Dance Look-alike Meter

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Our Little Sickie

What's an outing to Chuck E. Cheese without catching some sort of communicable disease? Drew has come down with Croup and I'm sure that's where he got it. He woke up (fell out of bed really) a few days ago with a fever and a barking cough. We put him in our bed and he started throwing up then the tears came. He just wasn't feeling good at all. So I took him to the doctor and she determined he has croup. After a visit to Brent at the pharmacy to stock up on drugs we went home and Drew slept all day. He couldn't even stay awake to watch Thomas the Train! I think he's on the tail end of it right now but we've been home for the last 3 days so I am looking forward to him feeling better so we can get out again. I know he doesn't like being cooped up either. Luckily Avery has not caught it so I may have dodged that bullet. Here's our pitiful little sickie.

Where a kid can be a (crazy) kid

We ventured out to Chuck E. Cheese this weekend with some friends. Like most kids Drew loves going there. We never eat, we just go for the cheap games and unruly children. Avery was completely thrilled to be there.

When she wasn't trying to eat the tickets Drew had won, she loved watching all the action around her. This is the difference between Drew and Avery at this age. Too much excitement made Drew throw up. Avery loves to be in the middle of things and enjoys all the excitement and chaos. She even got to sit on a ride and loved going up and down.

This time Drew found a new game where you stand on a platform with pictures of spiders and when the spiders back lights up you stomp on it and "squish" it. We must have stayed at that game for 30 minutes just pumping it full of tokens.

And what would a Chuck E. Cheese experience be without random children abandoned while their parents chat on their cell phone or zone out at the buffet somewhere on the other side of the restaurant? Drew was having a great time minding his own business at the spider game when this little girl coughed up from out of nowhere and jumped on the platform. Drew didn't know what to do so he got off. He stood helpless on the side saying "Hey, it's my turn!"

I never know how to approach a stranger's children. Especially when they don't respond to your calm request to knock it off or go away. Do I scream at her like a lunatic and hope her parents don't see me or do I meekly ask her again to wait her turn? At what point can I physically remove this child from the game that my child has paid for? I kept asking this little girl to wait her turn as Drew was not done yet but she looked at me like I was speaking Chinese and continued stomping on spiders while Drew helplessly looked on. Finally she jumped off the platform and headed strait to my stroller and climbed on it to play with Avery. I had to physically remove her because she just would not listen to me politely asking her to get off the stroller and out of my baby's face. She could not have been more than 3 years old. Where was her mother?! But anyways, I digress.....

We took a break from the spider game and ventured out to other games. Drew found a drum set that he enjoyed playing on.

Wait, who's that in the background? Oh --she's back. She must have been kicked off a different game by another annoyed parent. This little girl was just running around alone jumping in on everyone else's games. Seriously,where are her parents?!

Drew loves to play all the games with his dad and I don't know who's the bigger kid while we're there: Brent or Drew

Drew won lots of tickets throughout the evening and was able to pick out some fun prizes.
We all went home exhausted and happy and I was surprised that the little girl was not waiting at our car for a ride home.

Our Hero

I often get comments from people remarking how great Brent is with the kids. Some women are truly surprised at how involved he is with Drew and Avery. I have had several people at church remark about how sweet it is to watch Brent with Avery because they can tell that he truly enjoys holding her and taking care of her. I am very blessed to have a husband that is so great with our kids. A friend of mine once said that her husband receives a hero's welcome from his kids when he gets home from work and that's the best way to describe what happens at our house at about 6:15 every night. As soon as Drew hears the garage door crack, he drops what he's doing and yells "Daddy!" He excitedly runs to greet him and is very happy to have him home. And it doesn't matter what time of day it is for Avery. Anytime she sees her daddy, she lights up like a Christmas tree. It's a mutual admiration really--She has him wrapped around her little finger. To Drew and Avery, Brent hangs the moon. And I have to agree, I think he's pretty great too. So this is my little note for Brent: You are the hero in our house and we appreciate all you do for us. We are blessed to have you as a husband and dad and we think you're "totally awesome!" (as Drew would say). You're the best! We love you more today than yesterday but not as much as tomorrow.

