Happy 4th Birthday, Andy!!!

Oh, my sweet Nug. How can you be 4 years old?? Weren't you JUST born?

This little blue gingham outfit is in his "bin." The bin of all the stuff I can't give away.  I love it.  

 

 I remember taking this picture like it was yesterday.  Praying Cal wouldn't decide to see what would happen if he just let go.  Thankfully he had a pretty good grip on his little brother.  He keeps hanging on too...thankfully.

 

 When I was starting this post, I told myself I would limit it to 10 pictures.  Yeah right.  I have wayyyy too many pictures of this kid to only pick 10.  So there's about 50 in this post.  Whatever. 

This boy is awesome.  He is frustrating and anxiety-filled, and difficult.  But he is also loving, and wonderful, and funny, and he makes me SO happy every day.  

Andy has more personality in his pinky than most have in their whole body.  He's got a great sense of humor and is always cracking us up.  His music teacher said to me last week: "boy, that kid has some personality on him, doesn't he?!" Apparently he was putting on a show in music class.

Andy adores his big brother-- and adores fighting with him! When we asked Andy what he wanted to do for his birthday dinner, he asked Cal which one he would rather do between two places.  They can fight like crazy, but they also love each other way more than I could ever pray that they would.  And it makes my heart happy.

There are times, when Andy is in mid-meltdown, that yelling just makes it worse.  The only thing to get him to calm down is to hug him.  He doesn't respond well to yelling, but you hug him close and he will calm down.  He is quick to apologize when he is wrong and can not stand anyone to be mad at him.  He always wants to hug it out.

He's going into pre-k next year.  At the start of his current year, I could NOT imagine he would be ready for pre-k after a year.  But he totally is.  He loves school and loves his teachers.  I am excited for him to go next year and learn even more! The below picture is one of my favorites... those blonde curls did me in.

He got a pretty bad haircut a while ago and the curls were gone.  And his blonde turned dirty blonde in the winter.  Maybe come summer, both will be back. 

I mean.... it's pretty hard not to fall in love with this smile...

Andy still isn't a great sleeper. He wakes up a few times a night.  Usually he can't find his pillow (which is usually about 6 inches from his face) and wants me to show him it.  It is annoying, yes.  I do love kissing those cheeks when I go in there though.  I love those sweet cheeks. 

Andy lives in "fast shorts" which is any kind of athletic shorts.  He prefers wearing shorts and a tee shirt-- usually sans underwear....! I do love him in a bowtie though...

Andy is sensitive. I think it's because he has a big heart.  He wants to please people and gets upset when people are not happy with him.  

As sweet as he is, he doesn't hesitate to beat the tar out of his brother.  Often.  It can get ugly. It usually is real ugly, to be honest.   I know it is totally brotherly "love" and typical.  We keep warning Cal to watch it (because Cal totally eggs it on), because one day, Andy will be bigger than him.  He is catching up quickly.  His shoe size is one size smaller than Cal's and his hands are already bigger than Cal's.  He's going to be a biggin, I believe. 

Andy has discovered a love of basketball.  He loves "shooting hoops" in the driveway and can do it for a long time before he tires of it.  

 While Andy can be very feisty, he is also SO SO sweet.  He can throw out a "your hair looks really bad like that..." but a few minutes later, he will walk into my room and randomly say, "mommy, I love you so much!" Bless his heart.

Nug is VERY excited to be 4.  He's been talking about it for a while now- hahahaha

To my sweet Steven Andrew:
I love you with every ounce of my being.  You completed our family and you bring so much fun and spunk to life everyday.  We can not imagine life without your FUN self! I hope you continue showing concern for others and working hard to make them smile-- just like you do now.  I adore you and I adore your hugs, which you hand out freely and often.  I dread the day that you stop throwing your arms around my neck in a hug.  I also pray that you will never stop sporadically telling me you love me-- even if that means you have to tell me my hair looks bad too. I'll take it.  (it probably really does look bad). You do not like when I call you my little boy...but you are, buddy.  You will always be my little boy.  You are my sweet cuddle bug and you nestle right in to my side and don't move an inch.  Just so we can be close.  And you know what, buddy? I absolutely love it.  I can't bring myself to think of when you won't want to do that.  And I try to always snuggle with you when you ask...because what if that's the last time you want to snuggle?? I want to soak up every bit of your love. I can only hope this next year is filled with fun and adventure. I am looking forward to doing life with you.  You make me SO SO happy-- thank you for being you, Nug.  
love, momma

 He's FOUR!