Andrew and Mommy

Andrew and Mommy

Sunday, June 24, 2012

My 2 year old!

On June 21, Andrew turned 2. My parents (now called Grandmama and Pa) spent 2 weeks with us. They got Andrew a great plane/jungle gym for the yard, and dad put it together with Don and Aiden's help. Andrew loves it! I can't believe how incredible his imagination is at such a young age...he'll say..."Andrew fly ocean" or "Andrew fly park" when he gets behind the wheel! We also play imagination games pretending to cook and eat various things....or pretend tennis...I'm not sure how this compares to other children his age, but I think he's brilliant!:-) We celebrated with a week of parties. The first party was a swim event. Mom and Dad, Bubba and family, Lauren, Don, and Aiden were the Samuels family that came...then our "Ethiopian family" of Daphne and Ben, Melissa and Gizatu, and Vanessa came...and of course Janetta (Sissie) and a few other friends came as well. We had a Thomas cake, ate sandwiches, and swam at the UAB Rec center. The second party was the day before Andrew's birthday. Our neighbor family--Pete and Rhiannon came as well as my dear friend, Val and her family, mom and dad and sissie. We played with the kids, had an Elmo and Grover cake, and Andrew blew out the candles for the first time! He liked it so much, I lit them again so he could blow them out twice (he is 2 after all!). The 3rd party was on his actual birthday, and Lavonda (Aunt Vonda, our neighbor/family) made gorgeous Elmo cupcakes. Not sure if ANdrew is spoiled or not....doesn't everyone have 3 or 4 parties for their birthday?? (forgot to mention the one at daycare too!) Andrew continues to grow and learn. He makes 3 and 4 word sentences....repeats every word or sound he hears....sings lots of songs (Sesame Street Singing With the Stars is a favorite) as well as the typical nursery rhyme/kid songs (Twinkle, Baa Baa, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Bumble Bee, etc. complete with visuals). He is fascinated with the peacock at the zoo and talks about it all the time. He also seems to take a daily inventory of all the people he knows, waking up and calling their names. His memory astounds me. He loves to be tickled. His teachers at school/daycare really enjoy him, and he is learning so much and doing so well there. At home, he is just a happy boy. He continues to improve sleeping....still wakes up for "cocoa" between 1 and 3 but usually goes right back to sleep. (cocoa was cocoa in the winter...now it's just chocolate milk or regular milk). He generally sleeps from 9 to 7 with the one waking in the night. The only other major challenge right now is that Andrew occasionally bites. I wish I could figure out the triggers...because it doesn't seem to always be frustration or anger....sometimes we can just be sitting there, and he'll lean over and bite my leg or something. He has bitten several kids at school (I am mentally prepared for him to get through the entire class--I think it's been 5 kids so far)...never to the point of breaking skin, but still....can't wait til he grows out of that phase. On a sad note, we lost both of our dogs this spring--they were both 11 year old greyhounds. Bridget died of kidney failure, and Bernie broke a leg due to early stage bone cancer. I have always been a dog person...the dogs were my "kids" before Andrew. The house seems so empty without them. I'm not sure how long I'll wait before getting another...but I'm sure we will! Nonetheless, as I sit here next to my sleeping little boy, I think about how lucky I am.