No question about Andrew's heritage

Andrew was watching a "Charlie and Lola" cartoon this morning in which Lola is listing all the foods she doesn't like. One of them was cheese.

Andrew said, "She doesn't like cheese? That's impossible!!!"

Two cute thoughts from Andrew

I've had these sitting around on scraps of paper for ages, finally I'm typing them in:

1. Andrew was working on an assignment in school about recycling and coloring in a picture about "saving broken crayons" and he told me how funny it was, because he used a broken crayon to color it in!
2. "Mom, it's amazing, cheese goes well with everything!"

Andrew Can't Decide

A couple of weeks ago we were playing a game of "Who Knew" in which you are given cards with random things listed on them and you have to rank them in order from favorite to least favorite. In one game, Andrew got the following cards (I noted them down and finally have gotten around to typing this):

• Snakes
• The color red
• Bubble bath
• Ping pong

Andrew said something like "Wow, this is so hard! They're all so great I can't decide which I like best!!"

"A good day to be a parent" or "A good parent today"

Andrew fell and hurt his thumb yesterday afternoon while "trying out his new sneakers [trainers]." We visited the pediatrician this morning who sent us for an x-ray (good news - no fracture!)

While Andrew and I were waiting I taught him to play hangman. I gave him some good puzzles, including "Andrew," "Star Wars," and "Harry Potter."

But the ones he did for me were just lovely:

• I love you
• You are a good mom
• You are cool
• I love mom and dad

Ahhh ... 

Andrew Quote of the Day

Andrew was in Red's car, playing some game on the iPad where he's trying to get stuff done but a zombie was getting in the way...

"Go zombie go! How can I catch him with you chasing me? Seriously, zombie, you have to be more sensitive, when someone says 'go', you should go."

Andrew Decorates His Torah Cover

Andrew is having 1st grade consecration at Hebrew school on Sunday morning, and in preparation we had to decorate a piece of felt that they will use for a fancy cover for the 6 inch Torah Scrolls they'll give to him.

He and I finally sat down to work  on his Torah cover this afternoon. I'd bought some fabric paints so he could draw on the felt. And I hunted around all over the house until I could find some Hebrew letter stickers I'd bought ages ago so he could write his name in Hebrew. While I'm hunting through the letters trying to find all the right ones, he's oozing paint all over his cover. I bring the first three letters for his first name - Barak - and tell him that's what the letters spell. And he says, "Mommy, that goes here" and points at some yellow stripes he's painted on the top of his torah cover and then explains to me that they're lightning (we've got a CD of Hebrew songs he loves that have a song about thunder and lightning, and at some point I'd explained to him that was what his first name meant). Pretty cool, huh? But wait, there's more ...

I write the word Barak on a piece of paper so he can put the stickers on in the right order and then he sticks the letters on his Torah cover. And then he points at the letter Bet and says, "Mommy, it's missing the dot that goes in the middle." So he draws one with black paint.

Andrew Singing

Andrew was singing some music (without words) this morning that sounded familiar. I said, "I know that music, it's from Star Wars, isn't it."

Andrew said, "No, it's from Harry Potter. You probably got confused because John Williams wrote both of them."

!!!!

Andrew Lost Teeth - Both Kids Write to Tooth Fairy

Andrew lost a tooth last night (and another this morning!)

Last night he wrote a letter to the tooth fairy. Ali, meanwhile, remembered that she hadn't let the tooth fairy know about a couple of recent lost teeth so she wrote a letter too. Here's their letters (plus a translation for Andrew's

Text of Andrew's letter:

Dear Tooth Fairy, I still want [to keep] my tooth. You might remember where my house is. From Andrew to Tooth [Fairy] This is my second tooth [to fall out].

Andrew's having fun

Andrew was playing on the Wii (video game) tonight and he said to me:

Mommy, want me to tell you something?

The more harder it is the more funner it gets ... and it's really hard!

Andrew's family picture

I asked Andrew to draw a picture to put in our new year's letter. Here it is. Notice the hearts and arrows. Apparently they point at who loves whom the most. Andrew loves daddy the most and everything else follows from there ....

A simple project was a big success

The other night after making marshmallow dreidels with Andrew I had some leftover melted chocolate in two colors. Not wanting to let it go to waste, I made homemade "gelt" (coins) by drawing each of the letters in Alison & Andrew's names out (backwards) on a piece of foil in one color of melted chocolate, and then covering that with a circle to form a coin in another color.

I didn't think much of it ... it was a really simple thing, took me 5 minutes to do. So I didn't even take a picture.

Tonight I gave them to the kids. And got high praise from Andrew:

"My gelt is the goodest chocolate I ever ate. It's so good!!"

:-)

Andrew read a book tonight!

Andrew is very pleased tonight because he read a whole book. Admittedly it only had 4 words in it (two names:"Mat" & "Sam", plus the words "on" and "Sat") but there's a plot and several pages and he read the whole thing! I'm pretty pleased too :-). It's a series of 12 little books: http://www.bobbooks.com/bob_books_set_1.php

When Andrew Grows Up

Andrew recently said that he wanted to be a fireman when he grows up. I asked whether he still wanted to be a guitar player and he said, yes, that too, and we discussed how he could play guitar in the firehouse when they weren't out on calls (I had to reassure him that yes, I was certain you could bring a guitar to a fire station).

Fast forward a week or two. Yesterday Andrew told me that when he was grown up he might go out on his own, for example if he wanted to visit a dog that he wanted to pet or something. But then he would come back home .... "unless I'm doing a show or there's a fire"

Another Andrew Quote

Andrew: "Mommy, Samantha says I'm not cute"
Jennie: "Well, she's wrong, you're adorable"
Andrew: "Mmm hmmm"
Jennie: "You know what adorable means, right, it means you're super extra cute."
Andrew: "Well, I am the cutest one really in my class."
Jennie: "Mmm hmmm"
Andrew: "Yeah, really, I am."

Another March Andrew Quote

Another quote I noted back in March and never typed in. Andrew asked his stuffed dog what is the opposite of up and the dog "said", "woof." Which is indeed the opposite of up in dog language.

Andrew is a "song genius"

Back in March, Andrew said, "I'm actually a song genius."

Andrew Quote ...

"No Mom, it's just sometimes you're a horrible Mom," said Andrew (as I said "I'm a horrible mom" on the phone to another mom ...)

 (A minute later, when I said something about it, he said, "No really, mom, I'm right, you're only horrible sometimes.")

Nice things kids say

Last night Andrew said, "Mommy, why do you always smell nice?"

Our Snowman

Even more snow today ... and some sleet ... great for making a snowman. Here's the result: traditional charcoal eyes (Alison's idea), carrot nose (my idea), button mouth (Andrew's idea), and a paint job (I brought the paints out, but it was the kids that did the painting!

Andrew Stuck in the Snow (From Feb 6th)

19 inches of snow according to the meter stick that Ali brought home from school a few weeks ago (it's got inches on the other side). I ask Andrew if he's ready to go inside ... "Yes but I can't get up"