Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Tony's New Pool

Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Tony put in a pool at their new house last week. Today was the first day it was really warm enough to go for a swim, so they invited us over. The water was still pretty chilly, but it was very refreshing!

I'm not sure who had more fun: Andrea . . .

. . . or the big kids!

Party Time

Yesterday, we went to our friends' house for their son, Aiden's, 3rd birthday party. The theme was from the show "Go Diego Go." Andrea LOVES Diego, so needless to say, she had a lot of fun!


I got some pictures of the kids playing, but oddly enough, I don't think any of them contain the birthday boy! However, Andrea had a good time playing with his cousins.

She made a door hanger for her new room with Daddy's help, and coloured some Diego pictures.

She played with the trains and accessories on Aiden's Thomas the Train table.

She liked looking at the Baby Jaguar masks, and making everyone else wear them and growl at her.

She played on Aiden's climbing castle and slide (I am looking at something similar for her birthday gift).She and Daddy played soccer with the other kids (well, Andrea had fun with the cones).

***

Andrea started out a bit shy with the grown-ups, but she was hamming it up by dinner time. She ate a pretty good amount of her food. After Daddy put her down to play, she wandered over to the kids' table and started helping herself to their abandoned plates--a pickle here, some veggies and dip there, a bite of this hamburger, a sip of that kool-aid . . . everybody was laughing like crazy, and she was completely oblivious to it (or just ignoring us). Hey, she thought it was a smorgasbord, just for Andrea! Of course, I was groaning inwardly at the germ factor, but it WAS funny. Then, she plopped herself in one of the little chairs, leaned back, and closed her eyes. Finally, she grabbed a cup and balanced it on her forehead! She looked like someone who'd a little too much . . . oh, I wish I'd had the camera then. It was the icing on the cake to her smorgasbord performance!

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After recovering from her meal, and re-energized with cake and ice-cream (!), she proceeded to serenade the adults with several of her songs: Twinkle Twinkle, ABCs, Mr. Sun, Itsy Bitsy Spider, etc. . . .

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Furthermore, the concept of the pinata is lost on Andrea. Aiden's parents get the nice kind, where the kids each grab a streamer and pull at the same time. First, Andrea just wanted to play with the pretty streamers. Then, as the kids all pulled, Andrea bent over to pick up their streamers, and a shower of candy fell all over her head! Andrea swatted the candy away from her face, as the other kids dove for it! Aiden's great-grandma was kind enough to lean out and grab several large handfuls of candy for Andrea, so she wouldn't be left out. :)) Andrea didn't even notice--she was yelling "Yay!" and picking up all the pretty streamers!

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Andrea's birthday party isn't until mid-July (a few weeks early, just in case Bud surprises us), but I am already looking forward to it, seeing how she had so much fun at Aiden's party. :))

Fun on the Rides!

The mall near our house had its annual Victoria Day concourse, with some rides and games, etc. We thought it would be fun to take Andrea for her first experience on amusement rides. As we expected, she loved it--she only got upset because she was too little to go on ALL the rides!

Uncle Chuck and Brig were spending the day with us, so they came to go on the rides, too. It worked out well--Brig was just small enough, and Andrea was just big enough, to go on the kiddie rides. :))

Like I said, the only time Andrea really got upset was when she couldn't go on the ferris wheel with Daddy and Brig. She tried to climb up the gate, and she cried for Dada! Then, Uncle Chuck picked her up, and got her to wave and yell "Hi!" when Daddy and Brig came around. So, that amused her for a bit.

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Then, Daddy took Andrea on the strawberries ride. It's pretty tame, unless you turn the wheel in the middle. So, of course, Daddy turned the wheel as hard as he could, the second time they went on the ride!



By the way, Andrea's not upset in the picture above (she was laughing): she just got squished because Daddy had it spinning so fast!

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Next, Andrea and Brig went on a couple of rides together. They went on the cars . . .

http://media.putfile.com/Brig-Andrea-on-Cars

. . . and then on the plane ride (Mommy was a bit nervous) . . .

http://media.putfile.com/Brig-Andrea-on-Planes

. . . and then on the bug's life ride.

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After that, Uncle Chuck and Brig had to head home. We had a few ride tickets left, so we gave Andrea two more turns on the car ride. Although she loved them all, she seemed to enjoy this one the most. We put her on a fire truck, and then in a classic car.

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Needless to say, after all the excitement, she was quite happy to have a bath and go right to sleep, when we got home.

By the way, here's an unrelated, but cute picture of Andrea from about 2 weeks ago. I was trying to get her to pose in her new outfit that Gram and Grandpa G. got her ("everyone loves a blue-eyed girl"), but she wanted to DANCE! :)) Generally, she's a big singer, and hardly ever dances. I guess she was just in the mood. :))

It's Been A While!

Is it weird to post just because I feel guilty that I haven't posted anything for Andrea lately? :))

I have been a bit too busy and tired to get any good pictures of her; and another problem is, she no longer poses for my camera. Oh, no--she STEALS it! The instant she hears the shutter open, she's right in my face, grabbing for it, so it's nearly impossible to take any pictures of her lately.

Health wise, well, Andrea has anther really bad cough and runny nose that she can't shake, and of course I'm all paranoid about it. But we have been giving her the inhaler (puffer) at home, and as that seems to help, we've avoided the hospital. She also doesn't have a fever this time.

Oddly enough, the follow-up appointment with our family doctor, regarding Andrea's previous bout of pneumonia, is on Thursday. It got delayed because I had to change it, and then the doctor was on vacation. But I guess it works out well, because now she will get to see and hear Andrea with a cough. I really want to talk to the doctor about asthma and possibly getting a home Ventolin treatment kit for Andrea (the machine with the mask). She'll probably say no, considering Andrea is "too young" and they still won't officially call it "asthma" (although everyone knows that's what it is!). Poor Andrea goes into these awful coughing fits that make her gag, and then vomit. This usually only happens when she has a cold, but still, it's scary; and I'd feel a lot better if we knew more, or had more resources available to us in terms of home treatment for these flare-ups.

Otherwise, Andrea keeps things lively and entertaining around here. Her latest trick is getting into the toilet and swishing her hands in the water (gross)! She also loves slides, so she now slides down/off of anything she can, which leads to even more bumps and bruises! And, her routine of songs and words has increased dramatically, which is fun. :))

Oh, and we finally got her shoes inserts this week! Geez, months later . . . anyhow, it took her a day or two to get adjusted to walking in them (she still seems a bit tipsy sometimes) but they don't seem to bother her. We go back to the orthotics specialist in two weeks, for a check-up. He thinks she'll be out of them by next year, and won't have any more foot problems. So, that's good.

Oh, and Andrea's big-girl room is now a work in progress. Our friend is coming over to start painting tomorrow. Then, we'll get her things set up in what was the spare room. I'll definitely post pictures when the transformation is complete--but that may be a few weeks away yet. :))