fun this time around. As soon as they arrived Drew requested to hold the baby, something he could not be trusted to do by himself last year.

Then, after a little lunch, Drew discovered Madison is big enough to play now. They quickly developed a routine. Drew builds up towers of blocks, cups, etc., Madison knocks them down, infectious giggles ensue.

Mid-afternoon on Friday someone asked Drew whether his Halloween costume had a hat. Very excited to show off, Drew ran upstairs to get all his firefighter gear and returned with it all in tow.

Here's Drew listening to a radio call. He loved that the radio, which he referred to as a phone, played real fire siren sounds. He stayed dressed in his costume for an hour or so. It's too bad we couldn't have taken him trick or treating at that time. Later on, he wasn't thrilled about wearing his hat. With the time zone difference, Drew was a little out of sorts for the whole trip and we tried not to push it with him when it wasn't necessary.


Finally, it was trick or treating time! Here's a very excited firefighter getting ready to head out!


Grandma, Grandpop, Cousin Madison and Drew

Grandma, Aunt Jalene, Madison, Aunt Elizabeth, Drew, and Grandpop

Aunt Jalene, Madison, Aunt Elizabeth & Drew

Just prior to this picture, Drew very adamantly declared he did not want to wear his hat anymore, and suggested instead "Mommy, you wear my hat." I obliged for the first house or two. No pictures with Bill because he had already left for the wedding rehearsal at the church.

Drew at Grandma & Grandpop's neighbor's house. It was here he realized his fire extinguisher would spray real water and politely asked Mrs. Hart if he could have some water. She agreed and we spent the next 5 minutes laying out the ground rules for the spraying of water (not inside, not at Mommy, not at baby Madison, etc.). The second we stepped outside he sprayed over and over again, all the way down the street, but not at anyone.

Mommy was only able to stick around for the first part of trick or treating, as I had already skipped the church rehearsal and had to meet Bill at the rehearsal dinner. We got back too late that night to hear about the rest of trick or treating, finding both Elizabeth and Drew sound asleep in our bed with a stack full of bedtime stories. The next morning we got the full report about how Drew and Aunt Elizabeth came back, had a few treats, and sorted the remainder of their candy and money. Yes, money! Drew not only collected coins from several houses, but even got dollars from a few folks. "Mommy, I got lot of pennies." Drew tends to refer to all money as pennies, but eventually we were able to get him to at least refer to just the coins as pennies and the bills as dollars. Fortunately Drew received some non-candy treats and didn't get too much candy that Mommy wanted to sample.

All in all, Drew enjoyed his Halloween adventures and remembered his manners when receiving treats. I've never been a huge Halloween person, but it's definitely fun to watch through a child's eyes.