Andrew 30 months

Did I say that Andrew was on fire last month? Well Andrew was just getting us warmed up for Month 30. Andrew is high energy all the time; High-energy-happy or high-energy-not happy. He's living in these two modes right now. Things are either REALLY GOOD, or things are REALLY AWFUL.

This past month, Andrew has finally taught us not to disobey Andrew Charles Commandment #1: Thou shalt not mess with my schedule. This past weekend we were on the go and we didn't let Andrew have proper naps and boy did we pay. We paid with Old-Testament style punishment: THE WHINING. The whining is really bad, the "my mama" said over and over again, or "my milk" over and over or just that unmistakable whining voice that makes you promise ice-cream for dinner if he will just stop with the whining. (I haven't done the ice-cream for dinner, but I'm not above it!)

I don't think anyone doubted for a second that Eric and Andrew were related, the resemblance is pretty incredible. So I liked to say that Andrew is Eric on the outside and me on the inside. And this has really been working for me because Andrew has been such a model kid. But we've been seeing a combination of a key trait of mine and one of Eric's that is producing a decidedly disagreeable concoction: Eric's perfectionism married to my impatience - eww, it's just as bad as it sounds. Granted, the "it's-not-the-way-that-I-want-it, but-I-am-too-frustrated-to-try-to-figure-it-out" monster appears most often when we have broken Commandment #1, but that doesn't make it o.k. Like last night. Eric and Andrew were playing with his train set. Eric had put the track together and Andrew as happily pushing the train along the track. Then the unspeakable happened; the little tunnel that goes with the track got out of alignment and overlapped the track a bit. Andrew tried to fix it but couldn't get the alignment quite right. This lack of order sent Andrew into full melt down mode. We tried to help but any attempt at fixing it was in his eyes ruining it even more. The only way to make it ok would be to turn back time to before the track got messed up. Like that's ever going happen.

Hmm, see the resemblance?

Mercifully, Andrew's meltdowns usually happen at home. On Saturday at Einstein's Bagels, Andrew was an angel, and a women came up to us and told us she thought so. Andrew can be a rock star in restaurants, he can sit at the table and eat his food just like a real person.

Andrew's vocabulary is exploding and more excitingly, his willingness to talk is increasing. He said hello to a neighbor we didn't know while out on a tricycle ride yesterday. In the past in this situation he would seem shy and wouldn't respond. Now he'll gladly talk or sing his songs out loud instead of wanting us to sing along too. He's also getting better on the phone (when not in melt down mode), and will talk and say hello.

Brotherly relations are getting, well, brotherly. Sometimes Andrew will fully engage with Owen and share toys or make funny faces to try to make him laugh. Other times Andrew will decide he's done playing with Owen and grab a fist full of his hair - like he did last night - twice. Andrew spent alot of time in time out last night.

The motor vehicle infatuation continues. The drive home from Kindercare is really fun because we always see police cars (we go right by the police station), fire-engines (we usually get stopped at a red light right next to the fire station), garbage trucks (no, we don't drive by the dump), and cement mixers (Culver Drive is STILL under construction). Andrew's so excited every time one drives by its like he's seeing it for the first time.

We're still plugging along with the potty training, nothing new to report.

At thirty months Andrew is definitely a handful, but the good exceeds the bad by miles. We wake up everyday so happy we get to hang out with him.

Still working on the yogurt eating

Cousins

Andrew and his tricycle