New Bedding

Since the new baby will be here really soon (a little less than 9 weeks), we bought Andre a toddler bed, and I made Andre some new bedding, which I am very proud of. Andre likes dogs very much, so the bedding has dogs all over it. I made a fitted sheet, pillow case, and a quilt. I have never made a quilt before in my life, but I think it turned out pretty cute, considering that I made up the pattern myself. So here is the end result:

I have been trying to put Andre down for his naps in the new bed, but he just thinks it's a game and gets out of it everytime as soon as I shut the door. He napped there once, and only because he fell asleep in the car, and I managed to put him down in his new bed without waking him up. Last night we tried to put him down for the night, after many times of putting him back in bed he finally fell asleep, but unfortunately woke up screaming at about 1 am, so then I just put him in his crib. If any of you have any experience/advice/suggestions - all are welcome. I don't have much time left to transition him. Help!!!

And since Andre does not have much appreciation for his new bedding or bed - he is only interested in using it as a trampoline:

Aspiring Picasso

So this post might not be so exciting for most of you, but I think my Mom will appreciate it. Andre recently started enjoyng drawing with crayons. Since we did not go anywhere today, I decided to have him draw pictures. I have to supervise him (as soon as my hand is off the crayon box he tries to dump them all out), I just hold the box and he pulls out a crayon, with me constantly reminding him - "Andre, one at a time"- draws and then surprisingly puts the crayon nicely back into the box. Another funny thing is that he uses either of his hands to draw, switching of most of the time, and sometimes he does both hands at the same time. Here are a few of his creations:

Sunday Best

Look at our GQ model. Doesn't he look adorable with his hand in his pocket? (it was not staged)He also had matching black shoes, but by the time we decided to take a picture, they were off.
Our cute little guy
One of those rare times when Andre decides to cuddle.

So true

The Getty Museum

Ryan was here last week for job training and he came to stay with us on Friday. We decided to go to the Getty museum, which is only 5 miles away from our house. For those of you who have never been there - it's a wonderful museum with many different exhibits, which include famous masterpieces by many famous artists - Van Gogh, Raphael, Rambrandt, Monet, etc. We had a great time there. We decided to go on a short guided highlights tour. Andre didn't last too long, so I had toleave and go play with him outside, while Jeff and Ryan continued with the tour and then also went on their own to look at the paintings.

Andre loved the ride up on the tram from the parking garage to the museum
The view from the museum onto Century City (closer skysrapers) and downtown LA (far skyscrapers)Andre and I got only to be in the 2 rooms of the museum, though got to see more famous works of art. The one above is a piece by Claude Monet - "Wheatstacks".

This paintins is famous "Irises" by Van Gogh. The museum acquired this piece for $60 million and it is the most requested piece to see at the museum.

Since Andre didn't want to sit in the stroller any longer and started getting loud, I took him out. Luckily themuseum has a room for kids, where they can do some creative projects connected with the exhibits.
Andre enjoyed playing with swivel mirrors

This section was set up like one of the antique furniture bed pieces in the museum. You could sit down there and read a book. As you can tell Andre preferred bouncing.

This is the opposite side of the mirror room, where they had a bunch of magnetic cutouts of animals, that you could arrange any way you want. Here Andre is deciding on the placement of the bunny.

Here they had a bunch of dry-erase markers and you could draw on the wall with them. It had enlarged piece of beautiful book penmanship/art, with some empty spots to fill in. Andre went crazy.

One of the other rooms, where they had this soft tubing, and holes in the wall, so you could rearrange and connect it in many different ways.

After playing - snack time

Talking

These are only a few of the many words Andre says these days. (You might turn your volume up a bit, as you can barely hear Andre over the engine noise.)

Anything will go...

As of recently Andre decided he wasn't going to take 'formal' naps - that is he refuses to go and lay down in his bed and take a nap. However the kid is still tired, so he acquired a habit of falling asleep in random places, one of which (pictured here) is timeout corner. Man, you know the kid has it good, when he falls asleep in timeout - should I be stricter about it?

В последнее время Андрей решил, что дневной сон - не для него. Точнее, он плачет и кричит когда я его заставляю леч в его кровать, но поскольку он все еще уставший он засыпает в самых необычных и неудобных местах. Наглядный пример - в углу, а коврик очень все смягчает - сладких снов...