As Cindy mentioned in one of her posts, our crib that we had for Hannah and Andrew had been recalled this year.  We were waiting until we took our house off the market before we transitioned Andrew into a twin bed, and since that time had come – we decided to do it this weekend.  Andrew and I took apart his crib this morning.  Andrew was a huge help with his Handy Manny tools and between the two of us – we got the crib apart and the room ready for a bed boy bed!  Uncle Cortes helped us pick up the mattress and box springs that Mom and I had picked out earlier this week.  While Andrew was eating lunch, the guys put it together and we got it all ready for him. 

And his new headboard too that I’m super excited about!  However, I can just see him climbing up on it in the next year or so and jumping from headboard to bed, but we will just pretend that will never happen!!! 

And Andrew’s inital reaction when he finished lunch and came back to his room -

Yep – he walked right past the bed and saw the mail truck outside and preceded to watch the mail truck until it drove away.  For all of you who know Andrew really well – this won’t surprise you in the least bit!  It was really kinda comical and a little anti-climatic for Mommy and Daddy!    However, once the mail truck drove out of site – then….

He was all smiles and excited about his “big big boy bed!”    He took his nap and refused to get out of his bed after his nap.  He brought his toys and books into his bed and stated that “I just wanna be in my new bed right now Mommy!”  I can’t argue with that!

Gosh – he is just such a grown-up little monster!  I can’t believe how big he is getting!  And before he went to sleep in his new bed tonight  – he rolled over and stated “Thank you Mommy for my new bed!  I love it!”  What a day full of good memories!  I love these days! 

We have been having such a great summer and look forward to the change in weather and fall starting!  It hasn’t been a “relaxing” summer, but we have kept busy and made some great memories and I think that is all that matters at this point!  Here is a recap of what has been going on:

• Andrew has enjoyed the summer immensely.  While it has been too hot to play outside, he hasn’t lacked for things to do.  Andrew is very much potty trained now – all except pooping (sorta).  He has been dry and peed in the potty for over a month now with only one or two accidents (this includes being dry during the entire night!).  However, no amount of bribing has convinced him to poop in the potty!!!!  He has done is a couple times, but he simply asks for a “baby diaper”, we put one on, he goes into his “closet”, poops, and we change him and put him back into underwear.  I don’t really see a major problem with this at this time.  He knows it is coming, it is just a matter of making him comfortable doing in on the potty.  I still think it is great that he has taken to potty training so well!  Go Andrew!

• His vocabulary is insane – the other day at the post office he asked for a gift bag that had Mickey Mouse on it by stating – “Mommy, could you do me a favor for just one minute?  I think I need this bag please!”  Really?  What two year old talks like that?  I love the conversations that I have with this boy!  He is becoming more and more aware and asking questions.  “Why does that weed grow on sidewalk and not with other weeds (grass)?”, “Why do you fix that (food) on the stove like that?”, “Why do the ducks take baths all the time?  They stinking? (Andrew sole phrase for when he or someone else has to take a bath)”, etc

• My mom had gotten us tickets to a local water park for Mother’s Day and since Cindy got “so” pregnant with the twins and we procrastinated too much this summer, we ended up going last weekend with Papa using Cidny’s ticket.  Andrew had a blast at the water park.  Papa and I joked that it was “rather refreshing being in water up to your knees most of the day”   haha…anyway…the point was that Andrew had such a good time and it is truly amazing watching him grow and become more comfortable in his environment and around other kids.  He was shy at first, but warmed up and eventually told Papa and me to stay put and he would go play!   

• Our house didn’t officially sell this summer, but the housing market was just so bad.  We got a couple of offers and even got as far as signing a contract before the buyer pulled out and changed her mind.  Oh well…I can’t imagine packing up and moving this fall anyway.  We have some home projects that we are going to work on this fall and look at painting and getting some new furniture.  We are excited to get our house back and not have to worry about people traipsing through and scrutinizing our cleaning! 

Well, I hear my little man waking up!  I thought I would take advantage of his sleeping in and update a post.  This free time is few and far between, but it was definitely time for an update! 

