Andrew's 18-Month Update!

Oh, Andrew.  You’re a pistol.  You keep us on our toes!  It’s hard to believe you’re on the downhill to two.  How can it be?!  You have really grown these past six months—really turned into a toddler with a capital T.  Your personality is really starting to come out and you’re becoming a lot more vocal.  Watching and doing whatever Parker is doing is your jam.  You follow him around most everywhere.  If he’s on a scooter, you want to be on a scooter.  If he’s jumping on the trampoline, you want to be on a trampoline.  If he’s playing trucks, you’re right there with them.

You definitely seem to be more fearless—we play pretty rough and do lots of tackling and you’re not afraid to just dive off the furniture and tackle someone.  You trust that someone is always going to catch you.  That being said, you crash A LOT.  You are always tripping on something because our house is never clean and when you run, your head gets in front of you and you end up going down.  You’ve had a full on black eye and too many bruises and scrapes to count.  Most of them on your head and/or face it seems.  You go down hard.

Also, your temper.  We have to talk about that.  When you don’t get your way, you just will flat-line yourself out on the ground and slam your head down over and over.  It doesn’t matter if it’s concrete, wood floors, carpet, tile, etc.  You just slam yourself down and go to town with your head.  Mom’s a bit frightful of you becoming concussed, but we try to ignore it because I think you do it b/c we immediately pick you up and cuddle you.  So, basically, it works.  But, it looks like it hurts!  You also aren’t afraid to hit your brother back or take a swipe at him if he gets in your space (you go kid!).  That being said, throwing things is a problem for you.  You think its hilarious to throw anything and you’ll sit in the car and just throw goldfish around with a giant smile on your face.  I’ve had a few hit me while driving, no lie.  Future baseball player perhaps??

You give the best hugs—you run and launch yourself into the person.  I love this stage of the hugs.  You mean every bit of it.  You can also make kissing sounds with your lips, but don’t understand to kiss someone.  You also say mama, dada, vroom vroom (truck), woof woof (dog), wa wa (drink), and yeah.  So far, “no,” hasn’t entered into your vocabulary and it’s so cute because you nod your head yes and say “yeah” like everything is so exciting!  However, if you don’t like something, you’ll push it away, spit it out or flat out flail your arms around.  We get it.

You can wave “bye bye,” too.  Every night, we play in Parker’s room for a while after bath.  I will say, “Andrew, it’s time to go read and go night, night.”  And you’ll nod your head, say “yeah,” and then wave bye bye.  I’ll say, “give hugs Andrew” and you launch yourself into my arms for the best hug.  Then you grab hold of your dad’s hand and walk with him to your room where he reads you one to two books before dropping you off in your crib.  You cuddle up with about 6 animals like brother does and sleep soundly until about 8:30 on weekends (have I mentioned how lucky I am?!).

Brother keeps asking when you can sleep with him, so I know he’s excited to sleep with you one day.  Overall, you and brother have really started developing a relationship these past few months.  He loves you so much and you two can get into lots of trouble together.  But, I can tell the way he looks at you and says, “Come on, Andrew” that he loves you something fierce.  You guys coexist a lot better and play together more these days.  Pushing trucks around and playing chase are some of your favorites.  You have figured out how to do ready, set, go and you and brother will line up and race.  You also love the playground at the park and you guys race down the slide.  Fearless you are.

January and February were rough months around here—you were sick ALL THE TIME.  And you are a GRUMP when you are sick.  We have gotten you well and you’ve been such a joy these fast few months.  Your nose isn’t as runny and you’re a lot happier.  I’m hoping this summer season will be a healthy one! January/February almost killed me!

You also love to read books.  The “My First 100 Words” is probably your favorite.  You like to point to each picture and have one of us tell you what it is.  You also make animal sounds at the animals.  You will just grab a book and come plop yourself down in our lap for us to read to you.  It’s super cute.  You are also super into mom right now.  You want me to hold you a lot and I think some of it stems from that this is my busy season at work right now and sometimes I have to work late.  That seems to really bother you and make you cling to me more when I’m at home.  We try to make our weekends super fun and all about spending quality time together to help with this. 

