A visit with Jenn

A little while ago one of our friends, Jenn, visited the Lansing area. After seeing so many pictures of Drew on the blog, she needed to meet Drew in person while she was here! Jenn got her Ph.D. in Jana's program and is now working in the state of Washington. Not only was Jana excited to see Jenn, but they also went out for ice cream (a double bonus!). Drew seems a little more interested in his spoon in these pictures than he does in the camera, doesn't he? I think he's going to be great at focusing on tasks as he gets older.

First day of daycare

Yesterday was Drew's first day at daycare and it went very well. We were worried that he might be fussy, but he stayed calm and happy the entire day. He took two un-bundled naps at daycare without a problem and the only time he got at all upset was when another baby got fed before him (Drew is still learning patience, but it's hard when you're hungry!). Most importantly, Jana got a day under her belt with Drew at daycare, and Jana's day without Drew went well. Daycare is a bigger adjustment for Jana than it is for Drew!

Our daycare provider gives the babies a wide variety of fruits and vegetables for their solid food and yesterday she was feeding the children green beans. We warned her Drew doesn't really like certain foods (e.g. green beans, you've seen the video!), and I don't think she believed us because she said "Oh, I just gave my kids everything, and they liked it all." Well, Drew got his first bite of green beans and immediately scrunched up his face and started doing his sneezing and sputtering routine. It was such a strong reaction to not liking the green beans that the daycare provider called her assistant over so she could see Drew's reaction too. I guess we've still got a little work to do in getting Drew to like the green beans :)

rollling, rolling, rolling

Last week I went to a Detroit Tigers game with my dad and Todd. Grandpa Bill and Uncle Todd made sure to come in for a little while before and after going to the game for some time with Drew. We used the occasion to get a picture of the three generations of Aupperlee men!

Drew has been rolling all over the place lately, and I've been working on capturing it on video. In this video I placed a Coke bottle in front of me (Drew had knocked it over and shaken it up) and I wanted Drew to roll toward me. He wanted to roll toward me too because he really wanted the Coke bottle, but as you can see he doesn't always go in the right direction! Unfortunately, random rolling doesn't always get you closer to your goal!

This time Drew rolled where he wanted to go, which was over to the cord for Jana's breast pump. We need to keep an eye on Drew because he loves electrical cords (not the best thing for babies to play with!).

At Drew's last doctor's visit they recommended letting him try a cup for drinking, so we went right home and found his cup! This is his first attempt with it and he mainly just likes to play with the cup at this point.


We've been working on getting Drew to sleep without his bundle. He's been doing really well without it for his naps, and he's starting to get the hang of sleeping without the bundle at night. We love to open the door while he's sleeping to see what position he's managed for his sleep.

After seeing Drew in this pose, we immediately lowered his crib because we had no idea he might be on the road to pulling himself up.

Drew continues to get bigger and heavier. Jana's getting a workout from lugging him around! Last weekend at church we were standing around talking and I got the privilege of holding him most of the time because he gets heavy after a while.


Today is a big day for Drew because it is his first day of daycare! Jana starts her school year today with a bunch of meetings, so Drew went to daycare for the first time. I'll try to post tomorrow to let everyone know how it went. We are excited about Drew getting the chance to play with other kids in a great environment. We think he's in a very nice daycare with a wonderful person taking care of him.

Drew's tongue

Drew's palate has diversified and he has now ventured into the realm of fruit! These pictures are of Drew eating applesauce for the first time. Unlike our limited success with the vegetables, Drew absolutely loves fruit. That's not too much of a surprise because the fruit is much sweeter than the vegetables.

Drew also ate peaches for the first time the other day. While I don't have pictures, I do have a short video of his first experience with peaches. As you can see, they are much more successful than those green beans!

We've been working on loosening Drew's bundle so that he becomes less dependent on it. This means that he frequently "escapes" from it during his night or naps. Jana found Drew like this one day upon coming in to check on him. He doesn't seem to mind losing the bundle!
Drew is getting closer and closer to consistently making consonants. We've been having fun getting him to imitate facial expressions and his latest is getting enough control of his tongue to stick it out in response to us. Drew and I are demonstrating below!


We've also captured Drew sticking out his tongue on video. He not only does this in response to us, but also to initiate smiles from strangers!

Drew loves playing on the floor and rolling all over the place. Next week I'll post some video of his impressive rolling. We really need to keep an eye on him!

Doctor Jana Aupperlee!

Yesterday Jana successfully defended her dissertation and can now be called Dr. Aupperlee! Hooray! In the afternoon Jana met with her committee and gave them a presentation on her dissertation, which she handed in two weeks ago. The presentation went really well and her committee asked good questions afterward. Drew and I were out in the hall waiting for her to finish and when Jana was done with her presentation we all waited together for her committee to decide if she passed. Within minutes they were calling for her to come back in (with Drew, of course!) to tell her that she had passed with ease. There are a few minor (almost optional) revisions that Jana's committee suggested for her dissertation, but other than that Jana is done! Next week Jana will return to her internship site, so by the spring she'll have enough internship hours to graduate. Now everyone can enjoy ribbing me about our "Dr. and Mr. Aupperlee" status! :)