A is for Andrew

Daddy walked into our bedroom and Andrew followed. Andrew turned off the light and then hunched over a little bit, looked at daddy, stuck his finger in front of his mouth and said, "shhhh" like he was hiding. I just love his personality!

Tuesday morning Nana was feeding Andrew some yogurt in the dining room. My phone started ringing and I hear Nana saying "go give it to mommy! hurry!"  Andrew comes around the corner, with a big yogurt covered grin, excited to give me my phone. After I answer I sit back down in my chair and Andrew stands next to me. Then he picks up my calculator and holds it up to his ear as though he is on the phone too. So cute. I am impressed that he picked another gadget with lots of numbers on it to be a phone. If I had a blackberry I suppose they'd look similar!

It is really great being able to communicate well with Andrew. If he starts whining we can say, 'use your words or signs' and he will make a greater effort to. He will also say "yeah" or "yes" to something he wants that we ask about, or shake his head no if he doesn't want it. He used to refuse to say yes. He'd even look at you and grin while shaking his head no before! Daddy is happy to hear the yes!

He can jump now getting both feet off the ground at the same time.

Andrew is starting to climb stairs without holding onto anything or touching the steps with his hands. I'm fearful that he'll lose his balance and fall backwards but so far so good!

We went back to Shipwrecked last Friday. He played so well with all of the other kids. There was even a little girl his size who kept taking everything away from Andrew (even bringing them to show Nana sometimes!) and he'd give a look of 'well, why'd you do that? Now what am I going to play with?'  Its kind of sad to watch but he just rolls with it, shrugs it off, and moves along.

    We had to go to Madison again (during rush hour in the evening) with Ted's truck. I had two other stops along the way so Andrew had an extra long ride in the car by the time we got there to pick up daddy. We all needed dinner too but it needed to be a place Andrew could get down and run around freely. So.. we had to go to Chuck E. Cheese. He really enjoyed that. There is a separate section (the party section) that has a stage with the Chuck E Cheese characters playing as a band. When I showed them to Andrew he smiled, but wouldn't go in. He was nervous about the giant Mouse, Bird, Dog, and who knows what the other one was.  Later they started singing and playing but again, he wouldn't go down the three steps to be in the room with them.  So I went in and stood by the stage. Then he got excited! He came down those stairs and got all excited.. he even asked to get on the stage with them!  He enjoyed riding in all the little mechanical cars, the merry go round, and riding a mechanical horse. But what he really wanted to do the entire time was climb up to the tunnels that lead to a swirly slide. Daddy squeezed through it all twice, and then another young girl offered to take him through - but after that we tried to just get him interested in the other games.
    I knew he'd fuss all the way home. Thankfully I packed the portable dvd player we bought ages ago into the car before we left. Daddy was able to set it up before we headed back home. It took one Reading video and one Signing video to get us home with no crying.  Somehow he did manage to loosen the lid on his sippy cup though and soak himself halfway home. He got the top loose the other day too - not sure how he is doing it!

Andrew is so happy to be outside. He gets upset on the days he doesn't get to spend at least some time outside. Nana and Andrew were outside when I opened the garage door up. Nana said that Andrew got so joyful to see the toys he can push around outside and ride on. And then he climbed into his stroller asking for a ride. She said he was so funny, turning around and peeking at her through the little crack he could see through on the ride.

Nana also gets a kick out of Andrew on the deck stairs. "Up?" he announces before he launches up the stairs, grinning back at her. Then "Down?" before he makes his way down the other stairs. She said he is reaching out further and further on the railing as he holds on to come down on his feet. She gets worried at times that he doesn't have a good hold on the rails, but says he is careful. She loves the inflection in his voice when he says Up or Down.