Future Olympian?

Drew's latest session of swim lessons coincided with the start of the Beijing Olympics and it definitely made an impression on Drew. One of the first events we watched was a swimming race and Drew immediately exclaimed "Big arms Mommy! They're doing big arms." Later he commented on the swimmers' ability to "kick all the way to the wall." On our way to lessons one day I asked him if he wanted to do big arms just like the swimmers on TV. He responded "I will try Mommy."

In his last class of this swimming lesson session, the teacher made it more of a free day for the kids. So they donned life jackets (the only day they wear those) and headed outside to the diving pool, complete with 3 diving boards. First they just swam around.


Here Drew practices his backstroke. Look out Aaron Peirsol!














Then he switched over to the freestyle...aka big arms.

Then his teacher asked Drew and the three other children whether they wanted to jump off the diving boards. Drew excitedly said "Yeah!" He and the other little boy even wanted to jump off the highest diving board (3M), though his teacher obviously thought better of that. Anyway, here is a mid-air shot I managed and a video of Drew's repeated trips to the 1M diving board. Look at that form! Pay close attention to his giggle right at the end of the video for an idea of his excitement level. He was so happy. No fear whatsoever. He couldn't wait to tell Daddy all about it. And he's still talking about it, occasionally mentioning with a bit of sadness that "the big one was too high for me." No doubt in my mind he would have jumped off that one if his teacher had let him.

It was especially nice that Drew had swim lessons for the week between his birthday and surgery that my parents were here for. Drew was very excited to show off his swimming skills for Grandma and Grandpa and they enjoyed seeing him in action, especially going down the big slides (all by himself) and jumping off the diving board.


So whether Drew's swimming and "diving" turns into competitive quality remains to be seen, but if they add cannonballing (or maybe more accurately freestyle jumping) to the Olympic slate of events, then, in 2024, look out world!

Doctor Fixed My Thumb

Since we received the information that Drew would have surgery on his left trigger thumb at the beginning of July, Drew has told us (and anyone else who will listen) that "Doctor's going to fix my thumb." After a trip to the dentist he also came out with this gem a few times "Dentist is not going to fix my thumb." We told him we thought that was probably a good idea.

So Friday morning was the big day. Originally the surgery was scheduled for 11 in the morning, with arrival time an hour and a half before that. But two days before the surgery, we were relieved to get the call that, due to his age, his surgery time had been moved up to 9:15. While this made for an earlier morning for Mommy, Daddy, Grandma & Grandpa, it was much easier to deal with the "no food or drink" pre-surgery rule. Drew is usually not awake for more than 5 minutes before requesting his morning milk. We were not optimistic that he would take the no eating and drinking well. Fortunately, we were half way to Tucson before his first requests for milk and we were able to distract him with questions about the things he could see outside his window.

Shortly after arriving at the outpatient surgery office we were taken back to get Drew's vital signs and get him changed into a gown. The vital signs did not go well. Drew screamed and squirmed through the attempted blood pressure reading, the ear thermometer, the oxygen finger reading, and even the putting on of his hospital bracelet.


The pictures to the left are from the room we waited for the doctor in after the horror of vital signs was over. As you can see, we were able to sway his mood from really not happy to mildly amused to showing off his thumb with a smile.

We sang songs, played peekaboo with his blanket, had a short nap, and practiced counting with the stars and stop signs on his gown. He was quite funny about the gown. He kept saying "I no like these jammies." "I need take these jammies off." But then he'd spend the next 5 minutes enthralled by looking for stop signs on the gown.

Anyway, eventually the surgeon and anesthesiologist came in to talk to us. The plan was to take Drew back to the operating room (without us), cover his mouth with a mask to put him out, then do the IV and surgery. After the vital signs tantrum we were not optimistic he would do the mask without us and without being restrained. The wonderful anesthesiologist mentioned that there was a quick shot up the nose (I can't remember the name of the drug) that would make Drew groggy and not remember leaving Mommy and Daddy. Basically a little like being drunk. The only downside was it was supposed to sting when it went in (like snorting

soda out your nose). The doc said most kids didn't like that. Drew, on the other hand, barely reacted. We get more of a rise out of him trying to give him Tylenol in his mouth! So then we just waited for the medicine to kick in and he happily left with the anesthesiologist. While we were waiting for the medicine to work we tried counting again, and as the medicine started to take effect Drew would very groggily say "I'm thinking!" after every few numbers. It was quite cute.

