Welcome to winter!

Last weekend we made it through being very snowed in all day Saturday. When we did venture outside to shovel (yes shovel---a snowblower is now very high on our wish list!) Andrew was up to his waist in snow on our driveway. He didn't like anything about it, and decided to stand in the garage and watch Mommy and Daddy shovel. Some of our excellent new neighbors came over with a snowblower and two girls with shovels to help us. We were able to share some of the 10 dozen cookies we had just made with them to thank them.

Andrew's 2nd birthday went very well. We had a party with his two best friends (and one older brother and associated parents) at our house. Andrew danced with joy when his friends arrived. It was so much fun to see them all playing together.

Andrew can now identify Santa, reindeer and Frosty and we frequently hear about them if they are spotted anywhere--in a book, on television, card, catalog, billboard... Christmas is coming!

Fall catch up

Ok, time to play catch up since our last post :) Andrew again "ran" in a TC Marathon weekend family event. This year was the Toddler Trot and

you can see Mommy and Andrew in the middle (mommy in grey sweatshirt) making it through the course.

Andrew was a great Tigger for Halloween. We had a great time at Zoo Boo as Andrew walked the whole zoo gathering treats in his "punk" (his first use of the classic pumpkin pail). We were happy we went to Zoo Boo as the actually Halloween we were all recovering from the flu and didn't go too far!

Then Mommy had a conference in Orlando so everyone came so we could see Sea World. It was excellent as Mommy has been to EVERY Sea World and was thrilled to share this experience with her boys.

New House

Well, it's been a long time since our last post due almost entirely to the time-consuming nature of packing, moving, and unpacking all our stuff with a toddler running around. We have a new home that is bigger, younger than us, and has a couple more bedrooms and bathrooms, but it has a lot of stairs, which Andrew is very slowly getting used to. In the relative calm of the past few weeks, we went to the apple orchard twice, once with Grandma and Granddad and once with our friends the Moons, and Mommy hosted a party!! That last part was actually pretty exciting.

Our house-warming gift to Andrew has been two train sets: one Thomas, one Ikea. They are supposed to be compatible. They are not. So now he has blue (Thomas) choo choo in the family room and the other choo choos (Ikea) in his playroom in the basement. Yes, there is a dedicated room to Andrew's toys, to which we can close the door and never mention to guests.

Otherwise, we are all doing well. Thank you to all who read this and continue to care about Andrew and watch as he grows.

Andrew's Summer

This summer has been busy with activity, which creates few opportunities to post to the blog, but we wanted to update all Andrew's fans about what's been going on. Our biggest change from previous times is the amount of time spent "ah-sy". Andrew loves his Lil Tikes car and will spend hours (if allowed) getting in, getting out, getting in, moving forward a couple steps, getting out, getting in, getting stuck, screaming, figuring out he can get unstuck, getting out, getting in, etc. He is definitely building expertise and confidence with that car. The downside is that he now thinks he can drive our cars as well.
Andrew has also had a couple opportunities to go swimming in his little wading pool. Daddy has even joined him a couple times to encourage him to put his face underwater, to varying degrees of success. He had a pool party with his friend Russell as well, though Rusty seemed more interested in drinking the water than playing in it (it was hot that day, he was thirsty). We have also made it to Teddy Bear Park in Stillwater twice already. It's the perfect size for toddlers, though there are big kids running around too. Mommy will have to post those pictures.

Bean Dance

We finally got around to transferring photos off the camera, and we found this gem we had to upload. It's from our time in Florida (see a couple posts ago). Enjoy!

Quick Update

It's been too long, and we really need to get some pictures and videos up, but I thought I would take a couple minutes to post something for Andrew's adoring fans. All the standard stuff, like walking, teeth, etc., are all old news, so we're into the magical age of true cognitive development. He talks nonstop, though we can't imagine how he would have inherited that (ahem). He knows all the standard facial features and enjoys pointing them out on others, including removing glasses to get to those pokable orbs beneath. He is also starting to put things together and figure out relationships. For example, he was pointing at a picture in his Disney sticker book, and Mommy identified "Mickey Mouse". He looked at her puzzled for a second before pointing to his mouth and saying, "Mouf". Mommy explained, "Not mouth, mouse". He's smart like that.

As expected for a 17-month-old, he wants to do everything on his own, except when he prefers us to do things for him, though sometimes he's not sure which. We're also starting to enter the "movie" phase. He constantly wants to watch "Moo-moos", so we've seen Shrek, The Incredibles, and every Veggie-tale movie we own in the past 2 weeks. However, he gets upset when we walk away (which we do infrequently), so he really does see movies as a social opportunity.

And without further ado, a REALLY old video of him walking around (December, 2009). Once we find the cables for the camera and camcorder, we will post more.

More characters

We had such a great time at Disney World and met lots of characters. It took a while for Andrew to become comfortable with giant fuzzy creatures walking around. Here when we met Tigger and Pooh Bear he was still not so sure about these creatures, but we got a nice family photo anyway.

We have had a busy winter! Shortly after our Disney trip, we had a great visit with Grandma and Granddad and Great Uncle Dave. We went to the Science Museum and it just happened to be preschooler Monday! Andrew sat very well (on a carpet square!) and watched a presentation about bears. He loves listening to stories and pays attention so well. We also played with his baseball set with Granddad and Uncle Dave. I think Andrew learned the word for "baseball."

At home he loves his books and will pick out a book to read, bring it over to you then turn around and sit on your lap ready to go. Sometimes he realizes a few pages into the book that that is NOT the one he wanted, so he will close the book, slip off your lap and go get a different book.

The Davenports visit Mickey

Click below for our e-card.