Happy 29th Month Birthday, Andrew! I can't believe you are almost two and a half years old! You are growing up too fast!
Here are some things that Andrew has been doing this past month that I want to remember and for him to read about...
Andrew definitely talks much more as the days pass. He is very big on repeating whatever we say. He is trying so hard to talk more. We are so proud of the progression he had made regarding his speech. Andrew will say sentences like "Mama, sit down here" or "Daddy, get back there" (referring to sitting in the back of the train). In speech therapy, they have made an effort to increase his utterances. One concept they taught Andrew was to encourage him to use the phrase "I want" instead of just calling out whatever he wants. This way, instead of just asking for "milk", it is more like "I want milk please, Mama."
Sometimes, he will say "Mommy". I usually say "Mama" but have said "Mommy" a few times as well as other people. I don't know how much longer I will be "Mama." I am still hoping to delay it a little while longer, but it might be a lost cause. Andrew also repeats some parts of the Our Father at bed time and will say "amen" accordingly. And when he is excited, Andrew will yell "yeah hoo" instead of "whoo hoo." We think he got this from Mickey Mouse Choo Choo Express.
He will also say "cheese" when we take pictures of him, which helps me get some decent pictures of him looking at the camera instead of away somewhere. But other times, he is just saying "cheese" but looking elsewhere. Though, he does do a cheesy grin sometimes, which cracks me up. He can be such a ham at times! He loves to review the pictures afterwards too. He says "Thanks, Mama." But a lot of that is on me because I say "thanks" more than "thank you."
Andrew also tries to sing songs now like Happy Birthday and Choo Choo Boogie usually singing the last word of the line or parts of the chorus. Also, when you ask him "How are you?", he will respond "good" or lately, "fine." Andrew has been perfecting his stall tactics too. When Andrew wants to play longer before eating or sleeping or going somewhere, he says "one minute." And lately, when I ask him who he loves the most, he replies "NiNi" or "choo choos." Gotta love his priorities.
Drew's infatuation with fire trucks continues to grow. When we are in the car driving home, he asks to go "that way" to see the fire station and normally points in the right direction (scary, huh?) He knows that we have to go a little out of our way to drive past one near our house.
As much as he loves fire trucks now, he still loves trains more. Drew plays with his GeoTrax trains everyday and lots of it. They have definitely moved up the ranks in favorite toys. He still plays with his Thomas trains, but I think he has been playing more with the GeoTrax set ever since we got more tracks and trains for him. He loves the remote control train called Steamer and also the tunnel that Aunt Monica got him for his birthday. He will lift up and push down the gate accordingly.
Andrew is still so great about pretending. We cook a lot including pizza, cake, cupcakes, cookies, doughnuts. He will also pretend to blend Jamba Juice smoothies even pretending to bang the blender to pour the drink into the cup. And he loves to pretend to cook in his tents too! Andrew loves to pretend driving a train or an airplane especially when he is sitting in his car seat on long car rides.
Drew has also made up his own little creations. When he jumps off the stairs (bottom step only) or off the curb, he says it's a "choo choo jump." It's his normal jump; there is nothing different but that he calls it something different. I have no idea where he got the idea from, but it has grown to "choo choo kisses" and "choo choo hugs."
Andrew still loves books. We read them all the time especially for night night. One thing Andrew likes to do is read "Barnyard Dance" and act it out. He also has certain parts of some of his books memorized like "Freight Train" and some of his Curious George books.
He has been watching some of "Finding Nemo." I like to skip some of the scary parts. One of our favorite parts is Crush and the rest of the turtles. Andrew will say "dude" and "sweet" to imitate Crush. Andrew still watched Mickey Mouse Choo Choo Express and Dora the Explorer still too.
Lately, he has been eating a lot of cherries. I will cut them to remove the seeds, but sometimes, he will like to bite around the seeds. Andrew has been eating lots of blueberries this month because they have been so sweet. One night for night night snack, he killed a third of a pint. He wanted more, but we stopped him. Andrew is obsessed with Chick Fil A. He will eat his chicken strips and fruit cup (except for the apples). Then, he knows that afterwards, he gets an ice cream cup. Every time we drive past one, he totally recognizes their logo will say "Chick Fil A." He also is big into Jamba Juice and recognizes their logo as well. Andrew is also proving that he is a rat in the Asian Zodiac eating cheese. He loves it in sliced, grated, shredded, and string form. One day, he ate three slices for breakfast and three for lunch.
