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!


 

Friday Favorites!

Some FAVORITES from the week!

 Okay, starting off with my FAVORITE instagram post from the week... My girl Andrea had me cracking up with this picture of her little man... the hashtags were hilarious. Loved this and love you, Ange! 

 My next FAVORITE of the week is this kid, who dropped up his KINDERGARTEN registration packet! (well, we dropped it off only to realize we forgot to bring proof of residency and my driver's license is not sufficient enough proof.... #really?! so we had to go back on another visit...). 

 He is going to love kindergarten, I am sure.  He was very apprehensive when we were in the school.  Much more nervous than I was expecting.  His bravery is definitely a FAVORITE this week!

Speaking of nerves.... swim team started this week! These three started out the week beyond ready to get in the water.  By Thursday's practice, only one was in the water...the other was no where to be found and the last was crying on the side, wanting to get in, but only if he could hold a kickboard while his mother stood next to him telling him to get his behind in the water #guesswhichoneisandy

Another FAVORITE this week was having "muffins with moms" with Cal's class on Monday! I had the best time with my buddy.  The kids made each mom a card and a flower pot and we planted flowers in the pot together.  LOVED it!

My sweet furry kids are another FAVORITE this week.  Hankers is the sweetest, most patient dog ever.  Bruce is not.  Bruce is WILD and hyper and exhausting.  Having a puppy is NOT easy! But this moment, on mother's day, when they both snuggled up with me and we all took a little snooze was definitely a FAVORITE of the week.  

They can be EXHAUSTING, but they are so sweet and I can't imagine life without these two love bugs.

I mentioned before a long distance book club with my sweet friends from Aruba... we had our first "discussion" this week!!! We did a 3 way call and talked for over an hour! I took this picture randomly during the phone call, but I took another at the end and we went well over an hour.  

We talked about Saving Grace and Girl on the Train.  I reallllly liked both books and I loved talking about them with these great friends! They are two of my FAVORITES and having his book club is an excuse to actually talk on the phone and catch up too! It bonds us, even though we all live in different states.

The next book we are reading is The Dinner.  I am excited about the book and even more excited about chatting with these too again! If you have any book suggestions, leave them for me! We are keeping a running list of books to read.

So, the school year is almost over, and I have to say, my sweet little mouse class has become one of my FAVORITES.  I love this class! On Thursday, we had camping day.  We set up a tent and the kids made little lanterns and we "camped" out.  After a story, they all laid down and pretended to sleep.  They have become a FAVORITE part of my week and I can't believe I only have ONE more class with these sweet peas.  

 Cal brought this gift home this week:

 It was taken at Muffins with Mom and he made the frame.  I don't care of the picture of me (#couldilookanymorebloated?!) but when he handed it to me, he said "I really wanted to put 'I love my mom' on there, but my teacher said we didn't have enough letters. So maybe you can just pretend it says that too, okay?" And I never want to forget that.  So, this awful picture of me (it's precious of Cal), which has a magnet attached to the back, will live on my refrigerator.

A whooooole bunch of random FAVORITES for the week! Bring on the weekend!