The Andreucci Family: January 2009

We painted with pudding this morning and Payton absolutely loved it! I was hoping he would finger paint, and he did at first until he figured out that his hands were sticky and dirty. He said, "Mommy, hands goss!" So, I had to clean off his hands and get out a paint brush. Oh well! For those of you who don't know Payton all that well, he can't stand to be dirty in any way! If he even has a crumb on his hands he flips out until someone gets it off. His Aunt Nicole calls him Monk (from the USA show about the insane clean freak LOL!). Once he got his paint brush, he had a blast! He was just as interested in eating the pudding as he was in painting with it. He would dip his brush in it and paint, then dip it back in and put it in his mouth. One for the paper, one for his mouth, one for the paper, one for his mouth........ It was so funny to watch him! I posted a few pictures and a video of him painting. Please excuse his grungy clothes that are just a tad too small...I didn't want to get food colored pudding on any of his good clothes! ;-)

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year! Ours has come with some changes. Rich is no longer working for the City of Manor. He got a better paying job in Sunset Valley! (It is in South West Austin in the Oak Hill area.) It is going to be a little tough on us because he has gone from working 6 am to 4 pm, Monday through Thursday to working 8 pm to 6 am Saturday through Tuesday, but I can already tell he is going to be so much happier at this new department, so Payton and I will adjust just fine to his move! :-)

School started back up for me this past week at Texas State, and with only 3 more semesters to go, I can really see the light at the end of the tunnel!!! I go on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday evenings and my Mom, Nicole, and Kit have all volunteered to help me with Payton on those days. I am really enjoying my classes this semester. There is no more memorizing boring Physics facts to take a test just to forget them right after, and no more sitting and listening to a professor lecture and taking endless notes on boring things I don't care about! My classes this semester are really training me on how to do what I want to do, teach! I am getting my degree and certification in Early Childhood through grade four, and I plan on teaching elementary for a year or so, then I want to take the test to be certified in math. I want to teach math at the secondary level, preferably high school.

Payton seems to never stop talking these days. He has gotten quite the little attitude on him now. If he doesn't like something you're doing, he will let you know very quickly! His favorite TV shows right now are Max and Ruby and America's Funniest Home Videos. He says "Max and Ruby" very clearly, but he calls America's Funniest Home Videos "Uh Oh's" because someone is always falling down or getting hurt. ;-) I think one of the funniest things he does right now is recognizing car symbols. Rich drives a Ford, so every time he sees a Ford of any kind he says "Daddy's car!" Every time he sees a Mazda he says "Mommy's car"... a KIA he says "Ganna's car" (he calls my mom Granna)...a Nissan he says "Tony's truck" (Anthony is Tony to Payton)...and so on! I was just amazed that he recognizes those symbols because it doesn't have to be the same model of car that the person drives for him to say it! Well, I guess that is all for now. I am posting a few pictures of Payton below!

He is looking for tadpoles in a little puddle of water.