Monday, April 28, 2008

9 Months old and Growing!






Andrew is so active now. It is so fun to interact with him, but to also sit back and watch him discover and explore. We have to laugh when he wants a toy in his basket and all you can see is his little butt sticking up in the air. Yes, he has fallen in, but only a few tears were shed.

His personality:
Determined--there was a cheerio at the bottom of the car seat which was sitting on the ground and he would not play with anything else until he had that cheerio in his hand and his mouth! He will climb over medium size containers/boxes/legs or go around objects when he has his mind set on something. You can see his little brain working when he is stying to solve something.
Daring---
Obeying--Well of course, he is a first child. When we say "No, Na'Na', or stop," he will stop what he is doing and look at us. Sometimes he will do it again (pull open a drawer for example) and so we will have to say NO again or remove him from the situation. Other times he will find interest in something new.

He crawls everywhere and loves when we are on our hands and knees too. We race him, or go head to head towards him and he laughs so hard. If we go into another room he will find you (For example from the living room he will find you in the bathroom)---he is a very smart boy. This is brilliant we think! He can crawl with one toy in one hand.

Andrew can pull himself into a standing position when using another object (box, couch, our legs). He cannot do it from a sitting position yet. He cruises along the furniture but only a couple steps and can go around his little frog table. While standing he can bend his knees and pick up objects on the floor. And he tends to bounce (maybe we can call it the start of dancing) while standing...it is so cute. He just started squatting (maybe once or twice so far). If he position him behind his toys with wheels he can push it! (this is new). Ryan and I have been a little apprehensive to hold his hands and encourage him to walk. But whenever anyone else is with him they do it, so we feel like we are missing out, so now we do it too.

He loves his leap frog table that makes music, the little pink lady from the castle, his blue ball, and construction rider (he is starting to push it). His favorite books are the ones that have "touch and feels" and he helps open/close the book or turn the pages. He will not always sit and read a book, he would rather be climbing/crawling/standing. But right when he wakes up is his best reading time.

When you say "High five" he will slap your hand. We are learning how to wave hello and goodbye (he has done it just a couple of times). Sign Language:


Well, I am not done writing, but I want to post it. We love our little boy as you can tell! We give thanks for the blessing that Andrew has been to us and for the way that he has grown so strong.

I Can't resist more pictures of this last month!






It's hard as a Mom to only pick a couple pictures to share. So, here are some more of our handsome little man!

Saturday, April 26, 2008

2 Teeth!


Yeah for Andrew! Nana has been asking if you have teeth since you were 5 months. Now, 4 months later you finally got them. We thought he was teething for the last 3 months because he was always chewing on everything, but now it is the real deal.

He really wasn't that crabby. As I look back I remember thinking that Andrew felt warm and he has been getting up in the middle of the night periodically. But now that he has the teeth (or when they were breaking through) motrin has been our friend.

Monday, April 21, 2008

I miss you!



Do you remember Nana and Papa when you came to visit me between Thanksgiving and Christmas? That was so fun. I look so little on all of these pictures. You should see me now and how big I am. I just wanted to share with the world these cute pictures because I love you so much!

I love my Nana and Papa!






This is me and my Nana and Papa! They are the best. They came to visit me at my house many times. As you can see in the pictures, they loved to hold me and smile at me. They are so cool. Recently they were on their way to Mexico (I don't even know where that is), for a missions trip and my Daddy drove me to see them in IL while they were taking a break from the long drive. We got to spend some quality time together. I showed off a little by standing for them and they sure did think I was cute. I love them so much and guess what....I am going to go visit them in Wisconsin in the beginning of May...Yippy, I can't wait! Nana always gives me a lot of kisses and then I give her wet ones back. Then she giggles. Now Papa, he is funny too...he likes to tickle me and rough-house me, because I am a boy. Gosh, I miss them. Nana and Papa, I will see you soon! I love you!

Friday, April 18, 2008

I felt the EARTHQUAKE!

Here is how the story goes...

3:37am: The house is shaking and swaying and awakes me from my sleep.

Kristy (I say): "Honey!.........(pause)" I open my eyes and yep the house is swaying back and forth "Honey........" "Ryan!"

Ryan: "What?"
Kristy: "The house is shaking."
Ryan: (no response)
Kristy: "I am serious....I think it is an earthquake." (House is still shaking)
Ryan: "Huh. What do you want me to do about it?"(He is half awake) (House stops shaking).
Kristy: "Protect me!"

I think Ryan fell asleep then...He really protected me hey!

I laid there thinking...Am I crazy? Did I just imagine that the house was moving or am I going crazy.

Then Ryan awakes again and looks at the clock.
Ryan: "It's 4:40 am. Hey, we have the window open, maybe it was just the wind."
Kristy: "I don't think so."
----------------
6:00am
Ryan came into the room and said "You are right there was an earthquake."
Kristy: "I told you so."
Ryan: "I know, I felt it. Andrew survived his first earthquake."

Yeah right he felt the earthquake, he was sleeping. I guess I am not surprised... Ryan is pretty helpless in the middle of the night. But, I have to give him a little credit: the other night when Andrew was crying I was holding off on nursing him and he kept on crying, and Ryan got up to help. I guess I am used to the middle of the night "stuff" becuase of being on-call for work and in the past working night shift.

I guess the quake was pretty long...90 seconds and messured as a 5.2. If you haven't heard about it it happened on the border of IL and IN. I am shocked me felt it here in St. Louis. Later this morning we had a little after shock too (I didn't feel though).

Needless to say we survived the earthquake!! Did anyone else feel it?

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Crazy, fun week with my cousins




We are still recovering from all the fun and craziness from last week. I will tell you all more about it when I recover. Hee, Hee!

The picture here is just one example of how crazy we are were!

I love you Babka and Grandpa!







Babka and Grandpa came to visit for 6 days and we had so much fun! I waited until they arrived to show how I can stand without holding onto anything. They all clapped and I had the biggest grin on my face. I even give high-fives, clap and do sign language ("more").

I am a pretty quick crawler now, but Babka is still faster. She made me giggle a lot while we played with my toys. She made this really funny sound like Donald Duck and now when I am excited I make it too. It was so nice of her to play with me while Mommy organized the basement. Babka read me stories, took me swimming, and showed me pictures/movies of my mommy when she was my age. I love you Babka!

Grandpa is way cool too! His head feels like a doggy and I loved to rub it. Grandpa threw me in the air, fed me all of my food and loved to cuddle with me. He helped Daddy around the house...oh man, our house would be falling apart if it weren't for Grandpa. The best thing ever is that he hand made a gate to match the railing in our living room. Now I am safe and won't fall down the stairs. It looks awesome and I am so thankful for this hard work. I can't wait to see you again Grandpa...you are so much fun!

In between all of Grandpa's hard work, we went out to eat a couple times, worked out at the YMCA, played board games, watched old videos, and played, played and played some more. I am going to miss you Grandpa and Babka. I am so glad you came to visit.

Saturday, April 05, 2008

Aunt Amy and kids came to visit

The start of "Hotel Peterson" began when Ryan's sister Amy and family came to visit. Then his Uncle Rick and family, then my parents for a week, then a weekend free, then my sister and 3 kids and then my other sister and husband. We love them all

Andrew was so excited to have his big cousins Derrick, Marissa, and Bryan come to visit and play with him. They went to The City Musem and the Arch. Also played lots of games and Marissa was such a big cousin that she slept on the floor in Andrew's room, while Andrew slept in the crib. Aunt Amy is Andrew's God Mother so it was so nice for them to hang out too. Thanks guys for a great 3 days.