Category: Updates about Andrew

July 17: Andrew is ever-adorable, and he’s such a fun baby today!  On Friday, Andrew and Bryan took a trip to Madison’s new public pool for some splashing fun.  We went to the pool once before with our baby friends, and Andrew was pretty uncertain about the whole idea.  Bryan said that he clung very tightly to him, and it wasn’t until he sat in the shallows for a while before he started to have some fun.
New things that he’s up to these days:

• A new tooth, his seventh, has popped through on the upper left…associated with lots of drooling
• Andrew has started cruising on furniture, and he’ll sometimes take faltering steps when holding on to hands.  What I find a bit more amazing, though, is how he’ll sometimes let go of a chair or table and balances standing for 5-10 seconds
• Andrew’s curly hair continues to curl and curl.  I think it is SO CUTE!
• We’ve been doing some baby signs with Andrew, and he’s starting to pick up on a couple.  In the last few days, I think he’s been doing the signs for diaper and for eat.  Still only saying words like “duck” and “quack quack” and “mama” and “dada” and “bye bye.”  Andrew’s sign for “all done” continues to be chucking all food and cups off his tray.

Photos from the last couple weeks are in the gallery.

July 5: Now that he’s a year old, Andrew has taken on a few new activities.  On Monday, June 26, Andrew had his 12-month doctor’s visit.  He tipped the scales at 21 lbs, 3 oz and measured 30 inches.  That’s 14 lbs and 11 inches bigger than he was when he joined the breathing world a year ago!
Among other questions, Dr. Harnish asked if Andrew was putting objects in boxes.  Our answer was no…he’s great at taking things out of boxes, but nothing goes back in.  On Friday, July 2, Bryan and Andrew spent some time playing with nesting boxes, and Andrew learned both how to put things in a box and how to stack boxes on top of each other.  When he stacks them, he smiles and waves his hands about…waiting for applause.
Tonight he started saying “ba” in reference to a ball.  A new word!

Photos are the gallery from Maretta’s 21st birthday, and a trip to the park with our friends Jessica and Eli.  Andrew experienced his first playground slide.  I think he’ll be coming back for more.

July 3: The last few days have been so much fun!  Our good friends Grace and Tim, and thier son (my godson!) John have been visiting from Washington DC.  Andrew and John are having a splendid time taking on the world together. At least John is taking it on.  Andrew’s mostly watching.  John’s really enjoying getting to know about cats thanks to Bowser and Spooky.  Today we braved the high humidity and heat and took a field trip to Olbrich gardens.
Many photos of their trip are in the gallery.

June 25: I am sitting here on this beautiful, cool June afternoon with my mind full of images of the fun times we had this last weekend.  Mom and Dad Dotzour and Melanie and Ben just left to fly home to Texas.  I only wish we’d had more time together!
On Saturday, some of Andrew’s biggest fans gathered at a park in our neighborhood for his first birthday party.  After a little bit, Andrew really seemed to get the hang of being the guest of honor.  He especially liked it when everyone clapped together.
After the party, we all rested and then went to Olbrich park to enjoy some time on Lake Monona.  Pictures of Andrew’s birthday party and our visit are in the gallery.

June 22: I can’t believe that my little guy is one year old!  I shake my head in wonder that he’s grown so much from the little baby who came into our lives 12 months ago.  I’ve had fun the last week or so pulling together pictures of Andrew’s first year into a photo album.  What a journey it has been! Fun photos of Andrew’s first days on Earth are in our gallery back in the summer 2005 album.
We had a fun day together today.  I took off work, and we played all day.  New Andrewisms:

• He’s playing peekaboo by putting a blanket over his head.  In the past, he’s pulled a blanket off when I put it on him, but now he’s doing it himself.
• He climbed up our porch stairs today for the first time.  Didn’t even give it much thought.  Just up, up, up!
• He’s been mimicking the work “yellow.”  I don’t think he knows what it means, but when we say yellow, he repeats it recognizably.
• This boy loves cake!  But then again, I’m not surprised.