The procedure took just about 15 minutes and we were only in the waiting room for about 45 minutes (with pre-op and waiting for him to wake up). I handled the wait remarkaby well although my parents were amused at my drinking two cups of coffee during that time. I very rarely drink coffee...and I'm not sure the extra caffeine was really what my nerves needed, but I had to do something and I couldn't concentrate on the newspaper or anything like that.

Eventually the nurse came to tell us Drew was awake and we could go back. They let all of us go back to see him, which was nice and, I think, comforting for Drew (Grandma & Grandpa hadn't been able to go back with us before the surgery). He was still pretty dazed when we got back there, but happy to see us and very happy to be able to drink some Gatorade and munch on a few graham crackers. I had wrapped George's left hand in an ace bandage before Drew went in to surgery but after the nose shot and behind Drew's back so he wouldn't notice (they let him keep his Nemo blanket and George with him). But when we got back to him we realized the doctor had really fixed up George's bandage with a sling and everything. So nice of them. The doctors and nurses were all so wonderful. I realize they probably say this to a lot of parents, but they kept going on and on about how sweet he was and how he well he had tolerated everything. They warned us that many children wake up mad after the surgery and very angry about the big bandage, but Drew showed no signs of this at all.



Little man and George after "their" surgeries. Having George bandaged up too really helped with Drew's protests during the car ride home about keeping the "big band-aid" on. "I need take it off. I no like big band aid."

The time in the recovery room was quite brief and we were on our way back home about an hour after the surgery had began. Drew was acting fine other than his protests about the bandage, and I almost thought I might not need to fill his Tylenol with codeine prescription. Thank God I decided to do it anyway. Drew woke up from his nap that afternoon screaming and crying in pain. Heartbreaking to see your child like that. Fortunately the medicine kicked in within 15 minutes and he was happily playing with his train set like nothing had ever happened. He had no side effects from the anesthesia or Tylenol with codeine and even his complaints about the bandage subsided by Saturday morning.


We are very grateful this is the most serious health concern Drew has had in his 3 years and that he did so well with it. Thanks to everyone for your concern and prayers.

Happy 3rd Birthday Drew!

This past Saturday Drew turned 3 years old! Finally I can stop getting the "Are you sure?" looks from people when he would say he was 2. He's just tall people!

Drew has been very excited about his impending birthday. He's been counting down the days until Grandma and Grandpa arrived (the day before his birthday) and has been saying they're bringing him a train for his birthday from the store ever since the phone conversation when Grandma asked Drew what he'd like for his birthday. Quite a memory in that kid's brain.

Since we had big plans for Saturday during the day, Grandma had to make the cake on Friday night, and Drew was, of course, very eager to help. This time he got to lick one of the mixer's beaters. He wasn't quite sure how to approach it at first, but once Mommy demonstrated he jumped right in!

On Drew's birthday, we all headed up to Tucson to visit the Children's Museum.

He climbed...

He made music...Mommy & Drew had a bit of a bongo banging war.

He got quite a kick out of making music with flip flops.

He drove the fire truck AND...the police motorcycle...

He did puzzles...

And he climbed the tree/dinosaur and swung like a monkey!

It was quite a day!

After our morning at the museum and some lunch, we headed home to set up for our little Nemo birthday bash. Drew's teacher had made him a Nemo birthday hat to wear at school so he had that on for a bit. He loved the Nemo blowouts that Grandma and Grandpa found. And he was surprisingly patient when it came to opening presents.

Drew shows off his new 2 in 1 Elmo games.

Drew is all smiles over his new GeoTrax train set (and it's not even out of the box yet). I've never seen him so entranced by a toy. He will play with it for hours.

Drew anxiously waiting as we are singing the Happy Birthday song.

Family shot.

(Mommy should have reapplied some makeup after the museum...)

Drew digs in to that Nemo cake...clown fish are yummy!

Finally, if you'll allow me a little stroll down memory lane, here's just a few pictures from the last 3 August 16ths.

8/16/05: Drew joins the world at the Wurzburg Army Hospital at 10:31 am after 2 1/2 hours of pushing...worth every second once it was finally over. I remember being relieved that he wasn't born during the 6 hour time difference between Germany and East coast time zone.

8/16/06: Drew's 1st Birthday. We enjoyed Chinese food and cake on his actual birthday and a trip to the Columbia, SC zoo and party with Grandma Carolyn, Aunt Katie and Uncle Johnny that weekend.

