Best Birthday Present Ever

Maximus wrote me a book for my birthday. He did this project 100% on his own. I loved it so much it brought tears to my eyes. Max is such a thoughtful little guy! And without further ado, "Like" by Max:

"Mom likes outside."

"Mom likes dad."

(Oh, my word. The tie on Lucas is just too much!!)

"Mom likes the ocean."

"Mom likes her family."

Quote of the Day

Maggie: I don't need to be teached!

I'm Shocked; Shocked, I Say!

What?!? I slept through my midnight snack? Went the whole night without any milk? How did THAT happen?!

We have a through-the-night sleeper! And there was great rejoicing! At exactly ten weeks old, Alexander decided to stretch his night sleep just a little bit longer and made it seven hours, from 10:30-5:30. Let's hope he keeps it up!

The Respect Award

On Tuesday Max received The Respect Award at Northside Elementary!

He was selected with other students who had demonstrated a respectful attitude at school and was recognized at their school-wide character assembly. I was so proud of him, and thankful that his school spends time on character education even though they have such strict accountability to teach a challenging kindergarten curriculum.

My dad was able to come to the little assembly, so Max wanted his picture taken with Grandpapa and Baby Brother. Maggie and I didn't make the cut. :-)

What We've Been up to: Alexander

You guessed it: Alexander is mostly eating, sleeping and filling up diapers these days. :-) But he's also adding some new items to his repertoire, including smiling and cooing!

He had his 2-month check-up at the pediatricians office this week, and here are his stats:

Height: 23 inches (50th percentile)

Weight: 10 lbs. 15 oz. (25th percentile)

Head size: 16 (50th percentile)

He's starting to sleep slightly longer at night! I usually feed him his last feeding of the night about 10:30 and then he will sleep until about 3:30 or 4. Not too bad, but I sure am looking forward to those 8-hour stretches of sleep!

What We've Been Up To: Maggie

Maggie is a very energetic and busy four year old! She has taken on her roll as big sister with flying colors and loves her baby brother. She reads him stories and hugs him and baby talks to him. It's sweet, and I've been so proud of her in this area of her life.

She is also learning so much these days, and I suspect she will be doing a significant amount of reading in the next few months. She is learning along side Max as he brings work home from school, and she is already reading several words!

Maggie loves art! This is one of her recent drawings of (in her words) "Bethany Hamilton on her soul surfer board on a wave before she got attacked by the shark." :-)

P.S. We recently watched the movie Soul Surfer as a family and really enjoyed it. It made for some great discussion with our kids about how we can respond when hard things happen in life! We loved the special features with interviews with the real Bethany Hamilton– She and her family used this difficult situation to give honor to Jesus in such a public way. Awesome. We totally recommend it; the shark attack scene is too intense for little ones but is easily editable, and I thought the rest was very family friendly!

What We've Been Up To: Max

Max turned six years old on Tuesday, Sept. 27th. We had an impromptu birthday "party" in his kindergarten lunch room.

Maximus absolutely loves school. He is working hard on his reading and writing and is doing so well! Here is one of the papers he brought home this week that made me smile.