Labor Day

We had a busy but fun Labor Day!  It started with a going away BBQ for Craig's brother Jeff and his wife Lori Anne.  They are moving to Albuquerque!  We are so sad to see them move so far away.

Andrew is giving kisses to baby Abby on Grandma's lap.  Abby is now 7 months old- time goes by so fast!  We will miss Jeff, Lori Anne and Abby!  But we are looking forward to seeing them again at Christmas.

Andrew and cousin Jack playing at the sand table.

This picture cracks me up.  Andrew and cousin Brooke were hanging out in Evie's room playing with her girly toys and watching some princess mermaid movie (which I would have no idea about, you know, since Andrew is a boy!) Apparently he is in touch with his feminine side!  Ha!

And then there were six!  Three girls and three boys.  This is a very rare cousin picture moment!  I bribed them all with fruit snacks!  Ha!  And can I just point out my kid's skinny little bird legs compared to everyone else's??  We just cracked up laughing about it!  He is the second oldest in this picture but you'd never know it!

After a great time with Craig's family, we headed up to Clear Lake for the rest of the weekend.

Andrew's favorite spot to sit on the boat (besides the driver's seat!  Ha!)  He looks like he's in deep thought here.  I love it!

This is a pretty fun hiding place!  We thought he might lay under here and fall asleep, but mostly he just liked to play!

Ah, picnics on the boat.  This was probably our last one.  There's just nothing like it.

This was our last real boat ride of the season, besides when we go up to take the dock out.  It was such a bittersweet day.  Labor Day always is, because it marks the end of the summer for us.

Andrew drove the boat...

While daddy relaxed with a magazine!  Ha!

Andrew was being a stinker and honking the horn a million times and trying to pull out the keys!

As you can see, he thought it was hilarious!

(Just in case some of you are wondering, the boat was just floating and the motor was off this whole time.  We really don't let him occupy the driver's seat this much when the boat is in motion!)

Relaxing with Ga Ga and Papa... seriously, the boat was still not in motion.  Because we would never lay on the back of the boat if it was, Ahem.  It's one of our favorite things to do.  Float in the middle of the lake, eat, read and relax!  My mom and I used to spend hours soaking in the rays on the "tanning barge," as Craig lovingly calls the boat!  Ha!  We've just added a few more people to the crew, one being a very active three-year-old.  But he does pretty well!

It was a goal of my mom's and mine to get him accustomed to the boat at an early age, so he'd learn to love it as much as we do!  I think we succeeded!

I realize it looks like all we do on the boat is eat and sleep!  But honestly, that pretty much sums it up!  We do drive around once in a while (Ha!) and Andrew loves to go fast.  I just keep my camera tucked away most of the time during those adventures!

After boating we headed to check into our hotel.  And decided to go for a swim!  It was a little chilly on the lake to go swimming so we did the next best thing!

My big boy, swimming all by himself!

I love this picture of his little leg kicking!  He kicked and swam halfway across the pool between Daddy, Ga Ga, Papa and me!  

He got really excited when he discovered he could back float, too!

We all had a great time swimming

After swimming we got ready and went out to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner.

I had to laugh at how serious he was wearing this hat.  It couldn't be more true!  Ha!  He was contemplating what to order...

And concentrating so hard on coloring...

and goofing around with Ga Ga!

Then we went to Target.

When we got back to the hotel Andrew watched a movie while Papa made popcorn.

All of us enjoying the popcorn party!

Andrew calls it "copcorn" and he now understands that popcorn and movies go together.  He thinks you can't watch movies without it!

I think we finally all crashed after a long and busy day!  We crammed a lot of stuff into one day, but it was so much fun.

On Monday when we got up, we ate a delicious continental breakfast, and went shopping again.  We hadn't planned on taking a boat ride but we still had to go back and cover it.  When we got there, it was too beautiful on the lake not to take a ride!  So we did.  Andrew napped on my lap this time.  And I left my camera in the car.  Sometimes you just have to enjoy the moment, ya know?

And while we were shopping, Andrew spotted these and there was no way we were leaving the store without them... 

