Aunt Becca Comes to Visit

Aunt Becca (Amber's sister, Rebecca) came to visit us for part of Spring Break. We loved having her here! Reb is a preschool teacher in an infant class, so it was a nice change of pace for her to only have one baby, and of course he's the cutest one there is!!! They had lots of fun playing together, singing songs, and reading books. She even kept him for us one night so that Russell and I could actually go out on a real date!! (Thanks Reb, we really appreciated it!) During the week we hit the stores hard. The only time either of us really gets into shopping is when we're together. I think that if we went into one more dressing room Drew was going to have a complete meltdown! Reb got lots of cute new clothes and I found a few things too. Can't wait until we can do it again - maybe Russell will be home and we can leave the boys at home this time!!!

First Steps!!!

Just wanted to let everyone know that Drew has officially taken his first steps independently!!! It was last night (Sunday) and he was holding onto the backs of Russell's hands trying to walk towards some of his toys. Russell stopped moving his hands and Drew decided he was close enough to give a try. He took 1 step before he made it to his destination. Then, later in the evening he was holding onto Russell's knees walking in front of the sofa and then let go and took at least 3 steps without holding onto anything! We're so proud - but know that we're in for it now!!! Look out world, he's coming!!! We'll have to see if we can get him going again and get it on video - but no promises just yet.

"Hoppy" Easter

We had a wonderful Easter! We have been blessed to have Aunt Becca (Amber's sister) here with us for the weekend and are enjoying spending extra time together as a family. Sunday was a beautiful day - completely befitting to remind us of the joy of the Resurrection. We went to church that morning and had a great service (Russell did a wonderful job, as usual, leading worship.) When we got home we took a few pictures outside before Drew took his afternoon nap. Once he woke up he got to dig into the basket of goodies that the Easter Bunny left for him. The Easter Bunny had help from several states collecting goodies and Drew was so excited (or at least as excited as a 1 year old gets). He loved shaking the eggs and taking them all out of his basket (he even decided it would be fun to take the easter grass out too!). Hope your Easter was wonderful and you were able to take some time to truly reflect on the awesome gift that we've all been given through the resurrection of our Lord! Chocolate and candy is great (don't get me wrong - I love it, especially Cadbury Cream Eggs), but it's not the best part of Easter!! Enjoy the pictures!!

The Loot (the Easter Bunny also had baskets for Aunt Becca and Mommy and Daddy - but Drew had the most stuff, of course!)

The Wiggins Family (on our swing after church)
Drew's basket of goodies
Shaking the eggs

A magna-doodle to practice "writing"

Maggie decided she needed to get in on the act...
Pulling out the grass
Caught you!

Happy Easter Everyone!!!

Sandbox

Drew got a sandbox as part of his birthday present from Gigi and Grandpa Randy. At the time we couldn't find one in the stores (at least not the one I wanted), so he just had sandbox toys. We finally found one at Kaybee Toys in our mall and got it set up on the back patio. The weather was finally nice long enough for us to go and play. He's not too sure about actually getting in the sand (he doesn't like the texture on his feet), but loved leaning over the side and digging around. I'm sure we'll have hours of fun this spring and summer!!

Drew Update

I know I haven't been that great about updating the blog, that's just the way it goes sometimes! We've been doing great and Drew is learning all kinds of new things (some good, some not so good). He still hasn't taken any independent steps (at least not when we're looking), although we're pretty sure that he has the physical capability to do it. I'm sure once he starts there'll be no stopping him - so maybe we should be thankful that he's taking his time. He's started "talking" more and is getting better at letting us know what he wants without completely breaking down (although that still happens plenty, believe me!). He won't way "Mama", but "Dada" is always on the tip of his lips. He can also say All Done ("Ah Da"), Dog ("Du"), Kitty ("Ee-ee" said in a high pitch that he only uses when he sees her), and has just started saying Outside ("Owdid" - long i sound). Now, keep in mind that most of these "words" are only recognizable to us, but nevertheless I'm proud!
We've also started the weaning process (of which I have mixed emotions). He now takes whole milk in a cup (instead of nursing) at lunch and dinner. He's getting much better at feeding himself with a spoon and eating finger foods. He's had Cheerios, Gerber puffs, Gerber Wagon Wheels, Zwieback toast, pears, bananas, Goldfish, shredded cheese, bread, crackers and macaroni noodles. We've discovered that he's a bit of a "hamster" when it comes to finger foods. If you put too many on his tray he'll just stuff them all in his mouth before he's really finished. You have to watch him really carefully.

