smiles

I don't have many new stories to share, but Kate has been smiling more and more, so I've got some new pictures of our little girl (and a few of Drew too!). For quite a while Kate has been smiling for Jana, but not for me. This was the first pathetic effort at a smile that I was able to coax from her. Even though she's grown a lot, Kate is still tiny and fun to have in your arms. People still flock around her whenever we go out because she's so small that they think she's a newborn!

Unlike me, Uncle Todd did a great job of getting Kate to smile for him. We're enjoying the increase in Kate's focus and ability to interact with us. It's much more exciting that the glazed, unfocused look that she had at first.

Kate will turn her head to follow a sound. She especially snaps her head around at the sound of Jana's voice. She's getting much better with eye contact and enjoys looking at people's faces.

Grandma Sue made a quilt for Kate, and the other day Jana plopped Kate down into it for a photo session. At first, Kate was a bit skeptical and tried to reach up for the camera.

Later, Kate started to work it a little more for Jana and the camera. After much debate, Jana and I are becoming increasingly sure that those big eyes are going to end up some shade of brown, possibly a light brown (but honestly, we're just guessing!).

Jana and I have been getting a kick out of this outfit that Kate is wearing because it is one of Drew's old outfits. It's very soft and we like how Kate looks in white. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it yet, but Kate is feeding well finally and she's now just breastfeeding without any supplementing with the finger feeder. Yes! That has made our lives much easier and it has increased our enjoyment of Kate now that we're not feeding her all the time. More efficient feedings give us more time to play and sleep; a good thing for everyone!

Drew's favorite store is "the Home Depot store," and here we are getting ready to go there. Drew and I have a routine of things we do at Home Depot like riding on the riding lawn mowers, checking out the flowers, looking at the tools, and letting Drew push the cart down some of the aisles. On the way there, we swing by our local fire station and take a look at the fire engines. It's always a great trip!

Drew just got some new shoes and the other night he was showing them off while running around the house in his diaper. Jana and I got such a kick out of it! Drew's latest thing with his shoes is that whenever he helps me with a "project" (a project is anything that I'm working on, and it instantly gets cool when it is labeled a project) he grabs his shoes and calls them his "work boots." In the morning before daycare, they are shoes, but whenever we start a project, they are his work boots. Drew's also been very helpful with projects around the house. He loves following me around the house and helping me out!

nature walk

We often let Drew watch the news in the morning with us while we're getting ready for the day. As a result, he gets quite the education on the events going on in the world and lately he's heard a lot of politics. We don't always know how much he picks up, so we were surprised to hear him talking to himself one night in bed. I got this video of him talking over his monitor and saying over and over, "Barack Obama. Barack Obama. Barack Obama." If you ask him who he's going to vote for, his immediate response is "Barack Obama!"



Kate is making rapid progress at the moment on breastfeeding. Finally! We've significantly cut back on finger feeding and she's getting to be a decent breastfeeder. Most of her outfits are still big on her, but you can see that she's starting to fill them out a litttle bit. We're enjoying how much sturdier she's getting as she grows. She can almost fully support her head now and her eye contact is very good. Kate spends some time on her tummy each day now too and can last a couple minutes before getting sick of it.

We're still working on capturing one of Kate's good smiles on the camera, but for now a gassy, sleepy smile will have to do. She especially likes to do these smiles as she drifts in and out of sleep when someone is holding her.
Me, Kate, and Drew on the couch in the evening. Jana got up to take this picture, but until then all four of us were hanging out on the couch. I can use Kate as bait for Drew because often if I'm sitting on the couch with her, Drew will walk up and ask to join us on the couch. I'm happy to oblige! This past Saturday our whole family went for a walk in a local nature center. Drew loved running on the trail and at first we constantly had to rein him in because he wanted to run so far in front of us. By the end, we were coaxing him on as he stopped to check out every rock, stick, plant, bird, mushroom, insect, etc. . . His initial focus only lasted so long!




Drew LOVED walking on the trail and I couldn't resist snapping away with the camera. Below are a few of my favorite pictures from the trail.

We saw lots of wildlife on the walk and much to Jana's horror, we came across two snakes on the edge of the trail. This one waited around long enough that Drew got to see it and I was able to take a quick picture. I wanted to pick it up to show Drew, but Jana vetoed that plan! We also saw many different varieties of songbirds, a deer, some turkey, and some other creatures I'll get to in a bit.

Drew loved the varied terrain. We walked on a paved trail, a dirt trail, a woodchip trail, and this grassy trail. He did a lot of looking down at his feet to check out where we were going.

We stopped at a small pond that is full of goldfish. Drew had fun looking over the railing at the fish and the two of us took turns spitting into the pond. A very gross habit to get into, but it is lots of fun because the fish splash the surface as they "eat" anything that hits the water. Drew thought it was about the coolest thing, as most things gross and boyish are! Jana took one look at us and said, "I can't believe you're teaching him that!"

Jana carried Kate in the Baby Bjorn, and just like Drew, she's doing a great job of riding in it as a baby. We love to be active, so we're excited that she's doing so well in it. As with the zoo, Kate slept the entire time we walked around.

