Eric Carle Museum

We had a fun visit with friends to the Eric Carle Museum this past weekend. Haven't been? GO! Beautiful building, grounds, art as well as a craft studio, library and cafe. This is a photo of Andrew and I hiding in the "Very Hungry Caterpillar."

Curly Qs

A little sneak peek of curls to come, thanks to a humid day.

Little Buddies

It's so cute, Andrew and Alexander have been holding hands and hugging recently. Although Xander looks alot older than Andrew here, he's only 9 months his senior!

Time for Bed

23 months old

At 23 months old you could...

Be so polite, when you choose, with please and "tank you"
Play with other kids
Sing songs. Mainly you just chime in with the last word of each line.
Throw a pretty loud tantrum
Read to me - much like singing, you say the last word of each sentence.

At 23 months you would...

Run around the house with as many little car toys as you could possibly carry.
Ask for kisses between the slats of your crib before bed.
List off all the train names in the Thomas the Tank Engine Set.
Chew things up and spit them out into my hand if you don't like them. Eew.
Tell Mama to sit on my knees, or lay on my tummy, or to get up....Mr Bossypants :)

At 23 months you loved...

Yogurt and Granola. You'd eat them at every meal if I let you.
Anything related to trains
Playing outside, jumping in leaf piles, pushing your ride-on car, collecting pine cones
Running "round a round" in circles
Dancing and Jumping

At 23 months you hated...

Putting on a jacket
Dada washing your face (but its ok when Mama does)
Footed pajamas
Vegetables and Meat (still!)

A&A

Andrew and Alexander being silly.

Andrew's Shelf

Splish Splash

Andrew loves bath time. We play with bathtub markers, bubbles, balls and cups.

Trick or Treat

Andrew figured out how to trick or treat in no time at all. A few times he walked right into the person's house instead of waiting at the door...a few times he grabbed a handful of candy from the bowl instead of one piece....but all is forgiven when its a tiny cute cow, right? He was even saying "tickatee" by the end of the night.

Happy Halloween

Introducing...Andrew the Cow! This beautiful costume was hand knit by his Nana. We're about to head out trick or treating with his friend Alexander the Purple Dragon.

Ticklefest

Snow!

We've had our first snow of the year, which also is Andrew's first snow in which he's big enough to play outside. I'm SO VERY VERY HAPPY to say that that he loves it. I can't imagine how hard winter would be if he was cooped up indoors for months on end. He likes jumping up and down in it, scooping it up, stomping it down. Next up - snowballs!

"Dada Read!"

MiMi's

Once a week I take Andrew to his new favorite hangout, Mimi's!

Dylan

Andrew's same-age friend Dylan came over the other day, we had a blast! I adore his mom, Amy, so the adults had a great time too. They play so nicely together. Here's Andrew helping Dylan up the step to our porch.

We're in the News!

http://www.dailygazette.com/photos/2011/oct/12/29398/
http://www.dailygazette.com/photos/2011/oct/12/29397/

Fall is here!

Dressed up in a sweater and peacoat for the autumn weather.

Sweet Dreams

ABCs Part 2

As you can hear, he's made considerable progress since the October 7th blog video! Gotta love toddlerese, and how I'm probably the only one who'd even recognize this as the alphabet song. Especially the final verse where he kind of fills in words where he doesn't know them: "eh (and) now ah (I) know my ehbeecees (ABCs), and a meeee and a meee"

Choo Choo

Andrew's obsession with trains continues. He now knows most of the traincar names, and is figuring out how to put tracks together himself.

Lite Brite for Tots

Fun at the Childrens Museum of Science and Techology.

Fire Engines

Andrew loved watching the firefighters use the foam spray at our local Fire Prevention Day. Lately he has a big thing for fire engines. He has a ride-on, a Hess engine, a handheld tonka engine, a book about them....

Toasty Warm

Keeping cozy after splashing around outside in the puddles.

New PJs

Thanks to his new PJs, Andrew now knows Santa, Snowmen and Raindeer! He looks pretty darned excited about it, too.

