Counting

This picture was actually taken a few weeks ago, but it's not often that Drew looks so directly at the camera, so I had to include it! I can't let good pictures of Drew like this one go to waste :) Whenever we talk on the phone Drew reaches over to push the buttons. He doesn't have much to say on the phone, but he loves the buttons (and hanging up on people for us!). Drew will be chatting away while we're on the phone, but if we hand it over to him, he immediately clams up and listens.

Drew's been busy at daycare lately, which means we've had to push his bedtime up a little. He's a tired boy at night!

Drew has been eating everything in sight lately (due to another growth spurt?) and we've been working on table manners . . . like keeping your mouth closed while you eat, saying "please," "thank you," and "you're welcome," and saying "done" to ask to be finished. Here, he's doing a good job of keeping his mouth closed . . .

and here he isn't doing such a good job. Drew!!

Every night now one of Drew's favorite toys is ANY book he can get his hands on! He literally looks at book after book taking them off the shelf and babbling about them. He loves the blinking fireflies in this book by Eric Carle.

Jana is playing one of her favorite games with Drew: "Monster Kisses." Drew giggles and laughs until he's red in the face, but he'll keep coming back for more. It's a lot of fun to watch the two of them enjoying each other!

Look at that grin! Drew does a good job of keeping a smile on my face and Jana's face each night!

Drew is very adventurous. He'll climb anything and he leaps from object to object (much to our horror!). We've had to train him not to open doors because he's figured that out and loves to get into everything. He also has figured out how to pull up a kitchen chair to reach whatever is on the table. If it ever gets too quiet, Jana and I immediately perk up to figure out what he's doing! Put that pen down!

Drew has been reading "Ten Little Ladybugs" a lot lately. He can name "Brown Bear" by calling it "brown," and now he's started saying "ten" when he wants to read "Ten Little Ladybugs." "Ten Little Ladybugs" counts backwards from 10 to 1. Speaking of counting, whenever we count to three now, Drew says "go!" (one . . .two . . .three . . .go!!) Also, if you ask Drew how old he is, he'll respond "nine!!" We have no idea where he got that from. Finally, if we ask Drew if he's one or two, he says "two" with a mischievous glint in his eye. Where does he come up with this stuff?!!

corn on the cob

Drew likes to eat corn on the cob! Sweet corn is absolutely delicious in Michigan right now, so we've been getting it a lot, and Drew loves it. We started by cutting the corn off the cob for him, but he has been looking longingly at our ears of corn, so we decided to let him try it. Last week we had corn with friends at their home and Drew watched their daughter, who is his friend from daycare and church, eating corn from the cob. That's probably the real reason he insisted on trying it straight from the cob. He's trying to impress the ladies! :) Drew paused from eating to strike a pose for the camera. Notice the eaten piece on his tray; that's his second piece of corn!

Here is Drew in action eating his first piece of corn. Who would have thought that eating a vegetable for the first time in this way could be so novel?

Grandpa John sent over some salmon for Jana and she shared it with Drew. He LOVED it, and ate almost a third of a salmon filet!

Drew is quite the messy eater sometimes, and yesterday he had fun with his marinara sauce. Drew and I spent the morning together, which included making a trip to get the car washed and a visit to the Home Depot. The highlight of our Home Depot trip was Drew "driving" the riding lawn mowers. He calls them "tractor" and he was in his glory! Here's a very short video of Drew making a mess eating:

Drew and Jana have been working on "Ring-around-the-rosie." In this video Drew is singing "ring" and then he falls down (he hasn't learned all the lyrics yet).

eighteen months

Mmmmmm . . . Peanut butter sandwich! Drew paused from inhaling his peanut butter sandwich to glance up at me tonight. Looks pretty tasty, doesn't it?? :) This morning Drew had his eighteen month doctor's appointment, and he continues to be a healthy, growing little boy. Drew is right on track with everything developmentally, and with some things he's even a little ahead of schedule. Drew weighed 26 pounds 1 ounce and was 33 3/4 inches tall. Drew's weight was very average (55th percentile), but his height now puts him in the 90th percentile. Remember, our little guy started out in the 10th percentile for height. Genetics is starting to do its thing! At every appointment thus far in his life Drew has bumped up a bit in his height percentile. Keep growing Drew!

