2 months old

Today was Drew's 2 month well baby appointment with Dr. Reynolds. We had to go to their temporary location because their office was, in their words, "devastated" by Hurricane Ike. Such a harsh word. I haven't driven by their regular office, but I asked the nurse what happened and she said they had roof damage and the office was flooded. So now they are remodeling. Anyway, here are the stats on my little Drewski!

Weight: 12 lbs., 2 ozs. - 50th percentile
Height: 23 inches - 50th percentile
Head circumference: 40 cm - you guessed it, 50th percentile

He's just an average guy! I thought he would at least be 13 lbs. because he has been feeling a lot heavier lately. Trent was a whopping 14 lbs. at 2 months, so we're doing better this time at maintaining a healthy weight for our baby boy. He got 4 immunizations today. One was an oral vaccine that was sugary tasting--he LOVED that! The other 3 were shots. :( He didn't like those so much, but he didn't cry very long. It actually worked out perfectly because they gave him the shots right before he was due to eat, so I was able to soothe him with a bottle right after the shots were over.

Today is Trent's first day back at school and he was so excited! He was ready to go, shoes on and everything, an hour before it was time to go! Usually I have to tell him a few times to go get his shoes on, but that boy was ready to go. He's so sweet.



Here are some pics of Drew.

Sleepy


That smile just melts me!


The chair pic

We're back

Trent, Drew, and I finally made it back home last Tuesday. Things have been crazy with trying to get back into a routine. Trent's school didn't start back until today, and since he only goes Tuesday-Friday, he doesn't start back until tomorrow. We've been playing as much as possible to make sure he's not bored. (Play dates are a wonderful thing!) Luckily, he plays really well by himself, so when Drew needs my full attention, Trent is usually resourceful enough to entertain himself for a while. I took TONS of pictures while we were at my mom's. We had a nice little "hurrication", especially once we knew our house was okay. I'll get right to the pictures because there are lots!

These are from before we left...Drew was just starting to really smile at that point, so of course I was trying to get a good shot of him smiling. No picture does that sweet smile justice though! Here's a couple of attempts at capturing it.

He LOVES the monkey on his bouncer. He just stares at it and is starting to "talk" to it. You can see the monkey on the front side of the bouncer and there's one directly on the other side that he's looking at.

Now here's the pics from when we were up at my mom's.

My Granny holding Drew

Aaron cuddling with Romeo--aww!

Aunt Traci's first time to hold her new nephew

Trent wrestling with Rhett

Watching the Tech game 9/13--Get your guns up!

Me and Drew watching the game

Grams playing with both of her grandsons

Trent and Drew taking a nap together

My 2 best buds (Jennifer and Becky) with Drew

Last Saturday 9/20, my mom, Trent, Drew, and I drove to my mom's best friend Jo Alice's house in East Texas for a visit. Jo Alice has a friend (Teresa) that has a dairy barn nearby, so we went there and Trent got to do some really cool stuff that I know he will never forget!

Trent with Jo Alice's cat Babalu--the cat weighs 22 pounds!

Jo Alice holding Drew

Chasing chickens!

He got to gather the eggs that the chickens had laid. The little girl is Emily, who is Teresa's granddaughter.

He also got to hold a chicken! How cool!

And there it went

Let's go chase it!


Teresa got it back for him.

Watching the cows get milked

Feeding the calves--have you ever seen a happier kid?

Helping Grams cook Sunday lunch

Trent and Bocephus, the deer that thinks it's a dog--at Keith and my aunt Mary's house

The rest of these are pictures I snapped on the drive back home on Tuesday. I'm really glad I already knew that my house was okay because if I had been driving through Houston seeing this stuff not knowing how my house was, I would have been freaking out. I apologize for the quality of some of these pics--I was driving so I would see something and just aim the camera at it and hope I got it in the shot.

I didn't see a single McDonald's sign that was still intact--and I probably passed by at least 15 of them from north Houston to my house. Guess they didn't plan on a Cat 2 hurricane.

Ouch

That's supposed to say "Exclusive Furniture"...it doesn't.

This is at the exit to go to my house. When I left, I could have sworn there was a traffic light hanging from that cable--not anymore.

Drew turned 2 months old yesterday! His 2 month doctor's appointment is tomorrow so I will post stats and pics then.

More Ike

Aaron and my uncle Kenneth drove down to our house today in Kenneth's truck (still waiting on Aaron's to be fixed). In the last couple of days, we have heard from 2 of our neighbors who noticed we weren't home yet and had gone over to look at our house. They both called to tell us that we were missing shingles from our roof. We had 2 of our friends go over and go in through a window that was unlocked just to make sure the roof hadn't leaked, and it hasn't! We had actually given a key to our house to one of them, but he couldn't find it right away, so we just had them go in through the window. So anyway, Aaron and Kenneth decided to go down there today and try to fix anything that needs fixing. Aaron called when they got there and said that the trees are still in the ground, they are just leaning a bunch. They tried to push one of them back up, but it won't budge. Not sure what we're going to do about that, but at least it's still there. I wasn't even expecting that! They were about to take the hurricane shutters down and that was the last I have heard. He will call later with updates. 

I just feel so blessed that we have such great neighbors that care enough to check on our house for us, not to mention wonderful friends that will get into our house through an unlocked window. All joking aside though, we feel very lucky and blessed that we are surrounded by people who love and care about us. This whole experience has been very sobering and eye-opening. Being evacuated from your home, one of the only places in the world that you feel truly safe, is pretty frightening. Thank God we have family to go to in a time like that. And thank God our home and our neighborhood survived what was supposed to be much worse than it was. Keep all the people of Galveston in your prayers. I hope Aaron and I can help them in some way.

