first smile!!

Here are some pictures from our weekend. We had a fun time taking Drew out and we enjoyed staying in with him. Either way, we continue to take lots of pictures of him!
Drew appears a little dubious here about having his picture taken yet again.
On Friday night after work I had fun with Drew and his bee toy. You pull the cord and then as it winds back up the bee buzzes. Drew was captivated by it!

We like to have fun with Drew and his stuffed animals. His alligator is lurking here . . . . . . and it has attacked! Luckily, Drew is moving his arm up to ward it off. (Yes, I know. Jana and I are easily amused.)
Friday night Aunt Christina came over to visit. She stayed overnight and helped out with a night feeding of Drew so we could sleep. Yeah!
When we sit Drew on the floor, he's getting so much better at holding himself up that we can hold his hands while he supports his head, looks around, and occassionally lets out a yell (pictured below).
At other times he was content to merely sit up and look at me.
I'm working on continuing to put pictures of Jana in the blog. Jana wasn't feeling well this weekend, but she still managed a smile for me and Drew.
Saturday night was a bath night again for Drew. We wanted him nice and clean for church on Sunday. Bath time with Drew is so much fun!
Jana and I noted on Sunday night that Drew was in the same outfit that he wore home from the hospital seven weeks earlier. We decided to take a couple photos for a direct comparison to see how much bigger he's gotten. Below is the original picture from Drew going home. His feet barely made it into the leg part of the outfit! Here is Drew with Jana in our kitchen. He's gotten a lot bigger . . . and we lucked out during this photo and captured one of his first smiles! :) Drew has been smiling for a while, but it hasn't always been a clear social smile. There is a very good chance that this one was his first! It looks like our obsessive picture taking paid off. After all the smiling and reacting to us, Drew was tired out and was happy to snuggle in with his mom.
Even though he was tired, Drew had to keep an eye on me every once in a while to see what I was doing.

Three "B"s

Drew is usually calm and happy while getting his diaper changed and he loves to look at the DREW letters hanging on the wall. On this occasion he managed to make a mess of his clothes while changing, and he was so cute in his diaper that I had to take a couple of pictures. I'm also hoping that seeing him without clothes will emphasize how much bigger he's getting.

Jana thinks that I have a lot of pictures on this blog of myself with Drew (I do!), but not enough of her with Drew (I probably don't). She does most of the work taking care of him, and then I swoop in for the photo shoots. Here are a couple of pictures of Drew with his other parent, the one who takes care of him most of the time, Jana!

I apologize to those who are sick of car seat photos, but Jana and I are still entertained by Drew in his car seat! Our amusement is probably a good thing though because Drew continues to ride around with us a lot. We've been getting out of the house almost every day with Drew. He's becoming more animated and the series of photos below shows his reaction to being in the car seat.

Jana is in our basement here getting ready to do some work on the computer.

Jana has figured out how to work on instructing her online class and keep Drew entertained at the same time. Drew is sitting up fairly well, so he sits on her lap and watches the screen while Jana works. Every once in a while they take a break to check out Drew's favorite website, aupperleefamily.blogspot.com!
My favorite part of the day is sitting on the couch with Drew and telling him and Jana about my day. I can tell by Drew's expression that he's listening carefully to the latest results from my immunohistochemical staining for PRA and PRB in ovariectomized hormone treated mammary glands. He's going to be a great listener!

I can't understand how Drew finds this position so comfortable, but he loves to lie down with his hands on either side of his head. Look how short his arms are in relation to his head! I almost accidentally wrote that he likes to put his arms over his head, but he can't reach that high.
Drew doesn't always like to sit still while we have our photo sessions. He was playing with my face while we took this picture.

On Thursday night I enjoyed a night relaxing on the couch with the three Bs: baby, basketball (March Madness), and a beer. There were some great games on TV and Drew was equally entertaining sleeping in my arm . . . until he somehow managed to pee out of his diaper and soaked through his onesie, pajamas, blanket, and MY shirt! At first we couldn't figure out where the wet spot on my shirt came from, but eventually we found out it was our cute little culprit.