Andrew also likes to drink the V8 Fusion fruit and vegetable juice. We like it because it's healthy for him getting nutrients from fruits and veggies and Andrew likes it because it tastes pretty good. He doesn't know it has veggies in there since we just call it fruit juice.
Andrew also likes for me to cut his food into strips, which he calls "choo choo strips" since they look like trains. He is getting to be very independent wanting to hold his food and bite off a piece. At night night, he still likes a snack no matter if he just ate something downstairs just prior to. The normal is two bags of fruit snacks.
My son also takes after me and loves to eat ice cream. He almost always asks for some when we go out to eat. We usually tell him he can only get if he eats well, but I don't think this really alters how much he eats. Drew has been really big into chips especially the barbeque ones and Cheetos. I guess it figures since he likes barbeque sauce and cheese so much. We try to limit how much he eats chips, but if not, I think he could really take out quite a bit.
Andrew is very into eating at restaurants. We can't just pick up the food and eat at home. He always wants to "eat there." When we are driving, he likes to point out eating establishments and will ask to "eat there." This is probably a product of how much we go out to eat as it is.
He is still big on everyone having everything at meal times like plates, drinks, and food. And he still doesn't understand that some people may not want to eat a particular food or are full or don't like everything on their plate at once (yes, that's Mommy). But I love that he cares about all of us eating together and sharing food.
Andrew is still our social butterfly wanting to play with both adults and kids. He will grab their hand and try to pull them to where he wants to play. At Gymboree, he will try to get other kids to play trains with him. Gavin will occassionally, but most of the time, we have to explain to him that sometimes, people don't want to play trains and that it is ok if they don't.
Andrew definitely whines and fusses more and sometimes, over the silliest things like which cup he wants to drink out from or if he is trying to get another book read to him before naptime or bedtime. I am looking forward to him growing out of his phase.
Unfortunately, Andrew has been very into talking about "butts" and "poo poo". He likes to talk about other people's posteriors and excrement. We will ask him to desist this inappropriate talk and have to put him in timeout to reprimand him.
He has been really good lately about going to sleep. There are some evenings when he goes straight to sleep without climbing out of the bed and coming into the hallway. Then, there are nights when he comes out two or three times, but he's getting better.
Andrew is sleeping a little better now...or at least, longer. He sleeps at least an hour for naps if not an hour and a half. Here and there, he will take a two hour nap, which gives me such a nice break. Sometimes, I end up napping too. Also, Andrew will sleep through night pretty regularly now. Of course, if we aren't at home or if he's sick, then all bets are off. Daddy and Mommy still wake up in the middle of night wondering if Andrew is okay since he's not in bed with us.
One thing new to the bed time routine is that he doesn't get any milk after bed time if he wakes up in the middle of the night. He only gets water or juice. Also, he only gets one sippy cup full of milk before bed time.
Andrew is still very affectionate thankfully. Poor thing has to give me a morning, afternoon, and good night kiss every day. And I get lots of hugs too!! For other people, he is really good about hugging them especially family and his little buddies. And for those who he doesn't like to hug or kiss, Andrew has finally learned to blow up knuckles. He also does double knuckles by bumping both fists.
We haven't had any more movement on the potty training this month. He's not too interested anymore. He will sit on the toilet and try to pee for a few minutes and then say "all done" and want to get off. We aren't pushing him only asking if he wants to try to pee in the potty. We know that he will do it when he's ready. Though he does like to tell us that he's farted. He thinks it's funny. Hmm, where does he get that from!?
However, Andrew will also tell me when he pooped so we can change his diaper. Then again, sometimes I know he has and will ask him if he has and he will say he hasn't. I don't know why he feels the need to lie about it.
Andrew is also very fond of picking his nose. We actually let him pick it at first thinking it was a good idea because he wouldn't let us remove his boogers like when he was sick. So, he started to get his own out. But now, we see him picking it just whenever. Yes, he normally gets something out of it, but I would rather not see him do it so often. We are trying to curb this habit.
But for all the difficulties we have faced with Andrew, he is still very sweet and loving. I love that he is so concerned about other people and thinks about others. I wish this carried over more in terms of sharing toys, but better than nothing. And he has gotten better about sharing so hopefully the trend continues. It's been a fun month and it gets funner the more Andrew learns and the more that he can do. Can't wait to see what next month brings!
Here's some video from earlier this month of Andrew doing a little Kung Fu Fighting with Daddy!
