Trains, trains, and more trains :)

Andrew has been building trains almost every day since Christmas, this was yesterday/Friday.

Apparently he conducts best with his eyes closed.

Go Henry Go!

We even made a tunnel with his stool

Percy and the chocolate milk car

He starts building tracks in his room...

and builds them all the way across the hall into mommy and daddy's bedroom.

He sent every single train down the tracks and back to his room, and he has a bin full :)

The Big Boy Bed

Andrew slept in his big boy bed tonight for the first time in months!!! Yeah!!!

With only one time-out!

Andrew and I put Spider-Man sheets on his bed yesterday that he had picked out and I thought that would work. But he kept getting out of bed last night and slept in his play pen finally. We went for a playdate at his friend Ethan's house today and I thought a little peer pressure might work. Ethan showed him his bed and how he sleeps in it.

Tonight he got in and I told him he would have a time-out if he didn't stay in his bed. He got up once and got a second chance and then he had one time out and didn't get up again. Except about half an hour later I went to go clean up the bath toys in his tub and he heard me and came out. I took him back to bed and told him if he got up he would get a time-out again.

He hasn't gotten up again. So maybe it worked!!

*******

Wednesday morning update:

He only fell out of bed once at 2:30 this morning and daddy put him back in. Then he got up between 7:30 and 8:00, not too bad.

Putting on his shoes

*Today Andrew put on his shoes all by himself, they were velcro, not tie shoes. Up until now he would just put on his rubber boots and his slip-on shoes.


*Tonight we played Hi-Ho Cherry-O! with him and he loved it. He would help us count the cherries and 'pick' them off of our tree. He even won once. He and mommy have been playing Candyland too. :) He can count from 1 to 10 and knows all his colors, including silver (like daddy's car) and white (like mommy's car) and black (like Zoe). Now we're starting to work on letter and number recognition.

*My friend Debbie came to visit us today. I tried to put Andrew down for a nap in his playpen but he was having none of that. When the dogs started barking I put them outside and he was barking back at them and then we're pretty sure we heard him tell them to "Shut up!" Oops, better watch what I say.


*He also repeats things we've told him. He likes to clear the dishes from the table after meals, it's one of his new 'chores.' When we give him a plate or a glass he says "Be careful!" Apparently we've told him that enough times.

*We also put Spider-Man sheets on his bed today. Andrew picked these out. He was excited about the prospect of sleeping with Spider-Man and he knows to sleep with him in his 'big boy bed' he has to "stay there," but alas he slept in his playpen....maybe tomorrow.

Painting-- on Saturday

"Red + Blue=Purple"

An Andrew original masterpiece

Hard at work

The painter

Big cheesy grin

Andrew asked daddy to put on his "blue pants"/jeans (he had been wearing brown courduroy pants and a sweater) and he asked him to take off his sweater and put on his Home Depot apron. He was awfully cute in just his apron and his jeans. :)

Zoolights 2009

We finally made it to Zoolights in 2009 instead of 2008. Luckily for us they decided to do an extra weekend because of all the snow. We hadn't gotten here yet because of the snow and work and other Christmas activities. Grumpa went with us, Andrew was excited to have him ride with him in the back of the car. Andrew loved pointing out the pictures of the animals in lights.

Mommy, Daddy, and Andrew

The pretty lights

They had most of the kids' area open.

So we saw some Meerkats

The Rainbow

The Monkeys :)

Happy Andrew

Tigers

Another family picture

Grumpa and Andrew

Goofy Andrew :)

Reindeer--Andrew was counting the big reindeer and the babies. :)

Another fun Andrew picture

We even rode on the carousel. Mommy got to ride with him, and we told the horse "Giddy-up horsey and go, horsey, go!"

It looks like the horse is rearing. Andrew was so excited and smiling when the horse was going up and down. When it was slowing down he said "More, more, more."

Mommy and Andrew

We went to see the sharks before we left and had hot chocolate.

****

Andrew didn't fall asleep on the way home even though it was already 10:00! I told daddy to drive around for a little bit but that didn't work because when we drove past our street Andrew kept saying "Go home, go home!"

But he was so tired he let us put on his jammies and put him to bed without stories and he went right off to dreamland.

Christmas Part IV

Every year Andrew and I meet my Aunt Barbara before Christmas to eat brakfast or lunch and exchange gifts. Because of all the snow and ice we were unable to get together before Christmas. Friday morning we met her and my parents at a restaurant called the Little Park Restaurant for brunch. It was very good, we'll have to go back there again.

Andrew's 'smiley face' curious George pancake, it even came with Curious George fruit snacks.

Auntie Barbara and Andrew

Opening presents

Auntie Barbara gave Andrew one of her favorite books, An American Tale. She was a teacher.

Andrew really likes this car launcher.

Cool, a Thomas and Percy book. :)

We then went to go get Auntie Barbara's new dog, a poodle she was buying from someone in Graham. Andrew loved the German Shepherd puppy that was in a crate. He kept going over there and getting her to lick him through the bars. Too bad for him, mommy will never get a German Shepherd, but he does have 2 big very kissy dogs.

Christmas Part III

ROUND THREE!!

We went to grandma and grandpa's house (daddy's parents) for dinner and to open more presents. Grandma was VERY sick. She came out for a little bit to see Andrew open his presents. Cousin Sam came the night before with his parents so it was mostly Andrew opening his presents. He got a lot of Thomas trains and LEGO's and a book and a Mickey Mouse that talks.


A Spider-Man dinner set


Opening presents with Uncle Marc.

He would tear little pieces of paper off and hand them to Marc. Uncle Tim tried to teach Andrew how to rip into the packages.


Uncle Tim & Aunt Angie

Cool, a train!

