Self-Sufficient

I love how self-sufficient Andrew has become. He gets up quietly and lets us stay asleep in the mornings. The security camera shows that he came out one Monday morning, went to the kitchen and got a cup and the container of juice and brought them back to his little table in the living room. He opened the cup, read the outside of it, then poured juice into it. He put the lid on, but the straw he had for it didn't fit the cup. He went back and fort a couple of times and each straw was the wrong one. So then he came back with a thermos. Taking the top back off the first cup, some juice spilled on his shirt. So off with the shirt. He pours the juice into the thermos but it doesn't fill it to the top so he went back to the fridge for the juice and filled the thermos to the tippy top. He stared at it for a second and then leaned over and sipped from it so it wouldn't spill when he put the top on it. Picks it up and sips some more. Puts the top on and it does spill a little bit, but there are no napkin/rag/towels in the pantry because they're all in the dryer. He gets a kitchen towel instead and cleans up the spill. Then when he goes to put the top back on the juice, I guess he sees there isn't much left in there, so he drinks from the juice container. Puts it back on his table and gets his thermos and goes to sit on the couch and drink. He sees he forgot to put away the juice, so he gets back up and puts it away. Puts his shirt back on and gets on the couch. Then he switches sides of the couch to get under a blanket and plays with his leappad for a bit and then gets off to get his ipad.  Some mornings I find empty yogurt cups on the table so I know he fed himself too.

A few days ago I was helping Andrew brush his teeth. He stopped me and said, "when I get a little older, can we put string across my teeth so they don't fall out?"  I explained to him that the teeth he has now are called baby teeth because he was a baby when they came in, but eventually those will fall out and he will grow adult teeth in their place and those he will keep. He seemed okay with it. I think he was nervous because several of his friends are at the age of losing teeth.

I was using the red light therapy on him and asked if he could count to twenty for me. He said, "no, but I can count to ten and then count backwards from ten after that."  I'm just going to assume that he knows ten plus ten is twenty.  Other times he'd decide to count to twelve but start at six going up to twelve and then start over at one and go to five. 

One Monday late morning we took the Equinox in to get a computer update. Andrew was dressed as Ironman and in the waiting room the lady seated behind me spoke to him. After introducing himself as Ironman in a deep whisper, I gave him his ipad to play. He takes it and then asks if he can go sit in the row next to the lady who spoke to him.  I told her "you spoke to him, so you made a new friend."  He was so good, and so polite and kind while we waited over an hour.  Later he was pretending the floor was water and the seats were boats and the play area was dry land. He had his first taste of a hostess cupcake which of course he wanted to know where to get more.
Afterward we went to hobby lobby so I could get a new baby album, and daddy and Andrew picked out a rocket to build and launch. Then we all experienced Chik-fil-A for the first time. They had a nice little play area that we let Andrew play in for an hour and a half or so.  He was so good.

He's been very kind and affectionate lately. Probably because he was out of school for a couple of weeks.  I was sitting on the couch studying one day and he stood next to me smiling. Then he said, "I'd really love a hug."  Finally! I finally convinced him that he can have hugs anytime - not just when he's hurt or going to bed!  So he has been hugging us a lot randomly and telling us out of the blue, "i love you!"   Other times he'll ask, "Do you know how much I love you?"  and then give you some crazy numbers that often include infinity too. 

One day we had subzero temperatures and a half inch of icy snow. I bundled him up and the only skin showing was a tiny circle around his mouth and eyes. He lasted about ten minutes before he came in and asked if his skin was red and burned because it felt so frozen. He didn't ask to go out again.

Andrew and I were chatting in his bed and we were talking about how far away school is. How his is halfway between home and my school.  At some point I asked him "do you know what the middle of something is?"  He said, "Yeah, it's where this half and this half come together."  I couldn't have said it better myself.
Another night he described in perfect detail how to tie shoes. I told him that is how but sometimes our hands just have a hard time with it and asked if he'd like to practice the next day. He said "I would like to try that - in your room." 

One afternoon he had the sniffles again. He said, "Sniffles, I'm gonna tell you something. Return to sender with consciousness attached."  lol