Andrew is 4 years, 8 months old

PICTURES:

ART PROJECTS:

ANDREW THIS MONTH:

- Loves Logan and babies.  He has latched away from his love of Seth and now loves Logan and wants to talk to him and hold him and play with him all the time.  Same way with other little babies, too.  It’s sweet, but a little hard on Seth.

- Easier to rationalize with, but always wants his own way.  But he is starting to “get stuff” when we talk about stuff.  Like, I told him how much it means to Katsu if it is cleaned up when he gets home, and Andrew has started cleaning up really well.  When he is motivated, he really is motivated.  He does his chores thoroughly (although not that happily) and even asked for more jobs.  We’ll have to come up with something.  Oh, and he is finally realizing what the idea of a bubble is!  Or at least, he knows I have a very large bubble.

- Sees to be expanding some of friends at school, but still working on social skills.  He mentions playing with some of the boys (yeah!), though he still loves the girls.  He still gets really upset whenever he feels like someone is breaking the rules (like, the boys gets ahead of him in line or more legitimately pushing him).  He is having a hard time at playgrounds, though- he doesn’t want other kids to be there, doesn’t want to play with anyone but Seth and then is mean to other kids.  We are working on it, but I think he is just bringing a lot of aggression at having a new baby onto those situations.

- Getting better at riding bike, kicking, throwing.

- Loves to joke, have fun and cause a little trouble.  If he can do something to make him laugh, he will.

- Loves to watch self in mirror.  It is SO frustrating because their closet has mirrors on it, and when I am trying to get through to him about some discipline issue, he just looks at himself in the mirror.

- Really getting better at writing and is starting to learn some spelling / reading.  He loves this new scrabble game he got (thanks Kiyo and Hiroko) and wants to play it all the time.  His drawing is also so much better than it used to be.  He is always coming home from preschool with cards for people – like one said “I love you Martha.  Thank you” for our neighbor.  He says he doesn’t play enough at preschool, but I am pretty sure that he spends a lot of free time writing.

- He loved spending time with relatives, particularly Grandpa and Meghan.  One day, he started crying because he was going to miss seeing his aunt so much.  So cute.  Of course, he also cried when our vacation started because he was going to miss his preschool friends so much.  And was hugging all his friends.  He is an affectionate guy.  He also enjoyed spending time with his uncle Danny – who was trying to teach him all about army people and World War II.

- Andrew has been having stomach aches almost every day.  His preschool teachers said that I needed to spend more one-on-one time with him (I’ve been trying!).  Poor guy.  I think it is mostly psychological (gets to go down to the nurse), but I hope it’s not physical.  He does tell me he needs to eat more fruit and vegetables.  Which is good, because he is a lot more fussy about his food.

- Loved our trip to Texas but was glad to be home, too.

FUN THINGS THIS MONTH:

- Andrew’s Christmas program at school.  He was Joseph in the Living Nativity; his headdress was bugging him a little bit, but he was cute.  They also sang some Christmas songs.

- Winter craft day at the Library.  The boys made bird feeders out of sort-of-stale bread, but you would think they were starving because they were both eating SO much bread!  They made some pretty nice paper chains, too, but afterwards, Andrew wanted to put everything he made on the tree, even the pictures that he colored.

- Cookie Decorating Party at a friend’s house.  Andrew had so much fun and just sat and decorated cookies for like 30 minutes.  He was in love with the pretty colors (pink and purple) and the pink candy corn.

- Ward Christmas party, theme of Back to Bethlehem.  Andrew had fun winning a dreidel and making wax candles.  But we were all tired, so we got out early.

- Silver Dollar City on the way to Dallas.  Andrew loved all the Christmas lights and riding the rides.  The kids weren’t too impressed with the shows, but it was a fun little trip.  Of course, the kids probably enjoy going to McDonald’s on the way almost as much.

- CHRISTMAS!!!  We watched the Muppets movie the night before.  And left cookies out for Santa.  (Though the boys refused to ever see Santa and tell him what they wanted in case he changed his mind).  Andrew had a bit of a hard time because he felt like some of Seth’s presents were cooler than his.  I was a little worried because it seemed like he didn’t get the presents he wanted (like the pink Trio set).  But now I can see he loves all the presents he got – candies, a race car Trio set from Santa, dress up hats from Mom, dress up clothes from Sarah and Danny, Lincoln logs from Grandma and Grandpa, a new outfit from Grandma Clo and Grandpa Dick and some toy people from the Book of Mormon, and a big slide and horse from Ji and Ba.

- Rest of Texas.  Grandpa took Andrew on outings everywhere – feeding the ducks, to the park, around town – he had SO much fun.  He also loved playing with the toys at Grandma and Grandpa’s house.  And spending time with the relatives.  Also, he got to experience playing old school video games (sigh!) – Mario and Duck Hunt.  And dancing along with us to Just Dance 3 (of course, he called it a “workout video”).  And going out for ice cream! 

- New Years!  We threw a little party with everyone and the boys at 6:30ish before the boys went to bed after having yummy appetizers.  The boys loved making so much noise!!!  The next day, Katsu gave the boys traditional new years money (otoshidama).  Andrew is starting to get more interested in money, though he says he wants to earn more so he can give it all to poor people.

- Trip to the zoo and the science center (finally getting out after having Logan).