Happy birthday, Andrew!!!!

Helping Peter see the snakes.

He's such a good big brother :). 

Andrew is turning ten :)!!! Andrew is a goofy, very rambunctious boy, haha :). He is also often the first to jump up when something is needed. Andrew loves to make breakfast for us, and his specialties are muffins and eggs. Actually, he just generally loves to cook, as he jumps at the chance to make us mac'n'cheese cassarole for supper, and help Daddy with hamburgers :). For years now he has been begging Mama to let him make hamburgers whenever Daddy has been out of town on a business trip, even if he has to make them on the stove. While Mama was trying to come come up with fun and easy meals to eat while our friend was here, she told me, "Well, I guess we'll have Andrew cook hamburgers one night while Daddy's gone." Andrew heard her and gave a little jump as he exclaimed "OOOOO!!!!"
"Inside," Mama said.
"Oh," he said shortly. "Why CAN'T I use the grill? I'll be careful!" If you give him an inch he'll go for a mile ;). So we had very yummy hamburgers made INside ;).

Andrew also loves to make things (except origami dolls.... ;) ). Putting together model planes, making something out of cardboard and glue, helping Daddy with any little wood working or house fixing, he loves it all (I found him the other day tightening the fridge handle that was coming loose without any prompting!). He says he wants to build houses when he gets older, and so Bethi and her friend have recruited him to build one for them, haha :). He shares a room with the two little boys, and let me tell you, sleeping with Josiah is no small feat, haha! They have a lot of fun playing with their knight sets and suction cup bows and arrows together. Josiah is typically the runner for Andrew, collecting his arrows, so they make a great team ;). They also love to play ball together (though most of us know no rules). Andrew got to go to his first baseball game with Grandpa this summer, and he loved it :). He now knows so much about the game rules... and I'm just like, what is this language, haha!

As I'm writing this out, I'm also trying to convince Josiah to go around the table rather than over it, and it made me giggle as I remembered how horrified and terrified Mama was the first time 18-month old Andrew ran across the table to get to his seat because it was quicker (he's always been a boy... but then, Abbi did it too... hahaha!). It doesn't seem that it's been so long since he was that little. I remember finding out he was on the way, and how excited we were for a baby boy. I remember sitting on the floor with Tori helping him work on crawling, and how he used to giggle when she would squeak, haha :).  When he was little, he would give what he called "gentlemen high fives" which was where he gave ladies the gentlest, slowest, softest high fives he could, so as not to hurt them, and he LOVED to bring Mama "stick bouquets". He was so excited when Peter arrived, and he was no longer the only boy, and now he has three little buddies :)! Now he's in his double digits, and it's hard to believe!

Happy birthday, Andrew, I love you!