Fun night!

We have had a fun night around here!

We took Andrew to visit the Easter Bunny, which he was extremely happy about!

The Easter Bunny had suckers.

He's Andrew's new best friend!  Ha!

They also had a train, which he was so excited about.  The whole way there he was squealing in the back seat saying "Choo choo train!  Yay!"  

I can remember a certain little boy who last year at this time screamed his head off when we put him in this exact same train.  He wanted no part of it.  Just goes to show what a difference a year makes.

We had to stop at mommy's favorite store (Gymboree).  Andrew found a hat just like Papa's!

 At first we didn't get why he liked it so much, then he said "Papa hat!"  and we knew that he noticed it was just like papa's.  So sweet!

Daddy insisted (yes, I said daddy!) that we stop in the arcade and play some games!  Andrew won 50 tickets!  Ha!

Andrew had fun driving with daddy.  He wouldn't let daddy help so he mainly crashed the car!  Ha!  And daddy enjoyed being a kid again!

We went out to eat at TGI Friday's.  I hadn't been there in ages and it was soooooo delicious!  I had the new honey mustard chicken sandwich and it was to die for!  Andrew loved his ice cream sundae!  He often gets the royal treatment when we go out to eat because the waitresses all think he's adorable!  Ha!

And when we got home...

He actually went poop on the potty!!! (Sorry if that's TMI for some of you!)

This was the second time he's done it.  The first time I thought was maybe a fluke, so I didn't get too excited.  But tonight, let's just say I was excited enough to bust out the camera!  Ha!

He was so proud of himself!

I got out his big boy underwear (which he is wearing here, I promise!) and I showed him that he could wear them all the time once he started going potty all by himself.

Well he liked that idea!

All his little friends at day care in his new class are pretty much potty trained.  He learns so much by watching them.  I am convinced that is why he is doing it.  It was so cute today when I dropped him off at day care, his two best friends (who are twins) had moved up to his new class too while he was gone having his surgery.  He refused to go in the new class because he wanted Jake and Charlie.  It was just precious.  I told him they were in his new class and when we walked in Jake came up and hugged him!  Then Andrew said "Charlie hug?" so they hugged too.  I could have cried it was so sweet.  He was reunited with his little friends.  Then Jake went over and sat on the carpet for circle time and patted his hand on the spot next to him for Andrew to come sit by him.  

Talk about melting this momma's heart.  How badly do we want our children to be accepted and treated nicely by their classmates.  Oh how I worry sometimes about Andrew with his hearing and speech issues.  And his hearing aids making him "different."  Bless these little boys hearts for accepting him and making him feel so special.  Love them!

And this little monkey is on his way to being potty trained!

Purposeful Play

One of the goals for Andrew at his new preschool is for him to play purposefully (I assume this means for him not to dump out every container of toys and leave a trail of dust as he moves on to the next!)  I definitely saw the need for him to know how to do this.  Now, don't get me wrong.  He will play with certain things for longer periods of time.  Like his trains.  And his cars.  But eventually, you can bet that the train track will be destroyed and everything will eventually be scattered all over the house!

See Exhibit A!

He disappeared when I turned my back for 2 seconds and I found him in the dryer!

He just thought it was hilarious!  He wanted the door shut but then didn't like it in the dark!

And see Exhibit B!

The other night before bed he was so wound up and he climbed inside his play kitchen sink!  Not exactly purposeful play.  Ha!

Well, the other day I caught Andrew playing with a purpose.  For the first time.  I grabbed the camera.  I did not give him any ideas- he came up with this all on his own.  He first took his favorite Woody doll and placed him carefully on our window bench.  Then he went over to his diaper basket and wanted a wipe.  Silly me, I didn't realize at this point what he was doing (since purposeful play really wasn't something that happened around our house!), so I nicely told him the diaper basket wasn't a toy and put it away.  (In my defense, in the past he has been known to pull out all the wipes and leave them all in a pile, before I could catch him!)

He was persistent.  This time he went over to his night night book basket (Yes, his books are still organized.  I know, I know.  Blame it on the teacher in me!)  He got out his favorite Bible.

 

If you don't have this Bible for your kids, I'd recommend getting it.  It goes through the stories of the Bible in a language kids can understand with beautiful illustrations. 

  

He opened up his bible and began to read it to Woody.

Then it clicked for me what he was trying to do.  This is what we do for him every single night.

So I got the diaper basket back out.  And I went with it. 

I let him have a wipe.  And he did exactly what he was supposed to do with it.  He wiped Woody's bum!  Complete with "blech!" noises (like I make when I change his diaper!)

 

Look at his face!  He is totally pretending Woody has an "ucky" diaper!  If this isn't purposeful play, I don't know what is!

  

Woody all diapered and ready for night night!  Ha!

  

                                "I love you Woody!"

I really was pretty proud of him!  I don't know what made him think of it, but he knew what he wanted to do!  He is learning so much these days.  I can literally see him grow up right before my eyes. 

 

He has been really into "helping" me lately.  He likes helping me cook!  The other night when Ga Ga and Papa were here to grill out (for the first time this season!  Yay!) he was trying to get our attention because we were all running around, getting things ready.  He finally went over to his play kitchen and got out his own food!  It was so purposeful.  Again, he was trying to immitate what we were doing.

  

This is his new favorite snack.  One afternoon when Ga Ga picked him up from school, she taught him how to eat graham crackers and milk.  My grandpa taught me how to dunk them in milk when I was a little girl, and I still do it to this very day.  It is one of my favorite snacks, too!

  

I think it is cute that he loves the same thing I did when I was his age.

And Ga Ga left a little surprise for me, too!

