Jaxson at 7

oh, my Jaxson boy. He keeps pushing further away from me; it's torture to give me an occasional hug (he cries). I will always hold out hope that he outgrows this phase...

 

Jaxson is your typical boy-loves all things outdoors. He enjoys soccer, basketball, and football. He keeps bugging me to let him play tag football next year. He likes to go four-wheeling (and practice his driving skills) and hunting. He shot his first coyote the other day. He is trying to get stronger so he can use his bow and arrow that he got for Christmas.

 

 Jaxson is turning into a pretty good little reader. He has improved so much in 1st grade. His favorite books are the Magic Tree House series and books about dinosaurs. We read from the Book of Mormon Stories book each morning, and he rarely needs help with the words these days.

Jax finally got into speech therapy right before Christmas. I am so thankful for his sweet speech teacher who really pushed for him to qualify. We are hoping he can make a lot of progress! He still speaks so slurred and fast that a lot of people have a difficult time understanding him.

Of all his sisters, Jaxson plays with Kamryn the most. They have a love/hate relationship. They sure know how to push each other's buttons. I feel like he is usually the one to get in trouble though, since his reaction is to be physical, whereas Kamryn uses words/songs/sounds to annoy him. Their punishment is to sit on the couch and hold hands for 5 minutes-without fighting, or time starts all over. That's pretty much the worst thing you could do to Jaxson.

We've been trying to get him to figure out the appropriate response to "What's up?" He always says good. And then to  "How's it going?", he'll say nothing. Seriously he can't figure it out. Our Bishop has been working with him on this every time he sees him for months. No progress.

Jaxson is Kimber's sippy cup-filler-upper. He doesn't spend a lot of time playing with Kimber, so I'm trying to get him to interact with her more. I tell Kimber to go ask Jax, and she does. He also now sits next to her in the car, and so he has the job of shielding her eyes when the sun is shining on her (she HATES when this happens).

Jax likes to wear certain things-it comes and goes in phases- but for the past year he has wanted to wear jeans with a belt, a white t-shirt underneath another t-shirt and tennis shoes. And if its cold, his camo jacket. He became allergic to his belt several months ago, so I looked all over (Gallup and the internet) for athletic pants he could wear to school-but he still refuses. He also only takes socks off to shower-that's it.

He asks me everyday after school if he can have a treat. And everyday I tell him he can after he eats something healthy, and then he proceeds to negotiate what is healthy. Are fruit snacks healthy? Are pretzels healthy? Are pumpkin muffins with chocolate chips healthy? (Seriously). I have finally started telling him only fruits and vegetables are healthy and that's it.

We are working hard on trying to teach him to be a gentlemen, but I'm afraid that is years in the making. He is getting pretty good at opening doors for his sisters and mom. And he has all the "gross" jobs around the house...taking the trash out, emptying Petie's water, bringing the garbage can in from the curb.

 It is fun to see his mind processing things because you can literally see him thinking through how things work. We've been playing Mancala a lot lately, and he is getting really good thinking through his next moves, both offensively and defensively.

I am so grateful for Jaxson and the dynamic he brings to our family. He is my favorite little boy!