Andrew is 3 yrs 5 months

Andrew is a busy boy, now.  In fact, most days he starts out the day saying “Mom, I am so busy.  I am too busy to go to <school, church, etc.>”.  Who knew that going to preschool 2 days a week or church once a week could cramp a 3 yr old’s style.  This last week almost every day he says, “Mom.  We are so busy today.  We have so much work to do, we will not have any time to play at all.”  What kind of work has Andrew been up to?

• Dancing, of course.  Dance parties are very important.  First, the setting up (seems to involve bringing over chairs and stacking couch cushions in a particular way).  Then, the wardrobe, which now involves lots of scarves, hats, and gloves.  And yes, he wears those outside the house, too.  Then, we have to pick out our dancing names (“Meeta” seems very popular).  And then, we can dance.
• Playing pretend is popular, too.  Andrew likes to pretend to be animals, especially polar bears, penguins, and dolphins.  He also enjoys pretending to be a doctor (he was VERY concerned about the fillings in my mouth - “Mom, you have very big bugs!  You need to brush your teeth”), librarian, mail man, etc.
• Making forts out of the couch.  Every day.  Bossing people around on where they can sit, what they can touch, etc.  Bossing in general.
• Trucks is always popular, especially hiding them everywhere.
• Arts and crafts are still very unpopular.  It’s like pulling teeth trying to get him to color, but, lo and behold, he enjoyed finger painting this month!
• Reading – we’ve been reading lots of Halloween books.  It’s funny to hear Andrew quote from them every now and then.  His new favorite books – National Geographic Readers.  We have learned all about bats and dolphins.
• Running around at the park and hiding behind the trees.

Andrew loves preschool.  He tells me bits and pieces about his day and the teachers send home a sheet saying everything they did.  He claims not to play with the other kids, but he does mention one of the other kids every now and then “She’s a girl, mom.”  Ha ha.  He likes snacks and is amazed when the other kids don’t like the food.  He seems to especially like his teachers.  He loves getting the literature book bag they send home every weekend and reading all the books.  He goes to Wee Worship, a time in the chapel at the church there, twice a month and tells me he learned about Nephi (it’s actually Noah, ha ha ha).  This month they focused on Apples and the color red.

Andrew is still having many fits but I think he’s just adjusting.  He is really trying to control himself and will say “Mom, I am trying to calm myself down but I can’t”, and I will hug him until he can control his emotions.  He is great at telling us how he is feeling – happy, sad, excited, frustrated, and mad (usually the last two).  He loves to tell us how much he misses Grandma and Grandpa and how it is SO hard to wait until Christmas to see them and that he doesn’t want to come back from Texas when he visits.  He LOVES to call them on the phone and on Skype and is pretty good at the phone for a 3 year old.  (Although, he was telling Aunt Sarah that he is Andrew from Saint Louis the other day.  Then, when he was going to call her again, I said “Tell her that it is you calling”, and he said, “But Sarah already knows my name!”.)

He can pick out the letter S which he calls “sssss” and the letters A consistently.  They have to find their name constantly at preschool and he can usually pick out Bs and sometimes Os (which he thinks are Ps), but trying to teach him letters is just not sticking much.  My main concern is that his refusal to color will make writing come very slowly, but we will see.

Fun things this month:

• Trip to Miami.  Andrew still talks about “your-ami” and about seeing alligators to everyone.
• Zoo trips and science center trips.  Seeing the new baby giraffe at the zoo.  Even a trip to the Zoo with Dad and Seth on Friday morning while I work.
• PRESCHOOL.  Andrew asked for me to pick him up last so that he can stay longer.
• St Louis Art Fair & the Great Forest Park Balloon Race.
• Watching General Conference and eating all the soon-to-expire food from our 72 hour kits.  Andrew really loved that!
• Getting a flu shot.  For 2 days before Andrew said he was going to “scream really loud” when they did it, but he did a really good job and only cried a little tiny bit.

Another great month!