He knows things!

Words, that is. Andrew knows a lot of words. In the morning, Daddy tells me that he'll say, "Bluebods?" (our strange abbreviation for blueberries...it started a long time ago and for some reason we just stuck with it) , and when he says this, Andrew will crawl over to his high chair in anticipation. He'll then proceed to make a lot of squealing noises until he is up in his chair with "Bluebods" in front of him. So cute!

Daddy also said that yesterday or today he said, "Do you want to take a bath?", and Andrew crawled into the bathroom.

Tonight Daddy said, "Car ride?" and Andrew crawled towards the front door, fussing. We weren't going in the car, so then I had to distract him with something else.

Also, the 2nd day he had his new ball (my mom got it for him), we would say, "ball" and Andrew would go get his ball.

I love it!

Andrew also does this cute thing when he crawls around--he'll hum a little song. It goes, "m m m"....."m m m"... always sets of three. If I start doing it too, he'll smile and repeat. He has even done this while nursing!

The shower is evil....

Andrew gets up when I do in the morning, right around 6:30 a.m. In his early days, I'd set the bouncy seat down on the bathroom floor so he could chill while I was in the shower. He then went through a phase where he'd sleep until 7:30 or so, so I would just go get him when I was done getting ready for work, and then I'd change/feed him.

Now, he usually gets up at 6:30 so I bring him in the bathroom (the husband has a new habit of metal detecting every morning and he leaves around 5:45/6:00 a.m....don't even ask).

Anyway, Andrew has decided that when Mommy steps into the shower, she is actually stepping into another dimension. He bawls his little heart out as soon as I slide that shower curtain. I have to leave one end open and talk/wave to him so he calms down. The other option is to take a bath while he leans over the edge, splashing his hands in the water. No amount of toys help/distract in this situation. I can only hope he learns that Mommy is fine and she will be out of the shower in 5-6 minutes.

Happy 1st birthday, Andrew!

Another photo blog for our readers. Hope you don't mind the pics! I literally take thousands of them and only share a few of my favorites with the blog world.

So, the birthday was pretty much celebrated for 2 days. :) Okay, well, we went to Great-Grandma and Grandpa's house as we do every Sunday so we got to celebrate with that crowd first (all of Andrew's great aunts and uncles and second cousins).

This was from yesterday morning at our house. I had to take a pic of his daily breakfast of blueberries, bananas, and Cheerios! I just like the look on his face and love his hair in this one...

This is at Great-Grandma & Grandpa's house. Andrew was snoozing in the shade (the pool was way too cold to go in due to our recent cold nights).

Cake time!!!

This is why I call him 'Cheeseball'

Now these are from today from the party at our house. Andrew loved the gift from his Aunt Pixy--it was 2 wooden puzzles. The knobs on them looked like boobies and he was mesmerized! He didn't care about anything else (note that one of them is in his mouth)!
(Left to right: Mommy, Andrew, and Aunt Kimmy...Mikayla, behind Andrew, is his cousin)

Awaiting the cake...look at his feet! He always does this in his high chair. Oh, ginormous feet to match those ginormous hands mentioned in the previous plum post...LOL!

My mom made a SWEET (literally) angelfood cake with strawberries and whipped cream. YUM!
Really digging in now...

That's it! All in all, it was a great birthday. He took a very short nap this morning (like 1/2 hour around 10:20 a.m.) so I knew he was tired later on, but I didn't want him to be sleeping when the party started. Around 4:15 pm (he had to be so tired by now), Andrew decided to give me such a sweet present. I went to sit down in the chair in the living room and he crawled up to me and whined and I asked him, "Oh, you wanna come up by Mommy?" and I laid his head on my chest and he closed his eyes. He just wanted to snuggle! I patted his bum for a moment and he was sound asleep. That was the fastest he's ever fallen asleep and it's not usual for him to just come to me and whine because he was tired (normally he whines for boob or food or whatever, but not usually for sleepytime). It makes me feel all warm inside! Needless to say, Andrew was sleeping by the time everyone finally arrived for the party (they're always late).

A cool fact, in case I haven't mentioned it before. My birthday is 6/25, Daddy's is 2/25, and Andrew's is 8/25. We were all born on the 25th (which is why I say Andrew had to come 6 days early). The numerology of it: 6 (June, Mommy) + 2 (Feb, Daddy) = 8 (Aug, Andrew). :) It's just meant to be perfect.

Gimme that plum!!!

Andrew and Daddy share a love affair with fruit. It's great! I am glad to start him off young liking something healthy. Daddy has shared many a plum with Andrew, and the other night I decided to just hand him a whole one and see what he did with it...

The results...

First, he took a couple of big bites...

And then he just kept on eating!
Note the size of Andrew's HUGE hands...

Oh yeah, and all of those teeth (he now has 16 teeth in--8 on top and 8 on the bottom)!

And yes, he ate the entire plum. As he got closer to the pit, I removed it for him and then he finished off what remained of the plum.

He can stand!

He only does it for about five seconds, and then he slowly lowers himself to the ground (no hands). Obviously he can do it. He stands there with a look of amazement on his face, and then it turns to a look of "OMGWTF". That's the best way to describe it. He chickens out and then sits.

My househusband (giggle) tells me that Andrew has been standing up holding the strap that hangs down under the high chair.

Yesterday, we were driving in the car on our way home from the grocery store when Andrew coughed. So I imitated him with a fake cough. Then he did a fake cough. I reciprocated, and this went on for about 2 minutes. It was so funny! My little guy definitely has a sense of humor...

What else is new? Well, he loves to blow bubbles (spit bubbles) while saying, "Mooooom...Moooooom". It is very entertaining! He puts his mouth on my thigh and blows (like the belly farts I give him)!

It would be really sweet if he could walk by his first birthday! August 25th, 2008 is the day my little boy officially becomes a toddler. However, he will still be my baby. :)

Here are some pictures from when Andrew was born (as I wipe away my tears in reminiscence)...

Mommy snuggling with Andrew in the minutes after his birth:

6 lbs, 6 oz. (so little!):

Daddy admiring his new son:

The day we came home from the hospital (look at his little head compared to my arm!):

Andrew in his preemie outfit (NB size was too big; and no he wasn't a preemie!):

Asleep in his bassinet:

Photo shoot at the beach!

We went to the beach yesterday, despite the cloudy skies (it was still warm out). Dork Daddy played around with his metal detector. I think he found a penny? I took a ton of pictures of Andrew! The "lake" (Lake Onalaska) is really just an overflow of the Mississippi River. They're all the same to me, but I guess they feel special naming the different tributaries! Enjoy the pics!

Sand is fun to crawl on!

This sand is pretty cool stuff! This picture was taken before the sand went into his mouth...

Daddy took one of Mommy and Andrew....

After the photo shoot, we went to the car for a nursing session. Ah....boobie.... :D

Oh, and here is another HILARIOUS picture I took of Andrew with his new slinky (the health plan people came to my work on Friday and gave out some goodies and I knew Andrew would love it!).