8/16/07: Drew's 2nd Birthday. Again, we enjoyed Chinese food and cake on his actual birthday and a trip to the zoo (Tucson this time) and party with Grandma, Grandpa and some friends that weekend.

Happy Birthday Andrew!

Baking with the Soon-to-be Birthday Boy

So Drew turns 3 this Saturday. But obviously, no daycare on Saturday. So he's having his "pretend birthday" or "practice birthday" with his friends from school tomorrow and we are bringing cupcakes. After cleaning up dinner tonight we got the cake mix and other ingredients out. Now, we don't do much baking in this house, so opportunities to help with cooking, unfortunately, don't come very frequently for Drew. He was thrilled to be making cupcakes for "all my little friends". He helped me pour the cake mix--no problem. I poured the oil and water into a measuring cup and he picked the cup up and poured each of those--no problem.

Then I got the egg carton out of the refridgerator. Yeah, you know the trouble is coming as soon I say eggs, right? Not quite what you're expecting though. So I tell Drew we need to count 3 eggs. So he points to 3 of them and I say, okay, take them out one at a time. I asked him to put them on the counter, but he had poured the cake mix, oil and water right into the bowl, so surely the eggs must go right in the bowl, too! So, before I can react, Drew throws one whole egg right in the bowl (thank God it didn't break!). I just started laughing hysterically and Bill came in from the living room to check out the hysteria. I don't think Drew had any idea what he'd done that was so funny. But it was at that moment that I realized I really needed to be documenting the birthday cupcake making. So although there's no pictures of the whole egg in the bowl, here's a few shots of Drew stirring and then pouring the eggs (now broken and removed from their shells) and then stirring the batter.

After the batter was all mixed, we started pouring it into the muffin pan and with each one I poured he told me who the cupcake was for. This one's for Priscilla. This one's for Hayden. That's for Miss Jessica. He went through all his classmates and a few of the teachers--so cute! Unfortunately, it's bedtime now and the cupcakes aren't cool enough to eat yet. Poor Drew doesn't think he can bear to wait until tomorrow to have a cupcake. I'm pretty sure Mommy won't be waiting...

Our Weekend in the City by the Bay

Our adventure began at the Tucson airport on Friday morning, where we encountered a bit longer line at the check-in counter than we typically do. Oh well...we had allowed for extra time since we had to park the car and take the shuttle. An agent came out from behind the desk and asked for anyone that had a connection through Las Vegas--that was us, so up we went. She informed us that there was a delay with the flight to Vegas and everyone with connections was going to have to be rebooked on later connecting flights. This was not what we wanted to hear. Our friends from Fort Gordon, now at the Naval PostGraduate School in Monterey, CA were scheduled to arrived around 1ish and our original flight was due in shortly thereafter so we thought we'd have most of the afternoon and evening to spend with them.

The agent informed us she could get us to San Francisco by 3:00. Then...she saw Drew, patiently waiting and holding his huge Curious George, and she said these magic words "Oh, you're traveling with a little one. Let me see what I can do." Bless her heart. She got us on a flight leaving within the next 30 minutes through Phoenix that would arrive in San Francisco by 12:30. We had no time to spare either in Tucson or once we got to Phoenix and we had to scramble to get 2 of the 3 seats together on both flights, but it beat sitting around an airport any day. It may be the only time that traveling with a child has made a trip easier!

We were able to meet up with Rich, Charity, and their two boys almost immediately and spent the rest of the day with them, taking a cable car down to Fisherman's Wharf where we walked through several of the piers, including Pier 39 where the sea lions are known to play. We only saw two, but we did see them.

Family shot in front of one of San Francisco's historic cable cars. They're much smaller than I thought they would be. And my goodness, the lines to get on them!

Does this picture seem miraculous to anyone else? No? Well try getting three little boys to look at the camera at the same time (see below!) and you'll think differently. The boys were all fast friends again. Malachi is old enough to remember us and I think Drew may have remembered Malachi & Jackson from seeing them at Thanksgiving last year. Jackson obviously didn't remember us but is far from being shy so he was happy to hug and play with us just the same.

All the boys at Pier 39

Drew & Mommy on the carousel at Pier 39

3 little boys waiting for our cable car back up to the hotel.

