Counting

This picture was actually taken a few weeks ago, but it's not often that Drew looks so directly at the camera, so I had to include it! I can't let good pictures of Drew like this one go to waste :) Whenever we talk on the phone Drew reaches over to push the buttons. He doesn't have much to say on the phone, but he loves the buttons (and hanging up on people for us!). Drew will be chatting away while we're on the phone, but if we hand it over to him, he immediately clams up and listens.

Drew's been busy at daycare lately, which means we've had to push his bedtime up a little. He's a tired boy at night!

Drew has been eating everything in sight lately (due to another growth spurt?) and we've been working on table manners . . . like keeping your mouth closed while you eat, saying "please," "thank you," and "you're welcome," and saying "done" to ask to be finished. Here, he's doing a good job of keeping his mouth closed . . .

and here he isn't doing such a good job. Drew!!

Every night now one of Drew's favorite toys is ANY book he can get his hands on! He literally looks at book after book taking them off the shelf and babbling about them. He loves the blinking fireflies in this book by Eric Carle.

Jana is playing one of her favorite games with Drew: "Monster Kisses." Drew giggles and laughs until he's red in the face, but he'll keep coming back for more. It's a lot of fun to watch the two of them enjoying each other!

Look at that grin! Drew does a good job of keeping a smile on my face and Jana's face each night!

Drew is very adventurous. He'll climb anything and he leaps from object to object (much to our horror!). We've had to train him not to open doors because he's figured that out and loves to get into everything. He also has figured out how to pull up a kitchen chair to reach whatever is on the table. If it ever gets too quiet, Jana and I immediately perk up to figure out what he's doing! Put that pen down!

Drew has been reading "Ten Little Ladybugs" a lot lately. He can name "Brown Bear" by calling it "brown," and now he's started saying "ten" when he wants to read "Ten Little Ladybugs." "Ten Little Ladybugs" counts backwards from 10 to 1. Speaking of counting, whenever we count to three now, Drew says "go!" (one . . .two . . .three . . .go!!) Also, if you ask Drew how old he is, he'll respond "nine!!" We have no idea where he got that from. Finally, if we ask Drew if he's one or two, he says "two" with a mischievous glint in his eye. Where does he come up with this stuff?!!

corn on the cob

Drew likes to eat corn on the cob! Sweet corn is absolutely delicious in Michigan right now, so we've been getting it a lot, and Drew loves it. We started by cutting the corn off the cob for him, but he has been looking longingly at our ears of corn, so we decided to let him try it. Last week we had corn with friends at their home and Drew watched their daughter, who is his friend from daycare and church, eating corn from the cob. That's probably the real reason he insisted on trying it straight from the cob. He's trying to impress the ladies! :) Drew paused from eating to strike a pose for the camera. Notice the eaten piece on his tray; that's his second piece of corn!

Here is Drew in action eating his first piece of corn. Who would have thought that eating a vegetable for the first time in this way could be so novel?

Grandpa John sent over some salmon for Jana and she shared it with Drew. He LOVED it, and ate almost a third of a salmon filet!

Drew is quite the messy eater sometimes, and yesterday he had fun with his marinara sauce. Drew and I spent the morning together, which included making a trip to get the car washed and a visit to the Home Depot. The highlight of our Home Depot trip was Drew "driving" the riding lawn mowers. He calls them "tractor" and he was in his glory! Here's a very short video of Drew making a mess eating:

Drew and Jana have been working on "Ring-around-the-rosie." In this video Drew is singing "ring" and then he falls down (he hasn't learned all the lyrics yet).

eighteen months

Mmmmmm . . . Peanut butter sandwich! Drew paused from inhaling his peanut butter sandwich to glance up at me tonight. Looks pretty tasty, doesn't it?? :) This morning Drew had his eighteen month doctor's appointment, and he continues to be a healthy, growing little boy. Drew is right on track with everything developmentally, and with some things he's even a little ahead of schedule. Drew weighed 26 pounds 1 ounce and was 33 3/4 inches tall. Drew's weight was very average (55th percentile), but his height now puts him in the 90th percentile. Remember, our little guy started out in the 10th percentile for height. Genetics is starting to do its thing! At every appointment thus far in his life Drew has bumped up a bit in his height percentile. Keep growing Drew!

