hood ornament

Drew has been on the move lately with his walker, so I have many more videos of him to show! I thought I'd start with some pictures though because they take less time to view.

Drew recently figured out that the Noah figure from toy set fits very nicely into the circular holes on a number of his toys. As you can see below, Noah fits into the cylinder shape for Drew's shape sorter. Good job Drew on figuring that out!
Drew continues to get better with us reading to him. He can pretty routinely sit through a whole book now, and some nights I read a couple of books to him before he gets squirmy. He also continues to enjoy playing with his books.

Drew is getting better and better at helping around the house :) He cleans (with a Swiffer), he empties the dishwasher, and he also helps with laundry. As we fold laundry, Drew is very good at pulling things out of the laundry basket so that we can fold them.

Doing laundry is fun!

Whenever I'm home with Drew and we know he won't be going out too much, I love to dress him in his casual blue sweatsuit. Drew loves to wear blue!

I'm not sure if these photos are reflective of the two schools, but one day we dressed Drew in Spartan apparrel and he was chewing on his Noah figure (notice the expression on his face too), and then . . .

the next day we dressed him in his Wolverine apparrel and he started reading. Coincidence? I think not! :)

Here's a picture of Drew walking around the house pushing his walker. He goes EVERYWHERE pushing this thing around.

This past Sunday we had supper with Jana's family to celebrate Grandpa John's birthday. Aunt Christina got down on the floor and was chasing Drew around. Drew seems to like it!

All of Drew's playing made him need to slow down and grab a snack! Aunt Christina was happy to give him something to drink from his sippy cup.

Now it's time for some videos! This first one shows Drew wandering around with his walker. Take note of the Noah figure that he's place in the circle shape on the front of his walker! He's like a hood ornament.

Jana went down the basement, so this is Drew calling for attention. He gets pretty loud at times!

Drew uses his walker like a bulldozer to get toys out of the way. In this video there is a green shape from his shape sorter that gets in the way, so Drew moves it out of the way.

Drew was talking a lot this past weekend, and you can here him in this video. He loves to play with his toys in a way that makes noise!

Jana was taking a nap on Saturday afternoon, and I think Drew missed her, so he went over and was playing with her robe. He loves anything with a cord, and he couldn't get enough of the belt on her robe.

motion

Drew is constantly on the go around our house. Occasionally, as in the picture below, he pauses long enough that I can snap a picture of him. Usually, Drew is moving so quickly that the pictures turn out blurry!

Every once in a while,we can get Drew corralled and he'll stays in your lap for a little while. In the picture below we distracted him with the family pictures behind me. We're trying to get him to learn everyone's name, so we go over pictures with him and say the name of the person pictured.

This doesn't happen for very long (about five minutes) or very often (maybe once or twice a day), but Drew does slow down occasionally, sit in my lap, and let me read to him. Jana and I have both been working on reading with him, and his attention span is slowly increasing. His favorite part of reading is when he gets to turn the page. Most of the time, I don't think he cares whether or not I finish reading the page; he just wants to turn to the next page!

This past week I was sitting with my hand on my head while we were eating dinner. I glanced over at Drew in his highchair, and he also had his hand on his head and he was looking at me. I asked him, "Are you imitating me, buddy?," and I put my other hand on my head. He immediately put his other hand on his head! Being the quick thinking parents that we are, Jana and I immediately decided that this was the perfect opportunity to teach Drew another trick . . . clapping! I started to clap and within a few seconds Drew started to clap too! He wasn't very good at first: his "claps" didn't make a noise and his hands would miss every once in a while. The picture below shows him in action.

I can't just show a picture of Drew clapping, so I also got some video of his clapping! On Saturday morning Jana and I were singing the MSU fight song to Drew and he joined us for the clapping that accompanies the fight song. As soon as we start clapping with Drew, he joins in (you'll hear Jana clapping in the background to encourage Drew).

I mentioned earlier in this post the speed that Drew possesses when crawling around the house. The reason I mentioned that is because he has also started to walk behind his walker . . . and he is fast! On Saturday morning I plopped him standing up behind his walker, and he took off across the room and went flying right into his pack and play. I have a very short video because he moves so quickly across our living room that not much video is required to get the whole thing!

By Sunday, Drew had a little more practice walking behind his toy, so he was able to start to turn it and he was much more under control. Look at the difference one day makes!

As soon as Drew grabs on to the walker and starts going, a grin lights up his face! He is going to be running all over our house soon with a smile on his face :)

Drew moves his toy around the living room like a bulldozer clearing whatever is in his path, but then he also likes to stop, pick things up, and place them in his walker. If you look closely in the photo below, you can see he has his sippy cup stored in case he gets thirsty while cruising around the living room.

Drew made use of the sippy cup and paused every once in a while for a drink!

Keep posted for more updates on walking and words! I'm trying to get some video of Drew's latest talking, but he doesn't always cooperate when the camera is around.

story time

A lot has been going on for Drew lately, but not all of it has been in his blog because it's getting harder and harder to capture his skills on camera! I've decided to try to include more text in this post so that I can take the opportunity to relay a little about Drew that is hard to capture on camera.

Drew's latest verbal milestones include a situation the other day in daycare when he looked at another child who was trying to take his toy and said "Isaac, no!" A two word phrase! Drew is also starting to say "all done" when he's finished eating. My favorite Drew word is the one he has new competence at saying: "dad." Yay! He started out by saying "dada," but has now progressed to every once in a while saying a very clear and distinct "dad." He does it to get my attention, and it REALLY works!There are no new teeth to report. Drew continues to make do with his bottom two teeth. It would be nice for him to have some more, but that would require teething, so we're content with just two for now! Drew continues to eat all sorts of food. We give him whatever we eat for dinner cut into small pieces and he feeds himself from his tray (a very messy process). Recently, we ate baked potatoes, which Drew loved. However, he has learned at daycare to say "Uh oh," and then to put his hands on his head. The whole putting the hands on the head idea makes things a little messy when they are covered with starchy potato mush!

