Andrew Moments

Some favorite Andrew moments from this week:

Last night, I was playing with Andrew upstairs; he picked up a book off the bookshelf, waddled over to within about two feet of me, then turned around and started to squat. He realized he wasn't quite close enough to sit in my lap, so he started kinda waddling backwards till he could plop in my lap. It was pretty cute.

After reading the book for a page or two, he stood up, turned around and stuck the book on my head, and laughed.

He also loves to help Mommy - while doing the laundry earlier this week, he came toddling in with a dishcloth I'd had folded up in the laundry basket waiting to be put away. He walked over to the dryer, opened it, stuffed the washcloth in and pushed it closed (it wasn't latched all the way). He left, and came back a few minutes later dragging a dish towel, opened the dryer, stuffed it in halfway and closed it again. He also loves to help me sweep and tries to hold the vaccuum for me, though it's a little heavy for him.

I'm loving being a Mommy to these two darlings! (And I should mention, Grace is sitting in my lap while I type, trying to read what Mommy's writing . And doing pretty good with it!)

Will you marry me?

Gracie asked Daddy last week, "Could you marry me if somebody else walks me down the alley?"

Story Time

Today after I'd tucked Grace in for her nap, she asked if I could stay and she could read a book to me. And she did! Not perfectly, but she knew a bunch of words by "sight" (more than I realized!) and tried to sound out the words she didn't know.

It was really sweet, and I was so proud of how hard she kept trying and how she persevered, even when a 2 minute board book turned into 15 minutes of painstaking labor. My little sweet pea is growing so fast!

The day after...

First Word?

Grace and I were playing on the computer this morning (starfall.com has some great phonics "games"), and she sounded out, "b..o..x... box" all on her own. I think she might have sounded out other words before, but it's impossible to tell if she's really sounding them out, or just had it memorized. She still can't get all three letter words, and anything beyond that and she's guessing, but it's such fun seeing her surprise and excitement when she gets one.

Grace - Almost 3!

Andrew at 11 Months - Happy Baby!

First... shuffle?

Yesterday while standing up, Andrew picked up a foot and set it back down a couple times. Not quite a first step, but getting close! :-)

Our Little Economist

On the way home from Half Price Books, Grace told us:

Next time, you'll give me some money, and I'll take the princess and put her on the counter. The clerk will check her out. I'll pay give her some money, and then I'll take the princess home! Next time, I'll remember to do that.

Our busy lil' fellow...

A Good Question

While putting Grace down for her nap this afternoon:

"Do flamingos have chins?"

Swim Lessons

Grace and I've been doing swim lessons this week at the local community pool, and we've been having a blast! She's slowly getting more used to putting her face in the water, and today I actually got her to float on her back with me just barely touching her. I'm so proud of you, my precious daughter!

10 Months and Standing!

Last Thursday, Andrew pulled himself up for the first time on the dresser in our room (he was fascinated trying to open and close the drawers), and he's been enthralled with practicing it ever since. Whenever he wakes up in his crib, I find him standing like this - generally crying as he's gotten himself up and can't get himself back down. He's happily cruising the house now checking out anything and everything! This evening, he spent a long while standing at the window in the living room, just looking. He's emptying laundry baskets, and pulling out all the electronic stuff we've been storing by the TV. It's gotten trickier again, but I'm loving it. :-)

Eight Months and Crawling!

Well, it's still technically an army scoot, but as of today, my life has changed forever. Again. :-) Within minutes, our little guy can now scoot himself to pretty much any point in a room, and he's been having a blast checking out the tv, his closet, and underneath Grace's little table. Mama and Grace are still recuperating. (Just kidding. Kinda.) And Mama and Daddy have some serious childproofing to do tonight!

From the "I don't want to forget that" pile...

In the car today, Grace was telling me about the puppies she saw on a Daddy-date from several weeks ago:

Gracie: We saw a Bichon and a Peek-a-poo!

Mama to Daddy: Did she just say Bichon?

