the fair

Last week we went to Drew's first fair! Some of our friends here in Lansing go to the fairs every year to see the animals, which is a new experience for the Aupperlees. They have animals at fairs? :)

We went to the fair with our friends Jeremy, Kristin, and Lindsay. Our first animal experience at the fair was the sad little ponies trudging around in a circle. Drew saw them and thought they were dogs! He pointed, said "dog," and then started panting like a dog. He and I looked at the ponies for a little while, and I tried to explain to him that they are small horses. Our friend Lindsay (and her husband Jayme) are going to have a baby in September! Here is Lindsay showing Drew a horse in the petting zoo. Drew preferred to hang on to his cup and stay away.

In this picture Kristin is showing Drew a sheep. Drew was so excited by all the people and things to see that he had a hard time staying focused on what we were trying to show him.

Here are the beginning of the llama pictures. Jana LOVES llamas. She wants one to go jogging with her (they advertise llamas as great running partners). If it's a female, she will name it Llola. If it is a male, she will name it Lloyd.

All those animals and what does Drew go for? . . . a balloon.

Drew finally got into the animals a little with this goat. You'll notice that once he finally started to touch the animals his sippy cup magically disappeared.

Our friend Jeremy got a tiny chick to show to Drew. Drew did a great job of touching it softly (we've been working on soft touches).

Here's Jana with her llama friends. I'm not sure if these were Lloyd or Llola llamas.

Next, we took Drew to see the sheep. Look at the coat on this gal!

Here are the sheep that were freshly shorn. Drew loved the sheep! They were going "baaaaaah" while Drew was around, and he responded with some "baaaaaaahs" of his own.

Whoa, this sheep had some serious wool on him. He even had his own fan to keep cool. Drew and I both stared at this guy for a while.Drew did NOT like the pigs. It was feeding time and they were noisy and screeching. It was a pretty annoying noise and we couldn't leave the pig area fast enough for Drew.

This little girl was kind enough to bring her goat over to show Drew. Drew had fun petting it and saying "hello" to it.

They had LOTS of different animals at the fair like pigeons, chickens, and rabbits. This is an Angora rabbit. It looked like a fur ball!

Drew thought the mom and baby goat were really neat (so did the adults). We were all oooohing and aaaaahing over the baby.

Check out the size of that cow next to Jana and Drew! Can you see the udder? Drew was looking over for a little milk snack :)

Did I mention that Jana likes the llamas? Here she is in another llama section.

The draft horses were huge! Look at the size of that draft horse that Kristin is petting. Drew is checking out the hooves that were the size of dinner plates. We finished with the draft horses, and we were amazed by their size.

Back at home this past weekend Drew walked up to the TV and kept on saying "car, car, car." Can you see why?

I took out the camera to take a picture of Drew and he immediately plopped down on the floor and "posed" for me. This kid has been around the camera a lot!

One of Drew's new favorite toys is a balloon! In this picture Drew is working on shooting it like a basketball.

Jana likes to get down on the floor with Drew and they put their hands and feet in the air while bouncing the balloon around. Doesn't it look like fun?

A few Drew stories

Drew loves to climb up on chairs and sit in them. Last night he was playing in the living room and I was half watching him and half watching TV when he crawled up on the couch, sat down next to me, and then proceeded to glance back and forth between me and the TV as if to say "What are we watching, Dad?" Needless to say, I got the message and turned off the TV to give him my full attention!

Drew has also gotten quite adept at climbing up and sitting in our kitchen chairs. He always looks very proud upon making it up onto the chair. Drew loves to sit here and look out our front door. He looks for squirrels and birds (two of the words he knows). The other day while I was mowing the front lawn he sat here the whole time and watched me. As I would finish a row and look up at him, I got a little wave and a hello!

Last week Drew discovered that from his crib he could reach the light switch. We learned this one night when his bedroom lights kept going on and off. You could see the light coming out from under the door to his bedroom as it went off and on. Each time he turned it on, Drew would say "on." We were sitting in the living room cracking up! Eventually Drew got tired and fell asleep, so when we went in to turn his light off (he left it on) I just had to take a picture. We could have stood there for a long time watching him sleep. It is so cool!

Drew got some new shoes! Jana found a pair of baby Croc-style shoes for Drew. Aren't they cute? Drew loves to walk around with his new shoes. An added bonus for us is that he can't get them off! Finally, a shoe that's easy for us to put on Drew and hard for him to get off.

Drew loves to touch our faces and to learn the names to parts of his body. In this video Jana is chatting with him about eyes and nose as Drew plays with her face. I love watching them together!!
Drew also loves to dance. In this video he grabbed some clothes while I was folding laundry and started to dance, which is basically spinning until you fall down. He has a great time spinning!

eating utensils

Drew continues to get more adept with his spoon. In this picture we gave him a teaspoon to eat his bedtime yogurt. He likes to take huge bites, so he spills on himself, but notice how clean his tray is!

I bragged about how neat Drew was in the picture above. Drew IS neat, but not when I distract him. In getting Drew to look up at us for this picture he wasn't paying attention to his spoon, so a big chunk of yogurt fell off the spoon. Unless we distract him Drew is very focused on his eating and if something falls off his spoon or fork he immediately tries to pick it up or clean it up.

We do LOTS of reading at our house. Drew is very good at sitting and interacting with us and the book while we read to him. He points to things on the page and is starting to get down the words for different animals and shapes and he even started correctly identifying the color yellow!I caught Drew in the midst of helping Jana read this book. Part of Drew's bedtime routine is to sit on the couch with us and read for a little while. We love it when he sits with us and reads!

