Andrew has given me a run for my money on a couple of occasions, both having to do with sporting goods stores. The most recent was on Tuesday, when Andrew and I went to Dick's Sporting Goods to do some Father's Day shopping. We picked out the present for dad, and something for Grandpa Shaffer, and then I made the mistake of walking over to the basketball section. Andrew was SO excited about all of the basketballs. I let him play with one for a minute, but he couldn't shoot baskets because the goals were covered. I was still doing a little shopping and tried to walk down another aisle but Andrew really wanted to go back to the balls. We went back, played a little and then I was ready to check out. Andrew had a different idea. He started screaming when I put the ball he had back in the bin, and only got louder as we walked away. As we got up to the registers, I found a smaller ball and gave it to him to hold. That didn't help stop the screaming and crying, so that ball went back into the bin. We stood in line waiting for the cashier, who was helping another customer. Evidently the transaction was pretty complicated, and it seemed as though nobody knew what they were doing. I'm standing there with my screaming child, waiting. I finally had enough, parked our cart to the side and took Andrew out to the exit. We had a little talk about what his behavior needed to be, and he seemed to calm down so we went back in and got in line. Of course someone had gotten in between us, and had another complicated transaction. Andrew's tantrum began again, and I tried to wait it out for about 20 seconds. I finally took Andrew and we left, with no purchases, to go to the car. I put him in his car seat and told him that if he is going to act like that we can't go to these type of places, so we were going home. He cried the entire way home, and for about 5 more minutes inside our house. I was finally able to get him to stop by having his dinner ready. In all, it was probably about 25 minutes of screaming. For basketballs.

The other event was a similar situation that happened in a golf store, and he went ballistic over the indoor driving range. Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that taking Andrew around balls when we are shopping should be avoided. Lesson learned.

We finally have learned where we will be heading in a year for Brian's fellowship...St. Louis! I will admit that Brian and I are a little surprised, and definitely had our hopes up to return to Denver or try out Dallas. But I'm sure that St. Louis will hold a lot of opportunities for us, and I am glad that we at least know what the next step is going to be in our lives.

Here are some of the positives we came up with for St. Louis:
1. The cost of living there is less than Columbus.
2. Brian really likes how academic the program there is.
3. We are maintaining our I-70 corridor living. :)
4. It is less than a 5 hour drive to get back to my hometown in Kansas. This makes it easier to drive, and gives the possibility of taking a weekend trip home, and will be helpful on the holidays when Brian has to work.
5. It appears that it will be very easy for me to obtain a teaching license in Missouri. (I just have to apply since I am licensed in other states)
6. Central time zone!! Prime time TV will be at better hours.
7. Back in Big 12 territory.
8. We will be able to make the drive to Denver in 1 day instead of 2.
9. Brian will hopefully get to see some games of his favorite baseball team-the Cardinals!
10. I didn't have to look at a map this time to know where we are going.

Summer has officially started in the Birnbaum house, and now life is very different than it was last week. Being able to "sleep in" until 7:30 is a luxury for me, but I'll take waking up to Andrew's voice instead of an alarm clock any day. Brian is working the night shift this month, which further changes things. We have breakfast together, and then an early dinner before he goes to work. Luckily Brian is a sound sleeper, so we don't have to be terribly quiet during the day at home. Our house has pretty much been turned into a play place, with a basketball goal in the living room, ball pit and toy car in the downstairs room, and water table on the deck. It's time to have some fun!

Andrew has seemed to have found his voice, and I am going give a bit of credit to a DVD he absolutely loves. Until recently he had no interest in the TV, but he finally starting watching "Baby Signing Times" and now asks for it to be played. He is signing and saying more, food, water, please, mom, dad, horse, dog, cat, fish, and of course will wave bye. I have ordered another that teaches colors and am looking forward to seeing what he picks up. He has started repeating words that we say to him, so Brian and I are having to start watching what we're saying. :)

I have been having issues with my back since January, and at times it has impaired me from functioning in my daily life, especially being able to carry Andrew. I have been going to a physical therapist for the past two months, and even though she works me to death, I'm still having some problems. I think it is nerve related, as I have recently been having pains going down my left leg. After talking with my doctor, I am going to have an MRI done next week to see if we can find the source of the problems. I'm a bit nervous about being in the MRI machine, and hope I can stay calm during the scan.

