2 1/2 years old

This post should have been made on September 3. We were living without the Internet then so it is 2 weeks late.

Andrew is now 2 1/2 years old. I can't believe it. He is such a cute kid and his 2 1/2 years have flown by- just like he does 200 times a day. He usually is in some sort of movement. Pushing chairs around the house, climbing, jumping, running, galloping, wrestling or spinning in circles. He is rarely still.



Andrew is still as tiny as he can be and is made of muscles and sinews. At 20 lbs he is still not on the growth charts for a 2 1/2 year old. However, he is the strongest kid I know and can easily pull himself up onto places many other kids can't. He is fearless on a playground and can smell a slide from a mile away. Many churches in this area have playgrounds outside and he continually says "we go that playground?" Andrew's perfect day would have us floating around from playground to playground stopping only for a drink and maybe some food.


He is hanging onto his blanket (or silk as it is known here) with Linus like strength. We go nowhere truly important without it. Whenever he gets hurt the first thing he says is "I need my silk." He sleeps with it wrapped around his neck every night and fumbles down the steps in the morning dragging it behind him.

His munchkin voice is in full force and I really love it. I hope the words he says wrong never develop into their proper forms, although I know they will. Some of my favorite things he says are:
"du-bai" (goodbye)
"Mom, I dough-ya?" (Mom, can I go with you?)
"ha-ha milk" (chocolate milk)
"huuunnnnd" (hold my hand)
"mmmmmm" (ice cream)
"Anno" (Andrew-this one is my favorite!)
"you heddy me?" (can you carry me?)
"myself!" (I'll do it myself!)
He has a stick horse named Leon and whenever he says his name he really enunciates and prolongs the syllables and it's "LEEEE-OOONNNN"


If you ask Andrew what he wants to be for Halloween he will only have one answer for you: Daddy. (I'm looking for a mini flight suit)

He still has no interest in going to the nursery at church without his parents and I am anxiously awaiting the day his confidence at home carries over into the real world. That too, I know will come and I'll probably long for the days when he couldn't stand to be more than 10 yards away from me. (maybe) BUT, every week he agrees to go to the nursery and as he walks down the hall to the room he visibly wilts as his courage is swallowed up into imaginary situations in which he thinks his teacher might eat him or someone might take a toy from him. Someday.....

This boy is sharp as a tack and knows all his letters and their sounds. He has even gotten very good at answering "what does truck/box/car/dog/cat start with?" I'm sure when Emma starts her reading lessons he'll want to start his too. He plays with his magnetic letters ALL the time. If he's not playing with those he is playing with his alphabet blocks or ABC puzzle. Letters are his favorite. When Emma does her handwriting practice (dot to dot books) he loves to "work" in his workbook which means "writing" his letters.

Favorites:

Books: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and Chicka Chicka 123. We have been reading these books 2, 3, 4 times a day for weeks. He can easily "read" them both to us but we keep on reading on. He also loves Little Critter Books though we haven't read many of those in a while because we've been very busy reading Chicka Chicka every sitting still opportunity.

Foods: Mashed potatoes, lime yogurt, cinnamon toast, mac and cheese, any kind of pasta, and french fries. He basically doesn't eat meat. He loves veggie burgers, and will eat the occasional corn dog or chicken nugget but other than that he is a vegetarian.

Places to go: Playgrounds, any time, any day. The mall (indoor playgrounds), anywhere with a splash pad, anywhere with airplanes or helicopters. Whenever we take Mike to work or pick him up he always wants to go inside and look at (and play in) the helicopters.

Things to do: play outside, color, do puzzles, play starfall.com games, play super why games at PBSkids.org (both with help), go to Target, play with Emma.

Shows: Backyardigans, Diego, Maisy, LeapFrog Letter Factory and Super Why!

Songs: Let's go fly a kite, Backyardigans music, Raffi, Primary songs (especially I love to see the temple), and Hard Knock Life. He also loves to hum the theme music to his shows. If you try and turn a show off before the credits (and music) have rolled he will stop you and say "no, I hum." And, he does.

Andrew has a personality as big as his body is small. He is fiery, energetic, and has an insatiable appetite for everything! He is always ready for more more more of whatever he is doing. He wants to be the boss of the whole world but is slowly learning he is not in fact in charge of every human he sees. I truly believe he has been surprised and devastated to learn this but is coming to terms with it. He is a great kid. He is perfectly pesty little brother but also the sweetest to his big sister. No matter what you give him as a treat before he eats any of his he asks for one for his sister. Whenever she is looking for something she knows if she asks Andrew to help her find it he will! If she ever drops something he scurries to pick it up and give it to her. He is sweet and thoughtful and as cuddly as they come and I just can't imagine our family without him.