Random Andi updates

Andi and I are packing and getting ready for our 4 week trip to see my family! We'll be having fun in France for two weeks, then Holland for two weeks!

For the first time, today, Andi managed to get a spoon of food in her mouth by herself!

She's starting to develop a little shoe fetish. I posted earlier about all the shoes that she has, but she never really liked wearing any others than her robeez. Now she is interested in all shoes, and even likes to try her daddy's on for size.

Her walking is getting better and better. I bet that by the time we come back from Europe, she'll be running!

Last week wednesday, her third tooth finally came through. Two days later though, it was back up in her gums, and she's been back to having only two teeth ever since :) Now I'm confused which day to mark on her calendar for when her 3rd tooth came/comes through!

I can finally make out some of the words she is saying! When a dog barks, she says "woof woof", she says "Sage", she says "Bird", she will ask sometimes "What's that" and she has a word for flower, but it sounds like a mix between "flower" and the Dutch "bloemetje". I'm pretty sure there are more, but that's all I can think of right now. We're working on getting her to say "please" when she wants something.

Her favorite breakfast is to have whatever I'm having (even if her tray is FULL of other options she usually likes better). At least it's better than her old favorite: dry wheat bread, and gumming on an orange peel.

She loves it when her daddy comes home from work. As soon as she sees him through the window she squeals. She also gets upset when it's time for him to go back to work.

Like her mom, typical female, she gets incredibly grouchy when she's hungry :)

I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can think of for now.

Walking

This morning: more steps!

(You'll have to excuse her all the boogers ... lots of allergies (perhaps a cold? I can't tell the difference) and teething make for a lot of drainage :) )

Squirt me

Andi found my plant squirter (just water) in the cupboard and had been sitting there for a while squirting herself, and making surprised faces....it was too funny! Unfortunately by the time I got my camera out she realized something was up, and the squirts made her a little upset instead. But, still pretty funny :)

Trying not to laugh at discipline.

Over the last few weeks, I have been trying to teach Andi not to stand up in the bathtub...wobbly feet and a slippery bathtub floor do not make for a good combination.
I understand that it might be a litte confusing..."So wait, mom, you want me to stand up every where else, and start walking, and now that I want to stand up, I'm not allowed? Why? Ugh, grownups." But Oy, it is quite the process! Some nights she stands up too many times to count! I am pretty sure she understands exactly what I'm telling her when I ask her to sit back down (and say why), because most of the times, after a little while, and a LOT of "dislike" in her face, she will actually go sit back down, just obeying the command. Many times though she will purposely try to ignore me, and so I sit her back down myself....of course followed by more "dislike" on her part :)
A select few other times, it actually gets to the point where I give her a little tap on the butt, and then sit her back down...she does need to learn to listen to mom! Last night though, even that didn't quite work anymore: when she would stand up again, she would just reach back with both hands herself, and start tapping her own butt! "I've got this mom, I'll just stand up and discipline myself for it, so I can continue to do what I want?"
How can you not start laughing? :) So now what?

I am sure there are many, many more of these types of moments to follow....

Camping at Sinks Canyon, WY

Last weekend we got to go on our first camping trip of the season, and Ben decided the place to go was Sinks Canyon by Lander, WY. Excellent choice :) We had great weather, had fun cooking and eating camping food, and made a few small hikes along the Popo Agie river and up to the falls. The river was roaring due to all the run off, which I have to say also made for good background noise while sleeping at night :) Now that Andi is bigger than last camping season, she is no longer sleeping in the cubby next to me, but has now graduated to her own bed. This went pretty well ... naptimes are a little difficult (which is why she ended up asleep in the backpack while hiking one time), and we had to lay next to her until she fell asleep, but then she did great. It was actually pretty comical to see how she puts herself to sleep at night ... she s like a fish on dry land, flopping around trying to get comfortable until she finally crashes.

We have many pictures of our trip, most posted here, but here's a select few:

The fam.



The fam again :)

Mom, Andi and Sage by the campfire

Our cutie

2 little toophies!

Mmm cookie crums, sunscreen and perhaps a few boogies smeared on my face :)

Playing with rocks is fun!

Happy hikers

Having fun on dad's back

Trails, trails, trails :)

Relaxing in the shade with dad.

