Drew baby update

Drew, 9 1/2 months
(This is an 18 month outfit!) :)

I realized that I didn't post Drew's latest "stats" after his 9 month check up last month. He now weighs 21 pounds 4 ounces and is 29 inches long. He gained 2 pounds and 1.5 inches since his last check up. He is growing so fast! This week he has finally started to army push. It's not quite a crawl yet. I'll post the video of this later. It's pretty funny because he screeches and cries because he wants to move. He is "crawling" while doing this, he just doesn't realize it. He could crawl really well if he would just do it more often. It's not going to be much longer now.
He still has wild and crazy hair, which is getting more blond each day. He lost his red faster than Erik and Lily. People comment on his hair every time we're at the store. He gets looks and smiles all the time. He is sure a funny baby who loves to be wild! He fits in with his brother and sister. He loves to pull himself up so he can stand. He usually does this by grabbing onto our shirts or shoulders. He's also started doing this on furniture, although he usually only gets onto his knees. He can't quite pull himself up yet, but I know it's only a matter of time for that too. We all love him to pieces.

Drew's mohawk after his bath.

As for the rest of us, the kids and I have been doing lots of swimming, reading, and playing at the park. I signed all three kids up for the summer reading program a few weeks ago and we are almost done. I had to read 10 books with Drew and do 10 different activities, which we finished yesterday. Lily had to read a total of 45 books to complete her chart; she only has about 8 more to go. Erik has to read for 15 minutes in order to cross off one of his pictures. He has to read a total of 15 hours to complete his chart. We are down to about 4.5 hours or so. He loves reading easy chapter books such as: Junie B. Jones, Captain Underpants, The Magic Treehouse and Jigsaw Jones Mysteries. He is doing a good job remembering what he reads and is always asking to read. We have until August 1 to finish our charts, but we'll probably be done in a week or two. I'm so glad my kids love reading!

Erik with one of his favorite books, Captain Underpants


Lily loves Arthur and D.W.

We try to swim before Daniel leaves for work at 2 because every afternoon we've had thunderstorms move in about 4:00 or so. I'm surprised by how often we have storms. At least we haven't had anymore tornado warnings for about 2 weeks now. We had warnings everyday for a week or two, but I never saw any near our house, for which I'm very thankful.

Lily ready to swim


Erik's "Captain Underpants" pose


The kids before swimming

We are continuing to find new parks to explore. Erik has his own names for them: the boat park, green park, brown park, etc. Usually, the name has something to do with the colors of the slides. Our favorite park right now is the "brown park" which has 4 very tall slides, a lot of toys that spin, a seesaw, and monkey bars (which Erik has finally figured out how to do). We love playing outside and are starting to work on riding a bike without training wheels. We moved them up as high as they will go so hopefully he'll be able to start balancing. Now, if we could just get Lily to want to ride her bike....