Rain Rain Go Away

Andrew has gotten alot of use out of his new raincoat in the past couple of days. He loves splashing in puddles, but isn't so keen on wearing a hood. This week I'm going to try to post some more videos, its been a while. Stay tuned!

Mmmmmm

Screw the birthday cake, Andrew only wanted the icing!

Punk

Kiddo is sporting a curly mohawk at Erling's 1st birthday party. Erling seems unfazed as he pushes his beefcake buddy around the yard.

Circus Fun

featuring Shawn the Juggler

Bookworm

Andrew is REALLY into books lately. Yesterday he handed me book, after book, after book to read to him. I think we spent 1.5 hours straight doing it! I'm amazed at his attention span. As you can see, we're still in our pjs long after breakfast has ended - I simply couldn't get him to stop with the books! I know, a very good problem to have.

Summer Fun

It seems that summer has come to a close already. Its now only a high of 75 during the day and down to around 50 at night. We had lots of fun, including a few visits to our local water park! Andrew's on the far left, trying to get the heck out of the sprinklers.

Weaning

Its the beginning of the end, folks. I opted to let Andrew wean himself from nursing when he was ready, and he's just about there. I'm so glad I didn't rush him off, we've had such a lovely 20 months and it is ending as peacefully as it began. He nursed every 3 hrs round the clock exclusively until 6 months, then spaced it out to every 4-5 until 12 months. By 15 months he slept through the night entirely and was only daytime nursing before nap and sleep. And now at 20 he is giving up his sole nursing session that remains. Coincidentally yesterday I told Shawn that I hope he'd be done soon, I was ready to have my body back - what do you know, yesterday he never even asked to nurse. I guess Andrew and I are very in tune with each other :)

Little Monkey

Climbing up Mt. Mama.

Lazy Day

Worker Bee

We already have Andrew watering the lawn for us. No idea where he picked up this trick, must have been watching Pop Pop do it on the farm?

33!

Best birthday gift: a happy and healthy family.

The Artist

Somebody takes his coloring very seriously.

The Farm

A few of Andrew's favorite spots at the Farm.

Back from Ohio

We had a great time visiting Nana, Pop-Pop and Aunt Erin. My friend Meg was kind enough to take a gazillion professional pix of Andrew (a running tradition when we visit), and here are a few of my favorite posed shots. I'll share some candid pix tomorrow that show you around their farm.

Wheeeee!

Big Truck Day

When we heard that Saratoga Springs had an annual Big Truck Day, we knew we had to take Andrew who points out EVERY SINGLE TRUCK we ever pass while driving. He calls them all buses :) Its a day when kids can climb up in the cabs of the truck, honk the horns etc. There were probably 20 there. Sadly Andrew was scared of them! Way too big in person for him to feel comfortable around, I guess. Luckily they had a great little toddler area where the smaller kids could ride trucks, and draw trucks, and play with matchbox trucks. It ended up being a fun day after all.

Still Trying

No luck with Andrew using the potty thus far, but at least he's getting practice sitting on it? PS - the Spud made it to 100 words this week! In the past 3 days alone he's said for the first time: owl, baby, cup, ahyou (where are you?), bert, Ahdoo (Andrew), back, wait, black, and blue. Obviously some serious brain activity going on this week. Might explain the lack of napping. He can't seem to shut down his brain very easily. Poor guy inherited that trait from his Mama.

EJ

Erling Jai Mork (11 months, left) shows Andrew his mad drawing skillz.

View from the Top

Little Boy Invasion

Trevor, Westley, Alexander and Andrew enjoy a summer afternoon in our sandbox.

Language Acquisition

Since writing my post a few days ago, Andrew has added 10-15 words to his vocabulary. I guess this is what is known as the tipping point. Where one word a month becomes one a week, then one a day, and finally an explosion. Here we've got a video of him saying Moose for the first time.

Dizzy

Somebody loves his train set.

A Haiku: 2 Years Gone By

Andrew has your eyes
I wish you could have known him
It breaks my heart Mom

Catch Me If You Can

Jump!

Andrew finally figured it out.

