I'm Two!

Greetings from a brick house!  Megan and I love playing with our new blocks from Uncle Steve!

I try to sleep in Megan's bed a lot of nights.  It never quite works. 

On this particular day I got soaked playing in the sink. Before I could get new clothes I enjoyed a little diaper dash on my car.

I got this new apron for Christmas.  Now I look super official when cooking in my play kitchen.

Another fun toy I got for Christmas.... a rocking puppy.  He's pretty fun.

My new Olaf blanket is so cozy. I love it! 

 Doing some light Christmas reading.

 Christmas was so much fun!

Just helping Grandma brush her hair.

I love my new roller coaster!

I make ride on toys out of toys that aren't actually meant for that.  Toy manufacturers must know that boys are going to do this because so far, everything has been sturdy enough to hold me.

Just hanging out on New Years' Eve.

All ready to play outside!  We finally had a little snow and not quite as cold temperatures this day so we finally got to play.

We attempted sledding.  It went ok.  We really needed a lot more snow.

More fun in block houses.

We went to the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells a couple weekends ago. Mommy's college hosted its 2nd annual alumni event there.  We had lots of fun at the indoor theme park and of course, the water park.
 

This is me in the morning.  I borrowed Megan's jacket and Daddy's shoes.  It was quite a sight.
 

I loved all of the water slides



I got really brave and started going on bigger slides by myself.  When I got to the bottom I immediately said, "AGAIN!"

Drying off after a fun day at the water park!

Before heading home we stopped at our favorite restaurant in

Daddy and I cheering on the Gophers

 

This is how I cheer. "Go go go go go go YYYYYEESSS!"  I could have learned this from either of my parents. 

I had a fantastic time painting a cardboard house at ECFE.  Mommy loves it when I get these sort of experiences at school and therefore don't need to do it at home and make such a mess!

 

Nana and Papa came for my birthday.  They came a few days early, and Megan had the day off from school so we headed to Mall of America to use our unlimited ride wristbands we got from their Christmas shopping promotion. 

 

 

The trucks were my favorite.  My fluffy hair must have made the ride operator think I was tall enough to ride alone as he let me do it.  I loved it!  And went on it several times.  Thanks unlimited ride wristband.  I also liked the Blues Clues ride, the train, and the carousel.

 

 Then it was time for my big birthday party!  I was so excited when I saw my Daniel Tiger birthday cake!!

The cake was delicious.  I especially liked the ice cream with it.

I got two Daniel Tigers as presents.  One is bigger and sings and talks.  Then I got a little one that I can snuggle with in bed that doesn't say anything.  I love my Daniels!

Grandma and Grandpa got me a comforter for my future big boy bed.  It's Cars and I loved it.  I snuggled up and pretended to take a nap. 

Mom told me it was time to go upstairs and get dressed for the day.  I decided to strip down in the living room on the way.  I'm quite proficient with a zipper!

Other stuff

• My favorite foods are hot dogs, craisins, Lucky Charms cereal, pancakes, yogurt, fried rice, alfredo mac and cheese, turkey, corn dogs, most fruits--especially berries and grapes (still don't like bananas!), peas, corn, French toast, peanut butter toast (if you hold it..I do not like sticky things on my fingers), chicken, cheeseburgers, cheese, tortillas. I don't like all foods but I am usually willing to at least try things.  I like things the most when they are on Mommy's plate. 
• I am talking up a storm. I ask pretty good questions like, "Where is ________?" If you ask me a question, I am getting much better at giving an accurate answer.  Daddy asked me what I did at school yesterday and I told him bus.  That was true. I spent a lot of time playing with buses and trucks. I like to identify everything I know.  Today at the grocery store I pointed out all the foods I saw, "apples! pear! peppers! bread! berries!"
• My favorite TV show is Daniel Tiger.  All other PBS shows would be distant seconds.  If I had my own way, Daniel Tiger would be on TV all day long. 
• I am "showing my two" more and more lately.  It's so hard to not get my own way!  And so frustrating when people don't understand what I'm talking about. 
• Some of my favorite books to read:  Just Me and my Mom, any lift the flap book, Trains, Tractors, Fire Engine (any transportation related book), Teeth are Not for Biting (I call it "crunch crunch crunch"), and my Elmo book.
• I like to play "Baby" where Mommy holds me like a baby and I ask for a bottle and then pretend to drink it and then I like to be rocked.
• I also like playing with Megan's baby and feeding it a pretend bottle.  And then I like sailing the baby down the slide.

23 Months

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

The annual Christmas card photo shoot proved to be extra challenging this year.  You wouldn't know it from the results, but it was hard!

My serious model face

And my cute smile!

Sporting my new Christmas jammies

Love my moose!

The moose was much more cooperative with wearing the Santa hat than I was.

 

It's been a crazy last month in our house!

