The Alphabet and Allergies

Wednesday, over a week ago now, I was folding laundry in the living room. Andrew came up from the studio and headed down the hallway. His rather determined gait made me think I should follow him and see what he is up to. He wasn't even out of my sight more than 30 seconds. He had gone through my bedroom and into my bathroom and closed the door. As I open the bathroom door, he is already IN the tub and turns on the water and shower! He ran to the opposite side of the tub as he's getting blasted with cold water. Our tub has a knob - not a handle. In his tub it's a handle and he turns it all the way to hot which is sure to scald him one of these days. But this was the first time ever he climbed into the tub and turned on the water all by himself!

Wednesday evening, he got away during first song at meeting! He started off standing between us reading his song book and dancing. I was assigned a talk that evening and the brother came up to ask if my householder had arrived yet. While I was distracted in brief conversation, Andrew was slowly making his way toward the front of the hall, walking between the seats and the wall. He was more than half way to the front when Ted realized it and then had to run to the front intercept him!

Andrew is really good at jumping and hopping. He loves to hop and jump.

He also loves looking at his baby albums. He kept pointing to them and asking for them, so I finally got them down for him. He has spent a lot of time looking through them both.

Andrew knocks on the pictures of doors that he finds in books. Sometimes he tries to open them too by putting his fingers on the knobs.

He wanted to read my cookbook one day.

Balloons are "boom" or "boom-boom" and occasionally a ball is a "bomb". Umbrellas are "umbra" or "ummah"

He had somewhat of a runny nose for three weeks. He never acted sick or gave any indication otherwise that he could potentially be fighting something. I gave him some herbs, it seemed to clear up for two days, and then started up again. I finally took him to the pediatrician and she said that she was on the fence if it was allergies or a cold. She said the grass pollen had been extremely high for a couple of weeks. Then we got a lot of rain.. and his runny nose went away. Sooo... I think he is allergic to grass pollen. I guess the time it cleared up a little might have been after some rain too. Who knows. We play outside nearly every day! But during all of that, I put a small pillow in his bed to help elevate his head a little bit for the drainage. His head didn't stay on it all night or anything. Nana decided to make him his own personal pillow... here he is pulling it out of the bag and then giving her a hug with it.

Andrew found a picture of Aunt Annelise, or "Essss", as he calls her. I was in the kitchen and I kept hearing him say "Essss? Essss?" and when I looked he was holding the picture. I told him that yes, that is a picture of Aunt Essss and he put the picture to his neck and hugged it!

Sometimes when I'm going in to get him first thing in the morning or after a nap, I walk in his room and hear him ask, "Nana?" or "Esss?" I just smile and reply, "Nope, it's mommy!"

I moved Andrew's potty into his room. It seemed more convenient to get him to use it after getting up if it was already in his room. It seems to be the right place for him as well. I think it was Tuesday the 10th that I moved it. He was sitting on hit all by himself, but without taking the diaper off first. At one point I was on a long phone conversation. I saw him run to his room, and a few minutes later as I was coming to check on him, he came out of the room carrying the potty bowl. I just assumed that he was trying to play with it - but then I smelled him! Whew! I think he went and sat on the potty to go poo, but had his diaper on still!
Wednesday, I had a better routine for him. He went on the potty when he got up, before watching his video before naptime, and when he got up from nap. He went on the potty five times without any complaints!

We had leftover spaghetti for dinner one night recently. Andrew had dropped some in his chair in the process of trying to eat. When he got down out of his chair, he saw the little mess, came around to me and took my napkin from me, and then used it to try and clean up his chair!

We were picking up some things at Target one evening. Ted let him get down off the cart and walk with us. We passed some wheeled suitcases and he veered that direction. We asked him to come along and he stopped and let out a fuss but then was obedient and caught up to us. Makes me proud!
After my pampered chef party the last day of April, instead of putting my adjustable foldable table away, I lowered it to the lowest height and left it against the wall between the dining room/kitchen and living room. Then I moved one of my kids chairs in from the studio. Andrew has thoroughly enjoyed having his own table and chair. I've been looking for one at consignment sales but havent found a plain basic one anywhere that is also sturdy. He has sat at this table to browse his baby books and other photo albums, to color, to eat or snack. He really likes it.

He wipes his mouth on his shoulder and sleeve whenever he is eating and feels food around his mouth.

