First Baseball Game

Troy has a minor league team  - bet most of you didn't know that! The Tri-City Valleycats. It is absurdly cheap to attend and there are lots of kid-friendly activities in the stadium in addition to watching the game. We spent a lovely evening over at Bruno Stadium, one of many I hope. The Gordons (except me, I guess) are die-hard baseball fans, so I know Andrew will be treated to all sorts of major league games when he's a little older.

Naptime!

Considering the rocky start we had with infant Andrew's complete disinterest in napping for more than a half hour, I have to say that toddler Andrew has been a rockstar. Whereas lots of his friends are giving up their naps, I can still count on 1 1/2- 3 1/2 hour stretches in the afternoon. We have a nice routine where we go upstairs together, brush teeth, then I climb in bed with him and we read a few books. I tuck him in, close the blinds and give him "kiss attacks" - at his request. Today I get my much needed afternoon break before a fun afternoon of baking and art projects.

Dylan

Once again we had the pleasure of spending a day with Dylan and Amy. The orange juice popsicles were a big hit!

Trampoline

Andrew seems bored of all his toys, except the train set of course. Lately his passion resides in bounce houses. You know, the kind they set up at festivals to let kids jump out all their energy. There was no way were we purchasing an inflatable to reside in our backyard, so we decided to get him a mini trampoline. As you can see, I think we'll get our money's worth out of it. Especially come winter when we can't take him to the playground daily. Add this to the gymnastics class he takes and he gets a pretty decent workout!

Chef Andrew

This kid loves to cook. He gets me my morning tea, with a plateful of grapes, a bottle of ketchup and a hot dog. We'll have to work on the menu, but the service is quite nice.

Roll Call

Handsome A poses for his loyal blog readers.Who still follows the blog these days? Anything you want to read more or less about?

Day Out with Thomas

After we finished up at Sesame Place, we went to the Delaware River Railroad who was hosting Day Out with Thomas. Andrew got to ride in a passenger car pulled by none other than his favorite, Thomas the Tank Engine.

Sesame Place

We had a fun time at Sesame Place this past weekend. I was hoping to recognize a few of the attractions, but I guess the place has changed a bit in the past 25 years. Andrew had a blast - the place is designed for small kids so he was able to go on just about everything. We attended a few shows where characters sang and danced, went on a few water rides to keep cool. His favorite by far were the nets and the blue mountain, both pictured above.

Iris

Baby Iris came by for a visit last night! Andrew was a good sport; since she's not yet mobile he made himself useful by trying to teach her how to crawl. It was pretty funny, and very cute.

Isabella

Isabella is becoming a regular in Andrew's playdate rotation. She's the only girl of the bunch, and gives him a run for his money. She can be just as loud and crazy, which is what we love about her. Last night we had a bbq at our place with her parents while the kids entertained each other. Perfect! Its super cute how Andrew says her name - EEEsaBELLa. Sound very Italian :)

Stats

2 year stats

33 3/4" tall (40th percentile)
28 lbs (50th percentile)

2 1/2 year stats

35 3/4" tall (45th percentile)
29 lbs (45th percentile)

Looks like we finally have a reliable trend! He's an average sized kiddo :) Suits me fine. And I was right to think that he looked taller. 2 inches in 6 months!

Big Boy Body

In the past month Andrew has gone through what is one of the most obvious growth spurts I've witnessed to date. Check out how tall and thin he's getting!

Playtime

Andrew seems to have gotten tired of his toys, so now we are expanding into imaginative play. Above you'll see that Andrew prepared a lovely meal for his matchbox cars: Waffles with ice cream, muffins, and cups of milk. Below, we've drawn him all sorts of train accessories like tickets and cargo to go along with his set.

Splash Pool

The city of Troy knows how to keep cool in the summer! Many of the public parks around here have splash pools, I've discovered. Once we found out that Andrew likes splash pools, we decided it would be fun to take him to Sesame Place this summer. Maybe next month.

RPI Picnic

Once in a while, a group of RPI staff/faculty/students/spouses get together for a lunchtime picnic. We happened upon the prettiest day of June and gathered to share a meal. Andrew and Isabella, both 2 now, got along swimmingly while the adults had time to catch up with each other. Hopefully we can do this again soon!

Flashcards

Here we are, looking through a set of flashcards designed to prompt toddlers to talk about what they see.

Summer's Here!

Hmmmm, just WHO is having the better time on this ride?

2 1/2

Happy 2 1/2 birthday to Andrew!

THEN

NOW

When he was a baby, I was so excited for all the milestones that lay ahead, and here we are, enjoying them. He's more my companion now, than my babysitting assignment. Wherever we go, we have little conversations which are adorably silly and so entertaining. Random folks who overhear these chats are often seen giggling to themselves.  He's so big, relatively speaking. I don't know when that happened, but I noticed it the other day and was taken aback by how much of him there is. Its his little baby body, but a cartoony enlarged version.