We did a beach trip to Galveston a few weeks ago in March and it was just what we needed.  It really was the best weekend.  At first, you weren’t so impressed with the beach—wouldn’t take off your shoes and just wanted to be held.  But, you eventually got the hang of it and slowly started inching your way towards the waves.  And then, once you realized the water was a fun place to be, we couldn’t keep you out of it.  You and brother would run up and down the beach hopping in and out of the waves.  You also loved to push trucks around the sand.  Parker taught you to fill up a bucket with water and then climb into it which you thought was hilarious.  So, we did that a lot at the beach.  It was a great weekend, I hope I can remember it for a long, long time.  There was a lot of yes time and both you kids really, really enjoyed it. 

Easter also came and went and you did so great!  You were old enough to understand how to hunt Easter eggs and put them in your basket.  It was a great story of slow and steady win the race.  You also realized the yumminess of jelly beans.  You were obsessed with tracking down the jelly beans.  You also almost choked on a jelly bean.  You loved the cascarones (confetti eggs) and enjoyed smashing them with your feet (monkey see, monkey do with brother)

So, let’s see… At 18 months you:

•          You weigh just over 26lbs
•          Almost have all of your teeth—your four incisors have all broken the gums, but are not full size just yet.  They are taking their sweet time.  Then we have the two year molars which will come later.
•          Wear a size 6.5 to 7 shoe (W)
•          Wearing 12-18 month clothes, with 12-18 month pants becoming high waters on you.
•          Wear size 4 diapers (P.S.  You also think it’s hilarious to watch brother pee on trees outside.)
•          Love riding in your toy car from Christmas (thanks DD Nana!) and you press the button for the “radio” which cycles through 3 different tunes and you move side to side as though you’re dancing.
•          Sleep 8-8:30 on the weekends (6:45 on the weekdays) with a 2 to 2.5 hour nap in the afternoon.
•          Drink 2-3 cups of milk a day with water in between.
•          Favorite foods are definitely rice and beans, but you also really like oranges, spaghetti, chick-fil-a (who doesn’t?!) and yogurt.
•          Have the best smile, but absolutely hate taking your picture.  If I put the camera in your face, you will not look at it.  There is very little bribery that will convince you otherwise.
•          Very good at pushing trucks around and saying “vroom, vroom.”
•          Are very sweet to cousin Beckett and are itching for him to be bigger so you can be a “big brother” to him.
•          Have blonde, curly-ish hair.  It’s very curly in the humidity and pretty crazy.  I’m not sure how to ‘style’ it honestly.  You also were not good at the last haircutting session—cried the whole time.  Eek!
•          Still suck your thumb--- no idea how to kill this habit.

Mom and dad love you baby boy, always and forever.

I love you.

So handsome.

This is what you did when you saw the camera in my hands. haha!

Boys and their trucks!

Andrew's ONE YEAR Update!

Dear Andrew,

YOU ARE ONE!  We made it!  I really can’t believe it… time has just flown by.  You are becoming your own little person more and more each day.  For your birthday we had a small gathering of family and few of mom’s friends from work.  It was a WILD ONE theme with chick-fil-a as lunch and of course you had your own smash cake!  The rest of us had cupcakes that were delicious.  You didn’t seem to like eating the cake, but once dad put your hands in the cake you quite liked smashing it and throwing it on the floor.

This past month we went to the beach with Uncle Ryan, Aunt Stacy and cousin Asher!  We rented a house on the beach and stayed there for 3 nights.  We had so much fun.  You loved the beach!  The sand didn’t phase you one bit and you also liked splashing in the water.  You HATED wearing a hat so you had really, really crazy [and somewhat nasty] hair because of all the sunscreen we had to use on your head.  We had to watch out for the seashells with you because you very much loved putting them all in your mouth.  And there were A LOT of seashells.  You even cut your tongue on one.  But, you didn’t let seashells, sand or salty water rain on your parade.  You did great.  A real trooper and super easy at the beach.  We’ll be returning since we all had so much fun!

