Spring at Last

This week, as I'm sure you all know, started out pretty bleakly with news of the tragedy at Virginia Tech. It hit a little closer to home here, as one of the boys killed was local, the son of a Penn State employee. Penn State, like many universities across the country, has offered a show of solidarity with Virginia Tech, most recently by students at the annual Blue and White football game donning crimson and orange instead of the traditional blue and white. (Since more than enough has already been said in various news venues across the country, that's all we're going to say for now).

The rest of the week passed fairly innocuously for us. Andrew and I celebrated the advent of nice weather (finally!) by going to the park. Andrew was thrilled to be out of doors and quite enamored of his matching blue soccer ball, although he couldn't quite figure out what to do with it aside from carry it around (or be carried with it--and I discovered that a wriggling toddler trying to hold a soccer ball is NOT the easiest thing to carry).







Dan and I continue to plug away at our respective projects, with varying degrees of success. I think this week was reasonably productive for both of us. Thursday night I went to Enrichment (one of the smaller ones) where they were working on a series of service projects (making stuffed bears for the emergency room and cutting out squares for "I-Spy" quilts for an upcoming Stake Women's Day). It was nice to get out and get some conversation, even if I had to coerce our neighbors into coming over to sit in our front room while Andrew slept (Dan had to work that night).

This weekend, in an attempt to broaden Andrew's horizon, I took him to the local YMCA and we went swimming. I figure this was fairly heroic, because I'm not the biggest fan of appearing in public in a swim suit! After an initial period of terror (I don't think Andrew knew what to do with all the water, and he seemed to be afraid that I might let go of him), Andrew settled in to enjoy splashing around in the therapy pool for about twenty minutes or so (after which the pool closed early for some unaccountable reason). I think it helped when we decided to take advantage of the YMCA's offer of an infant life preserver, as Andrew seemed less afraid of the water after he realized he wasn't going to sink.

As usual, we close our blog not with words of wisdom but with pictures of Andrew (which are probably better!) Below, you see Andrew laying on top of our pile of newspapers.



Andrew also discovered his belly-button this week. Normally we put him in a onesie, but one day he had an accident shortly before bath time, so I didn't bother putting him in a clean onesie. He seemed fascinated by the texture of bare skin. And every time I asked him where his belly was, he pulled up his shirt and showed me! (Note: Justin and Lia, Andrew's not quite got the dimensions of, say, Callie LaDuke, but he's getting there! We couldn't be prouder.)



Finally, for the doting grandparents and others who follow this sort of stuff--Andrew currently seems to be working on cutting four of his molars at once (no wonder he's been somewhat whiny lately!). At least one of them has finally broken the surface--we await word on the others. And on that note of suspense, we leave you, once more, to wait with bated breath for our next installment of life in Andrew's world.