Charland Chatter

Dinner with the family

2010-11-13T11:16:00.001-05:00

We had a great dinner last night at grandma and grandpa Hardy's. Izzy and Drew were so funny together.

Getting productive today at home. Spent the morning filing paperwork in my office and cleaning. Michelle and I have some good ideas for the house, so we will be off to Lowes this afternoon to pick up a few things.

I know this isn't the greatest picture, but these two were having a blast with each other! Maybe I will ask Santa for a new camera this year..... IMO I will be getting nothing this year from old st. Nick.

Drew videos on YouTube

2010-11-11T08:00:00.001-05:00

This is the link to all of the videos I have posted on YouTube. I just added three new ones last night for those who don't get on Facebook.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_fcfjCBdd8w

This will take you a video of Drew playing drums and from there you can subscribe to my page and receive a notification when I post a new video:)

They have an App for this

2010-11-11T07:54:00.001-05:00

I am not making any promises, but this blog may certainly start seeing a little bit more action in the future, thanks to a new app on my iPhone which will allow me to blog from anywhere.

My goal for this blog has always remained the same, and that was simply to chronicle our experiences as parents and all of our sons adventures and conquests. So that someday, we could look back and laugh about his childhood adventures.

Halloween night was not a great success this year, although Drew chose to be a member of a marching band and that was a fantastic idea. He was able to march in the halloween parade and even was allowed to lead the band!!

We spent the weekend in Kalamazoo with the Hoyts and had a wonderful time at Autumns soccer game, and also a first experience for our family with a college hockey game! That was a blast, and drew has talked about. Playing hockey since that night... we have a friend who's son plays and is Drews age. It looks like we may need to start a fund.

He has also started a love affair with the Toy Story movies, and a certain buzz lightyear. We look forward to Thanksgiving this year, we have so much to be thankful for, it's almost impossible to imagine.

First Day of School

2010-09-06T21:29:00.002-04:00

Michelle goes back to work tomorrow, and we start the beginning of a "working" schedule. All summer long, we have been going to bed around 10-11:00 and getting up at 7 am...without a hitch usually....Michelle is getting ready for bed right now...It's only 9:30. This is always a tough time, a transition from focusing on Drew/ to focusing on an entire classroom of 4th and 5th grade students. My schedule...well, pretty much stays the same, other than now, it is my responsibility to get Drew to day care in the morning.Those summer days, where I would leisurely get ready for work, kiss my wife and son goodbye and head off for the day, are over tomorrow:)

Drew is nearing the end of a relatively quick potty training regiment. We found that bribing him with M&M's was the key to a quick transition. Say what you will....but it worked. It may not be the perfect way to train children, but it works.

What a Summer!!

2010-08-28T08:09:00.003-04:00

The greatest thing about summer time, is to be able to spend time with family...and we have done a whole lot of that! With the 2010 school year on the horizon next Tuesday, Michelle has been steadily working on her classroom.

Drew has changed sooo much over the summer this year. He has grown about 3 inches taller, and added around twice as many, if not more, words to his vocabulary. It is incredible to sit down with him and be able to have a conversation ( at least until he finds something to wrestle,or jump on).

My new found career in "insurance" is taking some big steps in the right direction. I still can't believe that with all the things that I have done in my life, I somehow ended up in a work environment that is considered boring and nerdy. I have to admit that it has become very enjoyable for me. I have a very flexible schedule, and spend most of my time talking to people....and funny enough, 90 percent of conversations have nothing to do with insurance:)

Potty training had started about 2 weeks ago, and Drew is almost completely out of diapers! It was much easier that I ever imagined, witch is not typical of my son. We never pushed him to use the potty, it was just there....we made him aware of it. There was however, a strong motivation to use it....M&M's.

I hope everyone has had a great summer, since I have waited so long to post on the blog, I am going to list everything we did this summer....for posterity.

Hoyt Family visits for the month of July
Cherry Festival Activities
Mackinac Island Day Trip
Sand Dunes " Lake Michigan"
Kayaking
Gen-Fest
Cottage on East Bay
Lots of Beach Time
Friday Night live
Lansing Soccer Tourn.
Beer Festival ( that is today)

Thanks to all of our family and friends for a great summer!!

It's been a long while huh!!!

2010-05-27T17:26:00.003-04:00

Alot has been going on lately!! Obviously, I have not had much time to do a blog entry in a while.....I have HAD time, but between work and face book..I am about done looking at the computer. Michelle and I had a great trip to New Orleans, and took lots of pictures that I am going to post tonight. Drew has been doing great. His skin has almost completely cleared up, once we figured out that he was having an allergic reaction to guess what......AQUAPHOR!! The exact thing we have been applying to his skin for the last two years to help his eczema. It is very frustrating, but we feel sooo much better now that we have figured it out....Now seasonal allergies are a whole other topic. New things going on right now:

We have about a 1,000,000 tent worms in our back yard.
A few of my friends and I have started a Beer Brewing Club.
Michelle is going to teach a 4/5th split next year.
Drew got his first bike on Tuesday.

That's about all I have time for right now!! Here is a video of Drew on his first bike...and I will be posting new pictures tonight!!

Helpless

2010-04-18T07:50:00.002-04:00

Drew has had recently, one the worst skin breakouts that we have seen, in the last few weeks. Describing what it feels like to be completely helpless in making him feel better..is impossible. I can't help but to wonder why our kids are allergic to so many things. Michelle and I have read countless book, and see a pediatric allergist regularly to try and come up with as many helpful remedies for him as we can. I woke up a little angry and frustrated this morning with the feeling of helplessness that I have in this situation. I want to make him feel better, normal....something.
There is a lot of reasons that I believe he is prone to allergies, much like many other children, even though Michelle and I are not. One of the reasons is food, and I found this video a while back and wanted to share this with people, since there is not much else I can do to help him. If we can become more aware of what is going on around us, maybe Drew's children will not suffer the same ailments.

Mom's Birthday

2010-04-17T10:06:00.000-04:00

Grandma Barb's birthday video!!

Trips!! What a great time in Chicago...Off to New Orleans!!

2010-04-08T10:03:00.003-04:00

We had a terrific time in Chicago last week! Thank you to my Aunt Lynn and Uncle Eric for putting us up, and putting up with us for a few days. It was so nice to visit with my family there. Everyone seems to be doing very well, and nothing makes me happier than that! We did miss my cousins Elyse and Scot, but hopefully we will be able to visit again soon. The train ride was great, and perfect for Drew, with his intolerance to sitting still for more than 30 minutes:) I am sure that Chicago is going to be a nice weekend get-away spot for our family. After our return to Michigan we spent another night visiting with the Hoyt's, who we very gracious with their fine amenities...hahaha Staying with them never gets boring! Drew had a blast with Autumn and Brooke of course!

Last friday we headed to Lansing to stay with my sister LeAnne and her husband Marc and brand new baby girl Adrianna for the night and spent the day with nearly my entire immediate family! Sara was up from Hillsdale, my Dad came from Tennessee and my Uncle Mark and Aunt Louie came from Okemeos....or however you spell it...lol.

We haven't been back a week even and I got news that I have won a trip to New Orleans with my company, so on May 5,6,7 Michelle and I will be getting our own little anniversary rendezvous!! We are very excited about going , but a little cloud of sadness looms, since Drew is not going with us.....but it is definitely time for an adult only trip....just didn't expect it so soon!

Here are some video's from our Chicago trip on sprig break.....enjoy!

Spring Break........How I want THEE!!

2010-03-23T15:46:00.010-04:00

The Charland family will be going to Chicago with the Hoyt and Clark/Hubbard family this year for spring break. I could not be more excited! Michelle and Drew and I are leaving on sunday via the train from Kalamazoo. We have received our itinerary for the trip, which will include Shedd Aquarium and the Children's Museum. I will be taking our new video camera, which should give plenty of Blog material in the coming weeks. Here is a little clip that Drew and I put together from this weekend.....he does so many things and goes so fast, that I feel tired from trying to keep up...I think that's normal right?

I am putting all the new videos on YouTube..it's just easier with the higher quality/larger file size of the new videos.

St. Patricks Day Parade

2010-03-13T16:07:00.002-05:00

Drew had a blast at the parade today. He wanted to march with the band, so he started marching beside them going down the road. Eventually one of the band parents saw him and thought he needed to be in the front of the band...so she lead him to the front on the band where he marched and played the air-drums until the parade ended. It was classic Drew....

Facebook is Killing my BLOG!!!!

2010-02-28T21:19:00.002-05:00

So much has been going on in our lives, and I haven't blogged much of any of it, because ALL my internet time that isn't absorbed by work...is going to Facebook. I am going to make it a goal for the month of March, I will blog once a week!! So please don't give up on me, and for the sake of my family memories, if I have to scale back my Facebook usage.....so be it.

Michelle went to see her beloved Tim Mcgraw this weekend, and being the loving and caring husband, I volunteered to go to Kalamazoo and give the Hoyt girls some parental guidance while Peter was at work. Drew and the girls had a wonderful time as far as I could tell. We made dinner and played Apples to Apples, and a game called "Who am I" where everyone has a cardboard cut out of some type of character( an animal or person), and you have to ask everyone questions to try and figure out what you are...could be a lot of fun for any age group:)

This morning we made breakfast and went outside to throw snowballs at each other.....although I think it was the girls throwing them at me mostly... Autumn ran up on me and shoved a snowball down the back of my shirt, and while I was reeling from that ice cold surprise, I was then hit directly in the grill by a very giddy Brooke, who happened to be right above me on the playground equipment. Needless to say, I had it coming....

So I have included a short video of our ride home from Autumn's Soccer game on Saturday...Drew had 1 nap for about 15 minutes, and woke up with the biggest smile on his face.

How about that Band?

2010-01-26T12:04:00.002-05:00

Astonishing is an understatement.

2010-01-22T11:26:00.009-05:00

So Drew and I attended his swimming class again on monday last week (which he doesn't really care for), and after the class ends, we usually hit up the hot tub and then play in the kids area where Drew slides down the slides a little. We had been to many classes, this is actually our second year of swimming lessons.

There was something different about this time though. First off, Drew wanted to walk from the car to the building, and he held my hand across the parking lot. When we got inside, he lead me to the elevator, and said "downstairs". One thing after another, Drew was turning into a big boy, right before my eyes. I normally would not be so shocked by this, because he does typically add something new to his big boy arsenal on a weekly basis. Today was just different, and completely amazing to me as a dad. Shortly after we were done playing, I took him in for a shower, where he made sure that I washed my hair too.

