Today was one of the days I didn't think I could make it though, but I did. I only had one break down. :) Mike woke up with Andrew this morning, and I heard them having a good ol' time. I then got a special card from Andrew and Jez and another card from Mike with a gift. This afternoon we went over to Mike's parents' house to spend some time with his mom. I am so blessed to be the mom to such a special little boy.
Below are some of my favorite pics that I have with my mom. There are many, many more pictures from when I was little, but they are all in albums at dad's house. At some point, I want to make a photo book of all of our pictures together from over the years. A few of these, I actually took a picture of a picture, because I don't have a scanner. So many wonderful memories, and I miss her so much.
The funniest thing happened tonight. It all started this morning when I asked Andrew what he wanted to wear, and he brought out his monkey pajamas. I told him that he needed to pick out some day clothes. I tried to find the monkey ones for this evening, but the pants were suddenly missing. Well, we put on his monster pajamas, and he just starts screaming, and I look at Mike and tell him I have no idea what he is so upset about. Well, he runs away, and we hear him going through his drawers. He comes back with the monkey top and bottoms (which were missing!). He must have put the pants somewhere and knew where they were. He knows what he wants to wear, and he's not messing around!
He also tried some of dad's ice cream bar this week, which he loved. We don't really give him too many sweets yet. I figure if he doesn't know they exist yet, then that is just fine with me!
I would like to add that Dick's Sporting Goods is the cheapest (free!) and most entertaining place to take a toddler. It was better than the Discovery Center. Andrew enjoys golfing on the green, riding in kayaks, playing with the balls, and running through tents. True excitement! :)
Below is a video of all the fun we have been having in Andrew's home (post hurricane). I actually bought some tape and tried to fix the house the best I could. I think it probably doesn't have too much longer to go before it makes it to the garbage. Of course he is playing with one of his Christmas toys in there! The part in the video that YouTube used for the still picture below is kind of scaring me. It looks like a creature is coming in the window behind him, but when I watched it, it looks like it is just the bedspread. Yikes!
Last weekend was my birthday, and so Saturday night, Mike and I went out to dinner while Mike's mom watched Andrew. On Sunday, my dad came over, and we went back to Noodles and Company and made sure we stopped inside Dick's Sporting Goods again, which is across the street. I have been pretty much dreading this weekend, because of Mother's Day, and I just want to have it be over with! Next weekend, we are going to spread mom's ashes, which has been giving me a lot of anxiety. Obviously something we want to do for her, but not looking forward to it.
Below are some additional pics I took this week that I wanted to include:
Playing in the backyard
I have your frisbee!
I was going to put this in the garage sale, but somebody else claimed it...
About a month ago, Andrew found a bin of holiday books that I keep in his closet. There are books for every holiday, but he has been particularly drawn to the Christmas books in there. He found his Rudolph book with the buttons that make noises, and we have been listening to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer a million times a day. It has died down over the past week, but for a while there, everybody that came over had Rudolph stuck in their head all day.
He has also been playing with his Christmas train and the Santa that goes with it. Last week, he took out one of the Christmas books and pointed to Santa. He ran over and picked up his Santa from the train and has been carrying them around together.
I told him Santa would wait for him while he ate breakfast.
Now two mornings ago, they played a little a little 60 second piece of seasons on the Disney channel after a show, and the part at the end is a Christmas segment with Pluto. He thinks it is just hilarious, and we have watched it at least 50 times since then (literally). He whines until you rewind it and watch the Christmas part over and over again. I did some research on what show it was from, and it looks like it is an old Mickey special called Pluto's Christmas Tree. It looks a bit violent, so I may hold out on buying it (very Tom and Jerry style b/w Pluto and Chip and Dale).
As you can see above, he got a new table and chairs. At first he just wanted to stand on the chair and play in the box, but now that I moved it to his room, he has been enjoying his puzzles on the table.
Inside the Box
The New Location
Working on his Puzzle
Before we got the table, we went to Noodles and Company, which Andrew loves! He eats like a grown man there. It's scary. He does such a wonderful job of sitting still and eating his mac and cheese like a good boy.
Everything else has been going pretty well. Dad got back from China on Saturday, and I was just relieved to have him back. He went for work, and I always get nervous when he leaves the country. This new nerve medication that I am on for my neck seems to be doing wonders, but I am hesitant to say too much until I wait a few more weeks. It has some side effects I'm not wild about (including trouble concentrating), but things seem to be improving the longer I am on it. I forgot to do all sorts of things this past week, which really worried me, including forgetting to feed the dog, leaving the dog outside at night and almost falling asleep, forgetting to post final grades in one of my classes, and driving right by Andrew's music class. Speaking of the music class, he has been doing really great. He becomes more interactive each week and even showed us his dance moves this past week. He has been very shy, but opens up more and more each week. He has also added "mooing" and "baaing" to his animal noises. His favorite is lion, but if you ask him what a cow or sheep say, he will tell you. It's also a little scary how you can ask him any Mickey Mouse Clubhouse character, and he will point them out in his books. A little too much TV....
Here a pic of him yesterday afternoon when he was supposed to be napping ( I would just like to say that I just had a typo on the word "napping" and the spell-check replaced it with "bar-hopping", which is definitely not what he was supposed to be doing). Lauren called me in to show me that he had thrown all of his blankets out:
Here is another pic of him playing in the corner:
Today I met Tammy and Emily for a birthday lunch, and this weekend I will have a mini celebration with Mike and another one with my dad. Not really looking forward to getting any older. I have also been getting ready for a garage sale that is coming up in a few weeks for the neighborhood, and I actually have a good amount of kid stuff to sell. Hopefully all the planning will be worth it!