Trust me, there's another blog post about this!  Coming soon...

Hope you all enjoyed your holiday weekend!

Back to School

Can you tell it's been hectic around here lately?  No updates for a whole week!  Ha!  Last week we officially started back to school.  All 3 of us!  I'm not gonna lie.  It's been a hard adjustment.  We went from sleeping in, snuggling in bed, staying in our jammies all morning, walks to the park, trips to the pool and picnics on the boat... to getting up at the crack of dawn, rushing out the door, being busy all day and hardly ever seeing each other... at least not all 3 of us at the same time.  I miss that.

Did you notice Andrew got new hearing aids?  He picked out blue ones and we love them!  This was Andrew's first day of day care last Monday.  He was pretty excited to see his friends, even though he was NOT happy when we woke him up about 2 hours earlier than he was used to!  Summer spoils us!

His eyes were shut in this picture, but I love his smile!  This is a typical "look" we get a lot!

Why is the year just starting and I already feel like Andrew is all grown up?  Last night I went to an open house at his day care and his teacher there said she couldn't believe how much growth he has shown even since last spring.  

We have noticed it too.  He talks our ears off.  He is always excited to tell us about his day and what he did at school.  He is finally talking in full sentences and you can actually carry on a conversation with him and it is so fun.  His precious little voice just melts our hearts and we love listening to him talk!  It was slow to come, but he's making up for lost time now!  And when he talks, he wants our full attention and wants us to respond to what he's saying.  So we better not be on the phone, or having a conversation with each other, because he'll repeat himself louder and louder until we acknowledge him!  Ha!  (I wonder where he gets this stuff?)

 His preschool teacher emailed me this picture of him working on his first day of school.  So sweet!  She said he sits and listens during group time and has had a fantastic week at school.  I am so proud of him.  (Considering last year when he started day care for the first time he was running around the room yelling and chasing kids during group time!  Ha!)  Last week he brought home the sharing bag and we sent his autograph book from Disneyworld, along with Goofy.

Here he is sharing it in front of the class.  This is what his teacher wrote me in an email about it:  He did great, he was very excited about goofy.  After sharing I let him hold goofy during group and he was very animated with him and singing the songs!  It was very cute!  His teacher is so sweet, she frequently emails me to let me know how he's doing.  I love hearing all about his day and it just makes my day to hear from her!

This picture just makes me laugh. I can just picture what he was doing!  Ha!

I can also cautiously say that he is officially potty trained...finally!  He had two accidents the first day at day care, but after that something clicked and he's been dry all day (not to mention all night too!) ever since.  We are so proud of him.  I just simply cannot believe that my baby is grown up enough to be potty trained and ride the school bus to preschool all by himself.  Where did the time go?

As hard as it is going back to school and getting into the routine again, I am convinced it is the best thing for Andrew.  He just thrives and has grown so much and learned so many new things.  Things I just couldn't give him if I stayed home with him (as much as I would love to!)  The social interaction.  Learning to sit and listen to a story during group time.  Just the basic routine of school.  He needs it.  

And knowing that he's getting it every day makes it just a teensy bit easier to drop him off in the mornings.

This was our official first day of school.  Mommy off to teach her 4th graders and Andrew off to preschool for the first time!

I wish time could just stop for a while so I could enjoy him longer at this age and he wouldn't grow up quite so fast! 

Raffi

*UPDATE:  For those here from Facebook, this is an old update from the first time we lost Raffi.  He was found after this, but he has lost him again and this time has not been found.  He has a replacement (the one from the picture in this update), this story is the reason we bought the replacement years ago.  It is just still not the same, as he never loved it like the original.  Thank you for helping by sharing posts and caring about this story!

Those of you who have followed this blog for a while know about Raffi, Andrew's nighttime blankie giraffe that he sleeps with every night.  Raffi has been on many adventures with our family, and I figured his latest one is worth documenting.  It seemed fitting for Raffi to have a post dedicated only to himself, since he has basically been a member of the family since day one.

