Too Small Shoes and a Microphone

Last Wednesday night at meeting, Andrew started taking off his shoes. He doesn't usually, but I'd realized that those past two days he had been trying to get his shoes off during the day too. I assumed he was just bored. At the meeting, I let him remove his shoes, and then he started on his socks. Thats not very unusual but I thought maybe his feet were hot and he'd sit still better barefoot. Then I noticed the indentations in his skin that the shoes put there! His shoes are too small! Poor kid!
Friday, Ted was off work so we went up to the consignment store to buy new shoes for Andrew. He no longer wears 4-1/2... but apparently the 5 1/2 and 6's fit just fine (all depends on the brand and style). That was a jump!  We came home with three pairs of new shoes (one pair is a 7 I think but will give him tennis shoes to match daddys) and a pair of football shaped slippers for Andrew. Hopefully they will last us a while.

Also Friday afternoon when he was eating lunch, Ted was singing the "Old MacDonald" song and when he said 'horse', Andrew actually made the sign for horse! I didn't know he knew that.

I forgot to mention the day we got the car, that while we were waiting for it to be brought around to us Andrew was running around in the waiting room. There was a little lip in the floor and it tripped him and he hit his forehead full force into the leg of a chair. He instantly had a knot on his head.  Just a few days before that, he fell off backward on his slide and hit his head on his pile of blocks.  My poor baby is getting his share of bumps and bruises for sure!

He also tries to imitate his daddy being a gorilla. He flails his arms in the air and makes noises. I dont think anyone else would know what he is doing though.

Andrew is really showing he understands the sign language well. More than once he has made the sign for "hurt" and when I asked him where - he put his hands on his head.  He still has a bruise on his forehead from falling into the chair at the car place so it is very possibly he is getting headaches. Guess it is time to get him into the chiropractor again.

Saturday afternoon we invited some friends over to play games and eat dinner with us. We had a lot of fun and everyone was very sweet to engage Andrew too at random times. He mostly entertained himself, but enjoyed being included whenever he surfaced at the table.

Today we pulled out Rock Band ... Andrew claimed the microphone.

Tonight around 7:25 Andrew was sitting on my lap watching me do stuff on my computer. I said, "I think it is time to go get your jammies on and get some milk and go to bed."  He instantly jumped off my lap and ran to his room - straight for the table that we put his nighttime bottle on. I was surprised to find that daddy already put a bottle there ready to go, so all I had to do was get Andrew's jammies on him. When I left the room he was standing in his crib, then I heard him rolling around playing for a few minutes, and then.. silence. Sweet dreams baby boy.

Baby's Got A Brand New Ride

Tuesday on the way home from service, we got stopped at a traffic light. I keep hearing Andrew saying, "Op" over and over again. I look back at him and he's pointing at the red light! He was telling me the red light means stop! In the afternoon we had to run some errands and again got stuck at several traffic lights and he did the same thing at each one.

Tuesday evening, he brought me his ladybug book, opened it up, pointed to the word "bird" and then did the sign for bird!! Which means not only can he read that word himself, he knows the sign already!  Sometime after dinner he asked for something to eat. I gave him a banana.. and he did the sign for it too! I learned this week that a little girl in our hall who is the same age has been learning sign language too - I was told she has 15 signs.  I know he wants to learn more because he brings me his signing book and points to words (in a lot of cases says the word) and waits for me to do the sign. I know he understands more signs than he has imitated. Wednesday morning I was reviewing words he has read, and when I pointed to 'car' he tried to do sign for car. I dont know that I would have known that is what he was trying to sign unless I was reading the word with him.  Same with 'toilet', and also 'Nana'  - not sure I'd have known thats what he was signing unless I was saying it already.  When he does 'change' I never realize what he is saying even though he does it correctly in the one-handed way. Anyway - So that would be at least 12 signs that he does, and 15 that he understands since he knows help, drink, and daddy but doesn't really sign them yet.  Recap: milk, more, finished, change, toilet, ouch, mom, bird, banana, car, eat, and nana are the words he is signing. There are probably more I am forgetting.