You also ended up with a double ear infection in September…  Which explains a lot of your behavior in early September; I wish I would have taken you to the doctor sooner.  You were super grumpy and it was because your ears were hurting!  Something also started messing with your tummy and gave you a really, really bad diaper rash.  We’d been lucky on the diaper rash front this first year, but you almost made up for it two weeks ago.  You were in so much pain and even woke up while sleeping because your bottom was burning.  We’re all better now, though!

You are enjoying being in the toddler classroom at school—not napping super great at school--- but really like being able to play outside and do fun stuff in the class.  You can clap your hands and sign more, which is sometimes a clap, and also sign all done, which can turn into just waving your arms above your head.  You are a good eater--- eat everything we put in front of you as long as we cut it small enough to your liking.  The only thing you don’t like is drinking whole milk.  Going to have to figure that out bubba.

So, let’s see my sweet baby boy.  At ONE YEAR, you:

•         Weigh 21.3 lbs (47^th percentile) and are 31.5 inches tall (96^th percentile).  Your head is still small, at 17.52 inches (10^th percentile).
•  Wear 12-18 month clothes and size 4 shoes although you’re really close to growing out of the size 4 shoe.
• I’ve heard you say mama, dada, gaga and recently I really thought I could hear some form of all done come out of your mouth.
• Enjoy knocking over towers we build you and doing whatever big brother is doing.  You’re never far behind from big brother.
• You love playing chase with Parker and giggle time in his room before bed.  You also love bath time with brother and climbing the stairs with him.  You just cackle and laugh with brother whenever you’re doing those things.
• You like playing outside and pushing different scooters around while brother also does the same.
• You really like the cozy coupe and you can get yourself inside and close the door all by yourself.  Getting out is a little bit harder for ya.
• Still drink 4 bottles of 6oz of formula--- but the day is coming soon with no bottles!  Will probably be a rough few days from that standpoint.  Hehe!
• Nap 1-2 hours at school, but still need 2 naps a day when you’re at home for about an hour in the morning at 2-2.25 hours in the afternoon.
• Sucking your thumb and rubbing your ear is still something that you do to soothe yourself.
• Sleep from 8-8 on the weekends and we wake you up around 6:45 AM in the morning.
• Busted your lips several times over the past month because you run around with things in your hands or your mouth and then you trip over something and fall with those items.
• Have 8 teeth with FOUR MORE on the way.  Your gums are all swollen and I can tell your are very irritated by them.

You are so much fun at this age and starting to show when you’re upset when things don’t go your way.  You’ll be giving your brother a run for his money very soon!  Mom and dad love you baby boy.  Always and forever.

Andrew's 11-Month Update!

Oh my goodness, baby boy!  You’re one month away from being ONE!  How can that be?!  Time has just flown by in the blink of an eye.  You are still a great baby… a mobile, walking baby!  You learned to walk this past month!  You’re my little part-time walker.  You haven’t figured out how to get from your bottom to standing without holding onto something, so you still crawl a lot once you plop down.  It’s pretty stinkin’ cute.

Everyone always compliments how great a baby you are.  You’re always having a good day, it seems.  And you really are… you’re always great.  As long as you are full and not tired, you’re great!  But, you definitely still need to nap about every 2.5 to 3 hours.  You get cranky for sure.  This is going to be a problem for a while since you are starting the toddler classroom this very week where you will only have one nap a day.  So, you’ll be napping a lot in the car on the way home.

This month you have really figured out that you prefer table food.  No more baby food for you… and you eat just about anything.  You love yourself some creamed spinach and spaghetti.  Not necessarily together. Hehe.  You eat 3 meals a day plus a couple of snacks.  So, you’re well fed.  You weigh probably around 23 lbs and have 7.5 teeth!  The .5 tooth just popped through the gums in the last couple of days!

