24 weeks down...about 16 more to go.

Christmas 2008

Christmas #1:

Our Christmas started on the 20th when we drove to Kentland to celebrate with my family. We spent the whole day there. We had a great time and Andrew loved playing with his cousins again. Some highlights were:

When we sat down to eat dinner, Andrew looked at his plate and said, "Mmmm...yummy in the tummy!" Even though Andrew didn't have a nap, he still had plenty of energy around 5:00 to run from room to room following after his 6 year old cousin, Raven. This went on for about 10-15 minutes. Andrew was losing steam and was rubbing his eyes, but he was laughing hysterically and didn't want to stop. All 3 cousins cuddling on the floor together under Raven & Layla's new blankets. Andrew passing around hugs to everyone. The simple fact that we could all get together and enjoy just that...being together. The get-together almost didn't happen because my Mom's power was out until 5:30 the evening before. Andrew went to throw a soft dart (one of Raven's new toys). He pulled his arm back and looked as if he was aiming it directly at the dart board. I had my camera ready, sitting at about a 45-degree angle from Andrew ready to catch an action shot. Right before Andrew released the dart, I managed to snap a picture...a split-second afterwards I caught the dart in my neck. I wouldn't really call this a "highlight", but I'll admit it was really funny.

Here are some pictures of Christmas in Kentland...

Christmas #2:

Bob (Loren's dad) and his wife, Cynthia, drove all the way from Missouri in ice to come see us. They were hoping to get here late afternoon/early evening on the 23rd, but because of the horrible weather it took them twice as long. They finally got here around 1:30 in the morning. They let themselves in through the garage, put together Andrew's tricycle (their gift to him) and found their way to the guest bedroom. They spent most of the 24th with us. Andrew really enjoyed his "G-Pa" and his Grandma Cyn or "Bonna Cyn", which is what Andrew calls her. Whenever Andrew was asked a question, he insisted on responding with, "Yeah, Baby." We ate lunch at Red Robin and enjoyed each other's company until Bob & Cynthia had to move on to Kentucky. It was a quick, but great visit. We were very thankful they made it here and made it here safely!

Our Christmas:

I didn't take as many pictures as I should have, but we made cookies for Santa, Andrew impatiently waited to eat some of his own (and really enjoyed them when he finally got the chance). Andrew stayed up half an hour later than normal. He was very excited in the morning to see his new train table. I mean very excited. He played with it for awhile and then we ate breakfast - french toast and oranges. After that we opened gifts, which was a slow process. Andrew got a couple of dvds so we watched Cars - half before lunch and the rest later in the day. We did a lot of hanging out and playing with Andrew's new toys.

Merry Christmas!

Getting Crafty for Christmas!

I made these blankets (no sew - fleece - fringe blankets) for my nephew, niece, and Andrew for Christmas. They are so warm and they only take a few hours to make. I might just have to make one for myself as well...maybe.

Another tooth?!

Andrew was in the middle of being his silly self with his mouth wide open during lunch requesting me to spoon-feed him his yogurt, when I noticed a nice looking molar in the back of his mouth! I hadn't seen it before. It has a way to go, but it's definitely there. It's the first of the second set of molars, unless there's one or two on the top. Andrew wouldn't let me look. Anyway, I think it's cool.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

For some reason Andrew refuses to let this ornament stay on the tree. It may stay for a day or two, but he always takes it off eventually. He usually sings bits and pieces of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star when he holds it. "Likey, Diamond...Sky."

Lovin' Preschool

The past 2 weeks Andrew has walked out of preschool holding Miss Bethany's hand literally bouncing up and down excited to see me. But also because he just had a great 3 hours at preschool. Miss Bethany has come out laughing and has said the same thing 2 weeks in a row. "Andrew has so much fun and gets so excited about every little thing we do." It's so wonderful to know that Andrew loves his preschool. These were 2 pictures that Miss Bethany took during class today.

