"I'm having FUN!"

Thursday we had some running around to do early in the morning. Andrew was fabulous as usual. I took him to the library where he played with the train table for a while, did the Creative Movement dance class, then some art on the computer, then back to the train table. One of the other moms asked me how old he was and told me that he is so kind and plays well with the others.  Always nice to hear.

I bought Andrew his own small flashlight to have since he's  often wanting ours and we don't want the battery to run out on it.  Thursday evening after I had put him to bed already, I saw a soft blue light under his door. Then I got closer and heard him giggle. I went in there and he was shining the flashlight at the ceiling.  He had gotten out of bed, grabbed his flashlight off the bookshelf, and tucked himself back in. I told him it was time to sleep and took the flashlight away and told him he could play with it another time.

Sunday we had an impromptu photoshoot behind Annelise's house. I set up my camera so all she had to do was take the photos. At one point, she was taking photos of Ted and me and Andrew was repeatedly running down the hill and leaping, throwing himself into the tall grass.
  We went to her hall after lunch. When he was given a chance to read his answer during the Watchtower - he yelled the first word, shrunk back in his seat and said,  "oh, that was loud." That of course made the now very awake congregation chuckle. We convinced him to go ahead and try again and he did fine, but he seemed very self-conscious and disappointed in himself.
   After changing into play clothes, we took him to a place to ride go-carts and play some arcade games. He enjoyed that. Skeeball was a little scary to be around. He'd throw the ball and there was no telling where it'd go - but it'd come back somehow.  Then we went to Jim n Nicks for dinner. He ordered "a quesadilla and mac n cheese, and that's all!" while emphatically waving his open hand at the waitress with each word.

Monday - he started telling all of us things followed by "that's your two options" or "eleven options"
I let him go out early and play in the sandpile in the yard. He came running in and said he needed a steam roller and took my rolling pin out of the drawer before heading back outside.
   Later, we were in the office and he was rummaging in my drawers. He found a giant bag of rubberbands. He dumped them out into a "sand pile" and a couple of minutes later was tossing them up and they were landing all over the room. He cheerfully yelled, "I'm having FUN!"  I let him do it - then let him and daddy clean it up together later.

Tuesday, Nana and Andrew tagged along to one of my photoshoots. As soon as we start the car, he asks for "kingdom hall music".  He was belting out the words to "Preach the word" and it really was adorable and hilarious at the same time to listen to it.  Nana was nearly in stitches.

Tuesday evening I let him watch a video while he ate, to encourage him to eat more before bed. The video wasn't over when he was finished eating so I stopped it and told him he could watch it tomorrow.  Wednesday morning he came in my room at 6:47 and the first words out of his mouth, "I want my video."

Wednesday it was back to gymnastics, but this time we had a friend from the hall. Parker is the same age and absolutely fearless. It was perfect. The teacher couldn't be there today so they had to join the younger group but they didn't seem to mind. And at the end I requested that they let Parker ride the zip line in front of Andrew - and sure enough, that made Andrew want to ride it. They both had so much fun. They were rewarded (without permission) with candy. Both of them picked something red. Andrew had a twizzler. I let him eat it anyway, but it made for a more stressful afternoon and evening. He got a little wild, then he got mean. He'd kick you on purpose, do the opposite of whatever you said, and overall was just unpleasant to be around.  I wish red dye was banned.

Wednesday evening he read his answer but held onto the mic. He took a quick breath and started to say "I love you" as we whisked the microphone away from him. Everyone else only heard "i love"  
He has also recently caught on to the routine of passing the microphone down to whoever is commenting.  He got very upset when I passed the microphone directly to each other instead of letting Andrew help.

Thursday was gorgeous. Shorts and t-shirt weather. He played in his sand pit with his tonka trucks and tools and my rolling pin. I pushed him on the swings a bit, and he climbed his fort several times.
Later I was preoccupied in the kitchen and decided to let him have the rest of his train table that I've been hiding. I brought him a big box of wooden tracks and trains and cars to drive on them. He loved it! I even managed to put all the track together so it all fit and looped around and over so everything was connected. He's enjoying it so far.
 He was in my room and was stepping into my tennis shoes. He told me, "these are just like Aunt Eese's she used to jump on fire and she had her piggy tails to help her and she jumped over like Andy." He was remembering seeing pictures at her house of her jumping over fire during the Warrior Dash. She also had a photo of another friend jumping the fire who he thought was Andy Zylstra.
  In the evening we were all outside for a little bit. Andrew asked if he could use his go-cart but I told him it didn't work. We needed to charge the battery and we were unsure of where the charger was. He said, "It's probably in the freezer."  "In the freezer? I dont think it's there." I say.  Then Ted realized the connection - we keep batteries in the freezer and in his mind, the go-cart just needs a new battery.
  I got him to take a bath and put some dish soap in to give him some soapy bubbles to play in. He asked for a cup. He kept filling the cup and dumping water over his toy sailboat. A little later he took the washcloth and threw it to the back of the tub, then stood up and flung cups of water at it. With a huge grin on his face he squealed, "I'm having fun!"