You and your brother have been playing a little bit more together and I love watching you two laugh at each other.  It mostly involves your brother chasing you around the house and you just cackle.  Parker calls it “playing giggle time with Andrew.”  It’s super sweet. 

You’re little personality is really starting to come through.  I’ve seen you walk up to your brother, grab his toy (which, to be fair, was yours not his) and scream bloody murder.  You wouldn’t tolerate him taking your stuff.  Good for you.  It’s OK to give brother a hard time about this—he needs the lesson.

I’ve discovered you seem to have “tall” feet!  I had to buy 4 different shoes to find some that fit you!  I think this means maybe you have a high instep?  It’s more than your foot being wide—it’s like you can’t get the shoe to open up enough to put your foot in.  But, Nordstrom’s for the win!  I found some shoes that fit your feet and you look super adorable in them.

You traveled to San Antonio for a family reunion (Mema’s 80^th birthday) and did really well with the car ride.  You also went on your first car ride to Arkansas!  You did amazingly well—hardly cried at all and were super patient about the whole thing.  Mom was impressed.  Houston got hit with a crazy amount of rain during hurricane Harvey and we decided to head to Arkansas to escape all of the rain and floods.  Turns out that was a wise decision… we’re having way more fun in Arkansas.  But, we know there has been severe devastation back home and our thoughts and prayers are with everyone.  Lots of clean up headed our way.

So, baby boy, let’s see… at 11 months you:

•    Eat 4, 6 oz bottles a day and 3 meals a day
•   Wear size 3 diapers and poop 1-2x/day
•   Wear 12 month clothes and size 4 shoes
•   Take two naps a day with one nap lasting around 1.5 hours and the other 2 to 2.5 hours
•   Sleep from 8-8:30 on weekends and 8-6:45 on weekdays
•   Love all foods… seriously; I’ve found nothing that you don’t like.  You particularly love eggs and sausage, spaghetti and yogurt.
•  Have curly hair still in little ringlets at the back of your head.  I hope you keep these for forever.
•  Walk!  But, you can’t get from sitting to standing without crawling onto something to pull yourself up.
•   Love climbing on everything and then also putting everything in your mouth!
•   Realize when things are taken away and make it known that it made you mad
•  Love “playing giggle time” with big brother.  I gave you guys a big box and you two just played for a long time going in and out of the box.
•  Still suck your thumb and rub your ear at the same time when you’re sleeping or need to calm yourself down.  It instantly soothes you.

 We love you baby boy, always and forever.

All of those curls!

Andrew's 10-Month Update!

Dear Andrew,

Hey there baby boy.  I can't believe it's only two months until you turn one!  How can that be?  Your personality shines brighter each and every day.  You're full of big smiles, big laughs and, of course, mischief.  You're very favorite thing to do is climb the stairs at home.  You race over to them when we aren't watching and climb them as fast as you can go.  You'll give us this sly look and just head out on this race with a big laugh.

You love to climb-- you climb in boxes, up the stairs, over and under anything you can find.  You also really like to stand and have taken a couple of steps!   You're not ready to walk yet, but the desire is definitely there.  It will be this month, I think!  It's so fun to watch you try and figure it out.  You'll just let go of what you're holding on to and stick your hands high up in the air with a big grin on your face.  You'll take 1-4 steps and then plop back down on your bottom.

You've pretty much given up eating baby food-- only table food for you.  This makes it better and harder on mom and dad.  Better in that you'll eat whatever we're having for dinner.  Worse in that I have to scrounge up something to feed you for lunch b/c you can't have a catered meal yet at school.  One day soon!  You totally dig this creamed spinach that comes out of the freezer section.  Like, totally love it.  It's 100% your favorite.. except for maybe spaghetti.  That may rival your attention, too.  You love it.

