Poseidon, look at me now...

After dinner on Friday we took Drew to the El Monte airport to show him the airplanes. We snuck onto the grounds and played amongst the parked planes. I took some great photos with my phone. Here is my favorite:

I did my best to get photos from Drew's birthday up in record time so he wasn't two by the time people got to see them. You can check out the album by clicking here. The shots are from his actual birthday (playing with water in the backyard and the indoor cake sequence) and also his birthday party the following day (the rest). Nothing like a kid thoroughly enjoying a celebration in their honor:



I also threw in a few photos of him wearing Andy's shirt a couple of weeks ago- apparently Andy asked him which pajamas he wanted to wear to bed and this was what he chose (apparently the force was with him).

Today was Drew's first birthday.

He woke up especially happy and we sang the happy birthday song to him. I don't know how he knew that it was a special song for him, but he knew.

After dinner some family came over for cake. Unfortunately (for us, but fortunately for you) this is what "cake" turned into.

Drew's now past the 11 month park and creeping up on his first birthday. It's crazy to think back on how much he's changed and learned since last May. He has graduated to being an official walker and abandoned crawling completely, which makes him seem very grown up. He's even been picking up his knees a bit and no longer looks like a bow-legged cowboy swaggering from place to place (although he does still toddle quite cutely). He's also starting to run which I think officially seals the fate of my sanity for the next couple of years.

In true Drew fashion, he's on to his next accomplishment now that walking is checked off his list, and he is talking like CRAZY- he has a vocabulary of at least 100 words and it's growing every day (even though most of them resemble the sound "buh" and can be hard to differentiate extra-contextually). He answers questions and gives directives like telling us to clap or sing the Itsy Bitsy Spider song, his favorite of the moment. He'll tell you what a bird, a dog, a cat, a monkey, an elephant, a cow, a car and a phone say. And of course he is quickly learning the infamous "no" (or as he says, "doe!") as he has begun to see what boundaries are firm and where he can push the limits. Babyhood is officially behind us and toddlerhood looms large...

I posted an album of our favorite photos from the past month- click here to check them out.

Here are some great videos that we took of Drew last week.
We hope you enjoy them!

Drew the drunken sailor

Drew rolls around at the arboretum

Drew walking at the arboretum I

Drew walking at the arboretum II

Drew walking with a balloon

Drew afraid of the baby chicks

Drew and the baby goat

Drew pets a pig

Drew and Mari reading

Our camera has been in and out of function due to a lens issue that we won't go into for fear that I might lose it on an irate tirade, but I have finally managed to get it together anyways to upload a bunch of photos we've taken over the past month or so, and I wanted to at least let folks know about that. You can click here to check them out.

Drew is ten months old today (whoa!) and talking and walking up a storm. He likes to call all toys and fun things in the world "ball" (Manu included)- other than my coffee, which he calls "hot". His favorite thing to do each day is to hang out in the back yard sucking on rocks and rolling in the dirt while we throw the ball for Manu. The two of them always wake up from our afternoon nap chanting "ball, ball, ball" until I concede and we venture outside.

Drew's other favorite activities include playing hide and seek around corners of the house, and hiding under the dish towel in the kitchen until you walk by and he jumps out to say boo. It's really fun to see him purposefully choosing to play games and amazing how much more he comprehends and communicates every day. He really enjoys playing with other kids, especially BIG kids (aka toddlers), and continues to lust after musical instruments at every turn.

Drew has also begun to sing along to songs, particularly when we're driving in the car- it's very cute to hear him in the backseat singing "lalala" along with ACDC on the radio. Must be all the classic rock I listened to while he was in utero (the first time I felt him kick to music was while I was listening to Meatloaf- maybe such appreciation is genetic).

We just found out last week that Drew is anemic, which is a bummer but hopefully not a long term issue. He's now being forced to take iron supplements every day which taste to me like the equivalent of licking a rusty pipe, but he's reasonably good-natured about it, so I guess I'm glad it's him and not me (although I'm sure I'm anemic as well and that's probably part of the problem).