Being such a proud daddy that night, I offered to get us some ice cream. Unfortunately, I had left my wallet in the car, so I had to explain this to Drew, and was expecting a complete breakdown ( at 7:00 at night, he is a tired little man). Was I ever wrong. He followed me out to the car, and helped me get my wallet. We came back to the building, and when we got inside, he played games with me all the way to the elevator and downstairs to the ice cream shop. I picked him up, and we looked at all the different flavors, but we both knew what we wanted.....chocolate. I paid the cashier, and she handed the cup to Drew, and he looked at me and said " Thank you".

I love being a father, and as much as I struggle with events and decisions, one thing will always be a constant. Nothing will ever make me happier, than all the little things that my family provides for me everyday.

Just another Drew Video.....thats all:)

2010-01-08T15:21:00.003-05:00

Christmas, New Year, and Happy 2nd Birthday Drew!!

2010-01-08T13:42:00.004-05:00

I have been informed that Facebook is causing concern for my blogging updates...well, I am turning over a new leaf for the new year! I have to admit that facebook has been taking a small amount of my social time, I am not attached to it like some people may be. For instance, you can't save the things that are said on facebook. I want to be able t look back and read some of this nonsense after I am old and no one wants to play with me anymore. Also, I know that some of you don't use Facebook, and I would like to share our family adventures with everyone!

Soo. Drew turned 2 yesterday and what a great year he had. He learned to walk, tak and get very bossy:) That's alot to do in a year!

Our Christmas was fantastic. We spent the entire time in Traverse City, with one trip to Cadillac for New Years to visit with Michelle's family. It was a very un-eventfull vacation, but we did have the Hoyt's over for a few days last week, and had a wonderful time with them as usual .

We are so glad that eveyonehad a safe and happy Christsmas and New Year, and I personally am very excited about the possiblities of 2010 and look forward to a wonderful year with my family and friends!

Christmas, Snowman, Drums and a Bathroom....Lets get caught up..

2009-12-16T15:08:00.007-05:00

What a hectic few weeks it has been since we came back from our mini-vacation to D-Town! We have finally finished the last step in our remodel project part one . The laundry room is operational , and the new bathroom is up and running as of Sunday. I think it turned out great, it's very nice to have my own sink:) Not that I minded sharing one...but someone always used to come in when I was brushing my teeth, and start taking out contacts and pulling the stopper on the drain so I couldn't spit. Problem solved! Drew is doing great...he is in full on terrible 2's now. He gets very emotional lately and we haven't quite figured out how to combat that...if anyone has any suggestions, I would love to hear them. Cookie bake weekend was a success. Unfortunately I was not present this year, as I was working diligently on the remodel project. Although I am reaping the benefits of it. If not, I would not have this delicious cookie in my mouth right now. Drew was given an old broken drum machine from one of Michelle's co-workers....at least she thought it was broken. Luck has it, that it just needed a new cord to plug it into the wall.....and I am the guy who will take the blame for making that happen....I have included a short video of the result. Drew was doing his saturday morning Christmas shopping at breakfast.

Have a Merry Christmas everyone! We will not be traveling this year, but we plan to make some trips soon.....I really miss everyone alot!

Lions win the SUPERBOWL!!! ( Of NFL's worst teams )

2009-11-24T15:52:00.011-05:00

It was an amazing experience to be at the first NFL game of my entire life, and even more amazing to be my favorite team and they win in what I believe could be the Game of the Year!!!

We had an incredible time in D-Town over the weekend. A much needed vacation for Michelle and I. We stayed at the Double-Tree Hotel, which was very nice and right smack dab in the middle of Detroit, so we didn't need to drive anywhere.Which was a very good thing, considering we had breakfast Saturday, then hit an awesome pastry shop, and proceeded to the nearest bar at around noon:)

Michelle and I went out for breakfast on Sunday morning and while walking down the strangely desolate downtown streets of Detroit, we discovered a full size rocket launcher.....yes....I said rocket launcher....on the street corner. We found out from a bystander that they were shooting the re-make of "Red Dawn" and had not finished up clean up. It really looked like a war zone, and what a better place to film a war zone.

So here are some pictures of our game along with Drew in a Helmet playing in the leaves.......I know, totally un-related.

A Mysterious Package

2009-11-04T20:01:00.002-05:00

I have been trying for about 30 minutes to upload this video to Facebook, with no luck. Sometimes I hate that site.... It's technologically handicapped.. I haven't been on here with a family update in a long time. But nothing too exciting has happened. We had a great Halloween, and I have a bunch of pictures to post when I get to it. Maybe this weekend I will have some time. Work is busy, Drew has been going to swimming on Monday and Wednesday at The Great Wolf Lodge , so we have been running around constantly. It's amazing how much time I seemed to have to write blog entries about a year ago... Not Now! Drew has an appointment at the allergist in one week. Hopefully we can get to the bottom of his skin problems once and for all. I am starting to wonder if we should take him to a dermatologist....? Will post more videos and pictures soon.... I have a video of Drew playing wii tennis...hilarious.

Pumpkins and Donuts.

2009-10-19T10:39:00.004-04:00

We picked out our pumpkins last week and had the BEST donuts EVER! They came right out of the fryer, and directly into my mouth... mmmmmm. There is not many things in this world that are better than a hot donut on a cold day.

We arrived home yesterday from Kalamazoo, where we went to the CMU / WMU game, and spent time with the Hoyt family. Grandma Barb went along to watch the kids for us, which was AWESOME. The game was great, CMU won of course, and thus next year....thanks to a friendly wager between my wife and Peter, He will have to don some sort of CMU garb. We have a year to come up with something good. I was nearly punched in the face by a belligerently drunk WMU fan, which was exciting. After the game we had a fantastic dinner at Mission Pointe. A great weekend and a safe trip home.

Last night however was not as smooth. We are trying to break a habit that we created with Drew. He wakes up nightly around 12:30 / 1:00 wanting milk..., we decided last night that we don't want to keep doing this. Unfortunately, Drew is not on board yet. I know it will take some time and well be hard, but it's in everyones best interest in the long run.

1 Block+ 19 bands = A happy little boy

2009-10-12T21:36:00.002-04:00

Living a block from Thirlby field can be a little irritating at bedtime for Drew on occasion. That being said, there is much more to love about it. Tonight was a great night for Drew. There was a band exhibition with 19 marching bands from around Northern Michigan. What a great time. Drew gets into the bands, so I thought I would get a video to show. Too bad the last video I took didn't come out. It was of Drew running back towards the football field after we left......with me trying to catch him. He is fast......

Football and Falling down the Stairs

2009-10-04T09:28:00.002-04:00

Michelle and I took Drew to his second football game on Friday night. The band played the same songs, but to Drew, it was like the first time he had seen it. This time the game was actually worth watching, as TC Central was playing well, and there was some exciting plays. We had thought about going to the St. Francis game yesterday, but with a birthday party to go to , we had to forego it. They won 55 to 0.

It happened! But not on my watch, thank goodness. I was working in my office. I believe it was Tuesday night.....when I heard screaming, and some frantic yelling from upstairs, followed by what sounded like "Oh god, he fell all the way down!" Running toward the bottom of the stairs, I see Drew.....upside down, with his arms hanging out to the sides. He looked a little shocked, to say the least. Turned out to be just fine, and ended up with a small bruise on his forehead. Not on my watch....lol.

New Marching Band Conductor

2009-09-29T08:30:00.003-04:00

We have discovered that Drew is drawn to music like a bug to a bug zapper since he was born. The fact that we live 1 block away from Thirlby Field ( this is where all the TC football games are played, and also where the marching band practices) makes for some very interesting reactions from him. This morning even, Drew could hear the band playing, and starts pointing at the window facing the direction of the field ( usually he is jumping up and down, but he has a cold) and saying BAND, BAND! Last weekend I decided to take him to his first football game. Michelle was at a bunco party, so it was just Drew and I. He was loving every second of it. As much as he tried to stay sitting, he just couldn't help himself. Standing on my lap, especially whe the band started playing he would start waving his little arms like a pint sized Band Conductor! He loved the music and the football. We made it all the way to the third quarter, which blew my mind. He was even starting to get some cheerleader groupies ( one of them gave him thier bullhorn). The whole way home, he had this expression on his face.......like complete happiness and satisfaction.

We plan to go to the game this friday, and hopefully Michelle will come with us and I can get some video to post.

My fantasy football team is complete garbage so far this year....Oh well....Detroit Had A Win!!!!
Detroit Lions finally win a game! It was an unbelievable feeling, I wanted to cry a little. I like that Stafford kid, I think that they can turn this thing around. The good news is, they don't a very high bar to reach.

Still feels like summer here........

2009-09-14T18:21:00.002-04:00

Football season has begun, but I don't want to be sitting in this house on days like we have had! We had somewhat of a lazy weekend. I did however get one big project done that we have not had time or energy to do all month, and that is to get the playground from Aunt Nan and Uncle Dick and put it up for Drew. We want to thank them for being AWESOME...and that is exactly what they are. Hope you two are having a great time on your vacation. In sports, which I will try and incorporate into my blog when I see fit: A bad week for me...Notre Dame loses to Michigan? The Detroit Lions do not disappoint the hungry New Orleans fans on Sunday. I thought the 50 year curse was over? The great thing about football season, next week we get another chance to win a game! Hope everyone is having a great time in this unseasonable weather!

One More Movie I forgot about.

2009-08-30T17:28:00.004-04:00

If you haven't heard The Black Eyed Peas enough already.

Summer Lovin!

2009-08-30T14:25:00.003-04:00

Camping weekend 2nd year!!

2009-08-27T13:46:00.002-04:00

We got back from Boyne City on Tuesday, after 4 days of great camping on Lake Charlevoix. The Hoyt's joined us this year, and we had a fantastic time. The weather was good for the most part. We all spent alot of time at the beach and even more time around the camp fire. I have a ton of video's and pictures to sift though, and hopefully I will have them posted to the blog by the end of the weekend. I was just telling Michelle how much harder it seems to keep this blog up to date now, compared to when Drew would just sleep all day. I either work on it during my lunch time, or at night, but trying not to take too much away from our family time, which is what the blog is all about anyway!

A little warm weather action!

2009-08-13T16:41:00.003-04:00

Family reunion, haircut , dancing, and a five dollar pool.....sorry for the summary, gotta run!

