My little photographer

Andrew LOVES the camera! I haven't been able to take very many pictures of him lately because every time I pull out the camera he wants to take pictures with it. So today when we were cleaning out the office Nate found an old camera and decided to give it to Andrew. He was so excited! He kept saying "this awesome!" and wanted to show us all of his pictures. He took a ton of pictures of the ceiling, the t.v. and blurry pictures of us, but it was so cute seeing the excitement on his face.

This is how he takes pictures most of the time :)

1.31.10-2 years old

Big Boy Cup

Andrew is getting so big! He now wants to drink out a big boy cup all the time. He tries to get water from the fridge with his cup just like he sees Mommy and Daddy doing. If he has a choice between a sippy and a cup, he always chooses the cup. He usually drinks out of it at every meal and we only uses the sippy cups when we go out. He is doing great with it too....very little spills! He also wants to sit at the table with us, not in his highchair. I usually let him sit with me at the table for breakfast and sometimes lunch, but at dinner he has to sit in his highchair because we only have a 2 person table! That will soon be changing since we just bought a 4 person pub table :) I can't believe how big my little boy is getting!

1.29.10- 2 years old

Mama Mia!

That is what Andrew has been calling me lately. I don't know where he got it from. He still calls me Mommy most of the time, but every once an awhile (at least once a day) he calls me Mama Mia or Mommy Mia. Too funny!

A day of sunshine!

We finally had a day of sunshine! It was probably close to 55 degrees today and sunny which was a nice change from the rain we've been having. We've actually had a few nice days this week but today we were finally able to get outside and enjoy the weather. Nathan even went and played some golf! After Andrew's nap we took him to the park in our neighborhood. It's amazing to see how much he's changed even since September. He's so much more independent and only wanted to swing on the big swing, not the baby swing. He had fun climbing on all of the ladders and slides and even wanted Daddy to help him cross the monkey bars! There were 3 other girls playing and they had balls that they were kicking around. Of course Andrew wanted to get in on the action and he had a blast kicking the ball around. He wanted to follow the girls all around the park. While playing he kept saying cute little things like "mommy, watch this" (a phrase he picked up from the girls playing at the park) and "this is fun" as Daddy pushed him on the big kid swing. Such a fun afternoon at the park!

1.23.10-Andrew 28 months

Baby Girl

We now have a name for our baby girl.......Ava Renee Bailey! We were going back and forth between Ava and Olivia and finally made the decision while we were in Vegas last week (Thursday night at dinner, to be exact). We always knew that we wanted her middle name to be Renee (same as my middle name) but had a really hard time deciding on her first name. Ava was the name we also liked before we knew Andrew was a boy but recently we'd heard Olivia and liked it too. Sitting at dinner in Vegas I told Nate that we needed to make a decision on names. I asked him what he was thinking and he said that he was leaning more towards Ava. The funny thing is, I was leaning towards Ava recently too.....so we made it official! Andrew loves his baby sister's name and calls her "Aya." I'll ask him what his sister's name is and where she is and he says "sister in mommy's tummy." He's just so cute and I know he's going to be such a GREAT big brother!

Las Vegas

Nathan and I took our first trip just the two of us since before Andrew was born. Nate had a work conference in Las Vegas so we decided it would be fun for the two of us to go for a little get away. It was hard leaving Andrew, but we did enjoy having long dinners, shopping and staying out past 8pm :) We stayed at Mandalay Bay which was not our favorite. The conference was there which was convenient, but it is so far away from everything else that we always had to take a cab ride to go anywhere. After walking all day at the trade show, the last thing we wanted to do was walk down the strip. The hotel, especially the rooms, were beautiful though. We (mainly Nate) worked during the day and in the evenings we went to Caesar's Palace, had dinner at Rao's one night, Mesa Grill another night, and had dessert at Serendipity. We watched the fountain show at the Bellagio, shopped at Fashion Show Mall, checked out the Palazzo Hotel and walked around the Venetian. By friday night we were exhausted and decided to come home a few hours earlier the next day. We were able to get on the noon flight instead of the 4pm flight which gave us time with Andrew when we got home. We had a great time away but we were definitely ready to see our little guy. We both missed him very much and we can tell he missed us too. According to my mom he asked for me every morning....poor little guy! He had lots of fun with Grandpa and Grandma Ming but I think he just isn't used to being away from me for any length of time! I think it was good for all of us :)

At Caesar's Palace

Dessert at Serendipty- Fried Oreo Sunday & Frozen Hot Chocolate.....so yummy!

Bellagio Fountain Show

The Venetian- where we got engaged almost 8 years ago!

