Summary Statement

I was just looking over the blog all the way from the beginning. Hopefully the site won't shut down anytime soon so we can keep going back and seeing how much has happened in such a short amount of time (what have YOU done in the last 4 months?). I have come to two conclusions:

1. Andrew just gets cuter with time. If this trend continues, I don't know what we're going to do. We may never be able to put him down again.

2. I am grateful for such a wonderful wife with whom to share this adventure and for such caring friends and family who actually stop by every once in a while to check up on how Andrew is doing. He is lucky to have a small village already looking out for him.

The Bald Man and the Serpent

We got some pictures of Andrew from day care recently, including this one of him apparently eating a snake. He has also been busy finger-painting and making "April showers" raindrops with his footprints. His teacher has even decorated the room with all the "artwork", illustrated descriptions of how each was made (showing each of the boys engaged in the various stages), and a chart of vocabulary (e.g. sleepy, happy, napping, etc.) featuring Andrew as one of the models. He certainly looks like he has some fun times at day care, so many of our fears have been quelled. It's still not as good as staying home with his parents, but it's the next best thing.

First Easter

This afternoon, we got out the egg dyes for the first time in years to give Andrew a traditional experience for his first Easter. I'm not sure he really got the concept, but we had a lot of fun. We even used a white crayon to write M (Mommy), D (Daddy), A (Andrew), and P (Uncle Peter), along with some other "secret" messages, on our eggs before dying them. They actually came out pretty well! Lynn has big plans for the Easter outfit for church tomorrow, though she was disappointed by how few options there are for a 4 month old's basket. And before I get too many comments, we realize that Easter is about more than bunnies and colored eggs. However, if he doesn't really understand that the egg changed color, I doubt he'll be able to appreciate the whole "dying for our sins and overcoming death" thing. Maybe when he's older.

First St. Patrick's Day (A little late)

Lynn was supposed to blog about this last week, but not being able to do so at work apparently put a damper on those plans. Andrew had a very nice first St. Patrick's Day. To celebrate at school that week they made a special (first) art project. Andrew made a shamrock with little green footprints, and the teacher hung it up in the room for everyone to see. His shamrock leaves were considerably smaller than his classmate's, which is not surprising given the tiny feet of his parents.

He also wore the shirt seen here, which is mostly true. As far as we know, Andrew is 5/16 Irish, which we feel is sufficient to claim Irishhood, especially since it is a plurality (equal with German, all from Mommy's side of the family). And since he's been to Ireland, even more reason! So what if he was still inside Mommy and approximately the size of a kidney bean. And we followed the instructions on his shirt several times that day.

Video Updates

Lynn says she will be providing an update that discusses Andrew's attempt to get in touch with his Irish roots this past Tues, but I wanted to upload some long-overdue videos of our little man talking.

Week 2

Day care is not going as well as we would like, but we're learning to accept that it's the best institutional day care gets. There are things we don't like (I won't go into details), but we can live with it as long as it doesn't get worse. But enough gloom and doom.

Lynn declared Andrew to have made his first laugh a couple days ago. He's been smiling a lot for weeks now, and he's been vocalizing a LOT (must take after his Daddy), but he finally put the two together. I remember my cousin Jon saying his wife could make Cody (Jon's son) squeal about this age, so maybe Andrew is right on track. Lynn finds it slightly amusing that much of his smiley time with Daddy is on the changing table and while getting dressed. He apparently doesn't find getting dressed with Mommy quite as entertaining. We have video of a conversation that hopefully we'll post soon.

Andrew still looks bald in a lot of the photos we take, though Lynn just claims that his hair is "invisible". I guess she's not used to Davenport babies. He's got Lynn's eyes and mouth, but I can definitely claim the scalp!

Better Days

For all of you who were on pins and needles about how Andrew's second day went, it was much better than the first. The teacher read to him and sang to him, and she said he seemed very interested in the book. And he only went 3 hours without a bottle, which is a drastic improvement. We're still a little jilted by the first day experience, but at least now we're not as worried about his physical health being compromised. Today he's home with his Mommy, who is taking some scattered vacation days over the next couple weeks to ease the transition for both of them, and Daddy will have him every Thursday. Daddy is very excited.