Such a good sport!

I spent last Friday and Saturday working in my classroom to pack up materials, organize things, and CLEAN! When I arrived in Palo Alto six years ago, I brought a 14 ft truck full of stuff from Provo and most of it got dumped in my classroom- magazines, furniture, TONS OF BOOKS, toys, etc. The time to de-junk and sort through it all has finally come (at least Andrew will never lack for books- I think he's covered through 6th grade with the library I'll be bringing home next week!). Andrew has been such a good sport this week as I've been working to finish this project. We spent several hours today and yesterday packing up boxes, sorting through tons of files, and cleaning out drawers, closets and cupboards.

(my beautiful classroom closet... last week you couldn't even walk into it)

I brought Andrew's swing, rainforest gym, and books and he and I had a blast hanging out at Escondido. He even took all of his regular naps on schedule... although trying to fall asleep proved to be a little bit more difficult for him than usual at the beginning- there were too many cool posters on the wall to look at. Maybe he'll remember the skip counting songs I sang him when he gets in first grade? :)

(waking up from his comfy nap next to all the piled up desks)

Fortunately, Andrew's favorite toys are his fingers... so they kept him entertained over the past few days while I worked. He has enjoyed sucking on them for quite awhile but lately he prefers them to just about anything- he even tries to push his bottle away sometimes because he'd rather suck his fingers. His newest trick is sucking all of his fingers except the middle one, so he ends up looking like he is flipping people off. It is pretty funny.

(happy kid taking a break from playing to hang out with mom)

When he is not sucking his fingers, he is trying to work on grabbing things. He stares and stares at objects and then tries to make his hands cooperate and do what he wants. He is very persistent. I snuck up on him the other day and snapped a picture as he was trying to grab his rattle. He was so excited when he actually grabbed it!

(grabbing his rattle)

He also loves to grab his pacifier with both hands and pull it out of his mouth and then slowly put it back in his mouth and then pull it back out again and repeat the process. He gets it in the right way about 20% of the time... and the rest of the time he ends up sucking on the hard plastic part or the handle or squealing for someone to come and help him.

(pulling on his doggy mobile)

It is so fun to watch him develop these little skills. He is so excited when he does something new and finally achieves success and he gets so frustrated with himself when he can't do something. It is really cute and similar to how Kevin & I both react sometimes.

I feel grateful for such a patient, happy, and independent kid during crazy weeks like these!