A Day in the Life

Moments caught on film: Sippy Cup, Train Set, Playdough

22 Months

At 22 Months, Andrew

likes....
EATING. He requests his particular favorites like "nola" (granola), "brown bunnies" (chocolate graham crackers shaped like bunnies), booberries (blueberries).
PLAYING. Trains and Tracks, Big and Little Cars, Puzzles, Coloring Books, Sidewalk Chalk, Playdough.
READING. We probably read 10 books a day, at least. He's started "reading" back some of the pages to me. Guess he has em memorized, despite owning at least 100 books.
COUNTING. Anything. As long as its up to 11.
HUGS AND KISSES. Lucky me!

doesn't like....
VEGGIES. So I hide them in his food and he doesn't seem to care.
RIDES. Amusement type, like merry go rounds. Motion sickness? He's ok in cars...
BOREDOM. He starts throwing things when he's bored.
DOLLS. So much for the collection we have, he barely touches them.

says....
LOTS. Probably has 200 words if not more. Every day there's a new one. Yesterday it was "seat belt". Other newbies include office, funny, movie, please and thank you. He points at things he doesn't know the words for. He doesn't know how to say all the consonants yet so F gets used in place of "th", Y in place of "L" etc. Its very cute.

can...
identify all the letters in the alphabet! I'm so impressed.
recognize his written name
put trash in the garbage can without my prompting him to do so
turn the tv on and off by himself
answer yes/no questions
figure out when finger paint is really just food coloring in vanilla pudding (see above)

ABCs

Kiddo now can read/recognize all the letters, and numbers thru 11!

Hard at Work

Still a lefty, for now...and yes, I'm a sucker for hoodies with ears.

Then and Now

22 months
5 months

Big Boy

Where'd my baby go? He looks so big here!

Twister

A great way for toddlers to work on both hand-eye coordination and colors!

Jack in the Box

or should I say Andrew in the Box

Bigfoot, Part 2

Wearing Mama's shoes

Bigfoot

Wearing Dada's shoes.

Toddler Susan

Most say that Andrew is a mini-Shawn. I'd like to claim a little bit of his genetic inheritance if I may....what do you think?

Curls!

This kid is going to have an amazing head of hair one day.

Sad Andrew

Contrary to popular belief, Andrew doesn't smile all the time. Occasionally he's sad too. Just before this picture, he woke up screaming (from a nightmare?) so I spent about 10 minutes cuddling with him until he was back to his happy self.

Math Whiz

...well, sorta.

Stylin

Do What I Do

View from the Top

Yet another installment of the hair-growth series, "View from the Top." Its beginning to fill out a little - I can see less scalp now, though plenty of is still shows through. His hair is getting a bit longer; long enough to be single ringlet length in back, and just now starting to wave up top. I'm not convinced he'll be a fiery redhead at this point. Looks more strawberry blond to me.

Wednesday's Boys

Our Wednesday morning friends, left to right:
Trevor, 3 yrs
Andrew, 1.75 yrs
Westley, 6 months
Alexander, 2.5 yrs

Delicious

I zoomed in and cropped one of the wedding photos below to show you how deliciously cute this child is. Now I understand the phrase "I just want to eat you up" :) If he gets any more adorable I might actually take a bite out of his vanilla pudding cheeks. OK, Mama's creepytime has ended. Wouldn't want anyone thinking they need to call Social Services on me. Other parents out there must totally get what I mean though, right?

So Sweet

Today was the first time Andrew said "Love You" back to me! It's actually Ruv You - he can't do L's yet...Combine that with a relatively easy time getting him to bed, and it made for a sweet moment that I wanted to get on camera for posterity.

Candid Camera

Andrew's pre-naptime routine :)

Picnic

We had such a fun time on Friday at a lunchtime picnic with some of our favorite RPI friends. Andrew hadn't visited with these folks since early summer and it was remarkable to see how much he had changed in such a short time. His vocabulary, attention span and problem solving skills had vastly improved. We enjoyed tossing a ball, coloring, eating and watching the guys across the street knock down a building!

