Long Over Due Andrew Update

It's been awhile since I have just updated about my little Andrew.  I can't believe he is going to be 3 in a month.  My little guy is growing up right in front of me, and I don't know where the time has gone.  Andrew has been growing lately, his shoes and all his pants don't seem to fit him anymore.  Andrew is also starting to thin out quite a bit.  He is still around 30 lbs, but he just keeps getting taller.  He is in the 30 percentile for his height, and 40 percentile for his weight now.  It use to be 10 and 50, which was pushing him at border line being overweight.  I have stayed faithful in limiting the junk food with Andrew, and I think it has paid off.  Infact Andrew tells me that he wants a salad for lunch sometimes!  What three year old ask for a salad?

Andrew is still in speech therapy, or at least for right now.  When he turns three he looses the free speech that we have received through the county, and now it is going in the school's hands.  We have met with the public school system twice now and we find out this Friday what kind of help Andrew may receive.  I'm prepared that they will not be able to help him since there is medical reason for his delay, instead of just a delay.  Andrew was well advanced in many of the areas they tested him in, so we will see what they say.  In the mean time I have had the speech pathologist with the cranialfacial team from Akron Children's follow up with Andrew's submucous cleft (partial cleft palate) that he was diagnosed with last summer, and she tested him in radiology using an xray and having him speak at the same time.  She was able to see what was going on in his palet while he was talking. Basically her findings were that, Andrew's soft palate was not moving and closing against his throat when he was talking, which causes air to go through and it doesn't allow him to form the sounds he needs to.  Poor little guy!  The speech pathologist told me that no amount of speech therapy is going to fix this problem, and we will need to have some kind of medical procedure done to correct the problem.  We will be talking with the surgeon to go over our options.  I was hoping it wasn't going to come to this with Andrew, but  lately I have been so frustrated with trying to understand what he is saying, and he is so frustrated with trying to tell me stuff that I was almost relieved to know that there was a definite problem and there is a way to fix it. 

I will have to say that even though Andrew has difficulty talking, he is so smart for his age.  He knows all his shapes, including an octagon.  He knows his colors, he trys to count but skips the numbers he can't say.  He understands almost all the prepositions in theory and he knows opposites.  He even seems to know left from right.  He also is recognizing some letters and numbers.  It's crazy because for the most part I don't sit down and teach him this stuff.  He just picks it up here and there, and remembers it.  He is also saying correct complete sentences, even though he can't say all the words exactly.

Andrew has also become a very sweet little boy.  He thanks me for dinner alot of the time, and lately he keeps telling me that I'm pretty.  Andrew is also in love with his sisters.  The bond between my kids is absolutely amazing.  Of course there is times when they all get on each others nerves, but for the most part all three of my kids get along very well.  I here all of them tell each other all the time how much they love each other, and they hug each other.  That may not be normal for siblings, but maybe there is a benefit of spreading their ages out so much.  It does my heart good when I see my daughters show my son so much love.  There is nothing I could ask more of them. 

Andrew is still the happiest little boy, or at least everyone who doesn't live with us thinks that.  He goes everywhere with the biggest smile on his face, and he has the world fooled!!!!  Especially the people at church.  They don't hear his whinny voice that I hear a good part of the day.  I think Andrew just likes to leave the house and have somewhere to go, and he just loves people!  He can't seem to stop talking to strangers when we are in public.  I keep telling him not everyone is your friend, but he just doesn't seem to get that.

Andrew is growing up.  He is now in his big boy toddler bed, and he does great with it. He stays in the bed pretty much until I get him.  Sometimes he will get a book and then look at it in bed until I get him.  He also only drinks from a regular cup now.  No more sippy cup!  Which has actually cut down on potty accidents, because he isn't drinking near as much all the time.  I can't remember the last time he has had an accident!  He also doesn't have accidents at night so that is great!  Andrew is also sitting at the table with us, instead of the high chair, but we are still working on table manners.  That seems to be a daily issue. 

Andrew does say some cute things, so here are some Famous Quotes By Andrew:

1. For his sister Alisha, he always says "Sissy Yaya", so now we have started calling her sissy Yaya.  Its funny because he will just say Megan without saying sissy Megan, but when he says Alisha it is always with the sissy in front of it.

2. "Your my best friend"  He is always saying this to everyone

3. " I love you", then we say "I love you to Andrew", and then he says "I love you more"

4. "Think, Think, Think"  He says this while pointing his finger to his head

5. There are many more, but I can't think of them at this hour, so I'll write more later! 

A few weeks ago my dad got tickets for Andrew, and Cain to go to the monster truck show!  Andrew had so much fun.  Here are a few pictures that my husband took.  He forgot to get one with him and his son, but maybe my parents got one.  I didn't get to go, but it was so much fun to just hear Andrew talk about it.  Cain finally gets to go and do some father and son guy stuff!  He has waited a long time for that!

I took Andrew to the library one day and practiced taking some pictures there before one of my photo shoots.  He actually had a lot of fun playing with the other kids up there.

So me and Andrew had a little photo shoot the other day.  I needed a picture of him for his birthday invitation.  Here are a few of the pictures I liked but didn't make it to his card.  In case you didn't figure it out, the theme is race cars!

Here is picture of Alisha and her boyfriend.  They do a lot of fun stuff together.  They built this heart one day after church, and of course I had to get a picture.  On an Alisha note, she got deans list again at college, and remember she is still in high school but doing post secondary which is doing college courses in place of the high school courses.  She does regular classes with other college kids.  I'm so proud of her.   My Megan also did great in school last quarter.  She made Merit Roll. You go girl!!!!!