Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving 2010

It was a great Thanksgiving! Jamie's sister and family came into town (and not for a funeral! which has been the case in the past). Cristina, Brian, Eric, Devlan, Calvin, and Paris came in from New Orleans (Hailey didn't get to come, she lives in Cali). This was their first time to meet Beck. We were so excited for them to all meet! We were amazed how much Beck loved the boys, and how much the boys loved him. There was never a boring or whiney moment for Beck; he loved all the attention, and so did Momma! Jamie acquired a smoker just days before Thanksgiving, so he smoked the turkey, getting up every couple hours throughout the night to tend to it... come to think of it, I don't think he was up that much with his newborn son!!! But it was worth it! We all agreed, it was the best turkey we'd ever tasted! I got schooled in the kitchen. His sisters, just like Jamie and his parents, are amazing cooks! They taught me family recipes, like chicken n' dumplings. Yum!! His sisters whipped up some amazing food! Let's just say I don't go without when his family is in town, that's for sure! And our favorite thing to do was watch Aunt Cristy bounce Beck's chin. It was hilarious!! Check out the video below. We can't wait til they come in town again!















Friday, November 5, 2010

Halloween 2010






It seemed like a no-brainer what Beck should be for Halloween this year. We used his best asset, his hair, and worked around that. After all, nearly every person over the age of 40 refers to his faux-hawk as Elvis hair. So instead of letting it annoy me, I rolled with it! Elvis it is! Then I decided I had to make the costume. I liked knowing my mom made our Halloween costumes growing up, and it just didn't make sense to go buy one that anyone else could buy. It seemed more fun to be unique. After putting it off for weeks, because I wasn't sure I could pull it off, I finally dove into it the week before Halloween. I bought a white shirt and pants from Once Upon a Child, and gold fabric, glitter glue, and velcro from Hobby Lobby. I flared the sleeves and pants by adding a triangle of gold fabric, decorated the shirt and pants with glitter glue dots, and added a strip of gold fabric to the bottom of the shirt to create a belt. I sewed a gold cape and velcroed it onto the collar. Then I added detail with glitter glue to the belt, spelling out ROCK and drew a guitar, and I added detail to the cape drawing the famous Elvis eagle and spelling out THE KING. When it was all done I couldn't believe I had actually made it. I was proud.

After many urgings from the fam, I decided to enter him into a contest. In downtown Evansville they have trick or treating on Main Street and the local radio station runs a costume contest. Jamie had to work that day, so Mom and Jeff joined us for the contest. He entered the 0-2 yr old category of about 40 contestants. He was 2nd to last, and prior to him getting on stage, the crowd hadn't made much noise for any other contestant; however, when he took the stage they were quite taken by him. A few minutes later, after the judges conversed, they announced Beck as winner for the "most creative" costume. He took the stage again to receive his medal and to bow for the audience one more time. We were filmed by a local TV station as well and made the evening news. It was quite worth it!

On our way home, we stopped by Sprint to trick or treat and surprise Daddy with our winnings! After a nap, Daddy came home and we made our first trick or treat stop at Grandma Janet and Grandpa Scott's house. They were waiting for us! And it was the best stop ever! Grandma Janet had prepared chili and gooey chocolate cake! YU-UM! Next we met the Shockleys at Trunk or Treat so Beck could trick or treat with his bestie, Mason, who was the cutest Charlie Brown ever! Quite the opposite of Beck, Mason's mom drew a hair onto his head, and Beck kept trying to grab the hair (which was draw on with eyeliner). Haha, so cute! Finally we stopped by the Seymore's crib to trick or treat... but the kiddos were already in their pjs, so no pics with them. Sad.

Beck had a great 1st Halloween! And now Mommy has a lot to live up to next year!

Dad/Kid Backpacking Trip


















While Beck and I went to Indy for Laine's 4th birthday party, Jamie and Brooklyn went on an overnight backpacking trip for dads and their kids. They went with Jeff and Avin Seymore, Kyle and Amiah Hanson, and John, Jacob and Joel Alvey. Brooklyn, 14, was the oldest by about 6 years and the youngest was 5 years old. They hiked at Two Lakes in Hoosier National Forest for about 3.5 miles and it took them about 3 hours, stopping many times along the way. They learned this was a bit much for 5 year olds! During the hike Jamie tried to keep things lively by singing Father Abraham. Kyle took consecutive shots of this to give us an idea of what that looked like. Silly Jamie. I didn't get too many details, it was a bunch of guys after all, but I do know they had a lot of fun and intend to make it an annual trip. Jamie already talks about taking Beck!

Friday, October 29, 2010

Beck 8 months
























He can say Momma!!!!! Things are getting exciting! During the 7th month he got his first tooth , he got up on his knees, he went trick or treating, he saw a rhino, he became an athlete, he opened cabinet doors, and he discovered himself in a mirror. Exciting stuff.

He started the month by getting up on his knees one morning while he was playing. He did it for a couple days, and decided it wasn't for him. So he is back to scooting backwards again.

Then he became the first Druelinger athlete. We like to call it an oxymoron. He can roll/throw the ball back. Very talented.

Beck took his first bite! More like a slurp, but whatever. We started with cereal and that went really well, so I was hopeful. Then we tried avocado. The first few times went very well. He seemed to love it. Then he decided he didn't like it anymore. He got a tiny chunk of avocado in one of the bites and he gagged. For about the next 2 weeks he wanted nothing to do with food. I would put the food in his mouth, he would sit taste it, realize it was baby guac and sit there with his mouth wide open, refusing to swallow, green drool running out of his mouth, and whine. So I eventually had to stick a rag in his mouth to soak it up because he wouldn't swallow it. I stuck with it though and tried every day. Finally I decided to puree the "baby guac", as we nicknamed his avocado, and that did the trick! So after about a week of eating pureed baby guac, we tried green beans, and he loved it too! Yay! Then we tried butternut squash, another success! Then I thought I wasn't going to give him sweet fruit, particularly bananas, until he was one, for fear he'd only eat that and not the less exciting things, like green beans. But one day the bananas were sitting on the counter, starring me down. I had a weak moment and thought "it would be fun to just try a bite". And we have this fun banana feeder net contraption that he sucks on and the banana seeps through the net. I was dying to try it out. So with no one around to call me out on my renig, I slipped him the banana. Of course he thought he was in heaven. So now he gets a banana when Momma needs him to stay quiet and occupied, such as at Panera on Girl's Night or at Small Group dinners. The second he sees the net contraption, he goes crazy! So fun!

He and his bestie Mason, had some fun together that month. They went trick or treating together at Trunk or Treat. They were caught making calls to some lady friends on their cell phones. Then they checked out the cool rhino at the zoo on a freakishly hot day in November.

About half way through the month we discovered his first toofer. He always has his bottom lip tucked in now- feeling the tooth we assume. We now think this was why he was SO incredibly clingy and whiney for the past few weeks. Poor fella. While many are excited about the upcoming tooth, I'm a little leery- only lookin' out for myself!

While he had seen himself in a mirror many times before, one day it came to life when he could stand on his own up against the mirror. He was delighted in himself and gave many kisses!

Now that he is getting too big for the Bumbo on top of the counter, he likes to hang out on the rug in the kitchen while Momma does her thang. He LOVES opening the doors and taking all the tupperware out. He likes to do this in his room too. He sits at the bookshelf and takes everything off the shelves and dumps all the toys out of the baskets. Fun times.

And best of all, he can say Momma! No other word has ever sounded so sweet! Too bad he doesn't know he is saying it- haha! That's ok, in my mind, he means every bit of it.