A Day at the Museum

I love the SJ Children's Discovery Museum. My new goal is to go there at least once a week. Andrew-man LOVES it too. It is hysterical that he totally thinks he is big like a lot of the other kids. Mom's cringe when he starts crawling or doing the drunk man walk towards their toddlers... he gets stepped over, crashed into, etc. and he keeps going undeterred... he MUST be where the people are and all the action is at ALL times. No obstacle is too big. He will try to push around kids double his size.


I was so proud that my little man wasn't eating the sand. He did try to lick the test tubes though, so we had to go sanitize them. He's definitely going to have a strong immune system after this weekly adventure.


The kid had no interest in crawling up the stairs once he figured out the hand rail. He did a pretty good job, until he decided it would be just as cool to go down the stairs too... a skill he's not close to mastering yet.


I actually don't even need to be with him really. I don't think he ever looked around to see if I was anywhere. I followed behind in his wake trying to help him avoid the running toddlers that he didn't notice.


He gets so flushed and out of breath at some points that I think he is going to flop from dehydration and exhaustion. He is constantly moving. A mother's dream. (tired boy=a great night of sleep!)


He loves to share what he finds with the big kids... and will do it again and again and again until they are annoyed with him.


He absolutely LOVED the water. He got drenched the second his smock was put on. He splashed water all over himself. In this picture he is clenching his teeth to stop them from chattering... he was soooo cold. Good thing all my wonderful friends warned me ahead of time to bring him an extra outfit. He was very appreciative when we were done.


The wetness didn't stop him though.


This week we met up with a few friends. They left pretty soon after we arrived. I never worry to much about going with anyone else... Andrew makes friends easily. If you don't pay attention to him you get the stare down until you acknowledge him. In this picture he's looking at the other moms in the area. :)



The kid was also enthralled with the ambulance. He had a full on FREAK OUT when I took him out of it. I have actually never seen him get that mad. It was really funny with the kicking and yelling and stuff.


He thinks driving while standing up is the best thing ever. The only way I got him to stop being mad about leaving the ambulance was to remind him about the cool huge blow up duck that we get to see as we leave the museum.



It worked. The duck made him happy all the way to the car. The parking lot at this place is perfect too- located right next to the intersection of 87 and 280. Andrew just says "vroom, vroom" as he watches the cars and squeals as I buckle him in to go home. What a magical place!

I already can't wait until our trip next week...

Some Sweetness for the Pain

Every time Andrew falls down or hurts himself, we usually try to distract him with a small piece of candy. He's still in the looking like a walking drunk man stage... so this tactic seems to work well so far. I equate it to how my dad paid Scott $10 every time he got hit in the arm by a pitcher when he was at bat. It kind of sweetens the pain a bit.


I think I might need to invest in some Cadbury stock, Who knew he'd fall this much? Today I was sitting RIGHT NEXT to him and he tried to pull himself up on this evil contraption.


Obviously, not a smart idea. Poor kid wound up with a small cut (from a ball popper?) and a little swollen eye.


I used my fabulous physical restraint techniques to keep the little guy still while I tried to put ice on his eye and force feed him swedish fish at the same time. He seemed to really enjoy it all... except the being restrained part (who knew my training would come in handy as a mom? :)).


Kevin is hopeful that he doesn't start trying to fall down just to get candy.

Toast

I have a love/hate relationship with toast. Andrew LOVES it for breakfast! He loves to cover his hands and face in the stickiness of raspberry jam. He thinks it is funny to throw the toast on the floor after he is done eating the jam parts. He loves to ball up the pieces and squish them together with his little hands and then either stick them in his mouth or just rub them on his face. I hate that part. I love that eating the toast takes him FOREVER because he loves it so much. I can check email, make the bed, clean up, do dishes, etc. I hate the part when he has to get cleaned up.... and so does he!


I wish you could just skip that part. Toast almost always = bath immediately... which is not my favorite activity first thing in the morning... but I haven't decided if I hate it enough to sacrifice all of the free time it gives me :)

My how time flies...

I still can't believe it sometimes.

March 08

March 09... it's like he's ginormous! We got our newborn toddler rocker out bc Andrew's little buddy Joshua came over to hang out last week. I don't keep it out right now all the time bc it is a little dangerous...


Andrew can catapult himself out of it pretty easily... and it is way too fun to climb on.

He loves to sit in it and rock himself w/ some supervision though...


and he LOVES to rock baby Joshua and his toys.


When I look at the picture of the little little man, I can't believe he was EVER that small!

Cookie Monster

I am sad I didn't have my camera today at the mall! After some fun and much needed shopping... Andrew and I headed to Mrs. Fields for a treat (my way of bribing him to be good while we look at stuff for me!). I always love it when we approach the Mrs. Fields store and he starts getting excited. Too bad they don't have a mall babysitter that could just sit with kids and look at the cookies while their moms shopped... Andrew would love it!

Anyways, I gave him a small bite of a cookie as we walked towards Nordstroms. At some point I stopped to pick something up that he'd dropped (sneaky kid!). I turned around for a second or two. When I turned back around, Andrew had pulled himself over the side of the stroller (still strapped in) and had reached to the bottom of my Nordstrom bag... and then found the Mrs. Fields bag and pulled out an entire cookie to start eating it. The kid's face was covered in chocolate. He works fast! I started laughing. Would've made such a great picture. I love my sneaky little cookie monster!

Little man and his blue blankie

Andrew's never really been a thumb sucker or really attached too closely to any particular object (except his Sophie toy and Kev & I)... so earlier this week when I tossed him is blue blankie when we were playing, I was surprised with what he did.

Such a good little pretend sleeper

Didn't matter where we were, the blanket signified time for sleeping. Now every time I put him to bed, he gets excited as I pass him his blue blankie, then he sticks his thumb in his mouth, and goes to sleep. It is totally darling.

Andrew's Treasures

The amazing suitcase that makes little boys disappear...

Now you see him



Now you don't


Who knew that a suitcase could provide such entertainment? I love it how kids find favorite toys in the most random objects... and of course also love to go anywhere they are not allowed!

Andrew loves carrying around travel sized shampoos and lotions. He'll fall flat on his face if he has to... he won't let them go. I bring them on our run every morning. They keep him entertained for a good 15-20 minutes.


Kev's closet is his favorite place he's not supposed to go... but seriously, how can we expect him not to?... everything cool that his dad owns is in there


Little man loves paper tags. None of those taggie blankets work for him... he always goes for the plastic and paper every time.


Markers and pens. Possibly the most awful thing a toddler could carry around and suck on while they are learning to walk. The kid throws a fit every time I take one away. I tell him he will thank me when he gets older and doesn't end up jamming a marker down his throat or through the roof of his mouth.


Boxes, large and small. I hope this continues for a few more years...mostly for my sake. It is so entertaining when he tries to get himself inside of something that he is obviously too big for.


During such a rainy week, it is so nice to have such an easily entertained kid!