What makes Andrew, Andrew

It's impossible for me to completely capture Andrew's personality in a blog post, but there are so many things that he does that make me smile, laugh, cringe, sigh, etc., etc. and he's changing every day, that I thought I would try and capture some of it here so I can look back one day and remember.
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If I ask him if he wants something or wants to do something and he doesn't want it...he responds, "No, I not" very matter-of-factly.

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Timeouts have become a fun game. For Andrew, not me.

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Doesn't like to be messy. If food, paint, etc. gets on his fingers, he politely says "towel, please." He will hold out his hand and ask for a towel until I get it.

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When his bowl of yogurt gets down to where the sides of the bowl need to be scraped, he will ask for help. As soon as I take the spoon, his mouth flies open (wide open) until the spoon enters his mouth.

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Opens and closes doors over and over again and says, "Hewoa!" and "Bye! Day! 'kay?" (as in Bye! Have a good day! Okay?")

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He says "Yo baby, Yo baby" for some strange reason.

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When the dryer buzzes, he shouts..."Dryer!"

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Loves trains even though he doesn't have any. Hoo-hoo train changed to Choo-choo train in the matter of seconds. I was actually sad when I heard Andrew correct himself.

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Loves the movie March of the Penguins. It's a documentary.

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His favorite toy (other than cars) is the ball popper. (Oh, the ball popper...I've never seen a kid so obsessed with a toy.) "Poppa? Poppa?"
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He hates blankets being put on him at night. I have to sneak in and put a couple on him before I go to bed. Sometimes if Andrew stirs and wakes up enough to know what's going on he'll scowl at me and say, No! I have to let him be, but if I wake up in the middle of the night to go to the restroom and think about it, I'll sneak in his room and try again. I'm usually successful.

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He often says your welcome in place of thank you.

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If he gets frustrated about not getting his way Andrew either whines, cries or puts his fingers in his mouth and spits.

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Hates water being poured over his head.

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Refuses to sit down in the bathtub.

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Knows all of his letters by sight.

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Can sometimes count to 12, but in stages. Like 1-5 and then 8-12. Anything above 12 is

"ah-teen, ah-teen..."

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If he does something he's proud of, he shouts, "I did it!!"

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Takes a basket of cars to bed with him. I always take it out of his bed when I do my last check on him. In the morning (pretty much every morning) when he's talking in his bed after waking up, I hear him saying, "Uh-oh! Cars. Fall!"

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His word for basket is backets.
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One of his favorite shows, Super Why, used to be called "Why Why". Now, it's "Suter Why."
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Me: What does a duck say, Andrew?
Andrew: Cack! Cack! Cack!
Me: What does a pig say?
Andrew: O-oink, O-oink
Me: What does a frog say?
Andrew: Riddit, riddit...riddit, riddit
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When I drop Andrew off for preschool, he walks away with his teacher and looks back at me, waves, and says "Bye, Mommy!"
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Occasionally calls me Mom. Mom...mom....mom. He'll do this until I respond. He sounds so old when he calls me Mom.
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If food or something else falls onto the ground, he'll say "Uh-oh mess!" He sometimes drops or spills something on purpose just to say that.
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If Andrew wants to watch tv he says, TD mote (TV remote).
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Doesn't always know the difference between off and on.
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When he isn't calling me Mommy, Mom or Loren Daddy, he calls us Sweetie.
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Andrew says good-night to the baby at night by lifting up my shirt and poking my belly, and he says, "poke" while he pokes my belly.
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I try to teach Andrew to blow his nose when it's running by holding a kleenex up to his nose. I tell him to blow. Instead of blowing his nose, he says, "blow...blow."
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His favorite song is If Your Happy & You Know it Clap Your Hands.

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There's so much that makes Andrew, Andrew. This was a little glimpse into this 2-year old's world. He's a happy, smart, loving little boy who can get frustrated and frustrates me sometimes, but I wouldn't trade him for anything!