Next Wednesday is the big day. It's driving me crazy, and I'm ready to find out what's next in our lives.

It has been a little while since I last posted, but there really isn't much going on except for the daily same old stuff. Andrew has become very clingy lately, which at times I like but after a while my arms can't carry him around anymore. Everyday he seems to be turning more and more into a little boy. Today he walked with me into the store for the first time while holding my hand. He was very proud of himself. He is also wanting to do a lot of things by himself now, but gets frustrated when he can't do them. I see shades of Brian's temper shining through.

I have 2 weeks left of school, and am very much looking forward to summer break. Andrew and I have big plans to play with friends and go to the zoo all summer. I'm also trying to carve out more playspace in our house, and am slowly taking over the area that is Brian's "office". Yesterday I found a great little table and chairs at a garage sale which will be perfect for coloring.

We are still waiting to find out where will be in a year. There isn't much we can do so we just sit and wait. After weekends like this one, it is very apparent how great it would be to be closer to family.

I have posted some portraits we had done of Andrew and us after he turned a year old. They turned out so well, and truly capture the happy, active boy that we are so lucky to have in our lives.

Portraits

There has been a lot going on with the Birnbaum household lately. Brian has finished up interviewing for a pediatric cardiology fellowship, and now we have to make a decision about our preferences of where we would like to be. Then a computer gets to make the final decision and match us up with one of the programs. I'm not the biggest fan of the process, but it's what we have to do. It looks like right now the top 3 are Columbus, Dallas and Denver.

Brian had interviews in Salt Lake City and Denver last week, and we figured out a way for him to take Andrew with him to Denver so that Grandma and Grandpa Birnbaum could spend some time with Andrew. I think everyone had a great time, although Fritz and Bobbie are probably worn out by the whirlwind that hit them. With Andrew and Brian gone, I enjoyed 3 days of "the life I used to know". It was nice to have some freedom for a few days, but I did miss both of them a lot. I then joined Brian and Andrew last Thursday in Denver, and we were able to visit with some of our good friends we had not been able to see when we were all sick over the holidays. There were new babies to see and dogs for Andrew to play with, which Andrew seems to love. We all flew back on Easter and started back into our regular schedule on Monday.

Today Andrew and I picked up my parents at the airport. Andrew has been a bit leery of them, as I'm sure he thinks I will be leaving him again. We're planning to all hang out this week, and just have a good time. Hopefully Andrew can make it through all of this excitement.

Andrew saw the cat go into the grocery bag and thought it was hilarious, so of course he wanted to try it out, too.

This week was my spring break from school, and I have been getting a lot of things done around the house. I also had some extra time and decided to spend a little of it with Andrew at day care this morning, to see what all he does on a daily basis. There were only 2 other kids in his class there, but it was fun to hang out with them. He is learning how to color with crayons, plays music with instruments, builds things with blocks, and lots of other fun activities.

I thought I would share some pictures so that everyone can see where he goes to school.

Andrew has started realizing when he is being silly, and can laugh at himself. It's fun. :)

Andrew decided to show me a new trick tonight.

Andrew woke us up at 4 am this morning, obviously not feeling well. He ended up having a fever over 103, so Brian gave him some tylenol and I was able to get him back to bed about an hour later. He napped for about half an hour, and I took the time to get sub plans put together for today. He woke up again really fussy, but I finally figured out he wanted something to eat. He's up and moving around now, but is definitely playing the pity card this morning. It makes me so sad to see his little bottom lip so pouty, but I know where he got it from.

