Drew is noisy

In order to cut down on the time it takes me to do these posts, I'm going to continue to make an effort to post regularly, but with slightly "smaller" posts. I had to put smaller in quotes because I seem to have a hard time keeping these posts small in size. There are just too many good pictures of Drew that I want to share with everyone.

In the past week or two Drew's language has developed a lot and he is making "ba," "ma," "da," and "la" noises all the time. Our favorite way to start the day is listening to Drew in the back seat of the car on the way to daycare as he chatters away. Drew was a little slow to get going on making those noises, but now that he's got them down I think a "dada" upon seeing me is just around the corner :)

I am hoping to get some video of Drew "talking" this weekend, so I would like to be able to share that video next week on the blog. Keep checking!

This is Drew in his room in his Lion overalls. He's ready to tame the jungle!
As it has been getting colder here in Lansing at night, we've been putting Drew in his footie pajamas to make sure he stays warm. Even though he's getting to be a big boy, we still get a kick out of seeing Drew in his pajamas.

Drew loves football!

Football season is here, and I recently brought home a football that I got at a product show at work. Drew loves the football! (yeah!!) He immediately grabbed it and he started to play with it. It's a little big for him to hold with one hand, so if he's playing with it on the ground it squirts away from him (like a fumble) and he chases after it. I'm letting Drew try all the positions in football to find the one that fits best for him. We started with one of the lowest contact positions, the punter. Drew next decided to go for the glamorous position, and he dropped back to pass like a quarterback. He's obviously scanning the living room for an open receiver. (We're still working on his spiral)

I don't know how he could choose this position after being quarterback, but I guess he could be the holder for extra points and field goals. Maybe this means he's also considering being a receiver with good hands.
Okay . . . maybe some of those previous pictures were slightly posed and most of what Drew did was pictured below . . . putting the ball in his mouth. I'm still really excited that he likes the football, but I think we'll have to work on football skills once he's a lot older!Here is Drew playing on the floor with his alligator while wearing his cute blue overalls.
Drew continues to love to stand and he's working really hard on pulling himself up on things. While we want him to walk someday, we're not encouraging him too much yet!
This is Drew's latest solid food . . . the veggie puff. (Mmmmm)We put the first veggie puff in his mouth, and he didn't quite know what to make of it. The puffs melt in his mouth, but they give him a chance to gum on a solid to learn how to chew (they're a little easier to get down than a Cheerio). By the second and third one Drew had the hang of it, and he seemed disappointed when we put them away.Drew paused between veggie puffs to show that he was enjoying them!
This past weekend Michigan State had a very big football game against our rival Notre Dame. With an evening game, Nate and Meg, Dan and Sandra, and Aunt Christina joined us for an afternoon of tailgating on MSU's campus. Our family was decked out in Spartan apparel for the tailgating!
Drew was pretty excited about tailgating for the first time.
Aunt Christina swooped in for a picture with our little Spartan.
Behind Dan and Nate you can see the tents some people brought tailgating. Our visitors were fascinated by the tailgating culture that includes blow-up Spartys, tents, TVs, satellite dishes, huge grills, and lots of food. We all enjoyed walking around and looking at the tailgate spots people had set up.
This is what tailgating is all about . . . sitting around with food and drinks getting ready for the game. We all had fun experiencing a tailgate on a big game day.While it was warm out, it was not always the nicest day this past Saturday, so when it started to sprinkle a little before we left Christina took Drew into the car for shelter.
Unfortunately, despite our fun tailgating afternoon the Spartans lost to Notre Dame that night :(

The picture below shows Drew in his footie pajamas. We were looking through his clothes and decided to try these on. They're a little big still, but with the sleeves rolled once they fit him pretty well, especially in the feet . . . they're size eighteen months! Drew continues to get bigger and one of the problems we're finding with footed outfits is that Drew has very big feet. Most of our twelve month or smaller footie pajamas don't fit Drew's feet! He's still a fairly skinny guy, but those feet are huge.
This is Drew on the move in his footie pajamas. Drew is moving more and more quickly and he sometimes gets into the full crawl position with his torso off the ground.

Drew is "creep"y

Drew continues to be on the move, and for the past week or two his movements have also included "creeping." He goes on his stomach and using his right hand and left forearm drags himself forward with surprising speed. It sometimes took him a little bit to move toward an object by rolling, but with his new movement he homes in on objects quickly! Watch him here going for a water bottle.

movement is Drew's thing

We have been trying to get Drew to sit for a while, but as soon as we put him on the ground he would take off rolling. Finally, he sat still for a little while and within a day or two he could sit for FIFTEEN minutes at a time! We've had this with a couple things now where Drew won't do it one day, and then he'll make rapid progress in the course of a day or two. Drew gave us a lesson that he will do things only when he is ready! The following video is a sample of Drew sitting. He'll do this for as long as entertained and then he'll flop over and roll to find something more exciting to play with.