I have 69 words on my list that he has read himself. As with the signs, he wont prove that to you on a daily basis, but they are words he has correctly identified more than once on occasion.

He gets obsessed with wanting to play with the toilet plunger. He knows he gets in trouble for taking it and then has a mini tantrum after it is taken away and he is scolded.

He goes shopping in my office closet and drawers.

He brings me cans of soda out of the pantry.. I'm surprised none have exploded yet when he drops them on the floor and they go rolling.

He thinks fake coughing is fun. Oh .. so is making a reaaaaly high pitched squeal. Especially in the bathroom where it echos louder!

Aunt Eese came over after work one evening and discovered one of Andrew's latest thrills too - the umbrella! He loves watching the umbrella open. (and of course playing with his stackable farm blocks.. he LOVES those.)

Here is a video of Andrew getting a spin in the bucket. Much easier on us than pushing him up and down the hallway in it. Ted of course thinks it is funny to get Andrew dizzy and let him walk.

We finally have a bigger car! Yesterday we went to pick up our car from CarMax - a 2010 Chevy Equinox with 15k miles on it. Silver. Its a nice ride!
Here are some pictures from the day. First, Andrew getting a snack and having fun making noises on the way to carmax. Then him in the kids play area while we were waiting.. and then the car!

While we were waiting for the car to be ready, Andrew and I were playing and I noticed he smelled. Sure enough he made a dirty diaper. I had to go back out to our car and get the diaper bag. One diaper - no wipes. And the place had no baby changing station. So I get a few paper towels and wet them, and set them aside. I turn around and Andrew is putting his hands in the toilet water. All I can do is rinse his hands as best I can in the sink because the soap dispenser had that nasty pink soap that I can't even wash the smell of back out of my hands with my own soap. Anyway, I bring him back to a carpeted area and lay him on the floor where I prepared my own changing station of sorts. While I'm changing him, poopy diaper velcro gets stuck to his sweater sleeve. What happens when velcroed diaper is stuck to a baby's arm that moves? Diaper goes flying with baby's arm! Yes.. so I catch the poopy diaper practically in mid air before it has a chance to tip over and smear into carpet or on the wall or even him. I set it aside and keep trying to get him clean (the fake wipes were not working very well I might add and I definitely didn't get enough.)  Then he starts digging his hands down where it is still dirty and I'm trying to keep his hands out of it. Ayeayeaye! I finally give up on getting him spotless and just throw on the new diaper and call it good and pretend I dont care about germs. lol

 We also love hearing Andrew laugh.. here is another one of those videos:

laughing baby from Amanda Hagler on Vimeo.

Goofballs!

Ted has some old Transformer trucks/toys that were a gift to him on our fifth wedding anniversary. They sit out on a desk in the office. Andrew seems convinced that they are toys for him and we are putting them out in his view but witholding them from him.  He stands on his tippy toes trying to reach and then makes some awful noises to get your attention.

He also discovered that he can put things under his bed and they "disappear."
He loves to play with the hangers in his closet.
He lays down on his stomach in the tub - all on his own, I guess pretending to swim.
He makes the signs for milk, more, finished, ouch and today even did the sign for mom.
We have a plastic dish tub (the one we use for the footbath) than Andrew is always pulling out of the closet. He climbs in and waits to see if anyone will push him down the hallway in it. It's quite a workout when we do!  I find it interesting that while Andrew is doing something fun, he usually has a completely blank and focused expression on his face. Its when he stops that he turns and smiles to show you that he enjoyed the activity. Then he asks for more!

