Trip to the Conservatory

On Saturday, I took Andrew up to the conservatory while Mike had to work. They were having a butterfly exhibit this past weekend, so I thought it would be neat to check it out. Besides the fact that it felt like it was 80 degrees in there, we had a good time.

They had a kids area with a big tree frog and some animal books.

Andrew's favorite part of the trip was pushing his stroller around the lobby afterwards. His least favorite part was getting in the car and me taking his dandelion, because I didn't want him to eat it.

Andrew's First Music Class

This week Andrew went to his first toddler music class, which is held at a church not too far from our house. The first of many classes to come (I'll try not to over do it and turn into one of those moms that make their kids attend a million activities a week)! I was really excited to see what he would think, and I was happy to have him get out of the house and socialize a bit. When we first arrived, and I put him down, he started crying. I think it was because he thought we were going to be outside, and I disappointed him by making him come inside the building. At the time, I thought he thought I was going to leave him or he was overwhelmed, but he did the same thing today when I took him to the conservatory. He loves his outdoors time!

The woman that teaches the class is really, really nice, and was very welcoming to me and Andrew. It turned out that we were the only new people, and most of the adults and kids were familiar with all the songs already. The class was way more regimented that I had in mind, but it works out for the best so things don't get too chaotic with so many little kids. I had this picture in my mind of a very casual atmosphere where we listen to music and play instruments. The first 15 minutes or so, the teacher sang songs and they have hand gestures or movements that go along with each song. We used the shakers for one song, and then all the kids got to choose one instrument at the end for a particular song. The teacher said that it is okay for the kids to move around, but she didn't want any running during class. If kids start running, act out, etc. she asks that you go in the hall to re-group. I was getting more nervous by the second, because expecting a toddler to act a certain way is like trying to train a cat or something. They have a mind of their own! Fortunately, Andrew was very shy this time around and sat quietly on my lap. I think every kid had a meltdown at some point in the 45 minute class, so it looks like it is pretty expected. At about the half-way point, the teacher brought out a parachute and let the kids run underneath it. This immediately brought Andrew out of his shell, and he ran underneath the parachute smiling and laughing. From that point forward, I could tell he felt more comfortable. He even did some of his infamous spin moves to one of the songs. The only other time he cried was when we had to put the shakers away after one of the songs was over.

We got to take home a CD of the 25 songs in the program, and Andrew and I have listened to all the songs every day since we have gone to class. I'm hoping that by the time we go to class next week, both of us will be much more familiar with the songs, which will make it more fun. This last time, I was about 3 seconds behind mumbling words, because I had no idea what was going on.

Below is a video of him playing his instruments and there are even a few pelvic thrusts in there. :) We have been watching the toddler music channel and playing his instruments. Everything is going well here until the TV takes a beating.

Easter 2012

Easter turned out to be a pretty good day, and Andrew just loved the goodies the bunny brought in his basket! The second he came out in the living room in the morning, he saw the basket on the table and starting pointing and smiling.

Both of the Great Grandmas sent a little something for him, so I put those out the night before, too.

He didn't want to part with his new toys at breakfast...

After the morning nap, he headed outside for the Easter Egg Hunt. I couldn't get him to look for one egg. He just wandered around and pushed his mower, but had no interest in his eggs!

My dad ended up coming over a few minutes later, and we all headed over to Mike's parents' house for the afternoon.

When we got there, he opened up a special Easter gift from Grandma Marcia. He got some sports balls to play with outside, a book about spring, and some bubbles.

When the kids got ready for the Easter Egg Hunt, Andrew was much more interested than he was at finding eggs at home!

Marcia blew us away again with her delicious cooking, and we all got food to take home, too. I think dad was in food heaven! He has mostly been eating canned chilli and frozen pizzas. :) My brother decided to stay up in Madison for the weekend with his girlfriend. It actually helped that we didn't have an Easter routine since we were small kids, so I didn't have to think about what I would usually be doing with mom that day. I know she would smile just seeing Andrew in his Easter clothes and how much fun he was having outside.

New Car

Look familiar? You go with what you know and love! Yesterday we headed over to Crystal Lake Toyota to see what kind of deal with could get from the guy that sold us Mike's Highlander. Our intention was to get a quote on a used Corolla, but the guy gave us such a smokin' deal on the new one, that it made much more sense to buy new. I'm really happy with it, and I already feel comfortable driving it, so I'm glad to have this car situation off my shoulders! Andrew came with us to buy the car, and he was such a good boy! He ran around the dealership laughing and visiting with the employees. As far as the insurance goes, our insurance company talked to the guy that hit me, and he is now saying the accident was due to a light malfunction on his end. Give me a break! I'm just hoping this all ends smoothly, and everything stays 100% his fault, because there is not one thing I could have done to avoid the accident.