North Bar On Lake Michigan

2009-08-06T10:13:00.000-04:00

We had a great time in Empire yesterday. My cousin Scot and his friend Matt, climbed the 450 ft. bluff ( Scot was climbing against his will). I just went down, and then the three of us walked about a mile south to North Bar, where we met up with Michelle, Drew and my Aunt Lynn. Scot, Matt and I started the descent down the bluff, and quickly made it to the bottom. The plan at this point, was that we would walk down to North Bar, and meet up with Drew, Michelle and Lynn. Apparently, Matt was not paying attention, when we went over this plan. My intention, was to stay at the bottom and swim for a while, as Matt and Scot braved the enormous sand dune. The both head off and climbed about 1/4 of the way up, where Scot decided he would rather relax and join me for a swim. Matt however, was determined to take the hill. So...we waited....and waited....saw him reach the top. Then we waited some more....and more...and 35 minutes or so had elapsed. Where could he be? Scot and I started to get concerned. We devised a plan B. I would now head down to North Bar, alone, and Scot would climb the hill to find Matt.

I am sure that when Scot began the climb, he had every intention of meeting Matt in the middle, catching him on the way back. What he did not know, was that Matt, was sitting in the parking lot....the whole time...waiting for the girls to show back up! He allegedly looked down after reaching the peak, and could not see us....MAYBE because we were 450ft away!

Scot summed it all up when he said " Matt, I am going to kill you"

Enjoy our pictures:)

A collage of our summer

2009-08-02T21:53:00.000-04:00

Drew Afternoon Night terror

2009-07-29T13:45:00.000-04:00

Good diet, plenty of sleep, and low stress...These are the ingredients for a bed time free of night terrors in children. Unfortunately for Drew, he must have been missing one yesterday afternoon. OF Course, right after I post something about Drew, and his perfect bedtime routine.....he throws a curve ball at us.If you have seen a child wake up(but not really awake) from a night terror, you probably know, that you aren't supposed to try and comfort them, touch them, or wake them up.....because....they will attack you mercilessly... If you didn't know that, learn from our mistake. We spent about 20 minutes yesterday afternoon, watching our son flail, scream ( like he was being tortured), throw himself on the ground, grab, and throw things like a maniac. It was really quite scary. I had no idea what was happening, at one point, Michelle and I looked at each other almost bursting with laughter..........that soon switched to, asking each other if we should take him to a hospital. Have you ever seen The Exorcist? This is what Drew was like....without the head spinning and vomiting. But the crazy talking, starring right through you, and pure anger...just like the movie. Then, all of a sudden, after picking him up from the floor, Drew looked out the window, and went catatonic for about 3 minutes. He was completely limp in my arms. A few seconds later, a friend of Michelle's stopped by with her kids, and Drew went running for the door, waving and saying HI!

Being a parent is insane.

Drew's Favorite Bedtime Story

2009-07-27T14:18:00.000-04:00

If you have young kids, and you don't own this book......you need to get it together! Every night, every nap, it's the same thing.....we go through a few books, and then it's time. Time for the dinosaur book. We read it, usually just once, but sometimes twice....rarely three times. Drew pays close attention to every page. Does a dinosaur slam his tail and pout......he shakes his head no. Then we arrive at the page with the bike.....BIKE! he proclaims. Next is the goldfish, in the tiny little tank in the background...Drew makes his lips like a fish, followed with a hilarious sucking noise. We get to the end of the book, the part that goes... No, dinosaurs don't, they don't even try. They give a big kiss( he arches his head back...mouth wide open). They turn out the light..(he points to the lamp) they whisper Goodnight. This is the when Drew points to the crib, to let us know that he is ready for bed. It goes like this, every night. I want to thank my Grandma Charland, for this wonderful book, that has saved us countless hours of battle...OK maybe if we didn't have it, Drew would have picked a different favorite book. But maybe not:)

Getting out of the house for a while

2009-07-23T12:39:00.000-04:00

Michelle and I decided to get some work done outside last week, before we get back to the bathroom remodel. I know I am not speaking for myself when I say that I am REALLY missing the washer and dryer right now. Unfortunately, we will not have a laundry room, until I finish the bathroom. This week we are down in Cadillac enjoying some time with Betsy, Loretta, Katie, Molly and Deno. Yesterday we went swimming at the members lounge at their condo. Michelle and I hung out with some of her old friends from High School.....in what could have been a very uncomfortable situation for me, being the only guy hanging with 7 women, but they reminded me alot of the girls I knew in High School, so I was right at home. They were a riot. I got some work done in Big Rapids today, and back to spend the afternoon on the pontoon!

Mother Of All Drew Videos

2009-07-13T11:35:00.000-04:00

I have put together a compilation of videos taken over the last two weeks. What a great summer it has been so far. I still have a lot to do, not including my job.....but things should slow down just a little the next two weeks...Im exhausted from the fun:)

Isabelle Jean Hardy born 7/2/09

2009-07-02T12:35:00.000-04:00

Strawberry Shortcake Mustache

2009-07-01T13:07:00.000-04:00

We have been having a great time the last few days, enjoying our new space in the house. It couldn't have been better timed as we have had rain for the last three days strait. I can't imagine what it would have been like if we were still under construction right now......

Cherry Festival will be starting soon, they have already dropped off the road blocks in my neighbors lawn.... We will have Peter and Melissa joining us tonight, and for the next couple weeks. It should be a great time for everyone. We are ready to have the nice weather back, and looks like we will be getting just that next week.

Nothing left but the small stuff.

2009-06-26T23:30:00.000-04:00

No writing tonight. I needed to get on and post the final pictures of the room. We still have a few things to do, but I think we may have broke some records:)

We will be moving in tomorrow:)

2009-06-24T22:42:00.000-04:00

Thanks to master painters Betsy and Loretta ,our check list tonight is: Paint...check. Windows.....check. Tile.....check. Fantastic.

After two long weeks of hard labor, we can finally move our furniture into the new living room tomorrow. I cannot believe that we got it done in two weeks. Now that I think back at our lofty goal of finishing in one week, was completely ridiculous. I am going to be short again tonight, because we ended our work early tonight (that being 10 pm). I thought I would maybe read a little or how about........sleep. I will post a picture tonight before carpet, and tomorrow after.

Deadlines....

2009-06-20T00:16:00.000-04:00

are made to be broken. Carpet was suppose to come tomorrow, but will now be here on Monday. We did finish drywall today and about 1/3 of the way through mudding. Electrical is now up and working in the room. Last night as we were lying bed discussing our new room, we decided we needed to tile by the sliding glass door, so we went and picked out tile this morning. We will put that in tomorrow between coats of mud. Father's Day will be spent painting, but I did promise to make it up, probably the new Terminator movie is in my future.

Ladders: Not a big fan!

2009-06-18T23:12:00.000-04:00

Build Wall, check. Rough in light fixtures, check. Saw off part of 100 year old roof, check. Pick paint color, check. Hang dry wall, almost check. Another long day of work. We both are very happy with our prescription strength ibuprofen, that is what got us through the day. Chris has decided he is learning more about me (my weaknesses) as we are going through this construction. My fear of heights and ladders came out today when I was suppose to hold up some drywall on the ceiling so he could screw it in. After climbing the wobbly ladder my knees began shaking and the shortness of breath started, I tried to just concentrate on the wall ahead, but it didn't work. So, Chris quickly put in two screws and finished hanging the piece without me. I then called Adam to come over tonight to help Chris finish the ceiling. I promised him it would only take an hour, as there were only four pieces to hang, I think I was just about right on the time. Thanks Adam!!! We took a break to take Drew to ice cream. OK it was really the two of us that wanted the ice cream, but Drew enjoyed it too. When we got back home Chris put Drew to bed as he has missed his nightly readings with Drew, I cleaned the kitchen and then back to work we went. Tomorrow is another day and carpet has been moved to Monday, giving us a couple more days. See you tomorrow night!

Nothing's Gonna Break Our Stride.....

2009-06-17T23:31:00.000-04:00

In floor Heat, check. Subfloor, check. Sliding Glass Door, check. Ceiling drywalled. check. As you can see we had another busy and productive day. It was difficult rolling out of bed this morning, as both of us were aching. However, we had a long check list to accomplish if we were going to stay on target. The in floor heat was the first to tackle and that seemed to go quite smoothly. Next was the subfloor which also went in with no problems. After the subfloor we had to make our daily trip to Lowe's to get our drywall and our sliding glass door. It wasn't until we put in the sliding glass door that I realized my husband is a construction genius. His precise measurements for the door allowed it to slide into place with no issue. I am told this doesn't happen much, which leaves me to believe he is a genius. With the door in place, the ceiling drywall began and off to Lowe's I went for our second batch of drywall. While I was gone, Adam, Steve, and Chris drywalled over half the ceiling. We are in great shape for tomorrow to finish drywall and start mudding. I hear its a pain, but no pain no gain.

No sleep til.........

2009-06-16T23:37:00.000-04:00

Along with my ability to grow a construction beard, our checklist is complete for the day. Insulation done: check. Finished 60% of the floor, and started in-floor heat: check. Added Ice to beer cooler: check. That's it tonight, we wanted to continue, but Dew will be up at 7:00 and so will we! Next up......everyone's favorite. Drywall. I'm so excited, I think I might get sick to my stomach. Night Night!

Short and Sweet

2009-06-15T22:55:00.000-04:00

We are tired tonight. We have been working since 8 am, but we have completed the checklist. Frame sliding door: check. Confirmed insulation appointment for tomorrow:check. We picked out and ordered carpet to be installed on Saturday: check. Michelle, almost single-handily tore out about 90% of the old plywood from the subfloor. check. Re-Framed back door and old window. check. Time for bed. check. Check. Here is tonight's picture:

What a tangeled web I weave.........

2009-06-14T22:15:00.000-04:00

So the checklist for today: Get electrical run. Check. Build west wall. Check. Remove remaining part of laundry room/ closet. Check. Today was a successful day in "Project Livingroom". All the electrical is run, and I have customized a new idea for the north wall that will save us time and money. I would say things went well. Tomorrow we will tackle the framing of the sliding glass door, work on the north wall and HOPEFULLY get the insulation guy in here to spray polyurethane. We will let you know how that all works out tomorrow! Here is tonight's picture:

Construction Has Begun!

