Gosh, I can't believe another month has gone by. For real, where does the time go?
Andrew is learning so much now. For a while, I was worried that he wasn't learning any new words, but then, it just all poured out. He is getting much better and learning how to answer questions. Sometimes,his pronounciation isn't the best, but close enough.
1) Q: What does a dog say? Andrew: Ro ro (ruff ruff).
2) Q: What does a lion say? Andrew: Ra (roar).
3) Q: What does a monkey say? Andrew: Ooh (ooh ooh).
4) Q: What does a sheep say? Andrew: Ba ba.
5) Q: What does a cat say? Andrew: Mao (meow).
6) Q: What does a tiger say? Andrew: Ra (roar (same as lion)).
7) Q: What does a cow say? Andrew: Mmm (moo).
8) Q: What does a horse say? Andrew: Nnn (neigh).
9) Q: What does an elephant do? Andrew: sticks his arm out and waves it trying to mimic an elephant's trunk.
10) Q: How old are you? Andrew: sticks out his pointed finger.
Sometimes, he gets confused (like cow and horse, but that's foreseeable), but for the most part, gets them right even if I mixed up the order of the questions. He can also identify ducks and calls them "du du." It sounds a lot like da da though. He also can point out pigs if I ask him where the pigs are. He isn't able to say pigs or oink yet. We haven't taught him any new signs since we have been working on the verbal skills. He still signs for eat, drink, milk, more, bath, and please. He has an altered version for water and will say "wa wa." He also says "whoa" like Joey Lawrence style. Totally hilarious! He can also tongue clap (referring to where you press your tongue against the top of your mouth to make a sound).
Andrew is getting so good with playing with cars and trucks, including die cast ones. He loves to roll them on the ground--and on people too. He motorboats so loud at times; it's too funny. We also gave Andrew some Thomas trains and loves them. I am always carrying a ziploc bag of something in my purse so he can play with when we are out and about. Andrew also loves to ride horsies. He will climb on his rocking horse and rock away, but he so much more enjoys riding people's legs. Sometimes, he just comes up to you and starts humping your leg, for lack of a better term, to tell you that he wants a ride.
His comprehension has increased in leaps and bounds as well. It's pretty evident that he knows and understands more than he can communicate with us. For example, when we are about to go somewhere or if he wants to go outside, we tell Andrew to go get his shoes. He will then start looking for them. At first, he would just bring us one, but we had to tell him to get both of them. Sometimes, he can't find them though. But if he does, he will bring them over and sit down so we can put them on. Also, if James or I get dressed and/or put on our shoes, he will say bye bye. Sometimes, he will want to go with us and other times, like when James is going to work, he will just say it and wave. He also knows that when we do leave, he has to kiss people or give knuckles or daps, which James has taught him.
Andrew's eating is about the same. Some days, he eats great while other days, not as well as we like. I am happy that Andrew eats a wide variety of food and is so good about eating fruits and vegetables. Andrew normally eats what we are eating. He loves spaghetti, pizza, chicken nuggets, grilled cheese sandwiches, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. And the rascal does like his share of sweets especially mini M&Ms.
His sleeping is about the same too. The only difference is that there are days that he skips his afternoon nap. So, he might be making the transition to just taking one nap a day, but there are days that he definitely needs two. At night, he is great about laying down in his crib and falling asleep on his own. However, there are nights when he cries when we first put him down--mainly when he is really tired.
Andrew still loves music and is our little dancing machine. One of his favorites is
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Andrew will open and close his hands like blinking lights to ask for the song to be played and during the song. Now, he also likes Pink's
So What and will sing "na na na" too. A few times, he will squat and dance, which cracks us up tremendously!!
He is beginning to anticipate more as well. When I ask him if he wants to go to Papa's and Ngoai's house, he first says "Papa" and then says "bye bye" almost immediately after. He is more receptive to putting on his shoes and getting in the car. The last two times we have drove down to League City, he says "Papa" when we turn into the neighborhood as if he recognizes it (this might have just been coincidence though).
One negative thing that I have to report is that Andrew can be very disobedient. We will tell him no touch or no mouth; and he won't listen. He loves to get into everything, especially breakable things. What's worse is that sometimes when we reprimand him, he will laugh. I hope that he just thinks we are playing with him and is laughing at that instead of him laughing at us as if to mock us..."whatever Mom and Dad." He will also throw tantrums when he doesn't get his way crying a little bit. I know it's all part of growing up, but it's hard on us because he doesn't understand consequences and discipline yet. I can't wait until he can understand the concept of time outs!
Ok, I have written enough for now. Time to go check out my sleeping baby. Here are two of my fave photos from him today while he was enjoying being in the bed of my cousin's truck. Doesn't he look like such a little boy especially in the second picture?!
