Spring training . . . in the basement

We had some warmer weather here in Lansing recently, and we were able to try out Kate's new spring coat. I'll have to get a better picture of it because it's very cute! Kate loves the bath and usually doesn't like getting out of it. When she's wrapped up and being held by Jana, then it's not too bad though. Kate is ridiculously fun to hold right after she gets out of the bath. She's much more snuggly than Drew ever was at this point, and she's the perfect size for holding.

Kate was proud of herself the other night as she flipped through Newsweek. Who knew she was so into news magazines already?

Drew is almost always on the go right now, and he's very difficult to capture in a photo. In this post I've got some of our best efforts to capture him. We're taking lots of pictures of Kate, who poses all the time for the camera, but Drew requires much more effort.

Jana and I gave Drew this Cars puzzle for his birthday, expecting it would provide a challenge for quite some time. It took Drew about three days, and he now puts the whole thing together by himself in minutes. He's pretty good at puzzles! It's fun to teach him how to approach puzzles, and I have a feeling we'll be doing a lot of these in the future with him.

This is Kate's new game: she puts a mouse on her head and then "finds" it for us. It produces a laugh EVERY time!! You'll also notice that our sockless wonder managed to get one of her socks off. She does this all the time. We struggle constantly to keep her feet warm and in her socks.

Jana snagged Drew long enough for a quick picture with him. He does NOT sit still for long!

Drew's feet continue to grow along with the rest of him, and we recently moved him up to his new size 10 shoes, pictured below. He keeps on getting bigger! Drew is taller than everyone his age we know and he's starting to pass children a year older. He's a big boy!

Jana used the action setting on our camera to snap this picture of Drew as he ran by.

Drew got a tee ball set for his birthday, and he's been having great fun trying it out in the basement. He wants me to stand about two feet away as he lets it rip with a full swing right at me. I make him wait until I'm ready before he can swing! Drew found one of my old hats and he always puts this on as his batting helmet. I have no idea how he learned that you need a helmet to bat, but he always surprises us. He wears it to bat and then if I take a turn hitting the ball, I need to put on the helmet before I can hit.

Sometimes the hat gets in the way, so Drew turns it around. He LOVES playing in the basement (basketball, golf, football, and now baseball are our sports of choice).

Here are a few more pictures of Drew in action. He can hit the ball quite well, although he likes to swing the bat back and forth to line it up. Right now all his sports are hybrids. He swings his golf clubs like a hockey stick, and with baseball he just swings away without any sort of form.

Drew gives a yell as he hits the ball. Often, it will go whistling by my head as I don't have time to even get a hand up to it. Drew loves it when I jump out of the way of the ball. Don't worry, they are tiny plastic whiffle balls!

This isn't the greatest video, but it will give you some idea of what Drew's been doing with his hitting. He sets the ball up at one point, then waits for me to let him know I'm ready. I usually do need to get ready!!

After two months, a long update is here!

Other than my text post earlier today, it has been FOREVER since I've posted on here. What have we been doing? We've just been busy, and I haven't had the chance to sit much and spend time on the computer. As my knee has improved (slowly) I've returned to working out, playing more with the children, and I've generally been doing more things that fill up the day. I haven't forgotten the blog though, and I'm back with many pictures!!!

What have the Aupperlees been doing over the past month or two?

Well, a long time ago we celebrated our first Christmas of the season with the Vryhof side of the family. Kate was teething then, and she's still cutting teeth left and right, so she loves chewing on everything in sight. Great-grandma was amused by Kate's chewing! Drew loved passing out presents at every single Christmas celebration. He likes being in all the action.

Until he gets a book, then Drew plops down and immediately starts reading the book. His world shrinks and you can't pull him away from the book until he's checked it out. This might be a learned behavior (from me) or a genetic behavior (also from me), either way it's startling for me to see how difficult it is to tear Drew from a book!

Kate was busy all Christmas going from lap to lap. She loves being held!

Kate has been full of smiles.

Drew has been a great boy. He's a wonderful big brother, and it's been delightful to parent him. He's quick to learn new things and he's constantly talking with us about everything he sees or thinks. It's so much fun to be around him!

We've been doing a LOT of reading!

Drew has been riding his new Big Wheels around the basement. He calls it his red fire engine motorcycle. That's quite the combination isn't it?

Kate's been riding around in our new Ergo. She fits on Jana's back snuggly and it's very comfortable. It's been great for walks!

Drew was really into opening up his stocking at my parents' house.

Kate was a little less interested in the whole present thing.

Kate has been warm and cozy in a new hat from Grandma (she's gotten a couple hats from Grandma).

Despite Grandpa's efforts, Kate remains an MSU fan. Go State!

Drew has been making fun shapes with his new playdough.

Kate stands next to anything and everything.

Drew has been helping me shovel all the snow we've had in Lansing. It's been a snowy winter!

We've also managed to do some projects. Drew loves taking out his drill and helping me with a project. One night I had my DeWalt drill and Drew had his drill and we were working together. I think he was about overcome with joy (me too :)

We celebrated Christmas with Jana's family too.

With it being Kate's first Christmas, she was usually the center of a lot of attention.

While Drew got right to the hard work of playing.

