Category: Updates about Andrew

Jan. 14: Andrew decided not to nap yesterday.  He was in his room for a couple hours, but he was singing and shouting and very much not sleeping.
After he got up, I decided to make a run back to Target with him to pick up a few more big plastic tubs (red and green on sale post-Christmas) so I can store all the books that got bumped when I made space for “little sister’s” pretty things.
The drive to Target was fine, but as I turned off the car, the CD we were listening to switched tracks, and the story Goldilocks and the Three Bears was up next.  Andrew decided he wanted to listen to the whole story NOW.  As I pulled him out of the car, he threw an incredible tantrum.
So I got stubborn and put him under one arm and carried him into the store kicking and screaming.  As we walked through the store, me 8 1/2 months pregnant, Andrew screaming and thrashing under one arm as I pushed the cart with the other arm, I couldn’t help but imagine all the other shoppers who must be looking at me with varying degrees of pity and relief that they weren’t me!

Dec. 31: Hmmm.  As I type, Andrew is watching The Dance of the Hours on Fantasia.
At the part where the hippo emerges from the fountain, Andrew turned to me with a big smile and said, “It’s a mommy, mommy hippo!”  “Just like YOU!”
Maybe he just likes the hippo a lot.  Or maybe my girth is very reminiscent of a ballet-dancing hippo…

Nov. 29: Andrew is so cute these days, it just makes me want to pop.  Bryan feels the same way.  In fact, last night as we were laying in bed, he said, “I think I might love Andrew too much.”  When I asked him why, he said that he was thinking back on all the adorable things he was doing this evening and just wanted to go in and pinch him.
I love that “must-pinch-the-cute-baby” feeling.
We got Andrew a baby doll the other day, and he’s been having fun playing with her.  She is called either Little Sister or Bucky Badger.  He sings to her and puts her down to sleep in the little box she came in.  And last night, he pretended to body slam her.  But thanks to Bryan’s intervention, he only pantomimed the attack.  We’re very gentle with babies.
In other news, my belly is getting enormous.  And the little one in there got the hiccups for the first time the other day.  Nice, rhythmic bumps in my belly.  Last night, she was doing an Irish dance while I was trying to fall asleep. Silly baby!
I added a commenting feature back to the website, and I have plans to upgrade my photo gallery program.  It’s going to involve backing up and migrating databases, so I’m a little nervous, but I’m going to give it a whirl.
Happy last days of November!
~Althea

Nov. 24: Andrew is such a beautiful, amazing little person.  He’s been sick with a cold for the last week.  The bad cough is gone, and now he just has a runny nose.  Who knows when that will clear up.  Hopefully by April.
The little guy is currently watching Robin Hood again.  He loves that show.  It’s funny to watch him try to walk out of the room when it’s on TV.  He keeps his eyes glued to the screen while his legs move him off to the side.
A few cute things that Andrew has been up to these days:

• My aunt Julie gave us a book that plays 200 bird songs.  Andrew adores it.  The other day, we actually sat and played each page, which took us an hour and 15 minutes.  It is absolutely his favorite book/activity these days.
• Andrew is taken up an adorable habit of saying to his toys or to me or Bryan or to stuffed animals in stores, “You are my BEST friend.  I love you SO MUCH.”
• Sometimes when I say something like, “OK, sweet boy.” Andrew will reply, “OK, sweet Mommy.”  He knows how to make a mom feel good!
• Andrew is crazy about identifying capial letters.  He loves me to write his name in capital letters over and over and over.  He’s not, however into lower-case letters.  In fact, if I try to mix some lower letters in to a writing game, he kind of freaks out and tries to desroy the paper.
• On Thanksgiving morning, Andrew ran around Terry’s house (often on Maretta’s back) calling out “Happy THANKSGIVING!”

Nov. 4: We had a nice weekend, which is now drawing to a close.  Dad seemed to have all Grandpa’s funeral arrangements in hand, so we were left to our own devices.  Yesterday, amidst periods of playing in the leaves, we took a walk out at Cherokee Marsh.  Andrew was so beautiful running along the paths in the fall light.
After our walk, we went over to Dennis Drive to pick up a big-boy bed for Andrew.  Maretta donated the bottom bunk of her/our trundle bed for her nephew.  Saturday afternoon, we took down the crib (sniff) and set up a bed in its place.  Since then, Andrew’s been incredibly enamored with his big boy bed.  He tucks himself in and pretends to sleep for long stretches at a time.  The first couple sleeps in his new bed have gone well.  Bryan went to check on him last night after he’d been in bed for almost an hour.  He found Andrew with his quilt pulled up to his chin and his eyes wide open.  He was happy enough, but probably too full of processing thoughts to sleep.
Pictures of our Cherokee walk and of the new bed are in the gallery.