(I'm publishing this post knowing that I'm probably leaving something out. I may add to it in the next couple of days. Like I said, It's a glimpse.)

Head Bonk

Let me just say, I can't believe he did that!

This morning I was sitting on the living room floor happily wrapping a few Christmas gifts. Andrew was alternating between entertaining himself or helping me. He walked up to me and started circling me a little. He was staring at my face or head. He said something that I later figured out to be "bonk", but I didn't know what he was talking about. I had my hair up in a ponytail and an elastic headband around my head to keep the fly-aways out of my face. At the time I thought he was looking at the headband. I didn't know. I just knew he was acting a little strange, but he had a smile on his face and didn't think much of it. I continuted with what I was doing...my head was down concentrating on what I was cutting or taping. All of a sudden Andrew walks up beside my and he head-butts me! I then realized what he had been saying because as he bonked me in the head, he said, "Bonk!"

What?! My response was, "Andrew! Not nice. You don't do that. Where did you learn that? Where did you learn that?" I didn't get a response, but he looked a little ashamed and delicately touched my head. I think he was sorry. I still can't believe he did that.

I finally figured out what he has been saying!

For about a week or so Andrew has been ending a stament or question with a word that sounded vaguely familiar, but I couldn't figure out for the life of me what he was saying. Being that he's 2, his words don't always come out the way they should. Anyway, I finally figured out that he was saying Sweetie. Like "Up, sweetie?" It's usually more like, "Up, sweeeetie?!" or "Take cars, Sweeeetie?!" "More milk, sweeeetie?!" I realized that I call him Sweetie much more than I call him by his own name and it rubbed off a little. It's really cute, but it makes it much harder to say no to him when necessary.

Christmas is in the air!

Christmas tree shopping...

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our first snow...

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This is just a cute Christmas picture.

I caught Andrew trying to take ornaments off of the tree.

(Andrew strategically placed the bears under the tree)

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only 24 more days...

Great Grandpa & his Great Grandkids

Thanksgiving was at my house this year. My whole family was here...my Mom; my Grandpa (my dad's dad); my brother Jeff and his wife Kendra; my sister Sarah, her boyfriend Shaun, and their two kids Raven and Layla. It was quite a crowd for someone who isn't used to entertaining. This is a great picture of my Grandpa (who is 87 by the way) with his 3 Great Grandchildren - Layla (18 months), Andrew (2) and Raven (6).

Preschool Thanksgiving Program (Nov. 25th)

This video is long, but oh-so-cute. Andrew's preschool class "sang" a few songs during the preschool Thanksgiving program. During the program I thought some of the kids were singing, but once I played the video back, I realized that all of the singing was coming from kids in other classes (in the audience). There was a big screen behind them that was noticed during their performance. Andrew very proudly pointed himself out and also called the big screen a tv. I was very impressed that Andrew stayed still up there. I had no idea what to expect from him. Again, it was oh-so-cute.

hoo-hoo train

Here's a cute video of Andrew playing with his cars. He says "hoo-hoo train" instead of choo-choo train.

baby #2

(Me at nearly 20 weeks. This picture was taken a few days before the ultrasound, but it was close enough to include here.)

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***************************I'm a Boy!!************************

Yesterday was my 20 week visit and I had my routine ultrasound. Baby looks great. I only gained 9 pounds in 4 weeks. Ha! Oops. My doctor just smiled and laughed, so that's what I'll do...smile and laugh. All is well. I feel baby moving around more each day. I'm sure it won't be too long before he's packing some powerful punches and hiccupping non-stop. I can't wait!

Car obsession

Andrew loves his cars. When it's time to go to bed he quickly grabs as many as he can before I take him upstairs. They stay in his crib and he often has one in his hand while he's sleeping.

