And, play in the cool Disney playgrounds...
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This portion of my Christmas Letter is about Jack. I am not doing the rest of the family in any particular order. In fact, I just picked a picture to upload from the thumbnail sized pictures. I couldn't really see who it was until it was uploaded. Since Jack popped up, this post will be all about Jack. Jack, being our competitive child will be very excited that he "won". ;)
As long as I've already mentioned Jack's competitiveness, I'll start this "letter" by writing about his love of sports. He likes playing them, practicing for them, watching them and talking about them...especially talking about them. ;) Questions like...."Hey Mom, do you remember 2 years ago when the Cubs were playing the Cardinals and Jim Edmunds hit 2 homeruns against his former team?" seem to pop up frequently and at really strange times. Currently, his favorite sport is baseball and if you ask him, he will tell you that he plans to be a professional baseball player when he grows up. This past summer, he was excited to be on the Cubs in our local league. Although baseball is his favorite, he also played spring and fall soccer this year and is taking swimming lessons. He is doing well with all of the activities and it is fun to see him get better and better.
Let's see, what else is there besides baseball?!?! Oh yeah..... school. Thankfully, our Mr. J. is enjoying 2nd grade very much. He is doing very well in school. I know that I'm his mom and pretty biased, but his "intelligence" amazes me every day. He also just scored in the 99 percentile on his OLSAT test so, it is really not just *me* that thinks he's smart. :) His favorite school subject is math, but also seems to be very interested in what he has been learning in Social Studies and Science. I hope that Jack always finds school this interesting and easy.
It has been a busy year for Jack. When he is not at school, or doing homework, or playing baseball, or soccer, or swimming, you will probably find him playing with his brothers, or playing Wii, or at Cub Scouts, or at the park, or RE, or riding his bike or scooter. Jack jumps out of bed in the morning ready to go and keeps going until his head hits the pillow at night at which time he begs to read his current Harry Potter book for "just a little bit longer".
Jack really brings a fun dynamic to our family. He adds a LOT of excitement and enthusiasm to everything that he does and makes it more fun for the rest of us. 2009 was a good year for Jack and we are going to enjoy watching the things that he will do in 2010.As far as other interests, Charlie is deep in a Thomas the Train phase. He loves playing with his trains, was Thomas for Halloween, we have to "visit" (look at the boxes) the Thomas trains every time we grocery stop at Target and Thomas trains are the only thing that Charlie has asked Santa to bring for Christmas. Charlie has also been participating in a park district soccer class which he enjoys...as long as none of the other kids take *his* ball. He also enjoys music very much....from all of the new songs that he learned at preschool (especially Slippery Fish) to the Beatles, Jimmy Buffet, Abba and "Joy to the World" by 3 Dog Night. There is not much funnier than a 3 year old walking into a party and being very excited because he can hear "Mimmy Muffet" singing "Cheeseburger in Paradise" on the stereo.
This has been a very good year for Charlie. He is becoming such a big "little boy" and it is so fun to watch him grow. One of *my* favorite things about Charlie this year is his baby sweetness is still there. He has the softest cheeks and hair. He also the greatest hugs and has recently added real kisses to his repitoire....if you don't mind him grabbing your head and twisting it, you will receive the best little peck on the cheek that you could imagine. So sweet.
Nice.
Of course, the end result was 4 happy boys!!
Gotta love that!!