First Wedding

Yesterday was the first wedding that Andrew attended - that of my coworker Zac, and his new bride Kassia. It was at Saratoga Spa State Park so there was plenty of room to run around, dance to music and chat with friends. The top picture is of me with my friend Alix, expecting her first child right around Andrew's 2nd birthday! When I look at that photo I can't believe how tall Andrew is now. Where'd that peanut of a baby go?

Bosley

Not the most exciting movie, but you can see a little Andrew-Bosley love. As for Bosley adoring Andrew? I'd say tolerate is probably the better word....

21 months

Thought I'd provide an actual update, since this blog mainly is for photo/comment purposes.

At 21 months, there's very little baby left about Andrew except that he still doesn't have a head of full hair yet. Not even close, actually. From what I can tell its a strawberry blonde - not as red as it looked a few months ago. Which is strange because there's none of that color on either side of our families. It's a huge contrast in color to his really dark brown eyes. Again, a surprise as Shawn has green hazel and I have blue. Talk about genetic recessiveness (Shawn's mom has the dark brown). Plus he appears to be left handed too (Shawn's dad is lefty).

I don't know his height/weight but he actually seems to be at least average for his age, if not a little bigger when I see him with other kids. He's having a growth spurt now where he's starting to thin out and get taller. Maybe he's 27-28 lbs and getting closer towards 3' tall? Guess I could use a yardstick. He's just now transitioning out of 18m clothes into 24 month. He has been walking for about half his life now so he's very sturdy on his feet. Now he runs at full speed which he loves doing. And jumping. Too bad he hasn't gotten a good hang of slowing down at the end of a run. It usually involves collision with a wall, or piece of furniture. He doesn't even seem to care about the bangs and bruises. His teeth have all been in now for a while, so he eats adult food. And alot of it. He frequently asks for seconds and thirds. Loves fruits and carbos, hates most veggies and meat. I've never met a self professed toddler vegetarian, but I guess there's a first for everything.....

We're done breastfeeding. It was a nice long run, and ended very peacefully, we both were ready. I was confident that he'd eventually know when he didn't need it anymore and wouldn't be a nursing kindergartener. The last feeding to go was the one during our bedtime routine. Instead now we read a few books. And finally I'm able to just put him in his crib to fall asleep by himself. A recent accomplishment, up until now he's always fussed/cried. The kid never much did like sleeping from day 1. But now its fabulous. He sleeps about 10-12 hours a night, then takes a 1-3 hr afternoon nap. He doesn't cry anymore, glad those days are behind us. A difficult baby made for an easy toddler so I can't really complain.

Shawn's back at work now so he's doing a bit less of the childcare than when he was off this summer. I work Mondays and Thursdays, 4-6 hrs/day and Shawn has him then. Otherwise he's with me. Andrew has 2 kids he has become good friends with, and I with their moms.They are a bit older than he is (2.5 & 3) but nobody seems to mind. We see them regularly, maybe once or twice a week. He's also very gentle with Bosley and helps feed and walk him.

My first overnight without him comes in 2 weeks when I go to Charlottesville for a wedding, and Shawn stays behind with Andrew. I'm looking forward to it! We have a babysitter we use on occasion so leaving him is not a big deal.

I think Andrew could probably be toilet trained soon. Today he walked up to me and said "big doodoo"....he was right. Its just a little young for it yet, so I'm not sure if it would be a waste of time as far as his own awareness of when he's going. Our plan is to let him walk around without pants while we're in FL for the winter and train him then.

In brand new news, Andrew read 2 words to me this morning! Of course it's not phonetic. He just recognizes the symbol of the word. Still, pretty impressive for a 21 month old.. Guess all this reading is paying off - he loves books and we probably read an hour a day at least. He now knows about half the alphabet as well, and we're starting to teach him how to count. He speaks in sentences occasionally "i see mama" that kind of thing.. Shawn and I were bright kids but I think Andrew is probably smarter than either of us from what we see so far compared to what we were doing at his age....which should prove challenging and fun as we raise him.

Colors