Once we got back to the hotel area (near Union Square) we thought we might hit up The Cheesecake Factory for dessert. Apparently we were not the only ones with that idea, as the wait was over an hour and a half for a table. So instead we walked around the huge Nike store and got cookies at Walgreens.

Saturday morning we planned to meet up with Bill's friend Andrew Doehler for breakfast. He wanted to take us to the Buena Vista restaurant, famous for bringing the Irish Coffee to the U.S., and so we headed off for his apartment. After seeing the very long for the cable car and checking the map, we determined that 10 blocks or so was walkable. We were not factoring in the very famous hills of San Francisco into that decision. As we climbed Nob Hill, Bill with Drew on his shoulders and me with the backpack, we regretted that almost immediately. The first picture isn't very flattering of Drew, but the family shot didn't show the full scope of the hill we had climbed so I had to include both. At one point, the incline of the hill was 45 degrees. I'm pretty sure that's not what Bill meant by wanting to take it easy and not walk much on Saturday...

Doehler gave us a bit of a driving tour of the city on our way to breakfast and I was able to snap this beautiful shot while we were stopped at a red light. Saturday was really a beautiful day and I was beginning to feel silly for having packed a fleece jacket. Sunday and Monday, however, that jacket was one of the best packing decisions I've ever made.

Anyhow, our breakfast was great and the aforementioned Irish coffee very yummy. Then we went to the Marathon Expo to pick up Bill's running bib, t-shirt, and other freebies. From there, Doehler dropped us off at the Exploratorium, where we spent the rest of our morning and early afternoon. Drew enjoyed some of the exhibits, but most were a little too old for him. He seemed to have fun though. He especially enjoyed the water-related exhibits.

Outside the Exploratorium is a lagoon with a very European feel to it. It made me homesick for our travels while we were in Germany. Drew was happy to check out the ducks and just hop around in the grass while Bill and I figured out the way to the bus route that would get us back to Fisherman's Wharf.

After returning to Fisherman's Wharf we found lunch at Boudin's, a delicious clam chowder in a bread bowl. Let me tell you, you can't beat the Sourdough bread in this city.

After nap time Saturday afternoon, we walked just across the street from our hotel to a lovely Italian restaurant where Bill enjoyed the traditional pre-marathon dinner of pasta.

Sunday was pretty much consumed by the marathon (see previous post). After our nap that afternoon, however, we did head back to the Wharf for dinner with Doehler. Bill got a large Guiness to reward himself for his accomplishment and finally got the crab he had been craving. We took a couple pictures by the water as the sun started to set after dinner.

Monday we rose bright and early to check out, store our bags at the hotel, and head down to the water for our Alcatraz tour. Fortunately we remembered to book tickets ahead of time, because when we got to the pier there was a line of at least 30 people that were turned away because they had sold out for the entire day. The audio tour inside Alcatraz was very informative and interesting. I think Bill tired of me asking questions about the movie The Rock with Sean Connery, where he supposedly had successfully escaped from Alcatraz (just one of many movies that Bill cannot believe I haven't seen). The significance of Alcatraz was pretty lost on Drew, but he enjoyed all the seagulls and was fascinated by the potties in each of the cells. Drew also developed quite an excitement over having his picture taken all by himself. On Alcatraz and Angel Island (below) he was thrilled to be able to stand in front of these signs alone and have me take his picture.

One of Drew's beloved seagulls.

This is Bill expressing his displeasure with my penchant for taking so many pictures.

Drew & Mommy in front of the visitation wall.

Bill & Drew outside the main administration building of Alcatraz with the city in the background.

Alcatraz Island from the boat.

As you might have gathered from our jackets, the day was fairly cool and very foggy. This is the best picture I could get of Golden Gate Bridge, and as you can see (or not see as the case may be), not much of the famed bridge was actually visible to us. Of course, Bill had run across it during the marathon so he had a great view of it then. Oh well.

When we booked our tickets the only ones available were those that included the combination tour of Alcatraz and Angel Island, so we did both. Angel Island has an interesting history, having served as an immigration port of entry and military post over the years. We took an hour long tram ride around the island and were able to see the remaining buildings from Fort McDowell, some deer, and beautiful views of the bay.

All in all, I think we were able to enjoy the major highlights of San Francisco in a short amount of time. We rode on multiple cable cars, enjoyed some delicious food, walked around Fisherman's Wharf and up one of the very famous SF hills, took in the history of Alcatraz, and experienced the need for both sunscreen and fleece jackets. It was a great trip.