That first tooth is a doozy.

We've had a rough couple of weeks. Kate was sick, and then Andy was sick, and missed an entire week of school. In the middle of it he also lost his first tooth. That was traumatic. I realized it was loose in the morning, and he had it out by about 2:00 that afternoon--just kept wiggling it the whole time. And then once it was out he cried and kept trying to put it back. We try to explain to him what's going on, but I don't think he really understands. Sad! 



It was a couple of days before I could get photos of his gap. You can see the new tooth peeking up already. (His lips are a bit puffy from all the poking and worrying.)



I'm not looking forward to repeating this experience! Maybe future teeth will get easier. 

Andy Reads The Happy Hocky Family Moves to the Country

Our neighbor was pressure-washing his driveway. You can hear some of that in the background.

Window Writing

Andy writes letters on the foggy kitchen window. He always has to do this now, ever since I accompanied his preschool class on their field trip to the pumpkin patch and we were writing on the bus windows.

He's holding a red pipe cleaner, which he also uses to make letters.  He'll do this with just about anything--strips of paper, noodles, fruit leather....



Such concentration! I have seen him write  words, but usually it's just the alphabet (or occasionally numbers). The other day he was playing on the computer, writing out all the letters in some painting program, and when he was done he wrote "THE END."  (Ta da!)

Art Time with Andy

Andy's preschool teacher sent home some of his artwork.  All he wants to do is make letters.

A is for Andy

Andy writes letters on the Magna-Doodle.  He'll write the whole alphabet in order now.  Some of his letters are endearingly wonky.



Last night Doug was writing things like "draw a circle," "draw a triangle," and Andy was reading it and doing it.  He is doing a little better with the talking thing--he chatters all the time, repeating things that he's memorized, but doesn't do much synthesizing to actually communicate verbally.  If there's something we want him to say we still have better luck writing it down and getting him to read it.  He sure is cute, though.  We love listening to him chatter and sing. 

Letter Fun

Andy's obsession with the alphabet continues.  He has a couple of sets of Melissa and Doug letters that he likes to line up in interesting places.  Like on the kitchen floor, with one letter in the middle of each tile (and then when he runs out of room he starts a second row on top).  We think this is pretty clever, but it's better if he does it when we aren't trying to cook or do something else in the kitchen.  He does get underfoot. 



He recently discovered that the piping on the edge of the couch cushions also makes a good ledge for letter display.  (Resourceful!)



Kate made this for her letter-loving brother at school.  I thought it was very sweet.  Particularly because I think this is the first thing she has made for him, ever. 

Andy is starting to talk a little more--he has a lot of words and phrases that he has memorized and frequently repeats them to himself, but it's still more like he's practicing talking than actually using them to communicate.  He is reading up a storm, though.  Loves reading.  When I let him play with my kindle he types words that he knows.  The other day he typed APPLE BOY CAT DOG... and then tried to do ELEPHANT but that was a bit beyond him. 

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." )

Andy's Alphabet

Andy's fascination with letters continues. We have these wooden letters (from a Melissa and Doug set) that Andy likes to line up on the floor, over and over and over. He's been spending quite a lot of time lining up letters. He'll complete the alphabet, then come and get me and I sing it for him while he points to the letters, and then he starts over again.



I'm impressed that he never gets the b,d,p, and q mixed up.

He also picked up the sign language alphabet from watching videos on youtube. We got this video of him finger-spelling himself to sleep on Daddy's lap.

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.