beach day

This past weekend we went to the beach for the first time this year. It was a highly anticipated event because Jana and I love the beach and we especially love the West Michigan shore of Lake Michigan, so we were excited about sharing the beach experience with Drew. We're assuming he doesn't remember much from his beach experiences last year, so it was almost like taking him to the beach again for the first time. We went to P.J. Hoffmaster State Park on a beautiful afternoon. Below, Jana is showing Drew the water for the first time. I don't think he could really even begin to comprehend it. How can we explain to him that what he is seeing is the same substance he sees in his bathtub, in his little pool, and in this great big lake in front of him? At first Drew was not a very big fan of the sand or the waves. In this video you'll see how unsteady he was at first on the sand. He kept on falling down! You'll also notice that he didn't like the water or the sensation of the sand at first and tried to get away from the water. I cut out on this video before he got too whiny, but I think you can get the idea!

Drew got used to it pretty quickly though, and enjoyed walking around on the sand.

He even got more brave with the water and was willing to look at it and occasionally let his feet get wet.

Drew loved playing in his sun shelter with his bucket and toys. He scooped sand and moved it around literally for hours!!

We kept Drew in his sun shade as much as possible and you'll notice that for most of the time he had on his shirt and hat. We love the beach, but we are committed to keeping Drew protected from the sun as much as possible. This video gives you an idea of Drew's playing in his sun shelter. It was so much fun to watch him enjoy the sand!!

Here's another shot showing you Drew's lack of comfort standing in sand. He liked the harder packed sand near the shore, but didn't go for this fluffy stuff at first. With each new experience at the beach it took him a little while to warm up!

If this looks like a picture of a really proud dad with his son . . . that's because it is! I was filled with joy and wonder watching Drew experience the beach for the first time. Jana and I have so much fun celebrating new experiences with Drew.

As with each other new thing at the beach, Drew did NOT like the water at first. I tried to put his feet in it, and he would immediately pull them up. After a while he got a little better and didn't mind his feet dangling in the water, but I think we'll have to continue to acclimate him to the water. I would imagine though that all the waves and everything were a little different for him than the calm waters of his bathtub or pool!

Drew has a new skill . . . chair climbing! He got up in this chair by himself! It's another thing we'll have to watch out for because he's pretty adept at chair climbing and we don't want him to do it without supervision. Every time he makes it up onto the chair a grin of triumph lights up his face. He's so proud of his chair climbing!

Being at the beach caused us all to work up an appetite! Drew has been making great progress with using utensils to eat and he can now used either a spoon (pictured below) or a fork. He won't allow us to feed him anymore! He's a big boy and he eats things entirely independently now. He's still got a ways to go on eating neatly!

This video shows you Drew eating his yogurt "with the spoon." I use that term loosely because he's partially using the spoon and partially using his hand in this video he can do better, but he decided to do it this way with the camera rolling.

a cute bundle

Do you remember seeing Drew like this months ago? Jana and I couldn't resist trying out Drew in a bundle again just to see how he would respond to it. He liked it! You can see he likes it a little less here, but for the few minutes we had Drew bundled he couldn't stop smiling, which may have been due to Jana and I laughing at him in a bundle, but he WAS smiling! We thought it was funny to see how calm Drew was in the bundle and how BIG he was!

Last week at Grandma Lynn and Grandpa John's house Drew figured out how to climb up onto the footstools and then proceeded to climb over them and from one to the other. He's a talented little climber!

Drew found that he could make a funny noise by blowing on the leather. He definitely was amused by the noise (must be a boy thing :)

Last night Drew was playing with Jana and me in the living room. He took his bowl and spoon (you can see them below) and he swirled the spoon and "fed" Jana and I whatever he was making. He would questioningly ask, "more?" and we would reply "please." After he gave us a taste, Jana and I would work on our next word for him "thank you." It was so cute!

Then Drew figured out his own little twist for our pretend game. The game would start the same way and he would say "more?" and I would say "please." Now, however, Drew would look at me and say "no," and walk away without giving me pretend food! He only did it to me. Jana still got her pretend food. He looks innocent and cute, but he likes to push our buttons sometime! :) Jana had to turn away to try not to laugh as he would say "no" and walk away from me.

Drew loves to dance and clap. This is actually an action shot of him in the middle of dancing. He twirls around as fast as he can and then looks at us expecting applause. He joins in when we clap for him!

Drew still loves to go in the bathroom. The other night Jana was taking a shower and Drew checked to make sure I was coming with him as he went looking for "mama." That's what he says as he walks around the house: "mama? . . . .mama? . . . mama?"

Drew finally found her!

This video is of Drew chatting/singing. I'm not sure what exactly he is saying in it, but we love to listen to him chat away. We thoroughly enjoy his baby voice!

