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.