2009-06-13T22:32:00.000-04:00

I started a few days ago actually....but that was DE-Struction. We tore out our laundry room, which was part of the garage , to make room for our new living space. I am going to try and chronicle our progress every day. We have a very ambitious goal of finishing this remodel by the 20th of this month. I know, it's only a week away, but give us the benefit of the doubt:) We are like a well oiled machine ( and we both have the week off) . Here are the pictures of our last two days of progress. See ya tomorrow night!

Pics from Wolf Lake......Drew's JcPenny Debut :)

2009-06-01T16:37:00.001-04:00

Weekend in Baldwin? I Heard that Al Capone Vacationed there...

2009-05-26T16:38:00.000-04:00

We were lucky enough to get an invitation to stay at my Aunts family cabin on Wolf Lake the weekend. We had a great time! Drew even went swimming a little bit...............yeah, Im not kidding. It was cool, but not as bad as you would think, considering that we just finished the longest winter of all time. My cousin Elyse and 9 of her friends from High School were celebrating their graduation, so needless to say, Drew had a wonderful time.

On our trip home we stopped to visit Michelle's friend Laine, and her daughter Lila. That is where we took the video of Drew. She has A PUG, that had puppies recently. Drew loves animals so much, we had to take him over to see them. Always a good time with our friends.

Mackinaw City Aflac Trip

2009-05-03T20:34:00.000-04:00

Michelle and I went to Mackinaw City for the weekend for National Training Day. We shared a double room with a jacuzzi tub, went on a mini pub-crawl ( Michelle went on two), and had a wonderful time with Betsy and Loretta:)

Drew stayed here in TC with Sandy all day Saturday and part of Sunday. I left her the camera, since I am sure everyone would rather see pictures of Drew, than me and Michelle in our Hot Tubbin clothes...lol. They had quite the adventurous weekend. They went on a Park-Crawl! So here are some great pictures of Drew on his park adventures. Thanks again Sandy! You are a true friend!!

After we arrived back in TC this afternoon, Betsy and Loretta stuck around for the the better p[art of the day to help me with the construction of our new aluminum shed base. Wow, that was alot of work. I have to go back to Home-Depot to pick up ONE more 2x4 and finish the floor up tomorrow. We could not have gotten it done without their help.

For all of you without Facebook:)

2009-04-24T09:25:00.000-04:00

Put the Car Seat in the Middle......Trust me.

2009-04-23T15:56:00.000-04:00

It has been a tough week around here, especially for Drew. As some of you know, we have decided against building the addition this year, mostly because of the fact that I have started a new career and am not bankable for a few years as a Business Owner. But, however, we are going to be doing some destruction/ construction to the house this summer. We are converting the garage into a completely finished living room, with a walk out deck into the back yard. Also, we are adding a full bath with a TUB downstairs. The first step to getting under way is the purchase of a shed for the back corner of the yard to hold our "garage stuff". We have been scanning craigslist for a nice shed, and I finally found one in Grayling. But not soon enough... The first shed we looked at was in Kalkaska, waaaayyyy out in the sticks. So, Monday late afternoon, Michelle, Drew and I head off to take a look and see if this is something that we would like. The only good thing that came out of that trip, was that we found out that Drew gets carsick.....really carsick. We were close to a burgerking, fortunatley. Next couple days were ok. ffw>>>>>>>>>>>>Last night. All was good until bedtime.....(This is a working title for my first Childrens Book).Sandy came over last night to spend some time with us....mostly Drew, but whatever:) Everyone was having a wonderful time...playing and dancing....talking and being crazy....then rolled around 9:00. Time for Drew to hit the crib....he was not happy. So what do crazy baby boys do when they are really angry? Well, I'll tell you. They cry until they make themselves sick.....all over the bed. Then Drew got to play for a few more minutes while we cleaned the mess up, and put him back down. This time he cried for a few minutes and passed out. I wish that was the end. He proceeded to wake up screaming about every 15 minutes until around 2:00am. I'm not complaining....this is merely for your entertainment and our reflection. I am loving every moment. Tomorrow I celebrate my 33rd year of life, and I feel much different this year. I think I am becoming an adult. Michelle would say " I don't think so" . The truth is...I am so tired that I have no idea what Im talking about, and this whole blog entry is most likely not going to make any sense to anyone.

Easter is Past.......Soon I will be even older.....

2009-04-16T15:24:00.000-04:00

We had a great Easter in the Charland house. Brunch was served to the family in the form of "made to order omelets" and a ton of other good stuff. It wasn't nearly as warm as it has been today though. I am totally psyched about spring! Drew is all about being outside this year, and I am 100% on that band-wagon. I have already received an invitation to do some river sittin' out on the boardman river behind Aunt Nan and Uncle Dicks house. Thank you very much, I will be organizing that trip very soon.

We had a strange occurrence in our house the other day. There must have been some kind of power surge of sorts, because we fried our DVD player and our microwave all at the same time. I soon realized that I have never, nor has anyone I know of, ever purchased a microwave. Without a clue of what to get, I cruised over to Wal-Mart....yuck....and picked one out. Michelle seems to like it....and at the end of the day, that's is all that matters:) During my trip, I made the discovery of this "redbox" contraption, that you rent dvd's from..... I was intrigued. The cost is 1.00 plus tax. You return the movie the next day before 9pm, to avoid any other charges to your credit card. So I thought I would give it a try, I am a maverick like that. Drew and I rented BOLT, the super dog movie. When we attempted to pop it in last night...Drew and I.....thats when I discovered that the DVD player was shot. No power....no movie, but I do like Redbox....maybe they will put one at the gas station:)

So YOU think you can Dance?

2009-04-07T10:30:00.000-04:00

It's obvious to me that he gets his dancing skill from my side. I should take a poll on this. We are getting geared up for Easter here. Michelle, Drew and I worked diligently on getting the yard cleaned up for our Easter egg hunt on Sunday. I can't describe how nice it was to be able to work outside and not have any snow on the ground ( although, I can't say that today). I consider myself, and I am sure that Michelle would agree, that we are both very Earth friendly people, and conscious of the environment. But I need to tell you all a secret, about me. I fight the urge to go outside and just unload about 100 cans of hairspray in some sick effort to open a hole in the ozone layer above my house. "The Shining" comes to mind when i try to sum up how I feel about the winter of 08/09. I am calming myself down now, but if anyone knows Al Gore...please have him give me a call.

Drew is starting to use real words now. Just this morning I was able to get him to say "up" , when he wanted out of the high chair. He can also say "bad dog" and "bad squirrel" , there is a story behind that:) Won't be long until he starts talking so much that I wish I would have taught him sign language like I had thought about when he was very young.

Fun at the Park !

2009-03-24T14:18:00.000-04:00

The weather is becoming more and more bearable, and there is some light at the end of the long, cold dark tunnel that has been our winter.Drew, Michelle and I spent a few hours at the park on Sunday. Things have been busy as usual in the Charland family. The last few weeks have just flown right by. Michelle starts her Spring Break on Saturday, which I am really looking forward to. Hopefully the weather will be nice enough that we can get outside without having to layer our clothes:) I think that is what I am looking forward to most about spring, the ability to just wear a pair of jeans and a tee-shirt outside.....

Drew is absolutely infatuated with the outdoors.He loves to be out there, whether it's at the park, or standing on the front porch waving to passers-by.We have mentioned how nice it will be to have the privacy fence in the backyard, so that Drew can run all over the yard, and we can be outdoors without worrying that he will run off into the road or over to visit Erv next door ( who would probably give him some cookies). There are so many great things to look forward to this spring and summer.......hopefully I remember to document some of it for the blog.....

Dinner Table Head Games.....What is wrong with him?

2009-03-11T21:36:00.000-04:00

This was really funny, because it may seem like Drew is imitating someone else at the table, but he really isn't. He just started doing this because he didn't want to eat his spagetti.

Fun at the Hoyts!!

2009-03-11T09:30:00.000-04:00

Yeah, it has been a long while since I have graced the blog with my presence. We have been a busy bunch here at the Charland house. I was recently laid off from work( and you would think that I would have more time?), and have been going to interviews, and meetings, in search of a job that I will enjoy doing. Right now, I am not having the dilemma of "will I find a job". It's more along the lines of, which one should I pick. Maybe 2 of them, is what I am thinking. As busy as I have been taking care of my little man here the last couple weeks, I think two jobs would be just right:) Actually, today I took Drew to his nanny, and I am feeling a little bit of sadness that I am not spending the day with him. We have had alot of fun together and some good father-son bonding. I can totally understand what Michelle went through when she had to go back to work last spring. Drew has been doing great......OH, that's some good coffee. I just brewed up some starbucks coffee...magnificent. Umm, back to Drew. He had a wonderful time at the Hoyts this last weekend. We all had a great time. Cards were played. I lost in shanghi...badly. Then I lost in poker....to my wife. It was fun though:) I have about 3 hours of video that was taken in the last few weeks, so i am going to make that a priority to go through that stuff this weekend. I am going to take a hiatus from facebook......

Coming back from Kzoo was a real treat....until we decided to stop in Cadillac, which was fun...but was also our downfall of the weekend. We ended up driving through possibly the worst winter storm i have ever seen. What is normally a 45 minute drive, took us 2 hours. Probably the most uncomfortable 2 hours of driving I have ever experienced. I pray that this winter is over. I have lost hair during it, I know.

We Survived!!

2009-02-25T11:35:00.000-05:00

Drew had his frenulmectomy (sp) (tongue clipped) yesterday morning and we all survived. However, when Chris and I woke up at 5:30 in the morning I don't think either one of us felt as if we were going to make it through it. Both of us had stomach aches and major anxiety going on. Lucky for us the procedure was at 7:15 in the morning and our arrival time at the Surgery Center was 6:15, so we didn't have to be anxious all day. With Curious George in hand we headed to the Surgery Center got checked in and registered and then waited until they called us back. I am still not sure why we had to be there an hour early. When they did call us back is when I almost hit the bathroom to empty my stomach, however, I did hang through. For all of you that know me, you are well aware of my weak stomach. They took us to a pre-op room brought Drew some peach pajamas, not something Chris was found of :) and then tried to take his vitals. We had three nurses visit us while in pre-op all commenting how cute Drew was, of course, and then two anesthesiologist. We (Chris and I) were both doing pretty well until the anesthetic doctors came in. When they talked about gassing Drew up is when my tears started and I was thinking please let this be ok! I did pull myself together and made it through their talk. After they left Dr. Collins came in and told us more about what was going to happen and then the surgical nurse came in and took Drew away. Amazingly, Drew didn't cry when he left, however, we found out later when he was in the operating room he started to cry. They said this was good, because he took two deep breaths of the gas and was out. After they took Drew, we went to the waiting room with Curious George in hand and settled ourselves in. In about 10 minutes they called us back and the doctor said it went well and Drew was just fine!! Twenty minutes later they called us back to recovery because Drew was waking up and he looked great!