A busy weekend

Drew kept us busy over the weekend (and we kept him busy too). We went out with him on Friday night for a school psychology dinner and then to watch MSU lose their NCAA tournament game. He did pretty well for most of the night, but all the action must have been a little much because he got a little fussy later in the evening. That was great for us though because Drew had his best night sleeping with two 4 hour stretches between feedings! Yay sleep! On Saturday night, Drew's great-grandma and great-grandpa Vryhof came to Lansing and babysat while Jana and I went out for dinner. It was a great arrangement for all of us because great grandma and grandpa got to see Drew (and feed and change him :) and Jana and I got a chance to go out with just the two of us, which is a rare treat.

On Sunday morning, the sun was streaming into our house and Drew was wide awake, so I stripped him down to his onesie and we had some play time on the floor. Drew is starting to make more noises (not just crying), and so I had fun trying to get reactions from him.
Drew can grab onto the rings of the gymini and can also give them quite a tug!
On Sunday afternoon Jana and I took Drew out for a walk in Lake Lansing Park. We keep an eye on Drew in the car using this mirror mounted on our back seat. Drew is in a rear-facing car seat, so the mirror allows Jana to turn around and see him from the passenger seat, or I can see him by looking in the rear view mirror. He loves to sleep in the car seat with his head at this uncomfortable angle. I've tried it, and I don't know how he can sleep like that. We've tried to move him, but then he wakes up and fusses until he can get back into his position again.
I got the honor of strapping Drew into the Baby Bjorn for the walk. We kept his arms in close to my chest and you can see his little hat peaking out. I kept my hands on his feet to make sure they stayed warm.
It was a little breezy at times and the temperature was about 45 degrees, so I zipped up my coat around Drew to keep him warm. It looked funny, but he stayed nice and warm and he slept throughout our four mile hike. Jana and I enjoyed getting outside and briskly walking. We are so happy that Drew was sleeping and content during his ride in the Baby Bjorn!
On Sunday night Drew was wide awake and ready for more play time, so while we ate supper we put Drew back on the gymini. The red and black thing on the right side of the picture below has a mirror on the bottom of it.

Drew was fascinated by the handsome guy in the mirror.
REALLY fascinated! Do we have a narcissist on our hands? :)

As you can see, Drew had a busy weekend, and I didn't even mention his first trip to the lab with me. On Saturday Drew came along with me to the lab while I did some animal experiments. He slept the whole time, but it was his first experience with me in the lab.

Drew drinks from a bottle

Drew still loves to be bundled when sleeping. Most of the day he's out of his blanket and moving around to build his little muscles. His neck is getting much stronger! Once wrapped in his blanket though, he calms right down if upset and gets ready to sleep. On Tuesday we began to introduce the bottle, and Drew took to feeding from it like a champ. I gave him his first bottle, and was immediately impressed by how he was sucking it down. I asked Jana if she was sure we had the right nipple size because the milk was really coming out fast. She assured me that the right nipple was on the bottle, so I kept on feeding Drew. He sucked down almost four ounces of milk in 15 minutes before getting full. To give you an idea of how much faster that is, the finger feeder, which we used before when Jana wasn't feeding him, took 45 minutes for half that amount of milk! However, at the end of his feeding Jana rechecked the nipple size, and we had accidentally used the nipple for toddlers. Oops! No wonder he as pounding it down so quickly! Drew still loves the bottle though (even with the correct nipple), and it is fast and easy to feed him with the bottle. He has been switching back and forth between the bottle and breastfeeeding without a problem.
He kept his eyes open and on me most of the time I was feeding him, but Jana managed to get him to look at her as she circled around taking pictures with the camera.

Drew has been playing on the gymini lately. His favorite is this red squishy toy that plays music. I think he could sit and listen to the music all day long, but pressing the button and listening to the music with him gets old fast!
I pulled him away from the music and got him to look at me instead. His eye contact is getting pretty good and he tracks me as I move around him.
This picture gives you a better idea of what the gymini looks like.
Drew continues to be a hit with the ladies (I taught him that :) Here he is being held by our friend Jessie.
While we were out, it was time to feed Drew again, so our friend Julia got to give him his bottle. Having the option of giving Drew a bottle makes feeding much more flexible! We're excited about getting out more and getting back to our usual active lifestyle.