Jana and I are very proud of Drew, and we enjoyed showing off his progress to our pediatrician and the nurses. They were all amazed at how big he's getting!

tractor

Last week Saturday we were out with Drew in the morning and he was so tired that on the way home he almost fell asleep. When we got home, I took off his shoes and held him on the couch. Within moments he was sound asleep. It was awesome! I was so thrilled that I held Drew for a couple minutes before putting him to bed. Drew loves sleeping with stuffed animals, and this time he cuddled up with his puppy (that's what he calls it).

Drew's hat looks slightly askew in this picture, and it is . . . because Drew put his hat on himself! He's gotten pretty good at putting his own hat on, especially if he puts it on backwards. He still has a little trouble getting it on facing forward. Drew has actually started to get me to wear a hat more often because he's so fascinated by them. You have to also take note of Drew's new Tiger shirt from Uncle Todd and Kelli. Go Tigers!

Drew continues to ham it up for the camera. He'll often strike a pose for me when I first take out the camera. He's not real good at holding the pose though, and if I don't get the picture taken in time the moment passes and he won't smile for me again. It's almost like he knows I couldn't get the picture taken in time and he's teasing me!

Even in still pictures Drew is on the go!!!

Drew looks pretty cool in his sunglasses. Just like his hat, he is able to put on and take off the sunglasses himself (and he hasn't even poked an eye out . . . yet :)

Jana captured this picture of Drew in a laundry basket. Drew is filling up more and more of the basket!

Yesterday I had a great time playing with Drew in the afternoon after he got up from his nap. We played together and watched a little golf on TV. I was able to teach him a couple new words to help his watching: golf, golfer, putter, and par.

This picture shows a cross between Drew's laughing and "winking" for the camera. He thought it was so funny to sit across from me on the couch so that we could watch golf together!

Drew kept on lying down on the couch and smiling at me, so I finally snapped a picture of him. Look at that smile! One of Drew's favorite toys at the moment is this John Deere tractor. He goes through cycles with most of his toys, and right now he goes everywhere with his "tractor" (he can say tractor and LOVES to say that word).

one,two,three . . . go!

I don't have time to post a lot of pictures at the moment, but here are a couple of videos to show some things Drew has been doing lately.

Drew is RUNNING all over the house now. The other night he did 17 laps around our living room while we cheered him on. He used me lying down on the ground as his marker and he ran around me with us cheering him on to faster and faster lap times. Needless to say, we accomplished our goal and had a nicely tired boy for bedtime :) Drew also likes to get his back up against our front door like a starting block and then run forward at the count of the three and the command to "go." He did this right after finishing his 17 laps, so you'll have to excuse the poor camera work due to me being on the floor. You'll get the idea though of what he was doing.

Drew has been learning how to wink, but he's not that great at it yet. The other night he climbed up on me while I was sitting on the couch and proceeded to make some moves for the camera. Upon seeing that I was filming him he started to "wink." You'll have to use your imagination a little because they look like slow blinks because he can't keep one eye open! To help a little with translation, he says "down, please," "down," "Tina" (for his Aunt Christina), and "thank you" in this video. As the video cuts out Drew says "peek" for peek-a-boo. There is also lots of Drew's heavy breathing. Jana and I have giggled repeatedly over Drew's loud breathing on this video! (Mark's note: This video hasn't been working well, but I'm working on it. It should be working soon.)

A different night Drew was across the room playing with his Duplo container when he saw me with the camera. First, he waves to me and then he comes over and starts to wink again! How cute!

Jana has been working with Drew on saying "thank you" and "you're welcome." In this video Drew hands me his hat, gives me a little reminder to say "thank you" (he's teaching ME manners!) and then responds with a "you're welcome." Another phrase that I'll have to try to get on video is that when Drew can't reach a toy because it went under the couch or something, he turns to us and says "help, please." Jana worked hard with him on that one too so that he can use it at daycare. We prefer him using his words to get something over crying or pointing!

vacation videos

There were two videos that I didn't have time to get into my post yesterday and both of them portray Drew's beach experience. In the first Drew is playing in the water with his rake and having fun watching the other kids (who are behind me) that were playing at the beach. We were by a place on the beach where a little stream met Lake Michigan, and Drew had fun playing in that water. The current was fairly strong, but the water was very shallow (not more than 1 foot deep). As usual, we were all watching Drew and you can hear Jana laugh at the end of the video!

