sunflower seeds

I don't have any pictures for this post, but I'll try to get some on soon. For now, you'll have to settle for some video.

Drew has been LOVING sunflower seeds. They are easily his favorite food right now, and it is so much fun to watch him eat them. He picks them up one at a time and he is constantly moving from one seed to the next. He'll start with a tray full of seeds and be done with them in no time!

Drew doesn't use a bottle anymore, but has made the switch entirely to the sippy cup. This video gives you an idea of how intently he drinks from the sippy cup. Another big change for Drew is that he is making the transition to drinking whole milk from a cow. Jana is almost completely done with breastfeeding Drew, so he has been getting most of his milk now through whole milk! Drew loves a nice cold glass of milk (some babies don't like going from warm breastmilk to cold cow's milk). Look at him go!

we're having a "ball!"

I don't always give Jana enough credit or face time in Drew's blog, so I thought I'd start this post out with a picture of her and Drew in our living room playing together. Playing with Drew after we all get home in the evening is a great way to start the night at home!While Drew is always very cute to us, he is not always perfectly behaved! Last week he was very quiet for a little while under our kitchen table . . . . which is not always a good sign. Jana discovered him with a highlighter that he was coloring himself with!In this picture you can see that Drew didn't just limit his coloring to his face, but he also managed to get highlighter all over his pants too. He's such a little stinker!

Last week we babysat Laynie for our friends Rob and Alexis. Drew loved having Laynie around and he gave her lots of flirtatious smiles. When she first arrived I don't think she knew what to make of Drew, so she kept her eyes closed!

Having Laynie around reminded me of the days when I could walk around our house holding Drew. Drew won't sit still like this for very long anymore, and he's heavy!

Drew really like touching Laynie's feet (we're continuing to work on soft touches), and he even coaxed a smile and some cooing from her, which is much better than Jana and I were able to do!

Drew absolutely loves playing with his ball right now. He goes all over the house (crawling) and pushes the ball in front of him. Then he stops, picks the ball up, and throws it.

Here is some video of Drew with his ball. The best part of Drew and his ball is that he goes all over the house saying "ball! . . . ball! . . . ball!" It is so cute!

For a long time we were able to use one of our couch cushions to block off a portion of our living room. We stored Drew's toys in this corner and put things we didn't want him to get into, but now he has figured out to grab the cushion, . . .
Pull it over onto the ground, and crawl over it!

Then he has unfettered access to whatever is back there (you can see his basketball hoop in the background). We don't really care if Drew gets over the cushion, so it has been fun to see him problem solve how to get around the cushion.

Here's another picture of Jana and Drew having a good time in our living room. She's probably congratulating him on getting over the cushion!

Drew is so cute after his baths! His skin is all pink and he's warm and cuddly. He'll also actually be held for a few minutes after his bath.

Last night Drew wandered into our bedroom and found the containers of moisturizer that Jana uses for her hands. He was having a great time playing with them.

We were thrilled to see him pick one up and stack it on top of the other one. He would then move the top one, but he always stacked the two containers with the smaller one on top. Way to go Drew!

The other night Drew used a pencil and proceeded to make his first piece of art! We realized he was ready to draw when he was fascinated by the crayons at the daycare where Jana and I work out. Jana handed him the pencil and he proceeded to draw while standing (unassisted) for over ten minutes. He was very engrossed in whatever it was that he was creating.

happy birthday Drew!

Last week Drew really got going on some potatoes from Grandpa John and he both ate and wore a lot of them! Look at how Drew's face and hands are covered with potato. He was pretty proud of his eating skills. When Drew gets done eating he likes to share with us. He's trying to give Jana some of his potatoes in this photo (yuck!).

This past weekend Drew turned one year old! Wow, Jana and I can't believe it has already been one year that we've had Drew around. The time goes by so quickly! The first month of Drew's life seems like it was so long ago! If you'd like to check it out, this link will take you to the posts from when Drew was first born a year ago: http://aupperleefamily.blogspot.com/2006_02_01_archive.html

On Saturday we invited our family over to celebrate Drew's birthday with us. Grandpa John, Grandma Lynn, Aunt Christina, Grandma Sue, Grandpa Bill, and Uncle Todd all braved "blizzard" conditions in Grand Rapids to make the trip to Lansing. The weather in Grand Rapids was truly labeled a blizzard, and the weather was so severe that the malls in Grand Rapids closed on Saturday . . . but that didn't deter our families from attending Drew's birthday party!

Grandpa John is working on getting Drew to do his mouth trick for us while Grandma Lynn offers encouragement.

Grandma Sue grabbed Drew for some "cuddle time," which is also known as "reading to Drew." It's the only time he sits still at all!

Drew had fun checking out his presents, but didn't dare touch them too much until he was given permission!

We let Drew open his card before getting to the rest of his presents.

Great-grandma and Great-grandpa Vryhof were in Florida, so they couldn't be at Drew's birthday party, but they did send along a present for Drew and you can see his new book sitting next to him. Drew continues to love to play with bows, so he also enjoyed his purple bow!

Drew, can you please remind me? How big are you?? . . . . Oh, that's right! Soooooo big!

Drew is completely fascinated by the ladybugs on his book. It's his new favorite book!

Drew got some really cute summer clothes from Grandma Lynn and Grandpa John. He's going to be so stylish this summer!

It took Drew FOREVER to open his presents because he continued to do his one piece at a time present opening. He would pull off a piece (usually about as big as the one pictured) and then pass it on to me. Finally, we would all get frustrated with how long he was taking and I would finish the job for him. I can't figure out where he gets that neat, precise approach from :)

Drew got blocks (for ages 2-4) and immediately started playing with them and figuring out how to put them together. Wow! My parents said that I LOVED to play with Legos when I was little, so maybe I can pass that on to Drew.

Drew is at it again with his slow present opening!

Drew got a shape puzzle that involves putting barn animals into the correct spot on a board. The animal then makes a noise, but that required batteries. I went to get my screwdriver, and as soon as I started working on Drew's toy, he immediately came over to help. I can tell that he's going to be a big help on projects around the house!

Here Drew is playing with toy cars from Aunt Christina. Notice that he has a toy in each hand and is standing unassisted! Go Drew!

Jana made Drew's first birthday cake for him, and it was very tasty! Drew didn't have much interest in the cake or blowing out the candle.

Drew really like playing with the cars from Aunt Christina and with the John Deere tractor toys from Uncle Todd (to the left of Drew).

I brought up a board and the scale so that we could have an official weigh in for Drew. With his clothes on, he weighed in at 23.2 pounds. I won't tell you what everyone else weighed on Drew's birthday! :)

This is how most of Drew's party went. He had plenty of attention!

Drew has continued to have a great time playing with his new toys!

Jana and I have been so blessed in this past year! We LOVE being the parents of Drew. Jana is excited about being Drew's mom, and I am filled with joy about being Drew's dad. We are very thankful that God has blessed us with such a wonderful little boy, and we are excited about what the future holds for Drew and our family.

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.