Andrew Sings First Songs

Many evenings as I hold Andrew and rock him in the rocking chair before bedtime I will sing the songs out of a baby board book that has bible songs within it. He is now singing them with me when he can remember the words.

To my surprise one morning as I was getting Andrew dressed, I heard him sing a verse all by himself without me singing along. Here he sang,"For the bible tells me so". That is what he would sing over and over again. Then it dawned on me that he was singing the song, "Jesus Loves Me". When I picked up on what song it was I started singing it with him. Boy I bet that made God smile to hear one of His precious children sing Jesus Loves Me as their first solo even if he only could recite one line in the song.

Then about a few weeks later after picking up Andrew from preschool I catch him in the living room rocking in the rocking chair by himself singing by himself while he is doing hand motions to the song, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. He started the song with his hands over his head singing, "Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky". When I witnessed him doing this I grabbed the camera and made a short video of him singing,"Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. Too Cute. If I can figure out how to add a video to this blog, I will attach it.

Swim Lessons

We’ve enrolled Andrew in a swim class for toddlers and their moms. Since we will be around family and friends’ pools this summer and the ocean we wanted to start him out with an introduction to the water. We knew he would love it since he is like a fish in the bath tub. He will take the plastic glass that I have in the bath tub and fill it up with water and turn it over his head with it. Andrew has been having a ball in swim class. I must say that I am quite impressed with the class and instructor. The instructor, Miss Susan, brings it down to their level and makes it fun for them. We sing the Humpty Dumpty song when the kids are sitting along the edge of the wall waiting for the instructor to say “Humpty Dumpty had a great FALL”. When she says fall, the kids are supposed to fall into their parents arms (already in the pool). She also has the kids paddling and kicking as their parents holds them under their armpits toward little floating toys. Also we sing a song about a little turtle named “Tiny Tim” to get them to blow bubbles in the water.



Andrew is a ball of energy as usually but especially when he is at swim class. He gets so excited that he kicks and paddles with such enthusiasm and is starting to sing the Tiny Turtle song along with the rest of us parents. Miss Susan noticed that Andrew was the only child out of the group that was singing the song with the rest of the adults. She turned toward him and smiled. I was shocked that he was singing it with us since all week long I was singing it to him while he was taking a bath and he wasn’t singing it then. Our friends Ken and Jen also take their twin boys, Kenny and Kevin to the same swim class. It’s a lot of fun to be in the same swim class with them since the boys are only a month and a half different in age from each other.

Our Beach BABY

Over Memorial Day weekend and the 4th of July weekend we took Andrew to the beach for a bit of fun in the sun. The first time we went to the beach we took him to the boardwalk and then down the steps to the sand. Since he was wearing his sandals he felt the sand immediately on his feet and in between his toes. He wasn’t sure of what to make of it so he just stood there and wouldn’t move. When he realized that it was okay to move along he did so and when he saw the Atlantic Ocean he bolted towards the water. He loves being in the water and he was all excited to see so much of it. The water was freezing on Memorial Day, but that didn’t bother Andrew. He would want to stand there at ankle depth with us and laugh when the waves came in and splashed him. We kept having to pull him out and bring him back to the area where we were sitting. Andrew had fun building sand castles with Daddy and his cousins Maria Clare and Julia. Robert would dig a hole in the sand deep enough for Andrew and Julia to dangle their feet over and wade in the water he would put in the hole.



When we went back to the shore house, Andrew and Julia were playing with Julia and Maria Clares ride on toys in the backyard. Andrew loved her lawnmower so much that Andrew would object if Julia took it out of his hands and would cry when we left for home since he loved it so much. So guess where we stopped on the way home…you guessed it, Toys R Us. I had a gift certificate in my pocket that I hadn’t used yet from Andrew’s birthday, so I told Robert let’s go to Toys R’ Us and get him a lawnmower since he loved it so much. Andrew was sooo excited that he had the biggest smile on his face as he was pushing it around outside and inside our house. The funniest thing was when Andrew stripped down to his diaper and sandals and was pushing the lawnmower around our living room with a gigantic smile on his face.

My First Mother's Day -YIPPIE!

The Friday before Mother’s Day when I went to my Mom’s house to pick Andrew up after work, as I approach the screened door I saw Andrew approaching the door at top speed as he was giggling and squealing with excitement to see me. I picked him up and kissed and hugged him hello. My Mom told him to tell me what he practiced all day. I wasn’t sure what she taught him to say until Andrew slurred the words out real quick “Happy Mama’s Day” to the point where it sounded like “HapMa Day”. I figured out what he was saying and was thrilled at the effort he put forth to say it. It was adorable. Throughout the weekend Andrew would say either Happy Mama or Happy Day.It was so cute. He got it right on the money though. I've been a Happy Mama ever since Andrew came into our lives and each day after that has been a Happy one. I am so blessed and thankful to God and Andrew’s birthmother for such a beautiful son. I think about Andrew’s birthmother at times and think of how courageous and selfless she was to want more for him than what she could give him. If she only knew how thankful we are for Andrew and what a blessing he is. Even though I didn’t give birth to him myself, I feel like Andrew has been our son since the day he was born. It’s amazing how God works things out for good. The month that God gave me the vision to adopt was the month that Andrew was born. God had designed Andrew to be our son from the beginning. I am so amazed when I look back on it now and how he worked it all out and how we were the first couple to see Andrew’s file on the day of our second appointment. God is so Good!