In this second video Drew is in action throwing rocks into the water. The first one made such a big splash that it almost got the camera wet! I had to back off a little to get the rocks going into the water and to keep the camera dry. Drew did LOTS of rock throwing at the beach.

Vacation 2007

It has been FOREVER since I've done a post on Drew's blog. We went on vacation for a week, from which I have many pictures, and our family has been busy. This post will be big because there is a lot for me to catch you up on!



Our vacation started with camping in Wilderness State Park up in the Straits of Mackinac by the Mackinac Bridge. It was our first time camping this year with Drew, and it was an adventure! We camped with Jana's parents and her sister, Christina. Pictured below is one of Drew's favorite parts of the trip, which was pushing his stroller all over the campground. He pushed it on asphalt, he pushed it on grass, he pushed it on dirt, he pushed in our campsite, and he pushed it onto other people's campsites to say hello. If Drew could have said it, his one word for camping would have been "FREEDOM!" Without walls or fences to limit him, the whole campground was his to explore, and he tried! We're all smiling in this picture below, but our first night in the tent was memorable. Drew was so excited by the tent, the sleeping bags, the flashlights, the electric lantern, and the air mattress, that it was not easy to get him calmed down and asleep. Also, it was a chilly first night with temperatures in the low 50s. We brought with lots of blankets and flannel pajamas for Drew, so he was ready for the cold. We got him calmed down and he finally fell asleep. Jana and I were both lying in our sleeping bags with baiting breath . . . was Drew asleep? Would Drew stay asleep? We got our answer about ten minutes later when we heard a violent retching noise coming from Drew's little bed. Uh, oh!



It was amazing how fast we moved to get the light on to check on Drew. He was COVERED in vomit. It was all over him, it was all over his blankets (all the warm ones we brought with), it was all over his pajamas (the warm ones we brought with), and it was all over the floor of the tent. What a mess! In one fell swoop Drew made every warm thing we had brought for him unusable. Grrrrrrrrreat. Jana and I looked at each other like "What do we do?" and then we started laughing. Drew was covered in vomit, our tent smelled absolutely awful (a tent doesn't ventilate all that well), and all we could think to do was laugh. We are both incredible planners, but this was a situation we hadn't planned on!



I ended up going to the car and getting a trash bag, some rags, and some baby wipes, and we cleaned up Drew and the tent as best we could. Everything touched by vomit went into the trash bag. We found the warmest clothes Drew had left, and in my move for "Dad of the year" I volunteered to take him into my sleeping bag with me. The poor kid REEKED of vomit as I pulled him close (I was literally gagging every time I took in a breath). Eventually, everything calmed down and Drew and I fell into a restless sleep. The smell got better as the night went on, and we even managed to get some rest. The next day Jana went to the laundromat and we got everything cleaned up. Our second night in the tent went much more smoothly!! What an experience! We'll never forget that night in the tent.

Drew did lots of riding on my shoulders over our vacation. He LOVES to get up there and it's really handy for moving him around. He likes to grip onto my head now too, so I don't have to worry so much about him falling off.

This is the beach at our campground. In the evening we would take a walk down to the beach to watch the sunset. In this picture Aunt Christina is leading Drew down the beach.

After a couple of fun days camping we joined my parents at a cottage on Little Platte Lake near the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The day after we arrived great grandma and great grandpa Vryhof joined us as well. While camping, Drew got clean by taking a shower with me. He was pretty excited to get into the bathtub at the cottage (he was a DIRTY boy from camping!).

I don't get to spend that much time with Drew usually, just the evenings and weekends, so being on vacation with both Jana and Drew and seeing them every day was a special treat. Drew and I spent lots of time together! Here we are getting ready to go for a swim.

Drew loves hats. He will find my hats in our house and bring them to me to put on. Then he takes the hat off my head and wants to put it on his head. You'll notice that my hat has switched heads from the previous picture.

What does a typical day in Drew's vacation look like? Well, he basically had at least five and usually all six adults watching his every move. It's not easy being the center of attention! The owner of the cottage we rent made a little sand area for Drew to play in and we are all watching him check it out.

