Andrew Choked :(

Above is his lion/tiger roar from a few days ago


Tonight we came home from meeting, took a nap, and then headed off to have dinner at Applebees in order to avoid trick or treaters. Andrew choked on food tonight. It was a tiny piece of chicken but I guess it just got lodged in the wrong place or something. He started gagging and looking panicky and saliva started to pool in his mouth. I swabbed his mouth with my fingers, and managed to get it out the second time. He still ended up throwing up some and gagging on all the fluid. I was prepared to tip him upside down and push on his tummy to dislodge it, but he was a champ and we were able to avoid that sort of scene. Still an unnerving way to start dinner.

Below is hopefully a video of Andrew running down the hallway in his superman costume.

Blonde Baby Superman

I have several videos I wish would upload. I guess I can't use the blogger video upload successfully. I have videos of him roaring like a tiger, playing the piano and dancing, making the "muah" kissing sound, playing peekaboo under a blanket, and punching the insert of the diaper genie, as well as taking some steps, walking, and then running with his toys. 

Andrew roars like a Tiger whenever you ask... but appears to have forgotten what cats and cows and dogs say until you remind him. Everything is a tiger roar.  He does a really good job with it too!

At least once a day he goes to the front door and tries to turn the knob. Then he looks out the little window pane, and then sometimes will get upset that he's not able to get out.

Friday morning he was sitting reading one of his word books. Without saying anything I turned the page and he saw the word "hi" and said hi and waved.  I turn the page and he sees the word 'dog' and says "dah" for dog.  A few pages over he sees the word wave and starts waving his hand again without saying hi.   A couple of days ago, in another book we were reading words and he pointed to the page with milk on it and then showed me the sign for milk.

He is finally getting the sign for "finished, done" a little more distinguished. He puts his arm up in the air by his ear and flips his hand.  I'm guessing he raises his arm because most of the time when we sign, we are above him. Maybe I should work at signing at his level.

Right after Andrew was born, someone at Ted's work gave him a superman costume that their kid outgrew before wearing. The top just happens to fit him right now. The pants are a size bigger than the top and we ended up having to cut the bottoms off to shorten, but they still fall down on him.

pictures below:
Reading with Uncle Rudy...
Daily Walk with Nana...
Playing the piano with mommy...

Family Pictures!

We finally got updated family pictures! I was supposed to swap photography with another girl in town who has a kid two months older than Andrew, but things fell through so I hired Paula to come out to the farm and take pictures of us. There are some cute ones. 

Andrew can climb on the couch all by himself, and he loves to jump on it. I put him on the couch when he watches his reading video, and sometimes he stands up and crawls all over the couch. If I'm in the vicinity though, I can ask him to sit back down and he's pretty good at obeying.

He does not like broccoli. I dont know if it is texture or taste.. but he will take it back out of his mouth. He still loves green beans which we eat nearly every day.

Andrew has started to make kiss sounds, probably from all the times I kiss him on the cheek in a day.  "mmmm..uah" smacking his lips as he does it. So cute!

A couple of days recently, I let him run around outside pushing his mailbox in the driveway. He ran  barefoot the first time and took a chunk out of each big toe! Never has complained about it. I put manuka honey on them one night and Ted put neosporin on them two other times. I have crocs on him now when he walks around outside. Those are lightweight enough that it doesn't confuse his walking. He drags his toes because he runs instead of walks. He LOVES being outside.

The past couple of days have been really windy because of storms in the gulf. I take Andrew outside and he laughs at the wind blowing the leaves on the trees, and he loves it when I walk him under the branches of leaves and they touch his head or he can reach for them.

This morning Andrew helped unload the dishwasher.. he took out a plate and handed it to me to put away, then got the next one. He unloaded almost all the plates for me. The further the plates were from him, the harder he had to pull, and a couple of times when the plate finally came out he fell backwards. But it didn't phase him. What a good helper!

