Welcome to Fall!

We have had to start using his long sleeves and long pants in the mornings here lately since it gets so cold at night all of a sudden. No more just running around in diapers!  He's starting to outgrow the summer stuff now anyway so I guess it is good timing.The 24 month size is still just a little bit too long in the arms and legs for him, but not to the point of losing his hands and feet so they work just fine, and should be perfect during winter.  I did finally find his size socks at Target. The 12-24 months socks someone gave us from BabyGap are way too tight - he hates those socks. And other ones I had are getting too small, he is starting to pull those off too. And he hates shoes.

I dont think I have ever remembered to mention this.. but for a while now, when you open the fridge he goes shopping in it. But when you say, "door closing!" he immediately gets out of the way. 
He still loves to play with the dishwasher. He likes the wheels on the racks, but his latest favorite thing to do is push them in and then push up the door to close it. Not very helpful when you're trying to load it. He does occasionally help unload it.. he takes out a spoon or fork. Of course.. they go to his mouth and then straight back into the dishwasher. 

His favorite pastime is to throw things down the stairs.  Anything he can find - goes down the stairs. Big or little - it goes down the stairs unless you catch him trying and stop him. He is pretty good about listening when we tell him from across the room that the big item needs to stay up here and not go down the stairs. He then goes to find something smaller to throw down.

Today I had lunch with three fellow photographers and then we went back to one's house. He climbed up and down her stairs over and over again.. that is all he wanted to do. The funny thing is, he'd find something on the floor, take it up the stairs with him, and then throw it down.

He occasionally takes his passion for throwing his toys somewhere to the bathroom and throws books and toys in the tub. I imagine it is just a matter of time before they get flushed.  He has also once thrown something in the trash.  I prefer the times when he throws them into another toy.. the Jeep, the mailbox, or a bucket.

Daddy bought him some new toys. He got a basketball goal for the bathtub that came with a few balls. Another bath toy that is a truck that can be pushed around like a regular truck, but it also floats. And then a non-water toy that you press down on a button and it makes music and then shoots balls up through a hole, then they go down a slide and shoot back up out the hole. He gets a kick out of it. The first day Nana was back on the job after we got the toy - he was really excited to show her his new toy. It was the first thing he wanted to play with when getting up from his nap.  The first few days though, as soon as you turn it on, he'd crawl farther away from it and then turn around to watch and sit there smiling and laughing. Now he tries to catch the balls as they come out the top. He's so cute.

Last Sunday we sat him in his own seat again, but this time he was more squirmy and fussy. Not bad at all, but not still and quiet like the week before.  Well, right near the end of the meeting, he had a pathetic look on his face and when he caught my eyes he started signing for milk. Ted and I looked at each other and frowned - our baby was just hungry this whole time!! As soon as he finished his milk he was fine again! He shouldn't have been hungry - he ate a good lunch before we left.. but I guess he just wanted some milk. I'm so glad we started signing with him so early!

His signing also helps when we're eating. I can ask him if he wants something in particular and he will shake his head no if he doesn't want that. If he wants milk he will sign for it, and when he wants down he'll sign "finished" in his cute little way or keep putting his arms up. You can also tell when he's done because he starts throwing his food over the side. Flash has caught on to that and comes looking for goodies periodically. The other day I'm sure Andrew was just trying to share his food with Flash for the fun of it. He's been a really good eater as far as the variety of food goes... chili with red and black beans, sauteed mushrooms, sweet onions, green peas, broccoli/spinach straws, turkey, chicken, tomato chunks, corn tortillas with hummus, zucchini chunks, apples with peanut butter, banana puffs with peanut butter (i make little mini sandwich towers out of those) .... he eats just about anything I put in front of him. He certainly has his favorites - like cheese - that I have to give him after he has eaten a good selection of other foods.

He is still obsessed with his reading videos. I only let him watch them twice a day and at certain times.. but when he wants to watch them and its not time - he is persistent and hard to distract with other things. He LOVES books and loves to read words.