The park yesterday

We went to the park yesterday afternoon with Andrew. He likes to stand and watch the rest of the kids a lot of the time but he wanted to play on everything!

Daddy helped him climb the rocks with the chain but he's still a little scared of it.

We played peek-a-boo through the holes in the rock wall.

Hi!

This is my favorite picture! I know probably every mom thinks that, but I think I've got the cutest little boy in the whole world! :)

He was a little unsure of this teeter-totter but he wanted to try it out. It just doesn't have quite the right fit, a little too far from the seat to the handles.

The anti-gravity bouncer

Playing cars with daddy :)

This is Andrew's favorite toy at this park. He loves to just keep racing and racing the cars.

The bouncing butterfly

Swingin'

A very happy little boy

Hi Daddy!

Andrew had a blast at the park! He would go every day and stay all day if he could.

Tooting in the tub

When Andrew was in the bathtub tonight he was making 'tooting noises' and laughing hysterically. I asked him if he was tooting and he said yes and just laughed and laughed. I finally realized he was using his toes against the wall of the tub to make the noise. He was tricking mommy. :)

Potty-training:1 Big boy bed:0 (sort of)

So we have been trying to get Andrew to stay in his big boy bed the for the last 2 weeks. He did good for the first 3 nights and got rewarded with a trip to McDonald's. :) Then he spent a couple of nights in his playpen and then he'd spend one night in his big boy bed and go back and forth. I tried time-outs and I tried walking him back without saying anything, many, many times. Tonight he really tried to sleep in his big boy bed but he had a hard time falling asleep and eventually asked to sleep in his playpen.

However, the last 2 nights he slept in his big boy bed, he just wanted mommy to sit by his bed for about 10 minutes and he stayed there all night. He even took a nap in his bed for almost 2 hours today.

Now, we have also been trying to get him to sit on the potty. If I ask him if he needs to sit on the potty he usually says no, so we started giving him a sticker and a small piece of candy if he would sit on the potty, he doesn't always go though. But at least he's trying. He also gets a sticker if he stays in his bed. Yesterday he was just about asleep in his bed and he said "Pooey daddy." So daddy got him up and took him to the bathroom and he went on the potty. Yeah Andrew!! But then he took his nap in the playpen for about 45 minutes. Potty-training:1 Big boy bed:0

Another haircut

I went to go get Andrew a haircut at Chong's (the barber) today. He is such a good boy, he gets a sucker when he's all done. He laughed and thought that the clippers tickled. He was such a big boy at the dentist 2 weeks ago too. He opened his mouth wide for the dentist and let him paint fluoride on his teeth. (Last summer the dentist had to pry open his lips a little bit) He got to keep the little mirror and got a new toothbrush, and he got a rubber duckie for being such a good little boy...I mean big boy. :)

BEFORE:

Silly boy :)

AFTER:

There's my handsome little boy!

More snow....I mean slush

We woke up to more snow this morning, about an inch. But it quickly turned to slush and rained all afternoon. But we did take a walk in the snow/slush this morning.

All ready to go!

He loves this hat!

We asked the dogs to sit next to Andrew for a picture and this is what we got :)

It almost worked, but when I snapped the picture Grover walked toward me. Then Andrew did the same thing, laughing.

Walking with mommy in the slush

We had a fun walk

Hurry up please

Andrew had spilled milk in his car seat (and he's spilled other things along the way) on the way to church on Sunday so I had taken the pad off of his seat to wash it. Oy, was that a chore. I had to disassemble the seat and take off the base and the harness (like you would to make it a booster seat) and wash the pad by hand and hang it to dry.

So yesterday morning we had to reassemble the car seat before Andrew could go on the car ride that he wanted to. Andrew really wanted to help and he would hold the straps for me when I threaded it through and he was saying "hurry up mommy." I said that's not a very nice way to ask, so Andrew said "hurry up please mommy." :)

What a good helper

He's making sure I get every piece in there

This Past Weekend

We had a busy weekend!!

Friday: Mommy and Andrew went shopping at the mall with 'Muh' and out to lunch with her.

Saturday: This was a big day. We went to Colin's 7th birthday party in the morning. His mom threw a 'grossology' party complete with a burping contest, making snot, and a dog food eating contest. Mommy almost won the dog food eating contest...don't worry it was only corned beef hash, but the kids really thought it was dog food.

Then I had a baby shower to go to in the afternoon, sans Andrew. After I got out of our driveway after not being able to start the car. And someone drove through our yard. Grrrr!

And then when I got home we had friends come over for dinner and games. Andrew is shy sometimes of new people and he had never met them before (they're college friends we reconnected with) so he was very upset. He would look at them and start cyring. He didn't even eat much of his spaghetti. He did give them each high-fives before going to bed early.

Sunday: We went to church in the morning. Andrew likes to go to his class. His teacher told us that if a whole bunch of the boys were playing he would stand and watch and then if there was only one he would go play. He does this sometimes at the park too. Mostly we relaxed for the afternoon and Andrew actually took a nap for a couple of hours. Mommy and daddy went to a movie that night so Andrew went to go play at grandma's house. He had no problem eating then! He had a lot of fun playing flashlights with grandma. :)

The Zoo

Last Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. day so we decided to make it a family day. We went to Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium. It was pretty cold, the fog didn't lift for most of the day, but we still had a lot of fun.

If you ask Andrew what we did he said:

"We went to the zoo."

"We fed the goats."

"Played"

"Saw animals"

"Ride the carousel"

All in all it was a really fun day!

****

They were having a talk in Rocky Shores shortly after we got there so we went there first to see the beluga whales and the walruses.

Mommy and Andrew watching the beluga whales do their tricks

Andrew and mommy watching the beluga whales swimming in the tank from down below

Here he comes

E.T. the gigantic walrus that has been there 20-something years

Mommy and Andrew watching the otters and the puffins

Andrew feeding the goats...

one piece at a time :)

Andrew about to go down the slide....very slowly

Andrew coming up out of the sea anenome in the play area

Watching the mole rats

Mommy and Andrew on the carousel

Rrrrrrrr!!!!

Go Tiger Go!

We rode a second time on a leopard because mommy didn't realize that the tiger didn't go "up and down."

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.