An Andrew Update!

It has been awhile since I have updated on Andrew, so here goes a post dedicate to Andrew.  All in all he is being two!  All I can say is I'm pretty exhausted by the end of the day, and thank goodness he takes a nap everyday or I would be in trouble.  Andrew has come a long way with his speech.  We continue to go to speech therapy every week, and he continues to improve.  He is saying phrases, and in some cases speaking sentences.  That is huge since this poor kid wasn't saying but a few words a year ago.  However because of his partial cleft palate, it is holding him up.  The poor kid no matter how much me or his speech therapist works with him, certain sounds just can't come out of his mouth.  I feel so bad for him.  He tries so hard and he can't quite figure out why his words don't sound like mine.  Infact, I couldn't figure out why this poor kid never blow out of his mouth, so I asked his speech therapist about that a week ago, and she said it had everything to do with his palate.  So we gave him this little harmonica, and he has been practicing his blowing with that.  He gets so excited when he gets a note out of it.  Most would never give it a second thought about teaching their child how to blow, but in Andrew's case he has to build up those muscles to be able to come even close to what he needs to do.  So we continue to work him everyday, and when he is three he will be put through an extensive evaluation to see if he will need surgery.  I pray everyday for God to prevail in this setback in my little boy's life.  I know with God anything is possible.

As far as Andrew's personality it is flying off the charts.  This kids demands an audience no matter where we go.  He is ultimately the most popular fan at Alisha's volleyball games.  Everyone from the teenagers to the grandparents know this kid by name.  He blows kisses to the volleyball girls.  He gives "the rock" to the teenage boys, and he shares hugs with the parents and grandparents.  He is so funny!  I would worry that he is to friendly, like I use to, but Andrew's new thing is telling absolutley everyone he meets that I'm his mommy, Cain is his daddy, and that Megan is his Megan, and Alisha is his Alisha.  He wants everyone to know who he belongs to.  We recently had our social worker here for our post adoption visit, and she said that if he is saying that, then he has bonded very well.  That makes me feel so good. 

Andrew sleeps through the nights, and he takes about 2 hours naps.  He eats just about anything I give him for meals, and he loves his snacks.  He is pretty much potty trained, aside of the accidents here and there.  Some days he is just lazy.  He is wearing big boy underwear, and he even wears them to bed and he hasn't had an accident at night yet.  So for being 2 1/2 I can't complain about that.  Andrew is jumping, running, and climbing on everything.  He still loves his cars, but his new obsession is a firetruck and firemen.  Everyday he talks about a fireman. 

Andrew is the most loveable little boy I have ever met.  He fills my love tank everyday, and I hope I do the same for him.  I try to imagine my life without him and I just can't.  I hardly remember life without him.  There isn't a day that goes by that I don't look at him in amazment on how he came into my life, and I try to thank God everyday for him.  There were so many things that could of been obstacles for our adoption, but God managed to just take care of every detail before it was a problem.  I would love to share all of that but it would be a few post in itself.  All in all Andrew is doing great, and he exceeds any of my expectations of him. 

So today we found this little work bench at a resale store for .50 cents.  Andrew loves it, and of course I had to turn it into a photo session.  I'm always working on my photography, and I thought it captured him in his play.  He does do well on playing on his own, as you can see in these pictures.  He loves to build.  Now he can bang on this work bench instead of on my coffee table.

Girls At Play!

So I normally don't want to bore anyone with my photography pictures, and that is why I started a photography blog, however this photo shoot of my nieces turned out way to adorable to not share with everyone.  My red head niece normally hates to have her picture taken .  Infact I don't think I own one good picture of her.  Well at least until now.  We let her dress up in her favorite dress up outfit, and after that she was ready to play and have some fun while getting her picture taken.  I was amazed! 

Just a Boys Dream!

So I took Andrew and his best buddy Matthew out for some fun play at the rail road, and the creek.  Just a boys dream.  My husband told me how proud he was, because I let Andrew get as dirty as he wanted.  Let me tell you to, both these kids were in great need of a bath when we were done.  I'm so glad I could capture these fun moments of boys being boys!!!!

A Day Of Play!

So you know your a real photographer when your two year old pulls out his toy camera and does a photo shoot with his sister. 

So my grandpa had a wood shop, and along time ago I found this little desk that he made.  It was unfinished and it was just sitting in his attic.  He said I could have it.  What a keeper I tell you.  My little Megan played on it a ton when she was little.  She liked to act like she was working in the office just like I did.  Now it is Andrew's turn, but he likes to pretend he is playing school.  At least once a day after Megan leaves for school, Andrew will sit down at his desk and work on some kind of coloring.  It cracks me up. 

So by far, Andrew's most favorite thing to do is play hot wheels.  Below it a picture of one of my husband's hot wheels from when he was a little boy.  My mother in law gave me a bunch of them, but I had two girls up till Andrew, and no one got much use out of them.  This tow truck is one of Andrew's favorites.