Dotzour Family.com

Nov. 6: Andrew is rapidly growing into a little boy.  A little boy with Opinions.  For example, this evening, my little boy had an opinion about the state of the items on his bedroom shelves.  “Off the shelves” was his thought.  Therefore, all the board books, the paper books, the toys, the stuffies, everything was forcibly removed from the shelves to the floor. He accomplished this with rapid sweeps of his arm.
“Off the shelves,” you could almost see his little mind saying.

Now his mama who was sitting in the room with him had other thoughts.
“Read a book,” she thought. “Play with Noah’s ark,” was another thought.  “Let’s be silly and roll around on the floor,” was a third. But to these vapid suggestions, the little boy with Opinions said gently but firmly, “Nonono.”  The directive that we don’t treat our toys so roughly and wildly chuck our toys around the room was met with a rather obstinate and definitely negative response.

I guess the Mama is continuing to learn that her little boy has his own ways of playing with toys and the little boy is learning that sometimes reading books with the Mama is at least as fun as causing widespread room destruction.

The End

Oct. 29:  We have had a remarkably lovely set of weekends this fall.

Seems like more often than not, week days are gray and rainy, but then on the weekend we have great weather.  We just had Granny Lu and Grandad come visit us, and we had a great time.  It’s so nice to spend time together and to watch Andrew develop fun rituals with his grandparents.  I have a few pictures in the gallery from their visit.

A couple weekends ago I spent the day on Saturday visiting with Heather and Michael, who had come to town to plant a tree at her parent’s house in memory of baby Allan.  It felt good to see them again.  My heart is so heavy with them…

On Sunday, Oct. 15, Bryan and Andrew and I took a family field trip out to Door Creek Apple Orchard and then off to the zoo.  Andrew had a great time seeing some sheep at the apple orchard.  Then at the zoo, he was pretty entranced by most of the animals.  Pictures of the orchard and zoo trips are in our gallery.

I think that I neglected to post a link to our gallery of pictures of the weekend we went to the pumpkin patch with Andrew.  Our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm – Vermont Valley Community Farm – has several farm days.  We missed most of them this year, but earlier this month we made it to the pumpkin pick.  Andrew sure was cute, stumbling around the field.  Afterwards, we got him his first pair of hard-soled shoes.  Pictures of the pumpkin pick are in the gallery.

Last weekend we went up to St. Paul to see Maretta in her play, The Haunting of Hill House.  She was terrific, and it was so fun to see her in action.  We had a nice visit with her and with Kyle.  We rounded off the weekend with a trip to the Underwater Adventures Aquarium.  I especially liked the underwater tunnel where you could see sharks, turtles, and all sorts of cool sea creatures swim around us.  I think, however, that I was a bit more impressed than Andrew.

Bryan is out raking leaves now, and I should probably dig up my dahlia and plant some tulip bulbs!  Happy fall!

Oct. 29:  We just got back from our second annual baby Halloween party.  There were lions, a dog, a cowboy, a dragon, a young republican, a fairy, and a fluffy duck. I went a little crazy taking pictures of all these silly guys. They are so cute!!! 

Photos of the Haloween party are in the gallery.  I’ve also posted high resolution photos to Walgreens.com, and you can download copies there if you wish. Thanks to Jenny, Tom, and Cora for hosting a really fun event.

Oct. 15: I finally figured out how to log in to my website again!  At the end of September, I must have somehow reset the login, and I have been thwarted several times as I tried to update. Happily, we have been home this weekend, and during Andrew’s nap, I was able to get it working again.

Our little guy has been getting ever so engaged and active these last weeks.  I almost feel like I should change the website category section from Baby News to Little Guy News.  He’s outgrown nearly all his warm clothes from last year.  When I put him in them, they are a bit like high-water pants:)  So it’s all big-boy overalls and clothes.  And he’s so amazingly cute!