I tried to get Drew to sit next to me for this picture, but he wanted to sit on his own at the end of the bench. He does like to sit on the couch with us, but he also likes to do his own thing! Each time we saw a bench on the trail Drew was drawn to it.

In the other end of the pond with the goldfish, we saw this huge snapping turtle. I don't remember seeing one in the wild this big before, and I wish you had a better sense of the scale in the picture. Head to tail it was probably at least two feet long. I guessed that it has been fattening up on a goldfish feast and that has allowed it to grow to an incredible size. Drew thought the turtles were very cool, but was much more interested in the fish.

After gaining more weight in her belly at first, Kate is starting to get a little bigger in the thighs and upper arms. I tease Jana because at every feed she puts her fingers around Kate's thigh to measure the circumference. According to Jana's measurements, Kate is definitely getting bigger! :)

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day Jana! I want to start by thanking Jana for all her hard work and effort in being a great mom to Drew and Kate. Our children are a total joy to be around and a lot of that is due to Jana's efforts as a parent. Jana and I continue to LOVE being parents, and as you can see in the picture below, Drew still LOVES being a big brother. This picture wasn't taken on Mother's Day (Drew was sick then), but it gives an idea of how Jana usually feels around Drew and Kate. Kate's legs look a little funny in the picture below because she's so small that she doesn't fill out newborn clothes yet!

Freedom! Kate likes to work hard on escaping from her bundle. She still prefers sleeping bundled up though. We like to use bundling to keep Kate calm and sleeping. Between that and the pacifier, she's a great little sleeper!

Despite some sickness in the morning for Drew (which he seemed to handle very well), we ventured out to the zoo for the first time on Saturday. We visited the John Ball Park Zoo in Grand Rapids, and Drew had plenty of company for the trip. Great-grandma and Great-grandpa, my Uncle Dave, and Grandma Sue and Grandpa Bill all joined us for Drew's first zoo trip. Upon entering the zoo, the first thing we saw were some waterfowl. Drew liked looking at all the different kinds of birds.

In this part of the exhibit you could get a little closer to the birds, so Drew ventured right up to the edge of this net to check things out.

Kate is finally big enough for the Baby Bjorn, so Jana was on Kate patrol at the zoo and carried her around. Kate slept the ENTIRE time. I guess it's pretty cozy in there!

In the aquarium building Drew enjoyed going up to the glass and looking at the fish. We saw lots of cool fish! Drew has started using that word when he likes something, "Cool!"

Drew and I were fascinated by the bears. Drew kept on saying, "Brown bear!" We checked out their large claws and teeth, and I grabbed onto Drew a little tighter!

We walked around quite a bit of the zoo with Drew on my shoulders. Often though, our ride would end with Drew asking over and over to get down. He likes to walk on his own and get into everything!

Drew and Grandma spent some time watching the chimpanzees. The one near the steps was taking a stick, dipping it into a hole, and then eating insects off the stick. It was fun to watch!

Drew liked to run ahead of everyone, but he made sure to look back and see if everyone was following.

Much to Drew's delight, there were lots of stairs that we could walk up and down. Drew liked the animals, but he especially like running around, seeing a zoo tractor, and being with family.

As soon as Drew saw this curb, he jumped up on it and used it as a balance beam. He's pretty good and it was the perfect height!

This past Saturday we celebrated my grandma's 80th birthday. Happy Birthday! We were able to get the entire family together, so my grandparents are in the middle surrounded by all their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. I was thrilled that I got Drew to look at the camera for this picture :)

My cousin Anna and her husband Dan just got a new puppy. Drew had LOTS of fun running around in the yard and playing with the puppy. Later on, he and the puppy exchanged some "kisses" (Drew opened his mouth while the puppy licked him. Ewww!).

Drew was happy to help great-grandma blow out the candles on her cake. He loves to blow out candles for us at home, and he was thrilled to help out here.

Kate has been doing a great job of making eye contact and has been smiling for Jana. I haven't been able to coax a smile from her, but I got close in this picture. You can tell that she's working on it!

We can tell Kate is getting more control of her body because she'll occassionally stick her tongue out in response to Jana or me initiating it!

Drew suffered from the stomach flu this past weekend, but has been feeling a lot better during the week. He loves wearing his sunglasses and will put them on in the car and leave them on for an entire ride. He's broken one pair, but generally he's very good with handling them and wearing them. The sunglasses in this picture help hide the sadness of his eyes, which are bruised from all his throwing up over the weekend. Poor guy!

similar

Over the weekend I printed out some pictures and Jana and I were looking at the pictures of Drew and Kate. We were struck by the similarity between the two pictures below. One picture features Drew and the other one features Kate. We knew they looked similar, but we didn't realize just how similar it was until we had these similarly posed pictures next to each other. Which one is Kate? Which one is Drew? I will have more pictures coming soon from the weekend, but Drew was sick with the stomach flu over the weekend, so blogging has been a lower priority than cleaning up vomit (yuck!). He's feeling better today, so hopefully our household will get back to normal.

