Grandma Came To Play

Grandma came to visit from California for a few days. I'm sure Andrew enjoyed the undivided attention, and I can imagine Grandma got a good workout.  Daddy ended up getting lasik surgery on that Friday (the 11th) so we hung around town all day. We went to a new playhouse called Shipwrecked. Andrew had a blast climbing up and down the pirate ship, pushing a toy vacuum around, jumping into a deep ball pit, climbing on everything. It was nice for him. I dont really remember the rest of that weekend!

coming down the gangplank from the pirate ship

pretending to drive while waiting for Grandma and Daddy

Thursday, March 17th - Andrew turned 18 months old. A year and a half already! It was this day that he also decided he no longer needed a high chair. He was not eating his food and was upset - and kept pointing at the table. Daddy is the one that figured out what he wanted. We sat him on some phone books and he happily ate his dinner at the dining table. I have since then rigged a booster seat. I belted his little camping chair to the seat. It works for now.

The next day, he decided he didn't really want to have the usual sippy cup either. He wanted to drink out of our cups, and out of a cup with a straw at restaurants. Thankfully, he is still willing to drink out of them at home, but I guess its time to look for new kinds geared toward older toddlers. But he's also migrated to booster seats at restaurants. I think that will be nice.

he stabbed the lemon with the fork himself.. lol

We have finally had a few days of super warm weather! It's been fantastic! Friday we took Andrew to the park for the morning. It was nice getting to wear shorts and a t-shirt and soak up the warm sun. He enjoyed walking in the dried up stream and throwing rocks, climbed up the side of the hill and wandered all around, climbed on the playground and went down the slides - although with the big ones, he didn't want to go down by himself, he needed daddy. By the way, Ted and I both were impressed with just how fast Andrew can run! There were a couple of times we had to run and catch up!

When we let him outside at home, he goes down the front steps, straight for the garbage can in the driveway. He bangs on that, gets me to read it to him, plays with the wheels, then circles the car and is off around the side of the house. He finds another empty garbage can and wheels it around for a while, plays in the "down" holes in the driveway, pats the basketball pole, pats the tree, back to the "down" hole, touches the wheel barrow, pushes the garbage can around again... then goes through the gate and into the grass. From there he runs about five feet, trips and falls, gets up and walks about five more feet and then sits down to pick a dandelion or weed to smell. Smells it for a few seconds. Then he's up and running again. He sees the stairs and says "up" and then climbs the stairs, runs across the deck, trips as he approaches the step to the upper deck. Climbs that step, pats on the back door, then says "down" and heads down the side stairs. Then he goes to the corner of the deck and house on those stepping stones, finds something to throw or pats the brick wall, then heads off into the grass again. Eventually we end up in the back of the lot. He picks up a stick and hits the tree with it a few times, walks and runs around with the stick. Goes to the other side of the back yard, crawls under the pine trees, gets up and looks over the fence and talks about what is on the other side. Then he runs in circles around the shed, hitting everything with the stick he is still carrying. Goes up and down the little ramps to the shed, points at the lock, and is denied entry.  Then back to the steps and up the deck, down the other stairs... opens and closes the little iron gate.. and then bangs his stick on the air conditioner. Runs around to the front of the house, pauses at the front steps, turns to see you following him, ... and starts all of that all over again!   If you pick him up at all, he arches his back and squeals - so you have to have some pretty good bribery to get him to calm down. If you don't and you still wrangle him inside - he throws himself at the door and onto the floor very desperately.

I think it is sweet that he likes to smell flowers.. even if they're fake.

Sunday afternoon, we were all lounging in Andrew's room. Andrew was very busy of course. He pulled out books to read, climbed in and out of my lap, found a ball and threw it into his crib from the outside, pulled out blankets from his dresser, tipped over the ball pit. Then he started putting balls back in the pit, put one blanket back in the dresser and then piled a couple of books on top of each other and picked them up and put them in his dresser drawer. Then piled a few more and put them away on his book shelf. He was cleaning his room!!I have to say, whenever he takes something he shouldnt and we tell him to put it back.. he is very good at doing so.

Andrew loves bath time. Sunday night we asked Andrew if he'd like to take a "B-A-T-H". He immediately stopped playing with his stackable blocks and ran to daddys feet. Ted says, "what is a b-a-t-h? can you show daddy?"  Andrew pointed to the bathroom and said, "ba."

He loves pulling my slips and stuff out of my dresser drawer. (for that matter, he loves any pile of laundry that he can toss over his shoulder and make a huge mess!) The odd thing is, that when he finds a bra, he says "hat" and puts it on his head.  I am thinking daddy has something to do with that... perhaps reinacting a Lilo & Stitch scene?

