Mommy, wow! I'm a big kid now!

Monday, as I was fixing a strange assortment of food for us to eat for lunch, Andrew opened up the book "My First Signs" and was going through some of the words and signs all by himself. We've really been emphasizing Please and Thank You the last few days but I haven't shown them to him in that book. He is sitting on the floor int he kitchen looking at the book and is signing Please. When he sees me looking at him he points to the word please in the book and continues to make the sign.  Then he points to Thank You and does the sign for that.  Then he stands up and does the sign for Sorry! What?!  When did he learn to read those?  Those three are on his second signing video that he's only seen twice, but it doesn't really teach him to read the word.. just sign it.

During our lunch of rotisserie chicken, spiced sweet potato, black olives, and cucumber (I said it was odd!) I was waiting for him to finish. Flash was crying as usual so I started singing to Flash which generally always makes Andrew laugh. Today was no exception. What was different today though was after a few minutes of being silly with Flash - Andrew put his finger up and started blowing to tell me to shhush!  So I did; puzzled that I was just told by my sixteen month old to be quiet, but also amused that he did so.

After lunch we were playing in his room and he asked me to read the Are You Ticklish book. At the end of that book is a little boy with a flash light holding toys in front of it to make shadows on the wall. I thought that would be fun. I grab a flashlight, a realistic toy elephant, and take Andrew into the bathroom. He thought THAT was fantastic! He seemed to understand immediately what was going on. He got excited and was touching the shadow on the wall. Then I put my hand in front of the light and he copied and did the same.

(I actually wrote all that on Monday, and now here it is Sunday and I dont really remember the rest of the week's musings.)

I know on Thursday we met some friends for lunch in Murfreesboro and went back to Annelise's house afterward to play. Andrew thoroughly enjoyed that and LOVES Aunt "S" as he calls her. He crawled all over her. There were two older girls there playing with blocks and had to keep pushing Andrew away. At one point he took the door lego. I sat down next to him and said, "Natalie needs that toy. Can you give that toy back to Natalie. (I had Natalie wave to identify herself.) I'm sure Natalie will be happy to give you a different toy to play with, but she needs this one back." He thought for a second, and went and traded toys. Such a good boy! Oh, and he made good friends with her vacuum cleaner. He also found a toy baby bottle and after Annelise showed him how to feed a baby doll, he did it himself!

Saturday we headed out to the farm for a family lunch. Andrew had a lot of fun there playing with his cousins and getting to run around and be crazy. He was super good. At lunch he sat on a couple of thick pillows in an arm chair to eat and didn't even turn his plate over. He said please and thank you (in signs) and didn't even get upset with the other kids took all his toys from him. Or when they ran him over when I was being the "Aunt Amanda Monster" chasing them around the ping pong table. He got knocked over at some point and I saw him lying flat on his back looking surprised. I stopped being a monster and went to him and got him up and gave him hugs. His cousin Kaleb came to me, "Can you be a monster again?"  Me: "Right now I need to be mommy. Andrew got knocked over."  Kaleb: "Well, after you're done being mommy, can you be the Aunt Amanda monster again?"  So cute.

  After lunch Nana had a treasure hunt for all the kids. They eat took specific turns getting to find a hidden envelope and then getting to read the next clue. Andrew was first to start and was given a clue to "Look Up."  He read the card all by himself saying, "Up" when I showed him the card. The next clue was hidden on the ceiling fan above him. I can't remember what his next card said when it was his turn again to read a clue.  Later Nana handed out presents to everyone. Andrew got a small plastic Kangaroo to go with his elephant, cheetah, and gorilla. A pad of paper, a boxed set of small books, and a silly dragon pull toy. I haven't given him the paper yet, his face lights up when you show him the Kangaroo because he loves the book "Pouch", he likes the mini books but seems fascinated moreso by the fact that they all fit inside a box together. Then he loves pulling around the silly dragon.

  Our current project with him is to teach him not to throw his toys, but to set them down gently. I think after two days he is starting to understand! This afternoon, he was trying to put his dragon toy on our bed and then took it back and gently set it on the floor and started pulling it in circles. That was the first time he didn't just throw a toy to the ground before playing with it. Let's hope that continues!

  After meeting today (which by the way he was super good for too) we went through the car wash. I let him sit in my lap up front for it. He kept saying and signing "Moe" (more) each time the water passed over.

  We've pretty much lost count with how many words he can read. My list stopped at 129 over a week ago and I know there are way more words he has read. He will surprise me with new words and if I dont write them down right away, I forget what they were. He will also correctly point to words I know we have never read to him. I realize he is just guessing on most of those, but it amazes me when he gets them right - or even when he's close to right!
   Today at the meeting he was reading a book we haven't looked at in a while. He was saying Bow (correctly!) and jumping his finger to each word in "Bow wow wow" in the book. He was trying to say the whole sentence!

   The other day Ted dropped the mattress to the absolute lowest point. Andrew had been getting his foot up on the side of the crib. He is so strong that it was just a matter of time before he put his weight on that ankle to swing himself over the side!

  Tonight at dinner, he was actually getting the hang of eating with a fork by himself. He was stabbing some macaroni and green beans with the fork all by himself. Sure - he still needed help half the time, but he's getting it!

  Andrew is totally cool with taking a shower instead of a bath. He's had to shower with me a couple of times just because I couldn't get one in during his nap time. This morning he had to take one with daddy. It doesn't even bother him.
   He is getting better at signing 'toilet' to tell me he needs to go. Its not always to poop either, although it usually is. I'm so glad we started early and also taught him signs for it. He understands so much.

  I can't think of anything else to update with.