When we went back to the waiting room to get Drew's coat a lady looked at us and said "Now the Curious George makes sense!" She had been watching Chris and I earlier in the waiting room and couldn't figure out why we were carrying a Curious George stuffed animal. We all had a good laugh and as we were heading out to the car, Chris said "I am glad it was you who carried George and not me!"

Drew was pretty groggy for the morning, but did manage to it eat a Popsicle and click his tongue for a good part of the morning. He had a pretty typical day for the rest of the day and if you didn't know it you wouldn't have guessed he had anything done. He was happy all day. Played hard and just kept walking around. He is still doing great today.

Household Chores = Entertainment?

2009-02-22T12:42:00.000-05:00

For some reason, Drew has a very odd relationship with our vacuum cleaner. To the naked eye, he may just be acting silly, or being funny. But only a true genius, can communicate fluently with household appliances. I was cleaning up the house yesterday and Drew is always trying to help out with the chores. In fact, Michelle and I talked about doing a video of just him doing work around the house. Maybe we can use this later on in life somehow? Last night we planned to take a trip out of town to spend some time with friends. Drew was spending the night at Aunt Sandys house. Speaking of which, he is absolutely in love with Sandy. We tell him goodbye after dropping him off there, and he runs away from us, so that we don't take him when we go. Anyway, back to our "date" night. We ended up driving about 4 blocks from the house before seeing a few cars slide sideways...we thought " yeah, this is dumb". We came home and watched a funny movie, ate some chocolate covered strawberries.

I've seen this look before.....

2009-02-15T20:54:00.000-05:00

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New Valentines Day Tradition

2009-02-15T11:48:00.000-05:00

We Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentines day weekend. The Charlands went downtown to the Souper-bowl cookoff, and then to Bubba's(one of our all-time favorite spots) for a early dinner around 4:00. What a great idea! Bubba's has fantastic food, and we discovered that if you go before 5:30pm it's 33% off. It was a great dinner and it only cost about $20.00.

The souper-bowl was fun as usual. We went last year as well. They have a live band playing, that for the most part is very entertaining. Although they did manage to botch a great song from Jimi Hendrix. Drew was a big crowd pleaser. Michelle even said some lady took a picture of him...LOL.Not all the soups that we usually love where there this year though. We did get to try some new ones. But the two of us are pretty pickey about things we don't know the ingredients of...We did try them all though!

Drew has been mastering the art of walking and doing other things at the same time...i.e: banging spoons together, talking on a old cell phone,and swinging various things around wildly. He is now spinning himself in circles and walking quickly over obstacles.

Of course our little mini-spring was over quickly. I didn't even get to log it into the blog. Drew and I did manage to get on the bike and go for about a 45minute ride around downtown, and around our neigborhood. It was amazing how much I had to adjust his bike seat. We have seat that goes in front of you, it's very cool, it's called a wee-ride. Anyway, his foot rests had to be dropped about 4 inches and the back straps had to be loosened almost 100%. Just amazing what happens in a years time.

I wanted to get some different perspectives on Vaccinations for children, there seems to be alot of discussion about this. My point of view on this is that it is your social obligation to get these vaccinations for yourself and your children to prevent future outbreaks of deadly diseases. The reason that you never hear about people contracting these are because most people are vaccinated. There is not enough conclusive evidence that vaccines can cause autism, or in any way lessen the quality of a persons life. If you have a opinion on this, please take the poll to the right. And feel free to elaborate by clicking on comments below.

Guitar Hero.

2009-02-08T20:46:00.001-05:00

Shake It....Don't Break it.....

2009-02-08T19:06:00.000-05:00

To Cut...or not to Cut

2009-02-04T11:20:00.000-05:00

Drew has been diagnosed with ankyloglossia, which is the attachment of the frenum into the mucoperiosteal covering of the alveolar processes. Or in my terms.....the thingy that connects the tongue to bottom of your mouth, is too close to the tip.

Studies have shown that this can cause problems with moving food around in the mouth, for toddlers. And some physicians believe that it can cause speech problems later in life ( although, I have found very little evidence of this).

Today I made the appointment to have a frenulectomy done on Drew.I am not very comfortable with this, but I have been reading A TON of articles on the subject, and there doesn't seem to be any downsides to having it done, other than the discomfort of the healing process, along with the discomfort of me having to put Drew in pain. Everyone seems to make this out to be such a simple little thing, and I have to say, if this was something that I was getting done to myself, or heard of someone else having it done, I would be calm, cool and collected about it. I, for some reason, have very strong feelings about this. My job is to protect my family from undue harm and pain. Whether it be physical or mental. Parts of me, just want to say.....NO WAY, I am not going to let someone gas my son and cut his mouth, if it's not 100% necessary. The fact that I have not come up with 100%, is my real problem. If anyone has any input on this, I would really love to hear what you think. Be honest about your feelings, as if you had to have it done to your own child.

Keep this in mind.Although ankyloglossia can be significant at birth, the severity and functional effects tend to decrease with time and oral growth. During the first 4 to 5 years of life, the oral cavity changes significantly in shape and size. The alveolar ridge grows in height, the teeth begin to erupt, and the tongue grows and narrows at the tip. At the same time, the lingual frenulum recedes, stretches, and may even rupture. Therefore, as the child grows, the severity of the tongue-tie lessens and the initial restrictions of lingual movement are diminished.

Walk This Way......Talk This Way

2009-01-31T21:28:00.000-05:00

There he goes.....it's only been a few short weeks and Drew has already taken off. He actually ran from me tonight while we were playing, unfortunately I didn't catch that on video:) I don't get the camera out as often as I used to. I am usually too busy following in the path of hurricane Drew. I hope you all have a great SuperBowl weekend! I think that if they made sweetest day a holiday, COME ON....The Superbowl could at least make the calender....

A Few Funny Pictures I Stumbled Upon:)

2009-01-31T21:08:00.000-05:00

Pickey Eating.....

2009-01-20T09:53:00.000-05:00

Drew is now officially not a baby anymore. It really does fly right by. He is starting to do more and more on his own. He wants to feed himself everything now, and is no longer a fan of baby food. In fact if you even let him see that his food is comming from a baby food container, he just turns away and shakes his head "no". So what do we do now? He doesn't like to eat the baby food, and whenever we try and feed him bigger chucks of our food, he gags on it. I never thought that feeding a person could be such a challenge. I noticed the other day that when I would give him cheerios ( and I give him the honey nut cheerios), he looked as though he was eating them. Then I would discover that he would suck the sugar off of them and let the rest fall into his lap. He has had cheerios turn up in all kinds of weird places. Down his shirt, up his pant leg....I even found one in the elastic of his diaper. Although the majority of them ended up as a snack for Ranger:) I guess we are supposed to be weining him off of the bottle too, but then where is he going to get all his nutrients from? We could certainly use some advice from people who have had the same experiences with their children.

We went fopr another walk with the sled last night, and this time we were able to muster up a few giggles from him. I had to swing the sled around in a 180 degree spin at a somewhat high rate of speed to get that reaction. Not sure really, where he gets his sense of adventure and need for excitement from..... maybe one day he would up for going skydiving with dad:)

Drew did however, love it when I was pulling the icecicles from the porch roof and throwing them into the snow like darts, after our walk. He is quite the ham sometimes. There is two very prominent sides to his personality. The most usual side is the inquisitive Drew, who like to try and figure things out. When he gets in this mode, you cannot interrupt him....or he will flip out on you. Yeah, he gets a little wrapped up in his work. The second is CRAZY Drew. This is the boy who wants to attack things..., be it you, what you have in your hand, the couch, a pillow, or just himself. This Drew scares me a little. Especially when you tell him "no" when his touching or getting into something you don't want him too, and he smiles at you...and touches it again......He'll be a hard scrabble...Im sure of it. There is also, snuggly Drew and Kissing Drew....It's very funny to me how he has developed such a big personality in only a year of life. We cannot tell you how excited we are to see what lies ahead for him, and us.

Happy 1st Birthday To Drew!!!!!

2009-01-11T19:45:00.000-05:00

We had a fun filled week in celebration of Drew's 1st Birthday. Deciding to have a small family party for him turned out to be the best for everyone. We would have liked to have a big party on Saturday, but because of the holidays just being over, we didn't think we would get a very big response. Fortunately Michelle and I are absolutely adamant about making sure that his birthday is a very special day for him (regardless of when it might fall).

Drew was able to show up with the talent this week and give us his very first steps, and I believe a first actual word, other than DADA.I asked him for the ball and he pointed to the football (YES!! Pumping fist in air), and he said "ball". Brillant. We are sure he is gifted.. :)

I hope that everyone had as great a holiday season as we did. Somewhat bittersweet that it's all over, but it's time to get on those New Year's resolutions. Michelle has started "the Biggest Loser" Central Grade edition, and was able to recruit 40 other people from her School to try and make a run at a $200 pot after 6 weeks. I will be playing Michelles version of "Bob" the personal trainer, which in return will help me get some cardio done. We hit the gym yesterday and here I thought I was feeling good on the elliptical, made a friendly wager about who could get to a certain amount of steps first......yeah, that was a bad move. I did win, however, I am feeling the pain today. I don't think the 400 pound leg presses before hand did me any favors...

Happy New Year!!!!

2009-01-04T15:59:00.000-05:00

This is a long video, but we thought the whole thing was hilarious, so we didn't want to cut any of it out.

Happy New Year to our friends and family! We hope you had a great beginning of the year and wish you a wonderful 2009. We spent New Year's with the Clark's and had a great time playing poker, watching home videos and playing our Wii. Yes, it didn't take long for us to decide we were going to spend Chris' fantasy football winnings and get ourselves a Wii. Our only problem was to find a store that had one in stock. Lucky for us, Chris called Walmart and they got a shipment in that day, so up to Walmart he went and grabbed the last one! We have spent our "free" time bowling, playing tennis, golfing and boxing. I must say I am the master bowler in the house, I already became pro and earned a new bowling ball. Chris on the other hand is the master tennis player. He kicks my butt daily...I won't give up, one day I will be victorious. No competivness in this house :)!

