It's a Girl!!!

We received big news yesterday...our second child will be a daughter!! At 20 weeks and 1 day, she weighs in at 12 ounces and is absolutely beautiful!! We can't wait to meet you!!!

"Talking"

I don't know what happened in today's news to rile Andrew up, but I sure loved hearing him rant about it!

20 months

So it's almost Christmas and we have no snow on the ground. Usually I wouldn't mind this, but I've really been looking forward to taking Andrew outside to play in the snow. We had one snow fall of about 2 inches or so. In the pictures coming up, you will see him having a great time even in just a few inches of snow.
Andrew has also been learning a few words. He is a little behind in his vocabulary. He 'talks' all the time, we just don't know what he is saying. The words we can understand are 'go', 'down', 'downstairs', and 'Mmmmm, milkies' (aka: milk).
In other news, I am now 18 weeks along in the pregnancy. I have a nice round belly and am feeling great! We will hopefully find out the gender of our baby by the end of this month.

Always the helper! We hope his love of shoveling the snow continues for a long time :)





























And here, Andrew is helping Daddy fix a door knob.

big news & more...

As you can see from the picture, our big news is that we are pregnant! In this picture I am 12 weeks along. Due date is May 17, 2012. I was shocked that my belly popped so early. When I was pregnant with Andrew I didn't start showing until week 18.















My 2 handsome guys














Andrew's 'cool' look















Andrew dressed up as an alligator for Halloween this year. He didn't quite understand the idea of 'trick or treat' yet, but he sure did have fun running up and down the streets in his costume.



















Picking through all his goodies. He basically had fun just throwing all his candy on the floor.














Funny face :)














Andrew loves to play in the dishwasher. If I don't fully click it shut, he will get into it as in this picture

18 months

At 18 months, Andrew's growth continues to be off the charts. He gained 2 lbs 8 oz, now weighing a total of 32 lbs 10 oz. He also grew almost 2 inches in just the past 3 months. Amazing! He has a few new interests: turning light switches on and off; shapes (he's particularly good at pointing out moons & stars); and his favorite food is now kiwi. He has 8 teeth and 2 more growing in on the bottom which has resulted in more drooling, more thumb-sucking and more finger gnawing. Poor guy! And he finally got his first pair of 'real' shoes. Up until this point he has been wearing soft-soled shoes. But with rainy and snowy weather on the way, he needed something more substantial. The funny thing is he wouldn't wear them for the longest time. I would put them on his feet and he would just stand there and cry, like his feet were in cement. Anyway, we are finally making progress though he is still a little clumsy.

My little helper

My dear Andrew has become quite the little helper these days. I love it! He helps outside in the yard, or unloading the dishwasher or dryer. It may take a little longer with his help, but watching him 'help' just warms my heart. He's always going to be willing to do chores, right?!

Sweeping the deck:



















Putting yard waste in the lawn bag, mostly acorns at this point. We must have a million of them in our yard:


































Dusting the floors:



















But at the end of the day, we still have time to have some fun. Pushing his bike, instead of riding it, is a big hit these days:

17 months

I can't believe a month has passed since I last posted. I'm so sorry! We've been busy with lots of visitors, but life has started to slow down again and now I have time to BLOG.
Andrew has been doing great! He continues to be very curious about his surroundings and we just love it. We can also tell that he is understanding us more. He responds to things like: 'let's go outside', 'snack', 'let's go upstairs', etc. Just tonight I told him it was time to go to bed and he went right to the stairs and started to climb up. Good boy!

Here is a mischievous moment. He loves to look in the refrigerator when I open it. But this time he climbed right in
Here is an end result of pulling eggs out of the refrigerator. They all fell to the floor and broke. He played in yolks before I could clean them all up. Thus he had to clean up in the sink, which ended up being quite a fun activity for him



















These next few pictures are just him out on a walk in our neighborhood. I think I got some good shots!