Alligators and Boogers

So Drew and I have started a new thing which has sprouted out of a little guilt, a little pride and one smart boy. We are going to be learning the alphabet, one letter at a time. We are going to do crafts and other projects to help him learn. The little guilt is that at Daycare he was always doing fun art projects and all we do at home is color. The little pride is me being selfish, I am so proud when I teach him something new. And we all knew he was a smart boy, but the other night I was emailing Andy (he was at school studying - actually working on his monster paper) and I asked Drew if he wanted to email daddy. Drew never gets to touch the computer, ask him and he will tell you that it is a no no, so he was excited but a little leery. First with out me asking he pointed to F and said "F, this is the letter F." I about fell out of the chair, so then I started asking him to find letters for me and he knew O, P, X, Q and of course F. Then he got tired of my game. So we are on a mission to learn all of our Alphabet and what better place to begin than A. So today we made an Alligator out of a paper towel tube, construction paper, glue and tape. It took a while for me to convince him that is was an alligator and not a crocodile. Later while I was changing Jillian's diaper tragedy fell on the alligator. His legs, tail and eyes fell (fell, torn, same thing) off. I did some emergency surgery and alligator recovered nicely, but later in the evening one of his eyes fell, was torn, off and sadly it was unable to be reattached. Probably was, but I was not going to keep playing this game. So now we have a one eyes alligator. Kind of like the one in the St. Louis Zoo, or is he a crock. I should really figure on the difference between the two.

WARNING !! WARNING!! THE FOLLOWING TWO PHOTOS ARE NOT FOR PEOPLE WITH A WEAK STOMACH. Dad look away!

Drew's newest thing is ewwee. He says it to Jillian's food, Jillian's diapers, vegetables, and tonight the bath water. Who knows?? But I told him that Jillian's food is not ewwee, him eating his boogers is ewwee. Apparently boogers taste better than broccoli. This is a habit that I am going to have to nip, it really grosses me out.

So after alligator time, we worked on a poster for the letter A that we will add to as we go.

I am teaching him to hold the marker like a big boy. The are triangular shaped and they say they are supposed to be easier for little ones to hold correctly.

Drew is looking at his hand and saying "mommy mess." I always tell him when he is eating don't make a mess, because he likes to rub food in his hair, on his clothes, chew up some and then put it in his chair. So now anytime something spills or he is dirty, he will say "oh no, mama, mess."

If he spills something he will say "oh no, mama, mess" and I will say "it is okay, it was just an accident" and he replies "accidents happen." The other thing that he says as an automatic reply that cracks me up is "your welcome" after thank you, even if I am saying thank you sarcastically he says "your welcome."

At the top of the poster in the middle there is a picture of an A with apples around it, that Drew and I colored. I was coloring the apples, I would color one red and told him Drew apples can be red and did the same for yellow and green and then he says to me "apples can be purple" as he is coloring with a purple crayon. Everyday he makes me laugh.

Jillian was playing with the fridge phonics and fridge farm while Drew and I worked on his A poster.

This is Jillian's newest expression. I call it her "Cher Face." It is so funny in person. Maybe she is excited that Cher is making a come back. My leg is blocking her from the markers, crayons and the poster. Babies miss out on all the fun.