We haven't gone any fancy places this month-- just more of the usual.  You enjoy splashing in the pool and are an overall easy baby... except you're on the move.  If I blink, you'll be gone.  We had to install a legitimate gate on the stairs because there was no deterring you from them.  You do really well at school and will be moving up to the next class next month (aah!!!).  Since you've really taken to eating table foods I feel like you have really put on the lbs.  You are definitely chunky and have pretty much outgrown the infant car seat.

You love taking big brother's toys and you always want to be doing what big brother is doing.  At night time, you and Parker have "giggle time" in Parker's bed.   Parker loves making you giggle in his bed and watching you laugh.  He'll hug you (which you think is hilarious) and you'll hug him back.  You love exploring Parker's bed and all of his stuffed animals and Parker even lets you put your mouth on them.  It's a pretty special moment watching you two play together for a short amount of time.

You love sucking your thumb still and rubbing your ear.  I recently gave you a lovey in your crib and cuddle up with it each night.  It's pretty stinkin' sweet.  You're still a great sleeper and milk drinker.  You're often cranky on weekdays since the school day is so long, but you're a real trooper on the weekends.  You definitely still need two naps (switching to the new class in a month is going to be really rough in that regard) each day and drink four bottles.  You have three solid meals a day in addition to the bottles with some snacks as well.

This month we did have something exciting happen... you got a new cousin!  Baby Beckett was born on July 28th!  You're pretty fascinated with him and we're very excited that you are going to have a new play mate, soon!

So, let's see, at 10 months you...

• Weigh about 20lbs and are 30 inches tall.  You wear 9-12 month clothing for the most part.
• Drink 4, 6 oz bottles a day and have three table food meals a day.
• Sleep from 8-8:30 on weekends with two naps (one for about 45 minutes in the morning and the other around 2 to 2.5 hours in the afternoon)
• Have four teeth!  I can see an additional two teeth on the top growing in and an additional bottom two also are coming in.  The ones at the top are closing to appearing than he bottoms.  So, you're well on your way to having six teeth!  You handle getting the teeth really well... you chew like crazy, but you're not overly cranky (and, most importantly, you still sleep).
• Use your mouth like this insane sensory tool.  Anything you find you put your mouth on--including the floor.  You just test it out--you're not necessarily looking to chew and swallow it.
• Have 1-2 poopy diapers a day
• Love your big brother
• Enjoy pushing trucks with your hands and chewing on everything else.
• You're really good at pushing the walker and have just recently discovered how to make it turn (thank goodness-- otherwise, we had to follow you around all the time).
• Are definitely a little explorer-- going everywhere.  We have to keep all the doors shut around here and the stair gate locked.  Before we had the gate, we put up two chairs to block it off.  We turn around and then find you halfway up the stairs!  You  had climbed under the chairs and over the wood to get yourself to the step.  Very clever!

You are so much fun to be around and are my cool little dude.  I can tell you're going to be a wild one, but that you have a big heart.  I can't wait to watch you grow more and more each day!  Mom and dad love you baby boy, always and forever.

Your face, all.the.time.

I can do this, guys.

Learning how to walk!

Andrew's 9-Month Update!

Dear Andrew,

You are nine months old!  Wow!!  What a month!  I can’t really believe it myself.  I have to start thinking about your birthday party, soon.  WHAT?!  This has been a fun month for you.  Your personality is really shining through and you are helmet-less!  Woo hoo!  Your helmet journey was short and sweet, blessedly.  Now you can grab your ear effortlessly when you get tired and suck your thumb at the same time.

You went to spend a week at DD Nana and T-Pa’s this month.  You did great, except you weren’t a terrific napper.  You did sleep through the night though, so we’re really not complaining.  You went to the lake where you were a trooper but you hated your life jacket.  You don’t care if the boat is moving or just anchored somehwere—you prefer to be crawling up and down the boat regardless.  You also really wanted to touch all of the buttons at the captain’s seat.  You liked playing on the lily pad at the lake and floating in the water.  You figured out how to make splashes with your hands and also in the bathtub by standing up and plopping your bottom back down.  You thought that was hilarious.