Andrew and I went to see our friends Graham and Monica yesterday. Graham and Andrew were born the same day, so Monica and I have shared our mothering experiences together. Monica posted some good pictures that I thought I'd share. http://pmgtyler.blogspot.com/2009/02/buddies.html

I took Andrew to get another haircut on Saturday, and there was not one tear shed! I was very surprised at his composure, but it probably helped that I was feeding him goldfish crackers the entire time. He has definitely changed from baby to a cute little boy. The last week Andrew has also started giving kisses when requested. Although they are a bit sloppy, I love every one of them.

Brian and I have been trying to figure out if he has said his first word. He has been saying mama and dada for a while, along with yeah and up. The only thing is that he hasn't really applied the words to the proper object, yet. Saturday evening he correctly identified a duck, saying "duh", and I think he's pretty close on using the word ball as well. Seeing as how he seems to be obsessed with balls, it would be fitting that it would be one of his first words.

I am still getting our web site transferred over to the new server, but our email and the site should be working fairly well again. Let me know if you have any problems.

I am in the process of changing our web host for our web site, so you may notice some down time for the site and our email. I'm hoping to have everything changed over in the next few days. I'm also contemplating changing my blog over to Wordpress and hosting it on the same server. Anyone else out there use Wordpress?

Andrew is totally addicted to basketball. I took him to one of my high school's games this week, and he sat and watched very attentively for a while. But then he decided he wanted to be a part of the action. He was screaming and wrestling in my arms so that he could go out and run on the court, too. At halftime I let him run on the court with the other little kids that were doing it, and he was SO excited. However, when the 2nd half started he still wanted to be playing, so we had to leave.

On Saturday mornings we have been doing a gym class at the YMCA where we belong, where they have lots of fun activities for the kids to do. Of course, all Andrew wants to do is play basketball. The gym is divided by a big curtain, and he always wants to be on the side where bigger kids are playing basketball. Today he sat and watched one boy for a few minutes, just taking it all in. Later he and I had the court to ourselves and he would give me the ball so I could shoot. The he would hold the ball up like he wanted to shoot, but of course the baskets were too high for him.

Here is a video from our evening activities. He did this for about 30 minutes that night. At times he has started to get into almost a run. He really likes to move!

This past month I have had quite a few moments when I thought back to what we were going through last year at this time. It's amazing to think about how much Andrew has grown in just one year, and how different our lives are today. Having Andrew run into my arms or giving a sloppy kiss are the highlights of my day. He is discovering so much every day, and his personality really shines through. After a lot of work, he is finally sleeping through the night and napping great during the day. We may have also solved the bathtime fear, also. I went out and bought a little basketball hoop for the bathtub, and now we have some bathtime fun! Andrew absolutely loves balls, and is especially enjoying the small basketball goal he got from Santa. He is even starting to throw the ball, which of course Brian and I find exciting. He's got a good arm!

Unfortunately I do not have any pictures to post from January. The charger for our camera battery was lost sometime during our holiday travels, so the camera has been dead for a few weeks. But I finally got a new charger and we are back in business. I do have a few pictures from our last big snow that I got on the video camera that I can post. Andrew found the snow a little interesting, but was ready to head back inside.

We did finally get a new car last weekend, and we did end up going with the newer model of the same car we had before. We actually got a better deal this time around, which is always nice.

Brian will be going on his first interview this week for the next stage of his training, a fellowship. He is applying to be a pediatric cardiologist, a decision that he and I both put a lot of thought into. After having Andrew, we both realize how much we would like to be closer to our families, because seeing them a couple of times a year just isn't enough. Unfortunately there isn't a peds cards fellowship in KC, but he will be interviewing in St. Louis, Dallas, Denver, Salt Lake, and here in Columbus. We will find out in June where our lives will take us next, but won't be moving until June of 2010, so things won't be as rushed this time.