We love it even more when he gives us hugs and kisses before going to bed. It's so sweet!

You might not think the spoon use by Drew is all that fascinating, but Jana and I enthralled by it. After seeing Drew eat with his hands for so long, the whole eating utensil thing is so novel. Here Drew is eating his rice cereal before bed with his spoon. He sometimes uses his hands to help a little, but notice again how clean his tray is! We find it hilarious how neatly Drew eats.

As you might be able to tell, we enjoy meal times with Drew. Jana gives me the privilege of sitting next to Drew and three of us have a great time chatting about our days. All three of us are happy to eat together. Eating macaroni and cheese is so much fun! We're still teaching Drew to talk and laugh without a full mouth :)

In this video you can see Drew in action with his spoon eating the macaroni and cheese. He has finished everything on his plate but his crackers (his appetizer) and his macaroni and cheese (his main course).

I don't know where Drew picked this up :) I guess Drew's parents must occasionally drink their cereal milk this way! Drew is always watching us!

Drew loves chocolate chip cookies. The last time he ate one he used his fingers to pry out the chocolate chips to eat them from the cookie. I think he learned that one from Jana!

Last week we went to court! Some friends of ours got married in a civil ceremony, and Jana and I had the privilege of being the two witnesses. Drew came with to witness it as well. In this picture Drew is playing in the back of the courtroom on the "pews." The benches at the back of the courtroom were exactly like church pews. Drew loved playing on and around them.

Drew had fun exploring the courtroom while we waited for the judge to come in. He's squirming away here, but we had to get a picture with that sign!

Drew did stay still for this picture. We both dressed in our blue shirts for court!

Here Jana is reading to Drew again. We have LOTS of pictures of Drew reading with us!

Drew smiles so much with us that it sometimes makes the back of my head hurt! Last night Drew and I had a great time playing in the living room and Drew gave me some great smiles. I quickly grabbed the camera to share one of them with you!

This is what Drew does to our usually neat living room. It took him about thirty minutes to spread his toys all over. We've been working on getting Drew to help us clean up and he sings along with us when we sing the clean up song. I'll try to get some video of Drew singing in the near future. It is very cute!

While we were playing in the living room, Drew grabbed his cell phone to make some calls. In this video I "called" Drew on the phone and you can hear him answer.

We've been working on Drew ending his meals when we say it is time to stop, so last night we had Drew play with some toys before getting out of his chair. He dropped his cell phone, and he responded by saying "uh oh" and saying "uh oh" and saying "uh oh" . . . you get the idea :)

beach day

This past weekend we went to the beach for the first time this year. It was a highly anticipated event because Jana and I love the beach and we especially love the West Michigan shore of Lake Michigan, so we were excited about sharing the beach experience with Drew. We're assuming he doesn't remember much from his beach experiences last year, so it was almost like taking him to the beach again for the first time. We went to P.J. Hoffmaster State Park on a beautiful afternoon. Below, Jana is showing Drew the water for the first time. I don't think he could really even begin to comprehend it. How can we explain to him that what he is seeing is the same substance he sees in his bathtub, in his little pool, and in this great big lake in front of him? At first Drew was not a very big fan of the sand or the waves. In this video you'll see how unsteady he was at first on the sand. He kept on falling down! You'll also notice that he didn't like the water or the sensation of the sand at first and tried to get away from the water. I cut out on this video before he got too whiny, but I think you can get the idea!

Drew got used to it pretty quickly though, and enjoyed walking around on the sand.

He even got more brave with the water and was willing to look at it and occasionally let his feet get wet.

Drew loved playing in his sun shelter with his bucket and toys. He scooped sand and moved it around literally for hours!!

We kept Drew in his sun shade as much as possible and you'll notice that for most of the time he had on his shirt and hat. We love the beach, but we are committed to keeping Drew protected from the sun as much as possible. This video gives you an idea of Drew's playing in his sun shelter. It was so much fun to watch him enjoy the sand!!

Here's another shot showing you Drew's lack of comfort standing in sand. He liked the harder packed sand near the shore, but didn't go for this fluffy stuff at first. With each new experience at the beach it took him a little while to warm up!

If this looks like a picture of a really proud dad with his son . . . that's because it is! I was filled with joy and wonder watching Drew experience the beach for the first time. Jana and I have so much fun celebrating new experiences with Drew.

As with each other new thing at the beach, Drew did NOT like the water at first. I tried to put his feet in it, and he would immediately pull them up. After a while he got a little better and didn't mind his feet dangling in the water, but I think we'll have to continue to acclimate him to the water. I would imagine though that all the waves and everything were a little different for him than the calm waters of his bathtub or pool!

Drew has a new skill . . . chair climbing! He got up in this chair by himself! It's another thing we'll have to watch out for because he's pretty adept at chair climbing and we don't want him to do it without supervision. Every time he makes it up onto the chair a grin of triumph lights up his face. He's so proud of his chair climbing!

Being at the beach caused us all to work up an appetite! Drew has been making great progress with using utensils to eat and he can now used either a spoon (pictured below) or a fork. He won't allow us to feed him anymore! He's a big boy and he eats things entirely independently now. He's still got a ways to go on eating neatly!

This video shows you Drew eating his yogurt "with the spoon." I use that term loosely because he's partially using the spoon and partially using his hand in this video he can do better, but he decided to do it this way with the camera rolling.