St. Patrick's Day

Drake and his first words

Drake is communicating more and more. Sometimes his communicating comes in the form of a loud ear piercing scream when he doesn't get what he wants but other times he is starting to use words. Here is a video of me trying to get him to say his first word.

He can also say Dada (He has on a couple of occasions said mama but that is rare. He loves his dad!) and Ball. He has become assessed with balls lately. That is all he wants to play with. Such a boy.

He has also spelled out his first word in the bath tub.

*Viewer discretion advised

Again, such a boy. Was dad involved in this?

Happy 1st Birthday!

Drake's first birthday came during one of the craziest times ever in our lives. We had just moved to a new part of the bay area (Albany, CA near Berkeley), I had just bought an orthodontic practice and during the week leading up to his birthday Sam's brother, Ryan, who had been watching Drake temporarily while were looking for new child care went missing. I had been tempted to cancel his birthday party but wanted desparately to celebrate this great event. Fortunately, an hour and a half before his party Ryan and his girlfriend were found stranded in the woods and we were able to celebrate both Drake's birthday and the finding of his brother. In fact, the media showed up to Drake's birthday party to interview Sam and his mom (http: abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/east_bay&id=7235894). Sam's mom wasn't going to be at the party and because she was down looking for Ryan she was able to attend. My moming and sister also came down for his birthday and my sister announced she was pregnant with a new little one. We celebrated in true Drake style with a pirate themed party as you'll see from the photos. So exciting! It was an eventful time and Drake handled it like a champ in his adorable way. We are so grateful to have him in our lives and look forward to many more birthdays with his smiling face! Thank you to all who came to his party!

Mary and Chase (Drake's former babysitter-we miss her!)

Molly (and my cousin Brooklyn in the background)

Dave (my cousin's husband) and Conner (Sam's cousin)

Sam's mom, Ginny his aunt Patty and my mom, Mary Ann

My sister, Gentry, myself and baby Stella

Cake!

Drake's cake and my cousin's girls Cambria and Maya

Drake's actual birthday with leftover cake

My mom and sister (So glad they came!)

The happy FOUND couple Ryan and Viola

Drake likes to clean

Drake loves to sweep. He knows how to open the closet and pull out the broom or the swiffer and push it around the house. If only he could put his love to good use! I am going to guess by the time he can he won't have the love anymore. Oh well. Gotta love this kid!

Drake's new trick

Why are we always wearing sweatshirts at the Beach?

Not this past weekend but the one previous, I had wanted to stay home and continue our quest to baby proof our home and organize our storage area. BORING. The weather was nice and Sam decided that since we have few nice weekends before fall and winter hit we had better head to the beach for one last summer trip. We checked the weather and decided to head to a beach that we had never been to 1) because it appeared to be warmer and 2) it was closer to our house. We went to San Gregorio beach. Well, it wasn't that great of a beach, there wasn't a cute little town associated with it nor was it in any way warm. But, we had a good time anyway as a fam.
I do need to add a side note. The Bay area is full of beaches and coastline. I keep hoping to head to the beach at some point for the true beach experience and lay out in the warm sun in my bathing suit, get a tan, dip in the ocean, etc. This has yet to happen here. The beach is often times cold, foggy and rainy and the water is freezing! Guess I need to head down south for the "real" beach experience.

A tooth! Makes mama proud.

Preface: I normally only work three days a week but the last two weeks I have had to take some continuing education courses on one of my days off in order to keep my dental license. This past weekend was also quite busy as my mother-in-law and one of my best friends were in town. Then yesterday Drake had to go to a new babysitters house as our normal babysitter is out of town for the week.
So, yesterday at the babysitter Drake would not have anything to do with his bottle. He would suck on it for a few minutes and then push it away. He normally drinks anywhere from 12-16 ounces during the day while I'm gone but yesterday he drank 3-4! I breastfed him when I got home and of course was ravenous. I then also fed him some solid food and he ate a lot but seemed a bit fussy. He had been acting kinda weird all day. I didn't know if it was the busy weekend, the new surroundings, me being gone more or the new nipple on his bottle! I finally put my finger in his mouth to check his gums and sure enough I felt something hard. At eight months he was finally getting his first tooth! As a dentist mom you worry about these things but now I can relax as his dental development is proceeding forward. His sleep hasn't seemed to have been to interrupted by the whole thing so that is good. Oh wait, I think I hear him awake now...Ugh! (Sorry no pics yet. He won't even let me have a good look at it let alone hold still long enough to take a picture. Maybe later.)