He's in a super affectionate stage right now. Especially at bedtime, he can't get enough. "Kiss Attack! Again! Hug! Hug Again!"  I'm not complaining, I love every last bit of it and will soak it in for as long as he wants to be cuddly. We normally don't watch alot of TV but tomorrow afternoon while its raining I'm considering watching a full length Disney flick just to get to snuggle up with him under a blanket. Shawn rolls his eyes at all this of course :) And one day when I tell Andrew about this (or when he reads this blog) he'll roll his eyes too.

Andrew finally has shown some interest in Duplos, but not alot unless egged on by his parents. My prediction is that he will not be an architect. However, he seems to have a decent design sensibility. You can see his urban skyscrapers (top photo) and modernist parking garage for his trains (bottom photo.)

Cousins

Cousins Andrew (2 1/2) and Levi (15 months) spent the weekend together and had a blast! So did their Moms and Dads. Despite not knowing each other much, they got along beautifully, as you can see in the photos. We hope to see them again soon!

Race Day

Andrew came out to support us as we "ran for the cure" in memory of his Grandma Audrey. Despite the rain, despite having a fever, I ran a 32:39 race, which is 2 minutes off last year's time!

Oh, a Bird!

This is the conversation that ensued as I tried to coax him out of the car, and into the ice cream shop. a typical afternoon with a 2.5 year old in tow.

Kugel

Andrew devoured a big plate of Grandma Sandy's noodle kugel yestrday. That's 4 generations who love her tasty recipe. Grandpa, I know you read this blog - be sure to show this to her!

Soccer Tots

Each Tuesday morning, Shawn takes Andrew to Soccer Tots. He's in the Teddies class, which is 2 year olds. There's very little soccer that happens at this age; it's more about following directions, learning how to kick a ball, cooperation between teammates. Since Shawn was a varsity soccer player in high school, perhaps Andrew might follow suit?

Wading Pool

Andrew isn't a fan of big pools, so we got him this little one (thanks, Julie!) and he loves it. He spends most of his time scooping water out of it and pouring it onto a dirt pile, then proceeding to play in the mud. He's also doing some more imaginative play and giving his each of his rocks a sip of water from the cup. We spend an hour a day in the pool (ok, he does, I sit on a chair next to the pool and read a book) in the late afternoon.  I asked him to say "cheese" in this picture and indeed he gave me a cheesy smile.

As an aside, he's been very well behaved since our trip to Vegas. Hopefully the terrible twos phase has passed. Or at least will lay dormant for a while. 

Ice Cream!

Before Shawn left for his weeklong golfing vacation (rough life) we had a big ole ice cream party.

The Gordon Sibs

I'll interrupt my regularly scheduled picture of Andrew to post a picture of me with his Aunt Jaclyn and Uncle Adam. This past week we attended the funeral of Andrew's great grandpa, Bernie.  He was my mother's father. He passed without any pain, thank goodness. The day after we returned from Las Vegas was the ceremony. As an aside, if you can believe it, on Monday I was with Adam and Dad in Vegas. Less than 24 hrs later, via 3 separate flights, the 3 of us were reunited at Grandpa's funeral in New Jersey. Plane travel really has made it an unbelievable age to live in.

Its rare that the 3 of us are ever together in one spot, so we marked the occasion with a photo. For posterity, our ages are 33(me), 31(Jaclyn) and 28 (Adam). For the first time, I realize that I no longer am obviously the oldest - we're all pretty much caught up now.

It was a bittersweet day - Grandpa was 92 and lead a good life. He was a loving, funny, gentle man who brought sunshine to anyone who was fortunate to interact with him. Andrew met Grandpa twice, and Grandpa's apartment was littered with his photos (I mailed them regularly as a special treat that he came to enjoy).

Andrew attended the ceremony along with his cousin Levi  - it was the first time that the 2 of them got to spend any time together. Levi is 15 months so its a great age for them to start interacting. I didn't take photos of them b/c it just didn't seem appropriate when there were so many mourners around. Jaclyn and her family are coming to town the weekend of June 2 for our race and we're looking forward to it! Of course pics from that visit here :)

Las Vegas, Part 3

It was fun to see Las Vegas through Andrew's eyes. Everything begged to be touched - colors, textures, lights, water, glass. It was easy to keep him happy - walking through the hotels/casinos combined most of this interests - new discoveries combined with lots of walking.