Oh, Yeah!

Andrew's full of exclamations these days. "Oh, Yeah!" now joins "Oh, No!" "Uh, Oh!""Oh, Wow!" "Ow!" and "Yuck!" He is saying roughly one new word each day at this point. The most recent being book, rake, bus and cup. His vocabulary is quite large now - we're going to make a list to figure out how many*. Most his age have 5-20 words, or so. For reference, he had 20 by time he turned one. A little braniac we have on our hands here! Should make for a fun childhood, all sorts of interesting enrichment activities trips for us to do together.

* I actually made this list this afternoon. 76 words! I'd estimate that he understands about double the amount that he speaks.

Alex

Here's Andrew at 2 months and 19 months with our friend Alex. He (and his wife Alix) are regulars around here, getting their baby/toddler practice before their first child arrives later this year. They were among the first to meet Andrew when he was only a day old.

Buddies

With his buddies, the Kilbride boys.

Happy Birthday, Dada!

Mama and I love you!

Another First

Truth be told, I thought we were done with notable firsts a long time ago. But this one is worth mentioning. If you know us, you know that sleeping has always been the most difficult part of raising Andrew. He's otherwise a pretty easy kid - active, smart, social, a good eater etc. Today, as usual, I told him it was time for his nap. And as usual he climbed the stairs to his room, bringing along his cars. As usual I got him into my lap and tried to rock him to sleep. Typically I will just wait it out, let him fuss and eventually he nods off. But today he got off my lap, stood next to the crib and let me put him right in. Then he said "byebye" and I took it as a cue to leave. 10 minutes later and no crying at all, he's sound asleep, holding his cars. Perhaps this is just a fluke? Either way I have bittersweet feelings about this transition, as I do all transitions. I am admittedly excited that we're turning a corner with getting him to sleep. But there is something very sweet about rocking a child to sleep that I shall miss. I won't get ahead of myself here. I am still nursing/rocking at night so there's no need for nostalgia just yet, just enjoyment. As an aside, can you believe how big he looks in this crib now?

Hittin the Trails

At the 5 Rivers Environmental Education Center.

Waldo!

Andrew has an eye for small details so Nana thought it would be fun to get him a "Where's Waldo?" book. She was right on the mark - he gets so excited about it! Makes me laugh.

Racetrack

Andrew's having fun racing his car around our new brick patio! Thanks to Shawn and his Dad for building it in 90+ degree heat. We look forward to using it for many bbq's to come.

Byebye

We were sad to see Nana and Pop-Pop go home today, after a weeklong stay.

Toilet Training

Yes, we've begun! Today Andrew went into the bathroom, put the seat insert onto the toilet, came and got me from the kitchen, dragged me to the bathroom, pointed, and said "up. doodoo." Granted, he didn't poop, but wow, he's a quick learner considering that yesterday was his first day on the toilet and we only tried it twice. I'm crossing my fingers that it continues to be this easy. I know he's young for it (19 months), but he's shown interest, so why not make it fun? We blow bubbles and read books while he's resting on the throne. After about 5 minutes he climbs down and resumes play. If I opt to let him run around the house in his birthday suit for a while, I think training would happen pretty quickly. The main challenge being his own awareness of what his body is doing, if he can control those muscles yet and how willing I am to have a pee and poo fest all over my house. We'll see....

Fingerpainting

Andrew had his first fingerpainting experience yesterday. I made paint from water, cornstarch and food dye. A little too gelatinous for my liking, but I doubt Andrew minded, and I didn't have to think twice if he stuck his hands in his mouth. Which of course, he did.

Day Trippers

Yesterday we spent a lovely day with Shawn's parents at the Mononk Mountain House. We walked the trails around the lake, toured the House, and ate a delicious meal. I basically spent the entire time chasing Hurricane Andrew. He's at an exhausting age, where he's a flurry of motion with no ability to judge danger. Here are a photos of a few peaceful moments we spent.

Us, Lately

Shawn (almost 34), Susan (almost 33), Andrew (19 months)
We tried to get Andrew to smile but he wasn't in the mood. So we had to prompt him with "where are your teeth?" to get this shot. Photo taken on the occasion of our 7th wedding anniversary.

