Andy at 3

Our little guy is 3!  Is that sounding old or what? Cameron and I can't get over how adorable and fun this age is.  (Please stop growing up, Andy!) Andy has the same personality he's always had--excited, happy, social, life of the party, opinionated, stubborn.  It's so fun to see how all that manifests itself at this age.

• He still says hi to everyone, everywhere we go.  Absolutely no social fears.  He loves spending time with friends.  (And he calls everyone around his age a friend.)  I think he'll always have a lot of friends. I think he's pretty socially intelligent for a toddler. :)  He's already good at approaching people and finding common ground:  "Hi friend!  I Andy!  Ooo, car on your shirt?  Look, I gotta pocket on my shirt!"  
• He is the most excited person I have ever met.  He is thrilled about every aspect of life, big or small.  "Yay! My plate and cup are the same color!"  "Yay! Go to the store!" And he makes me feel like a million bucks every morning when he first sees me--he is so dang excited.  
• He loves his daddy.  The highlight of his day is when Cameron gets home from work.  He's always jumping up and down screaming, "Daddy!!!!!!!"  Then, they play in the backyard together and water the garden.  It's the cutest thing ever. 
• He is still super heavy and super tall.  Near 100% for both.  
• He loves to play in the backyard.  He rides his bikes around, kicks balls, throws balls, runs in circles, sidewalk chalk, jumping, paints with water.  Really, anything active. He is 100% boy.  
• He loves baths. 
• He loves going to the park.  Sometimes he's really brave and sometimes he's not.  He's gotten really confident at the park just around the corner, but when he's somewhere new he wants to hold my hand.  He loves to swing and says, "I'm an airplane! I'm a bird! I'm as high as the clouds!" 
• He loves swimming.  We have a Seven Peaks pass, and it's basically the best thing that's ever happened to him.  He just wants to swim in the deep end and begs me to go on the big slides.  He's not loving the splash pad right now (he's very cautious there), but I'm hoping he'll get more brave as the summer goes on.  
• He is so silly and has the cutest sense of humor.  He's very into slapstick.  It's fun to makes jokes you know he'll think are funny.  Like last night, his Pooh Bear fell on his book while we were reading, which he thought was hilarious.  And then I said, "Pooh is trying to eat your book!  He must be so hungry!" And...Andy was giggling so hard he could barely breathe.  I love his sweet, simple sense of humor. :)  
• He's really become a lot more academically interested.  He likes doing "school," which is basically where we sit and focus on a letter.  He's not great at writing letters (other than "A," which he's got down pat!), but he's great at identifying letters, which we do in random magazines.  It's so fun to have him point out letters he sees as we go around town..."Look mom!  It's an A!  I see it!  On the sign!"  He's got them down pretty well through L and then a few random ones after that.  We used to work on shapes, but he's so good at those now we've moved on.  He's great at pointing shapes out as we go about our days, "Look mom!  It's like a triangle!" He still struggles in the color category, but is getting better.  He calls red "fire truck" and yellow "dump truck".  I'm loving watching him learn!  I feel so grateful to be his teacher.  I'm looking forward to doing joy school with him in the fall.   
• He loves our car.  He calls it his new car.  (Even though it's 4 months old now.)  It's white, and when he sees anything that's white, he says, "white, like my new car!" The cutest/strangest thing is that he kisses the car about half the times he sees it.  
• His favorite color is orange.  But what's strange is that if you ask him to pick out a sucker or something, he always picks the lame colors. White, brown, etc.  
• His favorite foods are bread with butter (and every square inch better have butter), cheese, apples, eggs, PB&J sandwiches, pizza, pasta...really, he'll eat anything we're eating. He's improved so much.  He's a BIG eater.  He has frosted mini wheats for breakfast pretty much every morning.  His favorite thing in the world is when there are two stuck together--those are called "big ones."  And very rarely, you'll find a true treasure: when there are three stuck together, which is called, "Woah! a GIANT ONE!!!!!!"  
• He's so affectionate and sweet.  He tells us all day that he loves us.  He's confused about the meaning of, "I miss you," and says it whether he's been with you all day or not.  It's just a term of endearment for him.  There's nothing sweeter than when he all of a sudden says, "I miss you, mama."  
• He loves to sing songs.  He makes up all sorts of silly songs.  Once he wanted to sing a poo poo song, so I made one up.  It's stuck around and is one of his favorites. :)  He also loves to sing, "I am a Child of God."  He also loves "My Heavenly Father Loves Me," which he calls "The Birdy Song."  He likes when I sing it to him before bed and rub his belly.   And he loves to sing, "Let It Go."  (Who doesn't?!)  His absolute favorite song is, "Happy Birthday."  He sings it to himself year round.  He asks me to sing it to him before bed.  He sings it to Max when Max is sad.  
