Is walking in the near future?

Last night Jana and I had a great time playing with Drew. One of his new games is peek-a-boo, and usually it makes him laugh out loud. We played for a little while last night, but we were only able to coax a smile out of him at that point. Here is a video sample:

We placed Drew next to the couch and he stood next to the couch for a while, and then even took a few steps along the couch! He is getting so much better at standing and controlling his legs. We are keeping a careful eye on him because he'll be walking before we know it! Drew was quite entertained by us as he stood along the couch and on this video we really got him giggling.

After all the excitement of standing, Drew needed a break and dropped down to his knees. We were really impressed because he "stood up" on his knees for quite a while with just a hand on the couch.

Drew even occasionally removed his hands from the couch (Jana's not touching him) and "stood" unassisted on his knees for several seconds before reaching back to the couch for support. It was so much fun to watch Drew move and chat!

Drew is a great helper

One morning last week before leaving in the morning, I really wanted to get a picture of Drew in his fleece jacket and mittens. Unfortunately, Drew did not want to keep his mittens on and he was wiggling so much that I couldn't get a very good picture. Sometimes it is hard to get him to stay still! Drew continues to eat away; he loves a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. I actually included this picture though to highlight his hair, which is sticking up quite nicely. Drew' hair is growing quickly (for him) and when he gets out of the bath it sticks straight up.
Last Saturday Drew "helped" me with some work in the garage. While I was working he sat in his stroller and watched my every move. We built some shelves, moved some things around, and cleaned up a little. He was completely mesmerized by everything I was doing. He's going to be a big help some day!
Drew's outfit for helping me included his fleece vest, his yellow hoodie, and mittens to keep his hands warm. We thought he might like the texture of the grass, and then realized that he couldn't feel the grass through all those layers!
Drew "walked" around the yard on my feet, but continually got distracted by the cords on my hooded sweatshirt. They were hard to grab though without the use of an opposable thumb (his mittens have no fingers on them).
Jana is strategically holding Drew before his bath. Drew is getting so much longer in his limbs! He continues to look less like a baby and more like a toddler.
Drew loves playing in the bath with his toys, including his rubber duck!

Here is a video of Drew playing in the bathtub. He usually talks a lot in the bathtub, but he wouldn't do it for the camera. You can at least get a sense of how good he is at splashing!

This past weekend Grandma Sue and Grandpa Bill visited us in Lansing to celebrate my birthday (Oct. 20) and Grandpa Bill's birthday (Oct. 17). Within minutes of arriving, Drew woke up from his nap and Grandma Sue swooped in to grab him. Isn't Drew cute in dinosaur pajamas? His cheeks are still pink from his nap!
I don't know if seeing Drew in his hat will ever get old. Every time we put it on him, it makes us chuckle! :)

Here is one last video of Drew for this post. He makes quite the range of noises and this one involves sticking out his tongue. He also just learned how to "cluck," which I will have to get on video soon! Can you tell that he's getting tired at the end of this short video?

a tooth!

I have been trying to figure out how to get this on the blog, and now I have a picture to go with it . . . Drew has a tooth! It broke through his gums about a week or two ago, and if you reach your finger in his mouth you can clearly feel it. I'd try to get a picture of it, but I feel a little weird holding his mouth open and going in close with the camera (there are limits to the pictures we'll take :) The tooth is on the bottom front of this mouth. With the new tooth in there, it probably feels a little weird to Drew, who has never had teeth before. Therefore, he loves to move his tongue in and out to feel his tooth. That's what he's doing in this picture below that I took on Sunday when Drew and I came to the lab. Last year for my birthday, while Jana was still pregnant, she bought a play workbench for Drew to get me even more excited about the arrival of our baby boy. It worked! I couldn't wait to work on projects with my son. Drew is still a little young for his workbench, but I couldn't wait any longer, so I put it together this past week. It is a nice workbench with several "nails" that can be hammered in (Drew is demonstrating his hammer usage below) and some bolts that can either be screwed in with a screwdriver or tightened with a crescent wrench. Most of the motions for the workbench are still beyond Drew, but he loves to stand next to his workbench and he found that he can pull the "nails" out with his mouth! The nails are the blue and red things that he is reaching for in the picture below.
Last night when I got home from work we had some family play time with Drew. He stood next to his workbench and played with it for forty-five minutes!
I'm still trying to get Drew to work on his grip (he's holding the hammer a little too close to the head), but I love seeing him holding and banging with the hammer.

I also took some video of Drew playing with his workbench. This is my first attempt at playing with him and just aiming the camera at the two of us while we're playing. It gives you an idea of how much Drew was chatting, but I think the next time I'll let Jana play with him while I man the camera! :)

Man weekend

This past weekend Jana went to Chicago for a shopping trip with her mom and sister. They had a great time, and Drew and I did too! It was our first "man" weekend without Jana around, and we watched lots of sports, went for walks, went to the lab, and played a lot on the floor. We were both happy to have Jana return home though! I haven't posted pictures of Drew in the bath in a while because usually either Jana or I give Drew a bath and it's hard to take pictures and bathe him at the same time. Drew splashes a lot! Last week Jana was around with the camera during Drew's bath, so we got some pictures. Drew loves being in the bath. He thoroughly enjoys the water and he usually fusses when he's taken out of the bath.
To make it easier for one of us to wash him we still use Drew's blue tub, but we put it right into the bathtub (so he doesn't splash everywhere). Drew still likes to throw himself around every once in a while, so his blue tub makes baths much more convenient.
After playing for a while in the bathtub, we pulled Drew out and put him in his hooded towel. He's getting so big that he's going to have to switch to a big person towel soon!

