Tim asked me last night if I could have guessed how special my little boy would be to me before becoming a parent. I said definitely not. I wasn't raised around boys and had always dreamed of having little girls. When they laid that tiny little baby boy in my arms, my heart melted and my life changed. Never have I kissed a baby as much as I did Drew. He's certainly different than my girls, but so special to this momma's heart!
And then there are days that he drives me nuts!
I remember the winter he had a bad cold, one of those where his nose was running constantly. We taught him to blow his own nose and were proud that he was so independent in taking care of that chore. It was a few days into the cold that I stopped to inspect his 'tissue', only to realize that he was using Swiffer sweeper cloths to blow his nose! The box was nearly empty! Any Swiffer fan knows how much those darn things cost!!
I knew I was truly broken in as a mom after one particular trip to Sears. My mom and I had taken the 4 kids to get their Christmas picture taken. I had baby Macy in a stroller and was trying to make her happy in her cute little dress. Madie and Emma had wandered off with my mom to look at the pretty clothes in the girls department. Drew was interacting with a mannequin model. She was headless, and wearing a shorter skirt than my girls will ever wear. Drew decided to climb up on the pedestal with her and started belting out a song that made perfect sense only to a two year old. He was dancing and bopping when his poor headless lady friend went flying! She ended up on her shoulders (no head) and the little skirt flipped up. Drew jumped down to retrieve his lady friend, hoisting her back up on her stand into the upright position. I was barely paying attention to all of this, but was impressed and grateful that he had righted the situation without my assistance. With one last shove, Drew sticks up his little hand and shouts "STAY" at the plastic lady, and wandered away like it was no big deal.
I was sitting on the couch one day when Drew came over and kindly put chapstick on my lips. What a sweet boy! Then he motioned to our old schnauzer who was laying in her chair with a somewhat annoyed expression and said, "I put on Abbi face too!" Lovely.
The first White-out adventure made a reputation for Drew. I also got to hear a lot of White-out jokes and threats of gifting Drew with a case of white out. It was the SECOND White-out adventure that really sealed the deal. Poor Drew now has a restraining order from the stuff, not allowed within 10 feet.
Tim and I were sitting in the living room chatting when we realized the two 'little ones' were being very quiet. I said I was sure they had just gone into the kitchen, which meant they were just a few feet away. I walked into the room to find the two of them on the floor. Drew was covered in White-out and in the process of giving Macy a matching paint job. Of course I had to grab the camera.
One of Drew's biggest misadventures didn't even require him to be present at the moment. I was getting ready for bed and went into the upstairs bathroom to remove my contacts. I couldn't find my glasses or contact case. There were some other odds and ends missing too. I usually sat these things on the windowsill and noticed the window was open. With one last look around the bathroom, I sighed and stuck my head out the window. As I suspected, on the porch roof below the window sat my glasses case, contact case, as well as some random toys. Random BOY toys. I had no doubt who the suspect was. I needed those items. The bathroom window is small, not designed for human beings to be crawling in and out of, but I figured I could manage it. I stepped up on the tub and awkwardly stuck my legs out the window and dropped to the porch roof. I quickly realized that the roof of the porch is much lower than the inside floor of the bathroom. The windowsill was now nearly at my neck. I picked up the various items and tossed them back into the bathroom and contemplated my situation. It was nearly midnight and I had a bedroom on each side with two sleeping kids in each of them. Tim had already gone to bed downstairs and probably wouldn't hear me even if I did start yelling for help. I decided against jumping off the roof of the porch, and I definitely wasn't dressed for a fire rescue team. I had a moment where I imagined my family finding me the next morning, shivering outside the window. I finally decided that I had to find a way to get back in the window. With a lot of jumping, flailing, struggling, and kicking the side of the house on my way up, I was able to fling my body into the tiny window far enough to wiggle in so that I was hanging half in, half out. I am SO thankful that we do not have any neighbors to the west of our house to see that sight!! At that point I realized there was no way to swing a leg through to land on my feet, so it was with an ungraceful 'thump' that I landed back in the bathroom with a scraped belly and very little dignity remaining.
