Go Dog Go!

When I dreamt of having kids, these were the things I dreamed of. Addie Kate has not lacked in live theater, performances, ballets, or anything of the like. Recently, the South Carolina Children's Theater put on a production of Go Dog Go! Since this is one of our favorite books, I signed us up immediately. I loved having an afternoon downtown, just my girl and me. 

 The children (the actors) always come to the lobby for autographs after a performance. Addie Kate loved this little girl dog, and she was precious, so we had to get her signature on AK's playbill.

 

 

We topped off the afternoon with a trip to Spill The Beans, because no trip downtown is complete without it. Thank you my precious girl for another lovely memory. I do love you so very much!

Drive Through

We enjoyed a lovely spring evening with some grilling and good friends. This isn't an uncommon occurrence for us, thankfully we have lots of get-togethers with great friends. But what went on doesn't always happen: 

The kids played on four wheelers, which means two things. 

1 - AK was on the back of a four wheeler with a boy! Only appropriate at this age! 

and

2 - AK drove a four wheeler with a boy on the back! Ha!

 

 They were served a grilled shrimp drive through:

 

Baby boy, although too small for the four wheelers, didn't lack in fun:

Good friends, spring nights, precious children.

Tiger Baseball

In true Sweatman fashion, we decided at the last minute to hop up to Clemson to watch a baseball game. In our defense, we had other plans for that evening that fell through. We were happy to go to Tiger Town in place though. 

Addie Kate is Mommy's girl. When we told her we were going, she asked if we could go before the game to "look in some shops." I kid you not. That is my girl! We obliged and squeezed in a little shopping. 

 

 

We had to fight Addie Kate for something to wear. As you can see above, it wasn't Mommy's top choice. It was a little cool out anyway, plus the game was at six, so we needed her to wear some kind of pants. Her winter pants were already all packed away except for a handful of colorful pairs and these jeans. This was the only thing we could come up with. Complete with flip flops. Bless her.

 

The kids and I played in the grass for a good portion of the game, then came back up and sat with Daddy. Drew fought hard not to fall asleep and I don't think he ever did, although he got pretty comfy.

 Addie Kate insisted on eating some sunflower seeds, since Daddy was and since I did every now and then. She really hasn't mastered "spitting," and only does it when she brushes her teeth (and even then it's messy), so this was quite comical to watch.

We ate a healthy dinner early, and had no snacks at the game (yay!), so we ruined that with ChickfilA after the game. Tommy had never had a banana pudding shake, so we had to get that, and AK had a chocolate chip cookie (although she wanted chicken and french fries, but we nixed that). I looked back at her later and had to get a picture. I like to call this, "The Aftermath." I have no words. She looks comatose, except that those eyes are barely open, watching a movie. A look only a mama can love!

May Miscellaneous (first half)

All phone pics so far from May. It's a shame I have such a nice camera. And that my precious family even got me a new lens for Mother's Day. Because real life is captured on the phone. 

This is a typical mealtime scenario for Drew: 

 Typically don't even know what the fussing is over. Here he's eating bananas - his favorite. Geez. 

Below I was glad for a little cold snap to be able to put Drew in a little Kissy Kissy outfit that I'd bought him and he barely got to wear, because he's still so little. Geez.

 

 Drew-bud got the croup, again,  and Tommy was out of town, again, so I had to take the day off of work. Addie Kate (who quite often ends up in the bed with me in the middle of the night when T's out of town) and I enjoyed a slow morning for a change.

 Another from the night before his first birthday. Just because he's so cute I can't stand it.

 I can't remember how he found this bag of yogurt bites, but he did, and there was no stopping him after that.

 Little man had a blowout at school, and apparently they were nearing the end of the spare clothes, because this was the get-up he came home in.

 

 In our current living situation, we have a little shelf that I brought home from my classroom, that we just put the baby stuff on. It's one of Drew's favorite places. We kept the bottles there, in a big rubbermaid container, and he loves taking them in and out. On this day, he'd gotten hold of the goldfish (My kids adore goldfish. I know all kids like them, but personally, I don't see the big deal.), and much like the yogurt bites, there was no stopping him.

 

 Sleeping... just about to turn one year old. Bless him. 

Tommy's really trying to watch what he's eating, and we have pretty much cut out canned vegetables and most processed foods. So we've introduced some new veggies to the kids. And AK loves them. Here she's eating artichokes. And that little booger was eating them faster than I could peel them and get them to her!

 When it was just Drew and me on the day he had croup, he pretty much ruled the roost. I just couldn't say no to something so cute! Here he's playing with our Apple TV remote, which T cannot stand for him to do because they don't make our same Apple TV anymore. (so if we had to replace the remote, we don't know where we'd get another one) So Tommy, when you read this, I had my eye on it the entire time!

This boy is a monkey. As soon as he learned to crawl, he has climbed. Nonstop. On everything. His favorite thing lately is to climb onto one of their chairs, then over into the other, and back and forth, and back and forth. The other day he was reaching for something past Addie Kate's chair and got so far down that all was left was his feet in the air. He didn't mind a bit, and I thought it was funny, but I rescued him anyway! 

 Laurie and Elliott gave him this puzzle, and I got it out to try to work on his pincer grasp (he can do it, but just chooses to go whole-hand after something), and instead, you see what the booger did with it. Geez.

 One last, dark, picture. I'm so worried about these precious moments of me rocking, more like bouncing, him to sleep are just flying by before my eyes. So I try to capture as many pictures as I can. Now that is peace.

Drew's First Birthday - the actual day...

Since we had Drew's birthday out of town, we really rushed on Friday to get to Lexington. We stopped and had dinner at Bucky's BBQ - one of our favorite, family-friendly Friday night restaurants. I had picked up GiGi's Cupcakes for all of us to celebrate. We knew the big party would be the next day, but we couldn't not celebrate on the actual day. Even Drew's big gift from us (a radio flyer roller coaster - adorable and perfect for the "theme" of his party!) was shipped to my parents' house. Good thing he won't remember and won't be scarred. I truly believe in really celebrating everyone's "Happy Day" as AK used to call it! 

 

 Precious thing was a little confused as to why we were singing to him, in a restaurant! He was also most interested in that cake that was so close... yet so far away!

(a sweet friend of ours gave Drew the shirt. it was her baby boy's!)

Straight for a HUGE handful of icing. He has his mama's sweet tooth, to say the very least. 

 

 

 

Sweet thing. Love that baby reaching out for me.

It was a massacre. Somewhat disgusting to even watch. He looks like he has a big, brown booger coming out of his nose. And I love every square inch of it. 

Happy Birthday our precious little man. You are the most perfect completion to our family. You filled a hole we knew we had, we just had no idea how badly we needed you. We love you so very, very much sweet thing.