We've found that overalls are the best pants option right now for Drew because of his army crawling. Last week at daycare, Rebekah looked away for a minute, turned back, and Drew had crawled right out of his pants! It's tough to keep the pants up when they're dragging on the ground.
It has been cold here in the morning (~30 F), and we want to keep Drew warm on the ride to daycare, so we've started putting on Drew's hat and mittens. The mittens have no finger holes, it's just a solid tube! Drew is also styling here in his new jean jacket. We had so much fun buying him jackets for the fall and winter!
Drew looked so cute in his outfit that Jana had to scoop him up for a picture!
Uncle Todd watched Drew last Friday night so that Jana and I could go to a graduation party. After Jana and I returned, Todd and I went out to cheer the Tigers on to victory over the Yankees.
Drew wore Todd's Tigers hat with pride. I'm not sure if he was as excited as his dad or uncle about the Tigers' game though.On Saturday Drew was all ready for the big Michigan State versus Michigan football game. While he embraces the Spartan atmosphere at MSU, he is really a Michigan fan at heart (or maybe that's just me projecting my views on him :) Either way, Drew didn't seem to mind that the Spartans were beaten so handily by the Wolverines.

Drew has continued to talk more and more. I loved listening to him chat away this weekend. On Sunday afternoon I could tell he was done with his nap when he started talking to himself in his crib. Click on the video below with sound for a sample of Drew's "talking."

Drew's first parade

This past Friday our family went to the Michigan State homecoming parade. On the way to the parade we stopped by a fountain so that I could get my picture taken with Drew.I am looking at the camera, but we had a hard time getting Drew to take his eyes off the fountain. Despite how fascinated Drew is by Jana and me, he still likes to ignore us every once in a while.
Drew and I sat on the curb along Grand River Ave. in downtown East Lansing waiting for the parade to start.
The parade started with the MSU marching band. Can you see how wet those guys are . . . that's from sweat and spit! Gross! The band was great though and they got the crowd singing the MSU fight song. However, Drew did not enjoy how loud the band was up close; we had to cover his ears whenever a band walked past.
I don't know what this guy's official name is, but Jana and I call him the "green guy." He rode around the parade on his bicycle filming and getting people to cheer. Halfway through the parade he stopped right in front of us, loaded new film into his camera, and proceeded to chat with Jana and I the whole time he was doing it. We're not sure why this happens to us, but for some reason the random people like to walk up and start talking with us!
Sparty was also part of the parade, of course. He got out of his cart and came over to see Drew shortly after I took this photo. A lot of the MSU coaches were also in the parade, and coach Tom Izzo and his family were in the parade. As coach Izzo went past us, he looked up, saw Drew, and said, "What a cutie!" Coach Izzo has great taste!!
The grand marshall for this year's homecoming was Kermit the frog. Here he is in his vehicle going down the road. We had wondered how they were going to get a puppet into the parade.
This was my favorite float. It was a miniature football field with a scoreboard. The Spartan player (#31) is aiding the Illinois "cheerleader," who was a dark, hairy guy dressed in a cheerleader outfit. There is also a lawnmower with a Illini "player" on the ground because the Illini were going to get "mowed down" by the Spartans. I thought this whole float was clever, and it turned out to be quite ironic after Illinois won the game the next day!
Several sports teams rode on the East Lansing fire trucks. They were all on top riding on the ladder ( I thought this looked like fun). The truck was running its siren, and Drew did not like the noise!
Drew like the horses because they were quiet. Look at the horses green hooves!
As the parade wore on it got a little chilly, so we put Drew's hood on for him to stay warm. Drew was great throughout the parade and we left after about an hour and a half with the parade still going strong. There were LOTS of kids at the parade, and we're excited about taking Drew to more parades in the future.
On Sunday morning I get to hang out with Drew while Jana teaches Sunday school at our church's first service. We had a great time! Drew woke up from his morning nap and he was very excited to play on the floor with me.
Sunday afternoon Grandma Sue and Grandpa Bill came to visit Drew ( and Jana and me too :) Grandma Sue enjoyed getting down on the floor to play with Drew.
With all his bottles at daycare, Drew has become quite talented at taking down a bottle. For a while he stayed with stage 1 nipples on the bottle (the smallest opening), but in the past few weeks he has moved from stage 1 to stage 2 and now he's using stage 3. He can take down a bottle pretty quickly with the bigger opening!
Jana took Drew down with her to do laundry, and she discovered the perfect way to keep Drew from crawling away . . . a laundry basket. We don't put him in here for very long, but it makes for a fun photo!