This past weekend Jana went to Chicago with her mom, sister, and my mom for a girls weekend away, so I had Drew all to myself for the weekend. What a treat! We had a great time playing, going for walks, sitting in our little backyard pool, and going to Home Depot together. Spending the weekend bonding with Drew was a great way to celebrate Father's Day!

trash

This past weekend while we were finishing dinner Drew took a piece of paper, walked over to the trash can, lifted the lid, and put it in the trash. He must have picked it up from watching us because we have never taught him to do that. We decided to start working with him on the concept of trash, so we handed him bits of trash (paper) to get him used to the idea that trash goes into the trash can, but does not come back out. Drew likes to grab whatever he puts in the trash back out again so he can repeat the process. Here is a video of Drew in action putting the trash into the trash can. As you can hear, we try to reinforce Drew whenever he does something we like. It's no wonder he's so well behaved when he gets a response like this whenever he does something well!

I saw these stuffed mice at the Endocrine Society meeting and I couldn't resist getting one for Drew. They fit perfectly with my science nerd sense of humor! For those of you who don't get the meaning of "knock-out mouse," it refers to mice that have been genetically altered so that a specific gene is not expressed. Scientists use knock-out mice all the time to study the function of a gene by determining what happens when its product is absent (the gene is not expressed).

We did a lot of this over the weekend: playing on the floor with Drew!

Drew makes the weirdest noises sometimes. Here he is playing with his John Deere tractor and I think his tractor is having some brake problems or something because it is making quite the screeching noise. I couldn't stop giggling while taking this video, so you can also hear that in the background (at times it sounds like heavy breathing!).

Drew loves to play in the backyard and to climb all over our deck. In this picture you can see him in his new shoes, which are a children's size 6! Drew has big feet!

Drew and I did a little watering in the garden together this weekend. I poured the water and the Drew played with it as it came out of the spout.

It was so much fun to have Drew follow me around and help me. Wherever I went in the backyard he would follow along and watch what I was doing.

In this last video Drew is "mowing" the driveway with his lawn mower. The sound is a little suspect on this video because our air conditioner was going in the background, but you can still hear Drew when he stops, lifts his arm, and makes his elephant noise! He usually does this in response to Jana making an elephant noise and raising her arm like a trunk, but this time Drew initiated it with Jana (she's off to the right).

dancing

I was so excited to get home from Toronto yesterday to see Drew and Jana. As I mentioned earlier today in a post, Jana did a great job taking care of Drew, but it is not easy working and caring for him on your own. We're excited to be together again as a family.We love the warm weather and getting Drew in outfits that show off his cute legs and arms. Here he is enjoying his sippy cup one night before bed. It was hot that night, so Drew didn't wear any pants! While I was gone in Toronto, Jana put Drew down for a nap sans pants. He woke up and was chatting to himself in his crib when Jana heard an "aha!!!" from him. She went in and found Drew like this!!

Drew has not only learned cleaning from me, but he also loves to follow Jana around in the kitchen. Drew is hard at work here cleaning out a kitchen cabinet.

Drew grabbed an oven mitt from the kitchen and then carried it around the house.

One day while I was gone Jana noticed that Drew had no clean sippy cups, so she improvised. Drew got his milk in a familiar, yet slightly different container!

I was pretty excited to see Drew when I got home from Toronto. He came over to me on the couch to say "hello."

Drew continues to stand and climb on whatever he can. In this picture he was having fun standing on a tupperware lid.

Drew has learned how to say "bird" and this video was supposed to show that. We've got a small bird figure (a goldfinch) that Drew points toward and says "bird." In this video I set it on the ground hoping to record him saying that. We got a much more entertaining video than we hoped for!

Just to translate, Drew touches the bird, knocks it over, gets freaked out by it, goes to Jana and says "what is that?" Then he shakes his head while cautiously approaching the bird and finally picks it up. He doesn't like it though, so he hands the bird to me and says "done" a few times to let us know that he does NOT want to have that bird around anymore!

This next video show the new skill that Jana started to teach Drew . . . dancing! Drew lifts up his feet to dance and then twirls in a circle until falling. Too cute!!!

15 month appointment

I have been in Toronto for most of the past week at a meeting of the Endocrine Society, so Jana has been a single parent. She did a wonderful job of taking care of Drew while still managing to get things done around our house. I came home yesterday and the house was clean and there were fresh baked cookies waiting for me!

I don't have pictures for this post, but I will hopefully have some tonight or tomorrow. I do have information from Drew's 15 month checkup with the doctor, which was well over a week ago. Drew continues to do well in terms of his development and everything is on schedule. He has hit all the correct developmental milestones and he even got some admiring comments from the nurses in our doctor's office. Drew weighed in at 25 lbs. 2 oz. and he is now 32 1/4" tall. He's continuing to fill out and get taller!

I was astonished at how much Drew changed in the time I was gone. He picked up several new "tricks" that I'll try to share in my next post.