Our Four-Year Old!

Andrew is four and he's so excited about it!  A lot has changed in his daily life this year and he seems like such a big kid now.

I got a gym membership at the beginning of the year which means that Andrew started going to the Kids' Club there.  He did so well right from the start and he loves going.

Andrew has gone to many of the workshops at Lowes and Home Depot and loves coming home and playing with his project.  He still loves to show off things he made at the beginning of the year.

In October he started going to Little Wildcats preschool.  It's a preschool program run by the child development classes at the high school.  He looks so cute walking in with his big backpack!  It's only for two hours 2-4 days a week, but he has a great time and I can already tell he's learned a bunch.

Andrew loves being a helper and doing his "jobs," which sometimes include picking up toys, helping his brother, helping daddy with house projects, and making lists.  He's a boy after my own heart when it comes to making sure everything goes in its place (well, mostly) when it's time to clean up.

He has been fully day and night potty trained for a while now.  It's so nice that diapers are a thing of the past for him.  He occasionally gets up early to go to the bathroom but he's really good about going back to his room after and getting back in bed.

He's an awesome big brother, and is only getting better at it.  Sometimes when Brandon wakes up in the morning or from his nap, Andrew comes to me and says, "Brandon's awake.  I think he needs me."  It melts my heart a little bit!  Andrew gets a little possessive of his toys sometimes but for the most part he is great at playing with his brother and sharing.

Andrew is so excited to be four years old! He had a fun little party with friends last weekend and we went out for dinner and cupcakes on his actual birthday yesterday. We love Andrew so much and I'm loving seeing how he is growing and learning and becoming more independent.

Ocean City Friendcation

Did you know that "Friendcation" is a thing?  Well it is.  And we went on one.  Get ready for a photo overload because I couldn't narrow them down.

We went with our friends to Ocean City MD for a week at the beginning of June.  We stayed in an oceanfront hotel and it turns out that we went at kind of the ideal time of year.  It was just after Memorial Day so everything was open for the season, but schools weren't out yet so during the week there were very few people around.

We had one really awesome beach day.  The weather was perfect.

We also spent time on the boardwalk, playing at an arcade, and going to a little indoor amusement park for the kids.

We also swam in the hotel pools, ate all kinds of goodies along the boardwalk, and spent a little more time on the beach.

Not pictured: our evening games of Settlers of Catan after the kids went to bed and Morgan being "rescued" by a lifeguard (twice).

It was a really great trip and I'm so glad we did it!

Andrew is 3 1/2!

As usual, I feel like this has been a big six months in my little man's life.  He is now officially old enough for the preschool he's signed up for in the fall!  My baby really is a big boy now!

Since his third birthday Andrew has started Sunbeams at church, instead of going to nursery.  He is one of the youngest in his class but he's also one of the most attentive- he is just such a good listener and a rule follower.  He also aged up to the next class at My Gym.  He's now in an independent class, which means I don't actually go on the gym floor with him (which is great because Brandon is too active to continue sitting in the Ergo for that whole hour) and he's doing so well.  He has started actually talking to his teachers and participating without needing to look to me every time.  And he loves going!

He had his first Valentine this year.  His best friend is a girl and if we ask him if he loves Addie or if she is his girlfriend, he always says yes!  So we made her some hand painted paper flowers for Valentine's Day.  These two are so cute together!

Andrew loves to sing!  He's starting to learn songs from the radio now, especially ones that Aaron and I sing along to, like Stressed Out (21 Pilots) and Hello (Adelle).  He also sings along to our ringtones (Airplanes by BOB and Brave by Sara Bareilles).  That is, of course, in addition to his usual repetoire of the ABC song and other kid songs.  And he sometimes even breaks out singing songs from primary.  He just loves singing!

We finally got Andrew to stop sucking on his fingers at night!  I thought this was going to be super difficult but I got him to sleep with a mitten on his right hand for a while and that broke the habit!  I really wanted him to stop since things like that can start messing with teeth and bite once they get to be three years old.

I know people talk about the terrible threes (and we've definitely had some rough times, especially since he stopped napping) but in general I'm loving this age! Andrew loves being a little helper and he is a great big brother. He loves planes, trains, cars, monsters, dinosaurs, and riding his bike. He has even started voluntarily eating vegetables! I sure love this boy of mine!

One Year Old!

Brandon is a whole year old! Time sure passes quickly sometimes.

Just a couple days after his eleven month birthday he walked across a room and hasn't stopped walking since! He's such a determined kid, I'm not too surprised that he just took off.

Other than that Brandon hasn't had a lot of new experiences this month.  We were cooped up for a while because of snow, and we've otherwise been busy with normal life stuff.  We're working on phasing out the bottles in favor of sippy cups and getting ready to replace the formula with milk. He's measuring at the 50th percentile for weight, 80th for height (what?), and 30th for head circumference.

We just did a small celebration for Brandon's birthday with our little family. We went out to dinner, where Brandon got his first free birthday meal, and ate cake at home, which he devoured.

We love our little boy and are loving watching him grow from baby to toddler.  He's had a great year!

Snow Storm!

We had a pretty big snow storm this week! We measured about 27 inches of snow in our yard.

We got all prepared with firewood and lanterns but fortunately we didn't lose power.  Andrew had a blast going out to shovel with Daddy, wearing his new snowpants.

Brandon and I mostly stayed inside, but we ventured out once to play.  Brandon hated it so we didn't last long.

The storm happened over the weekend, but Aaron still got a couple of snow days since it took so long for our neighborhood to get plowed.  I was glad to have him cooped up at home with us rather than having him driving on dangerous roads.  It ended up being a fun weekend at home!