Andrew has been showing his independence. He is very strong willed and has his own ideas about bedtime. Often he says I am not tired and will say things like “I don’t want to go to bed ever in my life!” We know he is tired, but it is challenging to get him to go to sleep. Unfortunately, he is very tired the next day and that’s when we see the behavior we don’t particularly like or a meltdown might happen. What he wears is also very important to him. He only wants to wear his “uniform” which is a basketball jersey with matching pants. Another popular choice is his Vikings jersey or Bison jersey. He prefers to wear his Bison shorts, but if he must wear pants, he will have to have them rolled up when he gets inside to make them more like shorts. This is all very frustrating for Ryan and I that he won’t go along with what we tell him to do, but we know it’s part of growing up and he is just trying to take control of what he can. This too shall pass! (We hope!)
Other than that, Andrew is a chatterbox and loves to sing songs. He will often make up different words for the songs, too. For example, Ba Ba Black Sheep have you any “lawnmowers?” He loves going to Bison games and especially enjoys the marching band. Andrew loves flags. He has an American flag and a Bison flag will march around with them. Of course, mom and dad usually have to provide the music by singing the songs the band plays at the games, but he is getting pretty good at singing the melodies and knows almost all of the words of “The Star Spangled Banner.” We are working on potty training. He will only go #2 on the potty chair – nice not to have those poopy diapers anymore. It’s a totally a different story on pee though. He won’t go at school and will never tell us when he has to go pee only. Someday!
We are amazed with his memory. Just the other day, Ryan and Andrew picked up some pizzas at Sammy’s and he turned and saw the round table up front. We usually don’t sit up front, but we did for his birthday party last year. He goes, “Remember singing Happy Birthday right there?” This was about nine months ago and we really haven’t talked about it since! Wow! He went on to say that Nana brought cupcakes with a basketball on top and that Nana, Papa, Grandma Teresa and Papa Pete sang Happy Birthday. It is amazing the amount of details he can remember.
Leah popped out a tooth! It made its appearance November 20th. The second one is coming soon as we can see it under the gums. She is also enjoying the upright world now – she’s sitting up on her own since Thanksgiving weekend. We like to put the Boppy around her just in case, but she really doesn’t need it much. She will also like to sit in her exersauser and play, but only if someone is in the room with her. Luckily Andrew is usually in the playroom shooting hoops or singing a song while waving a flag. She is eating rice and oatmeal baby cereal now and doing well with that. She really likes the oatmeal. We have her 6 month check up on the 14th, so I’m sure we will get the go ahead to add in some fruits and veggies, too. Leah doesn’t like to stay up late though like Andrew did as a baby. This is a little more difficult to go to basketball games. Don’t even think about leaving early though – that’s out of the question for Andrew. :)
We had a nice Thanksgiving in Champlin at Auntie Allison’s house. Andrew, Leah and I went to the NDSU-Gopher basketball game the Wednesday before (and Ryan, too but he was working so didn’t sit with us.) They were very good at the game and we were lucky to sit by our friend Owen and his family. Andrew thought Goldie the Gopher was pretty funny especially when he used a cheerleader’s megaphone for a tee and hit a homer. Ha! We came home in time for the 1st ever Bison Football playoff game at the Fargodome. We got our Christmas tree and decorated that weekend also. Andrew is much more into it this year and the little tree that was in his playroom had to go in his bedroom this year. He doesn’t really care for Santa though and the whole “you better be good so Santa comes to our house” doesn’t work. His excuse is Santa is “too big.”
Have a great Christmas season!