We are gearing up for Drew's first birthday. We aren't planning anything big, just pizza and cake. I plan on baking a double chocolate two layer cake, just like Grandma Clark made for her kids. I have never made a two layer cake, so it could be interesting. This first birthday, I have come to the conclusion, is more for the parents than for Drew. It definately has brought back our memories from a year ago. Chris thinks I don't remember because of the epidural and the other drugs for the C-section, however, I remember plenty. It sure was a life changing day! One that will be considered as one of the greatest days of our lives.

Wii Wish you a Merry Christmas....

2008-12-29T20:49:00.000-05:00

Christmas time in Kalamazoo was a blast for all of us. Drew had a wonderful time as usual with the Hoyt girls, and of course Melissa and Peter. He loved his new toys from Santa and the family. I posted a few pictures to the right of him playing. Brooke and Autumn got a Wii for Christmas and we spent A LOT of time playing with that. Autumn was the champion bowler, with the all time high score of 199. Brooke raced for hours playing mario cart, and Michelle beat me down like Mike Tyson in some boxing. I had to remind her that it's nothing like the real thing..:) Our drive back was an adventure in itself. We woke up in the middle of the night to a raging thunderstorm, and then thick fog...that always follows a change in temp from 30 to 55 degrees. Saturday afternoon down 131 was like driving a steamer. We saw a guy using his hazards and he was the only person we could see from any distance, so we decided to use that technique for the rest of the trip. Of course we made a pit stop in Cadillac for some G&D's pizza for lunch...

It's all over. I know this because they already have Valentine's Day candy at Target. We still have New Years to look forward to this week though:) The Charland's will be heading south again to Cadillac to spend New Years/Christmas with the Clark family. Then we plan to head back to TC to enjoy some rest and relaxation for the weekend, since Grandma Barb offered to watch Drew ALL NIGHT... What a trooper. I am not sure what is in store for us, but I am sure it will be nothing less than AWESOME.

Sunday Morning Funnies

2008-12-22T07:04:00.000-05:00

Drew has been having some issues with sleeping lately, actually he really isn't bothered much by it, but it is taking a toll on Michelle and I:) We have divised a new system, where each of us has the duty of getting up to rub his back, or give a bottle as nessasary. I get a night, then she gets a night... etc... This way we are at least getting a good nights sleep every other day. Now we are both aware that we should be letting him cry himself back to sleep.....whatever...."but" when he is crying for 20 minutes and about 15 feet away...well, I guess I am weak. He has had an awful cold for about 4 days now, and thats really what started the sleeplessness.
On to a happy note. We had Betsy and Loretta over twice this weekend, which was really fun. They are throwing a New Years party this year, I am excited about that. We always have a great time there...ex: Michelle's sister singing "How does Batmans mom call him for dinner".... dinner dinner dinner dinner dinner dinner dinner dinner.....batman.......you had to be there.
So, here are a few pictures I took of Drew yesterday morning....this is his new "funny" face. We think it's funny now, but I really hope he grows out of it:)

Looks like Michelle is going to get a "extra" nice Christmas gift from me this year, as last night I won the championship game in my fantasy football league....and 200 bucks. Yeah Baby.

Crazy Drew filmed in the Wild....

2008-12-07T21:04:00.000-05:00

My back hurts from shoveling.

2008-12-07T20:49:00.000-05:00

Enough with the snow. It would be really nice if we had some snow for Christmas, but at this rate, we may be trapped inside our houses up here. Have you ever seen The Shining? Not cool...

Our tree was perfect.It took us about 4 minutes to find it. Standing around 6 foot tall with the topper, and around four feet wide. No it's not the Griswald family Christmas tree, but that is a good thing. I think this was the first tree that I was able to just grab with one hand and bring right through the door and stab into the stand.I was even able to spin it around while I hung the lights.

We stayed up late last night, drank Champagne, and hung ornaments on the tree ( our new family tradition).

My secretary, Karen, had made matching hats for Drew and I over the last week. She is such a wonderful person, and goes out of her way to do things for people....even when they try sooo hard to annoy her:) I promised I would post a picture of us wearing the hats, so Karen....this blog is dedicated to you!

5 wonderful Days...

2008-11-30T10:58:00.000-05:00

What a great 5 days we have had in the Charland household. It all started on Wednesday, our first day of Thanksgiving break. Drew and I started the day off playing and reading books. I am amazed at how much he loves to read his books. Chris had to go off to work to finish inventory and cleaning of the shop. When Chris got home we went to Kohl's in search of a winter coat and snowsuit for Drew. We had success in finding a coat, but are still searching for a snowsuit. I really didn't think with living in northern Michigan finding a snowsuit would be that difficult. However, we are still looking.

Thanksgiving Day was very enjoyable. We hung around our house until about 3:00 and the went to mom's for dinner. It was a wonderful dinner. Chris and I made stuffing, green bean casserole and hot fudge cake. We had all the traditional fixins with pumpkin pie for dessert.

As we celebrated this Thanksgiving I thought of Thanksgivings of the past. My fondest memories are the ones that involved my siblings and my cousins. I didn't always celebrate Thanksgiving with the same side of the family, however, I always had my siblings and some cousins around. I do hope Drew will be able to experience holidays with cousins. He will be celebrating this Christmas with Autumn and Brooke as we are going to head to Kalamazoo on Christmas Eve.

The Friday after Thanksgiving we went to Sears and Drew had his first professional pictures taken. He cracked up the photographer most of the time, he was being such a ham. He definitely has his daddy's personality, which makes me the luckiest woman in the world to have two boys always cracking you up.

I'm thinking Mongolian BBQ......Oh Yeah.

2008-11-26T10:06:00.000-05:00

Well. I can't wait to cash in on my dinner date with Grandma Hardy. We decided on a little wager. That was whether or not Drew would sit still for his first haircut. I said absolutely, and unfortunately for Barb......She said NO WAY. Once again, I was correct. When will you guys stop challenging my genius? Maybe never, but that's how it goes. Drew was the King on the Throne at Salon Verve today. He looked like one of those kids from the 1950's with his hair combed off to the side, like a little boy getting ready to board the Titanic.

Momma Barb,

I think I will cash in that date next month, since you are cooking Thanksgiving dinner for everyone tomorrow:) Cha-Ching!

Love,

Christopher

Lions will lose today

2008-11-23T09:01:00.000-05:00

Little Giant Turkey Eater

2008-11-19T17:10:00.000-05:00

How is he this big already...? It wasn't long ago he needed me for everything. Now he knows what he wants to do, and if you don't want to play his game...he'll play it alone. I was rolling the ball back and forth with him for a few minutes and he just decided he wanted to do something else....so off he goes to the bookshelf, where he wastes no time pulling about 12 of his books onto the floor in a circle around him. Then he just browses through for about 1/2 an hour. It just cracks me up.

In case you didn't notice, Michelle finally made her first blog entry last week. I am going to work on persuading her to get on more often, because when I look back in 20 years to read some of this stuff, I don't want it to be just what I wrote. We try to do as many things together as we can, and she is such a wonderful mom that I want Drew to be able to look back and read some of what she was thinking, because to be honest...it's very entertaining at times:)

Drew had his second swimming lesson this Tuesday. He was much more involved and active this time. His absolute favorite thing to do, is to sit on the ledge of the pool....and without even being prompted....lunge himself forward into the water without a care in the world. I am fully hoping that he is able to control this reckless abandon ( or else he may end up being just like his dad).

We are having tooth trouble! We have two bottom teeth that don't seem to want to break. I have yet to look it up online. I try and post it here first before I go looking for a solution on WebMD or some similar site. Other-wise I would not have much to discuss.

In case I don't get back on before Thanksgiving, I want to wish our family and friends a Happy Holiday......pass the butter please.

Water Baby

2008-11-13T20:10:00.000-05:00

I know I don't get on the blog and type much, but the other day as I was giving Drew a bath I thought all he has is his daddy's point of view of his life and I should start giving my two cents. Not that I don't agree with Chris, because 99% of the time I do. :)

The big news this week in our life is we started swimming classes. We are in a class with four other people, all of us teachers from Central Grade. Our class is at the Grand Traverse Pavilions in their therapy pool. The pool deck is 94 degrees and the water is just as warm. Going into this class we thought Drew would love it and have a great time, because he loved being in the lake this summer. So, imagine our surprise when he just laid back in our arms and took the whole thing in. No smiling, no fussing just watching the world around him. Makes me think he is going to be a great observer. The class was fun we sang songs and pulled our children around the pool. Toward the end of class we set them on the side of the pool and pulled them into the water. Now my little dare devil of a son decided he liked that part and wasn't going to wait for us, but instead fall forward so we could catch him. Thankfully for him we were ready. I think he gets the falling and catching from when daddy throws him on the couch and lets him fall to the floor where daddy is waiting to catch him. Anyway, swimming was fun and we go again next week. We will get pictures of this experience and post them soon.

We Need Sleep!!!!

2008-11-10T14:59:00.000-05:00

And tips! If anyone is reading this and you have had trouble getting your kids to sleep through the night....I need your assistance! Drew wakes up twice every night. Once around 1 am and again around 4. The first time we let him cry for about 10 minutes then we pick him out of the crib and rock him for about 20 minutes and he falls back to sleep. The second time we do the same except we then feed him a bottle and he won't go back to sleep unless we bring him in our bed( I know this is bad). Is he playing us? What do we do next...sleep downstairs with earplugs in?

Ok, on to the funness..is that a real word?

Drew is going crazy with his new found skills. Blabbering constantly, crawling at the speed of sound and attacking anything that moves. We have been trying to get him to say MAMA for a long time now, and when you say it to him....no matter how many times, he just says DADADADADADADADA. I don't mind much:)

We start swimming classes tomarrow! I am so pumped to get in the pool with Drew, I know he is going to love it. We went to The Great Wolf lodge recently and at first I think he was little overwelmed by the water park, but afer I walked him around and let him ride the lazy river on my lap....he became much more relaxed and playful. By the end of the night he was laughing and splashing water all over.

First Halloween!!