Painting Andrew's Room

I've been looking forwards to painting our kid(s)'s rooms for years, and we finally did it! Well, one wall at least. My sister came over tohelp us paint last week, and Grace had a blast working on her little section. :-)

Five Month Photos

(1/14/11 and 1/16/09 respectively)

Six months!

Andrew turned 6 month old last Sunday, and it's been an exciting week for our little guy! His first tooth finally poked through - the bottom middle, though we'd been thinking we felt one on the top for a couple months now. He's sitting up pretty well on his own now, and just tonight he's discovered he can "scoot" himself backwards on the wood floors. He looked so excited with himself!

I didn't know you knew that!

Conversation with Grace the other day:

• G: Daddy, what is in your ear?
• D: (after checking my ear and not finding anything) Uh, I don't know, sweetie, I think that's just my ear.
• G: What is it called?
• D: I'm sorry, Gracie, I don't know.
• G: You should look online.
• D: ... Did you say that I should look online to find out what it's called?
• G: Yeah!
• D: (double-checking) Where is "online"?
• G: It's... on the... on the laptop!

Whoa. :)

Eyes on You

So we have a Baby Einstein or something video of zoo animals that has a song with dancing numbers that goes something like "One, Two, I love you...". Yesterday, Jenny brought over some of her classroom posters, one of which is a series of numbers with little faces drawn on them, that looks rather like the dancing numbers from that song. As soon as Grace saw those numbers, she very excitedly proclaimed "One, two, eyes on you!"

January 2011

We've been having a fun winter with the kids; Grace loved building her first snowman! And making "snow cream" with Daddy to eat. It's been fun watching her learn and grow. This afternoon, I painted a trial swatch on her wall to test out a color we're thinking to paint her room. I told her not to touch, so instead she brought over her pink stool, set it down just inches from the wall and sat on it to "watch the paint dry". Tonight at dinner, Caleb asked her what she did during her naptime, and she told us that one "baby (doll) changed other baby's diaper". She loves books, and keeps a dozen or so in bed with her at all times. And when she puts her baby dolls to bed, she makes sure to leave them a book to read. And then she'll sit on her stool and sing All Creatures to them. She loves taking care of Andrew too, and though we still have some "tricky" moments, generally when he gets fussy, she'll go find him a toy, and sometimes she'll rub his head and tell him "don't cry, Andrew", or sing him a song.

Andrew keeps getting bigger - his 3-6 month pajamas fit him just fine, except the sleeves hit him about his elbows now. He looks so pitiful with those pudgy arms sticking out, so I've started putting a sweater on over his pj's to sleep at night when it's really cold. He's still a very happy baby; he'll grin and grin just cause somebody looked at him. And tickles earn you an adorable belly laugh. He still has his fussy periods (as his grandparents well know!), but it's such a joy having him around. He's getting close to sitting up now too; he kinda flops forwards on his arms, but he can hold his balance for a few seconds before tilting over to one side or the other.

He's rolled a few times (the first was the day after Thanksgiving!), but still not consistently. I think he's having too much fun just watching big sister Gracie to really try yet. At his four month pediatrician's visit in December, he rolled over four times in a room from his tummy to his back, but I don't think he's done it again since then. He has gotten pretty good at squirming around in a circle though. If I lay him down with a burp cloth under his chin (he's quite the little drooler!), within a few minutes he'll be off to the side somewhere.

More Gracie-isms

Grace to Daddy as he takes her baby doll from her at dinner, spoken with a great deal of concern for her baby: "Take care of Lisa! Try not to hurt her."

While watching the intro to Winni the Pooh

Grace: "Where's my rocking horse?"

Mama: "We don't have a rocking horse."

Grace: "We must buy one."

Mama was checking Facebook this morning while Gracie was eating breakfast. When I turned back to her, she peered at me intently and asked, totally out of the blue, "Do you play with fire?"

Don't remember what she saw, but this morning Grace told us, "How curious!"

At dinner tonight: "I'm thinking... I'm thinking... I'm thinking of... my... birthday!"