drew stories

Our little Drew. Certainly all parents feel as we do, that every day opens another part of this person's character and his/her idiosyncrasies. Drew enlightens us all the time. (Note: This is a long post and is mostly just a reminder for me to add to his baby book someday and also for those who enjoy hearing Drew stories.)

To start, he's fairly easy going around strangers - actually, he's typically on his best behavior. When we were young, both Doug and I had our shy times. (I'll let Doug tell you about his time spent in the kindergarten cloak room.) My stories are too boring to tell, but they lasted through much of high school. Drew on the other hand will likely never have a shy moment. If he seems shy, he's pretending. He loves people and will say "hi" to just about anyone who looks his way in public. Most people light up with a smile. Someone stopped me at the grocery store recently to say, "You have a pretty special little boy there." I can't say I argued with him.

Now when he is at home with Mom and Dad we can't help but notice his unique preferences. For example, he almost always has to be carrying/holding something. It doesn't matter if he is sitting still (which rarely happens) or on the move. When he was crawling, he would simply adjust his crawl to use his wrists or forearms in place of his hands. Now that he is walking life seems much easier, albeit precarious at times. His initial walk looks like Frankenstein - So to see him walk around with a huge, empty box of cereal and his blankie around his neck like a scarf...well, I don't exactly know what to say about it.

If he's not carrying our recycling items around (ie, the empty box of cereal or an empty juice bottle) he has either a book or the letters T and U. Doug quickly noted, it's actually U & T. UT. Does this mean Drew will stay in Austin when he grows up? I'll take it as a positive sign for now. But really, of all the 26 letters he specifically chooses U and T every single time. This isn't like it just happened a couple of times. Several times each day this happens. I will find the U and T sitting random places in the house where he has left them. The only other letter we know for certain he recognizes is "I". Is he trying to tell us something? Maybe he's asking to go to a UT football game?

Aside from carrying letters around all day he also enjoys manipulating containers. He'll make just about anything a toy if either he or some of his toys (or both) can sit inside of it. The juice containers, for example. These have been HOURS of entertainment - lid off, toys go in, lid on, shake, repeat. Sometimes he has to ask for help: "Hep, hep?" Or a basket we use for toys - he gets made if the toys are in it without him. He'll dump all the toys out and then pick out his favorites to sit in the basket with him.

He's also much like his father when it comes to books. By the end of the day almost all of his books are on the floor - he can't read just one at a time! Again, now that he's walking he doesn't have to crawl with one hand and a book in the other. He can actually walk most of the way from his room to me with a book in hand - now his mouth is running too: "(r)wead? (r)wead?"

And a word update:
Raisins, aka "ya, yas"
Thank you, aka "Deet doo!" (always in a very sweet tone)
Pacifier, aka "Me me" (soon to be dropped from vocab...wish us luck...)
Friend (in sign language only)
Milk, drink, play, ball (words and signs!)
Hot
Cold
Sun
Watch
Stinky (diaper)
Itchy (arms)
Sticky (hands)
Yo-yo
Hair
Easy (learned from Daddy on the changing table)
Careful
Cool, aka "coo"
Cooper (a friend at school), sounds more like "Cookie"
Papi (Doug's dad), sounds more like "Da Da"
And the most exciting to me - MA MA! Although, it's still usually with prompting. Most of the time I just get a very jovial "Hi!" And that's enough. :)

Someday we'll get to see what all these little pieces of Drew add up to mean. Until then, we're enjoying the ride!