 Raffi goes everywhere Andrew goes...to day care, to grandma's house, on family vacations...you name it.  It has always been a concern of ours, that if we were to ever lose Raffi, Andrew would never sleep again!  Ha!  There have only been a handful of nights in his whole life that Raffi hasn't had his special place next to Andrew in bed.

One day I came in when he was napping in his crib and found Raffi on his head!  I just laughed and laughed.

 Raffi has been left in hotel rooms, and misplaced many times.  Many nights we have scrambled, searching the house for Raffi at bedtime when we are determined the bedtime routine has to go smoothly.

It just doesn't go smoothly without Raffi.

When he was a baby he would purposely throw Raffi on the floor and then cry for him.  His sneaky little way to get mommy back in his room at nap time!  Ha!
Raffi has followed Andrew from his crib, to toddler bed, to big boy bed.

 This was his first night in his toddler bed, Raffi in a tight grip.

One of many nights spent at Ga Ga's house.  One night we sent him to my mom's overnight and forgot to send Raffi.  My mom could not get him to sleep for anything.  We don't make that mistake anymore!

We have said many times, while on the search for Raffi, that he needs to stay in Andrew's bed, so we never lose him!  But he always ends up somewhere else.  Andrew carries him out of bed in the mornings and brings him to cuddle, wherever that may be.

Many times we find him twisted around the sheets in our bed after Andrew has snuck into our bed in the middle of the night been in our room (for something other than sleeping, because we certainly wouldn't let him sleep in bed with us.  That would just create a hard habit to break.  Ahem.)

Raffi has joined us on many car trips...

 And he has accompanied us on countless trips to the hospital for Andrew's surgeries and procedures...

And has gone to "school" with him almost every day.

This is one of my favorite pictures of him heading to school during his first week last year.

 Sometimes Andrew has fun being silly with Raffi...

They are just best buds!

I have tried multiple times to wash Raffi (because you can imagine how dirty he gets!).  You might notice from the first picture how nice and clean he was.  He's starting to look pretty beat up.  Andrew gets kinda mad when it is Raffi's "bath time" and we watch him through the window of the washing machine.  He's all matted and just not fixable anymore.

Andrew could care less.

So, I have looked everywhere for a replacement Raffi.  You know, just in case.  We've had too many close calls.  It is an old Carters brand and they don't make the exact same one anymore.  They have one similar, but Andrew knows it's not the real Raffi and calls it "Baby Raffi."

Then we found him a Mickey Mouse blankie, thinking we could take it to Florida instead of risking losing Raffi in another state.

He just calls it "Mickey Raffi"and plays with it from time to time.  He definitely knows the difference.

The bottom line is, there is just no replacement for the real Raffi.

Andrew was having none of it.

Raffi went to Florida.

And that is where his latest adventure begins...

He almost didn't make it back.  Or at least we thought.

Somewhere between checking out of our Disney hotel on day 3 and checking in to my friend's house, Raffi was misplaced.  Again.

In the three days Raffi went missing, we went searching.  I called the hotel multiple times and looked through all our luggage.  So we looked online and much to our surprise (because we had looked plenty of times before), there was the exact.same.Raffi.  On Ebay.  And it only cost $9 bucks.  Totally worth it.  Look how squeaky clean it is!  I'd have it shipped to our house and tell Andrew they found him at the hotel and sent him in the mail.  And gave him a bath.

Well, shortly after I ordered it, the real Raffi was found and made it home with us.  Somehow in the mad dash to get checked out of the hotel I must have stuffed him in a side pocket of my suitcase.

A few days after we got home, replacement Raffi arrived.

I was determined not to let Andrew see them both together.  You know, because then he'd know there were two of them.  And then my plan wouldn't work.

My plan was brilliant.  

Keep replacement Raffi somewhere hidden, so if we ever lost Raffi or forgot him somewhere, we'd have back up.

I swear this kid cannot be fooled.  He saw replacement Raffi in the laundry basket after I washed it, picked it up and hugged it.  I thought, oh boy, this is it.  Will he notice?  Right away he gave it a name...

"Mama Raffi."

How do these kids know this stuff?

I guess there's no mistaking true love...

Best

Buds

Forever!