Mess and Fun!

Andrew was looking in the mirror as he washed his hands and noticed he had hair sticking up on his head from wearing his hat.  "Uh oh!! Uh oh!! Mommy fix it?"

For some unknown reason, he also thinks he should be able to climb on top of the toilet seat and use his toes to flush. He is successful at it, but I'm not sure where this idea came from. 

Tuesday, March 13th, we were leaving the house to go to the park and play with Grandma. I just casually asked Andrew what our address is. He said "Eleven O Five Claire Drive"  I couldn't believe I was hearing right!! I knew he knew the name of our street, but I had no idea he knew the house number!  He also knows the name of the road that takes us to our street... Beechcroft.
And as we're driving along, he knows where friends live, or where to pick up Nevin from school (we did that ONE time!), or which stores and restaurants we will pass. He seems to know his way around.

Also on Tuesday.. after going to the park for an hour, we met our realtor Forrest Moody to talk about houses for Grandma and Grandpa. After lunch, we ended up driving all over the place showing Grandma houses. I had him in big boy underwear before we left the house and we didn't change him to a pull-up. He made it all the way to 4:45pm before having a slight accident on a neighborhood playground! We were able to take him into a house and let him go potty then.  I'm so proud of him.. going ALL day in big boy underwear and only having one small accident is really good!  I think we're only on day 3 of him actually wearing pants at home and telling us when he needs to potty, rather than him running around naked. Grandma razzed him about being half naked when she was coming inside Saturday and ever since he's wanted to wear pants. Thanks Grandma! It's a step in the right direction!

notice his feet aren't touching the ground here! Hop hop hop!

spreading dandelions in some unsuspecting yard of a house we were looking at for Grandma

Lately Andrew is interested in learning the proper names for things and people. At the meeting Wednesday night, he'd point to people and say, "name"  asking me to tell him their name so he can learn them. And he repeats a lot of people's names when they are called on to answer.  At home or at stores, he'll point to something or pick up something and ask, "what is it?" or "what's this?"  

Friday March 16th, neither of us had to work and wanted to spoil Andrew.  We ate a nice breakfast of sausage and eggs and decided we'd take Andrew to AMuse'um which is a kids play place we'd never been to. We also decided (hesitantly) to go crazy and introduce Andrew to donuts as a secondary breakfast. We took him to the Donut Palace (another place we've never been to) and let him have his pick of donuts. Ted correctly guessed he'd go for the one with sprinkles.  So he got his first donut today: a chocolate glazed, sprinkles covered donut.  He was intrigued with the sprinkles and after eating a few, held one up and asked, "what's this?"  So he learned he likes sprinkles today. lol
Ted thinks it's noteworthy to report that Andrew had a real conversation with another little boy today. At Amuseum there was a 4 year old boy that was being friendly and trying to engage Andrew. They were picking apples (magnetic to stick to magnets on fake tree limbs) together and planting vegetables in the garden area, etc.  The boy eventually went up to Andrew and asked "hey, what's your name? what's your name kid?"  Andrew pointed to himself and said, "Andrew!"  The boy repeated the name and went back to playing. Andrew seemed happy to have made a friend.  All of the kids were well behaved and nice there today.. a nice change from Storybook Village.

Andrew has also been enjoying helping daddy get a garden ready. He loves riding in daddy's truck, and dad has had to make several trips to get a truckload of dirt to put in our raised garden beds.  And although he is interested in the lawnmower - he does not like it or the "weed cracker" (weed whacker) to be on because they are so loud.

Saturday, after Ted got the last load of dirt for the rainy day, he wanted to wash his truck so the dirt wouldn't stain it. So we get out the dish soap and rags and the hose. When we were pretty  much done, we let Andrew have the hose and showed him how to hold the sprayer. He kept spraying the yard and the driveway instead of the truck, so we had to keep reminding him to spray the truck. I'm standing just about 5 feet to his right. He looks at me and softly says, "spray mommy?" and turns the hose on me! I think he did that twice before he did it to daddy too.  I got some great pictures of the hose battles though. It was fun.

