Can he get any cuter?!

Andrew is really taking off with his walking skills. He's finally preferring to walk around the house more than crawl. Tuesday evening when he saw daddy coming up the outside steps, he actually ran toward the door for a few steps. 

Monday evening, during our family study, he decided he'd had enough and got up and started pushing his mailbox up and down the hallway. Each time he got next to me, though, he started making kissing noises. He'd start walking by me and send his kisses our way, turn around and head back down the hallway. 

He climbs down and up the stairs like they're nothing to him. This week is the first week he's so freely gone down the stairs rather than sit at the top and throw toys. It will only be a matter of time before he is into the cat food and possibly the cat litter down there.  He does pick up little pieces of cat food to eat. 

Tuesday morning he finally realized he can open my studio door. I was in the studio cleaning it up before a shoot and he opened the door and walked right in!  Of course, after that, he knew he could do it so he goes down the stairs and opens the door for himself randomly throughout the day.  During my session he came down and knocked on the door and then tried the handle, but Nana got him before he could come in.

Before Nana got here on Tuesday morning, Andrew and I were playing outside. He was wearing an outfit that David and Adam wore as toddlers... over 30 years ago!  Anyway, a neighbor down the street drives a white mini van that looks just like Nana's. So I saw a white van turn onto our street and I said, "Nana's here!"  and the van kept on going by. He never saw the van, but he sure understood what I said! He came tearing up the walkway with his mailbox, climbed the stairs and sat at the door as if to say, "okay! Let me in to see Nana!"  I felt bad.. it was an honest mistake. 

Andrew makes his own version of 'vroom vroom' noises when he plays with his trucks and front-loader tractor toys.  He roars at the word "Tiger" in his books when you just point to them. He growled at the "Bear" although I dont recall anyone teaching him that. 

He points to the word "up" in his books. He used to just throw his arm up in the air, but now when you ask him where the word is, he points to it. We discovered this week that he noticed that word in two more books all on his own (because he'd show us the page and put his arm in the air and say 'uh'.)  He says Dog, he's trying to say Go (from the book Go, Dog. Go!)  and he will identify those words as well on the page by words or by pointing.

I'm still not sleeping through the night. I try to get to bed around 9 but thats not always possible. But I wake up in the midnight hour, often in the 2am hour if not awakened by Andrew moaning (or full on crying), again in the 4am hour (unless i'm only then falling asleep again from being up at 2). Ted's alarm goes off at 5am and occasionally I actually sleep through it. Andrew starts talking by 5:30 but sometimes will fall back asleep for a few minutes at a time (which allows me to doze more) but is up and ready to go by 6:20.  It must be so amazing to actually sleep all the way through the night! But I probably wont get that for many more years. 

Today I put real shoes on him before going to make a bank deposit. When we got home, I was able to just set him down in the driveway and he took off walking through the grass. Such a nice change over carrying him to the door! We rarely put shoes on him.. its better for them to walk without shoes, but I wanted him to wear my favorite shoes at least one more time. His feet are growing so fast he doesn't even fit the size for an entire season it seems. 

Here are some pictures of him in the sweater outfit that my brothers wore as kids. I prefer the sweater with jeans instead of the matching pants. Much cuter with jeans.