So good tempered.  So smiley and friendly.  Such a trooper when his schedule is wrecked by the family's schedule.  Andrew is about the best third kid that a mom could wish for!

At four (and a half months) Andrew is:

• Rolling easily from front to back.
• Trying to roll from back to front, but can only make it onto his side.
• Chewing on anything he can get into his mouth, but I don't think he's actually teething yet.
• Taking a bottle, reluctantly, and sometimes taking a pacifier (mainly when we're out and about and he's tired but not tired enough to go to sleep).
• Nursing lots (every one or two or three hours, basically whenever he wants).
• Not sleeping through church services on Sunday morning anymore... I'm pretty bummed!
• Sturdy enough to be carried on my hip, though he still occasionally dives backwards out of my arms.
• So friendly with strangers.  He will almost always smile at people when we're out and about and will cheerfully let anyone hold him.  
• Waking sporadically at night  - sometimes he will get up at 5am to nurse then will sleep until 7ish, sometimes sleeps until 6am and then is up for the day, and sometimes we'll have random 3am wakings.
• Mainly taking mini naps during the days, mostly 45ish minutes at a time, though sometimes I can nurse him back down in the afternoon for a longer snooze.  Occasionally when he's REALLY tired he will take a long morning nap, which is glorious!!
• Not feeling like a new addition to the family anymore.  We've somewhat hit our stride as a family of five - though "five" still sounds so weird!

Here's his four month check-up stats:
Weight: 17lb 10 oz (75-90%)
Length: 25 3/8 inches (25-50%)
Head: 17 in (50-75)

This cracks me up - many times when I pull out my camera to snap a picture of Andrew, one or both of the big siblings like to jump into the picture too.  Asking to take a picture of them is hit or miss (depending on who's moody that minute), but a photo op with Baby Andrew is always worth joining in!

One of the last weeks of school I took my camera so that I could get pictures of the kids with all the special adults at their school.  Here's Nathan with his two teachers, the two Ms K's.  Ms K (on the left) wrote us such a sweet note about how great Nathan was in class and how he would always eat so well at lunch and how she predicted he would be valedictorian one day!  It just makes a Mama's heart proud to have a teacher be so complimentary of my sweet boy!


Sarah's teachers, Ms L and Ms E.  Ms L (on the left) actually became her teacher partway thorough the year when her original teacher wasn't able to finish out the school year.  I was worried about the transition because Sarah was really attached to Ms G (the teacher that left), but Ms L quickly earned a special spot in Sarah's heart.  Ms E was also greatly loved by Sarah.  Sarah came home one day telling me that Ms E told Sarah her address, which was "Kingston Pike" and with that information Sarah wanted to go visit her!  (For non-locals, Kingston Pike the biggest road in West Knoxville, going from downtown all the way out of the city limits.)  I told Sarah that unfortunately there was no way we could find Ms E's house without a number, plus I doubt she actually lives on the pike.


The kids LOVED Coach M, their soccer shots coach!


And last but not least this is the preschool director Ms R, who also spent time in each kids' class every school day. 


Here we are on the last day of school!! (First day picture back here.)  This was the only day all year that Sarah let me put her hair in pigtails!


So I didn't realize until too late that the "graduates" (is preschool graduation silly to anyone else besides me??) were only going to wear their gowns for the first part of the program, so I actually didn't take a picture of Nathan in his gown.  Fortunately I was able to pull this frame from the video so I would have something (but that's why its so fuzzy).


Sarah cheesing during her performance. 


Nathan seemed to get a little more animated during the last part of his song compared to the video I posted.


I loved this shot of Nathan at the end of his performance!  I think they were all instructed to "strike a pose" or something like that.


After the program, there was a pizza lunch for all the kids and their families.  Both kids had special friends that followed us to where our family was sitting so that they could eat with Nathan and Sarah.  This is Sarah and her sweet friend I. 


Nathan and his best friend E.


Another good friend B.


After we got home, we opened a packed for Nathan from his teachers and found this photo of Nathan.  Great job this year, buddy, you are so ready for kindergarten!!

Goodness, I CANNOT believe that summer is here and the kids are through with a whole year of preschool!  Which means in a few short months, Nathan will be starting KINDERGARTEN.  Sheesh, I never really thought he would get to be this old!