Thursday evening he climbed up on the couch and then was just tapping his hand on the console like he was just bored and patiently waiting for what he wanted. Tap, tap, tap of the hand. When I pulled the video camera out though, he stopped.. naturally.

I ordered a set of LeapFrog dvds on amazon a few days ago, because I had nothing to offer him after the last signing dvd he has. He must have heard me tell daddy that because from the day I ordered them, to the day they came… he got upset with me when he'd ask for his video and there wasn't anything new to watch. He said no to EVERY video.. all the reading ones, all the signing ones, and Muzzy in English and Spanish. I had nothing! He seemed convinced that I was keeping something from him! I was so glad when those videos finally arrived! They focus on the alphabet letters and sounds. He already knew some of his letters, but I hadn't focused much on teaching him the sounds. He seems to be picking it up quickly. We can ask him what sounds letters make and he surprises us with how close he gets.
He seems to be learning letters faster now too. I spell words out for him when we're reading, but I think he has learned even more letters just in two days of being exposed to his new leapfrog dvd. Before dinner Wednesday night I held up some flashcards and asked him what some of the letters were and he actually said the letter! I was not holding up two different cards and asking him to choose a letter - he was saying the letter! He got several of them right before deciding not to play that game anymore. Another time we had his ABC book out and I was asking him to point to the letter ___, all out of order. He got all of them right from A to P before he decided not to be quizzed any longer.
I can't remember exactly what we were doing, but it was something to do with words. I, just out of curiosity, asked Andrew, "What is your favorite word?" He looked up at me and said, "Uuuup!" I told him, "I would agree with that" and we kept working.

I think his favorite color is orange. More than once I have asked him if he'd like to choose a shirt out of his closet to wear. He said 'yeah' and I held him up. Then you hear an excited inhale as he reaches out and grabs an orange shirt. Today he grabbed a long sleeved orange shirt which I thought would be too warm, so I asked him if he'd like to wear a short sleeved orange shirt instead. He consented. But I think it's interesting that each time I ask, he chooses an orange shirt. (watch, he wont ever do that again now that I've said it!)

Some random videos:

Andrew emptying water out of the wagon - the first time I think he got Nana. But he's soaking himself ultimately.


Having some fun with bubble wrap!


Play me a song, your the piano man! I'm actually trying to teach him the letters of the notes. I'm focusing on the C, D, and E keys and showing him how to recognize them according to the placement within the black keys. At one point I had just given him a 'lesson' and then asked, 'so, where is the C key?' He looked at the piano, stuck his arm straight up in the air with his pointer finger ready - and pounded it down on the ..... C key! Yeay! He got C and D right, but hit the F key for E. It's a start.


Our beater bar broke on our vacuum and I had sessions to get ready for. I had to ask Nana to bring her vacuum one day. Of course Andrew had a field day with that! I think he used it the entire time Nana was there!

The first time that I gave the entire banana to Andrew without cutting it up. He ate the entire thing! Not on the video of course... it's much more interesting to be taking the video than being IN the video apparently.

Trying to teach Andrew to color really tests my patience. For months it's been, "can you color on the paper?" .. "Honey, get the crayon out of your mouth." .. "Crayons are for paper, not your mouth." .. "Get the crayon out of your mouth." .. "Remember, crayons go on the paper." .. "Please don't throw your crayons." .. "Let's color the paper, not our teeth." .. "Stop eating the crayon." .. "Get it out of your mouth now!" .. "Forget it - we're not coloring." It drives me crazy. Markers seem to appeal to his mouth as well.

He wanted his word cards. Dropped them all over the floor. Tried to pick them up and kept dropping more. So I sat on the floor and started asking him if he could find words. He was getting every one right - even if they were upside down, sideways, or partly covered! I ran and got the camera, hoping he would continue. He did a little bit but he was more interested in the camera. oh well.


He is really good at stacking his big blocks now - all by himself!

One evening during dinner, I look over and Andrew is very proudly holding his cup with only his foot! I ran and got the camera. He stopped by then and I had to get him to try to do it again, this is all I got.

He's just a few days shy of being 20 months old. We asked him if he'd like to measure how tall he is. He said, "yeah" and we told him to stand in his doorway. This was the first time ever that he didn't squirm and wiggle or try to play with toys instead. He stood still while daddy put a ruler on his head and made a mark in the doorway. He is exactly 23.5 inches tall. That would be the average height (50th percentile) of a 21 month old boy. So I guess he's a month ahead of himself there.