I read that in a play group, kids his age will want to play next to other kids rather than actually play with other kids. I dont think that is actually the case with Andrew. Sure, he enjoys playing next to them.. especially at the Hall where if he shows any interest in anyone he risks getting picked up or hauled off to walk somewhere. He just wants to play on the step there in the front.  Anyway, when I have customers come through.. he wants to play with the kids. Today we had severe weather roll through right as I was in the middle of an outdoor photoshoot. So we came in and hung out until the tornado warning passed. Andrew wanted to play with the little 2 year old girl, but she didn't want to play with him.

He doesn't like taking long baths anymore. He still lets me use the shower head on him, and then he plays with some toys for a few minutes, and then starts trying to climb out. He knows how to work the drain stopper now too.

You have to watch him with the diaper genie and the trash can. He likes to throw his toys in them - he just doesn't realize that it's a permanent loss if I dont catch what he's doing! But he finds the diaper genie to be great entertainment. He flips the top from side to side, and if the pusher in the middle doesn't move, he punches it to the other side and flips the top again to make it move back. He's so smart.

He has rediscovered his love for the game of peekaboo. He will put a napkin, a blanket, or even a piece of clothes over his head and sit and giggle before revealing himself. So fun!

I am so in love with my little boy. 

Sweet face

Electrical outlet covers do absolutely no good when your toddler can take them out himself. What is worse is that he tries to put them back in too. Which means... he'll eventually try to stick other things in those little holes too. And he does not like being told NO and dragged away from the outlets.

He is wanting to eat with a fork now. If he seems uninterested in finishing his food, all I have to do is give him a fork and he nearly wipes the tray clean. He has really great coordination with it too! I help him put food on the fork and it goes straight to his mouth.  The smaller the fork the easier it is for him obviously, but he does well even with a full size fork. 

Here are some pictures I took that show his big boy haircut and his sweet face:

FEET!

 I finally have a complete composite now. It's 10x30 which is an odd size, and probably bigger than life size. Maybe I can find a print size that is smaller and the same proportion to work with. Anyway.. here are Andrew's feet with our wedding rings from 5 days old to 1 year old. I think its pretty accurate. I did my best to resize each image to make the rings the same size, but they're all different angles but I'm certain it's very close to accurate. The 6 month to 9 month shots look deceiving since the one foot on the 6 month image is higher than the other making the difference between the 6 month image and the 9 month image look negligible. I need to do an overlay composite to see the growth of the feet too. That could be both odd and interesting. I think you can click on these to make them larger.

First Professional Haircut

I had trimmed the hair around Andrews ears, and along his neckline a few times already, but Ted and I both thought it was time for him to get a big boy haircut. So we went to Sports Clips tonight and let him get a real haircut. They did a fantastic job. Of course it helps that he is so good.

He is finally getting the 'kuh' sound of the C. Today Nana said he looked at the cat and perfectly clearly said "Cat" to her. We were practicing the c sound yesterday and he had it down pretty well, I just haven't heard him use it with any words yet.

Speaking of yesterday.. this kid eats like a horse!! We went to celebrate a friend's anniversary with their family at Mellow Mushroom. I ordered a large veggie pizza thinking Andrew could eat the toppings on that one just fine. While we were waiting, I gave him an organic kid's cliff bar. He ate the entire thing! Then some cereal puffs, and probably an entire pizza slice worth of pizza toppings of black and green olives, mushrooms, onions, pepper, tomato, feta cheese, spinach, and broccoli, as well as some pizza crust. He was eating so fast I hardly got a chance to eat a piece of pizza myself! I just couldnt believe how he was putting it away!  After dinner we went to Sweet Cece's for dessert and he got a few bites of pomegranate raspberry frozen yogurt with chocolate chips in and thought it was the best thing since sliced cheese. He was not happy when that was gone.  But he has been eating like that lately.  The other day he ate an entire apple and more in one sitting.  Today he ate some turkey, green beans, some apple, and an entire half of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch when he'd just had a bottle of milk probably 40 minutes earlier. For dinner tonight he didn't eat as much, but he ate a mound of sauteed mushrooms and onions, and a big slice of tomato.. he didn't really care for the broccoli even with the cheese on it but I think it might have been a texture thing for him although it could be because the broccoli got cold. He did eat some of it - just not most of it.

