Happy Second Birthday, Drew!

My baby boy is two years old today. To celebrate Drew's birthday, I went back through all of my pictures and picked a few of my favorites of Drew (and in many cases Drew and Zach together).

This is the night before Drew was born. Man, I've got a big belly. The thing that struck me as funny is that I just recently hung that green shirt Zach is wearing in Drew's closet. It's weird to think of Drew as almost as old as Zach was when Drew was born. Really, though, I suppose Zach is almost 9 months older in this picture than Drew is now.

Here's the first picture ever taken of Drew outside of the womb. I know it's kind of gross that he has all that stuff on him, but I still like this picture.

This is right after we brought Drew home. I just love how Zach is holding him and looking so intently at him. For the most part, Zach has always been a pretty darn good big brother.

This is Drew at a few days old. It's the picture we used on his birth announcement.

This was Drew's first visit with his cousin Cam, who was his only cousin at the time. In this picture Drew is about 5 weeks old, Zach is a couple of months shy of his third birthday, and Cam is about a month past his second birthday. So I look at this picture and think about Cam being close to the age that Drew is now.

One of Drew's first times in the swing in our backyard. He must be about 4 or 5 months old here.

This is Drew's first family Hawkeye photo, taken on his first visit to his Great-Grandpa's house, and he is about 6 months old, I believe.

The next picture is Drew's first visit to Minnesota and his first visit with his new cousin Anders. Cam was about 2 and a half in this picture, Zach was almost 3 and a half, and Drew was about 7 months old. Sweet little Anders couldn't even hold his head up yet because he was just a few weeks old at this point.

My happy little 8 month-old.

How can you not like that little butt?

One year ago today, when Drew turned one.

This picture was sometime this past summer, maybe around June? Zach would be about 4 and Drew would be around 15 months. They loved their Superman jammies!

This one is probably from July or August. Drew loves the water and, unlike his big brother, has no issues with getting his face wet. He's the one I'll always have to keep an eye on around water, because he's pretty fearless, at least compared to Zach.

Oh, the arm sucking. This was on a drive home from Sandy and Will's this summer. August, I think. We took Drew's pacifier away around 13 months, and at about 15 months, he started sucking on his arm. Unfortunately, I haven't broken him of this habit yet, although he only does it in his crib before he falls asleep and right when he wakes up. I have no idea how I'll ever break him of this habit. I initially thought winter and long sleeves would do it, but he very quickly taught himself how to pull his sleeves up. I guess it could be worse.

I just love this picture of Drew. It's one of my absolute favorites. This was probably in September of this year, when Drew was 18 months old.

Here's Drew's silly face. He doesn't do it often anymore, but every now and then I still get to see it.

In Drew's 2 years of life, he's added 2 new cousins to bring him up to a total of 5 cousins. Here he is giving the newest cousin, Myles, a kiss on the head while Aunt Becky holds him.

Drew loves anything Elmo. He is about 20 months old here.

My little Hawkeye hooligan. He just looks like he is a little dickens, doesn't he? The look is not deceiving- he is a dickens!

Drew with all of his cousins on Christmas Eve. Myles (3 months), Anders (15 months), Drew (21 months), Cam (3 years 9 months), and Zach (4 and a half years).

These boys love their faux hawks! And Drew loves his Elmo shirt. He asks me if he can wear that shirt just about every day. I am not big on licensed clothing, but this was a hand-me-down from Zach, and Drew loves it so much. So many days, if the shirt is clean and I need Drew to be cooperative in the morning when getting dressed, I just let him wear it. I've got to pick my battles, right?

And finally, a recent picture of Zach and Drew. These days they play so nicely together the majority of the time. I really think Drew is happiest playing with Zach and his Lightning McQueen cars, which you can see in his hands in this picture.

Drew is a handful, definitely more of a handful at age two than Zach was, but he's also got such a fun personality. I'm hoping that this year, he will outgrow the screaming he does when he doesn't like something and that he will get potty-trained. I'd say those are my two big goals for him. Not sucking his arm anymore would be great, too, but I guess I should leave something to aim for when he's three. Happy birthday, sweet Drew!