Brian was in a car accident last Friday evening on his way home from work, caused by another driver. This is his 3rd wreck in 2 years, and we're ready for this streak to end. Brian was slowly exiting from the highway, and was hit from behind by a truck who apparently did not see that traffic had slowed. The impact caused Brian to hit the car in front of him, so our car was damaged on both the front and back. Unfortunately it was not a minor fender bender, and it appears that our car has been totaled. I am extremely thankful that Brian was able to walk away from the accident. As we were cleaning out the car, we found glass from the back window in Andrew's car seat. I cannot imagine what would it would have been like if Andrew would have been in the car with Brian. It has really made Brian and I much more aware of Andrew's safety in the car. Both of us are very impressed with how our car held up in the wreck, and that the main passenger space seemed to maintain its shape. While I would prefer that our next car be a tank, at this point we are thinking we will probably get another Ford Fusion because of how well it did in the crash. Safety matters.

Brian's golf clubs were in his trunk when the accident occurred. They have since been extricated, and did receive a bit of damage. I think Brian was really hoping he could get a brand new set out of this whole ordeal.

Here's what is left of the back of the car:

While we have been trying to stay warm for the last week, we have had a few newsworthy Andrew items to report on.

After returning from our holiday travels, Brian and I decided it was time to use some tough love and try to get Andrew to sleep through the night. He had been waking up around 4 am most nights and would not be a happy camper in the morning. While it wasn't terrible, we felt a one year old should be able to make it all night. In talking with several friends and doing some research, the general consensus is that in order to get quality sleep from a child, you should put them to bed early, by 7 pm. We had been letting Andrew stay up later because Brian's schedule does not always allow him to be home by 7 pm, and we wanted them to have some time together each day. Taking that away is difficult, but I know that sleep is what Andrew needs. So we started the 7 pm bedtime, and had a few rough nights. But I am pleased to report that we have finally accomplished it! Andrew is now sleeping through the night, and amazingly...he is happy when he wakes up! I love going into his room in the morning to get him ready for the day and to see his smiling face greeting me. Some days I can hear him babbling to himself in his crib, or he will start the music on his crib toy.

Another big step for Andrew is that he is transitioning from the infant room to the "wobbler" room at daycare. He seems to love being with the bigger kids, and gets to walk to the lunchroom for his meals. The one big change is that they only take one nap a day. Now that Andrew is on a better night sleep schedule, his seems to be napping better during the day, also, taking a longer mid-day nap. He is also completely done with bottles, and now uses only a sippy cup. He is turning into such a big boy! I was told today by one of the teachers that he is going to be a baseball player when he grows up, as he can really throw. He seems to always want to be playing with balls over any of the other toys.

I wish I could report that bathtime has gotten better, but it has not. He still clearly despises it. We've tried getting in the bath with him, putting him in the bath with no water, blowing bubbles, and nothing has worked. We'll keep trying!

We had finally gotten Andrew to enjoy his bath time the past few months, and were feeling pretty good about our accomplishment. We've got proof of smiling bath photos and video. However our trip over the holidays has done quite a number on Andrew's bathing attitude. It started with his first bath at my parent's house. I figured maybe he was missing his dad who usually gives him his bath. But Brian arrived and the crying remained. I then blamed it on being away from home, and hoped that when we returned he would be back to his old self. No such luck. We are now given the pleasure of a screaming child who clearly does not enjoy bath time anymore. It's funny because he still likes to take all his bath toys and put them in the tub, but the minute he realizes he will be in the tub with them, the tune changes.

So how do we get back to the good bath life? I'm really at a loss on this one, and would love to hear any advice or suggestions. We want the fun back!

It took a few days for us to recover from our holiday travels and sickness that has been passed around the family. But I have finally gotten around to posting new pictures from December and early January, including Andrew's Birthday party. Andrew actually enjoyed opening presents after not being very involved during Christmas present opening. When it came time for cake, however, it was another story. What child doesn't want cake?! Andrew's appetite took a few days to come back after the stomach bug he had, and when we put the cake in front of him, he pretty much pushed it away without even tasting it. It makes me a little sad that he didn't do the whole cake destroying thing on his first birthday, but I'm thinking we may stage an event sometime where he can go to town and hopefully he will realize how yummy cake can be.

December Pictures