The water in Little Platte Lake was pretty warm and we were able to get Drew in for a bit. I still would not say that Drew loves the water, but he definitely is starting to tolerate it more. I think he's even close to a smile in this picture!

Jana and I did some kayaking on the lake and Drew wanted to get in on the action too. He was so pleased with himself sitting in the kayak and he loved holding on to the paddle. We figured that he was ready for his first boating experience, so . . .

We put the kayak in the water and I gave him a ride! I pushed Drew around in the shallow area for a little while and he liked it. You can see my pursed lips as I made my motorboat noise for Drew. The soft swishing of the kayak wasn't entertaining enough for us :)

I tried taking Drew into a little deeper water, but he wasn't too thrilled with that. We still likes shallow water the best and he likes to be able to walk in and out of the water.

Grandpa Bill brought with some sparklers for Drew, and one night before he went to bed we had a sparklers show. Drew thought they were pretty cool, but he didn't quite know what to make of them. We warned him that they were HOT, so he could not touch them.
Here is Drew's crazy hair before going to the beach. He still doesn't have the thickest mane in the world, so we load up his little scalp with SPF 50 and try to keep his hat on as much as possible. All that sunscreen makes his hair pretty wild!

Jana took this great action shot of Drew at Lake Michigan. You can see the sandy water dribbling from Drew's hand. He picked up everything he could find and threw it into Lake Michigan . . . sand, toys, rocks, trash (that was fun).

Drew even ventured into Lake Michigan! The water was quite cool, as you might guess from his bunched shoulders, but Drew walked around in it a bit (to get more rocks, of course).

Another Aupperlee family photo! We tried to get as many of these as possible because we don't always think to take pictures of the three of us. We found a beautiful stretch of beach in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore that wasn't very busy. My whole family visited the beach several days and enjoyed the relatively empty beach and other families with kids that visited. We told our friend Sandra, who lives in the area, about the beach and how nice it was and her mouth dropped open . . . "that's the NUDE beach!!!!" she said. Oh my! No wonder it wasn't very busy and there were all those signs everywhere about keeping your bathing suit on! (Apparently, nude bathing in Michigan is illegal) Just let me know if you need directions to that particular beach (wink, wink :)

Jana dug out a hole in the sand for Drew and he immediately plopped right down in it to play. He had a great time in water that filled in it and he was splashing and generally trying to put sand onto every surface of his body. That little boy got VERY sandy every time we took him to the beach.

Jana and I have finally learned to smile for the camera, but Drew isn't quite catching on for the group photos yet. This is about the best we can hope for with him looking at the camera. Drew's used to having Jana or me behind the camera taking the picture!

Jana and Drew had a great time together on vacation too. It was fun for the grandparents, the great-grandparents, Aunt Christina, and Jana and me to spend time with Drew. What a cute mom and little boy!!!!

While we were in the area we saw our friends Dan and Sandra one evening. When we met them, they rode up on Dan's motorcycle! Drew thought the motorcycle was the coolest thing. I told him not to get any ideas :) Drew and I got on the motorcycle and Drew made his "vroom, vroom" noise.

Drew also reached over to push the horn on Dan's motorcycle. If you look closely you can see the button just below his finger.

Drew is back at the beach here doing his favorite beach activity . . . throwing rocks! Drew cleaned up the beaches taking every rock he could find and throwing it into the water. We had fun making piles of rocks and them having him "clean up" the area for us. We weren't sure about the wisdom of teaching him to throw rocks, but I still like throwing rocks into the water as an adult, so instead we're working on throwing rocks when no people are around and in a direction that won't hit anyone (and the rocks ONLY may be thrown into the water).

Look, Drew is back in the water! He did great this day with wandering all over in the water. We had a wonderful relaxing time on our vacation, but it was also kind of fun to get back to Lansing. We missed going to our church and being with our Lansing friends, so it was nice to be home!

This is Drew sitting on our couch after we got home. Pay special attention to his hair because we gave him his first significant haircut right after this picture.

Can you see how much shorter Drew's hair is in the picture? I took a bunch off the top and I trimmed the sides a bit. I love short hair and I've convinced Jana that Drew looks good with shorter hair too!

Here's another picture of Drew's hair. Drew was happy to be home!