block time

Drew is getting excited about the NCAA Tournament and March Madness. This morning we dressed him in his Spartan apparel so that he can root for the Spartans tonight in their first round game. We're using his soccer ball here to get a start on Drew's basketball skills. Last weekend I took him outside and sat him in his stroller while I dribbled a basketball. Drew was laughing out loud he thought it was so entertaining!It's not exactly what he's doing here, but when Drew gets really tired he cuddles with his blue ball on the floor. The other night he gave his ball a hug and a kiss as he was lying next to it! I get jealous because despite all the hugs and kisses I give Drew, he mainly seems to give his affection to other people (like Jana!). He sometimes walks up to Jana, puts his arms around her, and gives her a hug and a kiss. However, Drew's ball gets more affection than I do :(

Jana absolutely loved this Drew outfit last week. We are having so much fun dressing him up like a little boy, and we thought he looked quite handsome in his fleece vest. He's very serious about his walking around!

At times while Drew is walking around, he sticks his tongue out in concentration. It's so cute!!

We do a toy rotation so that Drew is constantly getting "new" toys. A toy that just entered the rotation is his Duplo blocks. Drew loves to play with them, and he especially enjoys taking them apart. Jana and I build things as quickly as we can, and then as soon as we give them to Drew he takes them apart.

You can see Drew's dismantling skills in this short video. At first I made an elephant, a camel, and a horse for him out of his blocks, but then he took them apart so quickly that I switched to just putting a bunch together and letting him dismantle the "shape" that I made.

We continue to work with Drew on putting his toys away when he's done with them. As his collection of toys continues to mount, this is going to be important that in our little house they get put in their place!

We haven't taken many pictures of Drew in the bath lately, so I thought I'd include one this time. Jana took this picture while I tried to protect Drew's modesty. It is hard because he wiggles around a lot! Drew is playing with his bath toy that includes some cars, a plane, and a boat that all float in the water. He continues to LOVE taking baths and usually as I get him undressed for his bath he starts yelling and flailing about in excitement!

Last summer I went to Boston for a conference and got Drew a Boston Red Sox t-shirt. It was way too big for him then, but it is going to be a perfect fit for this summer. He wore it yesterday and it already fits him well. Drew has been growing a lot lately and his pants are creeping up and his shirt sleeves are too short, so we've been having fun looking through the bigger clothes that we have and finding new outfits for him to wear.

Drew walks!

Last night the three of us went out for dinner to a friend's home. While settling in and getting ready to eat, I was playing with Drew and his blue soccer ball. Drew was standing next to me while I sat on the couch. All of the sudden he turned away from me, let go of the couch, and started taking tentative steps toward the doorway. He didn't walk far, probably close to five feet, but it was the first time that Drew has walked that far independently (it's been just a couple steps before) and it was the first time that he took off on his own. Usually, he requires LOTS of coaxing to take a couple steps. We are so excited!

Later in the evening he repeated his walking, and he is starting to get better and better. He is getting more confident and he walks farther. Each time he walks we cheer him on and he looks at us like "Come on guys. This is no big deal. Why didn't you tell me before that this is what you wanted me to do?" Hopefully, he will continue to make progress tonight and I can get video and photos to show here. Keep posted!

Football or tennis?

Drew continues to get better at reading, which means that he plays with books on his own and will sit for longer periods of time and listen to us reading. It is so much fun to watch him with books, and it is a special treat to have Drew in your lap for a story!We were reminded again this past week at our doctor's appointment that we should "keep an eye on Drew" because he'll try to "get into things." That elicited an eye roll from me and Jana because Drew is always trying to get into EVERYTHING! Of course we need to keep an eye on him! He's being frustrated here by the safety locks on our cabinets that prevent him from getting to all the exciting dishes in the kitchen.

Drew's hair continues to grow in, but he is still nowhere near needing a haircut! In this picture you can see the two cowlicks that he's still sporting and you can also see the line of hair that they create. Whenever he gets out of the bath, Drew rocks the mohawk until his hair calms down a little.

Drew and I are always happy to see each other at the end of the day! We've had a lot of fun playing together each night this week.

Drew can take a couple steps independently, but he still primarily relies on his walker. We sometimes hide the walker to see what he'll do, but then he just drops down and crawls. He's so mobile without walking that we're having a hard time getting him to concentrate on walking. It seems like he could go and walk all over at any time, but he just doesn't feel like it!

Whenever Drew walks around the house, he always looks back to make sure that we are watching him. He loves to be the center of attention!

I really like Drew's casual look here. He's got the sleeves of his shirt rolled up because he's playing hard, he's got his cool khakis and shoes on, and he's got two of his favorite objects in his walker: his football (it's white) and his tennis ball (it's right next to the football). He's all set to walk around the house saying his favorite word: "Ball!"

Drew was reading the book about 10 ladybugs and he especially liked touching each of the ladybugs as he turned the pages.

Drew's very focused when he's reading and he didn't even seem to notice that I was moving around him snapping pictures. I wonder where he gets that focus while reading from? :)

Drew has outgrown all his onesies, so yesterday Jana had to go and buy him big-boy white undershirts! He's in a 2-4T t-shirt, and they fit him pretty well. Upon seeing him in khakis and a white t-shirt, I decided that we needed to match! In this picture I held up the two balls and asked him which one he liked better. Can you see him pointing to the football? YES!!