Sunday (today) we took him to Goofballs Family Fun Center. We'd never been, but kids under 2 are free and they have a toddler zone. When we get there, we are the only ones there and it was great! Everything is in one room except two things.. the Lazer Mania, and another room that was Andrew's favorite. It had padded floors, the walls were painted beautifully with different animals and sea life. Then there were several wooden forts that you can climb all over. Some had levels to climb up, then tunnels to go through, and then slides to go down; some straight and some curved. It also had randomly located air guns of sort and soft balls that you could drop in and they'd shoot out. It didn't hurt to get hit with the balls. We all had a blast in that room. I guess I only took one picture, but I got some videos of him running around and climbing and going down slides.  Outside that room, we did a round of bowling and he loved chasing the ball down the lane and watching the pins get reset. We played a few games in the arcade area, and climbed on the toddler play set. We won enough tickets to get him two plastic animals. I lined up all his options and he chose a cheetah and a gorilla. Gorilla is his favorite word.

 

In this video we are bowling on "Route 66"

In this video he is climbing up the fort, and I didn't realize there was a tunnel to go through. I saw him go into the yellow and thought he was going down the slide by himself! whew!

Goofballs: climbing to the slide from Amanda Hagler on Vimeo.

Andrew running around:

At Goofballs Family Fun Center from Amanda Hagler on Vimeo.

First Snow of 2010

These days Andrew is pretty eager to be involved in just about anything we might be doing, especially if its not an every day thing. The other day Ted was working on some projects and Andrew was practically running back and forth following Ted around. He was a big help handing screws to daddy.. and then dumping them all over the floor, and then putting most of them back in the box, and dumping them out again, etc.

Sunday he went to meeting looking like a child of the 70's. His pants were a dark brown with a hint of purple to them, a white button down shirt with light brown buttons, and a tie that actually came from Old Navy or Gap but the colors in the plaid just made it look like it was from a different decade. It was kind of funny.

I bought him a Baby Signing Time dvd. He hasn't quite taken to it in the sense that he'll sit still and watch it. The actual signing is coupled with music and song. Ted and I have learned all the signs rather quickly, but I am hoping that when Andrew sees the little kids (all two years and younger) on the dvd making the signs, he'll be more inclined to sign more also. He already knows some of the signs, though he doesn't readily use all of them. He signs 'more' and 'milk' and I think he has signed 'eat' just a few times, he signs 'finished' and occasionally 'change'. The dvd has all of those and some animals and a few others. He has only seen it a few times so far since we've had it less than a week. We'll see. If nothing else - it is helping Ted and me learn more.

Sunday we had our first snow of winter. Monday morning we decided to go play before it melted too much. I was able to bundle him up pretty well except for gloves.

Sleepovers and Slides

Andrew says "up" very clearly and says "Uh oh" when he throws something or deliberately drops something. I guess technically those are his 'first words' even though he's said mom and dad for months already. He says a bunch of other words but they aren't quite correct. Like Ball he says with a D instead.  I'm figuring we should count his first words as ones spoken perfectly clearly every time, very deliberately and at appropriate times, and continually. He has spoken words clearly in the past, but he doesn't continue with them. Anyway...  Up being his first. Uh Oh his second.  His third word would be 'knee'.  He was sitting on the potty this morning and pointed to his knee and said 'knee' very clearly.

He loves to read the word Yes... he brings you a book with it while saying "yeh yeh yeh yeh"

Andrew is very interested in the printer. The best part is I'll print something and he'll bring me the papers when they're done!

At meeting Wednesday night there were two little boys showing Andrew their rolling backpacks. They were showing him how the zipper worked, how the handle goes up and down, and how they have books and crayons and pencils inside. He was mostly fascinated by the handle that can go up and down, and also the wheels. It was interesting to watch. 

