October 2006

Top 10 Good Things About Having a Kid
10. When I talk to my child people don't think I am weird, like when I talked to my cat
9. Crayons are once again cool.
8. Toy Shopping now is legitimate.
7. I can walk slow around the neighborhood and people think it's the stroller when I am just really tired.
6. Organizing a child's closet is another reason to spend hours in the Organization section of Home Depot.
5. I am no longer too old to watch the Disney Channel.
4. People don't look at you weird when you go to see Cartoon movies.
3. I can make fax and motor boat sounds in public and no one questions it.
2. When you're having a bad day, you can blame it on lack of sleep.
1. You can fart in public and blame the toddler.

We went to see the fire engines at the fire station down the street. I think I was more excited than Andrew, especially when the Med-a-vac helicopter took off. I loaded up Andrew on the fire engine and the thing he was most interested in was the weird metal anti-skid floor of the back of the fire truck where the firemen sit.





We now have confirmed proof that toys are not what is fun, it's the boxes. Andrew has been playing with this Pampers box for about a month now. When it started to get a little beat up, we but put it inside a large box to give the new box more strength. The new and improved box is now used as a stepping stool for the foosball table, which my niece Megan taught him how to put the foosball through the fooshole. Another year and we'll have him playing, and beating us.



Our dentist will be glad to know, that with about a dozen teeth he is now brushing daily. Although I am not sure if the bubble bath bubbles are the recommended toothpaste.....or if brushing in the tub is advisable. At least it's a start to proper dental hygiene. We'll save dental floss for another day.





With October comes Halloween. We got a hand-me-down costume from a friend and Andrew was not too happy to become a monster. Which leads to crying which leads to a runny nose and....The Boogie Monster! The only thing that can calm the savage beast, is a cell phone. They had a parade at DayCare, which was more like 50 kids meandering around the playground crying for their parents. It was a pretty funny site.

Then the real Halloween we went out trick or treating. I was not sure how long Andrew would last and I was not about to be toting around a 24 pound screaming boogie monster and a bag of candy. So we, ok I, set up the wheel barrow with blankets to let him ride in style. Rob was a bit embarrassed by my mode of transportation, but he was left at home to keep the home fires burning. Rob will just have to learn that my side of the family is weird; my brother would have thought nothing was wrong with pushing a kid around in a wheel barrow. In the end the wheel barrow worked out awesome and may make a return next year for when Andrew really gets in the swing of Halloween and we bring home a load of candy.

The first couple of houses Andrew was not quite sure what was going on. When we rang the door bell and they opened the door he'd walk right in and wandered around the house. This worked out ok because the first couple houses we went to were the immediate neighbors and this did not freak them out. At one house they gave him one of his favorite toys, a Swiffer, and off he went to cleaning. After a couple minutes of being inside, wearing a furry costume, he got hot and turned into a Grouchy Monster, so off we were to the next house. After 2 hours we were both exhausted.

We are still working on the whole self-feeding thing. No one said it would be pretty and we have proof of that. And yes, that is a Chiquita Banana sticker in his hair. I let him keep trying to feed himself since he doesn't quite take spoonfuls, more like dipping the spoon to see how much sticks to the spoon. At that rate he'd been eating for about an hour, which explains the tired and weary look in his eye. If you think things do not look pretty at this point in the meal, you should have seen the Special Delivery that he bestowed on us about 6 hours later.




When me niece was visiting we brought up the play table from the basement. It was the same play table I had as a kid and it certainly was showing the wear and tear, from the orange gobs of paint on the chairs to the permanent Hawaiian Punch stains on the table. We unrolled a piece of wrapping paper, backwards, on the table so he could color with Crayons. He seemed to really like the table, or maybe it was just that he liked sitting in a chair at the table. Either way, he quickly made himself comfy and put his feet up on the chairs as he scribbled with the crayons. Now if I can get him to stop coloring with his Crayon on the new wood floors.


And here he is showing off his crayons. Is he doing an Ad for Crayola? Check out his hair!? We really have to get it cut.








And here is cousin Megan, Andrew's New favorite buddy.

September 2006

September 2006

Even kids are cranky when you wake them up too early.....or if you dress them in a Smurf sleeper pajamas every night.






Andrew is keeping himself entertained on the potty. I am not quite sure what the attraction is with the 'centerfold' of the Hangers.com catalog, but it kept him entertained for about a week on the potty before he shredded the magazine one page at a time.








Top Ten Things I Never Thought I Would Say
10. "Put down your pooh"
9. "Don't eat the bird poop"
8. "Don't eat the kitty litter"
7. "Did you just make those bubbles in the tub?"
6. "Are those rocks in your mouth?"
5. "Yeah! You can clap your hands!"
4. "Should lunch be organic split pea with lentil soup, or Gerber's Mashers?"
3. "Thank you for not pooping until you got to the toilet"
2. "Today we go to the wee wee doctor"
1. "Don't pull on that....oh my is does stretch like silly putty"

Snip Snip
This month Andrew got his man-parts tended to. He had a hernia down there to be fixed up, so he had his 'bris' done at the same time. Once the anesthesia wore off I think he forgave us, but the look on his face the first time on the potty for #1 after surgery was priceless, as in "Where did the rest of it go and why does it hurt so @!$#!@ much ?". The doctor was right, Motrin is a wonder drug and takes away all the pain. The doctor was very good, but when he called later that night to check on his little patient the Caller ID showed his name as "CHOP DR. CHRIS". I am not sure if he is associatd with Children's Hospital Of Philadelphia (CHOP), but the CHOP part seemed quite ironic. Sorry little fella. But everything healed up just fine and 3 weeks later he is good as new.

