February 2016 Update

Kate

Kate is as beautiful and sweet as ever. She is becoming more responsible with her schoolwork and progressing (more slowly) with her neatness and organization. She has really surprised me with her math abilities this year. While she's been working at least 2 years ahead of where she would be in school, Kate has struggled with accuracy to the point that I considered slowing down and going to a less strenuous math curriculum. I prayed about it and decided to keep her in the challenging Singapore curriculum targeted at advanced 7th graders. She is thriving! Geometry and spacial perception are her weakest areas, but she excels in algebra and solving word problems. 

Kate continues to love reading to the point that I never really assign her any chapter reading for school - she does it on her own! She enjoys history (we are studying modern history this year including the civil war and world wars) and always retains information better if she reads it herself. 

Kate's favorite things are sports, reading, Jake, and her friends. Her favorite friends right now are Bekah Scott, Kariss Ramsour, and Annaclaire (her new homeschool friend on her basketball team). She is so very mature and we love to have our special time together traveling to varsity basketball games where she keeps a shot chart for us during every game. 

She is saying that she doesn't want to play travel soccer anymore because she wants to focus on basketball.  Kate is on the 6th grade GBL team (as a 5th grader) that is coached by me (Mom) and sometimes Coach Isenhour. She is doing quite well - her shooting is fantastic, but she is struggling with being ready to shoot. Her passing has been very impressive this year as has her ability to get to the rim whenever she wants - she can always beat the first defender. Right now, she says she wants to play basketball in college for the University of Tennessee.

Drew

Drew keeps us on our toes. He is not lukewarm about anything in life and we continue to remind him that the passion God has given him, when applied correctly, will allow him to make a huge impact in the world someday. 

When soccer season ended, he said that he liked soccer better. His team finished the season by winning two tournaments in dominant fashion and he played mostly defense. The whole defender thing doesn't make much sense since Drew clearly has a scorer's mentality (he had a hat trick in the tournament as a defender), but I think they have him there because he is dependable and listens to the coaches. Whenever there is a drill, they put Drew first in line to demonstrate. It is clear that he is mature well beyond his peers. 

Now that basketball season is coming to a close, he says he doesn't want to play soccer. He just loves whatever he is playing, but basketball has been his love since he was about 4 or 5 (it was baseball for a brief time then). He is super athletic and seems to draw other people to himself wherever he goes. Drew has friends who are mostly older than he which speaks to his level of maturity. 

For Drew, school is a chore because anything that doesn't involve a ball is a chore to him. He is extremely talented in math (a human calculator like Daddy). He is also a good reader, but he WILL NOT read on his own - even Sports Illustrated! Any reading he does is assigned and monitored. 

Drew has a large circle of friends, but his favorites are probably Kendale (even though he doesn't see him often), Seth, Lucas (from soccer), and Marshall (from basketball. 

Ben

Our sweet Ben is kind and sensitive. He is acting very "tough" right now with his words and actions in an attempt to hold his own around Drew. We are having lots of discussions about what toughness really is. Ben is working hard to be a gentleman and often asks me to close my car door back so he can open/close it for me. Ben loves to give hugs and since he is really trying to hide and not do his schoolwork right now and he gets in lots of trouble for that, I'm trying to love and compliment and hug him as much as possible.

Ben's best two buddies are Avy and Kayla Scott. Kayla's Mom, Sonya, says that Ben makes her laugh like nobody else does. 

As I mentioned, Ben has been trying to be quiet during school so that nobody will notice that he isn't doing his work. Over the past few days, though, he has started to work much harder; in fact, he is currently asking me to do a memory work test with him. Ben is starting to show his math brilliance just like his older siblings. He may have the computational ability of Drew and Daddy too. Ben has always been a fantastic reader, but he is intimidated by chapter books. The most amazing thing about Ben's reading is his ability to sound out odd words. During our Bible time, Ben can sound out the strange Bible names and places better than any of the other kids!

Shockingly, Ben loves soccer and basketball as much as his older siblings. He is still holding onto t-ball, but if he's anything like the others, that will end soon. Ben is so tall for his age and he hasn't completely adjusted to his size, but he has become quite quick and fast. During the fall soccer season, Ben was a bit intimidated by the older/bigger kids, but when he wasn't scared, he was very good. He can kick the ball really hard! 

He started his first year in BBA for basketball. The kids have to stay inside the paint on defense, but that doesn't deter his intensity. Ben has struggled with making shots because he thought he knew better than everyone else on how to shoot, but over the past few weeks, he's let me teach him some things on his shot and he's really caught the shooting bug. He is now like Drew in that he will disappear into the family room whenever possible to work on shooting 3s into Jake's little goal.

 Ben also just finished his second game at Mount Zion where the defense can come to half court. We weren't sure what to expect, but he is doing so well! His dribbling skills are still amazing - not even the 8 year olds can take it from him while he's dribbling. He is a fierce defender as well, but he is scared to try and rebound with the bigger kids. He likes to take long range shots like a certain other son did in that league.

Jake - 18 months

Mr. Jake is Mr. popularity around kids and adults alike. Adults tell him all the time how handsome he is and kids love him because he knows how to interact with them. At any given time, he may have up to 15 kids following him around in the church gym playing "Do What the Jakey Does" which usually includes Jake's version of push-ups. Jake is very easy going and only rarely cries. Many adults from the kids' sports teams act surprised when he cries because they say they haven't ever heard him cry before. Jake LOVES to look at books. He loves to bounce like tigger, dance, and shoot/kick a ball. 

Jake can say the following words very well: more, ball, Elmo, Grover (Gwowowo), Mom, Dad, Drew, Dyl, MaMa, Grandmama, Gram, Seth, Ellie, Jordan, woah, Mickey ("M")

He says the following words sometimes: Kate, Ben, No, Yes, etc. He will usually try to say lots of things we ask him to try, but talking is not his thing yet. Jake also loves to make animal sounds - his favorite game is to make a bear sound to scare everyone and then an elephant sound to let us know that everything is ok.

He can communicate that he wants a drink by doing his hand twisting sign or saying "Ahhh". He asks for chicken by pointing and saying "Baak!" like a chicken. Before about a month ago, he wouldn't eat meat much at all, but he has discovered a LOVE for Chick-fil-a grilled chicken nuggets. When he sees the container coming toward him, he squeals in delight. Other than chicken, he loves tator tots and basically all fruits and vegetables - especially tomatoes, broccoli, and all fruits.

Jake appears to be healed from his second fracture (a "toddler" fracture from the slide at Chick-fil-a) on his left leg. He has his final orthopedic check tomorrow. The pediatrician (Dr. Stickney" suggested a vitamin D supplement because Jake will not drink milk- this could contribute to the cracked bones. Neither break has been more than a crack, but we need to stop the breaking madness! Right now, I'm too nervous to let him play on a playground again. 

Jake has been a great sleeper ever since we accidentally left him in the baby swing when he was a few days old (He was crying in the middle of the night and we fell asleep accidentally after we put him in there to calm down. We woke up in a panic the next morning after he had slept for the rest of the night.) He rarely cries when he is put in bed (even for his nap). 

Jake really hasn't experienced much separation anxiety at church like the others did. He got really upset in early January during drop-off and then cried again when I got back to pick him up. I believe he's only cried a handful of times since then and didn't cry at all last week. All of his teachers love him because he's so easy to take care of.