Andrew is 28 months old!

Andrew's Favorites according to Andrew (and me):

Food - Pasta, (also, Rice, Japanese Noodles, Plain yogurt with blueberries and strawberries, corn on the cob, graham crackers, hot dogs, chocolate, cake)

Books - Andrew couldn't decide "I have all these books" (Curious George, Richard Scarry books (Esp. the car one), Mo Willems' Piggie and Elephant series, anything about dinosaurs)

Friend - Jonas

Thing to Do - Play with Jonas and his toys

Toys - Cars, of course, and don't you dare touch them. He loves his new "potato man" (Mr. Potato Head) and his Little People and all of Seth's toys.

Place - Jonas' house (hmmm ... seems to be a theme here)

This has been another fun and busy month with Andrew. We spent most of the month going to the park (try to go 3 or 4 times a week), playing with cars at home, and reading books. We did some fun things - a local festival in Dexter (where we saw a clown!), the Saline fair, lots of picnics, lots of going out to eat for my birthday (can't skip the free stuff), and of course, a trip to NYC. Andrew is such a cheerful guy who has fun wherever he goes. He loves everything and laughs heartily to it all.

Andrew is still "2" and has been spending a lot of time in Time Out, mostly for being too rough with Seth or throwing, kicking, disobeying, jumping off the furniture, and most recently excessive whining. The whining is now in full swing ... I don't even remember him doing it before this month. I still think "1-2-3 Magic" is the best discipline method I have seen and I think it works really well. The hardest part of discipline for me is what to do when I can't do something right away, like when I'm nursing, or on a plane, etc. He doesn't really understand loss of privelege yet, though we do put his toys in time out very often when they are used improperly.

Andrew continues to absorb new things like a sponge. He is starting to pick up more shapes and seems like he might be getting the color "red". His talking continually improves. I am thinking of starting letters with him, since he now loves to sing the ABC song, though he mixes up half the letters. But for the most part, my rule of thumb is play, play, play. Plenty of time for active learning later.

Andrew has started to sing. Kind of a late start on that. He knows a couple songs partially and also likes to make up melodies with no or made up words. He likes to do "dance parties", which mostly consist of him jumping up and down.

Speaking of which, Andrew LOVES to jump. In place. Off the furniture (especially). Over us if we are laying down. And climb. He climbs everything. And throw. He loves to throw balls and rocks. Everyone. Today, he threw a rock into the stroller at Seth ... hmmmm.

But really, Andrew loves being a brother and is so gentle with Seth. He tells Seth that he loves him and will say "Sweet boy, it's okay" or similar things when he cries. He always loves to say that they are brothers. He's a little rough, as expected for a 2 yr old.

Andrew is great at playing with himself, still, except at church. I'm not sure why. He plays quietly at home, but whenever I am trying to put Seth to sleep or we are at church or the plane, etc. he uses the LOUDEST voice ever. We work on quiet and medium and loud voices, but it is slow going.

Andrew was obsessed with my birthday and even now still tells me Happy Birthday. He said often how he was going to eat my whole birthday cake. He also said that he was going to eat our friend's cake completely. I think he was too busy running around at that party to even get a piece though.

I decided that Andrew's motivation for dressing or undressing himself was never going to come, so we started teaching him to put on a shirt. He does pretty well and is also learning to put dirty clothes in his own laundry basket. Now, if only he could do his own laundry (and mine, too!) ...

Andrew's favorite new thing to say - "I am not happy", from Elephant and Piggie books. Interesting when repeated in a loud voice over and over in the airplane ... He is starting to learn to express his emotions. I am working on getting him to say "I am frustrated, please help me", since that seems to happen frequently. We are still working on that one.

His imagination continues to shine. His new love - dinosaurs. Lucky boy was able to see TWO natural history museums this month! Ann Arbor's U of M one and the one in NYC. He loved seeing the dinosaur bones and would tell you that all of the dinosaurs have died.

We love Andrew! Time is just flying.