Christmas tree helper

After getting our Christmas tree home, we had Drew help us put on the ornaments. I brought the tree into the house and put the lights on it while Drew was taking a nap. He was quite excited when he got up and there was a Christmas tree in our living room! We developed a system where Drew got an ornament from Jana, walked across the room with it, and then I put it on the tree. We wanted him to be able to handle the ornaments, but not get the idea that he might be able to touch them on the tree! Here is Drew on his way to the tree (and me) with an ornament in hand.

Drew is getting ready for another ornament. He LOVED helping out with decorating the tree!

Drew was very careful with the ornaments and taking them out of the box. He got all excited as each one was unwrapped!

This ornament was one of Drew's favorites: a cable car from San Francisco. He calls it a train and says "Chug, chug, woo, woo!"

Drew hasn't been able to take his eyes off the Christmas tree. He loves going and looking at it in our living room.

Here he is at it again! He loves naming the ornaments on the tree and he learned a new word from the ornaments: "snowman!"

This video is just for fun from the other night. Drew and I were eating our night time snack together and for some reason every time I looked at Drew funny he would crack up. Usually, I am not this amusing!

Christmas tree

This morning we went out to cut down a Christmas tree! We got ready by putting Drew in his new boots and his snow pants. It was a balmy 25 degrees Fahrenheit outside when we left. Drew was VERY excited about having his snow pants and snow boots on (as you can see!). As I was getting Drew ready he looked up at me most of the time with a grin on his face!

Jana couldn't let me be the only one getting all Drew's attention, so she grabbed him for getting on his coat. Our whole family was excited about going outside and getting a tree.Here we are at Tannenbaum Farms, which is in Mason about 15 miles from our house. Without Drew, we've made it from our house to the tree farm, picked out a tree, and been back home within 45 minutes. We know what we want and we get it!
I needed my picture taken with Drew too before we headed out to find our tree. Drew and I matched in our dark green coats!

We started out by riding on a wagon pulled by a tractor. Drew LOVED seeing the tractor and getting a ride from it. Look at that face of serious concentration!

Drew loved waddling around all the trees. We headed straight over to the Frasier Fir section and let Drew run among the rows of trees. It took him a couple feet to get used to all the clothes he was wearing!

As I said, Jana and I are fast to find a tree, so after about 5-10 minutes we had settled on a nice little one for our nice little house. Drew and I paused for a picture during the tree's last few moments before being cut down.

This is what Drew was doing while I was cutting down the tree. He was more interested in running around than cutting the tree down. Jana was excited as the tree fell to the ground, but Drew was off exploring!

A lot of our snow has been melting, but Drew still found some pockets of snow and had fun tromping through those areas as we brought our tree back to the car.

Now we just need to get the tree inside the house and trimmed. We'll keep you posted on what Drew thinks about that process!

snow boots

We've been getting Drew ready for winter, and it's a good thing because we've got snow on the ground here in Lansing! On Wednesday night we got an inch or so of snow that mainly stuck to the grass and trees. Drew has been fascinated by it! Every time he looks outside he says, "Snow! Snow on the ground." Seeing the snow on the ground made us realize that Drew needs some snow boots. We went out today and got Drew some boots, and he LOVES to wear them. He's been running around the house looking down at his feet and saying "Boots! Boots!" Here Drew is in action looking down at his feet as he runs around in his boots.

I don't think this video does justice to Drew in his boots, but it least gives you an idea of how active he's been in his boots. If we want to tire him out, all we need to do is put his boots on for a little while!

return to normal

When Drew got home from the hospital he missed having his IV mitt on, so he grabbed one of my wristbands for basketball, put it on and said "mitt." He wore this white wristband around the house the entire evening!Ever since Drew has been home from the hospital we've done a lot of this: holding him! Drew's doing much better and he went back to daycare for this short week. He's running around, playing hard, and not getting too out of breath in the process (he still occassionally wheezes a little). It'll probably take 3-4 weeks for him to get back to full strength again.

Drew loves shoes, especially because they usually mean going outside. He's especially fascinated by my shoes. It was fun watching him try to walk in these!

This picture is in our kitchen, and it was very cute because after getting home from the hospital Drew was a little bit clingy. He's normally quite independent, but he followed us into the kitchen while Jana and I were working on dinner. We like having him around!

Drew has been playing away, and last week he got visits from Grandma Sue, Grandpa John, and Grandma Lynn, who helped us watch him until he got better.

Drew grabbed this shape sorter container, put it on his head, and said "hat!"

We have to play chase at least once a day. Drew runs around while I chase after him. He screams and giggles the entire time, and I don't think he always avoids me because sometimes he'll run right at me.

I took this picture while spending a day home with Drew last week. As you can see, he was still in the process of getting better and he got tired more quickly than usual. I could tell Drew was tired when he started to get down on the ground like this!

I am seriously behind on posting videos of Drew, so be warned that I have a bunch here! This first video is of Drew trying candy while taking a break from trick or treating. You can see him in action in his pumpkin suit!
The day after we got Drew back from the hospital he was already in much better spirits. Jana did some grocery shopping and Drew found the cans of food that Jana bought and started to make towers and knock them over . . . with his head. I don't know where he picked that up, but as each tower fell over he'd say "boom."

Here is our little percussionist at work. Drew found these beaters and decided to "play" every drum he could find! He got one whack on the table before I could stop him, but then moved on quickly to other allowed targets.

This is an old one that I keep on forgetting to post, but it was a lot of fun, so I'm putting it on. Drew and I were making mouth noises back and forth, and I caught a couple seconds of it on film.

Omega update

After all the excitement of the weekend, we got home last night and our whole family was exhausted. It was emotionally exhausting to be worried about Drew! I was standing at our kitchen sink doing some dishes, when I heard Drew calling for me from the living room. "Dad! Dad! Dad!" He walked into the kitchen, looked up at me, and gave my legs a huge hug as I stood at the sink. He looked at up at me and said one more time, "Dad." Then he walked into the living room and continued playing again. It is so good to be home!

This morning Jana had another doctor's visit for Omega baby (baby #2). Everything is continuing to go very smoothly! The baby's heart rate was immediately detectable and going strong at 157 beats per minute. Jana is gaining weight at an appropriate rate and she feels the baby moving every evening now. I've even gotten to feel it a couple times now! We've got an ultrasound scheduled for December 10th, so we'll have an opportunity to find out the sex of the baby then. Are we going to find out what sex the baby is? Of course!! We're excited about seeing the sex of the baby and getting a better idea of what names to consider. Jana and I have been having fun considering other names than the ones we've already had in mind, but we'd like to know what sex we should be focusing on!