Happy 5th Birthday, Andrew!

Time is flying by with this guy and I can hardly believe he's a full hand's worth of fingers now. Oh how much laughter and silliness he brings to the family. We squeezed in plenty of birthday fun to the Halloween-mix and he loved every minute of it.

His school did their Halloween parade and party on the 30th so it was double the excitement. He was so happy to wear his army costume to school, walk in the parade with his friends, have a special Halloween lunch and then have everyone sing to him. He loved celebrating again later that night with more cake, ice cream and singing.

We celebrated again with our extended family the next weekend with a donut party. He loved the donuts and spending a morning in pj's with his cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. Thanks for all the birthday love!

Things I hope I never forget about this age:

• Every morning he asks for "butter with toast" for breakfast. That boy loves butter.
• His obsession with his lovie. And suckie thumb. Seeing him walk over with his lovie and thumb in his mouth and ask for a cuddle gets me every time.
• The questions and nonstop talking in the car. We talk about so many things while we drive and on the days when he rides quietly and I ask why he's so quiet he says, "Because my mind doesn't have any words right now."
• His reading is phenomenal and still surprises me. He has picked up some of the girls' old starter chapter books and read them no problem. It's amazing!
• How he has to have explanations for how everything works. We have watched him go inspect the sprinklers when they come on, take apart pens and mechanical pencils and so many other things because his little mind just has to know.
• That he insists on falling asleep with his light on every night. I love going in to turn it off every night and seeing him sound asleep with his lovie, blanket or stuffed animal over his eyes because it's too bright. 
• His sneaky nature. This kid sneaks more stuff into his bedroom than you can imagine. Cleaning it is like a treasure hunt. He sneaks in the oddest things too. A 3-hole punch, stapler, scissors, pens and paper. Plus the one time he snuck in (and ate) an individual package of cookies. 
• Ba-roglyphics, as we call them: his little scribbles, drawings, diagrams and maps that he leaves all over the house and insists they are all important and must not be thrown away. 
• His morning greetings. He comes in to see my first thing every morning and remembers any holiday or important event. "Happy Halloween, Mama!", "Happy Thanksgiving, Mama!" and "Happy Spring Break, Mama!" are the sweetest little early morning greetings.
• Hearing him explain all the things he learns at school. He recites what seems like verbatim what he learns about the solar system, animals, the body.... you name it! His little memory is phenomenal.