Birthday Fun

The three of us went out last night to celebrate Andrew's birthday. We started at Monkey Joe's, which is a giant indoor playground. Kids get to bounce, climb, crawl, slide and run around on all of these giant inflatable bounce houses, obstacle courses, and slides. Andrew tends to be a little cautious in new situations, and that held true when we first got to Monkey Joe's. However, it wasn't long until he got comfortable and started running all round. Unfortunately, adults aren't allowed to "bounce" or "play". Otherwise, Susie and I would have been all over those things.

Andrew loved this train. In fact, he probably spent four dollars riding it. By the end of the night, he was very good at dropping the quarters in the slot.

Being on his own with the inflatables turned out to be a very positive experience for Andrew. It was so much fun to watch him build confidence and independence as the night went on.

Here we are getting ready to enjoy a birthday sundae at Happy Joe's Pizza Parlor. One of the employees came out to announce Andrew's birthday to the whole restaurant and lead everyone in singing "Happy Birthday".

Andrew looks just a tad concerned about getting closer to blow out that candle.

Andrew's favorite present was this Cars track. The tractor tipping scene is his favorite part of that movie. He laughs every time.

He liked this so much that he stopped halfway through opening his presents and played with this for the rest of the night. Watch out for Frank!

Happy Birthday, Andrew!

Andrew turned 2 today. Here's a couple of pictures from that day. That night actually as he was born at 10:50 PM.

UPDATE - One Little Miracle

Way back in April, I posted about a friend of mine who had given birth to her baby girl at just 24 weeks. Little Abby Lou is still in the hospital (probably will be for another couple of months), but she is growing and making great improvements. A recent concern has been around her kidney function. So please keep her in your thoughts and prayers. Abby's most recent test shows that the levels that need to come down are in fact coming down, which is a good sign. I've had a couple of people ask me about the website and if you would like to read more about Abby's story and progress you can visit her page at:

www.caringbridge.org/visit/abbylou

Bathtime Drama

Andrew enjoys his baths as long as they have nothing to do with actual washing. He likes playing with toys, playing with the faucet, and just hanging out getting wrinkly. When it comes to the washing, he gets really upset. He stands up, starts crying, and tries to climb up and out of the tub. The real trouble is that he's tall enough now that he can pretty much almost do it by himself. If he doesn't make it out on his own, he cinches his arms around my neck, puts his feet up on my chest, and pulls himself up and out using me as a ladder. Washing his hair is especially bad. He just does not like water touching his head. I thought this was just a bath time thing, I confirmed his "wet head dread" during swimming class a couple of weeks ago when the side of his head accidentally touched the water. Maybe he doesn't like getting his hair messed up? No, he's too happy in this picture to be worried about his hair.

These pics were just minutes after Andrew got upset with me washing him up. I think I'm pretending to be a dog to get him to laugh and smile so big in these. That's right...I have no shame.

What can I say? He likes bath toys. It looks like he's recreating the trash compactor scene from "Star Wars". This isn't even all the bath toys we own. There is a second tub in the closet. Anyway, I figure that he's got to get used being washed eventually. Right? We aren't quite there yet so I'm just going to keep trying, and we will eventually work through the drama.

Honk If Your Nosy

Lately Andrew has really been into his body parts.  Whether it's singing Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes  or reading one of his favorite books (I Love You Through and Through - great book!), he enjoys pointing to and trying to name all of his parts.  And our parts too.  Andrew points to his teeth.  Then he points to daddy's teeth.  Then his eyebrow.  And then mommy's eyebrow.  You know how it goes.  One of the more amusing things is when he reaches out to touch my nose.  Whenever he does, I give him a good loud "Honk!".  And then he reaches out to touch Susie's nose, and she gives him a nice "Beep, beep!"  Finally, Andrew gives his nose a little squeeze, and we get this real quiet "Uh".  Or something close to that.  (I'm not sure how he spells it.)  It's barely audible most of the time because he tries to make the noise through his actual nose rather than using his mouth.  It's always fun though because it ends with a big smile on his face.  And then we do it all over again. 

Cupcakes...Mmmm

Andrew helped make cupcakes the other night. He really has fun cooking: measuring water and oil, pouring mix into the bowl, cracking eggs, stirring the batter, spooning batter into the pan, icing the cupcakes. And don't forget the sprinkles. Shaking out sprinkles is his favorite part. When you think about it, cooking is really about creating one big (somewhat organized) mess. What little boy doesn't like to do that? Now if I could just get him doing the dishes we'd be set.

"Tight"

The three of us went out to eat at O'Charley's this last weekend. O'Charley's is great for a couple of reasons. 1) Kids eat free 2) You get tons of warm, delicious rolls. (There might be more reasons than that, but that's all that's needed for the purposes of this story.

The rolls were the favorite for Andrew. He ate quite a few, and it led to a really funny moment. Somewhere between finishing off roll #3 and starting roll #4, Andrew looked at us and said:

"Tight."

"Tight? What's tight?" (Check highchair strap) "Nope. That's not it." (Check pants) "Oh, are your pants too tight? Hold on a second." (Adjust waistband on baby's pants)

Who would have thought that our almost two-year old would need a pair of "Eating Pants"? Next time we go out to eat, we'll pack the sweatpants.

A Random Phone Photo Of...

Andrew eating raisins and rockin' a wicked pair of Cars slippers on the way home tonight.

Lawn Service Wanted

Rain was forecasted for the whole weekend. We got lucky though because it didn't rain at all. Our lawn was out of control and desperately needed to be mowed. And I'm not kidding when I say desperately needed to be mowed. Our jungle of grass was taller than Andrew in places. Susie thought this was quite hilarious actually, and it was one of her goals this weekend to snap a picture for the blog to illustrate this point.

I was really dreading mowing and as it turned out I didn't have to. The service (I use that term loosely as it's really two guys with two lawnmowers and a pickup truck) that cuts our neighbors lawn showed up around lunchtime on Saturday. Luckily, they had time to cut our grass as well. Ah....thank you.