One other discouraging thing that has come of this is the accident flared up the two bulging disks that I have been dealing with in my neck these last few years. The day after the accident, things started to grow from bad to worse in my neck. I was literally taking 8 to 10 ibuprofens a day, so I called my doctor's office 5 days in to tell them about the pain I was having. The nurse told me that any kind of whiplash could cause some swelling, which results in the disks rubbing on the nerves. They prescribed something to reduce the swelling, and this is the best my neck has felt in 5 years. I took the last pill yesterday, so we will see if all comes back. I have my fingers crossed, because I have been managing the pain since I had the botox injections in my neck almost 3 years ago. I don't need to spend any more time at the pain center. I have enough to worry about right now!

Andrew and Mommy Week

Oh, I have had such a wonderful week off with my little buddy! Lauren is on her honeymoon this week, so I took off the week from work to watch Andrew. He has been so much fun to be with, and I am going to be sad to lose time with him when I go back to work next week.

On Monday, we went to the mall to see the Easter bunny, shop, and get a hair cut. He wasn't too sure about the bunny, and it looks like he has a half-cry/half-laugh going on.

The hair cut afterwards did not go bad at all! The lady was really good with him, and even let her play with her watch while she cut the front of his hair. We came home, and he was happy to have some cheez-it's, which may be his new favorite food. He saw mommy eating some a few days earlier, and he decided those were pretty good!

A lady at J.C. Penny gave us some bunny ears as we were walking thorough. I did not put them on as quickly as he wanted me to here, because I was trying to take a picture.

However, he quickly cheered up when he tried to put them on the dog instead...

We spent quite a bit of time outdoors this week, and he has been enjoying the tulips at the back of the garage. For the last 3 years, we have only had purple tulips; however, this year, we had one yellow/red one, which I told Andrew was a special tulip from Grandma Darla. :)

After coming inside, he spent some time throwing balls for Jez and admiring his picture with the Easter bunny.

After his bath, he was VERY happy to see me wearing those bunny ears!

On Tuesday, we headed over to my dad's to let the dog out and play outside for a while. That was really fun, because there was endless yard for him to play in, and I didn't have much to worry about. Dad now has the house on the market, so we are waiting for some bites. He has had a lot of interest so far, which is good! Tiki is still struggling a bit being there alone all day and is still chewing up things. Hopefully when dad moves closer, I can go over there and play frisbee with her during lunch.

On Wednesday, I took Andrew over to a bouncy house place in town after putting up some Easter decorations at the house. He was a little hesitant in the bouncy and preferred to hang out by the Mickey Mouse video game or push the baby walkers around.

On Thursday, we headed over to see Peyton and Kaden for a while at Tammy's house, and he had a great time. He even drove through some car lots with me on the way home. Today we just hung around the house, and Mike's mom came over in the afternoon to watch him while Mike and I started the car search. BIG headache by the way. The last day for my rental car is this Monday, and we are running out of time. They totaled my car out at $9150. We may go look at a used Toyota in Crystal Lake tomorrow, but we'll see. If we need to pay out of our own pockets to have the rental a few more days, we will. We just don't want to have buyer's remorse. I'm sure I'll have an update in the next day or two.

Elmo!

Doing sooo good with his fork!

Date with the Ladies

I am a little behind with this blog, but since the car accident was on my mind, I blogged about that last time. The Tuesday evening before the accident, I brought Andrew over to Andrea and Bryan's house to play with Bella and Kennedy (such sweeties!). I felt terrible, because we were an hour late, because Andrew took an afternoon nap that ran over. He very rarely takes an afternoon nap, and we put him down at 2:30 to see what would happen. He fell asleep, (very rare!) and I ended up having to wake him up at 4:30, which he was not happy about.  However, when we got there, he was excited to see so many new toys, play with the girls, and eat pizza (he really likes pizza). When the pizza man delivers pizza, he hangs on your leg whining and then runs to the high chair even if he just ate. We eat way too much pizza. Anyway, here is a pic of him with the ladies wearing his "Certified Hunk" shirt. It was also a little funny, because he just pooped his pants right before this picture, but Bella didn't seem to mind. That's what hunks do!

A little later, Bella went to the bathroom, and peeked her head around the door to wave at Andrew. Andrew smiled back, and she came out of the bathroom wearing only a shirt and hugged him. Andrew had this cute little grin on his face, and Bryan came over and told him to watch himself, which was hilarious. We had such a great time, and we are hoping we can get together more often now that summer is approaching. So much fun!