Jackson turns 8

 

So very exciting to have the computer up and running again! Time to catch up. On March 18th Jackson turned 8 years old! Whew. We had his party on Saturday the 17th. We just kept it to family this year. Gram and Papa were in town for his baptism the next day so we got to have them here for the party too. Jackson loved helping me decorate and was pretty happy with me for getting some angry birds decorations. He had requested another donut man instead of a cake - just like last year. So I tried to step it up a bit and make it a little cooler. He wasn't very impressed :) He thought the one from last year was just fine. He was amused that the candles were his hair..... Gram helped us start a new tradition. She blew up 8 balloons and put $1 in each one. Jackson got to pop them and collect his money. All the kids were pretty excited about that.
It's so hard to believe that he is 8 already. Sometimes I don't think I treat him accordingly. Poor oldest child that gets to do everything first - including teaching his parents how to parent :) He still loves Legos and robots. Could easily be happy with those two things alone. I love his creativity and curiousity. His fire for learning, his steadfastness when he feels something is right, his empathy for others, his energy, his willingness to help. He is an amazing kid and has grown up in so many ways over the past year. I am excited to see what the next one holds. Second grade has been awesome for him. His teacher was a perfect fit and while he is not the angel child in the class :) he has a love of math and a lack of love for english/spelling. He comes home happy from school almost without fail, wants to do his jobs immediately (make his bed, take dirty clothes down, put clean ones away) so he can have his computer time. In the interest of full disclosure and for future reference - he occasionally still loses his computer time for wetting his pants while playing. Tries to wait while he finishes 'just one more level'. He loves to play with the neighbor girl who is 1 year older than he is, climb trees (although that has almost stopped since we found a tick on his head after climbing). That really had nothing to do with the tree - ticks are just insanely horrible out here. We have seen 10 this spring already..... Jump on the trampoline, have lemonade stands.
 Jackson is amazing with Caleb. He will play with him, distract him, hug him - I hope they continue to be buddies as time goes by. Sometimes it's sad to think that Caleb will only be 12 when Jackson graduates from high school. All in all Jackson is a perfect fit in our family and we absolutely love who he is.