Little Man

Andrew cracks me up.

He is 80% attiTUDE and then 10% lovey dovey and then 10% CRAZY...like the sorta "annoying laugh, out-of-control, reminds you of Jack Nicholson as the Joker in Batman" sort of crazy.

He loves volcanoes... and he loves drawing volcanoes. He will sit and draw volcanoes for 30 minutes. At church he will color volcano coloring pages for 30-45 minutes. I kinda love the independence. We sit and chat while I do my stuff (cleaning, organizing, etc.) and he draws. Today he made volcanoes with "Uncle" Tom and "Aunt" Laurel (my Uncle and Aunt) in the sandbox at a park in Walnut Creek. It was the absolute highlight of his day. If not his week.

He's Mr. Social at camp and loves making new friends. He's also going through a weird separation anxiety stage too... so he'll cry for the first 5-10 minutes whenever I leave him somewhere and he's always saying, "Don't leave me" or "Wait for me" if I go downstairs or leave the room without him. I like that he wants to hang out with me... to a point.

Below is how I feel half the day. Exasperated? The attiTUDE really kills me. Going to bed at 1am every night doesn't really help my patience at all. But he is super cute with Catie and will help try and make her happy if I need to get something done. Though if she is screaming really loud he'll yell, "Chill Catie bug!"

Little man LOVES pencils right now... and just discovered the eraser. He is constantly erasing and telling me what he messed up on and how he needs to erase it. He made a special eraser contraption to help him focus his erasing better.

Andrew and I made banana bread muffins today. I added half a bag of chocolate chips because I'm not a huge banana person and chocolate makes everything better.

When I left the room I came back only to discover that Andrew had grabbed the whole plate from the counter and was trying to stuff as many muffins in his mouth as possible. This is the kid that hates everything and throws a tantrum when I say it is time to eat. He probably ate five muffins... if not more. Success!!

Andrew also loves Legos right now. I am a fan of this obsession. He carries his tubs of Legos all around the house and picks up after himself when it is time to be done playing. I think I have him scared thinking that Cate will steal his toys (or destroy them) if he leaves them out. The Lego guys have names and he makes them talk and they love to build skyscrapers and put out fires.

I'm not a fan of my family room looking like this... but the quiet few minutes I get to wash dishes, make dinner, or play with Cate make up for my frustration.

I love my little Andrew. He is my favorite buddy and despite sharing my stubborn personality, we have a lot of fun together. He is helping me learn a lot about myself and how life is more fun if I'm not always right... or always running the show. He is so good at compromising with me and coming up with good ideas that occasionally I think he acts more mature than I do.

I love my little guy. I cannot believe he is almost 3 1/2! Crazy!