(this was earlier tonight at bedtime)

looking rather dapper

Andrew's 2-year picture

Baby Belly

The other day I was explaining to Andrew for the upteenth time that there is a baby in Mommy's belly. He finally seemed to grasp the concept (as much as a 2-year old can) and said "baby belly". I just figured he was repeating what I said. Today, out of the blue (without any coaching, that is) I pointed to my belly and asked Andrew if he knew what was in Mommy's belly. He looked at my belly and said, "the baby belly." How cute is that?

Visting the Doctor

Andrew had his 2-year Doctor's appointment this morning. Since he hadn't been to the doctor in six months, I was anxious to see how he was doing and how much he had grown.

Holy Cow!

I'll get to the stats in a minute, but Andrew flipped out when it was time to get on the scale. He had no problem walking down the hallway in his diaper, but he wouldn't step on the scale for anything. Not even with a toy or a sticker. Nothing. He wouldn't sit in the smaller seat-scale (meant for babies) either. The solution? Mom, why don't you stand on the scale with Andrew and then get off, put Andrew down, we'll weigh you, and then subtract the difference. Seriously? Do you really think my pregnant self wants to get on the scale at the pediatrician's office? Not. even. a. little. bit. But, I swallowed my pride and did it anyway, knowing full well that it was the only way to get Andrew weighed. So we stood on the scale together, along with two trucks that Andrew refused to put down. And then I had to get on the scale all by myself. I swear that scale was 5 pounds off, too! Anyway, this isn't about me.

Weight: 29.4 pounds (7oth percentile)
Keep in mind the ordeal we went through to get any number, plus there were 2 trucks on the scale with us. His Dr. said he's probably anywhere from the 50th-7oth percentile.

Height: 36 inches (85th percenile)
Andrew was in the middle of a fit when he had to lay down on the table, so I'm not even sure his height is entirely accurate. But, I'll take it. My baby is 3 feet tall!

Head: 48.5 centimeters (50th percentile) - whatever that means

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For reference, at 18 months...

Weight: 24 1/4 pounds (30th percentile)

Height: 32.75 inches (70th percentile)

Head: 48 centimeters (60th percentile) - again, whatever that means

Before we left the Doctor's office Andrew threw several more fits...when his ears were checked, when his mouth/throat were checked, when flu mist was shot up his nose, when he got a shot (that he was supposed to get 1 or 2 appointments ago), when we started to leave and he saw the scale again and went running back to the room. I lost count. When the nurse or doctor wasn't trying to touch him or have him do something he didn't want to do, Andrew had a grand ol' time at the Doctor's office. He made himself comfortable at a little table with Noah's Arc (or something like that) and ate goldfish crackers and was happy as can be.

I can't wait to do it again!

I was lucky enough to get my flu shot while we were there, too.

Dancing

Here's a video of Andrew dancing to some silly songs at the Children's Museum. Sorry about the back shot. If I recorded him from the front he would have stopped dancing. :)

Happy Birthday to Andrew!

It was a cold, rainy, nasty day...so we went to the Children's Museum for Andrew's birthday! Let me back-up. First, we opened presents around 8:30/9:00 this morning. Andrew was very excited to get some new toys and goodies. We left by 9:45 for the museum. We packed snacks, and lunches and we didn't have much of a plan. We were good to go. I have never seen Andrew so excited to be anywhere. Ever. We took him to the Children's Museum once before back in April. I don't know if he recognized the place or if we talked it up too much, but he shouted "play! play!" as soon as we walked into the building, and we weren't even near any play areas yet. He didn't know what to do with himself. We made our way to various rooms and spent nearly 3 hours there, with a break for lunch at about 11:30. Andrew was so tired, but he would have stayed all day if it was up to him.

Andrew took a snooze on the way home and forfeited his true nap. By about 3:00 we decided to go ahead and have cake and icecream, for fear he would be wired if we waited until after dinner. Andrew took one bite of icing and 2 bites of cake and that was it. He then decided he would rather play with the cake. The sheet of cake. I decided to let him.