We had a family fun night at Mall of America.  After lots of time spent unpacking boxes it was time to take a break and have some fun together.  I was super excited that Boots and Dora were there. 

Mommy and I took a ride on the carousel.  For some reason it took forever for the ride operator to start the ride.  I was getting really antsy.  Right before it finally started I declared I was "all done" with my horse...errr rooster that wasn't going anywhere.

I still have some awesome bed head.  That isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

This is me having just hanging out with Uncle Steve at Thanksgiving.

One night we went to dinner at Cowboy Jack's.  The best part about Cowboy Jack's is that the kids get a mini ice cream cone for free for dessert. 

 

I got this awesome fire truck.  It's previous kid owner wasn't using it anymore so his mom gave it to me.  I was happy to accept!

 

 

Mom and I headed to Toddler Tuesday one day at Mall of America.  It was Sesame Street Live day so she thought I'd really like it.  Unfortunately, the show wasn't much of a "show" and it was pretty lame.  So we went on the train ride to up the fun factor of our morning.  I love the train.

 

And of course, we had to go on the carousel again.  This time I wanted the kitty with the fish in his mouth.  After our fun it was time for Mommy to do some Christmas shopping.  I'm not much of a shopper so we just got things on our list.  There is no browsing with me in tow!

 

Mommy was a little frustrated with the morning with the lameness of the so-called "show", my crankiness with shopping, etc.  Then lunch happened.  I love Chinese food (well I guess we actually got Thai on this day).  Mom and I shared Mango Chicken and Fried Rice.  There weren't any high chairs so I had to sit in a regular chair and I was so good.  I sat, ate loads of fried rice and chicken, and was completely delightful. 

 

On our way out of the mall we ran into Sharky.  The day really did end on a bright note!

 

The next week started our adventure in sickness. On a Tuesday Mommy woke me up and found me covered in vomit.  I had thrown up sometime during the night.  I didn't cry so no one knew.  After getting Megan on the bus, Mom made a doctor's appointment.  It turned out that I had strep throat.  Mom was relieved it wasn't the stomach flu since that is so catchy.  I got medicine and didn't throw up anymore and everyone thought we were home free.  Then Wednesday morning Mommy got me up and I had soiled my jammies, sleepsack, and bed.  Another call to the doctor and she thought I had a stomach bug on top of the strep.  By the afternoon Mommy was throwing up.  Thankfully Daddy was home early that day and she went off to urgent care to get anti-nausea meds.  While she was there, Megan started throwing up.  And by the time Mom got home from urgent care at 10:30 at night, Daddy was sick too.  On Thursday everyone recovered. I was doing pretty good at this point.  Then Friday morning Megan woke up throwing up again and had a sore throat.  Mom got Megan cleaned up, went in my room, and I had thrown up all over again and developed a very red rash on my chest.  Another call to the doctor and she took both of us in.  Now Megan had strep, and I had either an allergic reaction to my antibiotics or the antibiotics weren't strong enough to cure my strep and I had a strep rash.  So I got a new antibiotic and some Benedryl  On Saturday my rash was gone and we were all on the road to recovery.  Megan and I spent a lot of time playing blocks while we were sick. Mom was trying to keep the number of toys we were playing with to a minimum to decrease the amount of toys she was going to have to sanitize.  So blocks it was! 

 

Sunday night we were all feeling good so we headed to Macy's to see Santa.  Time was running out to let Santa know what we wanted for Christmas. 

 

At first I wasn't so sure about Santa, but then I saw how excited Megan was to talk to him so then I wasn't scared. 

 

Before going to Wells for Christmas we opened our presents from our parents and our other relatives that mail gifts. We both got lots of nice things! 

 

We'll talk about Christmas, Christmas break, and beyond in our next blog!

 

What's new with me?

• My favorite phrases to say lately are "I got it!"  "I found it!" "I did it!" "Where ARE you?" "Oh, right!" "Oh!  Great!" "Oh, hi!"
• I love to do "roll call" and name everyone.  I call myself "Anroo"
• I've got two bottom teeth poking through.  I think I'm just missing my 2 year molars and I'll have a full kid set of teeth.  This was poor timing with the flu epidemic as I like to have my fingers in my mouth and gnaw on them.  Not good for preventing the spread of illness!
• I'm super friendly and always want to say hi to people.  Whenever I see construction workers outside working on the other houses I want to go say hi to them.  We compromise by saying hi to them through the windows. 
• I love living in a new construction area.  There are always a lot of interesting trucks and big machinery around.  I'm going to love the spring when everyone else gets their concrete driveways.  That is going to be a happy few days of my life. 
• I was about 28 pounds at the doctor when I was sick.  We'll see next month at my 2 year appointment if I gained any of that back.  I was about 30 pounds for awhile. 

Catch you soon (hopefully!)

Andrew