motion

Drew is constantly on the go around our house. Occasionally, as in the picture below, he pauses long enough that I can snap a picture of him. Usually, Drew is moving so quickly that the pictures turn out blurry!

Every once in a while,we can get Drew corralled and he'll stays in your lap for a little while. In the picture below we distracted him with the family pictures behind me. We're trying to get him to learn everyone's name, so we go over pictures with him and say the name of the person pictured.

This doesn't happen for very long (about five minutes) or very often (maybe once or twice a day), but Drew does slow down occasionally, sit in my lap, and let me read to him. Jana and I have both been working on reading with him, and his attention span is slowly increasing. His favorite part of reading is when he gets to turn the page. Most of the time, I don't think he cares whether or not I finish reading the page; he just wants to turn to the next page!

This past week I was sitting with my hand on my head while we were eating dinner. I glanced over at Drew in his highchair, and he also had his hand on his head and he was looking at me. I asked him, "Are you imitating me, buddy?," and I put my other hand on my head. He immediately put his other hand on his head! Being the quick thinking parents that we are, Jana and I immediately decided that this was the perfect opportunity to teach Drew another trick . . . clapping! I started to clap and within a few seconds Drew started to clap too! He wasn't very good at first: his "claps" didn't make a noise and his hands would miss every once in a while. The picture below shows him in action.

I can't just show a picture of Drew clapping, so I also got some video of his clapping! On Saturday morning Jana and I were singing the MSU fight song to Drew and he joined us for the clapping that accompanies the fight song. As soon as we start clapping with Drew, he joins in (you'll hear Jana clapping in the background to encourage Drew).

I mentioned earlier in this post the speed that Drew possesses when crawling around the house. The reason I mentioned that is because he has also started to walk behind his walker . . . and he is fast! On Saturday morning I plopped him standing up behind his walker, and he took off across the room and went flying right into his pack and play. I have a very short video because he moves so quickly across our living room that not much video is required to get the whole thing!

By Sunday, Drew had a little more practice walking behind his toy, so he was able to start to turn it and he was much more under control. Look at the difference one day makes!

As soon as Drew grabs on to the walker and starts going, a grin lights up his face! He is going to be running all over our house soon with a smile on his face :)

Drew moves his toy around the living room like a bulldozer clearing whatever is in his path, but then he also likes to stop, pick things up, and place them in his walker. If you look closely in the photo below, you can see he has his sippy cup stored in case he gets thirsty while cruising around the living room.

Drew made use of the sippy cup and paused every once in a while for a drink!

Keep posted for more updates on walking and words! I'm trying to get some video of Drew's latest talking, but he doesn't always cooperate when the camera is around.