Furry Babies

Last Saturday, Mike went to the Illinois game with a bunch of his buddies, so Andrew and I went to the Discovery Center. I took this picture with my cell phone, because I thought it was just hilarious. Right when he saw 2 baby dolls in strollers, he threw them both off the side and replaced them with a lion and a kitty cat. He then pushed the two of them around the Discovery Center for a while. You can see one baby is under the wheel of the front stroller and the other other one is face down on the ground behind him. I guess he has a preference for animals over babies. Don't ever trust him to babysit.

He has just been super silly this past week. He decided a few nights ago that he wanted to wear his sunglasses at all times. He found them after his bath, and he wore them through snuggle time, and he insisted to wear them to bed in his crib. The next morning when I walked in, he handed them to me, and I put them on him again. He wore them through breakfast and cartoons and off we went to daycare where he wore them in the car. When I picked him up that afternoon, she told me he wore them almost the whole day.

After his bath in the evening:

In the morning:

I have also been getting him to brush his teeth in the bathtub, which works better than pinning him down while trying to brush for him.

He has really been into saying "hello" lately, too. Every night, I go through every toy in the bathtub and ask him to say hello. He says hello to everything in there. It's so cute. The other night I was cooking in the kitchen and he peeked him head over the ledge from the living room.  I said, "hi", and he goes, "hello." He still loves to get into everything he can get his hands on, which makes for a long clean up in the evenings!

Here he is wearing his winter coat and hat for the first time. On the day I took this picture, we just got back from daycare where it was cold enough to wear them for the first time. He looked so old to me, as I pulled up and saw him running with the other kids.

It is just such a relief to drop him off in the mornings and see how happy he is to be there. When we get there, the kids are looking down from the second story bannister and calling out his name. He is looking up smiling while I take off his shoes and coat. He then bolts upstairs to go see them. It's so sweet. The girl that watches him sent me a picture yesterday of  him and 2 other kids dressed as pilgrims holding hands. So adorable! Here are some more art favorites that I'm sure you all love to see.

Last night, Andrew helped me blow up balloons for his birthday party (pics to come). He was having a blast!

I'm hoping to get the birthday party pics up over the next few days!

First Birthday Without Mom

Last Saturday would have been mom's 58th birthday, and it was so nice to have my grandparents and my aunt and uncle come visit all the way from Southern Illinois. They came up Friday afternoon, and we had a really great couple of days together. I wish that we all lived closer. On Saturday, we drove over to Woodstock and did a little shopping and ate lunch. We found a neat used book store, and I bought Andrew a bunch of Christmas books.

Andrew with mom and Great Grandma at lunch:

Later that afternoon, we went to go put flowers on the spot where we spread mom's ashes. It was emotional, but I felt like she could see us visiting her on her birthday, which made me happy. My Grandma Kay sent the most beautiful flowers to the house, so we took a few of those to leave for mom:

Here are a couple more pictures from their trip. My Aunt Susan brought Andrew some Mickey stickers, and he put most of them on her shirt!

Throwing his ball to his Great Uncle Paul and Great Grandpa:

I am so, so thankful they came to visit, as it made everything so much easier. I am just so grateful for all of their love and support! This has been a tough year!

Halloween

Andrew had a great Halloween this year and was much more aware of what was going on this time around. At daycare, he got to paint pumpkins with the other kids. She sent me this picture while he was painting:

That evening, my dad and Myrna stopped over to see him in his costume. Dad got some great pictures of him trick or treating for the first time. We went to two of our neighbors' houses.

And he's off!

First stop...

Second stop...

Yep, that dog with the red bandana back there is with us.

Going home to check out the goodies...

We found out that he loves M&M's. I think he had one too many, though. I had to change his diaper 3 times in a 2 hour period the next morning.

He then opened up his Halloween card from Great Grandma Kay (with M&M's on his face):

He really, really wanted to go outside and hang out with the other trick or treaters, so we went out for a few more minutes, but it was freezing! He was so cute when he helped me hand out candy. By the time he got his hand in there and handed them some candy, they were already gone.

Jez was jealous!

She was not forgotten, though. I gave her a special treat when Andrew was at daycare so they wouldn't fight over it.

Andrew got plenty of wear out of his costume this year. He also wore it at music class and last Sunday for an event at the club that Mike's parents belong to.

Costume parade:

With his cousins:

Here he is at music class. They danced to the monster mash and ghostbusters.

Elmo and zebra play the keyboard.

Happy Halloween!