In case you haven't figured it out yet, the top picture is Kate and the bottom picture is Drew! I'm not sure the exact date when the picture of Drew was taken, but I think he's about a week or two older than Kate at the time. There is no mistaking that these two are siblings!

Kate is one month old!

I don't have any pictures to post at this time, but I do want to congratulate Kate on being one month old! Since we hit that milestone, Kate had to go to the doctor this morning for her one month checkup.

Everything has been going pretty well, but it was nice for Jana and I to have a doctor's visit to ask some questions and get reassurance that Kate is growing well. Kate has been eating a lot (through lots of effort from Jana) and she's bulked up to 7 pounds 12 ounces. Yes! She's also been getting a lot longer; she's now 20 1/4 inches long. Both her weight and her height put her in about the 10-25th percentile, so she's still a little peanut!

According to our doctor Kate has great eye contact and looked on the verge of smiling at us. We haven't captured it on camera yet, but the other night Kate had her first social smile with Jana. I'm still waiting for my smile! Everything in terms of Kate physically and developmentally looked great, and we're looking forward to her continued improvement with eating.

Kate still isn't doing the best job of eating, so this past week we had a lactation consultant come to our house and work with Jana for a while. It was very helpful and it reassured us that we've been doing everything correctly, while at the same time we have a few new hints that might enhance Kate's eating. Jana has been working hard on incorparating those ideas and already things are getting better. Of course, it also helps that Kate is getting bigger and has more strength!

Keep on the lookout for another post soon with more pictures because we've got some exciting events coming up over the weekend.

Stripped down

Our entire family has been battling colds for the past week, but we are slowly all getting better and Kate is slowly getting bigger and bigger. As she gets bigger, she's becoming more and more alert and it's fun to hold her and interact with her. We can't wait for that first smile! One of my favorite times with Kate is in the evening after Drew has gone to bed. Until then, I give both Drew and Kate equal attention, but once Drew is in bed I can fawn over Kate. It's fun to just sit on the couch and hold her!Kate's still looking a lot like me, but as she continues to fill out a little in the face, we think she's getting better and better looking. We've always thought she was cute, but now both Jana and I feel that she's adorable (a more objective adorable! :)

Kate is making steady and slow progress on breast feeding. Jana finally hit on a way to get her to eat a little better: take off all her clothes!! Here is Kate after a feeding. It's actually a bit fun to strip her down to get her ready for a feeding. She hates having her clothes go on or off, so it wakes her up nicely and gets her ready to eat.

Sometimes after eating Kate is so tuckered out that she just falls asleep in our arms. It's so warm and snuggly to hold her without any clothes! By the way, I don't have pictures of Jana for this post simply because I'm much more willing to have pictures taken without much sleep or makeup or hair arranging. Jana continues to do the vast majority of Kate care! Thus, it's ironic that most of these pictures show me holding Kate. That's not the case in actual time spent with her.

I keep reminding Kate that it's not a good idea to go around with your mouth hanging open, but when you've got all that good milk in your belly it's hard to keep your eyes open or your mouth closed.

The grandmas have been great about coming to Lansing and helping us out. This past Friday Jana's mom was in Lansing to spend the day with Kate and Drew. Those two keep you busy! Drew is almost impossible to get to sit still for a portrait, as you can see.

Drew got outside on his bike this past Friday for the first time. We got him a helmet, so now whenever we see a bike rider wearing one we point it out to Drew and extol the virtues of proper bike safety. Jana has seen the effects of traumatic brain injury, so she's very careful to make sure that Drew is safe in the event of a fall. As our wise friend Sonia once said in regard to helmet safety, "Always wear protection on your head."

Drew loves the warmer weather and being outside. He likes riding his bike, he likes playing ball in the backyard, and he especially likes digging around the yard with me. I give him a trowel, which is his special "Drew shovel" and we dig holes together. The first time we were digging and I found a worm, I was excited as I grabbed it out of the soil and handed it to Drew. He put out his hand, took the worm in his palm, got a look of horror on his face and then dumped it back in my hand saying, "No thank you. No thank you, Dad. No thank you." We're having a great time exploring the outdoors together!

On Saturday our whole family went to a party for Jana's department. In honor of Kate's first party, we dressed her up. She's still got a little room (or a lot!) to grow into this, but she looked pretty cute in her dress!

We got Drew to sit still for this picture, but now we need to work on facial expressions! Kate was fussing away next to Drew, so this wasn't the most successful photo session. The whole posed picture thing just isn't working for us, but we did manage to catch both kids with their tongues out :)

We got out Drew's old swing and found that Kate really enjoys being in it. Yes! Just tonight, Kate was in the swing for over an hour. We're hoping that as she gets bigger, Kate will continue to enjoy the swing. Drew loves to push the buttons on the swing for Kate. We're working on having him push the buttons enough to start the swing and then to leave it alone. It's a lot of fun to change the speeds and turn the music on and off!

This week we have Kate's one month doctor's visit, and we're looking forward to another check of her weight. Kate has been eating a lot, but is still not eating entirely by breastfeeding. We've been doing LOTS of finger feeding. As long as she continues to gain weight, it's worth it!