Otherwise, we're doing good. Here are some of my favorite pictures from this month for easy access viewing:

We captured a few of Drew's first steps about a month ago, and finally got around to posting them.

More to come. Enjoy.

Drew has finally been living for as long outside of me as he was inside of me- he hit the big nine month mark on Sunday. I didn't write sooner because he was miserably sick last week but fortunately he seems to have completely recovered and is back to his happy-go-lucky self.

We went in for his 9 month checkup and found out that while he's been pretty stable on weight (23 and a half pounds) for the past couple of months, he's managed to grow almost 3 inches- he is now just about 2 and a half feet tall (29.5 inches). Weird to think that he's almost half my height!!! (I'm taking a shot in the dark and saying that he's probably going to be taller than me as an adult, based on his current trajectory.) Also, just so those of you who have been waiting with baited breath can sigh and relax, an update on his head circumference- he has apparently been putting a lot of cell division into his cranial growth, and he is now well into the 50th percentile rather than the 20th, so we're no longer concerned about his pea-brain. All in all, he's healthy and happy and growing like a blond little weed, so no worries.

Despite a slight hiatus from walking while he was mopey and sick (during which he insisted that I carry him in my arms 24 hours a day, and wallow in his misery with him, and NOT try to do anything as insulting as trying to entertain him or force him to play or sit on his own) he's on the walking thing like nobody's business. He has decided it's his preferred mode of transportation and is as pleased as punch with himself. He rounds corners and comes bow-leggedly hobbling towards you with a huge grin and repeated gasps of elation at his new-found abilities. Fortunately, being a baby, he's not the least conscious of how self-impressed he comes across, so he's reveling openly in his delight at this new skill. So much for the little bit of reaction time I've been afforded up until this point. Now he's across the room and out the door before I've even realized he was going somewhere. I can only imagine this will get worse before it gets better, when he figures out how to run (tomorrow?).

In true Drew form, now that he's decided he has mastered the walking thing, he's moved on to the next big task, which is communicating. He is using "Dada" and "Mama" to refer to Andy and I and exclaiming "oh WOW!" and "whoa!" to everything else he finds exciting or interesting in the world. I think he might also be giving me a window into the inner workings of his mind, as I've also noticed he tends to use the word "mama" to refer to food of any kind- not too surprising since I've been his 24-7 all-you-can-eat buffet since his cells began dividing. We also think he's working on saying "Manu" (although this of course sounds a lot like "Mama", which I try not to take too personally) and he's starting to pick up other little tidbits here and there. He has both spoken and used the Sign Language word for "ball" in the past couple of days, which totally took me by surprise since I've been inconsistent at best in signing to him. I guess the moral is that when he's ready to put his mind to something, he does whole-heartedly, so he's giving it all of his energy and it's really showing- so when hanging around Drew, don't say anything you wouldn't want to hear him mimic back to you

Our other (bittersweet) news is that Webster has been living with a wonderful new owner for the past week and they have mutually decided to make the arrangement permanent. We are of course very sad to see him go but are thrilled for him that he was able to find someone who has the time and the energy to give him all of the attention and exercise that he was missing out on here with us. The house is MUCH quieter with only Manu around, as she's much more "mature" (aka lower key) to begin with, and there aren't any more doggie wrestling matches daily in the living room. She seems a little lonely but also a little relieved to finally have all of our dog attention focused on her where it rightfully belongs, and not to have a pesky younger brother chewing on her face while she tries to sleep. I'm not sure what it says about our lives that a nine month old and a 55 pound puppy bounding around the house bring to mind the term "quiet"... but I guess it's all relative.

We have finally gotten our camera lens fixed and have tried to get back into the swing of documenting Drew's every milestone, although I must admit that capturing him moving around the house is significantly harder than catching him laying or sitting around as an infant. At any rate, I wanted to share a few more recent pictures of him, since we haven't put any up for a while- here are some cute closeups of him (don't worry, it's a clean diaper- he's taken to raiding my bag whenever I'm not looking):









We filled out an application for Drew's first passport this week and took some photos of him to send in. It was a great series of shots, and while we didn't ultimately go with this one because it looked to me like a mugshot, we thought it was pretty great:

Just to let you all know. The pictures portion of our site will be down for the next few days. We are migrating to another web host.

