Christian

It happened again....the tooth fairy (that he doesn't really believe in) showed up.

So we now have a lovely collection of (3) lost teeth.

As if that's not grown up enough, Christian has also taught himself to whistle. He is immensely proud of this. Just ask him and he will demonstrate :)

And you already know that he rides his bike with NO training wheels.

And the big event this week is that he can now swing on his own. He taught himself how to pump his legs and he literally spends hours swinging! He tried to convince me to let him swing today in the rain.

And he's such a good big brother. I can mow the grass for over an hour and Christian will entertain McKenna and "watch" her the entire time. He loves being in charge and is very fair and responsible when he does it. What a difference a year makes!

We have been in the valley of decision with this boy trying to decide what we're going to do school-wise next year. Our public school is an all day program. Our Christian school option is also all-day (but every other day). And I literally spent the month of January feeling sick to my stomach about sending him to school all-day next year. I did not have peace about it, but I didn't know what to do. Homeschooling was a consideration, but we decided against that for several reasons. So after much, much prayer. After lots of discussions with lots of very wise people we have come to a decision. It's probably controversial, but we have complete peace that it is the right decision for our sweet boy. When I talked to Christian's teacher about it she told me to weigh the opinions of others, but that God gives us special wisdom for our own children when we ask him for it. I'm so thankful she said that because it sort of set me free from worrying about what anyone else would think. The verdict is that Christian is going to stay home for another year and repeat preschool. He doesn't turn (5) until the middle of June, so he has a late birthday anyway and that made the decision much easier. I felt such freedom after we made the decision to hold off on kindergarten for another year. I love the idea of Christian being one of the older kids in his class. And I love it that I get to be the main influence in his life for another year. I feel like I gained a whole extra year with him and I love that! We have worked so hard and come so far this year and I want to keep that momentum going! I almost can't even believe how far we've come just in the last (3) months. I just adore being Christian's mom :) What an honor!

There are three other boys in Christian's preschool class with summer birthdays who will be repeating preschool next year, so he will already have some friends going into the year. Christian has the best teachers ever at preschool. Christian said to me the other day; "Mom, we need to read my Bible every day, not just some days because when you read the Bible it helps you grow." And Christian's favorite song right now (which he learned at preschool) is "Open the Eyes of My Heart Lord." He's taught it to McKenna and it's the most precious time when all three of us snuggle up in Christian's bed and sing that song to Jesus at bedtime.

So that's where we are right now. This parenting thing certainly has mountains and valleys. Climbing up the mountain is sure hard but it's nice to sit at the top and enjoy the view a little bit, while recognizing that there are more valley's ahead. But I've got more confidence in my mountain climbing ability now :) And hopefully the next time Christian and I have a mountain to climb I won't be lugging him up it. Instead I have a feeling he'll be standing on his own two feet trudging along beside me as his daddy and I lead the way.