please

Jana and I have been working hard on getting Drew to say please (as you'll recall from a previous video). We'd much prefer that if he wants something he says "please" instead of "mine!" Well, we've succeeded and Drew says "please" ALL THE TIME now. The next thing will be to teach him that it isn't a magic word that gets him whatever he wants!

This video isn't the greatest example of Drew saying "please," but it gives you the idea. It is definitely not him saying "mine." We're thrilled that he caught on to please and says it frequently now.

first haircut

Tonight was a momentous night because . . . Drew got his first haircut! He's been getting some wispy hairs that have been driving me nuts and the back and sides of his hair have actually grown long as well, so we decided to give Drew a trim. I started with an electric clippers to trim the sides and back of his hair. We gave Drew his sippy cup and a wet washcloth to keep him busy while I was working. Jana was charged with taking all sorts of pictures (she did a great job!).

I was VERY CAREFUL to keep Drew's head still and to not cut him at all while I was trimming.

Drew didn't have much hair to take off, but you can see a little of it here on the towel. It also doesn't show up well because it's so lightly colored!

After trimming the sides, I went to work on Drew's frohawk and reduced its height a little bit with the scissors. Some of those hairs were LONG!!!

You can see the concentration on my face as I used the scissors. Drew was quite squirmy at this point because the scissors wasn't nearly as exciting as the electric clippers.

Here is the finished product. We tried not to take too much off because Drew didn't have too much hair to begin with, but it is now nicely trimmed. Hooray!!

good to be home

Drew has been having fun playing outside lately and enjoying the warm weather. Last week we had some friends over and Drew showed off for them how he rides his new truck from Grandma Lynn and Grandpa John. Drew can only push it backwards right now (not forward). It's really cute! Drew is fascinated with shoes. He walks up to shoes and tries to put them on and walk in them. In this picture I captured him as he found my shoes and was in the process of trying them on.

Drew will go for ANY shoe and next he grabbed Jana's pink flip flops!

Over Memorial Day weekend Jana and I had our longest stint without Drew as we went camping with friends and Drew stayed with Grandma Sue and Grandpa Bill. Where did Jana and I go? To . . . .

Jana's expression only partially captures the joy we experienced on returning home to Drew. It was the first time we've been excited to come HOME from a vacation! :)

In honor of Drew's return to us, our first night home we fed him pasta with marinara sauce. We enjoyed him finishing a portion and saying "please." (We've succeeded!) I'll have a video of Drew saying "please" soon.

Drew loves to talk on his cell phone. He walks around the living room saying "Hello, hello" and then chatting away (we don't know what he's saying).

Last night Drew discovered how much fun it is to hang out in our laundry hamper. He didn't want to get out he enjoyed it so much!

When we did get Drew out, he enjoyed climbing all over the laundry hamper. He gave us some GREAT smiles!!

car,car,car

This is a picture of Drew RUNNING at me! He had just gotten up from his nap and he was ready to play. Look at his cute, crazy hair! :) We haven't shown Drew in the bath in a while. Here he is in the midst of a splash.

Drew is still working on his cleaning skills. He likes to help me clean the floors, vacuum, and dust. I'll hopefully have him taking over the cleaning by the time he is two (just kidding!).

The other day I walked into Drew's room and found him busily reading books. Look at the book he was engrossed in!

Here it is zoomed in so that you can read the cover more easily. Isn't that cute??!

Drew loves to go into his room and read books. Sometimes we'll hear how quiet it is and think "Uh oh," but when we get in he's just sitting there reading. We're thrilled!!

Drew is also starting to enjoy having us read to him. He is getting more and more interactive and he'll point to things and say words. He's picking up new words DAILY right now. It is so cool!

Here is Drew in his dino pajamas getting ready for his bed time snack. He loves to play with his cars and make noises for them.

Check out this video and you can see how much fun Drew was having. It was hard to put him to bed!

Drew plays with his trucks and cars all the time. As we ride down the street he points around him at traffic and says "car, car, car, car!"

Drew backs up to go down stairs, and he's used his skills to back under things! He used to end up under furniture accidentally, but now he does it on purpose.

battles

As promised, here is a video of Drew not at his best. We've been working the past couple weeks on Drew saying "please." A phrase that he picked up at daycare to protect his right to play with a toy is "mine." In this way, the kids can't grab a toy from someone playing with it because the child playing with it says "mine" (instead of hitting or throwing a fit). Drew picked up that word pretty quickly, but now he has been trying to use it to get his way in other areas. For example, if he sees something on my plate while we're eating dinner and he wants it, he will say "mine" and point to it. Not good!

During one battle of wills (Drew finished his food and was trying to get more by using "mine") we took this video of Drew's extreme displeasure at our lack of response to him saying "mine." He's starting to get better now because we never respond when he says "mine" and we almost give him whatever he wants if he says "please." The amusing thing to us is that Drew knows how to say "please," but he just refuses to do it at times like we captured in this video. In this particular experience we battled him for over 30 minutes and finally supper was over and he didn't get anything more until his snack before bed. Notice that at one point Drew even tried a fake cough as a ploy to get his way. He's so wily!

On a much cuter note, Drew cuddled into Jana the other night to play with his car. You can hear him making "beeeeep, beeeeep" noises like a car horn as he pushes the car around. At the very beginning of the video he's making one of his car noises, which is supposed to sound like a car engine. Luckily, we usually have more of these Drew moments than the ones where we are battling him!