Las Vegas, Part 2 - Mothers Day

I had a lovely Mothers Day in Las Vegas. My Dad treated all of us to brunch at Simon at the Palms. It was by far one of the nicest meals I've ever had (as it should be, at $50/plate). It was part buffet-style stations, and part menu. Unlimited tastings from each! Andrew really enjoyed their revolving doors, as well as watching everyone splash in the pool.

Las Vegas, Part 1

We had a fun visit to Las Vegas. The day we left, we got Andrew down for a nap early on, so that he'd be well rested for our long 5.5 hr plane flight. Somehow the plan worked,  and the flight was relatively easy. I came armed with toys, snacks, games and movies. I tried to move him to west coast time immediately by keeping him up late, and that somewhat worked, though he still woke up pretty early - 5:15 PST or so.

The first 2 pictures are from a playground we went to early in the morning (the only time to play outside in LV). It was amazing - it was like a small little western town with climbing rocks, bridges behind facades, a sprinkler park, picnic tables.

The 2nd picture is from a train ride we went on - a restored 1914 train, managed by the Nevada Southern Railroad Museum. Andrew LOVES trains. In fact during our visit we went on 3: the restored passenger car, the monorail down at the strip, and a tiny childsized train which went through an area of downtown. Certainly if you ask him, those were the high points of his trip.

"Reading"

Here's Andrew "reading" me one of his stories. Basically he memorizes his books after a few reads, then recites them back. Sorry its a little hard to understand, but if you can make out the text in the book, you should be able to match up his words now and again. Regardless, I just love his cute little voice, don't you?

Parenting Wisdom

A thought shared from my friend Julie: "So one thing that helped to keep me sane through the terrible twos - they always say that the kids act up and test limits with parents at home more than out of the house because they feel secure with you.  They know that they can act up as much as they want and you won't leave or stop loving them.  So the fact that he's willing to act up with you is actually a good sign - it means he feels secure and loved.  :) "

And the fact that my last 2 pictures of Andrew are taken in the tub means that I've been a bit lazy about taking new ones. Today is his 29 month birthday - only 1 more month until he's officially 2 and a half!

Terrible Twos, Continued

As a courtesy to future-Andrew who might be reading this at some point, I probably was a little harsh in my last blog entry. It was just one of those days where you constantly tested limits and ended up in Time Out quite a bit. I didn't mean to imply that you are  being awful all the time. Its just what the books say, you're' going through a phase, testing limits. Many of the blog readers who are fellow parents warned me. I didn't believe them, of course, as you never showed any tendencies to willingly misbehave. But alas, childhood development has caught up with you. 


So parents of wee ones reading this, consider this your warning! Your angelic child will not always be so. I'm SO glad we potty trained him before now, as he'd never be receptive if we did it today. Please consider that a suggestion. Do it either before or after the terrible twos. Our TTs happened to start at around 27 months and expect it to last a few months. This summer, we hope to finish potty training (he still does #2 in his overnight diaper, or underoos....)


I did figure out that he's much better behaved outside our home than in it, so we're spending time literally outside in the yard, or at the playground, or at playdates. We've even got him registered in playschool (parent coop) and this week starting soccertots. He's actually very good at running while kicking the ball, doesn't lose track of it, has good aim. Shawn was a varsity soccer player, maybe there's actual talent there. I think he needs more experiences, and less toys, at this point, and that's part of what makes him grumpy at home. We're starting to do some cooking with him, art projects, and he's helping us with house improvements which he seems to enjoy.


So we'll just embrace this like we do anything else - its part of the parenting experience and I'm sure we'll all come out of is just fine.


On another note, we're off to Vegas on Thursday! As much as I am not looking forward to a 5.5 hr flight with Andrew alone (Shawn's staying home - thank god for the iPad with its apps/movies,) I think it will be alot of fun while we're there. There's an Italian Festival in town, a Childrens' Museum, A Railroad Museum with train ride, all the casinos with their animal exhibits, playgrounds (for the wee hrs in the morning when we're awake with jet lag and its still temperate outside) that will all be new to him.


That's something else we've noticed. He loves exploring new places and making new friends (he automatically approaches kids his age and play with them, shares, has good manners). During those interactions he's VERY well behaved. Parents always compliment us on this. So his more difficult behavior is specifically limited to testing us. Shawn's more strict than I am, which surprises most people. I guess growing up in a gaggle of 3 makes me a little less sensitive to "bad" behavior - to some degree I think its just a kid being a kid.


Kudos to you if you got to the end of this blogpost! Time to go make some scones for breakfast :)

Terrible Twos

We're here, in the Terrible Twos. Where did my lovely boy go? He's been replaced with a kicking, screaming, refuse-to-listen-to-his-parents version of himself. At least 3 isn't too far away.....good thing he's cute, or we may try to return him to the hospital. But I suspect his warranty has run out.