Monday morning I was cleaning up a small mess on the floor that had attracted a bunch of ants. As I'm sitting there squishing ants, I say, "Andrew, we have an ant problem."  He leaps up and runs down the hallway and points at the pictures of Aunt Eese. LOL

I think it is neat that I have a decisive kid. When he asks to watch his video - he knows exactly which one he wants. When he wants to read his word cards.. not just any pack of his cards will do - there is a particular one he is looking for. Whats super cute is that I will hold up a pack and say, "this one?" and he shakes his head no. "This one?" as I hold up another set... he shakes his head no. "How about this one?"  Finally, he reaches out to take it from me, and then examines the package to double check.  Or the other day: he wanted his video - but he has so many between the reading ones, the signing ones, and the English or Spanish Muzzy.  I put one on that I like.... he grabs me and shakes his head no while pointing at the tv. I start a different one, and he says no. I start a third one and he claps! Yeay - mommy got it right finally!!
  For a while I have been letting Andrew choose which shoes to wear. I set a few options out and ask him which pair he wants to wear. He doesn't always choose the same pair, and only once has he changed his mind after getting them on. (I think they were too tight.)  Well, Tuesday I held up two shirt options and asked him which one he'd like to wear. He immediately pointed to one with a smile. I asked again - and he picked the same one. It was a tank top with bugs on it! lol  He picked the bugs over the surf boards.

I dont know what day it was, but sometime last week Andrew fell off the couch and actually got his first bloody nose. It wasn't bad at all, just some pink snot.. but Ted thought it was memorable. lol

He also got his first skinned knee this week, and banged his forehead on the driveway when he tripped. He just needed a hug and he was happy. What a tough kid.

Wednesday evening (March 22nd) Andrew was getting antsy in his seat and then crawled over the arm of his chair and into my lap and started making the sign for milk. I let him have his bottle and he was not happy when it was empty. But then he started making the sign for 'sleep'.  I ended up taking him the back room to help him be able to go to sleep. Eventually he was relaxed enough to lay across two chairs and have his feet in my lap.  I told Andrew he needed to go to sleep. He turned his head into his blanket, closed his eyes, and pretended to snore! Ha ha!! He did a good job of it too!

Thursday evening we had to make a run into Nashville, and on the way home, Andrew started making duck noises just like how daddy does it. He is so good at it! He'd quack a few times and then start laughing, which made me laugh too. Sooo much better than him crying all the way home. It was way after his bedtime already!

Ted said that Andrew is saying more complex words now and is surprised when he hears them. But I dont know what words he's referring to, and he can't remember as I'm writing this.

1,2,3.. peekie!!

I love it when Andrew puts his foot in one of our shoes and walks around. It's so precious. I dont have any pictures though.

He loves climbing on and over things. Sunday morning we were all playing in Andrew's room. He tipped his ball pit tower over and spread the balls around his room again. Then tried to climb on the flimsy blow-up tower. Ted got in the middle of it and then Andrew started diving over the side to jump in.. the side comes up to his armpits! He just dove head first - feet dangling in the air as he slid over the side! I did try to get pictures of that. (and no, I am not a supporter of Spiderman or any other cartoons/animations - they just didn't have any other boy options at the store.)

Andrew has a purple ball probably about the size of a soccer ball. He is often trying to sit on it and if he does manage to, he then bounces on it until he falls off. Then he comes back to it and puts his face on it and then rolls his body over the top of it, then stands on his feet and pushes it through his legs while his head is upside down on the floor.

I like it when he plays with pots and pans on the floor while I'm trying to cook. Sometimes he's a little too loud with it, but most of the time I don't really mind. Other times I have set him on the counter to watch and eat a snack at the same time - I never take my hand off of him, and I'm blocking him with my body so he can't get down. The other day, though, he pushed a dining chair up to the counter, climbed onto the chair, and then tried to climb on the counter! I'm going to have to be careful what gets left out on the counter if he's going to do that!

Andrew likes Ketchup. If we can't get him to voluntarily eat something for dinner - we just put ketchup on it and he'll eat more. Sunday evening we learned he likes honey mustard too! He loves pickles. And he'll even eat jalapenos! He still hates broccoli.

Andrew's hair was getting entirely too long. I couldn't connect with the person I wanted to come to our house to cut it - so I gave Nana permission to try and trim it. To my astonishment, Andrew stood in the chair and watched in the mirror as Nana trimmed his hair! It wasn't until he got distracted and turned his head during a cut, which resulted in pulled hair, that he decided to get upset and be done. Later I was holding him and standing where he was in arms reach of the scissors. He picked them up, turned them to hold the handle, and then put them (unopened) to his head as if he were trying to cut his hair. Great! He already thinks scissors are for cutting hair. *groan*  We did take him to Great Clips on a whim Monday night to get it trimmed up the rest of the way. He did pretty well although he kept trying to lean away from the lady. She gave him a sucker before even asking me if it was okay. I tried not to cringe too much. Thankfully he never bit into it and hardly sucked on it so it's all good. He did flip out when she turned the hair dryer on to blow his cut hairs off his neck, but she was done by then.

The next to last page in his Pouch book tells us that the two kangaroos go "hop, hop, hop, ..." and Andrew says 'hop, hop, hop' now perfectly clearly.