At the restaurant yesterday there was a little girl with us. I'm guessing she is around 3 to 4. Anyway, she came over and was pretending to be a lion and roaring at Andrew. All of a sudden Andrew started roaring back! It was so funny.

This afternoon when I was trying to prepare his dinner, he was crawling around smacking his lips like he was trying to make a kissing sound.

He is walking really well, but still playing it safe. He will walk across a room slowly and then decide he wants to move faster and either finds something to push along like a walker or he crawls. He tries to run sometimes when you hold his hand. He really wants to move!

He enjoys playing the piano. He now knows how to open the lid and will stand there and play. I moved a metal suitcase over there so he would have something low to stand on that would give him just enough height to be able to play easily. Now he stands on it and plays and dances at the same time. Sometimes he sings too.

He says a lot of words but they're not all totally correct or understandable to someone who is not around him all the time. He says dog, ball, cat, duck, egg, tries to say elephant and comes out more Elle, says moo, meow, mama, dada, neh - whatever that is. Ta-da-da-da. I think he has said truck before. He makes motor noises to the picture of a tractor.  He says 'more' but I've already mentioned that in a previous post. I'm sure he says a lot more words than I realize too, but typically at his age they're happy if he tries to say 6 different words. He definitely has that down.

I forgot to mention that the pediatrician felt it necessary to go ahead and warn me of other people's reactions. Since he acts and looks so much older than he really is - strangers will judge him accordingly. Which means typically people will expect more of him not realizing he's younger.

I love how easy it is to communicate with Andrew. At the restaurant Sunday, when he wanted something to drink, he started signing for milk and I was able to give him his sippy cup of water. No tears, no frustration, no screaming or whining like I've seen other kids do to get what they want.  When he is eating, we can ask him with words and with signing "do you want more, or are you done?" He will usually respond appropriately. If he wants more, he'll say "moe." If he's done and you try to offer him more he shuts his eyes and shakes his head no.  If you are offering him a choice of foods, he will shake his head to one but open his mouth to another or reach for the other. If he's finished he tries to sign 'finished' but sometimes it looks like the sign for milk when he does it. He is using that sign less and just reaching out for your hands if you are signing what he wants.  But I understand it all and its so great!

I know there are other things he has been doing I just can't remember them long enough to post.

"You Have the Best Baby!"

It is always pleasing to a parent's ears to have someone else comment on how well behaved their child is. FOUR times in one day is pretty great too.  We went in the ministry yesterday morning despite it messing up his nap time and the lady at the door commented on how well behaved he is.
Then at meeting last night, the minute the meeting ended three more people came over and told me how great Andrew is and how well behaved he is. Apparently, one mom even was using him as an example to her four year old who wouldn't sit still and wouldn't stop talking, "look! Andrew is sitting still and being quiet and he's three years younger than you!" LOL  Just wait!  He'll have his turn.  Another mom who just moved here has a one year old and a six year old and she was lamenting that she will have the loud on in the hall since mine is so quiet. She said even her six year old was never that still and quiet. 

Well, I dont actually consider Andrew to be still and quiet - but he IS really really good! He minds us really well. One mom was telling me that before the meeting he tried to crawl onto the stage and Ted just told him to come back down, and Andrew responded obediently. And during the meeting we tell him to sit down or turn back around and he is pretty good about that also.  Well, yesterday he missed his afternoon nap altogether so we were worried about what we were in for at the meeting. So I suggested we pray in the car before going in. Ted said a prayer for us and that prayer was definitely answered!! Andrew sat in his chair, I put his bookbag in the seat next to him so he can pull out whatever he wants. He looked at a couple of books, chewed on some toys, and threw all of them one by one on the floor and then would peer over the edge to see each item on the floor before getting another one.  Then he looked at another book for a little while and each time he got to the page with a chicken and an egg on it, he put his forehead to the egg.  We have no idea what that was about - he did it over and over again.  Then all of a sudden, he stood up in his chair, crawled into daddy's lap - keeled over and went to sleep! He has NEVER done THAT!  No bottle, no urging from us.. nothing. We were even able to put our coats on the floor and lay him on those and he slept the rest of the meeting. We've never been able to do that either! He wakes up if we shift him, never mind lay him all the way down!  It was pretty strange for us!

