Guess who's two!

It's Andy-pants!

What? Who?

Wait, it's me?

Oh yeah!  Happy Birthday to meeeeee!  Hahahahahaaaaaa!

Wow.  Such fancy.  Very cake decorating skilz.  Amaze.

"Andy, smile!"  *click*

ERRbody knows the icing is the best part.  The ONLY part, really.

Andy's birthday was a week ago Saturday.  We invited some friends over in the morning for a "very informal birthday-playdate-with-cake."  (That translates to: "Please don't worry about presents since I'm only calling you about this three days before the fact.")  After a frantic morning of vacuuming up most of the leaves tracked inside and making sure the downstairs bathroom didn't smell funny (I have a 4yo boy -- 'nuff said), the girls decorated with copious balloons and a wall of streamers while I prepped snacks.  (I made caramel sauce to dip apples in!  Go me!)  The kids played, the grownups talked philosophy, we forced the kids to stop playing so they could eat, we sang to Andy, we had cupcakes.  Then everyone went home and Andy took a nice long nap.  Great two-year-old birthday!

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Andy is a funny kid.  He began walking exactly a year ago, on his first birthday, and I think he's hardly sat down since.

except here, to ride Katie's unicorn pillow pet -- which is just right for him!

 He will sit down to eat, though, unlike Katie who had to have drive-by dinner or else she would have starved.

Whenever he's hungry, he asks for "Os", which usually means shredded wheat.

 He is turning out to be similar in temperament to Jojo, which is going to be just lots and lots of fun as they grow up together.  (Can you hear the sarcasm dripping from my fingers?)  He has a short fuse and tends to be strong-ish willed, and his most common way of expressing frustration with the universe (or his brothers) is by shrieking.  (Joseph's preferred method of expression is roaring like the Incredible Hulk.)  Once I heard a loud noise and couldn't tell if it was Andy shrieking or the tea kettle boiling.  No joke.

these two are often thrown together when I'm doing school with everyone else.  lots of cuteness

 But, he is very cute.  He loves all his siblings, and is loved and adored by all of them.

"Tetee" teaching him how to take a selfie

 And like a typical 2-year-old, Andy is a just a silly pants.  This is how we know he is definitely ours.

The Manolo he love the shoes.

He loves vehicles.  No, I mean, really LOVES vehicles, which are all "trucks", or in Andy-speak, "dutch."  (He's just starting to sound more like an English speaker -- once he figures out more consonants, he might actually be understandable!)  Once during the summer I had a planning meeting at a friends' house.  She brought out a giant box of match box cars to keep the little boys occupied.  Andy spent a happy TWO HOURS parking them all along the window sills and bookcase shelves and end tables in her living room. 

I regularly find trains and trucks and cars lined up along our coffee table.  They are always all pointing the same direction.  And HEAVEN FORBID you should put them away before he is done with them!!

Looking forward to another year of his silly-pants-ness!