Overall we had a great Christmas. Unfortunately by that weekend most of Matt's family was sick with that nasty little stomach bug.

Christmas Part II

DING!! ROUND TWO!!

After we opened our stockings and presents at home we went to 'Muh' and 'Grumpa's' house. We opened stockings first. Andrew was very happy that Santa had come there too and was quick to spot a stuffed Curious George peeking out of his stocking.

A John Deere tractor ornament, thank you Santa. Andrew LOVES tractors! Only one problem, he thought it was a toy like his cars. :)


His eyes lit up when he saw the goldfish too.


Cool cars that light up

On to daddy's stocking..........

then Muh's, he was very interested in helping everyone else empty their stockings (and we oblidged :)

We then took a break to eat a yummy brunch, thanks mom and dad. Afterward Andrew was a little bit sleepy and crawled up on Muh's lap to snuggle but that only lasted a minute or two. He didn't have a nap that day and not any very good ones since.

Snuggling with his 'Muh'

I helped Andrew make special presents for 'Muh', daddy, and grandma (daddy's mom). We dipped his hand in white fabric paint and then put it on a red hot pad. I then painted his name at the bottom and painted Merry Christmas 2008 on the back.

Muh with her special Andrew present, she loved it!

Grumpa opening his present.

It took a little convincing to get Andrew to open the rest of his prsents at first. He climbed up in the rocking chair, behind the video camera. Then he didn't want to climb down and sit on the floor to open his presents.

Finally diving in

He got some very fun presents from his grandparents. He got a car rug, some books, thomas pj's, a train set, and an extra train.

My dad's cousin bout him some emergency vehicles and diggers and Elmo Live. Elmo tells jokes, tells stories, dances, asks for hugs, if he falls over he asks you to help him up and then says thank you, you're he best friend. He says hundreds of phrases.


Andrew dancing with Elmo

Ahhhhh!!! He was doing something with Elmo, I can't remember.

Andrew Tidbits

Happy New Year!!

Here are some Andrew updates:

*On Christmas he also said it was Jesus' birthday and he sang Happy Brthday to Jesus. How sweet. :)

*On Saturday we went back to Muh and Grumpa's house to take Muh her presents she didn't get and we stayed to have dinner and play games. Andrew was dipping his fork handle into the ranch and eating it. He also thought he could get away with whatever he wanted while the adults were focused on their game. He was playing in the living room but then he threw the pillow out of grandma's chair, I thought he just wanted to rock in it, next time I looked over he was reaching for the telephone. When I caught him he started laughing hysterically and then he would pretend to do it and start laughing. Silly boy!

*At church on Sunday when we went to go pick him up from his classroom his teacher said he is always so sweet and so quiet and just does whatever you ask him to do. We though maybe he'd make a good baby model them....nah.
*We tried to tell him he needed to take a nap after church so we could go to the train show, but he just stood at the end of his playpen calling 'mommy, daddy, grover, zoe' for an hour. He was falling alseep on daddy and fell asleep in the car and slept from 5pm until 7pm. Should have taken a nap, he only took one in the last four days. He still went to sleep by 8:30 though.

*On Monday mommy was so tired from Christmas and the last few days that she asked Grumpa to bring Auntie Kara to our house to visit. I tried to tell Andrew he needed to take a nap so Auntie Kara could come play. He still stood at the end of his playpen calling for us and the dogs. Now generally I ignore him and sometimes when we finally get him out he has a poopy diaper, so no wonder he didn't sleep, but then it's too late. So this time he was saying 'Poop off, poop off, poop off!' and blowing raspberries. I finally went in his room and I asked him if he had a poopy diaper and he said yeah and when I went to change him he didn't. I told him there wasn't one and maybe he just tooted, he was very emphatic that he had. I asked him if he told mommy he had a poopy diaper so she would get him out of bed and he smiled and said 'yeah.' I explained to him that it wasn't nice to tell mommy things that aren't true. Little stinker.

*He was also throwing popcorn to the dogs and telling them to 'say please'



Auntie Kara came to visit, and play trains


Andrew with all his trains zooming by, he loves them!

*Tuesday when mommy was at work Andrew and daddy made pampakes for breakfast. He also had a straw in his cup. When daddy turned around he was sucking syrup with his straw. That evening he came to have dinner with mommy at work. I told him I would be home at bedtime. When they got home he said, 'mommy home' and daddy told him in about an hour, so he wanted daddy to carry him over to the clock so he could change the time. Awwww :)

*Now this one isn't such a nice story. We didn't have any big plans for New Year's Eve because mommy had to work the next day, but we did go over to daddy's parents house for a little bit to use their computer and ran a few errands. We were talking about doing this while Andrew was finishing his lunch and Andrew said 'My come too.' I said, No, we'll just leave you here with the doggies. He commenced to make a really awful face and start crying. I tried to explain to him that I was teasing and what teasing means. But I had hurt his feelings and he wouldn't stop crying. :(

*Tonight (Friday 1/2/08, even though the post will say 12/31/08) Andrew was such a big boy. He ate a whole crab cake for dinner! He'll eat pretty much whatever we are eating, such a good boy. He also did the 'Itsy Bitsy Spider' and 'Pat-a-Cake' with me which I didn't know he knew the words to. At naptime and bedtime he helps read the stories. We read Thomas stories, of course. He helps read 'Go Train Go' he's very good at filling in words and using the pictures, where it says 'no goat, no dark, no cow, no log.' I asked him which book we were going to read next and he said 'Trains, Cranes, and Troublesome Trucks' very clearly. I didn't even know he knew how to say all that. He's learning so many new things every day. We also played Candy Land tonight, he know his colors very well.