The error on the right hand side is normal, and you should expect to see that while we are migrating. In the meantime the blog will work as expected.

Hey fans. I just wanted to let you know that I made a new walking record today- SEVEN steps all on my own before I fell over! I'm determined to make it from the couch to the baby gate and Grandma and Grandpa's house- about 8 feet. I'll be here all week so I've got lots of time to practice. Look out- I'll be chasing you around in circles in no time!!!

We spent our first family weekend together up in the mountains this past week and both Drew and Webster got their inaugural tastes of snow. (Literally. Drew was mainly interested in licking it.) But we were pretty excited that there was any snow at all after our heatwave of late, let alone enough for a small one to savor, so we were excited at the opportunity to romp. We rented a little cabin and spent our days snow tromping, sledding, and taking copious naps. I have to say that Drew was somewhat unimpressed with this supposed milestone- speeding downhill win a toboggan didn't even elicit a response- but perhaps it had to do with the fact that once he was all bundled up in his snow gear he couldn't so much move, so it reduced him to a semi-vegetative state. Even so, he was pretty darn cute and enjoyed himself as always!







We also decided after viewing the following picture that his mullet had become unruly and it was time for a "real" haircut, which I gave him upon our return. (I also think his expression here is PRICELESS.)



The new haircut makes him look very grown up and fansome. Sadly, our camera lens didn't like the cold and is now in the shop for repairs, but we'll get some pics of his new "big boy" look up soon.

Meanwhile, he's also acting very much the big boy, cruising all over from one piece of furniture to the next, pulling up on Manu as she walks by, and even taking individual solo steps (which always end with a move that reminds me of a surfer trying to hold onto his balance and then... capsizing). He's very determined, however, and will (yikes) probably be walking imminently. 8 months has gone by SOOOOO fast- he went to his first birthday party for a friend today and it sunk home that his will be here in no time. Wow.

Andy posted some of our favorite photos from our trip to Hawaii- click here to check them out. Also, while we were there we took some family portraits since it's the first time in a LONG time that the entire Bennnett-Berkelhamer-Godwin-Leibman-Lansford-Arnold-Houck clan has been in the same place at the same time (I'm guessing the title says it all on the "why?" front...) Here's our favorite photo of the three of us:

We returned a couple of days ago from a FABULOUS vacation with my family in Kauai. In addition to two sets of grandparents, both of my sisters were there with all their kids, which made for a full and exciting house. Drew had major walking envy hanging out with his cousins and his latest move is what we call the "pirouette face-plant" where he pulls up on a piece of furniture and then, convinced he can walk, turns around, lets go, and swings his leg out to take a step, but unfortunately falls flat on his face. It's surprisingly graceful (except for that last bit). He's bound and determined, though, so knowing Drew he'll master it in about a day or so.

We had a great time lounging around at the beach and snorkeling, and Drew digested enough sand to last him at least until the summer, if not until our next Hawaii venture! Here's my favorite pic of him enjoying the all you can eat sand buffet:



We also checked out the sights all over the island- here's Drew and I in front of the local blowhole, the spouting horn- only about 2 miles from our house, and Drew was a trooper about our walking there:



Drew and Daddy checking out the spectacular Waimea canyon:



Mommy and Drew on the Kiahuna Plantation railroad train, watching the big kids feed the wild pigs:



Drew particularly loved the luau we went to- and was especially keen on the fire dancing (must be his Samoan roots)- here's a shot of him with one of his favorite performers. This guy weighed at least 300 pounds and was super intimidating when he danced but between routines he was making funny faces and entertaining Drew backstage (our kid can turn anyone to putty):



Andy will post lots more pics this weekend but I wanted to get a couple up. Also, just because it's the cutest picture yet of Drew, had to include this one:



Who could resist that face?

Drew has started pulling up, and we thought you all would like to see him in action.