Here are my sharp looking young men before meeting:

12 Month Stats

We had his 12 month pediatrician appointment this morning. He's "awesome" as usual. He is the average height of an 18 month old, which by the way is off the charts for a 12 month old. He is right where he should be with fine motor skills, but advanced in language and something else. No surprise really.

His weight was 23 pounds and 1 ounce which is in the 50th percentile. Up about 2lbs since 9 months.
Length was 32 1/4 inches which is off the charts again. Up 2 1/4 inches from 9 months.
His head circumference was 47 1/2cm which is in the 85th percentile. Up 1cm from 9 months.

At his 9 month appointment, his iron levels were low. The product they told me to buy for that, after looking at it I realized didn't even contain iron! So I informed them of that today - but I had again, taken matters into my own hands. I bought some organic whole food green powder that has whole fruits and vegetables in it and I put a little bit in each bottle. It is packed with nutrients... and I'm pretty confident is part of the reason his iron levels were in the perfect range today.  He eats a wide variety of food anyway, but since I know he is getting so many nutrients from the green food powder, I dont worry so much about how much he gets from the rest of the food during the day.

The other day I was using fresh garlic for something and when I smashed the bulb, garlic cloves went flying everywhere. Andrew scrambled to get one as I was scrambling to pick them all back up. He was trying to eat one that still had the garlic paper on it. So I peeled it and gave it back. He actually took a big bite out of it!! He made a little bit of a face as it was probably burning his tongue - but he never spit it out!

He has more toys than he knows what to do with. Mommy and daddy both have bought him some more lately too. They are taking over the house. I wish we had a dedicated play room. I think they are just as overwhelming to him.

I think he said "love" yesterday. Aunt Annelise was holding him and repeating "I love you" and he said, "Laa" in the same tone as her, which very well may have been Love.

He loves to be chased. If he thinks you are chasing him he squeals with delight and tenses up in expectation of being tickled. I chase him up and down the hallway sometimes and it is hilarious to hear him laugh so hard. I wish I could bottle it all up.  He likes it too when I chase him with the fire truck.
Yesterday evening when Aunt Eese was visiting, he was pushing his mailbox up and down the hallway and we'd chase him... but when he would get to his room, he'd turn the toy around, and then try to RUN back down the hallway. So cute. He didn't have much grip on the bottom of his feet so he didn't have much traction and his little feet would slide.

He is walking really well, even getting up off the floor without holding on to anything, but he still prefers crawling it seems.

Ham Festival

Saturday there was a Ham Festival in town, sponsored by local businesses. I thought we could check it out. It is definitely tailored to kids older than Andrew... and adults. We didn't stick around for the pig races and hog calling contests since I had a photoshoot later. But here are some pictures of Andrew at the festival.

"I can almost reach it!"

Apple Picking.. the tree is just his size!

This is Andrew NOT digging for potatoes

Welcome to Fall!

We have had to start using his long sleeves and long pants in the mornings here lately since it gets so cold at night all of a sudden. No more just running around in diapers!  He's starting to outgrow the summer stuff now anyway so I guess it is good timing.The 24 month size is still just a little bit too long in the arms and legs for him, but not to the point of losing his hands and feet so they work just fine, and should be perfect during winter.  I did finally find his size socks at Target. The 12-24 months socks someone gave us from BabyGap are way too tight - he hates those socks. And other ones I had are getting too small, he is starting to pull those off too. And he hates shoes.

I dont think I have ever remembered to mention this.. but for a while now, when you open the fridge he goes shopping in it. But when you say, "door closing!" he immediately gets out of the way. 
He still loves to play with the dishwasher. He likes the wheels on the racks, but his latest favorite thing to do is push them in and then push up the door to close it. Not very helpful when you're trying to load it. He does occasionally help unload it.. he takes out a spoon or fork. Of course.. they go to his mouth and then straight back into the dishwasher. 

