Just some quick updates from the last week...
It's just amazing how life's little milestones can come out of nowhere. This week all the neurons lined up and Jackson figured out how to read. He's not on war and peace just yet, more like "spot did sit" but it blows us away nevertheless. We are so very proud of him! He learned his letters at a very early age (right after his 2nd birthday if my memory is accurate) and has been working on all of the sounds ever since. His biggest hurdles have been learning his lower case letters and learning to naturally look at his letters from left to right. It fascinates me to watch little kids learn because it really sheds light on some basic building blocks of learning that we wouldn't typically think about. The left to right thing is a classic example. It takes hours of practice and effort to make the mind just default to looking at letters left to right, and that must be mastered before reading is possible. Anyway, blah blah blah, our little reader has done all the behind the scenes work and is now seeing the rewards of his efforts. We are so happy for him!
Another little milestone from this week was Mackenzie saying her first prayer. Every night we pray at the dinner table and Mackenzie has always been too shy whenever we ask if she'd like to pray, usually saying "but I don't know how!" Well she finally just did it on her own, but sort of showed her hand early, allowing me time to get it on video...
another fun moment from the week was having the Clark family over for Marsha's birthday dinner, with the kids getting to interact more with their cousin Gracie who is just showing more and more personality.
Last night we took the kids to pajama story time at the public library. We definitely should have done this a long time ago. it was a super fun time for them... very interactive while being educational at the same time.
This weekend we'll be celebrating Valentine's day with them, as Steph and I will be in Belize on the real Valentine's Day!
Cooper
