Andy's Preschool Non-Graduation

It's the end of Andy's first year of preschool! We think it's been a good experience for him--he doesn't really come home and tell us about his day, but he seems to enjoy it (he gets excited about riding the bus and jumps up and down when he sees it coming). He's been sick and missed a few days, but he got to go for the last day.



The kids had a couple of songs prepared, which they performed in the lunch room for assembled parents. Andy didn't enjoy this part. His teachers told me that he knows the songs and often sings them to himself when he's playing in the classroom, but never sings with the group.They are a bit cacophonous.  (My sister Betsey, as a child, dropped out of preschool because she couldn't stand the singing.  Andy seems to have a similar auditory sensitivity.)



After the two songs we went out on the playground and let the kids run around a while, then went into the classroom.  Reading is Andy's favorite thing to do during free time.



He likes to look at the braille books for the two vision-impaired students.



Andy gets his certificate.  All the students had hats, whether they were graduating or not.  (Andy still has one more year to go.)  The matching shirt was completely unintentional. 



Andy already knows a lot of things (he's great at reading and counting), but he's working on things like communicating, interacting with other kids, and following directions in the classroom. Andy has some great teachers!  We appreciate their efforts with our unique little boy. 

Andy at Preschool

I love this picture that Andy's teacher sent.  It's just so him.

Andy Goes to Preschool

Andy started preschool!  He's going two mornings a week for two-and-a-half hours, and he gets to ride the school bus, which he thinks is great fun.   (Buses are cool!)



Here he is all conked out after his first day.  All that excitement is exhausting.

We had Andy evaluated through Child Find for his speech issues (I'm not exactly clear on what Child Find is, but something through the schools) and he qualified to get some help through the preschool program. What he has isn't technically a delay, since delay means that the child is still developing normally but behind schedule. In Andy's approach to communication he seems to be trying to come at it from the other side. He's reading like crazy, and he chatters away reciting things that he's memorized (over and over and over), but it's more like he's practicing talking than actually using it to communicate. If we want him to say something we have to write it down and get him to read it. This is definitely atypical. At school he'll be working with a speech specialist.  We hope he enjoys it!

Andy sings the алфавит

Our little hyperlexic boy loves watching alphabet videos on youtube. He has quite a collection of alphabet songs in English now (ending in "zee" or "zed") and he's even been branching out to non-English alphabets. He has a couple in Spanish and French that he has memorized, and this one in Russian. He was singing along with it the other day and it was so cute we just had to get a video.

For a long time he would just kind of chant along with the songs, but in the past couple of months he's started really singing. (With, you know, actual notes.) We love his cute little voice.

(I did take a semester of Russian, once upon a time... the only things I know how to say are "I am very glad that you are in the USSR," "Where is your husband?" and "I am a puppy." )

27 (the sequel)

(A follow-up to this post from four years ago.)

It's March 27th and Andy is 27 months old!




Andy is starting to talk a little bit more. He seems to like to learn things in a systematic way. He's started adding words to his alphabet sounds. He'll say, "A, apple! Buh, ball! Kuh, cat! Duh, dog!" (Apple and ball were some of his first words, so that worked out well.)

When we have out the crayons (or sidewalk chalk) he doesn't want to do much with it himself--he wants us to write letters or numbers for him.  And he's started a new thing now where each letter has to be a different color.  He's very persistent.  (Today in church I was trying to sing and he kept pushing crayons into my hand.)

We've also been reading Chicka Chicka 123 a lot.  That seems to be the book of choice right now.

Letter Boy

Andy has learned all his letter sounds.  He's been interested in letters for quite a while, and went through a couple of weeks where all he wanted to do was have us write the alphabet over and over.  Then he started saying a few sounds, and before we knew it he was saying all of them.  Or almost all of them, I should say--he still has a little trouble with Q and X.

Besides learning from Mom and Dad, he also got a lot of reinforcement from starfall.com and the LeapFrog Letter Factory video. I think that's how he ended up saying the sounds rather than the names of the letters.  Kate really enjoyed both of these too.

Sometimes when we're driving somewhere, he'll sit there in his car seat and say all the letter sounds to himself.  In order.  He seems quite pleased with himself.  And when we're having dinner and he's sitting in his highchair, he'll look up at the bookshelf and start picking out random letters.  We think it's hilarious that he still doesn't talk but apparently he's trying to read.



Andy also learned to use the computer mouse about a week before he turned two.   Kate learned to point and click in July (when she was two-and-a-half).  Andy got her beat by over six months.  I think he was highly motivated.



"Ooh, Mom's got her camera.  I must look at it!"



He likes to draw on my graphics tablet, too.  I've seen him sit like this with the pen in his left hand and his right hand on the mouse.  Ambidextrous and ready to go to work.

Now he's working on learning numbers. He says "One! Two! Eight!" It's just too cute.

Andy's First Haircut

Kate had her first haircut at four and a half. Obviously we couldn't wait that long for Andy.  Unfortunately he was much less composed about the whole experience.  All my pictures turned out like this:



Poor little guy. He was not happy! Fortunately it didn't take very long.






"Get this thing off me!"



All done. (Whew!)



Back home and smiling again! Doesn't he look handsome?

Andy at 23 months

Andy still needs a haircut. I'll try to take care of that within the next week or so. (Photo op!)



He was sad because he wanted to play with the camera, but I got him to smile.



It's hard to believe he's going to be two. Yikes. He definitely keeps us on our toes. Our busy busy boy. I can't even put him in his crib anymore at all (unless he's asleep already) because he's up on the railing in two seconds, perching there like a jockey and giggling at me.




