Happy 4th Birthday Andrew

In honor of his 4th birthday, here is an Andrew story:

Last night I dragged out "Go Dog GO" for Nate to read to me.

That book is a great book. Not for the plot, which is fairly contrived, but for the prose. "Two Dogs, In a House, On a Boat, In the water." Pure genius, I tell you.

But I really love that book. I used to read it to Nick all the time, but when they started reading to me it got set aside. I couldn't remember ever having read it to Andrew before.

My favorite part is the part where all fifty seven dogs are asleep. "Now it is night. It is time for sleep. It is not a time for play." (I'm quoting from memory, here, so please don't get angry or upset if I remember things a little differently.) All fifty seven dogs are in the same big, long bed. And they are all asleep except one, who is wide awake.

The next page: "Now it is Day! Get up, Dogs! It is time to get going! Go, Dogs, Go!" And all fifty seven dogs are sprinting for the door in a mad frenzy, except the one dog still asleep in bed, probably because he was awake all night.

The next page has "Dogs in Cars again." And "Where are they going so fast in those cars? What are they going to do?" I usually pause here, because the book is finally starting to take shape and round itself out in terms of plot, meaning that there will be more than three pages actually related to each other.

"Where are they going?" I asked the boys. I expect them to know, because we've read the book before. Also, it turns out they are going to A DOG PARTY, which is just so exciting that my little childhood mind could never take it. No party in my life was ever as fun as that dog party looked to be. Only then I remembered that Andrew didn't remember reading the book. "Do you know where they are going, Andy?"

"Yup." He said, unimpressed.

"Where?" I asked, thinking that maybe he remembered the book after all. "Where are they going?"

"To Breakfast," he said.

As if this wasn't enough, when the dogs were climbing "To the tree! To the tree! To the top of the tree!" (the secret party location) I paused again. "What's up there, Andy?"

Andy's chin was in his hands. He didn't even look up. "Leaves."

Happy 4th Birthday, Andrew. We all love you very much.