Andrew is 3 yrs 4 months old!

Another month, more adventures.

I just love this age – Andrew will sure talk your ear off.  He has SO much to say and he absorbs everything like a sponge.  We were watching March of the Penguins on Labor Day and he kept saying, “Is this their nesting ground?”.  I have no idea where most of his vocabulary comes from.  Sometimes, he’ll say something and I’ll think – wow, I say that word like once a year.  He always is saying funny things.  A few examples -

• Last week, I was getting dressed and Andrew came in and said, “Mom, your butt is cute.  I like butts”.  I wasn’t sure whether to be flattered or disturbed.  I can only wait another 12 years … yikes!
• In church, he said in a very loud voice just as everyone quieted down for the meeting to start something about bugs having a certain piece of genitalia.
• The whole time we are at the zoo, “Mom, where is the zebra’s poop?”  “Mom, where is the penguin’s poop”.  Heck, even when we watched March of the Penguins.  The questions won’t stop until the excrement is found – WHY do I have boys???
• Andrew talks over and over about how he is growing and something is making him strong.  He likes to talk about how any kind of exercise is making him strong (“Dancing makes me strong, now”).  He is convinced that all food makes him strong and is full of vitamins (“Mommy, cookies have Vitamin C, right?”… hmmm, we’ll have to work on that.
• We cut his hair on Labor Day and were sweeping up the pieces and Andrew said, “Is that from when I was a girl?”

Speaking of which, Andrew is really trying to figure out gender permanence and where babies come from.  He keeps saying things like “when I was a girl” or “when I’ll be a girl”.  He is not convinced that he will be and always has been a boy.  He is also very interested in breasts and likes to put things under his shirt to pretend that.  He asks me many many times last week about when “me and Seth were in Mommy’s tummy” and wanted to know how they got in there and how they got out.  He seemed to accept the idea that women have eggs (though he wanted to know when he would have eggs).  He was incredulous that I had pushed them out of my body (although after the 4 hours of pushing Andrew, I was pretty incredulous, too).

Andrew is one of the sweetest little guys I know.  He has so much compassion.  He gets the sweetest little smile and loves to tell me and Seth and Katsu how much he loves us and give us hugs and kisses.  I love watching him play with Seth or try to comfort him or call for him (Where’s my buddy?)  or (Sweetie, it’s okay).  So, cute.

Andrew is still really really into music.  I finally bought a new power cord for our piano (they broke the last one), and you should see how excited the boys are to dance to it again.  Andrew takes his dancing VERY seriously.  He throws many fits and gets upset when his music isn’t just so, when people are in his, when his CD starts when he doesn’t want it.  Andrew also makes up these impromptu songs that aren’t terribly musical and just go on and on (and are quite loud).  One last week went on about “We all go to church and take the sacrament” and most of the songs end saying something like “And we are all supposed to love each other.  Yes, we do.  Don’t you know that.  We all love each other”.  He also is really into America’s Got Talent, which sometimes Katsu and he watch together when Andrew takes a late nap and is not ready for bed at a normal bed time.  During the day, he acts out crazy routines in his room for “America Talent” – I think he’s trying to be like the bike guy.

Andrew seems to be in a stage where he is really having a hard time with tantrums and meltdowns.  But he really is trying hard and I can seem him working on self-discipline.  I think that is one of the parenting parts I like best – watching my children work at and master something.  When I tell him “we don’t talk to Mom like that”, he works really hard, even when he is hysterical, to calm down and tell me something in a better voice and ask calmly.

Fun things this month:

• Japanese Festival at the Botanical Gardens.  Huge – tens of thousands of people, seemingly half of whom dressed up like scary anime people.
• Hiking at Bangert Island and walking around St. Charles.  (Andrew is getting so proud of his hiking skills – it was nice and flat half the time and the boys loved running ahead, though we had to make sure Andrew didn’t run straight into the Missouri River … the other half was very sandy and hilly and eventually we had to carry Andrew at the end, but he was very good).
• Getting a new-to-us play kitchen from Freecycle (woo hoo!).  Andrew loves to cook meals for his giraffe, who loves lettuce and also, curiously, Oreos.  All of which need to be play nuked in the microwave.
• All kinds of free meals and snacks for Mom’s birthday (Andrew loved the VERY spicy noodles I got at Noodles and Co.  I didn’t realize they were spicy until Andrew took a VERY big gulp of water after each bite).
• Weekly trips to the zoo and botanical gardens (all the kids are back in school, it’s less crowded, and finally not so hot!).
• New favorite books after Grandma and Grandpa’s house – Magic School Bus.