The last weekend in September, Bryan went to Michigan to spend time in a cabin with some of his Ann Arbor friends.  Andrew and I had what seemed like a long date.  We went apple picking and went out for pancake breakfasts, went to the zoo, hung out with Grandma, and visited Mum.  Pictures of the weekend are in the gallery.

The first weekend in October we traveled to Carleton.  I had a two-day meeting for an alumni committee on which I serve, so Bryan and Andrew spent a couple days exploring campus and Northfield.  Andrew ate his own Hogan Brother hoagie.  Actually, these days we’re ordering him his own children’s meals.  He’s been known to put away an entire hamburger by himself!

Andrew just interrupted me to tell me that he hears and airplane. He points at his ear and then at the sky.  Signs for “hear” and “airplane”

Aunt Melanie just sent us an amazing box of Halloween treats.  I have pictures in the gallery of Andrew’s new Spooky cat slippers, he new halloween counting book, and many other pictures of the little guy being adorable outside in our front yard. He’s getting where he can put his own hat on his head, likes to try to help put his shoes on his feet, and can follow pretty complex requests. In fact, on Friday when we went to visit Bryan at work, part way there I asked Andrew where we were going.  His reply, “Dada!”

Oct. 15: This morning Andrew and I set out to amuse some of our neighborhood by dressing him up in his Halloween duck costume and playing in the yard.  We made several people laugh:)

I was taking pictures to share with great-grandparents, but now you can enjoy them too. A Halloween prelude! 

Andrew’s first word was “quack-quack” and “duck.”  So being a duck for Halloween seemed like a perfect fit.  He wasn’t too crazy about the hat part of the costume at first, but while we were outside in the leaves, he didn’t seem to mind at all.

Must go now.  The little guy has piled my shoes and several books in the chair around me. And there is a suspicious smell I should investigate…

Happy Halloween planning!

Sept. 29: Andrew is taking many steps in a row these days.  He lunges a little like a baby Frankenstein, and he crawls about half the time, but he’s taking 10-15 steps in a row.  It’s incredible to see him walk from room to room!

I have some photos in the gallery of a trip to the apple orchard.
Andrew picked his own apple and then proceeded to eat nearly the whole thing.  And I pulled out his strawberry and pumpkin hats from last year.  When he sees them, he pats the top of his head to tell me he wants me to put it on him.

Sept. 29: Granny Lu and Grandpa were in town last weekend, and we all had a really nice time together.  The weather didn’t really cooperate for trips to the park. But Andrew doesn’t need an outing to have a great time with his Granny Lu and Grandad.  He showed off his ever-growing walking skills, and he tried on his Halloween duck costume for fun.

Photos of our weekend (from LuAnn…I didn’t pick up my  camera the whole time) are in the gallery.

Sept. 13: Being away from Andrew for five days while I was in Ann Arbor with Heather and Michael was pretty hard.
In sharing their grief over losing their baby, I really had to put thoughts of Andrew out of my mind, and as time went on, I found that separating Andrew from my thoughts really took a toll on my mind and heart. It made me realize how close to the surface thoughts of him are in everything I do.

When I got back home last night, I pulled Andrew out of his crib and held him.  It seemed that he has grown so much in only a few days.  He can push his little push toy adroitly all over the house, he can start to make many more words (like a whispered Sss-oooky for our cat).  And Bryan said he learned the sign for “floor.”  Makes me get a sense for how very hard it must be for Andrew’s grandparents and aunts and uncles who don’t get to see him as regularly.  I want to capture each moment with Andrew in my heart.

During my layover between train and bus in Chicago, I did some therapy shopping for Andrew.  I found some cute clothes, but I was a bit chagrined to find that all the 18-24 month clothes are little boy clothes, not baby clothes.  And when he wears little boy clothes, he almost doesn’t look like my baby any more.  But he still sure is cute:)  And his curly hair is out-of-control!  I love it.

In our gallery, I have pictures of Andrew playing with Clara, my co-worker Pam’s daughter, playing with a ball, and eating chocolate chip cookie dough.  I also have an album with a photo from my Aunt Julie’s wedding and Andrew coloring and playing with Dad.