I'm not sure what pose this is, but as you can see, Drew really likes to push around his car toy. I think it is because it gives him an excuse to be on the move! Drew continues to be fairly skinny, but that boy must burn a lot of calories because he is constantly on the go.

Drew is getting closer and closer to walking, but as with everything else he does, he will only be doing it when he is good and ready! If Jana holds onto his hands, then Drew will walk all over the house. If I hold on to his hands, he looks up at me and wants to play. He won't walk for me! Drew is also cruising around furniture and will take one step from the couch to Jana, but he is not standing yet or walking independently.

This picture may appear to be upside down, but it is actually Drew who is upside down! I was swinging Drew around by his ankles and Jana snapped a picture of him upside down.

Drew loves to play with our faces. In the picture below, Jana is on the floor and Drew is crawling up and standing by her and touching her face. We're working on soft touches so that he plays well with other kids and babies. He also is learning that his two teeth are sharp, so sometimes we have to reprimand him for biting. His bite hurts!

Jana watched Drew in wonder the other day as he approached his favorite toy, the dishwasher. At the sound of the dishwasher opening, he will squeal with delight as he rushes over to check out the dishes. While Jana was working at the sink, Drew reached in the dishwasher and pulled out EVERY SINGLE PIECE of silverware. This was not too surprising because Drew loves to play with silverware. To Jana's surprise, Drew then proceeded to take every single knife and fork (he's not supposed to play with those) and put them back into their proper place in the dishwasher. As a result of this, he was left with all his favorite utensils . . . the spoons!

Yesterday, Drew took this one step further and he sorted the knives and forks out and then he seperated the spoons based on size. The teaspoons were okay to play with, but all the tablespoons had to go! This time he was left with only his baby spoons and teaspoons at the end of his sorting.

Uh oh, we knew this wouldn't take too long with Mark and Jana as his parents . . . Drew has started to become a READER! Drew was playing quietly the other day in the living room and when Jana checked on him to see what he was doing, she found him flipping through one of his books.

Drew wandered around with his book and "read" aloud to Jana about the ABC's. We are thrilled that Drew likes books! We leave books in his pack and play and give him books to play with on the floor, so he'll often just pick a book up and flip through it or push it around on the floor. Oh yeah, and we read to him from them too :)

It's hard to catch this in action, but one of Drew's favorite games is to have someone hide around a corner and call his name. He comes roaring around the corner and then the person startles him and grabs him. He squeals with delight and then you go find another corner to hide around and have him find you. Drew and I play this almost every night until we're both tired out.

This is the most recent picture of Drew that I captured last night. He is continuing to get bigger and he's starting to stand up straighter as he gets closer to walking. I can't believe that he will be a year old soon!

Drew in action

I have mainly been posting pictures lately, so I thought I'd catch up with a few videos that show what Drew has been doing lately.

Drew has been doing "so big" for a while now and I might have referred to it before, but I have not given you video of him doing his favorite trick. Drew, how big are you? . . . .

It is amazing how quickly Drew catches on to some things and seems to stubbornly resist learning other things. One night I was watching sports with Drew and asked him to give me a high five. Within a few minutes he would look at me and hold up his hand for a high five!

For those of you who don't have video players, here is a picture of Drew with his latest feeding source: the sippy cup. Drew has started the transition from bottle to cup and is doing very well. He has shown a lot of interest in using a cup, so we're encouraging him to continue with cups and not bottles. Way to go Drew!

Of course, the cup sometimes takes a little longer for Drew to drink because he's also starting to feed himself. The cup not only provides delicious drinks, but also is fun to play with!

Here is one last video of Drew playing with his toy car from Christmas. He is pretty good at pushing it around the house. We were completely surprised when we brought the car out for the first time at our house and Drew started pushing it around on the floor and making noises for the car. Where did he learn that?!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! We are excited to begin a new year of watching Drew grow and develop. I posted A LOT of pictures of Drew in 2006, and look for more to keep coming in 2007. Drew helped us ring in the new year by not wanting to sleep (we were at some friends' house), so Drew was awake and more perky than us while watching the ball drop in Times Square. I hope you enjoy the first blog post of 2007!

We tried on this sweater for Drew last week, and found that it is a perfect fit! Doesn't Drew look cute and cuddly in his sweater?For one of our meals we made mashed potatoes, and Drew ate a lot of them. My favorite food is potatoes, so I was thrilled to see Drew eating with enthusiasm!

Drew makes the same face I do after eating mashed potatoes!

We got so much joy from Drew's grins after eating the potatoes, that I have to include one more picture of his smile.

Drew also has been doing very well at feeding himself and entertaining himself. When we are not actively feeding Drew, we can put some food on his tray and he will "feed" himself. A lot of the food ends up on his bib, on his face, stuck to his hands, and on the floor, but some makes it into his mouth!

Drew was romping around our living room this past weekend in his onesie. We don't have him in just a onesie very often in the winter, so it was fun to see his little legs and arms.

One night I noticed that Drew and I were both lounging in our white t-shirts, so I had Jana take a picture of us in our matching outfits.

This past fall for my birthday I got a jogging stroller, so that Drew and I can go for runs together. We had a particularly warm winter day last weekend, and it enabled me to take Drew out for a spin in the jogging stroller. You can see that I am pretty excited about going for a run with Drew . . .

But Drew didn't really know what to make of his many layers and new stroller. He seemed to like it though once we got going! It is a much different workout to run and push him in the stroller versus going running on your own!