Andrew is 2 1/2 years old! It amazes me that Andrew has grown into such a little boy and he isn't a little baby anymore. I love how much he knows and is learning. And I am glad he is growing up and becoming more independent. But on the other side of it, I am sad that he's not my little baby. Well, he will always be my little baby no matter what his age!
Andrew is still a big cheese fanatic. As of late, Andrew has been eating sliced cheese at night for his night night snack. Andrew has also been wanting to cut his food into strips (he calls them "train strips") and hold and bite into them. Drew has been totally devouring blueberries. He used to only eat them if they were sweet, but now he will eat them if they are sour too. He's been really good eating other fruit like strawberries, grapes, and melon. Unfortunately, he doesn't like vegetables as much. But to remedy this, we bought some of the V8 Fusion drinks, which Andrew actually drinks and likes. We like them because they are so nutritous for him and gets him some of the nutrition from veggies that he isn't getting otherwise. But I do sneak some vegetables into Andrew's diet. He will eat carrots that I cook with spaghetti and eat broccoli that I will cook with fetticune alfredo.
Our routine for putting him down for naps and bedtime are pretty set. Andrew is allowed to pick out two books for naps and five for bedtime. It's funny when he picks out more than his allotment. We tell him he has to put however many back. Or if he already has his allowed number but wants another book, we make him trade. He is normally pretty good about being content with the two and five books, but there are days and nights where he wants more. We usually tell him if he's being good, then he can earn another extra book. And he always has to have some sort of night night snack and milk while we are reading books at night. He doesn't get snacks before naps. Usually, Andrew is pretty willing to go to sleep, but maybe once or twice a week, we hear him say "no night night." For bedtime, We just explain that he needs to go to sleep and there is no room for discussion. For naps, we will say he can just lay down and be quiet. After all those skipped or late naps, I know that there will be days when he will skip his nap. But lately, he's been pretty good about falling asleeping even taking naps over an hour and a half.
One afternoon with Nhat's family, Kyana was watching
Max and Ruby; and Andrew was hooked since then. He had watched a few episodes with Brennan, but it didn't take. But now, Andrew likes to watch an episode after he wakes up from his nap. He asks for it more than any other show. But he still watches a little bit of Dora, but definitely not as much as before.
As for books, Andrew's new favorite is Richard Scarry's
Cars and Trucks and Things That Go. We will go through the book and look for Goldbug. Andrew can find all of them on the pages, sometimes faster than Mommy and Daddy. Lately, he's been in a Berenstein Bears book kick, especially
By the Sea, so much so that we have had to recheck it out from the library. When we are reading, sometimes we pause so that Andrew can say what's coming next.
As for music and dancing, he is also enjoying acting out
Baby Bumblebee,
Tooty Ta, and
Bananas Unite from the Bellaire Library, but we do them lots at home and in the car too. To Daddy's dismay, Andrew has been tainted by Mommy's affinity for pop music. We jam out to Katy Perry's
California Gurls, Usher's
OMG, Train's
Hey, Soul Sister, and Kesha's
Tik Tok. He is trying to sing along with the songs too.
In regards to Andrew's speech, it still continues to improve every month. Andrew repeats almost everything we say. He can say longer words like blueberry, garbage trucks, and water park, which are some of his favorites. He can also say sentences like "I want milk please, Mama" and "I love you." Upon occasion, Andrew will say my name is Sydney sometimes instead of "NiNi."
Andrew is getting much better about being around other kids. He is very social and likes to play with other kids. Drew is better at sharing and taking turns. He will even voluntarily give toys to other kids without anyone asking him. Then again, we still have moments where he will swipe or be very relunctant to share. But we are working on it. And lately, he always says "no" to wanting babies even though so sweet to other babies and asking about them like Baby Shane and Baby Rush.
After a sometimes very trying and long process, Andrew is a water lover. He could go the pool everyday if he could (we try to go at least once a week). He is getting braver about the things he does in the water like jumping to us without holding hands and walking in deeper water that comes up to his chin.
Andrew is definitely all boy liking his trains, trucks, airplanes. He still plays quite a bit with Thomas and GeoTrax. And he loves his little diecast emergency vehicles. Andrew is still very good at pretending like cooking and playing along at Gymboree. He can pretend almost anything is a train!
Drew can be very nurturing at times. He still makes sure that everyone has food and tableware. Also, Andrew will want to make sure people are doing what he's doing or playing. He will want other kids to play trains with him. Another example took place at Gymboree where Andrew wanted another kid to participate in parachute time so he walked over to the little girl and tried to pull her over to the parachute. I had to explain to him that not everybody wants to do what he wants and we just need to leave them be. Andrew is also very affectionate (like his mother) and will give hugs and kisses to family and friends without us even having to ask him.
Andrew is very big into helping us and doing things himself. He loves to push the button to open and close the garage. And he has learned to get water and ice for himself out the refrigerator dispenser. He can do it on his tippy toes, but he will also use the step stool as well.
We are so in the midst of the terrible 2s. Andrew still has temper tantrums where he cries a bit or whines. But we just kind of ignore it and he gives up after a few minutes. But there are the bigger meltdowns where he goes into full meltdown and cries for longer. It's much harder to settle him down. He's very stubborn and hard-headed, but we know it's very genetic in both our families!
He can be very defiant and won't listen to what we are saying. But then there are times when he is very obedient and listens very well. I guess it's just his age.
We have been pretty impressed and amazed by Andrew's sense of direction. If we are going somewhere, it will say "that way" towards our destination. Or he will say something else and say "back there". The places that he probably knows the best are Gymboree, Daddy's work, Ngoai's and Papa's house, the nearby fire station, and even certain restaurants.
Another thing Andrew does is put up a stink when we need to leave somewhere. It's always something like "stay here", "no bye bye", or "Iin there". He just doesn't like to leave when he's having fun, which is nothing out of the ordinary. I just tell him that when Mommy says it's time to go, it's time to go and that there is to be no whining or fussing. This doesn't work all the time. We will also tell him that he has two more minutes. And he will try to say "two more minutes" after the first two minutes are up. Always negotiating!! But when we do leave, he's fine afterwards.
Happy 2 1/2 Birthday, Andrew! We love you so very much! You are the light of our lives and we are so honored to be your parents for the last two and a half years (and plus the time you were my belly too!)
I am also including a video taken earlier this month of Andrew pretending to cook by cracking eggs.