2008-10-27T20:18:00.000-04:00

We have our pumpkins......or punkins....depending on who is reading this:) Drew has a very special Halloween costume for his very first time trick or treating. I will try and be a little more timely in my posting. The theme of the month has got to be...TIME. That of which I never seem to have. I have been hoping to get a new video on the sight made of the hours of video I have sitting on my computer. Oh well, as everypone with children know. These days are better spent playing catch on the floor with the soccerball and groovin to the Elmo beatbox that plays the same four tunes...over and over again. All has been going good here and we are very happy...all the time....especially boy-wonder. Drew is not quite walking yet but is showing some real interest. Maybe by Christmas!

Some new pictures of Drew......

2008-10-01T17:20:00.000-04:00

Mover and a Shaker....

2008-09-21T11:24:00.000-04:00

With Drew closing in on 9 months of age, we are just starting to get a handle on some kind of routine. We have found a great babysitter , which is such a relief for us. She is even from lower London, so Drew could pick up a bit of an English accent. We have been very busy this month, with Michelle back to school and all of us trying to get into a schedule....it can be very hectic. I have so much respect for couples that have multiple children. I am amazed all the time by how long everything takes to get done now. It is truly incredible the amount of time added to every chore, every trip out and even a walk around the neighborhood. How does anything get done if you have more than one baby?? You and your spouse become like a tag-team in a work environment, other than a relationship the way that you once were used too. By the time we get done with our nightly ritual, we are both completely spent........punch the clock...... and hope that Drew doesn't wake in the middle of the night for some over time.:) We are getting very good however, getting him to sleep through the night. After much trial and error, we have developed a system for getting him to sleep longer, and we are in the process of getting him to bed earlier than 9:30pm.
Drew is starting to really shine quite a personality lately. He knows how to respond to certain things and he is starting to understand how communication works. I have included a little video of some of his antics in the last month.
On a completely different note. I want to pronounce my public my disgust for the Detroit Lions management. I am proclaiming loud enough for the entire state to hear that if the Lions lose today against San Francisco, I will no longer support them until they can win 5 strait games. I think that is fair enough. Happy Sunday.

Drews Biker Gang......."Gerber Angels of TC"

2008-09-05T08:36:00.000-04:00

Summer is officially over.Michelle is back to school, and I am dreading the closing of our big bay door here at work. Not much going on in our lives the last few weeks, but I have been looking for a reason to put this picture up of Drew on my bike. We started taking him on bike rides last week, after we finally found a helmet that would fit his cute little head.

Football season has started up and I have added a little NFL news coloumn to the side bar over there------------------->

We will be taking a trip to Kalamazoo next weekend for Autumn's birthday party. That will be alot of fun, and Drew always enjoys playing with his cousins!

Good Luck to the Lions this weekend! They may not need it for their first game, but the rest of their schedule isn't pretty.......

Good Morning Campers!!

2008-08-27T09:44:00.000-04:00

Our final vacation weekend of the summer is now over. This summer has gone by so quickly, I can't believe that it's over already. The good news is that NFL football is starting next week!!
We had a great time on our camping trip. It was a great last trip for us together with Drew. Once again, he was a trooper. We get compliments all the time for how well he adjusts to things, and I have to admit that he is very flexible with what is going on. He just loves to be around people...all the time:) We only had one incident the first night, around 2 in the morning, when Drew woke up crying. I am fairly sure that anyone within about 200 yards of our site was awoken by his screams....... But we learned from that experience and made the proper adjustments, and hopefully the campers around us( who all happened to be camping together) were not hoping that we would go home early. The beach at Young State Park was beautiful, and the campsite that we were on was perfect.
We are going to reserve the same site for next year....we liked it that much! Next year, hopefully it won't rain like it did for us. There was an absolute downpour on Saturday....which ended our plans for a whole day at the beach. After the rain subsided we were able to get out on the water, along with Drew in his fancy little baby boat. He loved the water, and I didn't get a picture of him in it!
I did not get too many pictures, but I did get a few.....I have been slacking on the camera duties lately. I have a ton of video to go through and I plan to put together a great movie soon. We are having a end of summer get together this Sunday for labor day, since we were unable to go to Mt. Pleasent for the big Labor day blowout this year ( we just could not visualize being away from Drew for the whole weekend).

The Windy City

2008-08-18T09:31:00.000-04:00

What a great time we had in Chicago over the weekend! My Grandma was nice enough to let us stay with her for a few days and took time to go to the Brookfield zoo with us. It had been about 3 years since I was able to visit them and we decided that we would like to make it a once a year trip from now on. I would really be happy if Drew could grow up with memories of his great Grandma, and fun vacations to Chicago. It was always some of my favorite memories growing up.Pretty sure Michelle was in awe the entire weekend:) We took a ride to the top of the Sears Tower, and toured Chicago's main strip in town all day on Saturday. Our first night there was a blast. We met up with my Aunt and Uncle, cousins and Aunt Ann and Bob for dinner at Gino's East for the best Pizza in the world....and I do believe that is was as wonderful as I remember.
Drew was fantastic the whole time we were there, even on both car rides. I think he only cried a few times and that was when he wanted to eat. He was just so laid back, and rolled with all the punches.....until we got home.....Last night, I am pretty certain that Drew has his first tooth break through. I think that he may even had a tooth on both top and bottom come through at the same time. We just couldn't get him to calm down. Nothing is more heartbreaking than listening to your baby scream in pain even after you have done everything to try and help him.Hopefully he is feeling better today.
I realized this morning that I am a terrible Grandson....and nephew. I never took one single picture of anyone in my family with Drew. What is wrong with me! I guess we will have more reason to go back! I apologize everyone.....but just for the record, Michelle never mentioned it either:) I guess we were just too excited to be there:)

There are alot of pictures here so give them a few minutes to load especially if you have a slow connection.

What Happened to Summer?

2008-07-30T18:06:00.000-04:00

We are all booked up till the end of summer! This weekend is Adam and Melanie's wedding. The next weekend we have Autumn and Brooke and have plans to spend some time at the cottage. We are also planning a trip to go camping in Harbor Springs, and going to Chicago to visit my long lost family......I wish they lived closer:( I feel so bad that I haven't been to see them since well before I was married. I believe I went to Chicago while Michelle and I were dating, so needless to say, we are very excited to be taking that trip and spending some time with the Chicago crew. We had planned on taking the train, but I think with all the "stuff" we cart around on overnights with Drew, we will be driving my car.

Adam had his Bachelor party this last weekend, and we had an absolute blast. Started our man-venture with a three hour paintball grudge-match on a few different courses. Then it was off to our cabin in the woods....a four- bedroom log cabin with flat panel TV and a fireplace, and all the fixin's. Sitting right on the Boardman river, we did some river sitting and had a camp-fire. I played the best Texas hold'em I have ever played...and lost a $140.00 pot at the end of it. Adam had a GREAT time...I think he was seen hugging a tree at some point in the wee hours of the morning, so that tells me that he was having some serious fun.

This weekend will not be relaxing in the least. Starting with a rehearsal dinner at our house on Friday night, and then off to the Lutheran Church on Saturday to do my duty as a grooms-man!! I can speak for everyone right now, there will be a sigh of relief when we hear the two of them reciting their vows.....Weddings can be a stressful and downright crazy sometimes but we have to remember that these two will be a family soon and that is worth much more than a few stressing moments. I have included some pictures of Drew of course and some of our bachelor party pics(Not many of these I could post:)

Drew is army crawling better than I ever did...We are constantly amazed by him, and the things he does. I will have some great video soon of Drew v. The Vacuum......just a little teaser to keep everyone coming back....I know I have been slacking.

Drew, Brooke and Autumn

2008-07-30T16:53:00.000-04:00

Bachelor Party!!

2008-07-30T16:50:00.000-04:00

Six Months in Review.....

2008-07-08T17:53:00.000-04:00

Everyone comes up to you when you have a newborn and says the same things......."They grow up so Fast"........." Cherish these months" and "You can sleep later". You never know how true they are until you have a child. Drew seems to be doing something new everyday. I feel like I should be writing more than just what Drew is up to on this blog, knowing that someday he will be reading some of this. The truth is, alot has been going on with everyone here. Michelle and I have been hosting a two week extreme fun extravaganza with Brooke, Autumn, Peter and Melissa ( her sister). We have been all over place. Friday on the fourth we spent the day on the Platte river doing some not-so-white water rafting. It was great time for everyone, aside from the sunburns that all the grownups inflicted upon themselves. Saturday we all went to the Open Space and watched the air show, and my brothers from the Army Golden Knights had come to town, along with the Blue Angels. I wish I was posting some pictures, but I have been absolutely terrible about keeping my camera with me. You can look them up on Google:) We got quite a show just sitting in the front yard at our house....as the Blue Angels flew for the third time on Sunday, we had one fly directly over the house.......and I mean that so literally. You could taste the burnt fuel......it was incredible.

My purpose tonight is to post a picture from each month on the day that Drew was born. I took the last one yesterday. And a cute video that the girls made, with a special dance from Drew and Brooke. Enjoy

Touching Grabbing and Rolling

2008-06-22T13:06:00.000-04:00

Drew is now 5 months and 2 weeks old. He measures 26 1/4" inches long and 15.9 pounds. It is incredible how fast he is catching on to things. He has started to grab at everything in sight, and he has become very good at rolling back and forth from his belly to his back ( almost too good). This is the beginning of the time in which you cannot leave him alone for more than a few seconds....and sometimes that is too long. His sense of humor is starting to rear it's prankster little head. This afternoon I went upstairs to see how he was doing, as he slept on our bed. When I got to him it was too late, he was already awake and lying on his belly, he looked over at me with a strange look on his face, like he was up to no good. He then laid his head back down in the other direction and closed his eyes like he was going back to sleep.....so I then leaned over him to see if he was in fact going back to sleep. As I leaned in I said....." Drew, are you sleeping or not" and with his eyes closed.....he smiled......busted. He continued this joke about six more times, and I can say in all honesty, it never once got old:)

Michelle's nieces are up for a few weeks, so we have been having just a crazy good time this weekend. I imagine that Michelle has her work cut out from Mon-through- Friday for a while. I will have some really good videos and pictures of our shenanigans over the weekend in the next couple days.

There hasn't been a whole lot of excitement this last month, I think because we have been so busy with everything that we have just not taken the time to reflect or even think about sitting down and typing. I happen to have a little bit of alone time today as the entire crew, has gone to Melanie's Bridal shower for a few hours. I love being a man.

Here is some recent video of Drew and his new skills of moving and grabbing.