The rest of the day he played with his new toys (and we all watched a little football). It was a Happy Birthday for Andrew! Enjoy all the many pictures. :)

Unwrapping some of the gifts...

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at the museum...

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Andrew stared and stared at the aquarium and said, "shishies" over and over again. He was pretty tired at this point.

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sleepy birthday boy

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Oh, the cake...

Ironically, Andrew made a mess of the cake without making that big of a mess. Whenever he got icing on his fingers he asked for a towel, which was several times. Oh, and the crying picture was the result of me taking the cake away before it got out of hand. After that reaction I gave it back to him. It's just cake.

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It was a good day!

So Random...

Andrew and I were sitting at the kitchen table this afternoon while he ate lunch and I sifted through his preschool papers. I asked Andrew, "so what did you do at preschool today?" Knowing that his language skills aren't developed enough, I didn't expect much of an answer, if any. He looked at me and then without moving his head looked to one side, then another, then back at me and shouted, "Grass!"

Really?

"I Wear My Sunglasses at Night..."

Trick-or-Treat!

Andrew had a ball on Halloween. He refused to walk up to anyone's house. Some people were kind enough to give him candy anyway. He really enjoyed the walk around the neighborhood and staring -and I mean staring- at all of the other trick-or-treaters. We walked for less than an hour and then decided to hang out on our front porch and pass out candy. Andrew really liked seeing all of the trick-or-treaters come to him; he waved and said "Hi!" He kept himself busy going through the candy bowl and lining up the different items along the front porch railing.

He was the cutest dragon I have ever seen!

Andrew has perfected the word suckers. I'm proud to say he now pronounces it correctly. I have no idea why he is so hyper here. He didn't have any suckers - or sugar for that matter.

(press play)

(By the way, a dining room table is going in this room. That's why it's empty.)

Bye bye sippies, bye bye??

This is Andrew's collection of sippy cups. I'm a marketer's dream when it comes to sippy cups! I tried darn close to all of them. I don't know how kids and parents got by without sippy cups back in the day. Did kids drink at all? The ones on the far left Andrew started out with at 10 months and the ones on the far right he stopped using maybe a month ago. The lids were thrown away on some because they had been used so much, but they were a hard plastic, shaped similar to the other sippies. The only ones I would consider to be a waste of money are the Nuby ones with a soft spout like a bottle (in the 2nd and 3rd rows). I didn't like those at all.

Now Andrew is using these...

Today Andrew decided he didn't want his straw and lid on his cup. Feeling brave, I took it off and walla!

Got milk??

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We'll still be using the straw cups for awhile. I'm not about to give those up yet.

Andrew and I were in the basement this morning. He was sitting at his table and I was crouched beside it on the floor watching him. Out of nowhere, Andrew gets up off of his chair and walks to me and says, "Hu, hu" (translation: hug). I put my arms out and he gave me a hug. Then he walked back towards his chair and said, "Thank you!"

Melt my heart.

Please forgive Andrew

He still has a little trouble pronouncing his letters and words correctly. He pronounces cup..."puck", spoon..."poon" and fork..."fick" to give you a few examples. However, this post isn't about all of the other mispronounced words, it's about one in particular...the BIG one. We were at Barnes & Noble this morning. I didn't have my head on straight when I left the house and forgot the most important thing...a snack. A snack is always my saving grace when I take Andrew shopping. He started demanding crackers. Yikes! I remembered that I had a couple of dum-dum suckers in my purse from the nice guy at Ashley Furniture (from last week). I gave Andrew one and it kept him occupied and happy for the remainder of the trip. When we were at the checkout, Andrew was in his stroller, happily sucking on his dum-dum sucker when he pulled it out of his mouth, proudly waved it in my direction and said,

............................"Mommy! F***er!".............................

Legos in the Bathtub?

