Andrew at 19 months...

Andrew will point to the following body parts:
Hair
Belly
Hand
Foot
Eyes
Nose
Mouth
Ears
Tongue
Diaper-not really a body part, I know.
Elbow is hit or miss.
He will also flex his muscles when asked.

Andrew began walking at 18.5 months. He has struggled to walk for months. We noticed in June 2011, that there appeared to be some physical issues. He was 10 months and not crawling or pulling up. We began physical therapy. We were told that the reasons for the delays were because of how tall he was and his laid back disposition. It was very hard as a parent to watch him. His classmates would all be walking around and playing while he would just sit. Even though you try not to compare children, it would really hurt me when children several months younger than him were walking. People were (unintentionally, I hope) rude. WHAT? HE'S NOT WALKING YET?? It was impossible not to second guess myself. Did I not give him enough tummy time? Did I hold him too much? I have never talked to God about one issue as much as I did about Andrew walking. I would set goals in my head for him. The first one was that he would be able to walk into the hospital room to meet his brother. I remember being sad that day that we had not been able to help him meet that goal. Then, my goal was for him to be able to walk on Christmas morning. Again, that did not happen. His therapist kept telling me that she felt that he was one month away from walking, but I kept hearing that same thing month after month. I also had tremendous guilt after Joey arrived because I did not have as much time to devote to his therapy each night. His teacher, Amber, was an answer to prayers. She practiced with him each day at school. His therapist even commented that she had never seen a teacher as involved with therapy as Amber. I really do not know if he would be walking yet if it had not been for Amber. Now, he is a crazy man! He walks everywhere. He is not yet running, but I can tell that he will be doing that soon. We praise God that Andrew is just fine and a walking machine!

Andrew got tubes last week. We found out that his ears have been retaining fluid. In the past month, he has failed 3 hearing tests. We now believe that the fluid could have been part of the problem with the walking. He will have another hearing test on March 23 to make sure that the problem has been corrected. Now that he has the tubes in, we can tell that his language is going to start picking up quickly. Currently, he says:
Mama
Dada
Bubba (for Joey-don't get me started on how much I cannot stand this!)
uh-oh
moo (when asked what a cow says)
woof (when asked what a dog says or when he wants to watch Clifford)
bubbles
ball
Paw Paw (for Joey's dad)
His favorite word is "guh." We are not sure what "guh" means, but he says it all of the time!

By far, he says Dada more than any other word. He says it probably 25-40 times a day. He only says Mama when he really needs something or on the rare occasion that he is mad at Dada. Whenever my phone rings or he hears the door open, he yells Dada. He also says it whenever he sees a black truck or when we pull into our driveway. He is 100% a daddy's boy. While he does not say many words, I truly believe that he understands almost everything that we say. You can ask him to do just about anything, and he will do it. This is starting to be very helpful. He will get me a bottle, pacifier, diaper, etc. for Joey when I ask him. He will put his milk back in the refrigerator. Over Spring Break, I have taught him how to help with laundry. I always fold our clothes on the den couch. He will walk the clothing (ONE piece at a time:) from the dryer to the couch for me.

He is very meticulous like his father. He is starting to learn that everything has a place. For example, his books go in the bottom, right cabinet of our entertainment center. When it is time to clean up, he knows to put them all in this cabinet. He has some books that are part of a collection and came in a box together. If you try to put the books up without putting them back in their original box, he gets very frustrated.

He still does not like his hands to be dirty. If they get dirty at all, he will come to one of us to wipe them off. We are trying to teach him to rub his hands together to clean them because I feel sorry for his poor teacher. She says that she wipes his hands all day long. Speaking of her, she was only wearing one earring when we picked Andrew up today. His obsession with holding ears continues. I honestly love it, though. I will be sad when he stops holding my ear when we snuggle because he has done it for so long.

Andrew wears size 5 diapers. He wears size 2T or 3T clothes, depending on how it is made. He loves to eat meat. He would eat salami everyday if we would let him. He also loves sweet tea and enjoys stealing sips from my McDonald's cup.

There are so many more things that I could tell about Andrew. It makes my heart hurt when I think about how much I love him. He brings nothing but joy to our lives!