Future Dancing Machine

2008-06-02T18:04:00.000-04:00

Michelle and I wanted to buy Drew a jumper, and first we ended up with the Johnny Jump up that hangs in the door frame. That proved to be a bit large for Drew right now, it was like the giant sand monster in Return of the Jedi....it just seemed to swallow him up. So...we decide to try again. The next one we got was much more expensive, and I wasn't too happy about how large it is. We have a very small living room ( we have a very small house).
I was mistaken....this is the funniest thing I have seen....apparently Drew is partial to jumping. He must have spent about an hour in this thing on Sun. afternoon. We had put him in it around 5 or 6 time before without such a reaction, but I guess he just needed to make that first bounce:)

Michelle has been working hard moving her classroom. I had taken Drew to the School to shoot some hoops while she worked on some things, and he is very much a ball hog. I let him have the ball one time, he pushed and pushed until he dropped it from his lap. I then took the ball and told him it was my turn to shoot, and started dribbling down the court.........he began to cry.Loudly. Until I gave him the ball back. He is a bit strong willed. I don't have a clue where he is getting that from.

I want to post a big Thank you to all the helpful people from BabyCenter.com for sharing their experiences and enlightening me on some of Drews skin issues. There are so many great parents out there willing to help people even with their own busy schedules. Thank you.

I believe I have captured Drews first words........da da. Take a look if you don't believe me:)

Michelles video

2008-05-29T20:31:00.000-04:00

So Michelle doesn't like the music in the video....I thought it was fun.....I would like to know what other people think. So I am posting a poll. This is too much fun.

You know, after watching it....I can't decide which I like better.

Here is Michelle's video:

Fun with Movies......

2008-05-29T18:23:00.000-04:00

Ok. I have been wanting to put this together for while and I had some "alone" time tonight, which I was really just looking forward to spending out on my hammock with a good book. I was motivated however to finish this video. So enjoy what I did, instead of lying outside in the cozy hammock on this beautiful day:)

Pictures Galore!

2008-05-27T19:55:00.000-04:00

Wow! He is growing too fast for me to keep up....I have been collecting a ton of video as time passes, but I haven't had any time to edit anything yet. I have to say that this little man is keeping us plenty busy. We have decided to switch from the soy formula back to the regular milk formula.
The house has been a major matter of concern lately, with our recent open house and a few more walk-throughs. We are hope full that we will be able to sell before summer ends.
Michelle and I had come to the conclusion that we would not be regulars at the fitness center for quite some time, so we have built a home gym in our garage. It has worked out well so far, although we have only used it twice.....hopefully we can stay motivated and not let our exercise equipment collect any more dust. Swimsuit season is approaching fast. I have much more to talk about.....but you know what. I am tired.

The Incredible Inedible Egg ()

2008-05-14T08:03:00.000-04:00

Mystery solved! Drew is allergic to eggs. Who would have guessed? Well, actually I made a little side bet when we were waiting for the results of the scratch test at the Dr.'s office. Strangely enough, Michelle thought it might be eggs and she was dead on. So I had to pay up.....my last 10 bucks:(

The good news is, that I called the company that makes Similac formula and they patched me through to a chemist, who then explained a ton of things to me ( most of which, I had no idea what she was talking about) including the fact that there are no eggs or egg derivatives in ANY of their formulas. Also, any of the top eight allergy causing foods must be labeled in their primary form, in bold letters on any nutrition labels.

Busy month....seems like every month since January has been a busy month. Michelle's birthday is the 16th, our anniversary is the 19th, my Dads birthday is the 25th, and I am sure that I am forgetting some other important date. Michelle volunteered to get wet in the dunk tank at her school on Friday, for the walk-a-thon. I surely plan to get there in time to give her a good birthday dunk........oh...and I was great at pitching:)

Still no bites on the house yet. We spent mothers day working on it for our Monday showing. We scraped and painted the garage and got some new flowers for the front window box. I have been working on the lawn alot. It's amazing the information that you can get by talking to older guys about yard work. They have all the secrets to getting a great lawn, but you have to go through the weather and gas prices first before you get there.

Ice Cream! Hammocks! Hiking!

2008-05-09T09:24:00.000-04:00

My most favorite thing about warm weather....I just love ice cream! We took Drew to the ice cream social and book fair at Central Grade last night. It was a good time. Drew got some new books, including a favorite of mine....."Skippy John Jones" .

We were able to go for a nice hike in the state grounds behind Munson hospital. It is very relaxing to hike those trails. Michelle and I found out real quick how out-of -shape we are as we started to climb a huge hill. We made it to the top though! That's all that counts....we didn't give up!

Drew and I are enjoying a little time in my birthday present from Michelle. As far as I am concerned, there is nothing more comfortable than to fall asleep in a hammock on a nice 70 degree day. Drew agrees:)

Still no answer on our situation regarding Drew and his allergic reaction to pretty much anything except hypoallergenic formula. We took him off of it for one day and he broke out all over his face and body. It almost looked like hives. Even with all the drama yesterday with food switching and going out, Drew was in rare form last night.....laughing and cooing like crazy. He is getting soooo close to saying da-da.

Medical Mystery (Solve it and I will mow your lawn for a month, Im serious)

2008-04-30T21:04:00.000-04:00

Been a busy week for the Charland family here in TC.

Michelle is going through all sorts of changes at work, due to the movement of 6th grade to the Junior High School. She will be one the unfortunate people who gets thrown into a pool ,in which according to seniority, teachers will get placed in their "new" positions. It is much more complicated than that, but because we talk about it everyday, I think we can just let it go.....I am sure it will be remembered.

As for the man of the hour....he was taken to the ER over the weekend. Seems that this pesky rash is not eczema at all, but rather some type of skin allergy of sorts. We have talked to 2 nurses, 1 doctor and a pediatrician, and not one of them has seen anything like this, or can tell us what it is.......exactly. So...we come to this. We have started Drew on a strict diet of hypoallergenic formula ONLY. Michelle is not happy about this, for obvious reasons. The good news is, that if we can pin this on something in Michelle's milk.....we are one step closer to finding the cure!! Lord help us!

This is something that is completely off topic...but I have been thinking about it recently, and I told myself that I should write it down before I forget how mad it makes me. People who just walk up and touch a strangers child are IDIOTS! Why the heck are you touching my baby!! Where have you recently put your hands! Who the heck knows! Now you want to come up and touch my kids face???!! Are you out of your MIND! Adults don't go around touching other strange adults??? At least they shouldn't be.... I have never walked up to some dude on the street and said " Oh my GOODNESS!!! Look how adorable you are!" and start rubbing his cheeks....Get A CLUE.

Thanks for letting me air that...and please...pass it on.

And for your troubles, I have included a new video for your enjoyment.

Other Pictures

2008-04-20T17:48:00.001-04:00

Mr. Smiles.......Talking and Talking

2008-04-20T17:07:00.000-04:00

I am new to all this video stuff, and now I am starting to take videos of everything......I am sure that it will taper off soon. I tend to over do things when I first get started....I really like the learning process. But once I have figured it out, well......not as exciting.

Michelle and I think that these videos will be so great in the future though. I was tell her how my Grandfather would take pictures all the time during family events, and years later, we would watch slide shows of things that I didn't even remember. It was really fun. No-one in my family does this anymore...it's sad really.

We went to a birthday party this afternoon for Michelle's friends Victoria, Curt, and their daughter. Lydia. Yes...all born in April. As am I, my brother in law, mother in law, and my mother. Busy month eh.

Drew is going to be quite the chatter-box I do believe. This video is just a small portion of what he has been doing......all day..... I love it.

No Cheese Please!

2008-04-17T15:45:00.000-04:00

Well, we have made some new discoveries in the strange rash and EXTREME spitting up that Drew has been doing. Apparently he has some type of food allergy, which we are getting more and more sure is Milk. We have picked up a can of special food from our Pediatrician. Drew is currently still spitting up quite a bit, but the rash on his chest and legs seems to be clearing up nicely.

Drew and I are going to have some MAN time now, while Michelle is away.....so I leave another short video of play time and a few pictures from last weekend. The other little dude is Drews friend Brady, who is 3 weeks older than him.

I guess the pictures will have to wait for another time, as Blogger isn't alowing me to upload anything right now....

Date Night......Red Lobster

2008-04-12T10:23:00.001-04:00

I thought I would take Michelle out on a date and treat her to dinner after such a long week. She has been through the ringer this week with going back to school and being away from Drew. So Drew and I got dressed up nice....we shaved.....we put on some anti-persperant, and we took a gorgeous woman on a date:)

Today we are going to Fife Lake to visit with some friends who are comming up from Bay City and we haven't seen them for a very long time. We are very excited for them to meet Drew and we can't wait to talk with them.

Cha-Cha-Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes...

2008-04-10T11:30:00.000-04:00

Wow, how time flies. I have been neglecting our blog. When I have spare time, I just don't feel like sitting in front of the computer , when I can be playing with Drew. He is getting really grabby now...he will reach out and grab things and pull on them. Laughing all the time now, he really is a happy baby. He loves to stand up now and jump up and down. Facial expressions are starting to get more complex, with little squinting and raising of eyebrows, and the slightest smirk when you make a funny face at him....he is trying to figure out how to copy everything! Last night was a milestone for me. Drew was on the floor in his little jungle gym, and I had put him on his belly so he could practice doing push ups and what not. Well, he has figured out how to roll over onto his back from that position.....which was a huge thing! I am getting very excited about all the things he will discover, and what I will be able to teach him.......some of which, Michelle may not be too happy about ( like the underwear dance).

The spitting up has started to decrease considerably......and clearly this means he is going to grow very rapidly soon, as he is holding down about twice the volume of food.......or we will be changing his diaper much more.

Michelle is back to school this week. She didn't have to teach everyday, so that is nice for her....she can slowly get back in the swing of things. She is missing Drew terribly throughout the day, and I really feel for her. I can't tell you how much I missed him when I went back to work after just 2 weeks!! She has been with him 24/7 for 3 months!!

We still have not gotten our exercise schedule and our everything else schedule, combined into a good routine yet. I am hoping that we can get that straitened out soon.....with summer just around the corner, we have some things planned that will require us to be in non-couch potato form:)

Our open house was Sun., and we got ourselves about 4 good leads....with 7 visits. Not too bad in this economy. I just hope we can sell before things turn back around, so we can also get a great deal.

We spend alot of time trying to get our baby to stand, walk, talk and move around......but all I can remember from my childhood was my parents telling me to sit down and be quiet.