November Developments and Playmates

November certainly flew by and I got a little slack on keeping up with the blog. We're certainly enjoying parenthood and watching our Andrew develop this past month. He has been an absolute joy to be around and is getting more and more active each day. By the end of the day, I am exhausted and usually go to bed the same time Andrew does.



Last month Andrew has been learning a few new words and phrases. Now he can say, "Awe done (for All done), Ne No (for no no), a NO (for OH NO!), Mi (for Milk), Waz tha (for What's that?), ba bye (for bye, bye), Mama, Da da (for Daddy), dugh dugh (for doggy), Pee Boo (for Peek-a-Boo), Roun ba (for round ball-a game we play), Bi Bi (for Big Bird), Nana (for banana or Nana-his grandmother), Awe (for Awe), Apa (for Apple), Di Dow (for Sit Down), or Gi dow (for get down) and Ame (for Amen). Okay, so he doesn't quite have the full pronounciation of the words and or phrases yet, but for only hearing the English language for about 4 months I'd say he is doing exceptionally well.



Andrew can be quite expressive when he wants to be heard. Andrew does not like the vacuum cleaner. Every time I go to vacuum he will run away from it like it was some kind of monster. He usually doesn't cry he just has this terrified look on his face and bolts into the room furthest from where the vacuum is. As soon as I turn the vacuum off, Andrew will yell "AWE DONE"!! Hoping and praying that I'm finished with the vacuuming.



Since I know that Andrew knows the word for "milk" I've been teaching him to say the word "milk" when he wants some milk instead of grunting over and over again as he is reaching for it. After about a few days to a week of repeating over and over again "milk" whenever he grunted and reached for his glass/sippy cup he is starting to say "mil" when he wants some milk to drink. I am teaching him the same for when he wants to be picked up (which is quite often). He knows how to say "up" so he motions that he wants to be picked up I'll repeat "up" or "Mama, Up", but that one he hasn't quite picked up on yet. I guess because it doesn't have a food/drink reward after he does it. Sometimes he will say "up" after I give in and pick him up, even though he didn't say it before I picked him up. Either way, Andrew's speach development is coming along quite nicely. Robert and I were crying because we were laughing so hard last week when a toy fell off of the ocuch and Andrew said "Ah NO! Ah NO! He was saying OH NO??!! He was saying it with such expression and tone and since Robert and I were cracking up laughing at him he kept repeating it. I wish I had that one on video.



Another amazing thing that Andrew did a couple of weeks ago was on a Saturday morning when Andrew awoke since Robert and I were still in bed asleep, I woke up and brought Andrew into our room to hang out on the bed as we were waking up. After about 15 minutes of him bouncing on our stomachs and him rolling all over us he suddenly stopped, stood up on the bed, hunched over a bit and grabbed his butt and gave me this look like he was trying to tell me something. I wasn't sure if he had a diaper full or if he was trying to tell me that he needed to be put on his potty chair. So I took him into the bathroom and took off his diaper and put him on his potty chair and he immediately pooped. Talk about amazed! I was shocked that he was actually telling me by his actions that he had to poop. I was jumping for joy and calling him my Amazing Andrew. Now if he can just do that all the time.



Andrew has been getting to know some of my friends children that are only a month and a half younger than Andrew. Kenny and Kevin are Andrew's new buddies that are twins of my girlfriend and former neighbor Jen and Ken. We spent some time with them at their house one day and all of the boys played together nicely with their toys. We also got together another week and checked out a Tumble Times class for kids 18 months to 36 months old. They all had a ball with the class bouncing on the trampline and playing in the foam pit. Andrew didn't want to get off of the trampline he was having so much fun and he didn't want to wait until the other children had their turn before doing it again. Andrew had a blast playing at Tumble Times with Kenny and Kevin, but I think he is a bit young for all of that right now. It's more of an instructional class which is fine for the older children, but for Andrew's age he is wanting to do his own thing right now. It might be a good place to have his birthday party, which is another reason why I wanted to check it out. Andrew's birthday is in February so I need to decide on something soon if we are going to have a party for him outside of our home. We'd like to do something special for him for his birthday because it will be his first and second birthday we will be celebrating. They don't celebrate birthdays in the orphanages of course so because of that we'd like to do something special and fun for Andrew.



We also spent some time with Andrew's cousins Nicole, Billy, Christina, Maria Clare and Julia. When we got their they were all very excited to spend some time playing with him that they were arguing over who was going to play with him first. Maria Clare kept saying that Andrew was her favorite boy cousin.



Andrew also attended another birthday party for his other cousins' Anthony and Vincent (his twin cousins just turned 5yrs old). Towards the end of the birthday party, Anthony didn't want Andrew to leave because he was having fun playing with Andrew. I told Anthony that we would talk to his mom to arrange another time we could get together so they could play. Anthony was happy with that answer so he said goodbye and sent Andrew home with one of his squishy balls to remember him by.