12 things about Andrew

So there was this thing that ran through Facebook, 25 things? Where you try your hardest to be interesting to the masses and divulge your deepest darkest secrets, just because. I thought that I'd try to do it for each of my kids, but 25 is a lot of things for people years on this earth can be counted on one hand. So I thought I'd try 2 things for each year of their lives. Rounded a bit.

1. Andrew is right handed. When he was a baby, he kept his thumbs tucked into his hand. It made it nearly impossible for him to do finger food. If he hadn't been my first child, I probably would have really worried about it. My MIL tried to get me to worry about it, but I didn't listen...as usual. His left thumb popped out first, so we thought for a while he was left handed (Jeff is a lefty)...but as soon as his right hand was in working order he quickly favored the right. He is also right footed.

2. Andrew is deeply deeply compassionate. I worry that he will be made fun of for it, and harden to a "normal" man. He doesn't cry at scary parts of a movie...he cries when someone loses a friend, or feels sad in any way. He intensely worries about other people's well-being, and is almost too good at putting himself in other people's shoes. This makes him a great big brother...except for those times he is body-slamming them.

3. Andrew has a big hard head. His head is slowly getting more proportionate...but I do have worries that we will eventually have to switch to an "all-Polo" shirt wardrobe. Because we need buttons to make the head hole bigger to get in and out of the shirt. Seriously.

4. Andrew has lost all of his "baby" speech impediments, except he still says "TH-inger" for finger and "Th-umble" for fumble. According to my friend the speech therapist...this is backwards for normal speech impediments. He says all other Th/f words correctly.

5. Andrew is like his father when it comes to reading books...he remembers everything. This summer he made a book...and it turned out to be the story from a Magic Tree House book we read over a year ago. He remembered how the story went. We have read 23 in the series since, and he still remembered the plot line from the first one.

6. Andrew is super-de-dooper friendly with strange adults. He will not usually start the conversation, but if one. single. comment is made to him, it opens the flood gates. He will usually tell you about his many nicknames (?he has none), or his future careers (he is going to be a herpetologist like Jeff Corwin on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, an artist on Thursdays and Fridays, and Saturdays and Sundays he will play football), or about any of the latest current events in his life. This week it is getting bitten by an antelope. And starting Kindergarten.

7. Andrew likes to have his back scratched...a lot. Beware getting started...he is like a dog...nudging you, giving you directions as to where to scratch. He will reciprocate, but it is a pathetic 2 second scratch and then it's on to his turn again.

8. Andrew is a cuddler. He was as a baby, and he still is. All he wants is to curl up on your lap and snuggle in. Except that he weighs 52 pounds, so after a few moments, your legs are asleep, his gigantic hard noggin has smacked you in the cheek bones and your face is in his armpit because he wants to play with your hair.

9. Yes, he still has a hair fetish. It only gets creepier as he gets older.

10. Andrew is terrible at dressing himself. Part of it is his giant head...very difficult to get in and out of shirts. Part of it is lack of interest. But to pull up his pants, he just randomly grabs some material in the middle and unceremoniously yanks them up to his waist. He does not grab the waist band to do this, so he ends up with the waistband rolled up, and his shorts are jacked up unevenly. He looks ridiculous. And it doesn't bother him. For once I hope that someone will make fun of it at school so that he will take 2 seconds to care.

11. His favorite color is yellow. It was red for about 2 years, then green when he fell in love with Zooboomafoo a few years back, and now it is solidly yellow.

12. Andrew doesn't drink much. Never has. He will go all day and only have 1 or 2 cups of anything to drink. His urine looks totally normal. I suspect he is part camel.