You are starting to figure out that we’re giving you baby food and it seems you want the real people food instead.  Except that you haven’t gotten past the gag reflex with the adult food.  If it’s super, super tiny you can get it down but you can’t pick it up if it’s super tiny.  And I’m not one to just stuff it in your mouth—so we’ll figure it out one day.  Some days you’re a great eater and other days you are not.  I think once you get past the gag reflex, it will be easier on us.  You really liked trying lasagna and baked beans on your vacation.  You’ve eaten some chicken and steak if it’s in miniscule pieces that happen to end up in your mouth.

I can’t leave you anywhere.  You’re turning mischievous!  You crawl constantly and always want to go where you shouldn’t.  The stairs are a real danger right now.  You’ll head towards them and look back with a big smile on your face because you know you aren’t supposed to be heading towards them.  Then you’ll turn around and continue to the first step.  Look back.  Smile.  Play a game of peak-a-boo with the banister.  Then I’ll head your way and you will laugh and race up the stairs.  Then I’ll pick you up and you’ll laugh all over again.  I can see you are going to get into lots of trouble around here.  If I can keep you in a room contained, you do better about playing independently and just observing what’s there.

You definitely use your mouth as a sensory tool.  Everything and I mean everything must go in your mouth.  This includes lake water.  If you’re interested in it, it’s going in your mouth.  You find everything on the floor and eat it.  I’ve fished so much out of your mouth its ridiculous.  Obviously I need to keep a cleaner house. Ha!

You are not walking and I’m still not sure you’re that interested in walking.  I don’t think you have figured out the coordination of your legs moving.  You are starting to balance yourself up on your knees, but you haven’t really started moving those legs once you’re standing up.  You LOVE, LOVE to climb and stand.  But, no walking.  I think it may be a couple more months before you walk.  You love that big brother though.  You just crawl for him and his toys all the time.  We’ve had lots of boo boo’s, too with you being mobile.  You’ve face planted a few times and then you also had to adjust to a helmet-free life.  That was a rough few days.

You have curly hair in the back just like mama.  You’re also super tan thanks to all of your lake trips in Arkansas.  I think you take after mom and my dad (and also Aunt Kirkie).  You drool like crazy and I can see your top two teeth coming in as well as a third one on the bottom.  Everything ends up wet that’s within your vicinity.

So, let’s see.. at 9 months you:

• Are always on the go!  By way of crawling and exploring every nook and cranny you can find.  You also like climbing the stairs (to mom’s chagrin)
• Eat 4 bottles a day at 6 ounces and food 3x a day.  You love yogurt!  That’s always a win for us.
• Weigh just under 19lbs at 18 lbs and 9 oz.  Your 9-month well check is this week, so I’ll figure out how tall you are soon.
• Wear 6-12 month clothing and size 3 diapers.
• Suck your thumb and play with your ear all at the same time to soothe yourself.
• Love puffs, but anything bigger or harder you have a hard time swallowing.
• Have the sweetest laugh!  You are ticklish on your tummy/rib cage and daddy can really get you going when he tickles you.  You also laugh really hard when someone is chasing you.
• Enjoy chewing on EVERYTHING.
• Sleep from 8 to 8:30 on the weekends and we wake you up at 6:45 am during the work week.  Take two naps on the weekend but still need three naps at school.  We have to work on this during the school day to get you down to two naps because when you turn one you will only be able to have one nap a day!
• Say GA GA and MA MA.  You aren’t saying “mama” asking for me, but just the sounds.
• Are a mischievous little booger!  You know when you aren’t doing something right, but you do it anyway with this goofy grin on your face and twinkle in your eye.

You are just getting so big!!  We love you so much baby boy, always and forever.

Oh mom, I don't need to sit in the circle! 

We were blowing bubbles and this turned out pretty cool.

Camp DD Nana & T-Pa