Selling, Renovating and Moving into our new Home

This past spring it has been a busy one. First of all I went back to work a couple of days a week and we decided to sell our home to move into a neighborhood that has better schools for Andrew. We also wanted more elbow room since we were very close to our neighbors’ homes. So we’ve been busy getting our current home ready to sell, purchasing and renovating the new home to get it ready for moving into it. It’s much different moving with a toddler in the house. Everything seems to take much longer to do since he always wants my attention or is unpacking boxes that I just packed or is messing up the house immediately after I just cleaned the house (to show the house for potential buyers). It was a bit frustrating at times but we all managed very well to the move. We got Andrew involved with helping us any way we could to keep him busy and focused on doing something constructive in order to keep him out of trouble. At times to give Andrew a break from the move we would take him over to the park near our new home and he would swing on the swings most of the time he was there. He didn’t want to get off even to go on the slide. When I would ask him if he wanted to go on the slide he would smile and say “SWING!”.



Andrew loves to get involved with whatever we are doing. So we gave him little tasks to help us as we were getting the house ready to move into. I was quite impressed at how Andrew now knows what a screwdriver and pliers are. Robert would have him go and retrieve them for him when he needed him. I guess when your Daddy is a “Mr. Fix it” it’s hard not to know what a screwdriver and pliers are even at 2 years old. It was hysterical to observe Andrew wanting to get a close up look at what his Daddy was doing when Robert was attaching a bracket to the wall behind the oven (so the oven won’t tip over). Robert was lying on the floor to get closer to where he had to attach the bracket and Andrew saw him and got all excited to watch that he crawled on top of Robert and straddled Robert’s abdomen and leaned into the area where Robert was working. Robert and I started laughing at him. Such a curious little boy we have.



After two months of renovating, packing and moving we were finally settled into our new home. Andrew had a few issues of confusion with where home was. He would go to the back door and point to it and say “Home”. As if to say “Let’s go home”. After a few weeks of telling him that we are home and making a big deal out of saying “We’re Home”, every time we would pull into our driveway to make him realize that this is our home now he feels more settled now.



We painted Andrew’s room a medium blue and decorated it with Thomas the Train décor. We purchased a twin bed and furniture for him since I figured that the reason why he was waking up so much during the night was because his crib mattress was so hard. When I would put him down for a nap in our bed at our old house, he would sleep like a baby. So we figured it was the bed itself, so I wanted to get his room set up with his new bed when we first moved into the house so we wouldn’t have to set up the crib just to take it down again. Praise God for that wisdom because Andrew sleeps like a baby now in his new bed. He loves it and the Thomas bedding that we got for him as well. To make his room more inviting and fun for him I tacked a fleece Thomas the Train blanket on the wall above his bed. It has a big picture of the face of Thomas on it smiling. I think he loved the fleece so much that he would stand on his bed against the wall and place his cheek against it and smile and say “Love, Love”. Each night for about a week after we got his bed, as I was putting him to bed, Andrew would give the wall a hug where Thomas was and say “Love, Love”. He is too funny.

Andrew's First Easter

I know it's been a while since the last update, so here has what's been happening this past Spring with Andrew and the Millilo's.





This year for Easter we decided to take Andrew on an egg hunt at a local farm. When we got to the farm, Andrew enjoyed visiting the bunny rabbits, goats and chickens. He was amazed at the bunny rabbits and how close he could get to them. When it was time to get in line for the hayride that took us out to the field where the egg hunt was, Andrew wanted to stay to watch the bunnies instead. Once we convinced him to take the hayride we piled into the trailer of hay and went for a ride to the field where they let the children out to go look for eggs. Andrew enjoyed running around and picking up the plastic eggs which had a piece of candy in them. His face lit up when he found the candy inside.





A couple of days after the hayride, I was keeping Andrew entertained by taking a plastic egg with jelly beans (which he loves) in it and shaking it to get his attention. He knew that there was candy in it since it made noise and from remembering the egg hunt/hayride a couple of days prior. His face lit up with excitement when I told him that Mommy was going to hide the egg. He then ran after me as I was trying to get away from him to hide it. I stopped abruptly in the dining room with the egg behind my back so he couldn’t see where I was going to hide it. Since there was a little basket on the table behind me I quietly and to see if I could fool him into thinking that I still had the egg I ran into the other room and when he followed me into the other room I asked him where the egg was. He immediately went into the dining room and reached for the basket on the table. When he took hold of it and pulled the basket off of the table the egg fell out and onto the floor. The plastic egg broke open and all of the jelly beans scattered on the floor. Andrew was ecstatic but cautious because he wasn’t sure if I was going to allow him to eat the jelly beans or not. When he realize that I wasn’t going to take them away from him he belted out a hardy belly laugh and scurried up the jelly beans and started shoving them in his mouth before I changed my mind. It was hilarious to watch him and to see his reaction.



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The night before Easter Andrew, Robert and I had a ball dying hard boiled eggs. One time Andrew dropped the egg too hard into the dye and the bowl of green dye turned over. We were able to clean it up before it hit the floor thank goodness. As he picked up one of the eggs he squeezed it too hard and cracked it. Robert thought it was funny so he encouraged him to keep squeezing it, so Andrew continued until his fingers were completely through the egg. Easter morning was a blast watching him hunt around the house for eggs and seeing his surprised look on his face when he saw his Easter basket filled with books & toys from Nana and some candy and toys from Mommy and Daddy.




After we went to church, we had an early Easter dinner over at Mom mom's and Pop pop's house. They surprised the kids with an Easter egg hunt in their yard. It was such a beautiful day for it as well. Andrew, Julia and Maria Clare quickly looked for as many eggs as possible. Julia cracked me up when she found an egg she would hold them over her head like it was her trophy. Too cute. Andrew ran around and filled his basket fairly quickly. All of the kids were funny at how wxcited they got when looking for and finding eggs. It’s so much different and more exciting experiencing everything through children's eyes.