When Jana came in close to take a picture, Drew did what he usually does and decided that the person NOT holding him was more exciting.

Last night I did some cleaning around the house, and in order to keep an eye on Drew I strapped him in the Baby Bjorn. He has filled the Baby Bjorn out quite a bit since he was first born, and he's heavy!! He still loves to be in it though and he watched my every move as I went around the house vacuuming and dusting.

family update

I don't have new pictures for this post, but I thought I would give everyone an update on what has been going on in our family. We have experienced a big change the past few weeks because Jana has started teaching two graduate-level classes at MSU! Jana's advisor is struggling with some health issues, so Jana graciously stepped in and has taken over as instructor for her advisor's classes. For the rest of this semester, "Doctor" Jana will also be Professor Jana! In addition to taking on teaching those classes, Jana still continues to work in the Eaton Intermediate School District as a school psychologist a couple days a week, and she is teaching an online masters-level course through MSU. She's keeping busy! As a result of both of our busy schedules, Jana and I have placed Drew in daycare full time for the rest of the semester. Previously, Drew was in daycare several days a week, but for the past two weeks he has been going full time. He's a little tired at the end of the day because he has so much fun playing with his friends at daycare, but otherwise he seems to be doing very well with his increased time in daycare. We're all REALLY excited to see each other at the end of the day!
Yesterday we had Drew's one year doctor's visit. He continues to do well and is right on track with his development. He measured 30 1/4" long and weighed in at 22 pounds, 4 ounces. We got a kick out of having him in his diaper at the doctor's office because we usually make him wear clothes around the house. He was so cute and cuddly in just his diaper sitting in our laps! Drew survived getting three more shots, but I think he is started to learn that the doctor's office is the place where he gets shots. He didn't want anything to do with the crinkly paper that covers the examining table and he started screaming as soon as the doctor touched him! He calmed right back down after the shots though, and he has been his usual self ever since getting them.

problem solving

Drew is finally getting a pair of teeth on the top of his mouth to match his bottom teeth. You'll notice in most of these photos that his two bottom teeth are quite visible. The two teeth on the top of his mouth have broken through now and are coming in nicely. We're excited that Drew will be able to start chewing food rather than just gumming on it.

Drew was still dressed up after church not that long ago, and he and I took the opportunity to play some sports in the living room. We started out with a basketball/baseball combination. Drew has the bat in one hand and he just finished off a thunderous slam dunk with the other hand. He does everything with both hands still, so I have no idea if he will be right or left handed.
Next, we switched to just baseball and we played for a while with the bat and the spinning baseball.

Finally, we took some time to practice underhanded free throws. I didn't think Drew was ready for proper form yet, so he and I worked for several hours to get his underhanded technique down pat. It's hard to see in the photo, but Drew has nice backspin on his shot!

Jana found this stuffed hippopotamus, which was one of her stuffed animals from childhood, and Drew loves to play with it. He still loves to say "ball" and apparently this looks similar in shape to a ball because he carries it around saying "ball" over and over.

Look at Drew standing! He does this all the time now without even thinking about it. All of the sudden he'll just let go of everything and stand there playing with something. Then he'll realize that he's just standing there, so he either grabs onto something or sits down. Doesn't he look like a big boy in his shirt and khakis! Also, take note of his shoes. Drew got his first pair of big boy shoes! He's got some nice hiking shoes . . . in a toddler size 5!!! His feet are huge!

I had so much fun watching Drew figure this problem out. He was pushing his walker and he hit one of the animals from his farm. It got caught under the walker, so he tried pushing the walker forward and backward to get it out. That didn't work and only dragged the toy around under the bottom, so the he crawled around to the front of his walker and lifted up the front end. The toy was caught in the back, so lifting the front end just made it more stuck in the back. Drew couldn't reach the toy and he couldn't dislodge it. Therefore, Drew crawled around to the back of his walker, lifted the back end up and pushed the whole walker forward a little to get the toy out. In the picture below you are seeing him in the end stages of freeing the toy from under his walker. I was watching him in rapt attention the whole time because it was fascinating to see his mind work through how to solve the problem.

It is getting harder and harder to have Drew sit still for a picture. He is ALWAYS on the go! In this picture you can see that he's happy to be with Jana, but I couldn't get him to move his hand away from his mouth.

Drew loves to play with his basketballs, his blue soccer ball, and now also with this tennis ball. It doesn't fit through his basketball hoop though, so he drops it in to score, but it doesn't fall through the hoop. In this picture he is pushing up from the bottom of the hoop with one hand to grab the tennis ball with the other hand and get it out of the hoop. Look at his concentration!!

Almost every day Drew takes a couple steps unassisted, but this is his usual way of "walking." He likes to have one hand hanging onto our hand, and then he'll walk all over the house.

Last night I was cracking Drew up after he finished eating, so I had to take some pictures of him. When he's in his high chair, it is the only time he's immobilized and I can get some close ups of him!