Andrew had a sleepover at Paulas on Tuesday night. I so desperately needed a chance to get some uninterrupted sleep and be able to sleep in. Her husband was out of town for the night so she volunteered to take Andrew. He was so good! He never cried once, didn't have separation anxiety and just played played played. At 9:30 he asked to be up and wanted his milk, she put him in the crib. He whimpered once and she said, "night night" and he went out like a light. Apparently he didnt make a peep until 6:30. Of course, Wednesday night comes,we have meeting. He wouldnt go down for a nap until 6:22 and we had to leave at 7. He was awake the entire meeting. We come home and feed him most of a protein bar and put him to bed just after 10:30. He still was up before 6. We can't win.  He very obviously still needs two naps a day, but we're going to try and push his bed time to 8:30 and see what happens.

So we bought him that little slide last weekend. He now goes up the ladder, sits correctly on top, and slides down the slide all by himself! He seems to enjoy it - I'm so glad! 

Andrew likes to play with the drawer under the oven. I keep my stone bakeware under there and he's actually strong enough to pull it out. Well Today I was getting our breakfast ready and had my back turned as I put food on his tray. I heard him messing with it all and just assumed he was trying to pull stuff out. I turn around and  HE is in the drawer. Lol. Instead of helping him - I went and grabbed the camera for a quick picture.

Andrew's slide from Amanda Hagler on Vimeo.

An Elephant in the Laundry

Andrew was helping with the laundry. He pushed the basket all the way to our room, then we put him in the basket and he started throwing out all the socks and diapers.  He loves pushing the laundry basket around. The problem is, he'll stop randomly and pick things out of it so we end up with laundry all over the house.

Untitled

Troubles on the Homefront

It seems like I think of more things to say right after I post a new blog post. So.. I just keep a running one until there is enough in it to post publicly.

I forgot to add to the last post that Andrew has started using his teeth to try and open his own little food canisters. He is successful half the time.

He loves opening the refrigerator and picking out an apple for himself.

He is becoming a little more obstinate when it comes to eating. He'll randomly just start spitting out whatever I give him, even if he'd already had a few bites.  Occasionally, scolding him works and he'll keep eating, but often we have to give up and just take his food away and let him go. We don't force him to eat, but it sure is frustrating when he wont eat anything more than two or three bites of anything.

Andrew has been getting in trouble lately for trying to climb up the cat tower. It is not stable enough for him to be climbing on. We certainly don't want him to pull it over on himself and be crushed between it and the hardwood floor!  So I went to the dollar store and bought him a slide. We put it on the carpet and he can climb on it all he wants. He likes going up and down the two step ladder, and trying to climb up the slide. He doesn't know how to use it properly without help yet, which is fine. It still gives him something new to do, and something to climb on without getting in trouble.

He loves cars and trucks and hats and balls. Not big into stuffed animals. He dances to music. Sometimes dances when he plays the piano too.

So far on our word list he can read at least 57 words.

Several times recently Andrew has had us up at 1am and/or at 4am. A couple of times he was just screaming and all we could think to do was shoot him with some Motrin and a bottle and rock him back to sleep (which took FOREVER).  Other times just a bottle will do.. and at least once I just got up and stayed up.  I'll get him calm and then put him in his crib but if I try to leave the room he starts screaming again. So I have to pretend to sleep in the chair or on the floor - neither of which can I actually sleep in.  And as long as I'm in there, he's happy. If he's not pretending to sleep himself, he's rolling around giggling and playing.  If I think he is asleep and I sneak out of the room - he knows and we start all over again. Of course, after two hours of trying - I'm so frustrated I could scream too. Ted has had to sleep on the floor a couple of times too - but at least he can!   A few nights of this though and we've decided he can only have one nap a day. We'll see how it goes. So far he still gets up super early and is tired by mid-morning, but something HAS to change. We're hoping with just one nap a day he'll sleep better at night, and maybe someday he'll sleep in too.

Andrew was standing at the refrigerator asking for something. I figured it must be an apple so I went and got the camera. He's so cute:

Here is a video of Andrew getting zapped by the Stud Finder. Love hearing him laugh!

Untitled from Amanda Hagler on Vimeo.