Costume Ball

With only a few days to go before the big night, dress rehearsals and the early Halloween party circuit kicked off last night. Despite some initial hesitations, Andrew warmed up to the idea of being a zebra - especially when presented with a menagerie of friends covering every known animal, super hero, and princess. For almost an hour, Andrew and his buddies from Kindercare scampered through the center's transformed hallways and feasted on bug juice, brains and eyeballs (i.e. lemonade, spaghetti and meatballs).

Picking up the Slack

In the face of rising child care costs and the threat of a temporary income shortfall from required bed rest, we've decided to put Andrew's computer skills to the test and put him on the payroll. He'll be joining the workforce with an advanced degree in EIS (Elmo Information Systems) and a minor in PA (Peek-a-Boo Analytics). Andrew brings over 18 months of experience assisting clients with their keyboard pounding and monitor smudging needs. He specializes in system testing and tolerance testing activities, with particular attention to unexpected shut-down and recovery handling; massively simultaneous key pressing; and mouse aerodynamics. Andrew's amazing skill set combined with deep understanding of the milk processing and early childhood education industries, promises to deliver extensive value his clients and the family.

Sour puss

Andrew is constantly suprising us. As you can see in this picture, Andrew is actually eating a raw lemon. Andrew took a lemon off my dinner plate and wanted a taste. I let him have it assuming that he'd take one lick and be done with it. But the guy sucked and chewed on it for 30 minutes! We couldn't get it away from him. Well we figured that lemons count as a vegetable so it was ok. Hopefully he has some enamel left on those teeth!

Quick Update

One more quick update to the hourly play-by-play of Leslie's bed rest. In one short morning, we've manage to catch up on four weeks of promised blog entries, organize an interview for a potential nanny, send Eric to the gym, turn down a job at a company five minutes from home, set up a long overdue doctor's appointment for Eric, and ignore work inboxes that contain in excess of a few thousand emails. Amazing what you can accomplish when minor things like "jobs" don't get in the way.

Anyway, for those of you who have yet to get the details on some of our summer activities, take a look at the following video from our stay at Crystal Cove. If you like what you see and are interested in checking out one of the beach cottages, you can reserve one at their website.

Andrew's Silly Side

A quick picture of Andrew at the park - smiling!

Andrew Update

We went to the pumpkin patch last weekend. Andrew picked out a pumpkin all by himself. As you can see from the picture at left, he did not take his decision lightly. He was very diligent and took his time in picking the perfect Halloween specimen.

The pumpkin patch we went to has a little great petting zoo and Andrew for the first time was able to get up close and personal to a goat without a meltdown. I think he had a good time in there.

The picture below shows Andrew's pumpkin pick (and Leslie before being on house arrest.)

Andrew's development is right on schedule. His last doctors appointment confirms he is lengthening out and developing typical toddler proportions. Of late, the major developmental explosions have centered around his vocabulary and his mobility. His vocabulary reflects the fact that he is a book lover. He is very happy sitting with mom or dad reading books together. Here are a few of his favorite words and phrases: more, what's that, mama, book, dada, cow, moon, "the sun", night-night, car, bye-bye, truck, apple, banana, shoes, toes, and eyes. He knows a lot more words than he can say. He knows most of his body parts and several animals. Also he can follow directions very well.

He is a very helpful toddler. His favorite chore is to help dad unload the dishwasher. As for mobility, he can now confidently navigate jungle gyms in the park, loves to dive off furniture, and really enjoys doing somersaults. In fact last week, his teachers said he had the whole class doing somersaults during free play outside!

In age appropriate fashion, he has developed a willful side and we've had to institute the "naughty step". When he doesn't get his way (i.e. mommy stops him from launching himself through a window), he does throw a few fists. So immediately he gets sent to the bottom step of the stairs and has to stay there for a minute or two. So far this seems to be helping.

All in all Andrew is a fabulous toddler and a sweet and thoughtful little boy. Stay tuned for more Andrew updates. I am anticipating some very funny pictures as we try to coax him into his zebra Halloween costume!

It's a Boy!

It's official, we are having a boy! Everything looks great with the little guy. He's growing right on schedule and the results of a myriad of tests reveal that he is just perfect - we knew that already though ;). His due date hasn't changed and we're still expecting his arrival on April 13th, 2007. The picture shows his profile.

Mom is now on day 4 of modified best rest - ie. can't really leave the house, but can get up and waddle over to the couch. So far Eric is great company and is keeping the family humming along.

We're praying that the next ultrasound shows that all the bleeding has stopped and mom gets to leave the house. We are getting prepared in case healing takes a bit longer. We are making plans for a part time nanny to help mom in the evenings with taking care of Andrew. Eric does eventually have to get back to work.

Andrew is enjoying the extra time with mom and dad. Dad is picking him up early everday from daycare and the two of them are brushing up on their basketball skills (Andew LOVES the new basket ball). I'll give an Andrew update in a separate entry.