His favorite pastime is to throw things down the stairs.  Anything he can find - goes down the stairs. Big or little - it goes down the stairs unless you catch him trying and stop him. He is pretty good about listening when we tell him from across the room that the big item needs to stay up here and not go down the stairs. He then goes to find something smaller to throw down.

Today I had lunch with three fellow photographers and then we went back to one's house. He climbed up and down her stairs over and over again.. that is all he wanted to do. The funny thing is, he'd find something on the floor, take it up the stairs with him, and then throw it down.

He occasionally takes his passion for throwing his toys somewhere to the bathroom and throws books and toys in the tub. I imagine it is just a matter of time before they get flushed.  He has also once thrown something in the trash.  I prefer the times when he throws them into another toy.. the Jeep, the mailbox, or a bucket.

Daddy bought him some new toys. He got a basketball goal for the bathtub that came with a few balls. Another bath toy that is a truck that can be pushed around like a regular truck, but it also floats. And then a non-water toy that you press down on a button and it makes music and then shoots balls up through a hole, then they go down a slide and shoot back up out the hole. He gets a kick out of it. The first day Nana was back on the job after we got the toy - he was really excited to show her his new toy. It was the first thing he wanted to play with when getting up from his nap.  The first few days though, as soon as you turn it on, he'd crawl farther away from it and then turn around to watch and sit there smiling and laughing. Now he tries to catch the balls as they come out the top. He's so cute.

Last Sunday we sat him in his own seat again, but this time he was more squirmy and fussy. Not bad at all, but not still and quiet like the week before.  Well, right near the end of the meeting, he had a pathetic look on his face and when he caught my eyes he started signing for milk. Ted and I looked at each other and frowned - our baby was just hungry this whole time!! As soon as he finished his milk he was fine again! He shouldn't have been hungry - he ate a good lunch before we left.. but I guess he just wanted some milk. I'm so glad we started signing with him so early!

His signing also helps when we're eating. I can ask him if he wants something in particular and he will shake his head no if he doesn't want that. If he wants milk he will sign for it, and when he wants down he'll sign "finished" in his cute little way or keep putting his arms up. You can also tell when he's done because he starts throwing his food over the side. Flash has caught on to that and comes looking for goodies periodically. The other day I'm sure Andrew was just trying to share his food with Flash for the fun of it. He's been a really good eater as far as the variety of food goes... chili with red and black beans, sauteed mushrooms, sweet onions, green peas, broccoli/spinach straws, turkey, chicken, tomato chunks, corn tortillas with hummus, zucchini chunks, apples with peanut butter, banana puffs with peanut butter (i make little mini sandwich towers out of those) .... he eats just about anything I put in front of him. He certainly has his favorites - like cheese - that I have to give him after he has eaten a good selection of other foods.

He is still obsessed with his reading videos. I only let him watch them twice a day and at certain times.. but when he wants to watch them and its not time - he is persistent and hard to distract with other things. He LOVES books and loves to read words.

.."aT" .. "eOw"

Starting last week, whenever we are outside, Andrew is crawling on hands and feet instead of his knees when he's outside. I guess he figures it is still faster than just walking upright.

He is fighting us about going to bed at night. One of us is having to sit and hold him longer or hold him down in the crib until he relaxes. Otherwise he stands up and screeaaaams to the point of gagging and then screams some more until I go in and just hold him until he falls asleep.

During our family study, we were covering a chapter in the Family Happiness book about the importance of cleanliness, and the benefits of cleanliness. In one particular paragraph it mentioned the negative effects of smoking. Andrew made a funny noise and I interrupted myself to say, "thats right, that's what you would sound like if you smoked." He leaned his body toward daddy and daddy pretended to cough and hack. So for the next minute Andrew was making all sorts of noises like a smoker cough and hack. It was humorous given the lesson.