Today is actually Andi's 15 month 'birthday', so we went to the pediatrician for her checkup...here are her stats :)

Height: 29 3/4 inches (28th %, up from 20th% last time)

Weight: 21 lbs 1 oz (25th%, down from 40th% last time)

Head: 46 1/2 cm

She actually started taking her first few solo steps yesterday (as in: not encouraged...she took some heavily cheerleaded first steps last week :) ), and is becoming more fond of standing on her feet. I still can't really make out any specific words that she says, though I think she says "Sage" when she sees Sage, and "juice" , "that/dat" when she points at things. Though who knows...with two languages as an option there always seems to be a word that her sounds sound like :)

She recently discovered a pack of pencils in one of my drawers, and has been having fun coloring (don't think she shows preference for right or left hand quite yet). Maybe she'll become like me when I was little: always making little drawings and coloring :)

Still only 2 teeth, her bottom teeth, but I think her top two teeth are starting to come in...screaming at night, and swollen gums.

Building the Deck

We got our backyard deck built over this memorial day weekend! It came out awesome, I'm loving it! Here's a picture review of all the work:

On Friday at lunch time the concrete came...4 wheelbarrels full:

Ben and I worked together Friday afternoon getting the concrete in the holes, and setting the base piers for the corner posts to go in later:

It is an exact science making sure they're all not only in the correct spot, but also at the right hight, and level!

Last view of our pre-deck backyard:

Andi watching us from her high chair with her new outside toys:

Playing on the redwood boards:

Eric Garris stayed with us for the weekend, and was a tremendous help getting it all done! While the concrete was setting Friday evening he and Ben went to Cheyenne to buy the rest of the redwood lumber for the decking, and on Saturday they worked together ALL day long.

The beginning is there!:

Measure twice, cut once! :)

Andi and I were there pretty much to make sure the men stayed fed and hydrated well enough to get their work done, but on Saturday afternoon Andi got sick and threw up, and was just feeling miserable. Because the weather wasn't all that fantastic outside anyway, I sat her in her highchair in recliner position by the window so she could rest and watch her daddy and Eric work. It was a pretty nice spot...

The progress by Sunday morning...the 'skeleton' is up! :

Sunday morning Ben and Eric went to church (I had to stay home with sick Andi), and after church Tom and Marilyn came over, and we had a delicious lunch of home made fried chicken, cole slaw, corn on the cob and bread. The three of us:

After food, it was time to get to work again! (fltr: Eric, Tom, Ben)

While the men worked, us ladies did our share of visiting and stitting in the sun! In shorts and a Tshirt enjoying the beautiful day! We brought out the playpen for Andi to sit in (thistles and dog poo in the grass), but she didn't last very long in there.

Soon she was back playing on the boards:

Our cutie in her pink shorts:

Practising her walking:

By Sunday afternoon Ben and Tom noticed that we were starting to run low on screws, so I went to town to buy some more... we needed about 20 lbs more of screws ... I went to ACE hardware, but they were almost out of stock. I ended up buying their last 2 lbs. I then went by Bloedorn and Probuild, but since it was a holiday weekend and a Sunday, they were both closed. Since we needed screws to continue the work, our only option then was to drive all the way to Cheyenne to get more. I wasn't too happy about this, since it was SUCH a beautiful day out, but alas, Marilyn, Andi and I packed up the car and headed out. On the way towards the highway though we drove by Probuild again, and I noticed the owner of the store out in front marking his parking lot. The store was still closed, but I figured it was worth asking, so we pulled over and I asked the nice man if he maybe had some screws for us to buy so we didn't have to drive all the way to Cheyenne. And he said yes! And, he had plenty of screws in stock! Yay! Praise!

On Sunday evening some more of the crew came out to help .... fltr: Eric, Tom W., Travis, Ben, and they finished putting up all the decking:

The progress by Monday morning: the decking is done, now "all" that's left is building 2 benches, and the 2 stairs!

Hauling in more redwood:

Andi enjoying the deck, the men in the background working on the bench.

Working on the other bench: Tom, Travis and Ben

By Monday afternoon she was all done! Isn't it a beauty!?!

Sideview with another set of stairs and a bench:

Of course we had to break in the new deck right away, so we had a little bbq!

Tom and Marilyn:

A few friends were there also, the Linds and the Watsons:

Jo and Sarah playing with a few blocks:

Having some burgers and hotdogs with friends...I think we'll have to do this a lot more this summer!

Eating some food on the bench:

Thanks everyone who helped us build it! I love my new outdoor living room!