Thursday, September 27, 2012

A day (or 138) late



Without further ado, here are the pictures from Waverly's First Birthday Party!  (Yes, from May...)






Waverly with Grammy

Getting some snuggles from Julia

So many people came out to love on our girl!

Smiles for Grandpa

Hanging out with Aunt KK



Prayers

Tasting some icing from a cupcake!  Yum!


Sister love!

Cousins meet for the first time!



Sunday, September 23, 2012

FOUR Years Old!!!


Our Jackson is FOUR years old today!  We are so blessed by this sweet boy, and now it's time to brag on him! 

This picture was last night.  He loves his superman jammies, even though they are obviously too small for him now.  It's important to him to wear the cape too.  He also chose to wear his special socks to bed: UVA socks.


And here he was this morning at church.  He is so full of himself!  I had picked out a sweater vest for him to wear with his outfit, and after much insisting that it was more cool to wear just his white shirt, I gave in.  He is of course wearing UVA flip flops.
Which brings me to my first point.  This boy loves UVA.  Of course, it's no wonder and no surprise.  When given the option of what to wear, he will choose a UVA shirt or some other UVA apparel any day.  He also loves going to the games, and loves dressing up in his UVA football uniform and playing football at home.

He loves playing any kind of ball.  He's quite good at hitting a baseball, and bats left-handed.  He also is good at whacking a golf ball, and golfs left-handed.  But he throws with his right hand.  He'll also kick the soccer ball around, throw a frisbee, basically anything related to sports he loves.

He is balanced, though, and will play dolls and girly things with his sister any day.  He also loves to play with his trains and blocks. 

He is enjoying preschool this year.  His teacher had all good things to say about him, that he is very well behaved and quiet (ha!).  She said he does ask for help often, which I think is a product of being second-born and so close in age to his sister.  He always has her doing things for him or showing him how to do things, and so he's a little lost at preschool when he has to do things more for himself.  So they are working on that with him.  He can count to 20+, of course knows his abc's and the sounds the letters make, knows how to spell his name, and recognizes all letters and numbers.  He's also learning a lot from Kathryn's homeschool stuff, and has memorized a lot by hearing us review.  He's in Cubbies this year with Awana at church, and is doing a good job working on his Bible verse every week for that as well.

His speech is still a little unclear at times, as he has troubles with the typical sounds that kids have trouble with (c/k, gr, etc.).  It's something that we are working on with him at home for now and waiting to see if he outgrows it or will need a little extra help. 

He LOVES his sisters.  His relationship with Kathryn is tricky, as he loves to be around her and play with her but they definitely fight quite a lot.  He always wants to do what she's doing though, and can be a little "lost" without her.  He LOVES to love on Waverly too.  He wants to hold her (although that only lasts for a few minutes at best!), loves to hold her hand, coo at her, tickle her, show her things, lay beside her, and say "BOO!" to her. 

He is very sensitive to others.  Whenever somebody is crying, especially Kathryn, he runs away in another room and can be found crying himself.  He has an especially hard time if somebody is hurt.  He just melts.  He is quick to apologize if he makes a mistake or accidentally steps on a toe, for example, and is sensitive to making other people upset.  He is really learning a lot about obedience, and still working on it and his self-control over being impulsive (like any normal four-year-old boy would be!).  But he is very responsive to discipline, even if it takes a few tries (or more...!). 




He is also very silly, and makes us laugh often.  He has the funniest answers and faces.  He still loves to snuggle and is very affectionate, although he will readily wipe off any kisses that he gets (even though he wants them). 


Jackson, we love you so much and are so proud of you.  You are a joy to watch grow up, and we are excited to see how the Lord is working in your sweet and tender heart already.  You can be a force to be reckoned with, but are so compassionate and sweet to others too.  We love you!!!

Friday, September 14, 2012

First Days of School-2012


Kathryn on her first day of homeschool co-op day, 5.5 years old, August 28, 2012.




Jackson wanted to get in on the pictures too.  Silly boy.


And here's Jackson on his first day of preschool, almost 4 years old.