Sunday during the meeting he sat in his own seat again, although he was more fussy this meeting. At one point he was looking through one of his books. I used my fingers to cover up all the words in one sentence except for "cats" and then waited. He started saying, "aT" ... "eow"  lol. (He emphasizes the T) He read that word himself.. I never said it.  Then during the family study Monday night, he got down and started chasing Tripod and saying "aT, eow. aT, eow."

Before starting to make dinner, I gave Ted a big hug. Andrew walked over and pulled on my pant leg. So I picked him up and we very excitedly gave him a couple of "group hug!" squeezes. He got a kick out it. But then as I was holding him, he looked at daddy and just leaned his head into Ted's shoulder with a big smile. Then he did it again. Then he looked up at me and leaned his head into my shoulder and looked up at me with a smile. I think that was his version of hugs. So sweet.

He is walking a lot now. Today he walked from one side of his room to the other, from one side of the kitchen to the other, and from the bathroom to the couch. Of course smaller steps in there too.

Ted gets a kick out of saying "da da da daaaa" and having Andrew repeat it. He'll even do it really fast if Ted does.

Since he is 12 months now, it was time to add another line in his doorway to mark how tall he is. He grew half an inch over last month. Ted said Andrew is now about 2 feet, 6-3/4 inches tall. We just weighed him (of course it is after dinner) and he weighed in at 23.5 pounds on our digital scale. So somewhere in that vicinity. I'd say it's safe to say he is 23 pounds.

Andrew holding his "Green Juice". It's raw organic whole food, fruits and veggies in a powder that I mix with water and apple juice for him to get lots of nutrients.

Forgot a picture

He found some stickers last Friday morning and was trying to eat them. So I took them all off and stuck them to him to see what he'd do. 

Walking!

Andrew is finally figuring out in his head that he can walk. It isn't a mindless accident anymore. He will walk only holding onto one hand now although he still prefers two. He walks a few steps on his own several times a day. At one point today he took about 10-15 steps, and I also just saw him turn in a circle standing up and not holding onto anything. He's getting it!

His teeth seem to really be bugging him lately, but he is doing so well dealing with it! Anytime he seems to be chewing on things excessively - be it books, toys, or toilet paper, I know he's either teething or hungry. It is easy to narrow down from there.

He impressed me the other night. I made a cajun 16 bean chili. He actually ate several mouthfuls! I was worried what would come after though so I put some activated charcoal in with his milk to help ward off any gas. I guess it worked.

Now that he is a year, milk should only be supplemental to his solid foods. But... with his teething, sometimes I think he just prefers drinking his meals. But I'm not putting much formula in any bottles. I have been mixing several milks together.. rice, unsweetened almond (which is gross by the way.. never buy unsweetened), organic cows milk, goat milk, and even coconut milk. He doesn't seem to care. I find that amazing.. I am picky about milk myself.  At the same time, I know he can't possibly be getting his daily nutrition from any of those milks.. so on days he wont eat much solid food, I'm in limbo as to what to give him in his bottle. Last night I gave him a smoothie that had all sorts of wierd stuff in it. It definitely needed sugar.. but he drank it. Poor kid. :-P

He seems to know some body parts.. but only occasionally will show you when you ask. He knows eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, nose, ears, feet, and hair. The funny thing is when you ask for nose, he sticks his finger up it rather than just touch his nose. 

He is better about being gentle petting the cat.. although yesterday he grabbed the tail and pulled Flash across the floor. Flash didnt seem to care. Flash comes running and collapses at Andrew's feet sometimes just to get attention.

He loves to play on our bed. He throws himself onto the pillows and bounces and rolls all over. Today he was even standing up all by himself and then throwing himself down! 

The other day he got into the toilet paper, big time. He hadn't for a while: 

Here he is laying on the couch watching his video. I love that I dont have to worry about him getting down - he does just fine on his own.

Here is his messy hair after a bath:

Pictures outside. In one he is putting a leaf back on the tree. Another he is walking toward me.:

Another one of him watching his reading video but he is holding the remote too which is funny.