I've picked some of the cutest pictures from this past week to post. Hope you enjoy!

I'm so cute in my overalls!

I love to stand up and play at the coffee table
"Oooo, look what I did..."
"You mean there's stuff in there???"
Baby kiss for Mommy
Crazy hair (he just woke up)


Check out the "pruny" feet after bath time - too cute!!!

Drew Eating "By Himself" Video

I couldn't get the video of him using the dippers (see previous post "Little Dippers") because it was too big, but we took this one of him using one of his spoons. He's getting better, but it's still a learning process!!

Little Dippers

Well, in Drew's ever increasing search for independence we've encountered a messy situation. We're working towards independent feeding, but it's not without much aggravation (on all our parts), the need for much more patience (especially for Mommy), and of course - a huge mess! A few weeks ago it became apparent that we were going to have to start trying something different for meal times or it was just going to be one huge power struggle. (We have been blessed with a "strong-willed" child and he's been blessed with a strong-willed Mommy - not always a good combination. We're working through it and will both come out better on the other side!) I was wandering the aisles at Target and saw these things called "Little Dippers." They're made by Gerber and are especially designed for infants learning to self-feed. They have grooves on the end that will catch the food, so all they have to do is dip it in, no real scooping required. They've also got big handles that are easy to hold. The first time I handed one to Drew he put it directly in his mouth and then started looking for where to dip it - amazing!! So, now they're one of my new favorite things and I would recommend them to anyone, I only with I'd found them sooner. As long as he has one and I have one we can actually make it through meal time without wanting to scream (either one of us!). Since then I've also started letting him use the bigger toddler spoons with the soft tip and he's getting pretty good. (I still offer alternate bites to make sure he's getting enough and keep the mess to a minimum.) Here's some pictures and also a video of him using the dipper for the first time (you can see how good he is and then also get a glimpse of the "strong-willed baby" that's been evident since birth (the nurses in the hospital already had him pegged "So, Mrs. Wiggins, I hear we've got a strong-willed baby in here.")) The video wouldn't upload yet, I'll try again later - check back soon!

29 cents

Those of you who know me well know how much I love a good bargain. One of my favorite places to shop is Kohl's (which we sadly do not have close to us - the nearest one is in Baton Rouge - roughly 1 1/2 hours away) and they are ALWAYS having sales ("It's the biggest sale since last weekend") and you can get some great deals. But, all of that pales in comparison to the great bargain I found yesterday at Sears. I had taken Drew to the Sears Portrait Studio to get 1 year pictures (which didn't go as well as I'd hoped, but we still got a couple of cute shots) and while they were getting things ready we walked through the baby/toddler section. Sears has a ton of stuff on sale and clearance right now so I thought I'd take a look. I found a cute striped onesie in Drew's size marked down to $2.98, plus an additional 50% off clearance prices. That in an of itself was enough to make it worth it to me (he needed some new short sleeve stuff for the upcoming spring season) so I went to the checkout. When they scanned it it came up for 29 cents!!! That made me want to go back and check to see if there were any others in his size and I found 4 more. Just thought I'd share - maybe you should check out Sears too...

Randomness

Here are some of the latest pictures of Drew. Enjoy!!

I LOVE to play with my new train.

"I don't want my picture taken, Mom!" (For those who think he never cries, finally proof!)
Just having fun...
Learning to feed yourself is messy business
My smiling prince charming
Daddy and Drew playing with blocks (whose idea do you think it was???)

"Here Dad, let me help" - Drew