Will It Float?
Andrew has trained us to keep the toilet lid down. When when we let our guard down, he experiments with various objects to see if they will float.

• Piglet stuffed animal- Floats; This was a bit spooky, seeing my little piglet face down
• Rubbermaid bread box- Floats open side down, but when pressed down by little hands it can be forced to sink. I must note that Andrew took a lot of effort getting this puppy in the toilet, lifting both the lid and seat to get the large object to fit.
• Book- Does not Float
• Plastic Stacking Cups- Floats
• Shoe- Floats
• Cell Phone--- luckily I caught this before tragedy struck, feel free to experiment at home and report back
• Entire roll of toilet paper- Floats, then sinks, then clogs
• Sippy Cup- Floats if empty, Does not float full of beverage

Andrew also had a couple battles with food, while trying to feed himself. This one was Andrew Vs. Yoplait. As you can tell, Yoplait Vanilla kicked his Baby Butt.


Andrew vs. The Sippy Cup
After a couple months of being home, Andrew is now getting better with the sippy cup, so we don't need to hold a cup up to him all the time to drink. The downside is he carries the sippy cup everywhere, and drops it at odd places. One day he left it in the middle of the kitchen floor. As he was walking, and not looking where he was going, he tripped over it, propelling it a little as he fell flat on the floor. Unluckily for him his mid-region lined up with the new location of the handle of the sippy cup, which looks like deer antlers. He screamed like I have never heard before for quite a while and nothing would console him, not even peek-a-boo. I guess that's the downside of being a male. Good luck to him when he starts to ride a bike! But Andrew claimed victory over the sippy cup when he finally drank from it after being home 2 1/2 months.

Ewok Inhabitants
We changed aorund his evening schedule a little bit....duh we realized that feeding, then bathing a child, then running around the house like wild (wo)men for 3 hours is not conducive to sleeping. Now we wait for his bath, then it's off to bed. He settles downa lot faster, and spends about 20 minutes talking like an Ewok. At this age it's cute, but when you are 25 years old and speak Elf'in, it stops being cute.





Here's a picture of one of Andrew's favorite toys....available at Home Depot for about $3 in the plumbling aisle.

August 2006

Fountain Of Sweet Potatoes
We had Andrew baptized at Rob's Mom's church near Pittsburgh. The drive to Pittsburgh was his longest so far and half way across the state, at about 3 hours into the trip, he decided that long car rides are not his gig. As a result, the sweet potatoes he had for dinner made a swift return as we witnessed the fountain of sweet potatoes. We pulled over to clean up the carseat, when the fountain had another eruption.....on me. So with both Andrew and I reeking of sweet potatoes on the rebound we decided to stop at the next rest area to clean up. Andrew did not disappoint and erupted again getting out of the car.....across the parking lot......in the vestibule....in the bushes.....and on the sidewalk. Once I was pretty sure he was empty I rushed him to the ladies room, hosed him down and strapped a fresh diaper on him. The rest of the trip he wore only a diaper and a disposable bib with a pocket to catch any remnants.

Here is Andrew at the outset of our cross-state adventure.....

......and here he is after the sweet potatoe incident.

The rest of the weekend was non-eventful, aside from renouncing the devil...so ok that one was a biggie. Rob's parents had a nice picnic after the baptism with his family and neighbors...which Andrew slept through because he had an ear ache and fever. The fever ended up being Roseola, which to the best of my knowledge is just a fever with a rash afterwards.

Fear Water No More
Since the weather was nice during the month we spent a lot of time outside. Like every other kid he likes being squirted with the hose. At first he played hard to get and would run from the sprinkler, they he started running towards it and standing in the line of fire. This made bathtime immensely easier and now hair washing is accompanied with only 3 minutes of whining, reduced from 10 minutes of blood curdling screams. So we are one step closer to being able to start swim lessons later this year.

Cleaning Man
I went to visit another family of Kazak Kids, and their son was nice enough to show Andrew how to use a broom, although his field of reach is quite limited from the seated position.

He also helps the neighbor sweep up his grass, as long as he gets hosed down afterwards.

He has since moved on to the cordless vacuum, and oddly enough walks around the house with a toilet plunger (fresh from the dishwasher) ready for a plumbing emergency. Andrew has also developed a fascination with lawnmowers, he likes to watch our neighbor mow and hose off his mower. Andrew stomps around in the resulting water of mushy grass.

Simple Play Things
Andrew is amused with the simplest of objects, so we can skip the toystores for a while. Here are his Top Ten Things To Play With
10. Grass

9. Water
8. Rocks
7. Post-It notes
6. Empty Diaper Genie refill rings
5. Empty DVD cases
4. Plastic hangers
3. Dish Towels
2. Puddles Of Water

1. Junk Mail