Bryan and I biked down the street with Andrew tonight and got some gelato to celebrate his birthday.  He’s a big fan of ice cream already:)  Granny Lu, Grandad, Melanie, and Ben come to town tomorrow afternoon, and we’re all so excited to see them.  The party will continue!
Photos of the last couple weeks including some great shots of Andrew enjoying cake are in the gallery.

June 9: Little Andrew sure has grown some curly hair!
Thought I’d give an update on what our little guy is up to this week.

• While he still prefers the military crawl as his form of transportation, he’s getting his knees under himself a lot more and using them (when he’s on carpeting) to crawl
• We believe that Andrew just added the word “cat” into his vocabulary.  It sounds kind of like the sound he makes for “duck,” but starting with a hard “ck” sound.  Like “CKack.” Brilliant.
• We just felt tooth number six this morning.  Bottom right.  Now he has two on the top, four on the bottom.
• Andrew has learned how to stick out his tongue on command. When I ask where his tongue is, he sticks it out and smiles.
• Last weekend, we went to the farmer’s market, and he got to see some real-live cows.  I hope to take him to the zoo soon.  I think he’ll be much more impressed than he was last year.

Photos are in the gallery of us hanging out over the last couple weeks.  Special events included Uncle Joe’s high school graduation and Heather and Michael’s baby shower.
Pictures from the last week are in the gallery.

June 10: We just got back from a really fun birthday party!  Last summer, I was lucky enough to meet some wonderful new moms through Happy Bambio’s infant play group.  Happy Bambino is a terrific store.  I love their staff and their products, but I am so thankful for the resource they gave me as a new mom…a forum to meet some wonderful friends.
A group of us started getting together outside of the weekly play group, and over the last year, we have had a lot of fun.  Most of our babies are born between early May and late June, so today we had a combined birthday party to celebrate.
What fun it was to see all our little ones playing near each other, walking, signing, talking, and trying some of that tasty cupcake.  Photos of the festivities are in the gallery.  For the other mamas out there, I also posted the pics on Walgreens.com so you can download high resolution versions or get prints if you would like.
Happy Birthday babies!

June 9: When we traveled to Wichita in early April, we had some family photos taken.  Ben’s brother, Tim, is a professional photographer.  Not only was he kind to do a really fun photo shoot with the Dotzour gang, he also gave us electronic copies of the photos.  I’ve narrowed them down as much as I could and posted them in the gallery.  To see more of Tim’s work, visit his photography website.  Many thanks to Ben and Melanie and to Tim for giving us this great opportunity.

May 25: Andrew is fast transitioning from a 10 month old to a one-year old.  It feels like in the last month, Andrew has been on a mad rush to grow up fast! I can barely keep track of all his activities.  Here’s a few highlights…

• While he’s still not really crawling, he’s pulling himself around a lot, and when he is on carpeting he sometimes crawls.  At day care at Karen’s, he can crawl up on a low trampoline.  Amazing!
• Andrew said his first “words” last weekend.  A DUCK (pronounced “uk”) say QUACK QUACK (wak wak).  Andrew is also saying “mama” and “dada” a lot, but not consistantly or exclusively for his mom and dad.
• Andrew is eating almost all foods now.  And the food is going everywhere. His favorite food is still cheese.  mmmm cheeeese.  He has a total of five teeth at some level of appearance.  The bottom-left tooth came through last weekend (making it three on the bottom, one on the top), and the top-front-right tooth came through yesterday.  My baby is growing up!

Recent photos in the gallery include pictures I took of Andrew to send to Bryan on his birthday.  I also have a fun gallery of pictures of our terrific visit with Granny Lu and Grandad last weekend.  Finally, we have some good pictures of recent visits with Mum and my Grandparents.

May 13: You know, it’s one thing to know that your baby can start to move, but it’s quite another thing to see your infant son’s head appear around the corner of the door. I’m so used to having Andrew staying pretty close to where I put him down, but these past few days, Andrew has started scootching from room to room.  His favorite spots destinations are April’s bowls and electrical cords.  Oh, and those springy door stops.
Photos in this week’s gallery include some family photos, pictures from our visit with Mum, and several photos of Andrew messily eating.