"Dada" wins!

Drew's been working on his first word for several weeks now. We've had lots of close calls, including a few "bababa" or "wawawa." We get a lot of "oooooh" but can't quite figure out how that was a word. Last Wednesday, I was supposed to go to the Rangers game with the folks at American and our team. So, John picked up Drew from day care for the evening. I got a call at around 6 o'clock, and John told me that Drew had a message to give me. He put it on speakerphone and I heard something that sounded suspiciously like "dada." Surely not, I thought. After all the time I've spent saying "mama" to Drew, which he somehow thinks is a funny word. I'm sure it was a fluke and he's really saying "mama" to me. A moment later, I heard it clear as a bell. "Dada." Then again - " Dada. Dada. Dada." He even giggled after saying it, like he and his Dada had played a funny trick on Mommy. I couldn't help but grin at hearing Drew's delight at figuring out a word.

Now for the good news - on Saturday, Drew was playing on the floor with all his toys and finally figured out how to say "mama." So he said "mama" nonstop for quite a while. Luckily, Dada was there to witness this equally momentous event. So now Drew has a great repertoire of two words. I tried to get him to say "I love Dada" and he really did try but it came out as "Ah oooh Dada." Almost there, kiddo! Keep up the hard work! Maybe by Mother's Day he'll be able to say, "Thanks, Mom, for everything you do around here. I love you."

Playtime with Dad

There's no greater joy than hearing your baby laugh.

Baths and Baseball

It's about time I update some pictures of the little man. He is still growing and getting closer to crawling. He's gotten very ticklish and loves to squirm while we tickle him.

Drew still loves bath time. Splashing is his favorite, although he's still mastering how to splash with his hands. He loves the toys attached to his bathtub, and he must be pretty modest because somehow we took lots of bath pictures and he managed to not flash the camera. Good boy, Drew!

John's coaching t-ball again this year. It's much more intense, since they are actually keeping track of outs and keeping score. The last few seasons have been about teaching them how to play and teaching sportsmanship, but now there are real winners and losers. Drew and I went along to John's game last Saturday to cheer on the Diamondbacks. (Has anyone seen Dodgeball? The team's cheer is like the hiss cheer that Ben Stiller's team does.) The boys on the team have lots of big sisters who loved sweet Drew. Here's our friend Ruth entertaining Drew.

Snazzy shades!

Dad's the hitting coach, and I'm proud to say that our team has some great hitters. I'm sure that Drew will be totally burned out on baseball by the time he's old enough to play, since he has a baseball room and will be watching lots of t-ball games over the next few years.

Ear Trouble

Poor Drew's got a set of ears that apparently don't drain. We went to the doctor about a week and a half ago with an ear infection in his left ear. This is his third ear infection. Unfortunately, the antibiotic they gave him did not clear up the infection, so he went back to the doctor and now has two ear infections. Poor kiddo. He's been waking up a couple times during the night (which he never, ever does unless his ears hurt). They put him on a different type of antibiotic, but now we'll have to take him to an ENT doctor. Three infections in 3 infections in 4 months isn't good, especially when we have to do multiple rounds of medicine to get rid of them. So we're looking at getting tubes in his ears. Ugh. If anyone has a recommendation for a good ENT or knows of a home remedy that would keep us from doing the tubes route, let me know!