Jana and I are very proud of Drew, and we enjoyed showing off his progress to our pediatrician and the nurses. They were all amazed at how big he's getting!

tractor

Last week Saturday we were out with Drew in the morning and he was so tired that on the way home he almost fell asleep. When we got home, I took off his shoes and held him on the couch. Within moments he was sound asleep. It was awesome! I was so thrilled that I held Drew for a couple minutes before putting him to bed. Drew loves sleeping with stuffed animals, and this time he cuddled up with his puppy (that's what he calls it).

Drew's hat looks slightly askew in this picture, and it is . . . because Drew put his hat on himself! He's gotten pretty good at putting his own hat on, especially if he puts it on backwards. He still has a little trouble getting it on facing forward. Drew has actually started to get me to wear a hat more often because he's so fascinated by them. You have to also take note of Drew's new Tiger shirt from Uncle Todd and Kelli. Go Tigers!

Drew continues to ham it up for the camera. He'll often strike a pose for me when I first take out the camera. He's not real good at holding the pose though, and if I don't get the picture taken in time the moment passes and he won't smile for me again. It's almost like he knows I couldn't get the picture taken in time and he's teasing me!

Even in still pictures Drew is on the go!!!

Drew looks pretty cool in his sunglasses. Just like his hat, he is able to put on and take off the sunglasses himself (and he hasn't even poked an eye out . . . yet :)

Jana captured this picture of Drew in a laundry basket. Drew is filling up more and more of the basket!

Yesterday I had a great time playing with Drew in the afternoon after he got up from his nap. We played together and watched a little golf on TV. I was able to teach him a couple new words to help his watching: golf, golfer, putter, and par.

This picture shows a cross between Drew's laughing and "winking" for the camera. He thought it was so funny to sit across from me on the couch so that we could watch golf together!

Drew kept on lying down on the couch and smiling at me, so I finally snapped a picture of him. Look at that smile! One of Drew's favorite toys at the moment is this John Deere tractor. He goes through cycles with most of his toys, and right now he goes everywhere with his "tractor" (he can say tractor and LOVES to say that word).

one,two,three . . . go!

I don't have time to post a lot of pictures at the moment, but here are a couple of videos to show some things Drew has been doing lately.

Drew is RUNNING all over the house now. The other night he did 17 laps around our living room while we cheered him on. He used me lying down on the ground as his marker and he ran around me with us cheering him on to faster and faster lap times. Needless to say, we accomplished our goal and had a nicely tired boy for bedtime :) Drew also likes to get his back up against our front door like a starting block and then run forward at the count of the three and the command to "go." He did this right after finishing his 17 laps, so you'll have to excuse the poor camera work due to me being on the floor. You'll get the idea though of what he was doing.

Drew has been learning how to wink, but he's not that great at it yet. The other night he climbed up on me while I was sitting on the couch and proceeded to make some moves for the camera. Upon seeing that I was filming him he started to "wink." You'll have to use your imagination a little because they look like slow blinks because he can't keep one eye open! To help a little with translation, he says "down, please," "down," "Tina" (for his Aunt Christina), and "thank you" in this video. As the video cuts out Drew says "peek" for peek-a-boo. There is also lots of Drew's heavy breathing. Jana and I have giggled repeatedly over Drew's loud breathing on this video! (Mark's note: This video hasn't been working well, but I'm working on it. It should be working soon.)

A different night Drew was across the room playing with his Duplo container when he saw me with the camera. First, he waves to me and then he comes over and starts to wink again! How cute!

Jana has been working with Drew on saying "thank you" and "you're welcome." In this video Drew hands me his hat, gives me a little reminder to say "thank you" (he's teaching ME manners!) and then responds with a "you're welcome." Another phrase that I'll have to try to get on video is that when Drew can't reach a toy because it went under the couch or something, he turns to us and says "help, please." Jana worked hard with him on that one too so that he can use it at daycare. We prefer him using his words to get something over crying or pointing!