Happy 53rd Month Birthday

Our little boy continues to grow like a weed into such a little boy.

The video game addiction is starting early. He loves the Wii Batman Brave and the Bold Game as well Super Hero Squad. He sometimes gets lazy with hitting the bad guys, but he is quickly learning to hit the buttons as fast as he can when he is motivated to.

Andrew still loves to draw on white paper. There are a lot of drawings of good guys and bad guys...normally involving a bank robbery. One day, he decided to draw up some blue prints for a house and pretended to build it out of our couch cushions, pillows, and blankets with his handy tool box.

His favorite things to watch are Curious George, Word World, Super Hero Squad, Madagascar, and Lion King (in preparation for the Broadway show that is coming to Houston).

As for his favorite toys to play with, he still loves LEGOs. He plays with a lot more super hero toys and action figures. He likes to put the good guys versus the bad guys. He is totally into super heroes now and even says "because I am getting into them more" which is a repeat of what I have been saying. His favorite super hero was Superman, but might be Batman now. He also likes Spider-man and Captain America, who is probably his favorite Avenger.

On the iPad, Andrew's favorite apps are Smurfs, Bugsy (they have versions for Math and Reading and for pre-school and kindergarten), and Teach Me (another educational app). We tell Andrew sometimes that he has to do the learning apps and earn a certain amount of coins (by answering questions correctly) before he can play his more fun games or watch video. He also plays a little bit of Bakery Story and Angry Birds.

His addition and subtraction are coming along nicely. He will tell me that "1 and 2 is 3" and "5 and 5 is 10" and holds up fingers accordingly sometimes.

He is also starting to read. He has known the sounds for the letters, but hasn't been able to blend them to make the word. But the BOB books have definitely helped that or it finally came together for him. He is also memorizing words as well and I can tell he looks at the pictures for some guidance as well.

As for the books that he likes for us to read to him, Andrew usually selects Curious George or Super Hero Squad books...or any super hero books for that matter.

Andrew's speech is still making great strides. Ms. Gretchen has been pleased with his progress. He is getting a lot more sounds as well as putting the correct sounds in the middle and end of words. Andrew is really doing better about being more responsible for his talking. We have asked him to think about the word and the sounds and what he is saying.

She has started to do her evaluation for his four year old assessment and he scored a 96% in auditory comprehension/language or is at an equivalent level of five year and nine month old kids. She'll do the speech evaluation the next few sessions of speech.

He is taking less and less naps now--maybe 1-2 a week if he's at school. He does say to me though "I rested." At home, I can put him down later like around 2pm and he will end up falling asleep. At school, they start nap around 1pm and he's not tired by then. But if he does skip his nap, he is pretty good about going to bed early. Sometimes, he is in bed by 8pm and asleep by 830pm.

Since they are in season, he has been eating lots of blueberries, grapes, and strawberries. He has also been in a brownie kick. He loves to help make it as well. When we were in San Antonio, Nonna asked him if he wanted to help her make some. He, of course, said yes. And then he proceeded to ask where the box was meaning the mix. Poor kid has only seen Mommy make it from a box whereas Nonna makes it from scratch!

Andrew still eats lots of meat and broccoli. His favorite restaurants are Pei Wei, Chick Fil A, and Olive Garden. We went to a restaurant called Majorca and he totally killed their beef kabob with saffron rice. He liked it so much that he wanted to order another one. He also likes some meat with a dipping sauce made from soy sauce, sugar and water.

He tries to drink Gatorade whenever he can, but will still drink a lot of water (with ice) and milk.

Drew loves to ask when he is turning five but knows that he turns five on "February 24". He always talks about what kind of party he wants such as airplanes, super hero, pirate, and jungle (Madagascar). He will also premise what Papa would make for the party. For example, he says that Papa should make airplanes out of cardboard again instead of doing a bouncey house or something. He is so into the idea of my dad building stuff for him.

He also talks a lot about what costume he is going to be for Halloween and what presents he is going to ask for at Christmas.

Our SLDS camper is really enjoying summer camp especially going to the "Big Room" where Ms. Brandt and Ms. Ford teach them more about the theme of the session. He will tell me things about the Artic and the Antarctic. Oh, and his favorite part just might be Messy Day. The first one he was a little apprehensive. I told him if he didn't want to get wet or messy, he could just watch. But when I talked to him and Ms. Edgett that afternoon, both of them said he loved it!! And after that, he has looked forward to it every single week. One day, he was so excited because they made a river and dammed it up.

Andrew is very excited about the upcoming school year. He is sad about not being in Mr. Sanchez's and Ms. Edgett's class, but he is very proud that he will be upstairs in Pre K.

Our little athlete is playing offense in soccer again, which is nice because sometimes we need some help in that department. And he's been doing great with swimming and putting his head under water. Luckily, he is taking in less water in his mouth and nose. And he has been really happy swimming at Rice. Also, Andrew has still been enjoying gymnastics. He was a little nervous about his new coach for the summer, Coach Riggio, but he likes him now. He does say that he wants Coach Cortney again though.

Some of the things Andrew has been saying this past month include "uh huh" and "nuh uh" which I am not that thrilled with. But I can't really say much because James and I both do it.

A few of his little phrases include "I got to tell you something...I love you!" and he will tell James when he leaves for work "Have a good day!" or "I'll see you later." Daddy also made a day trip into San Antonio and we weren't going to go with him so Andrew told him "You can go see Nonna. Tell Nonna I said 'hi'."

Another day, he told me that he loves me because he misses me when I am gone. One day when we were at the library, I was looking for DVDs for him. He then starts looking himself and says he is looking for How I Met Your Mother for me. I totally cracked up laughing.

There are numerous time when we leave the truck at Rice. One morning when we did that, Andrew chimes in "I got an idea. You go to school with me. Mommy bring you to Rice. You bring the truck back."

Speaking of Rice, Andrew has recently told me that he wants to work at Rice with Daddy and I can come eat lunch with them. About a week later, he said that he wants to take care of his kids while Daddy goes to work. Then, he will drop them off at school and then go to work.

Some other things that Andrew talks about is how he wants to go to Cars Land, New York, Philly to see Bandit (as opposed to his human family members up there), and Vegas.

In one regard, I am a little sad about his growing independence. He asks more to wear t-shirts and not polo knits because they make his neck itchy (I think from the sweat when he plays outside). He loves his super hero tees. One day, he was going to wear his Superman shirt and he asked to wear his Superman underwear all on his own! When I let him, he was so proud he went to show his Daddy.

Here is a video of our 53rd month old working on his swimming.