22 weeks pregnant :)

Nap Time

Last Monday I put Andrew down for his nap at his regular time, 1pm. For some reason that day he didn't want to nap. I kept him in his room and told him it was nap time but he kept turning on his light and making lots of noise. I checked on him every once in awhile and finally around 3:30 it was quiet so I figured that he finally went to sleep. Around 4:30 it was still quiet and I didn't want him to sleep too late otherwise he wouldn't want to go to bed, so I went to check on him. I found him laying in his rocking chair with all his lights on (night light, lamp and ceiling light) asleep. It was the cutest thing. I quickly ran downstairs to tell Nate (he was working from home that day) and he grabbed the camera. Unfortunately Andrew had changed positions when we got a picture, but you get the idea. I guess he thought his chair was more comfortable than his bed for nap time that day :)

1.11.2010- Andrew 28 months

Conversations with Andrew

Andrew has been saying the funniest things lately. Everyday he says more and more and yesterday we had the cutest conversation.

Me: Andrew, I had such a fun day with you today.

Andrew: You did? (with the cutest expression)

Me: (laughing a bit out of surprise from his response) yes, I did. Did you have a fun day with Mommy?

Andrew: Yes!!! (as he jumped in my arms and gave me a huge hug)

It was one of the best conversations I have ever had with him and it made me realize how big he is getting. I can't believe how quickly the time is flying by and before you know it we will have another one. I'm trying to cherish each day that I have with just Andrew because before long it will not be just me and him all day.

Another funny thing he did yesterday:

Nate randomly sang "I gotta a feeling" from Black Eyed Peas and Andrew then said "woohoo." So funny that he knew the song! Later that song came on in the car and he said, "mommy, I want boom boom boom" which is another Black Eyed Peas song. Too funny! We don't even listen to them very often or have their album, he just hears it in the car and likes it.

He has been also saying "how about..." a lot lately. He will say it when we are reading books and he wants to read another book, or when he's playing with his toys, or when he wants something different to eat. Not sure where he got that saying!

And lastly, he has been trying to figure out how to put together negative sentences. For example I will tell him that it's time to go take a nap and he will say, "I want nap, not!" He uses this all the time. Funny how kids try and figure things out!

Our little helper

Lately Andrew has been very interested in doing tasks around the house. He frequently asks me if he can do dishes and cries when I tell him there are no dishes to do. He has always loved to help me vacuum and likes to have things cleaned up. He will even ask for a napkin if his hands are dirty! He's a funny little guy :) The other night Nate was hanging pictures with assistance from my dad. They had to do lots of measuring to make sure the 3 pictures lines up. Andrew really wanted to help Grandpa & Daddy measure the picture and went and got his tools when he saw that they would need a hammer. He watched them carefully and decided that he needed to help them hammer the nails. He first started with his hammer, Pat from Handy Manny, but then decided that he needed to use Daddy's hammer. He was so good with it. He was very careful not to hit the nail to hard and didn't swing at anything. We are hoping that he is a little handy man and continues to want to help Mommy and Daddy around the house!

Andrew with his hammer

He was so proud of himself

1.7.09-28 months

It's a GIRL!!!!

On Wednesday we had our big ultrasound. I was anxious all week wanting to find out the sex of the baby and also to find out if the baby was healthy. Nate and I went to the appointment while the Grandma's took Andrew to Gymboree Play & Music. We all met up for lunch after the appointment to share the exciting news (Grandma's and Grandpa Ming). The appointment went great. We even knew the technician so we were able to get tons of pictures. Of course they wait till the very end of the ultrasound to tell you what you are having. When she said girl, I was shocked! Of course I cried, just like I did when I found out about Andrew. I really had know idea if it was going to be a boy or girl. Either way I would have been happy, but I am thrilled to now have one of each. She was way less active than Andrew was during his ultrasound. The technician said that she is very photogenic and was posing for all of the pictures! She had her hands up by her face a lot which is something Andrew always did too. We met the family for lunch at Panera and when we told them they all cheered with excitement! Andrew still doesn't understand what is going on, but now instead of saying you are going to have a brother or sister, we can just say sister.....hopefully that will help him understand better. I'm sure as I continue to grow he will start to wonder what is going on! As we did when we found out about Andrew, my mom, mother in law and myself went shopping for baby girl after lunch. We had so much fun picking out cute little girl clothes! Most of all, we are so grateful that she is healthy!

Profile

Definitely a girl!

Head shot

Cute little foot

1.6.2010

15 ounces

Due date: May 19/20th

Snowman

I finally got the video to post of Andrew playing in the snow last week. He kept telling Daddy to build a snowman. He loves snowmen!

12.29.09