Andrew update--2 and 10 months

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Well, my all-day queasiness and exhaustion are now augmented by a cold or allergies--stuffy nose, sneezing. Lovely.

Getting rest is my #1 priority right now. I had today off from work and, naturally, Andrew was up and rarin' to go at 7:15 a.m., whereas usually I'm waking him up out of a dead sleep and dragging him out of bed at 7:30. Ridiculous. So Drew put on the TV for him and gave him some breakfast and juice, which bought me an extra hour in bed, although with frequent interruptions. Here's me as taken by Andrew when he brought me some of his pretzels.



He left saying, "Go to sleep, Mommy. Stay in bed." Yes, sir!! He can probably tell how wiped I am. Poor, poor Mommy.

Well, I've been at my "job" helping my friend with her daughter 20 hours/week for ONE YEAR now! I've got to take my camera to capture them playing together and how much fun they have--it's a riot! They're playing together more, whereas Andrew is usually very independent. They play catch, push each other on the trikes, paint, have snacks...it's a very relaxing way to spend the morning and I'm glad he has a little friend, to practice being a big brother. He has definitely come a long way with sharing, being kind, ticking to a routine and rules, keeping his hands to himself (except for hugs and kisses, of course), etc. It's been a very valuable experience for us both! I've gotten to practice juggling two kids!

We are amazed at how well Andrew talks now. Many of his funny phrases come from his favorite Thomas movies ("What was THAT noise?") and his favorite Noggin show, "Wow! Wow! Wubbzy" ("But that's too boring!") but it sure is charming. He speaks in complete sentences and even uses advanced vocabulary a lot. Like, "I don't want to go to the store, either." This morning, he said he was "enjoying" his toast. Wha...?? He says "probably," too. Oh, and starts sentences with, "See..." just like we do. Last night he was chattering away in the closet while I put stuff away then he paused and said, "That was a good story." YUP!

He still loves using people's names and greets the receptionist at work with her name, although he still refers to her as "Good Morning" every once in a while. When my mom was here last weekend, we were all congregated on the couch and he stood in the middle of us and opened his arms wide and said, "Mommy, Daddy, Nana...let's go to the park together."

His favorite phrase is "That's a great idea!" It usually follows him asking us for something, like a lollipop or to go outside to play, and we repeat him to make sure we understood. "You want what? A lollipop?" And he says, "That's a great idea!" like we just came up with it. HA!

He's still a Thomas fanatic and his collection builds little by little as his play gets more sophisticated and his trains break. Now the broken ones are allowed to go into the sandbox or to be painted, which he loves. He mimics the movies he's seen and has a great imagination. Unfortunately, his favorite plot line involves paint being dumped on the trains and the big mess that ensues, so we have to constantly police him to keep him from pouring hand soap on his trains. But he loves burying them and "finding" them, and painting them and cleaning them off. The upside is, when he does get in trouble, taking the trains away absolutely devastates him, to it's an easy way to discipline consistently!

He is also still infatuated with my belly button so when we try to tell him there's a baby in there, he points and says "Be-bee," referring to the belly button. He's not getting it yet but that's OK. He can say belly button, in case you're wondering--he just prefers the old nick-name I suppose.

Here's a self portrait from last night. He looooves using the camera and is getting much more accurate!