Balancing Acts

Drew has been practicing balancing lately. Not himself standing up (although he has done it a couple times) but with his toys and balls. He is so proud of himself when he lets go of something and it stays in that position. This is now his new challenge to find the hardest thing to master balancing stuff on. He gets VERY frustrated when he does it the first time and cannot continue to do it every time he tries. Sometimes Logan and I think, "Why is he trying to balance the ball on the that thing? That's too hard." and then he does it! He claps his hands when he does it too, cause he knows he is a smart engineer! I try to help him with his frustration because he tends to just throw everything far away and give up. I don't want him to be a quitter and so I try to help him with his crazy balancing acts. At the same time I don't want him to think he HAS to do it every time, but I also don't want him to give up on his dreams. It can be confusing for me.

I'm also afraid Drew might have inherited this crazy balancing gene, here are a few examples:

Example One: My dad balancing himself on a ladder on black ice to remove the last frozen leaves from the gutter. End Result: broken bones and a mad wife (I did love having my dad home though and we got a new puppy!)

Example Two: My grandpa balancing on the top of a telephone pole to capture an amazing shot of a train. End Result: became famous among his pals (terrifying to think of right!?)

Example Three: Logan's Papaw balancing an upright piano in the back of a pick up truck with only a young Logan's dad to hold it. End Result: broken piano and a great story to go along with many other hilarious stunts

So in the end, it is cute how daring Drew is to try something new but it scares me that I will be hearing, "Look Mom, no hands!" a lot in the next couple years. Not to mention a whole lot of tantrums when stuff doesn't work. This is when I hear snickers from people saying, "Oh I thought she knew everything about kids? Haha we knew she would come to her senses!" They are right, Drew is teaching me A LOT! One good thing is that being a teacher has given me tons of patience! I did always like the little tough boys with the soft spot in their heart for me anyways :)

Here is a video of me trying to encourage him to not give up his big idea. (He had already done it once before I got the camera) It may look like I'm torturing him since he is crying, but notice how fast the tears turn off when he tries again.

9 month schedule

To help my own memory, here is a sample of Drew's day: (not my choice exactly with the wake up hour, but it works okay)
5:45am Wake up & nurse
7:00 breakfast (toast, oatmeal, bananas, cottage cheese etc.)
8:00-9:30 Nap
10:00 Nurse again
10-12 Play, Run errands
12:00pm Lunch
12:30-1:30 Play
1:30 Nurse again
1:45-3:15ish Nap (sometimes it can be closer to 2 hours!)
3:30-5 Play, Go out
5:00pm Dinner
5:30-6:30 Count down til Logan comes home :)
6:30 Logan comes home and does bath
6:45 Nurse last time
7:00 Read books, go to bed!
(I just cut out the 10pm nursing 2 weeks ago)

Of course everyday is different, like for example, the other day he was starved and ate dinner at 4:15pm! He had a meatball, carrots, broccoli, peas, baby food soup, cottage cheese, macaroni, pears (small servings of each but still!) You would think he would be huge but he is only in the 40% for his weight! The day would be much better if he would sleep in a little, oh well. I think it is funny that in my head I still start the day at 7am. I guess wishful thinking isn't bad though, right?

A little bit of lately

This last month has been a blur of teething, crawling, cruising, and croup. We had lots of visitors for Drew's baby dedication and it was so fun to have a break from our normal routine. My parents, Logan's parents, Kris, Tom, and Heather McGrail, Logan's Aunt Cecelia and her friend all came. My mom stayed for a week after and I just loved having her here so much. Kris stayed a couple days too and Meg & Milo came down to visit during the week. It was such a great occasion to celebrate us giving Drew back to God. That's how I viewed it at least, like we were offering to take care of one of God's greatest gifts and promising to do our best. Basically saying that we will give all we can to show him Jesus no matter what it takes. The week was sort of emotional for me because I felt like it started the process of him not needing me at the same time as needing me. Does that make sense? Crawling has given him this new independence because he can now get where he wants to go faster. At the same time, he needs me to protect the area that he crawls and explores. I find this to be a wonderful and challenging blessing as a mom. Now starts the thoughts like, "What about when I can't be there to protect him?" And that exactly is what I mean when I say we gave him 'back to God'. That is the only way to be comforted in him growing up in this world, knowing that God will protect him. Anyways, enough of this sappy sad talk about him being a "big baby". I love this new stage of Drew.
Here are some of his newest tricks and favorite things as a 9 month old:
1. Speed crawls
2. Cruises on furniture
3. Says, "Uh uh" when he drops something
4. Eats dairy!!
5. Gives hugs when you ask him
6. Sleeps though the night and takes 2 long naps!
7. Responds to "Where's your tummy?" by patting it :)
8. Pats my tummy to make a joke when asked to find his tummy, silly guy
9. Makes his stuffed animals 'walk' like his daddy taught him, too cute
10. Laughs hysterically at ANY kind of dog
11. Claps when he is by the computer to listen to music (maybe this was just a coincidence, but it was cute anyway!)
12. Says, "hat" when he sees Logan's baseball hat
13. Says, "eye" and points to every eye he can find
14. His best word is of course, "Da Daaah", I'm working on "Momma" but no luck yet!

At his check-up he weighed an even 20 lbs and was 29 inches long
Here are some pics from this past month: Pose with my mom, playing cars with Milo, sitting in the snow, playing with a silly Grandpa and TomTom and eating berries (I think he looks a lot like me in this one, must be the messy face:)