As usual we've been keeping busy and at times the blog hasn't gotten as updated as I'd like. I'll catch up a bit here and tell some stories to go with the pictures. Kate has been an absolute delight to parent and we're excited by all the new words and phrases she's picking up. She's in that parrot stage where she repeats EVERYTHING we say. Also, she's finally getting a little bit of hair. It doesn't help though that it's so blonde or else it might show up better. Oh well, I think you can see her hair in this picture.
Kate has been picking up new words every day and she's become quite the reader. She loves to cuddle her soft toddler weight onto your lap to read books. She especially loves animal books at this point and she'll point to all the animals and make animal noises.
This September we had a big milestone in the Aupperlee family: Drew started preschool!!! I know the photo below is blurry, but it's literally the ONLY picture of a smiling Drew on his first day. I'm not sure if he was nervous or tired or what, but most of the morning he had a neutral expression on his face. We took several pictures out in our driveway before taking him to school and this is the best one.
Then we took more pictures in front of Drew's school. Drew is very excited about his backpack (as you can tell from his expression :) He wears his backpack all around and knows exactly where to put it in his classroom at school. He's got his own cubby with his name, "Drew," posted on it. We've also created a hook at home that is for his backpack and he keeps it there at home.
Upon arriving in his class Drew pulled out the puzzles and started playing by himself. We were worried at first about him just keeping to himself, but he's gotten more and more interactive each day. By the end of the first day he had sat next to and identified a girl in his class who is "pretty." We still don't know her name yet, but apparently she's caught Drew's attention!
There's not much better than sitting on the couch with Drew and Kate reading stories before bed. Drew remembers all the little kid books that we read Kate, so he likes to help out with reading Kate's stories.
Here's our big guy wearing one of his favorite shirts. Drew, not surprisingly, is the tallest boy in his class. You can tell we don't live in West Michigan (land of tall Dutch people). There is one girl in Drew's class who is the same height as he is.
Kate is always up to something and always smiling. You can probably just make out a golfer on the TV screen behind Kate. One of the my favorite things to do late on Sunday afternoon is to watch golf for a bit with Drew and Kate. Drew loves it and will ask throughout the week or even throughout the day on Sunday, "When is golf going to be on? I want to watch golf . . . because it's your favorite." He cuddles up next to me on the couch and he asks me for each golfer, "What's his name?" He likes the name Steve Stricker, but his favorite golfer to watch is Tiger Woods. Kate joins in watching the golf and climbs all over the two of us (she doesn't sit still too much).
A family game of "airplane." Kate saw Drew up in the air and decided she needed to join in the fun. We spend a lot of time on the floor of our living room romping with Drew and Kate.
Drew being silly. He wore a green shirt the other day for "Green Square" day at school and I wanted a picture of it. For the month of September, his class talks about a different color and shape each day. The kids are encouraged to wear the color of the day.
I realized we don't have many videos of Kate, who is doing the coolest things right now. I'm working on correcting that! In the video below, Kate had pulled a stool up to the wall and is discovering the joy of the light switch. The changing light in the video is due to her actions.
These last two videos are two of my favorite videos of Kate and they just show how interactive she is. She talks to us and parrots things back. Enjoy!!
Drew pulled a chair up to one of our cabinets to do a little work on a project. He was banging away while working on it.
I grabbed Kate for a picture . . . she's getting much harder to get in a good picture as she's on the move more and more.
Drew saw me on the ground and took the opportunity to climb up onto my back.
Before long, both kids were riding high on my back as I plodded around the living room.
Drew has been growing like crazy and he keeps on getting taller, but pictures like this one remind me that he's still a little guy!
I've got a video below that was taken around the time of this photo, but I also love the photograph. It captures how much fun Drew and Kate have playing together.
We started with Kate posing in her mom's running shoes, and here is Kate in Jana's work shoes. Pretty!!
Drew was working on his puzzle one day and Kate was somewhere in the background playing. It's not the most exciting video ever, but it gives you an idea of what it's like to interact with Drew. He's learning a large number of the states and he whips right through this puzzle.