A couple of days ago, we were vacuuming the house together. At one point I had disconnected the floor part and was just using the long tube. I left it running and let Andrew have a go with it. I continue picking up stuff only to turn around and see Andrew sitting on the floor, both hands grasping the tube, and slooowly bringing it to one eye so he could see down the tube. Eeks! I hate to think what it could have done to his eye had he succeeded in bringing it all the way to his face! 

He loves his kitty. He gets excited when Flash comes to the door to be let back inside. And he loves to chase Flash around and I'm pretty sure Flash likes it too. They're like a Calvin and Hobbes together - getting each other into mischief. What is even more funny is that when you walk in on them doing something together, they both stop and get this "I wasn't doing anything" look on their faces.

A Day to Just Play

I forgot to mention that during our potty training weekend:  one of the flashcards Ted made for him said 'poop' and one of the times Andrew was sitting on the toilet, he had it upside down and I said, "dood."  After that, he wouldn't read poop anymore - he would turn the card over and say dood.

Monday he handed me something green and said the word green - all on his own. We weren't even reviewing colors at the time. Although it wasn't clear I knew thats what he was saying. I think he knows most of his colors now, not just by reading but also picking out colors. I also quizzed him on a few numbers. I held up 4 and 6 and asked him to pick 4.. he did. I held up 6 and 8 and he correctly picked out 6. I held up 8 and 9 and asked him to find the 8. He looked at them both and seemed like he was about to pick the right number but then deflected and wanted to play with something else. I think he wasn't sure about the 9 and not confident in his choice for 8. 

He made me proud Monday evening. We went to Carmax to pick up daddy's latest truck. We were there for two hours and Andrew and I hung out in the kids play area. After a while, two more little boys came in to play. One was a little shorter than Andrew but was 21 months old, and the other was 4 or 5 years old. They were rough kids too.  Well, there is a half door with a low handle on it to get in and out of the room. Andrew would go over and open it. I would say, "Close the door please" and he would push it closed.  The other little boy went over and opened it and the daddy said to me, 'Watch. I'll say the same thing and he'll just run out the door." Sure enough, thats what happened. Andrew was obedient in everything I said to him. The other kids kept getting in trouble.
 Also, the other little boy would get a running start and plow into me with a big hug. Later, the older boy decided to get a running start and plow right into me and say "I got you!" I gave in and roughed him up a bit, but the second time he jumped on me - Andrew came running over very concerned. He looked me right in the eye and I told him "mommy is okay, mommy is not getting hurt. its okay." And he paused for just a second and then turned and went back to playing. How sweet is that?

He loves the mop and the vacuum. When I vacuum, he tugs on my pants asking for a turn. He seems so serious and determined when he vacuums. He pushes it back and forth and forward... SO cute!  Monday he vacuumed himself right under the dining table. He got upset with me when I took it back out from under the table to reposition it. I think he thought I was taking it away from him entirely. I was, of course, redeemed when I invited him to continue vacuuming in the kitchen.

When clients come over to either drop off payment or pick up pictures - Andrew brings them one toy after the next to show off his things. I'm glad he likes his toys.  Monday he even brought the seat ring out of his little potty. I took it from him and he went and brought the bowl of the seat. I set them both down on the floor, and surprisingly he picked them up and put them back!! He got the order wrong as far as putting it back together right, but he tried!

Wednesday, blue was apparently his color of the day. He brought me things that were blue and said the word. Again, not clearly or perfect, but I knew thats what he was saying.
Wednesday evening, we were all in the kitchen. Ted was repeating Andrew's name, I think trying to get his attention for something. Andrew started saying "An-doo" and we were both shocked! He was saying his name! Of course he hasn't said it since.

Also on Wednesday, he seemed kind of done eating his yogurt and whatever else it was I had given him. I was bored so I stuck his hand in the yogurt container. He loves squeezing his food, but he hates having mess on his hands. He had a big blob of yogurt on his fingers, and then started to try and shake it off. Yogurt splashed onto his face, my face, and the floor. I swabbed some of it and put it on his cheeks. Then he picked up the spoon and poked it around in the yogurt and then tried to feed me the yogurt. We had fun making a mess.

It is so cute when he holds a doll/bear/toy and rocks it in his arms like a baby. He does it so sweetly.

Friday I woke up feeling pretty good. We had breakfast together, did my workout, read some books, played with toys, ran around in the studio. Then I thought it'd be fun to go outside and play. It was about 60 degrees but breezy. We ran around in the yard, climbed on the scrap wood pile, banged on trees, played with the gate, and climbed up and down the stairs. Oh, and he pulled an empty garbage can around for a while. Later in the day, I was finishing up some work on the computer and he was playing in his room. He came in and tugged on my arm like he usually does, so I got up and followed him. He took me to his room. His ball pit was overturned and moved across the room and balls were e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e. I didn't have my camera ready so I just joined in and played in the mess. I even threw a bunch in his crib and put him in there to jump. And when I put the ball pit upright and started putting the balls back in, Andrew helped clean up! I didn't even ask!

Here are some pictures from the morning: