Girly Fun

I can't wait to buy Sarah some of these!

Andrew and the race car

Andrew and the race car, originally uploaded by leslie_capron.

Yesterday Andrew told us he liked three things:

1. Planes
2. Trains
3. NASCAR

That pretty much sums up life around here. Well, not really. That sums up Andrew's life. He is much too busy with the planes, trains and NASCAR to think much about Sarah (if you were wondering how he has reacted to her, I can honestly say that Andrew pretty much ignores her because he is much too involved in his own things. He DOES however like to play with Owen and they are so close that Andrew regularly insists that Owen accompany him to the bathroom - at least its not me anymore!). Our weekends now usually include an hour or two of watching the NASCAR Nationwide Series or the Sprint Cup Series (but never the Camping World truck series - crap, I think I'm now officially a redneck because I know the names of these races and have a favorite driver, anyhoo, where was I?) Yes, an hour or two of NASCAR, a trip down to the train station in San Juan Capistrano to watch the Surfliner train come by a time or two (after a stop at Pedro's tacos), and afternoon time on YouTube watching 474's take off and land. Lately too, we've been spending a lot of time at the pool. Both boys love the pool and we love it because it guarantees these boys go to sleep at bed time.

Andrew is just about to read. He is starting to recognize words and I think by the end of the year he'll be reading books on his own. Since Sarah arrived we've been much more strict with the routines around here - We start every night at 7:30: bath, books and bed time. With this routine, we're much more disciplined about reading to the boys every night.

We're seeing the good and the not so good of having siblings so close in age. Andrew and Owen can play together marvelously and enjoy each other's company, but they can also fight too. Our best weapon against the fighting is to take the boys outside and let them run around and give each other some space. Often after I pick the boys up from pre-school we stop by the park to let them run around more and get really good and tired.

As Andrew is maturing he's having more fun with kids other than Owen too. Yesterday he told me he was a new friend to the kids at swimming lessons. I can see now that he is enjoying other kids more. At swimming lessons, one boy was squirting Andrew with water from a toy and Andrew thought this was hilarious. Not so long ago, this would have had Andrew crying.

To sum up, Andrew's becoming a big boy and is less and less fearful about new things and new people, I have to say this is a fun and exciting time to be his mom!

Breakthrough - Andrew loving swimming lessons!

Breakthrough - Andrew loving swimming lessons!, originally uploaded by leslie_capron.

We're having a great summer. Andrew is really enjoying swimming lessons for the first time. He is making real progress with his skills and having a lot of fun.

On his first day, I think I was more nervous than Andrew was.  I had lots of mom-worry thoughts in my head: was he going to even get in? would he throw a huge fit and scream the whole time?  was he ever going to like swimming and if not, would Eric ever recover?

But, like most worries, none of these fears came to be. On the first day, he got into the pool and didn't participate.  I still considered that a HUGE victory - 1. he was in the pool. 2 he was not crying.  On the second day, he got right in there and listened to the teacher and went through all the exercises.  He was so proud of himself when the lesson was over. He was smiling and so excited, he bounced all the way back to the car.  I was so proud of him too.  

Andrew vs. Food

Andrew taking on the Mac 'n Cheese 'n Ketchup challenge. I dare any of you to attempt. Feel free to post any of you award-winning concoctions in the comments section.

Check this Out Andrew