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Andrew has really been surprising us over and over in the past few months. He is becoming more and more analytical, and is getting better with all of his skills. Not only is he learning to sort shapes and colors, but he is also progressing in learning his numbers (counting 1 through 20, and now backwards, too), his alphabet (can recognize uppercase and lower case letters), and he’s even learning how to spell his name!

Here are some things he’s been doing recently:

Back in May, he put finally learned to put all his blocks in order, and build something that’s even bigger than him!

Then we noticed that he’s beginning to match colors.

He’s always been fascinated with patterns, and here he puts things in a straight line.

Somewhere along the way, he’s learned that the vowels are different than the consonents. He picked these letters all by himself, and put them in order! What’s even more surprising? He next went and got “Y” to put at the end!

Andrew attended the Fall Festival at daycare this year as a little dragon…

Mama and her little dragon.

Andrew: “What? I have a tail?!”

Andrew dragon meets Katie monkey!

Even fierce little dragons have to stop and eat dinner.

Ernst & Young usually holds an office get-together in the summer, and it’s been a couple of years since we’ve been back to Washington Park. The turnout was great, and there were a TON of kids running around!

Andrew decides that apple-flavored milk tastes better than apple juice or plain milk on their own. Andrew’s dad is understandably disgusted at that display!

Running around in the park, AND ice cream? Does it get any better than this?

Andrew’s favorite part of the whole picnic.

We were invited to celebrate baby Elaine’s first birthday! Andrew had a great time hanging out with his friends Elaine, Michael, and Rachael.

Kelly and Janelle put up a wading pool in the backyard, and all the kids had fun splashing around – perfect for the hot weather we’ve been having.

The stars of the evening — Kelly, Janelle, and baby Elaine.

Andrew’s grandparents came for a visit in July. They spent a week in Colorado, and was able to take a scenic drive through the Colorado Rockies while they were here! On top of that, we got to do a bunch of things around home, including taking Andrew for his first basketball practice…

Andrew goes in for the score!

We also celebrated Grandpa’s birthday while he was in town!

We had a BBQ at Kelvin and Adah’s house to celebrate the 4th of July. This year, the holiday fell on a Wednesday, which makes for a short workweek! The weather had been in the 90′s all week, but it did cool down a bit today, just in time for some outdoor fun!

Grillmaster K works the lambkabobs.

Time to explore!

A tricycle made for two?

Future model Michael.

Oh how I wish it were true. On a stormy summer afternoon, it felt like you could literally reach out and touch the rainbow from our back yard.

Andrew’s daycare had a summer celebration party this year, and Andrew is finally big enough to do some of the activities.

Andrew: “Ducky!”

Jumping is fun!

They cleared out the big kids so the toddlers can have their turn.

Sometimes, when you’re having fun, you want to share with mommy!

As they say… what goes up, must come down…

We went to the Build-a-Bear Workshop for Andrew’s second birthday. Actually, it was more because Andrew’s mom wanted to build a bear for herself, but…

We had a great time with the Chungs, and even little Rachael came along!

Excited about building a bear!

The bear gets filled with stuffing, and Andrew gets filled with wonder.

The tag on the little plastics hats says “One size fits most.” Andrew’s noggin doesn’t fall into the “most” category anymore.

Michael and Andrew with their new buddies.

The boys with their bounty. This picture somehow reminds me of all the times that men have carried home their prizes, all the way back to cavemen dragging dinner back to the cave (don’t ask me why…).

Our prize: Andy Bear.

Kelvin and Stephen: “So, what do you think about this Blackberry?”
Michael and Andrew: “So, what do you think of this milk?”

While Andrew’s grandparents were in town, we visited the Denver Children’s Museum. We last took Andrew there for his first birthday, and it was amazing to see all the new things that he’s learned over the last 10 months, including a bunch of concepts that took mankind eons to fully understand:

Written alphabet: “A…B…C…”

Magnetism: “Hmm, I can get the ball to follow my wand…”

Inclined plane: “Hey, I got screwed!”

Gravity: “No matter how fast I move my feet, one always come down to the ground after the other.”

Andrew gets the traditional red envelope from his grandparents, who visited for Chinese New Year.

Yeah, like Jack Nicholson cool… yeah…

We upheld tradition again this year by staying downtown for New Year’s Eve, but this time it was even better since we were joined by Kelvin, Adah, and Michael! Nothing rings in the new year better than a tummy full of good sushi, so we headed to Sushi Den for dinner. Denver has two fireworks shows on New Year’s Eve, one at midnight (of course!) and one at the family-friendly time of 9pm. This year, we had the best room ever at the Westin, overlooking not only 16th Street, but directly to the building where they were launching the fireworks. Andrew and Michael definitely had fun while waiting for the fireworks to start!

Peek-a-boo! Who sees whom?

This moment only lasted for half a second, but it sure looks like they’re reading together, doesn’t it?

December 2006 was the third snowiest December on record for Denver. We were socked with two storms in a week, which in total left our house with more than 36 inches of snow. It was a nightmare trying to keep up with the shoveling – definitely a back-breaking exercise. After the sun finally came out, Andrew got a chance to explore this winter wonderland!

Andrew: “Hmm… what is this white stuff?”

*Touch*

Andrew: “Yikes! Cold, cold, cold!”

Our intrepid snow explorer.

With the first blizzard, the snow drifts were 6-7 feet high in places, and after moving all that snow over to the lawn, it literally made for a small mountain of snow!