Sunday, March 28, 2015

Hi everyone,

My current desktop is this little cutie-patootie, sportin’ his sunglasses as Pop-pop and I took him for a ride on the golf cart.

Andrew’s mom and Dad went out to a local watering hole Tuesday evening, the night they offer twenty-five cent wings and Pop-pop and I got to take care of Andrew for a few hours.

One of Andrew’s life time goals (thus far) is to capture Baby Blue. It is something he always strives for every time he comes to see us. Most times he can get her tail as she brushes up against his leg then she yowls and flops down on her side. It’s a lot like calf roping. But no matter how aggravated she is she never claws him. Once Baby Blue is down, Andrew moves in and instead of tying hoofs together he tries to pick her up. Baby Blue is a little larger than he can handle and she manages to squirm from his grip and leave him holding a handful of fur. I don’t mean he pulls her fur out, I just mean that he ends up with cat hair all over!

Those two are so funny together. Baby Blue could stay away from Andrew if she wanted to. All of our other critters manage to stay off his radar. But Baby Blue seems to go out of her way to get Andrew’s attention. I’ve seen her have enough of him and go hide only to come back out when he’s lost interest in her.

Sometimes I would pick Baby Blue up and give her to Andrew but he hasn’t been able to hold on to her for more than a second or two. This past Tuesday Andrew finally achieved his goal all on his own. He came toddling out into the kitchen yelling for me to, “Look Grammy!”

“You got her!” I proudly exclaimed! “Let’s get a picture for Mommy.” I pulled out my cell phone and as quickly as I could I activated the camera and snapped a picture. I didn’t want to mess around because I didn’t know how long he could hold on to her. It wasn’t long until Baby Blue wiggled and squirmed her way free and took off. The chase was on and once again he wrangled her.

I went for my camera to photograph this historic event as Andrew came back into the kitchen with his prize.

Baby Blue wasn’t happy about being hauled around at all and as I photographed she managed to turn herself around and reached for his head.

I sucked my breath in and gave Andrew a warning even as Baby Blue was warning him herself. “She’s going to scratch you!” I said, but he held on tight. Look at that grip, would ya! I really thought for sure she was going to scratch him this time but she didn’t! There was not one single mark on him when she finally managed to get out of his clutches.

Poor Andrew. Yeah, you heard me right. Poor Andrew. He had cat hair all over his clothes and hands and face and mouth! He spit and sputtered and as he tried to wipe it away with his fur laden sleeve and hand he only succeeded in getting even more cat hair in his mouth!

I grabbed the kitchen towel from the handle of the oven where it hung drying after I did the dishes. “Here,” I said to Andrew as I presented it to him. He took it and brushed at his tongue as I went for the lint roller. Fat lot of good it did me too! It wasn’t long at all until he had Baby Blue lassoed and corralled again!

Andrew uses the rocking horse we picked up at a junk store for him. I was on the computer when I heard thunk. I turned and looked and there Grandson lay. I know what happened. He rocked too hard. I’ve seen him go almost over a couple of times before. “Let’s get a picture of this,” I said and Andrew stayed where he was until I could get the camera and get a picture.

Andrew vocalizes but still doesn’t talk very much. I don’t know if this is ‘normal’ or not and I don’t remember when my kids learned to talk because it was like a hundred years ago! I was lucky enough to be able to be home with my kids 24/7/365 and I understood them even in their baby talk. That and I also don’t do well with dates. They just don’t stick in my head. But Andrew speaks fluent Andrewese.

“What does Andrewese sound like?” you wonder.

Tuesday, when we watched him it sounded a whole lot like dolphin, that’s what!

At one point, Andrew became insistent about something. “What’s he want?” I asked Mike. Andrew was in the hallway and I couldn’t see him from where I was sitting at the kitchen table working on my love project (more on that later), but Mike could see him from the recliner where he sat watching TV.

“I don’t know, he’s pointing at the window.”

We have a cat tower by the window where the cats can get up and watch the birds at the feeder just outside.

It also makes a good place for Andrew to stand and look out the window with me. I got up from my project and when I got to the hallway I could see that Andrew was indeed pointing at the window.

“You want to look out the window?” I asked as I scooped him up. In two steps I was at the cat tower where I put Andrew down and with one arm around him I used my other hand to push the window up.


“Golf cart ride,” Andrew said. Okay, he didn’t say it in English but I understood immediately what he wanted as my gaze followed first his outstretched arm then his finger as he pointed to the golf cart sitting in it’s spot in the parking lot below.

“Ooooh,” I said. I pulled Andrew back, picked him up, set him on the floor and pushed the window down all in one fluid motion. “Do you know what he wants?” I asked Mike as I came back into the living room.

“A golf cart ride?”

“Yep!”

Pop-pop put his recliner down and reached for his shoes. We were going for a golf cart ride! “Get your sweater,” I told Andrew. He got his sunglass too and after donning my own sweater I look and see this. Hmmm, I’m sensing a pattern here.

I’ve always known, from almost the very first, that Andrew is different. He passed every other milestone pretty much right on schedule. Holding his head up, rolling over, standing, walking, obeying simple commands. And I don’t worry about him not talking, he’ll talk when he’s ready. I think he is so smart that he just doesn’t want to talk and he doesn’t have to. He gets anything he wants anyway, at least from this proud grandma.

Wednesday morning, as I reach for the cupboard knob to get Itsy and Ginger their breakfast treat, I see the knobs have sprouted trees

Andrew loves these vinyl sticky trees and I keep them for him when all the other Christmas and snow decorations have been taken down. Most times Andrew’s Forest stays stuck to the front of the fridge at Andrew height when he’s not playing with them but I got such a kick out of him putting the trees on the knobs that they are still there today, five days later.



 

<<<<<>>>>>To be continued...<<<<>>>>>