Aaron's truck should be ready no later than Monday, so the boys and I will head down then. I can't wait to get back home!

Ike Update

I'll try to make this quick because it's almost time for Drew to eat and I know he'll be getting cranked up soon. We are still at my mom's. I didn't mention the other day that Aaron had a fender bender in his truck on Sunday so it is now getting fixed. As if we didn't have enough to deal with, right? Not much damage but enough to where the tailgate won't open without creating more damage. If it wasn't getting fixed, Aaron would be heading back today with my uncle to assess the damage to our house. However, a friend of ours got back to his apartment that is about 5 minutes away from our house yesterday, and Aaron had him go over to our house to at least check on the outside of it. He said that the only thing wrong was that one of our 3 trees is down. The DirecTV satellite is still on the roof! He did say there were some shingles in our back yard, but those could have come from anywhere. It was too dark outside at that point to see if they were from our roof. He also said it seemed like everyone else on the street has power, so we should too. 

We are still planning on having Aaron go down first just to make sure everything's okay. Plus, the grocery stores are a madhouse from what I hear. There are limited stores open, they are not fully stocked, everyone is trying to shop at the same time, and many stores are only letting a few people in at a time. But who knows--by the time we get Aaron's truck back, everything may be getting back to normal in our area. We just feel so incredibly lucky and blessed that our house didn't get flooded and there is no major damage to the exterior. God is good!

Hurricane Ike

Just wanted to post a quick blog and let everyone know that we are safe from Ike. We came up to my Mom's house in Dallas EARLY Thursday morning before any of the traffic hit Houston. We were pretty proud of ourselves, like we had won a race or something. We actually got here faster than we ever have before on a normal trip!

Here's what we know so far: they are not letting anyone back into League City until tomorrow (Monday) and when they do, they are advising everyone to bring enough food and water to last for 2 weeks. We are fairly confident that our house has not suffered flood damage--no guarantees though. We don't know if power has been restored to our house yet. There are some areas of LC that have power, some don't. No way to know if ours has power until we get there. We are expecting our yard to be treeless (we have 3 young trees in our front yard that I'm pretty sure are not strong enough to sustain 100+ mph winds). We would also not be surprised to find our fence down and our DirecTV satellite ripped off of the roof (maybe with some of the roof taken with it). We have heard from some people that stayed in the area and they have said that our area fared pretty well. So all we can do is wait until we get down there to find out what has happened to our home. That being said, we really don't want to take our 2 small children home to a place that has no power (if that's the case), so we are talking about having Aaron go down first and assess the damage and then my mom would bring me and the boys down as soon as we get the all clear. 

I will try to post updates as often as possible!

So much going on!

I have been bad the last week or so trying to keep up with my blogging! We've had a very busy week--lots of pictures to share! Drew turned a month old on August 28th, and I absolutely cannot believe a month has gone by! I know it's so cliche, but it's true how fast time flies. I'm so glad I'm not going back to work because there is no way I would be ready at this point. He'll be 6 weeks old on Monday, and that's another thing I can't believe. I can't imagine going back to working 44 hours a week, nights and weekends included. No, thanks!

Here's a picture of him at one month old--konked out in the recliner!

We went to Lake LBJ (west of Austin) for Labor Day weekend. Conly's mom has a lake house up there, so we met up with Conly, Amanda, and Ryder for a fun-filled weekend. Laura, Kyle, and their boys were supposed to be there too, but Garrett was sick so just Laura, Kyle, and Carson came on Saturday. We ate way too much all weekend and had such a good time. The guys went out on the boat and went tubing on Saturday while the girls stayed at the house with the kids and gabbed and gossiped all day. It rained for a little while, but not too long. Drew was awake during the day a lot, which was nice. He is such a good baby. Here's a bunch of pictures from the weekend.

Amanda holding Drew

Grilling some pork chops

We call this "Redneck Sack Race"--yes, that's a Miller Lite box

This is what I like to see--the men taking care of the kids!

Drew and Trent chillin' on the floor

Amanda and Ryder

Me enjoying a delicious margarita

Trent holding Ryder

Scary coffee Laura

Conly getting ready to go tubing

Kyle and Laura enjoying the view from the balcony

Conly and Ryder

Trent playing with Carson

Carson was a riot at dinner--he just smiles all the time and we were having so much fun making him laugh that night. Never thought the 6 of us would be sitting around hysterically laughing at a 6 month old!

Drew, Ryder, and Conly--I just love this picture!

Trent and Daddy on the boat

Aaron, Trent, and Conly going swimming

Drew in his swimming duds--he didn't get in the water, but he just looked so cute!

Conly and Trent in the water

The boys in the water

Conly with my 2 boys

Trent had his first day at his new preschool on Tuesday. He really likes it there. Sadly, he only got to go 2 days this week because he has pink eye--fun times. He has been home with me today and yesterday. He goes to school Tuesday through Friday, so only 3 more days of hearing him complain about not getting to go to school!

Here he is on his first day:

It was so nice outside this morning so Trent, Drew, and I sat out on the back patio for a while.

I told Trent to say "Cheese" like he always does, and he said it as a question..."Cheese?" and the picture came out like this:

So cute!

These are from this afternoon....

Baby Drew on the quilt that my sister made for Trent when he was a baby

I got out Trent's old pop-up baby gym for Drew today and Trent helped me set it up...

Wait--I thought this was for Drew!