Mine mine mine, all mine

Happy Birthday Drew!

Today, my baby turns two. Technically, this makes him not-a-baby, but I don't care about technicalities.

We're having a party for him on Sunday. My parents and sisters and their husbands/fiances will be coming up from Georgia, and we'll be taking Drew on a tour of a fire department - letting him climb on the trucks and listen to the sirens and whatnot. I think he'll have a grand time.

Then we'll adjourn back to the house for food and cake and presents. I bought lots of fire truck decorations and balloons and I can't wait to decorate our house and isn't that kind of frightening in a Martha-Stewart-On-A-Budget kind of way?

I'll be sure to post lots of pictures on Monday.

Since today is his actual birthday, though, I took cupcakes in to his daycare, for him to share with his classmates. I made sure to get ones with extra sugar and frosting, so all the little kiddies will go home with massive sugar buzzes, thereby ensuring a sleepless night for all. Hey, it's my son's birthday and I'm just sharing the love.

For nostalgia's sake, you can read my thoughts about Drew's first birthday.

A couple of nights ago, Drew and his dad and I sat outside in our front yard and had this conversation:

Drew: (pointing) Moo! Moo!

Dad: Yes, Drew, that's the moon.

Drew: Moo. Dat moo.

Drew: (pointing) Dun.

Me:  Yep, that's the sun.

Drew: Dun down.

Me: Yeah, the sun's going down.

Drew: Bye bye dun.

Dad: Bye bye sun!

Drew: Ni ni moo

Me: Good night moon!

Drew: Ni ni moo! Ni ni dun!

And good night noises, everywhere!

vacation of the living dead

What can you say about a beach vacation that involved an eight-hour car ride with a very cranky toddler, followed by 72 hours straight of practically nonstop hurling by seven of the nine people present on the trip due to either food poisoning (my guess) or some random mutant virus (my mom's guess)?

You could say, wow, that really sucks. Or, as the song goes, you could accentuate the positive...E-LIM-I-NATE the NEGATIVE...ya dah ya dah ya dah.

The positives:

1. I lost five pounds due to a combination of puking and not being able to eat anything but Saltines and soup for three days afterwards.
2. Drew didn't get sick, and didn't really care that the rest of us were dying as long as he got to go swimming. So, he had a ball.
3. We really got to bond as a family, as we shared our prescriptions for Phenergan and Lortab and discussed how many times each of us had upchucked.
4. We experienced the joy of discovering that the hospital in Panama City is really first-rate.
5. Able to watch most of a 12-hour Scrubs marathon. Very funny show. Almost nauseatingly so.

We got well enough on the last day to actually make it to the beach and the pool, wherein we took enough pictures to make it look like we had a real vacation:

Drew and Charles.

Drew finds a seashell. Thousands cheer.

Realizes seashell makes a good shovel.

Realizes seagulls don't particularly want to be petted. (this picture makes me think of the theme music from Jaws.)

Is that a crab? Let's find out!

Exhausted from chasing seagulls, Drew retires to his chariot.

Getting a second wind, Drew takes a dunk in the pool.

Juice break.

I call this one, "Uh-oh."

Bye bye.

the fair! the fair!

On Saturday, we went to the fair. If you aren't fortunate enough to live in the Southern United States, you likely have never attended anything like it.

Oh, sure, you've probably attended a fair of some type, but did your fair feature such epicurean delights as this?

I doubt it. Because this is fine eatin', folks. I'm just sad they didn't have fried Moon Pies.

And where else can you give your child a foot-long corn dog and not have people threaten to call social services on you?

Only at the fair. (Drew may appear to be eyeing it suspiciously in the picture, but trust me, he chowed down. made his daddy proud, he did)

"That chicken was this tall!"

Little did Drew know his day would involve riding in the belly of a giant, yellow, flying elephant.

If you get tired of carrying your children around at the fair, you can lock them in the cage with the goats and sheep.

Dad says, "Can we go now? My stomach hurts."