Adventures in potty training

We've been trying to potty train Drew for some time now and this weekend we put a major effort into it. We've tried lots of different things to get him to go but nothing has worked. We took the advice of a friend and set up our little DVD player on the toilet so Drew could hang out there as long as it took to go to the bathroom. He loves it but needless to say, he has already watched several movies and the toilet is not seeing any action. Of course as soon as we put the diaper back on, he unleashes everything he's been holding while watching his movie. In an effort to show him that other kids use the potty too, Brent decided to put Avery on the toilet and show Drew that even Avery can use the potty. In one of those "Too cute not to share" moments, I have posted pictures of little Avery sitting on the potty. She quite enjoyed it and I'm afraid she will be potty trained before Drew at this point!

A Bouncing Baby Girl

The year in review

I intended to send out Christmas cards but obviously never got around to it. So then I was going to send out Happy New Year cards and well, as you can imagine that didn't get done either. So I decided to just post something here on my new blog. We'll see if I can figure out how to get pictures in here and maybe a video.....

2007 was a very eventful year for us. We spent the first half of the year waiting for our second bundle of joy to arrive. She was 2 1/2 weeks past due when I was finally induced so I was very happy to meet her when she decided to make her debut. (Brent wanted me to hold out until 7-7-07 but with an unexpected c-section, Avery had different ideas.) Avery McKay Dance was born on July 6, 2007 at 10:14 pm weighing 7 pounds 12 ounces and 20 inches long. She was only a half ounce bigger than Drew and looked exactly like him when she was born--at least for the first 24 hours. I didn't get to actually hold her and inspect her until a couple hours after she was born and I was surprised to lift up her little cap and find hair! Dark hair! I asked Brent if they brought us the right baby and he assured me that they "tagged her" as soon as she came out. Drew was a baldy and his hair is so light so I was surprised to have a baby with hair right off the bat.

She is such a joy in our lives and we love having her in our family. Drew has done very well with her and you can tell she just adores him. She lights up when he is in the room. Brent is also one of her favorite people. She gets so excited and just about comes out of her skin when she sees him and she gets very upset if he leaves the room. She's definitely a daddy's girl. It's fun to have a boy and a girl because I get the best of both worlds. Drew is very much a boy with his cars and trains and rough and tumble. And Avery is just adorable in all her girly bows and outfits. My dad says I have my very own Barbie doll. Barbie was never this cute!

In September, Drew got to meet Thomas the Train and I think that was the highlight of his year. He was very excited and we actually got out of the event without spending more than $20 on souvenirs. It was a fun day for us all.October brought Avery's first Halloween and Drew's first opportunity to pick his own costume. You can imagine what he chose.

Drew turned 3 this year. Between family, friends and school, he had several parties . His friend party was at Jump-N-Jive, one of his favorite places. He loved being able to run around with all the kids and climb on everything. I loved not having to clean up!

Now he's a Sunbeam in Primary! Since I am the Primary pianist, I get to see him in his big boy class. It's so cute. Where has the time gone?!

December of course was Christmas and Santa was very good to Drew. This is the first year Drew really got the whole Santa gig so it was really fun. He was quite excited that Santa snuck in while he was sleeping. We were able to fly up to Seattle to visit Brent's family and Drew and Avery had the opportunity to reacquaint themselves with and meet a lot of their cousins.

We had a fantastic trip and enjoyed being able to see our family.

Aside from the other holidays and trips we took, our year was sprinkled with little things like Drew proudly announcing that he had found the lotion when in reality it was the tub of Vaseline in his room.

Or the time he found his sticker book and decided to decorate himself.

Or how about when he started church fully dressed and by the time I picked him up from nursery he had no socks or pants on.

Oh, the joys of boys. Good times, good times. There's never a dull moment with Drew around and I love it. I can't think of a better calling than being a wife and mother and I am so grateful for the blessings I have. I love every minute with my family. We look forward to what 2008 will bring and hope you all are doing well!