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As all children do, Andrew started out simply as a zygote, an egg fertilized by a sperm, and by a stroke of chance, over two weeks, the zygote went through rapid cell division before finally developing into an embryo.

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An embryo is a developing human organism, and the the outer cells are refered to as the placenta, the link from mother to baby. It is through this that nutrients and oxygen are passed from mother to baby.

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By 9 weeks, Andrew starts looking more like a human, and is now labled a fetus. Important organs have developed, so because Andrew was both two weeks early, he was alright.

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Now, despite Andrew being born early, he was a healthy baby. His dad had met with other parents in their ward, and found out that one of the couples' sons had been affected by a teratogen, a chemical or virus that can reach the embryo or fetus and cause it harm due to the mother drinking alcohol during the early stages of her pregnancy.

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Though the mother of the child had drank, she was not a heavy drinker. If she had been, it was possible that it may have developed fetal alcohol syndrome. If a child was born with fetal alcohol syndrome, it can cause physical and cognitive abnormalities in the child, sometimes leading to a disproportionate head size, and abnormal facial features.

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Andrew's rooting reflex was not very strong and it took a lot of coaxing to get him to breastfeed

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Andrew was sometimes overwhelmed by all the things he was seeing. William James was a neuropsychologist who explained that babies have an overload of senses and can't take it all in.

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As a newborn Andrew was given a lot of love and affection, but since both of his parents worked he was also left with his grandmother or a baby sitter for long periods of time. Therefore becoming accustomed to their smell as well as his mothers.

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Andrew's family had a dog when he was first born, and although the dog was very kind and gentle to Andrew, he was scared of it at first. However, as a result of habituation, Andrew soon became relatively unfazed by the dogs presence.

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Andrew would love to look at objects that were 8-12 inches away from him because that how close he was when his mother was breast feeding him

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Andrew was very attached to his mother as a newborn and always looker her in the face, since a babies visual preference is to first look at the face rather than the body.

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During Andrew's life, he goes through many stages and matures. Maturation is the biological growth process that enables orderly changes in behavior. Learning to walk and balance are signs of maturation.

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While growing up, more things started happening in Andrew's life. He started to learn how to walk and talk. Andrew's neural networks were responsible for his learning and helped him connect his outside world to his brain. While he was growing, his frontal lobes were too. His frontal lobes enabled rational planning, and helped him control his attention and behavior.

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While Andrew starts to learn to talk, his association areas are working tremendously. Associations areas are linked with thinking, memory, and language. They are also the last area to develop, which explains why kids can walk before they can talk.

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As Andrew grows, his brain starts to remove synapses to increase the efficiency of his remaining synapses. This process is known as the pruning process, and removes not frequently used synapses (use-it-or-lose-it).

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"It's not imitation, it's maturation"/ cerebellum

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"It's not imitation, it's maturation"/ cerebellum

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Andrew, along with other babies, all have a universal motor development sequence. The reason why Andrew rolled over before he could sit unsupported, or why he crawled before he was able to walk, all show that children are not learning from imitation, but that it is actually maturation. During maturation, Andrew's cerebellum developed rapidly. This helped with his balance as he began to learn to walk at around age 1.

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When Andrew was about 13, his parents showed him pictures of a trip they took to Florida when he was 2. Andrew was shocked when he saw himself in the pictures because he did not remember a single thing. This is known as infantile amnesia, where you are not able to remember your life or surroundings before age 3.

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When Andrew was very young, he was only calmed by a crib mobile. Andrew's mother didn't want him to hit the mobile so she tied it to his foot. Andrew realized that kicking made the mobile move, and learned the connection between the two. This learned behavior showed that babies are able to learn and tell a distinction between objects because when his mom tied a different mobile to his foot, he was not able to make the connection.

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When Andrew was around 10 years old, he had reached the stage of adolescence, the period of transition from childhood to adulthood, which is typically in the tween and teenage years.

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As G. Stanley Hall, one of the first psychologists to describe adolescence had said, Andrew had a bit of a rough time. As his hormones changed, he became more frustrated and short-tempered. He also noticed signs of sexual maturity during puberty in which his scrotum and testes enlarged and pubic hair developed.

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As Andrew went through the stages of puberty, his brain eliminated extra neurons and connections that were no longer needed, a process known as selective pruning. Additionally, he matured, his frontal lobe continued to develop. The growth of myelin, the fatty tissue that forms around axons and speeds neurotransmission, enabled better communication with other brain regions. These developments improved judgement, impulse control, and long-term planning. However, Andrew's frontal lobe, like every other adolescents', lagged behind that of the emotional limbic system, which explains his impulsiveness, risky behaviors, and emotional storms.

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Because Andrew's frontal lobes still weren't full equipped to making long-term decisions and resisting harmful influences, he would often participate in thrills, weighing the immediate benefits of risky acts more heavily than the long-term effects.

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Andrew became addicted to nicotine and built up a tolerance for it, so he craved something that would make him feel even better. He turned to marijuana. When Andrew was 17, he was caught with marijuana in his car, and was arrested. However, he knew he wouldn't face the death penalty because of the Supreme Court case in 2005 that stated juvenile death penalties were unconstitutional because teens' brains are still developing in terms of decision making. But Andrew now had a criminal record, and this event served as a wake-up call, making Andrew realize he should stop using drugs before it gets even more out of hand.

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As Andrew enters adulthood in his twenties-thirties, as an athlete he begins to notice a decline in his performance and ability to play as he gets older. His reaction time decreasing and muscular strength slowly declining.

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When Andrew turns 40 he notices his physical activity just becoming more and more strenuous. He notices his vigor for exercise gradually declining.

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With middle adulthood also comes changes in fertility and sexual behavior. The older Andrew gets the less fertile him and his wife become. In their late forties Andrew and his wife both wish they had children, but soon realize it is too late as Andrews sperm count is very low, his level of testosterone is low, and his wife went through menopause. Their sexual activity has been down as they get older.

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As Andrew continues to get older, he finds himself getting sicker every Winter, being more susceptible to pneumonia than he used to be. This could be a result of Andrews weakening immune system. As we get older, our disease fighting immune system significantly weakens, leaving our body almost defenseless. In Andrews early twenties he would often get common colds come Winter but thanks to a lifetimes accumulation of anti-bodies, Andrew has stopped getting colds as much. He also started exercising which helped greatly.

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As Andrew gets into his later adult years (65+) he notices the effects of his aging brain begin to take a toll on him. He starts to take a longer time to react and loose some sensory abilities. He begins to see his memory diminishing as his brain regions that are important to memory atrophy. He asks his family many blunt and occasional comments like ¨Have you put on weight¨ These impulses are caused atrophy of the inhibition-controlling frontal lobe.