Yetta

Its both amusing and oddly comforting (mom would be so proud) to hear Andrew say a yiddish word: Yetta! If you haven't read it yet, check out the book "Beautiful Yetta." It's a tale of a beautiful chicken that gets lost in a jewish neighborhood of Brooklyn.

Role Reversal

The noise-canceling headphones that Shawn bought to drown out Andrew's infant screams are now being worn by Andrew to ignore Shawn. Touche, Dada.

Hair

I love the red curls!

As and Bs

Pretty impressive, eh? Andrew now spends most of his grocery store time screaming out "A!" or "B!" whenever he sees those letters on packaged food. Its pretty funny.

Fearless

Our little monkey climbed all the way to the top!

Papparazzi

Andrew greets his adoring blog fans.

Smartie Pants

The Collector

A fair amount of time is spent every day searching for pine cones and storing them in his push-car. Big ones, small ones, green ones, brown ones, half-eaten ones. I could write a nice rhyme about it....

Backseat Driver

The car always means adventure for Andrew. It must be fun for him, not knowing if the final destination will be the library, a friend's house or the playground. There's tons to do in our area during the summertime and its so nice to be able to enjoy it with my little buddy. This month we hope to try out some new trails, the city pool and the beach at a local lake. Here he is, hamming it up for the camera as usual. Ever since we turned him to face forward, he's been a very happy camper in the car.

Architect Andrew

...with some help from Architect Dada, shows off their tower. Architect Mama does enough of this kind of stuff at work that she is content to just take photos instead. Happy 19 monthiversary to you, my little builder boy!

The Airport

Lately Andrew has had a fascination with airplanes. If he hears one, he'll stop whatever he's doing and search for it in the sky. So what better place to take him on a brutally hot day than our local air conditioned airport, complete with free art gallery and observation deck? He loved watching the planes and all the support vehicles come and go. We packed a snack and it made for a very pleasant afternoon. I'll credit his interest to my Dad who shares the fascination.

Mmmmm

Thanks, Nana and Pop Pop!

Big Boy

Andrew has slowly been sliding out of babyhood since his first birthday. But I swear this week, in the blink of an eye, he suddenly became a big boy (relatively speaking, of course). Every day he says a new word, can recognize another letter in the alphabet, falls asleep easier without his typical baby "but i don't want to take a nap" tantrums, and so forth. He's no longer the mystery peanut he once was. Andrew is both social and inquisitive - always reaching his hand out to mine (or anyone else's for that matter) and pulling me along to join him when there's some new fun to be had, or discovery he's made.

1 1/2 years old

At 1 1/2 years old

you would...
wake up between 5 and 6am, much to the chagrin of your parents
lay down on your own accord when i say its time for a diaper change
spend your mornings with Dada playing with trains, cars, blocks, chalk and sand
take a long midday nap to make up for your early rise, much to the joy of your parents
spend your afternoons with Mama at the playground, library or with friends
eat all your meals with both parents, sometimes outside on the porch
hold bosley's leash during walks

you could...
make 3 word sentences
run at full speed
identify a handful of objects in picture books on each page
sit yourself in a chair with a book, and turn pages by yourself
follow directions well (occasionally you flash me a rascally smile then doing the opposite of what the directions were)

you can say...
about 50-75 words
some family members names
a couple of new words each week

you loved...
collecting rocks
the moon
finding airplanes in the sky
drawing with crayons
being tickled "again, again!" you'd scream
eating berries

you hated...
being told its naptime
most vegetables. you try them, then hand them back to me half chewed.

your most commonly used words...
whas dis?
adain (again) usually screamed at the top of your lungs when having fun
moo (moon)
i know mama (tells this to strangers)
badee (bosley)
byebye dada" (you say this when mama puts you to bed)
up and down
"ett ay dink" (eat and drink)
no mo (no more)
hi (you say this when you hear any phone ring, while putting your hand to your ear)

You're such a smart little cookie, and so cute too! We love having you around, Andrew.