• He loves to play with friends.  He's played well for the most part, but is starting to be a little territorial.   
• He loves to cook and spend time with me in the kitchen.  Whenever I start making something, he brings his stool in so he can help me.  He knows what all the basic ingredients are.  He loves to dump in the ingredients, and does a great job.  I'll always treasure making bread with him.  
•  I'm loving that I'm not terrified to leave him in a room by himself anymore.  He still gets into trouble, but for the most part he uses objects the way they're intended to be used.  So...no more monitors in the toilet.  Phew.  I'm also loving how much more reasonable he is at this age.  He still throws his fits, but there are definitely less.  I think this is partially because he can now communicate pretty much anything he wants to say. His big crying fits are usually after his nap for no apparent reason.  He usually sobs for twenty minutes straight and then all of a sudden says, "I better now!" and instantly is all smiles, carrying on like nothing ever happened.  
• He loves to go to Costco, which he calls "The Hot Dog Store!"  (Yes, he usually gets a hot dog there and polishes off the entire thing.)  He recognizes the Costco logo everywhere.  
• He still naps most days.  2-3 hours.  (Yes, I'm lucky and grateful.) It happens 4-5 days a week.  The other days he just has quiet time in his room.  He goes to bed about 8 PM and wakes up about 6:30 or 7 AM.  He's so great at going to bed; it never takes too long.  We pretty much just pray, read a book (two books if it's dad putting him down), and maybe read a song.  He likes to turn the light off with his toes.  And then he's good to go.  
• He is so sweet to Max.  He's always bringing him toys, a binky, etc.  He sings him songs when he's sad.  He's always excited to see him first thing in the morning.  If he's not around, Andy always asks where he is.  
• He's still a fan of the something.  (AKA watching TV.) He loves Bubble Guppies, Paw Patrol, and Mickey.  
• He's developing some manipulation techniques.  He says, "One more minute!" ten times a day.  And he magically gets hungry the second we tell him it's time for bed.  ;)  He also whispers when he's asking for something he think he won't get.  No idea where that comes from. 
• As always, he can throw some killer tantrums.  I actually feel like they're a little bit better, but it's still once or twice a day.  He usually has a hard time waking up from his nap and cries for twenty minutes after.  He always snaps out of his fits all of a sudden and then says, "I better now!"  And then he acts like it all never happened, carrying on his way.  
• His language is so good for the most part, but he still has some crazy words and phrases.  Example #1: About half the time, he calls apples, "Apple Penis!" It's particularly inconvenient at the grocery store when he yells it at the top of his lungs when he spots apples.  I have absolutely no idea where he got this from.  I'm pretty sure one of my sisters taught it to him to be funny/annoying.  Example #2: He has this frisbee type thing he likes to throw around.  He calls it "Dirty Dan."  What the heck? He also says, "Ta da!!!" to show me things multiple times a day.  Too cute.  He went through a few weeks when he repeatedly asked to "go up the mountain."  Nothing we did seemed to qualify.  Who knows what he meant?
• He's started to do introductions, which is adorable.  Someone came over today, and he said, "This is my brother Max.  And this is my mommy."  He also introduced Brendan (Cameron's brother) to Cameron, which was cute: "Brendan, this is my daddy."  
• He loves to look at pictures and videos of himself on our phones.  And he can maneuver around the iphone perfectly.  And he takes lots of random pictures on my phone.  
• He loves clothes.  He's always pointing out his "new shoes" to people.  He's very excited about all his shirts and has a way to refer to each one: "my pirate shirt!," "my superman shirt!," "my race car shirt!," "my polar bear shirt!" He also loves helping me with laundry and very carefully puts the folded clothes in his drawers.  
• He loves to help in general.  It makes him feel important and like a big boy.  He loves to empty the silverware from the dishwasher.  He loves to carry groceries in from the car.  
• As always, he's very mischievous and gets into a fair amount of trouble.  It makes life exciting though, right? 

I don't think we could possibly adore our Andy any more than we do.  He's such a light in our lives, and brings such a vitality to every minute of every day.  

It's impossible to get good pictures of him at this age, but here are a few attempts!

Can you spot Andy? Here he is playing hide and seek.

Awww. 

He still loves to sort things.

Water painting.

He has done this multiple times.  He helps himself to whatever he can find while I'm showering.

He loves wearing this hat, and I love him in it.

He loves to exercise with me.  And he does the cutest push-ups I've ever seen. 

Not many toddlers have mastered 4 inch heels.  We're very proud.