I am a little embarrassed to show you my make up mess here!  But I went to open it the other morning, and do you see what I found?

There is a story behind that rat.  My mom and I have passed this rat back and forth for years.  Ever since I was a little girl.  It started out as a joke, to scare each other for fun (See, I learned purposeful play way back then!  Ha!).  But it has now turned into reliving the memories.

Obviously, when I lived at home it was passed back and forth more frequently.  By the time I was in high school though, we were wearing thin on hiding places!  Ha!  It was still around in college some, and after, but occasionally now it will disappear for a while (we'll lose it or forget about it) and then when it reappears like this morning, it is just funny.

I laughed and laughed when I found it.  I think it had been since before Andrew was born that we had last seen it.  This rat has been to Spain, New Zealand, Australia and Hawaii, and countless other places across the country!  Anytime we traveled anywhere we would always stash it in the other's suitcase.  One year the tail fell off.  We thought about getting a new one, but it just wouldn't have the same effect!  I am thinking someday I am going to have to continue this tradition with Andrew.  I'm sure he'll be thrilled!  Ha!

I realized I never posted a picture of him in his St. Patty's Day shirt!

Appropriate, wouldn't you say?  I thought I better get it up here before March is over!  Ha!

Thanks again for all the wonderful messages in support of Andrew during his surgery on Friday.  He is doing much better now.  Still a little more tired than usual, but he's finally back to our normal, silly boy!  **On a side note...all of these pictures were taken before his surgery on Friday!  Ha!  He hasn't had quite this much energy just yet!!

I miss my spunky monkey!

This is what I was missing today!  My spunky, silly little man!  Don't even ask why he was wearing clunky brown dress shoes, no pants and an upside down Oscar the Grouch sticker on his shirt!  I have no explanation!  Ha!  

These are just the things he does around here!  He is just.plain.funny.  He runs circles around the kitchen island.  Sometimes pushing his shopping cart, other times his trucks or cars.  But most of the time just wanting mommy to chase him!

So I'm sure you now understand why I was so worried today when pretty much all he did was sleep, and throw up.

 He was finally starting to come around later this evening and wanted to eat a little something.  I was a nervous wreck giving him food, but they said if he was hungry we could feed him soft, cool foods.  So he ate a banana.  And bread & butter.  And a peanut butter sandwich.  And drank apple juice because he refused to drink water.

And he kept all of it down!

It's a miracle!  I was ecstatic.  He even started playing with his toys a little bit, so we saw a glimpse of our Andrew.  He was more than ready for bed tonight though, and even asked to go night night.  So after his array of medications now added to the list, he is snoozing away.  Again. 

This was actually taken the night before we left for Iowa City.  Ga Ga came over and brought him this giant Woody doll.  Seriously.  The thing is bigger than he is!  And he wants to drag it everywhere!  He brought him to preschool on Thursday because it was stuffed animal day!  We thought Woody could pass for a "stuffed" animal!

When he wakes up in the mornings before we are ready for work, he likes to come in our bed and snuggle and watch TV while Craig and I finish getting ready.  Then he gets mad when it is time to get up!  He is his mama's kid!  Ha!

We now have a favorite hotel in Iowa City.  They have a really cool waterslide.  And they have hospital rates.  So that's a plus.

Andrew could not get enough of the slide.  The second we got to the bottom he was squealing with delight, yelling "Slide AGAIN!!!!!"

You really come flying out at the bottom- it is pretty fast!  But Andrew never flinched.  He had the time of his life!

We got smart this trip and brought his life jacket so he could float.

He loved practicing kicking his legs and swimming "all by himself!"

Of course we were right there beside him, but he thought he was doing it by himself!  He just had a ball.  He absolutely loves the water.

He was pretty tuckered out afterwards, but we had to squeeze in a breathing treatment before bed so his lungs would be good to go for his surgery!  Luckily we had daddy's laptop to watch Madagascar!

It seemed like we just shut our eyes for a moment, and it was time to get up.  We had to be there bright and early- 6:30am!  I am just not used to having to be somewhere that early!

The waiting room had a giant fish tank which he was enthralled with the whole time we waited.

He was so brave today.  He wanted to sit in the chair like a big boy and he just let the nurses come in and mess with him, take all his vitals, etc.  He obeyed their every command.

But he did get a little bored waiting!  Ha!

These pictures just crack me up.  He really wasn't posing!  He was just being very serious and taking everything all in.

He knew something was up, but he was just kicking back waiting for it to happen!  Ha!

We got him all dressed in his scrubs for surgery and squeezed in another breathing treatment.  Thank goodness again for the laptop!

He was such a brave little boy today when they took him back to the OR.  I said it in a previous update, but it is worth saying it again.  I was so proud of him.  He sat up on my lap, in a big, scary room full of people coming at him in scrubs with masks over their faces.  Yet he just sat there, didn't try to get away, just stared around the room and his little lip came out.  Then a couple of tears fell.  My brave boy.  It was the sweetest thing ever.  Oh how I love him!

 Holding daddy's hand and snoozing the afternoon away!

I am praying he'll wake up his old spunky self.  It's been a long day.

Andrew has a hearing check up with his audiologist in 2 weeks to adjust his hearing aids.  We are hopeful that his hearing might have improved some after the tubes were put in today.  He also has a cardiology check up on the same day (April 16th).  At this appointment we are planning to get more information and discuss plans for his upcoming heart surgery.  We are dreading it.  But our faith will sustain us.

I can't thank everyone enough for all the prayers, calls, and thoughts sent our way today.  It means so much knowing that so many of you are thinking about and praying for our son.  He is one lucky little boy.