Drew's new sitting prowess has given us the entertaining opportunity to place him on the scale. He is just shy of 18 pounds according to our home scale (I have no idea how accurate it is for that small of a weight).
Jana decided that it was time for Drew to start eating some protein, so she prepared Drew's first meat, chicken, by boiling it. Then she put it in the food processor, but it didn't look to appetizing, so she added a little water. It still didn't look too good (or smell too good either), so she decided to make it a little more appealing by adding . . . . yogurt to it (her logic was that sour cream tastes good with chicken). With the chicken yogurt prepared (and Dannon ringing us for Jana's recipe), Jana set about feeding Drew. The first bite got in his mouth . . . and stayed there. Drew didn't close his mouth, he didn't swallow, he just looked up at us with an expression that said, "What have you put in my mouth?" Needless to say, we're going to have to try again with the chicken, only the next time Jana might take the suggestion of a chicken/rice cereal combination instead of chicken yogurt.
It is starting to get cooler in the morning and some mornings it has been in the low fifties. This made us realize that Drew was in need of some fall jackets to wear! We went shopping last week and this is Drew's new hoodie jacket. I put it on him the other morning because although the day was going to warm, it was a little cool in the morning and I didn't want him to be chilled on the way to and from the car.
Here are some shots of Drew in his exersaucer. Drew continues to work on his standing and he is starting to move around a little when we stand him next to the couch (on his way to "cruising"). He's also starting to work on pulling himself up on things, but he can't quite manage it yet. Our little boy is on the move!!

Jana and Drew had a good time on the floor on Saturday afternoon.
On our shopping trip last week for jackets, we also found these overalls. We love seeing Drew in overalls!

the rest of the post

For some reason I have not been able to get this on the end of the post above, so I'm trying it as a separate post. Hopefully this will work!

On Sunday morning while Jana taught Sunday school Drew and I played together at home. To keep Drew busy, I gave him an empty water bottle.

In the afternoon Drew was crawling around on the floor (minus his pants) and pushed his water bottle into the exersaucer . . . so he followed it in and continued to play with it in the bottom of the exersaucer. I think he liked the loud noise it made on the plastic surface.

Drew is learning to "talk"

I tried to get this on the post yesterday, but I wasn't successful. Here is some video of Drew rolling around and starting to babble. While I was playing with him last Sunday he had a lot to say!

bigfoot

Drew continues to love having the exersaucer. There are many toys to choose from on it (as you can see) and he swivels around and bounces up and down in it quite vigorously. I'm surprised with how strong he is and how good he's become at bouncing the exersaucer up and down (the top part has springs in it to give a little). Last week we celebrated Jana's birthday with her parents and sister. When we were done with our celebration, Grandma Lynn gave Drew his bedtime food. Drew continues to become more talented with eating and as he does this the process becomes much less messy.
Last Saturday Todd came to Lansing to help me out with using his truck to take some loads of junk to the landfill and to pick up new gutters and downspouts for my house. In the afternoon, we took a break so Todd could feed Drew. It seems that taking a turn feeding Drew is the thing to do!

Here is Todd's girlfriend Kelli with Drew. She joined us in the evening to go out for dinner and so did our friends Nate and Meg.
Drew got all dressed up for going out for dinner . . . and he wore his shoes! We got these shoes before he was born from a clearance rack and we didn't think they would fit for a while because they are 12-18 month shoes. Well, they fit perfectly right now! Drew has big feet!
In this picture you can see Drew's whole outfit. Isn't he starting to look more like a little boy and less like a baby?
While Drew loves playing in the exersaucer, he can still roll around on the floor quite well. It's fun to watch!
Drew loves spoons (It's the only silverware we let him play with; forks and knives are not allowed! :) He can amuse himself for quite a while putting it in and out of his mouth.
This is Drew's intent look. With his eyes wide open, he looks like he is taking everything in.

I'm working on uploading a video of some of Drew's latest "talking," but I'm having some technical difficulties with the website I use for video. Drew's other accomplishment is that we finally were able to get him to sit still long enough to master sitting. He sits for long stretches of time now, whereas before he would flop down and start rolling as soon as we put him on the ground. Go Drew!

not a shopper . . . yet

We enjoyed our long holiday weekend in Lansing. It was nice to stay home and spend some time together as a family. I especially enjoyed the treat of getting a three day weekend to see Drew.

Last week Jana took some pictures of Drew on the floor with his stuffed alligator . . . and Drew fell asleep while holding onto the alligator!
Over the weekend Drew went shopping with us at the Birch Run outlet mall. It was Drew's first big trip out shopping.
As you can see from the picture below Drew just loved shopping. Actually, while he didn't seem thrilled by it, he did very well throughout our visit to the mall. The two of us did a lot of waiting on benches while Jana did the shopping! I enjoyed shopping with Drew because I had someone to hang out with while Jana tried on clothes or looked in a store I didn't feel like visiting.
Drew loves playing on the floor with this toy. It's got a lot of different things on it for him to play with and more importantly to try to get in his mouth.
Drew took a break from playing to give me a smile. I'm excited that I'm still more interesting than his toys :)
We've been working on getting Drew to sit up on his own, but he loves to be on the move rolling around. As soon as we place him on the ground, he flops down and starts rolling to get to something. He's getting a little better at sitting unsupported though, so I was excited when I got this picture of him (he sat still long enough for me to grab the camera, turn it on and set it up, and then get him to smile for the picture).
In trying to get Drew to smile for the camera I guess I was a little too funny because he laughed so hard he flopped back.
Drew continues to roll and backward crawl under things (usually our couches). In this instance he ventured under our bed. Hopefully I did a good job cleaning under there!
Our friends Jon and Laura let us borrow their exersaucer for Drew. It's nice to have because now that Drew is so mobile he's hard to keep in one spot. The exersaucer gives him the opportunity to stand (he loves to stand!) and rotate around in the same place. We love having it!