Where have we been lately?  I haven’t posted in so long, but it seems like just yesterday!  We have been super busy and I haven’t even had a spare moment to sit down and write unless it is after midnight when I”m trying to unwind and get to sleep!  So what’s been going on here:

• We had an uneventful 4th of July.  I was on-call so we weren’t really able to do too much.  Andrew enjoyed the fireworks!  He still talks about seeing the fireworks in the park! 
• We decided to go to St. Louis the following weekend for a family trip before West left.  We spent Saturday visiting St. Louis Zoo, shopping, eating, and swimming in the hotel.  Then woke up on Sunday morning and went to Grant’s Farm, which Andrew absolutely LOVED!!!  It was a wonderful weekend…it wasn’t too hot either, which was great!
• The following week West left for his two weeks for the Army National Guard.  (“Ational Garden” as Andrew refers to it!!!)  He was down in Southern Illinois working at a base down there helping get it ready to deploy.  We talked to him occasionally, but he was pretty busy.  He is supposed to get back tonight so we are hoping everything works out.  Andrew is super excited to see him!
• Shortly after Daddy left, Mommy and Andrew decided it was time to try potty training.  Andrew has been showing the signs that he was ready for the last month or so – so we got some big boy underwear, pull-ups and an extra potty.  Andrew has done AMAZING!!!  For over a week, Andrew has stayed dry and pee-peed in the potty!  He LOVES his new underwear!  He has even woke up the last 3 nights completely dry!!!  WOW!  I wasn’t expecting that!  So we know that we are just in the beginning of potty training and have a long way to go, but we are super proud of our little big boy!!!  Keep it up! 
• My work has been crazy lately.  I’ve been traveling and trying to get us all ready for the merge this fall. It has been super hectic and super-short-staffed.  Gotta love it!    Hopefully things will go smoothly and November can’t come quick enough! 

I have a ton of pictures to post, but things have just been crazy!  I was hoping to get a simple update up and then get pictures after West gets back this weekend!    We shall see…I’m sure something will come up…always does!

Just pulled a couple of old pictures up for a quick scrapbook page!  I always thought that these pictures would make a cute layout one day, and I am super excited to finally use them!  Andrew was only 6 months old in these pictures!  It is hard to believe that almost two years have past and how much he has grown and developed!  But it has certainly been enjoyable strolling through memory lane as I’m looking at all these old pictures! 

We finally decided to take Andrew’s pacifiers away this week.  Obviously he hasn’t needed them for quite some time, but he only had them at night time in his crib so we weren’t in a rush to take them away!  So far he has done remarkably well with the whole process.  The first couple days were a little rough, but he understands that they are gone and that he is not getting them back!  Hopefully we won’t have too many sleepless nights ahead of us!  He is just growing up so fast!

This was originally going to be my Father’s Day scrapbook page post, but then I found some really cute Father’s Day kits on line that were free so that is where the other one came from.  I’m still trying to get better at being creative, but it is still a work in progress!  I hope you all don’t mind my trying out the various pages on you. 

Things here are good, but busy!  Can anyone honestly believe that June is almost over!?  Wow!  I swear – It is going to be Christmas before we know it!  Our summer is going good.  Andrew has become quite the little monster and is pushing our limits and buttons almost every day!  He is such a good boy though too!  My new favorite saying of the week is:  “Look Mommy…that’s far far far away!”  It is too cute…insert any random object that is a ways away and each time he says it another “far” is being added on!  Too cute! 

The weather has been so darn hot here that we haven’t been able to play outside much!    Last summer was so perfect and this summer is just such a scorcher that we can’t even seem to do things in the evenings!  Unfortunately, Andrew doesn’t understand why he can’t go outside when it is 100 degrees!  Sigh…makes for some interesting days as we try to keep him entertained!

I have been taking some training sessions through work that have allowed me to have a Friday evening off every once in awhile.  Last night, we decided to take Andrew down to the lake and go fishing.  He has a little Disney Cars fishing pole that Daddy had gotten for him.  Andrew was super excited and had a blast!  And while fishing isn’t the most exciting – it did hold his attention for longer than we expected!  Unfortunately, the fish weren’t exactly biting and West was having trouble with the miniature pole to catch what did bite!    It was a very nice evening and made me look forward to more and more nights like this when I do move towards a day-shift schedule!

I know I know…these aren’t new pictures, but I’m pretty excited.  I’m getting better and better with the scrapbooking software!  I think this one turned out pretty good! 

I’m really trying!  I’m picking easy events in our life and trying to get some scrapbook pages done for those!  We dyed easter eggs for the first time this year with Andrew!  And he had a blast!  (Of course…he made a huge mess too, but it was a lot of fun watching him!)  I know it is out of order for the events in our life, but better late than never! 

PS – You can click on the image to make it larger – I know it is kinda small on the blog screen!