An Andrew Update

Andrew is 34 months old today - two more months and he will be 3! My goodness that is hard to believe. However he is acting very much like a 3 year old. His vocabulary is amazing. I haven't updated on him in a while so I thought a monthly update would be good on his 34th month!

* He isn't going to bed as easy anymore. He goes to bed now at 7:30. We have been playing around with his bed time b/c he clearly needed a change. But we don't have a great system yet. This week I have been feeding him his dinner at 5:30 like always and then he can hang out with Owen and me when we eat our dinner after Sam goes to sleep, which is usually around 6:30pm. I had been trying to get Andrew to eat with us but it was too late. He seems to enjoy being in the kitchen with us while we eat. Then we clean the kitchen a little and around 7 or 7:30 we make it to his room to read his 3 books. There are so many steps now to his bed time routine - for example, brush teeth, go to the bathroom, put socks on, turn on CD, say prayer and read books. He still only wants me to do all of these things. I was rocking him while we read and then we get up to do one or more of the routine. But it wasn't working. He was too wild and wouldn't settle down for the night. This week I asked him if he wanted me to read in his bed. He thought that was a good idea so we made the rule that we have to do all of our night time things before we get in bed b/c once we are in bed - we don't get back out. This is a two-fold rule. One part is - it is helping him stay calm after we read books. Part 2 is - discouraging him to get out of bed to come find me after I leave his room. We are only on day 3 of this (tonight will be day 3). All is going well until Owen goes in Andrew's room to sing one last song (this has been going on for months). But for some reason Andrew starts to cry for me when Owen leaves (that part is new). It is usually "I need a new pull up" situation but last night we had to let him cry it out. Crazy! I thought we moved pass this stage.

* Andrew wakes up so early. This is also something new - in the past 3 months or so Andrew wakes up at 5 am!!! Even on weekends. Some mornings he goes to the kitchen and turns on the tv. One morning we came in and he was watching Montel Williams. Now I try to remember to keep it on sprout so if he wakes up early to watch tv it will be on a channel that is good for him to watch.

* He also comes in and wakes me up in the morning. I really don't need an alarm clock anymore. Today was priceless. At 5:15 am he comes in our room. He touches my hand and says "Mama, I'm awake; Mama, I'm hungry; Mama, I want yogurt". And then I hear Owen say - I guess that means we are up? Yes, yes it does.

* With all of the early morning wake up and going to bed later we have had a very tired Andrew. This weekend (and it was a rainy weekend so that didn't help) he was so tired. All he wanted to do was lay around and watch movies. We let him to an extent but it was a little odd.

* We thought if he went to bed a little later that it would cut down on the getting out of bed and the playing for an hour or so before he fell asleep. It has helped a little bit but not much. :( Figuring out the right bed time is hard because for so long we had it down to a science.

* In other news about Andrew he still love trucks, planes and fire trucks.

* He doesn't like going to school and will tell us he doesn't want to do.

* He has started to tell us he doesn't like us or doesn't like Sam.

* Andrew wants to do everything - turn on of off the lights, shut the door, unload the dishwasher, open or close the refrigerator, drink out of a big cup with no top, eat with a big fork, and that is just from the top of my head.

* He loves to push buttons which is great for his little mind to explore but not great when the button are in your car or other places that pushing buttons will mess something up.

* He LOVES to be outside. I hope he is always like this.

* Andrew likes to play school with us now. Last night he told Owen and me that we were having circle time. He got a book and told us to sit on the rug. We had to cross our legs too. Owen didn't do it at first and Andrew said "Dad, criss cross apple sauce". Then he read us a story. It is so fun to watch him pretend play.

I think that sums up Andrew right now. He is just so smart. Recognizes his letters, knows the days of the week, he counts pretty good, and remembers everything. He gets extremely shy when asked questions in public.