Drew's new girlfriend

While he still says he will marry Katie (when he is five), he also says he'll marry Barney the dinosaur, a chair, and the house. So, I think it's safe to say he has no clue what he is talking about.

However, he really does have a blast when he sees Courtney, an upcoming junior that plays for Sherri. She's a tiny point guard who Kate loves to follow around and I think Drew has picked up that habit as well.

Ben really digs standing

Because he does it all the time now. Pulls up on anything he can get his hands on, though no obvious attempts at steps yet. This is also a self-reminder to post pics/video for those of you reading this that don't get to see him on a regular basis.

He still likes all foods.

And the first two people to see Ben pull up are...

Chris and Drew. Ben pulled up to a standing position for the first time yesterday in the afternoon, though no one actually saw it. Sherri looked over and he just happened to be standing. Last night with the girls gone at basketball, Drew and I saw Ben actually pull up right in front of us. He had no clue what to do after that.

Ben appears to like plain avocado. Ugh.

Kate is in basketball camp this week with kids somewhat her age. She's two years too young, but fits right in size wise.

Ben - one step closer to taking one step

Mainly because it looks like he may have started to figure out how to crawl. Rather than rolling and shifting his way around a room, he managed to string together a couple of actual crawling motions last PM.

Drew - one step closer to evil genius

And why is that? He has a minion. Apparently some kids movie is coming out about an evil genius. Whilst at the children's museum with Katie, Emmie, and Andrew, the museum folk were giving out minion pictures (mazes, word searches, etc on the back) to promote the movie. Drew has become quite attached to his. We have to laugh every time he asks us where his minion is. The disconnect between the idea of what a minion is and the sweet way a 2 1/2 year old asks about the whereabouts of his prized minion is too cute.

What's his minion look like?

Drew's future

Sherri: "Looks like Katie's birthday present has shipped in the mail."
Drew: "My Katie?"

And, in the bathroom at Moe's last night: "I'm going to marry Katie when I am 5 and a half."

And vacation is over

Or it was a couple of days ago. Sherri and Chris did the Siler Bald hike which is 5 miles in and 5 miles out of mountainy terrain with elevation change of 2400 feet, rated strenuous. Made it in exactly 3 hours.

Kate and Drew got to enjoy the new pizza place in Hiawassee as we reloaded all of our lost energy. Ben enjoyed it 3 hour later.

Drew currently likes to randomly sing the "Alvin and the Chipmunks" theme song. Although, in his world it is Almon, Syndom, Feodore. Close enough.

The best of vacation. The worst of vacation

The best would be the AM half of the day. Chris, Sherri, Cindy, and Ben did a 6 mile hike rated as strenuous. And it was. 2 mountain summits,a couple of great views, no people, interesting animals. Meanwhile the other kids did a mountain climb with Granddad. Even Drew made it the whole way on his own. Building up those soccer legs

The worst part was going to the little beach here at the lake. We are famously not beach or lake people but the kids had a blast. Lots of swimming, decent weather, and jet ski rides for Sherri and Kate

Just about to eat so off I go. Dinner appears to be cabbage, squash, chicken, sweet potatoes, plums, and peaches. Not all in the same dish.

Ben's nickname

Not sure if I have mentioned this yet.  Drew and Kate currently call him Sippis.  And why, you might ask?  Somehow after he was born, Kate (when learning about states) learned of Mississsippi.  I think she thought it was a fun sounding word and called Ben by it one day.  Drew laughed, and a silly nickname was born.  At some point, the started calling him Mistersippi, I suppose since he is a boy.  That then worked it's way down to Sippis.

Drew's breakfast

Insisted he wanted cold waffles (homemade kind, not those Eggos thrust upon the proletariat). So, cold waffles he got. And, he appears to be enjoying them mightily.

Nicknames

Not that we are hankering for a move to nickname based child identification, but if we ever do with one for Drew, the obvious choice is "Dash" based on the movie The Incredibles. Seriously, watch it. It's Drew.

Basketball Camp

Kate is back from her first overnight high school basketball camp. She worked very hard with Sherri's team. Did the fundamental stations as best she could, "won" a dribbling game with her group, and did a super job with lots of physical activity and little sleep. Read way more books than we initially estimated. Her current favorites are the Junie B. Jones series. Hadn't heard of those til Amanda but Kate is quickly pouring through that pile.

Ben survived his time without Sherri around. Drew probably got a little too comfortable as the lead child of the house so he has been under a bit stricter eye the last couple of days.

The race is still on to see if Ben crawls or stands up first. A backward seal walk is definitely mastered.

Drew is funny. And, other stuff.

While walking down the stairs last night, Pophank was going into his tendency of over-managing a situation and telling Gram something to do that she had well under control.  Her response to him was "Dick, still 61."

Followed immediately by Drew, "Pophank, still two and a half."

The other stuff.  Ben is on the verge of either crawling or standing up and taking off.  A bit of a race to see which happens first.  Gotta do video of it.  Or pictures, or something. He can kind of move himself around backwards, the inefficiency of that movement is perplexing.  Kate is having a blast at VBS with Sherri as her teacher.  Sherri has to keep reminding herself that the rest of the class is not quite where Kate is when it comes to reading/writing ability which is throwing some kinks in the progress of the class activities.

PopHank = Methuselah

Kate about Pop Hank and the location of Randy's Water Garden in proximity to
the Gwinnett airport: "He knows almost about everything 'cause he's seen
everything for a long time"

Updates

It's not a dereliction of duty, the kids just haven't had any ridiculously cute moments recently. More like run of the mill awesomeness.

Kate/Drew/Sherri went to Six Flags with Andrew/Shari. Drew did some of the bigger rides for the first time. Kate is tall enough to do the rides with the 48" height limit, but Andrew wasn't. She handled not going on those well so as not to make Andrew jealous though. I think their days of being size twins are rapidly ending thanks to wildly divergent genetic heritages.

Drew appears to now be motly good with anthropomorphic, life-sized characters. The Chick-fil-a cow has received hugs a couple of times in a row. As he did it he said "I'm going to do something great!" "I'm gonna come see you cow!"

Drew also apparently had his first experience with waking up in the middle of the night, realizing he needed to potty, and doing the whole process on his own and heading back to bed.

Kate got her new mattresses and proclaimed it her best bed ever.

Ben is getting vaguely into crawling position, though no movement yet. He'll also hold onto fingers and pull up. Only a matter of time before I have to start chasing him around the gym during basketball.