Sunday

After all the other posts, you would think I was done writing about Andrew's birthday. But his actual birthday was on Sunday and there are just a few things I don't want to forget, so here goes.

It was Andrew's birthday on Sunday, but I felt like it was my birthday and Andrew was the gift-giver.

First, this picture is the best picture I have of him. It was taken by somebody in primary and given to him on an I am a Child of God block on Sunday for his birthday. I do not have ANY pictures of him looking at the camera and smiling a real smile. He is always looking somewhere else or has a cheese grin--meaning he is saying "cheese" continuously and the sides of his mouth never make it up into a smile. So this gift was as big a deal to me as it was to him. And he tried to take the picture to bed with him tonight. He LOVES it.

Second, Andrew was an angel in Sacrament meeting. We got to church and he sat still on the bench until the meeting started (this is in contrast to the usual climbing under the bench, thumping on the wall, or begging for snacks). And then he sat on the bench for almost the entire meeting (also in contrast to the banging the bench, coloring on the floor, accidentally dumping snacks on the floor and elbowing his sister away from the coloring book). He was paying attention and folded his arms on his own when it was time to pray, tried to sing along to the hymns, leaned in and snuggled up to my side with his head bowed, eyes closed and arms folded during the Sacrament prayer. I was in heaven. About 10 minutes before the meeting ended the spell broke, but what a great gift the first hour was!!

Third, Andrew gave his first talk in primary on Sunday. I had been remembering on and off that he had the talk. It's my first kid in primary, so I even went and sat in on jr sharing time a week or two before to see what primary talks should be like. During the week I sat down and started jotting a few things down and asked Andrew how Jesus helped him so I could include that in the talk. But we had Andrew's party, things were crazy, and Saturday night, late, I suddenly remembered....Andrew's talk!! I put the rest of the talk together (I mean it's about 4 sentences), but was worried because I had meant to have Andrew practice it that week and here I was going to have him go through it the first time Sunday morning--Church starts at 9am. We went over it a few times before church, once while waiting for church to start and he did a GREAT job!

When I first went over it with him that morning, I explained that I would say the words and he should repeat, but initially I would say the words and he would try to finish my sentence...fill in the blanks. I wasn't sure what to expect when we got to primary. Andrew decides what he wants to do and when, so I wasn't sure if he would want to give the talk. But he did. I would say a sentence and he would repeat the whole thing and he spoke into the microphone clearly and loudly. It was so sweet and so cute and such a gift to me. My little boy seemed so grown up!!

Here is the talk for my own benefit:

Jesus Christ is my Savior

At my house, we read the Bible with pictures. We have been reading about Jesus. We read about when Jesus helped a man so he could see and when he healed a girl.

Jesus helps all of us. He helps me not get lost. He helps people to pray. He helps people to walk. He helps us to be obedient. And he helps us so we can live with Heavenly Father again. I love Jesus. He is my Savior. And he loves me.

The second paragraph were some of Andrew's responses to the question how does Jesus help you? A response not included in the talk was, "he helps us get water."

He had been sitting at the front of the primary room because he was giving a talk. After he gave the talk he was supposed to go back and sit with his class. Uh-uh. He sat in the chair at the front for the rest of jr primary. That was his seat for the day.

And he was thrilled when they gave him is birthday block/picture and sang to him. Huge grin.

As for his birthday, we had decorated the house with blue balloons and made a streamer curtain in the doorway at the bottom of the stairs. He has been asking for the blue "curtain" since Natalie's b-day in January. We had John's parents and sister, Julie over for dinner...spaghetti (yummy homemade sauce) of course because it is one of the only foods Andrew will eat. Andrew got the You Are Special Plate.

He got to open gifts from gma and gpa and mom and dad.

And he got to blow candles out on the remnants of the toppled Thomas cake. (see below for before pictures)