Oct. 31: I think that Andrew really got into the whole costume and trick-or-treating aspects of Halloween this year.  He loved dressing up in the adorable lion costume that Granny Lu made for him, roaring and eating antelope all day long.  Tonight, he surprised us by racing up to peoples’ doors, knocking and ringing the doorbell, and calling out “Happy Halloween!”  He ate quite a bit of candy before we got back home, and I think he’s probably going to want to go out again tomorrow:)
Pictures from the last few days are in the gallery including some great pictures of Andrew playing in the leaves, pictures from our Happy Bambino Halloween party, and pictures of trick-or-treating with Alivia tonight.

Oct. 24: Andrew is so completely consumed with the telling of stories…it’s kind of amazing.  Common refrains are, “Tell me story ’bout ANDREW.” or  “Tell me story ’bout us!” or “Tell story ’bout A BEAR.”  Mid-story, he often asks, “Then who comes??”  He likes it best when some animal shows up mid-story.  For example, I’ll be in the midst of a pretty good story about a little curly-haired boy named Andy who was solving a mystery at the grocery store when Andrew will ask, “Then who comes?”  He’ll ask repeatedly until I say something along the lines of, “Well, then a walrus came around the grocery aisle and said, ‘Hello Andy!'”
That kid is a crack-up.  Photos from the last couple weeks including some great pics of Andrew in his Halloween costume made specially for Andrew by his Granny Lu are in the gallery.

Oct. 18: Andrew spends much of his time singing.  Favorites are The Farmer in the Dell, Old McDonald, and ABCs.  He also loves counting.  Not that he’s accurately identifying how many of anything he sees.  He just likes to say the numbers.  “One, two, three, four, five.”  Counting things on his plate or trees we pass along the road.  Then he counts up to “twenty-teen” just for fun.

This morning, he wanted to get back in his crib and read books while I took a shower.  When I came out, he was looking at one of his books, and singing Old McDonald about the animals on each of the pages.  “Ollld McDonald had an aardvark.  EE II EEE III OOOO.”  “Old McDonald had a monster, with a grrr here and a grrr there…”  That kid is just so fun!

We were in Northfield and St. Paul last weekend for a Carleton alumni committee I serve on and to visit Aunt Maretta and Uncle Kyle.  Andrew and Bryan had a fun time hanging out together, and Andrew just kept turning on the charm.  He’s at such a fun age.

When I brought him his toast for breakfast this morning, I said, “I cut it into four squares for you, Andrew.”  And he replied, “OH Thank you, Mommy. Squares! Oh my gosh!”

Sept. 22: I’ve been having some really fun times with Andrew this past week.  Last weekend, the weather was cool and fallish.  Bryan, Andrew and I all went to Cherokee Marsh for a nice long walk.  Andrew didn’t think that “walk” applied to him.  He wanted to be carried.  He did have a great time searching for nuts and pebbles and spying on grasshoppers and other insect life.  It was a beautiful day.
On Sunday, we had a mostly great trip to Olbrich Gardens.  The main bugaboo we ran into was the many water features.  Andrew wanted to get WET.  As we told him, “no” to putting his hand in the water, he ratcheted up the ante and decided he wanted to fully submerge himself in the water.  As we walked over the bridge, he kept saying, “jump in!”  I think he was just trying to stake out a strong bargaining position:)  Photos from Cherokee and Olbrich are in the gallery.

On Friday, Andrew and I joined my co-workers Pam and Vicki and their kiddos Clara and Alex for an outing to Eplegaarden Orchard in Fitchberg.  It’s so fun to see these little ones interacting and doing their thing.  They’re each just amazing.

I picked lots of apples, which I’m planning on making into apple sauce and perhaps other yummy things.  The only problem is that Joe isn’t here.  He helped me peel and cut up the apples for the last batch of apple sauce.  Without his help, I’m a little afraid that they may all just rot on the counter.  Just kidding, Bryan.

Photos of the little ones playing at the orchard are in the gallery.

Sept. 15: I’m constantly amazed how little brains work.  Once Andrew decides it is time to do something, it surprises me how he can just go ahead and do it.  I don’t think he is any different from other kids in this respect, but it’s such a privilege to watch him in action.
In the past few weeks, Andrew has decided that he loves the alphabet.  So we went to the library and got him several alphabet books.  Since that time, he’s just been eating up letters.  Today, he pointed at Bryan’s shirt and said, “B – A – Y – L..”  Well, then he lost interest, but Bryan’s shirt said Baylor.

In other news, Andrew is still in love with stories about Robin Hooood.  He’s not napping for us today.  When he is feeling cooperative, he’s just the funnest person to be around.  I trimmed his curls while he was in the tub last night.  They were getting a little excessive, but I just love them so!