But back to last week, the kids had a "pajama day" themed graduation and since neither kid had any summer pajamas that would fit them, the day before gradation we hit up Walmart to find something for them to wear.  (Really my main motivation was to find an alternative for Nathan, who has been wearing the same blue striped shirt and fleece pants to bed since October and was ADAMANT that he would not be giving up those fleece pants for summer.  On a related note, he has also been determined not to switch to wearing shorts - until both pairs of beloved holey jeans were in the wash and have since mysteriously not made it back to his drawer, or his new summer sandals - which we also had to practically force on his feet.)

Apparently since I've been so lax on blog posts, I'm trying to fit everything I can think of into this one post.  So back to the topic at hand...

Pajamas needed.  Walmart trip commenced.  Nathan picked out "Paw Patrol" pjs, but they only had size 4T.   Sarah wanted a specific princess pajamas, but the only size they had was... 4T.  I thought that was kind of amusing.  But armed with appropriate attire, we were ready for the big day!!

Here's the video of Nathan's graduation ceremony.  He later told me that his teacher told them to hold their gowns up so they wouldn't trip on them, and he certainly took that advice to heart.  Nathan's towards the back of the line, look for the tippy toes!
 


Then all the classes (starting with the littles) went on stage and did a little performance.  Here's is part of Sarah's.  I was so proud of her because by the end of the song, she was the only one still singing and doing the motions.  Everyone else just ended up standing there with various bored/grumpy expressions on their faces.  But Sarah was still giving 100%!  (She's on the far right of the stage in pigtails.)


Then Nathan's class came back onstage to do their rock star performance.  Nathan had been sporadically mentioning a green guitar and then the week leading up to the graduation had been talking about red or gold sunglasses, but I was not prepared for the fun performance he gave.  And he was front and center too, which I'm pretty sure was on purpose because he had told me beforehand that he and Evan were on the front row with the girls and the rest of the boys were in the back row. 


So now summer vacation has started and I'm already sorely missing errand time without the big kids.  It is quite a production to haul three kids around Target or the grocery store, especially since Nathan and Sarah always have opinions about what we are doing or are asking me to buy things for them or I'm having to try and move our parade out of the middle of the aisle so other shoppers can get by.  Oops, another tangent.

Pictures to come of graduation with teachers and friends (maybe). 

Just some of the pictures I've taken with my phone this month.

The kids love this game, where they take turns attacking Daddy, then when Daddy has them "trapped" the other kid comes and tries to pull the "trapped" kid away.  Usually lots of fun and laughing, but almost always ends with someone in tears.  But it never fails that they want to play again another day!



As you may imagine, Nathan let go of Sarah's arm and she bumped her head on the floor.  Tears ensued, which ended the game. 

Meanwhile, Andrew and I are just chillin' (like a villain!).  The volume of this kid's life is so much louder then when either of his siblings were babies.  So crazy to think about how different his life experiences have been in just these first few weeks of his life. 


The big kids still love to hold their baby brother!



Sarah loves to play dress up in my closet.  I did not introduce this game to her!  Nathan used to wear my slippers or Daddy's shoes around the house but never anything more.  Boys and girls (at least the ones in our family) are inherently different!


We are eating outside lots since the weather has been so beautiful lately.  The kids much prefer to eat in front of the garage on this coffee table (that as this close to being donated before it got a second life as a picnic table) rather then out back on our nice patio furniture.  Its definitely because they enjoy eating a few bites and then riding their trike/rocking horse/dump truck around the driveway before coming back for more bites to eat. 


Sarah has been living in her swimsuit the past couple of days and was thrilled when I brought out this baby bathtub to play in.  She asks me multiple times a day "When is the swimming pool going to open?"  We're close, honey!



Andrew has found his thumb...


...and fingers.  He's definitely going to suck something, its just a matter of him deciding on which one (my money's on the thumb though). 


Yep, living in the bathing suits!


Bathing suit anyone?!?!  Looks like I managed to get pictures of her in all three that fit her now! 

Back story: Sarah loves to pet her stuffed animals (especially Kitty Cat) with her feet. 

 Today I stuck Andrew in the rumble seat while the kids were watching their show and I was dozing on the couch (Andrew facing away from the TV at least).  Sarah hopped down from the couch, scooted Andrew's chair next to where she had been sitting, then she proceeded to pet Andrew with her feet.  So funny!  At least Andrew didn't seem to mind!


This onesie I got from Target makes me smile almost as much as that cute face. 



My three babies!