We ended up back at my parents' house for another celebration, and this time Uncle Todd got a turn with Kate.

Kate had a wonderful first Christmas.

Kate has been fun to hold after a bath. She's so cuddly!

Kate is always wide-eyed and always exploring.

Kate's full of smiles whenever Jana or I walk into a room.

Drew and Kate have been enjoying great times in the bath together (Jana and I enjoy it too!). Kate never stops working it for the camera.

At times, we've gotten pretty tired out and we've had to take a little nap on the couch. Jana found Kate and me like this one night after getting home from a meeting.

Usually though, Kate is on the go opening doors, trying things out, and moving all around.

Kate has learned to stick out her tongue, cluck, do "so big," clap, wave, and be super-cute (that's her most consistent skill).

Drew, as usual, has been obsessed with firefighting. He often wears his firefighter hat for the entire day. He wears it out running errands, he tries to wear it to daycare, and he only hasn't tried to wear it to bed.

Drew also likes to wear his fire coat everywhere. This too gets worn on errands, around the house, and about whenever he can have it on. We've had MANY conversations with total strangers about Drew's outfit. We've had even more knowing smiles from other moms, dads, grandmas, and grandpas.

Kate crawls all over the house.

She can really move!

Drew brought his bug cupcakes to daycare. They consisted of bug graham crackers on chocolate frosting with "dirt" (crushed graham cracker) sprinkled on them. They were a big hit!

After eating at the peanut restaurant (Texas Roadhouse), Drew ate some birthday cake to celebrate his third birthday. He blew out his candles several times, and only our decision to eat the cake ended that fun.

Kate liked sitting next to Drew and watching him blow out his candles.

Phew! That was a lot to catch up on! That's some of what we've been doing lately. From now on, I'm going to stay caught up with the updates!!!

Blog? I have a blog?

I have been reminded by several people lately that I have a blog and that people are waiting for new pictures! I don't have pictures to post at the moment, but I thought I'd start by writing some things out. When I get the chance to post pictures, I'll focus on getting those up and not on writing very much.

First, Jana and I had lots of fun last week celebrating Drew's third birthday. I can't believe our little boy is already three! As we watched the Super Bowl I remembered holding Drew in my arms for his first Super Bowl the Sunday after he was born. We were still in the hospital, and we watched it in Jana's hospital room. Drew and I both got all sweaty and my arm fell asleep, but I loved every minute of that game. Drew's birthday this year fell on a week day, so Jana and I got him up early that morning and spent some time with him before daycare. At daycare Drew brought "bug" cupcakes covered with "dirt" to share with his friends.

On the evening of Drew's birthday we let Drew choose where he wanted to go for his birthday dinner. He chose the "peanut restaurant," which is his phrase for Texas Roadhouse, a restaurant where you can crack open peanuts, eat them, and drop the shell on the floor. Drew loves it! While we were there, the serving staff came over to sing Happy Birthday to Drew and he got to stand up in his chair while the whole restaurant gave him a loud "Yee-haw!" We asked Drew later if he liked that experience, and he said, "No, it made me pretty nervous!" A very honest answer! At least he liked the peanuts :)

Kate recently had her nine-month doctor's appointment, and she is right on track developmentally. She weighed in at a solid 20 pounds 12 ounces, and was only 27 1/2 inches long. Her weight is in the 75-90th percentile and her height is in the 25- 50th percentile. In other words, she's currently shorter and heavier than most kids her age! (how funny!) How she gets that with Jana and I as her parents, we don't know, but she's very cute and solid and moving EVERYWHERE! As she moves around, we're confident that she'll grow a little more and thin out.

Kate has been crawling all over the house and getting into everything. She pulls up on everything to standing too and cruises around (that's walking around holding onto furniture). She has even let go many times and can stand for a few seconds unassisted. Finally, she recently took a few steps unassisted. She's rapidly gone mobile on us and it's been fun to watch! I'll have to provide you with some video of her moving.

In addition, Kate has started talking and she frequently melts our hearts by saying "Dad-dee" or "Mom-ma" and grinning when one of us walks in the room. She's also saying "Amen" at the end of our prayers, "All done" when she's done eating, and she recently picked up every child's favorite word: "NO!" We knew it was only a matter of time before she learned that one :)

In other Drew-related news, he has been doing wonderfully with potty-training. It's been weeks since he's had an accident, and he wears his big-boy underwear all day now without a problem. We've had some interesting experiences with public restrooms (things Drew says or does in them), but he's done very well with all aspects of learning to control going to the bathroom. Without diapers, it seems like he's growing up quickly!

One final story is that for the past few months Drew has been carrying around a stuffed bear that he named "Harrison" (in honor of our friends Nate and Meg's baby). He will lift up his shirt occasionally and feed Harrison like he sees mom feed Kate, but he mainly carries Harrison around saying that he is Harrison's dad and Harrison is his son. He reads books with Harrison, hugs him, plays cars with him, and basically mimics all the things I do with Drew. Often at night, I have to give both Harrison and Drew a kiss and tell them I love them. It's both heart-warming and unsettling to see how similarly Drew treats his "son" to how I treat him. He is paying attention to everything I do! Very cute!