I was in a hurry this morning and decided to put Andrew in the bathtub with his big tub of legos while I took a shower. (Thanks, Nikki, for this idea!) I had low expecations and thought he would hate it and try to climb out. I didn't have a plan for what I would do if he did climb out, but I thought I would try it. He stayed in the tub the whole time! While I was showering I heard Andrew naming the colors of his legos. As soon as I turned the shower off Andrew said to me...

Andrew: "All done?"

me: "Yep. All done."

Andrew: "All clean?"

me (laughing): "Yes. I'm all clean."

Andrew: "Thank you."

No joke.

I seem to have left out an important detail...

For those of you who don't already know...I'm pregnant!!!! 15 weeks tomorrow. The baby is due April 15th. Andrew and his baby brother or baby sister will be right about 29 months apart...2 grades apart. I think I'm over the yucky sick feeling that the 1st trimester is blessed with. Finally!

So, that's that!

Stuckey Farm

I was feeling spontaneous today, so Andrew and I took a little drive up to Stuckey Farm, an apple orchard, in Sheridan in the afternoon. It was a beautiful drive. As much as I love Carmel, it was nice to get out and remind myself what most of Indiana looks like. The farm sits on the Hamilton/Boone County line just north of SR 32.

After we walked around for awhile I remembered that I hadn't given Andrew a snack yet. I asked him if he wanted his fishies (golfish crackers) and he plopped right down on the ground and didn't want to move. I let him chill for a few minutes, but we had apples to pick, so he eventually got up and got in on the action. Andrew loved seeing all of the apples. Unfortunately he kept trying to "pick" the apples from the ground (the rotten and/or bruised ones) and the ones he managed to get off of a tree he threw on the ground. A couple of his made it to the bag, but he mostly walked with me and let me do the picking. It was a lot of fun! I think we were there walking around for about an hour-and-a-half. Andrew was worn out. Towards the end when we were making our way back up to the front of the orchard I started to go down another row of apple trees and Andrew said, "Nooo." He was done. He said, "All done. Bye, bye apples." How cute.

We left with a bunch of apples and only spent $4.05!

round one: complete

I made Andrew oatmeal muffins and he loved them. They stayed down, egg and all.

I made meatloaf tonight, which contains egg, but Andrew wouldn't touch it. I guess I'll have to stick to the sweet stuff.

What a great report card!

Today when I picked Andrew up from preschool his teacher, Miss Bethany, said that he was all smiles the whole day (he hasn't cried at all the last 2 times I've dropped him off). She went on to say that he did really well during circle time and repeated everything the teachers' said...numbers, days of the week and even the months, and he repeated all of the kids names as they went around the circle!

I'm so proud of him! Andrew really likes to learn. Sometimes when I'm telling him something I catch him looking at me very intently like he's studying my every word. I have to be careful, though. Last night when I realized I forgot something I said, "Oh shoot" and guess what came out of Andrew's mouth right afterwards! Yep..."oh shoot." He said it once or twice this morning as well, so he didn't forget it overnight. He's a little parrot these days.

Pumpkinfest 2008

The Pumpkinfest has quickly become a tradition for us. There are many activities for kids to enjoy, some of which Andrew didn't get to this year, and some of which he didn't quite enjoy as much as he will next year or the year after.

Andrew loved playing in the cornboxes (there were 2 different ones) and walking along the hay bales. He was a little too small for the big trikes and vehicles, but he gave it a go. He also loved the jungle gym.

The "pumpkin patch" was interesting because Andrew treated the pumpkins like balls and threw them. Luckily none were sacrificed. Andrew loved watching the cloggers and applauded their every step. When they were done with their show, Andrew was upset and ran towards the stage yelling, "Feet! Feet!" Hilarious (except I only got the story from Loren because I took a restroom break.) The corn maze will be for another year. Andrew got as far as the first fork and high-tailed it out of there.

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A look back: Andrew picking out his pumpkin at the Pumpkinfest one year ago...