Andy is fascinated with letters and numbers right now. If I get out a paper and pencil for him, he doesn't want to draw himself, but wants to sit on my lap and watch while I write the alphabet over and over. If I try to hand him the pencil he pushes it back into my hand. "No, you do it!" He's also enjoying Hop on Pop and My Friend is Sad over and over.

He can say "Great job! Cool!" (which we think is awfully cute) but doesn't have many other words yet. Hi, ball, apple, and cheese. That's about it. He's also started doing a few animal noises, snake and bee being favorite. Those are the ones that he consistently gets right. Though we get a kick out of asking him random animals--"Andy, what does a hippopotamus say?" to see what noise he comes up with. He makes us laugh.

Andy at 22 months

Andy's favorites at this age:

dancing
walking around with a blanket on his head
making faces at himself in the mirror
climbing up slides
typing
pushing buttons on anything
standing on tip-toe to see if he can pull the phone off the counter
crushed ice and pomegranate juice
freeze dried strawberries and mango from Trader Joe's



Andy managed to climb out of his crib a couple of days ago, and hit the floor with a loud thump and a wail. (We don't think he landed on his head.)



He's definitely going to be one of those kids who likes to take things apart to figure out how they work. He's also showing signs of being left-handed. Perhaps he'll be a left-handed engineer like my dad.



(He needs a haircut!)

Andy at 21 months

I got some really cute pics this time! (In between Andy trying to push buttons on the camera, or put my lens cap back on.)




Andy is fascinated with letters--fridge magnets, signs, license plates--and likes to point to the letters one at a time and pretend he's reading them. He also loves anything with buttons to push, so lately he's been very interested in the computer keyboards. (Letters and buttons! Exciting!) Sometimes we open up a WordPad document and let him type away. 

 He's saying a few more words, like "ball" and "apple," and he's getting really good at "uh-oh!"



"Mmmmwah!"



"Lens cap?"

Andy at 20 months

Getting pictures outside is tricky! He just keeps moving.  I only got a couple where he was actually looking at me (and in focus).



He's been wearing that jacket for almost a year. It certainly fits a lot more snugly than it used to. I guess I'll be looking for a new coat soon.

It's funny to see how different Andy is from Kate at this age.  Kate really liked animal toys and was happy to just hold them and play with them.  Andy's always looking for buttons to push, or things to open, close, or pull off.  He likes to look at books but frequently wants to turn the page before we've finished reading it. 

Still not really talking, but doesn't have much trouble communicating.

He's really enjoying doing the motions to "The Eensy-Weensy Spider" and "Popcorn Popping," and clapping along with "If You're Happy and You Know it" and "Bingo." It's so cute to see him get excited when he recognizes a song. ("I know this one! It goes like this!")

We love our happy little boy!

Andy at 19 months

July 27th was the day we flew back from Utah, so I got some pictures at Barb's house and some at the airport.



Andy doing "The Eensy-Weensy Spider" (a current favorite).



In the stroller at the airport.



"Is this your lens cap? Here, let me put that back on for you!"

Andy loves to draw, just like his big sister. Here's a masterpiece from that morning:



I don't know what it is but it's nicely varied and expressive. He recently graduated from only doing back-and-forth scribbles to also doing round-and-round scribbles. He goes for Kate's markers; we deflect him with colored pencils (slightly less hazardous). So far the walls have escaped unscathed, though our fridge is currently sporting some decoration.

He did very well on the plane, and he's feeling a lot better now. Yay!

He's trying to say more words, though they're not really clear. I've caught "ball" and "done." (Easy to figure out, in context!) And a couple of times he's said something that could be "Let's go!"

He's gotten really good at climbing up slides (and sliding down them). That's his favorite thing to do at a park.

He continues to be a really good eater and will often eat more at a meal than Kate does.

And, as always, he's a happy little guy and such fun to have around!

Andy at 18 months

I managed to park Andy in this chair long enough to get a few pictures. This is not easy. He's so busy. He's also fascinated by the camera and always wants to push the buttons on the back.

The phone, and anything that looks like the phone, are also items of great interest. He'll hold the TV remote up to his ear and say "Hi." So cute.



Favorite activities at this age include:

Trying to get into Kate's markers and draw on things
Trying to get outside and run into the parking lot
Trying to type on the computer keyboard
Trying to play Daddy's hurdy-gurdy
Redistributing shoes to various locations around the house
Bending book covers backwards
Eating frozen blueberries
Climbing on Daddy
Playing peekaboo under blankets
Pulling things off tables and desks
Flipping light switches
Pushing buttons on the TV
Dancing
Being upside-down

Andy's old enough to go in the nursery at church now. Not coincidentally, I was just called as the assistant nursery leader, so we'll be going to nursery together.

Andy at 17 months

Taken May 27th (which is also my dad's birthday!)



Our cute little guy is 17 months old now! I took these outside, with Andy in the travel crib to keep him in one place. Look at those bonks and dings on his forehead. Poor kid.



He's still not saying much, though I think I heard him try to say "ball" the other day. And he was holding a blanket over his head and saying "hi." That was very cute. He's been enjoying looking at books by himself for quite a while now, but just lately he's been asking us to read to him more. He'll bring a book over and push into my hands. The Sandra Boynton board books seem to be his favorite. (Though often he wants to turn the page before I've finished reading it.)

Andy loves going outside and running around. (I'm constantly herding him away from the parking lot.) When we were down at Owen beach recently he really wanted to get in the water. He should enjoy the pool this summer.