The Map Puzzle

Here is a video of Andrew putting his map puzzle together all by himself.

My little artist

I forgot to ever mention that Andrew has figured out how to get a tricycle to go. He doesn't steer very well, but he can make it go forward and backward once he gets going. Sometimes he has trouble getting it started.  (this is a tricycle at Storybook Village) I found a used Tonka Truck Bicycle with training wheels for only $15 so went ahead and got it, knowing full well Andrew isn't ready for it.  Of course it's all he talked about so thankfully we had a day of mild weather where he could get on it and see for himself.

A sure sign that we have eaten out too much:  Andrew has figured out that we tell the person who comes to the table what we want to eat. He practically yells at them "Soup please!! Soup! Andrew wants some soup please!"  LOL  He orders all on his own too. The odd thing is when the server actually thinks that is okay.

Recently daddy was home when Andrew awoke from his nap. He told daddy that he gave a talk on stage. Ted told me Andrew must have dreamed that because of how he was telling daddy what he did. We keep telling him he has to practice his reading to get better before he can give a talk.  I'm starting to find him reading out loud to himself all on his own.. I guess he's practicing! 

 Andrew has a few toy phones lying around. When he finds one he tells me he wants to call someone. I ask him who he's going to call. It can vary - Aunt Eese, Nana, Papa, Grandma, Muzzy - even the vacuum cleaner!  Friday morning he told me he was going to call the vacuum. I asked him what he thought the vacuum would say...   "noise."  So true!

I was in andrews room putting away clothes.. i hear him playing with toys in the living room. He yells "Booyah!"

Andrew has taken it upon himself to be in charge of emptying the other garbage cans into the big kitchen garbage. He does so at least every other day. He gets a trash can out of the bathroom, brings it to the kitchen. Turns off the automatic kitchen lid, takes the lid off and sets it on the floor. Empties the trash into it, puts the lid back on the garbage can, and returns the trash can to its place. Repeat with next trash can from other bathroom and office. 

He now asks for peanut butter and jelly for lunch nearly every day.

I think he may have some blood sugar issues like I did growing up. Last Saturday we made a jaunt through Kroger and Andrew got all excited to see a bin of those Cadbury chocolate creme eggs. I figured I'd let him have that awful experience and let him pick one and put it in the cart.  We didn't give it to him until Sunday morning. Daddy helped him bite off the tip, and then barely stick his tongue in the goo. The egg cracked and Ted let him have just a small piece of the chocolate layer. That was all he had.  I know refined sugar gives children an energy high, but then causes the blood sugar to drop lower that it started. I was kind of hoping he'd get his energy high out before the Sunday meeting and then he'd be mellow for the meeting.  Well.. I sort of got my wish. He acted so tired and out of it. It almost scared Ted and me.  I took him into the bathroom and gave him some snacks and he perked up a bit. whew!  Not doing that again!!
I KNOW he is affected by food coloring. He is not very nice shortly after having something with food coloring. I've only knowingly done that twice and both times he got destructive and defiant.

Andrew really enjoys painting.. but even moreso, he likes "white glue." I let him paint on paper and then give him the white glue and some pasta and he'll glue a few pieces to the paper.

A few months ago we bought Andrew a challenging puzzle. Its of the United States. Its definitely over his age group for activities.. but he really likes it. The astounding part is he can do the entire thing! He did the ENTIRE puzzle by himself yesterday. Just about a week ago I only had to help him with three pieces.  Sometimes I think he is testing me.. lol. He'll put a piece down on the board in the wrong place and then say, "nope!"  I ask what piece he has, he tells me, and then I ask where does that go. And he puts in the right place without me telling him. In this picture, this is how far he got with NO help. After this, I only helped him with three pieces.

We also took him to the Discovery Center in Murfreesboro one Saturday. It was quite overwhelming. Here are a few pictures from some of the activities: