E I G H T is G R E A T

Reagan turned E I G H T  February 7th. Which makes Zach and I around 32. Because it fell on a Saturday he brought treats in to class on Friday. And by treats I mean anything inedible because they have to be multi-allergy free. We can synchronize our eye rolls right... NOW.

Soooo..... I came up with this "Crazy 8s" (like the game) crazy straw gift way way too late Thursday night.

Saturday morning we woke up and got ready for his basketball game. We don't do friend parties every year so we killed two birds with one stone and brought cupcakes to the game to share. Everyone sang happy birthday to him afterwards and he left feeling pretty special.

That night we had his favorites for dinner. Oh and dinner music from Louis Armstrong (why??) per his request (seriously, why?) After searching for a song and having to wait through the instrumental section before the singing began; "Yeah, this is one of his. I recognize his voice." Never have we ever played him 1920s jazz music before.

 Now for some recent quotes shall we...

One night before bed "Jesus should have a forever patent on creation."

Lest you think we are doing some kind of great work in his spiritual walk... "I'm really squeezing the hell out of this clementine."

He doesn't know what a scantron machine is and thinks the machine you put tapes in to watch movies is called a v-chess player.

Saddest quote to date if you understand his relationship with his blanket... "When the world ends and everything burns will blue blankie go down in the fire?"

Zach basically died when he was giving a friend a ride home in the van with Reagan in the backseat and Reagan somehow produced and offered the friend a bottle of BEER. One must have rolled out of a bag and under a seat without my knowing a long long time ago.

He was trying to trash talk on the basketball court and it ended terribly. He referenced a friends skin color as being similar to wood and then said he was going to "light him up" like in the fireplace. It was just all around awful and he had no idea it wasn't appropriate. The friend didn't even really understand either, just ran up to the coach (Zach) and said Reagan "race-d" him.

His Young Authors book was about servicemen (I should just copy-paste the whole book on here one day because it is a GEM) and he interviewed Zach (a firefighter) and our friend Josh (a policeman.) Here he is face timing Josh conducting the hard-hitting interview. If you were to read his notes though you should know to translate every "cat tits" as "tactics."

More about Reagan...

I took him to the doctor for his 8 year well check up (mainly because I wanted to switch his pediatricians to the one the little boys have) and it was the first time he'd been to the doctor in YEARS. The kid just doesn't get that sick. At least not enough to ever need a prescription. His stats at eight years...

51 inches

59.4 lbs

He spills his guts if you are making physical contact with him (i.e. putting your arm around him, etc. not that he is a tough egg to crack in general but we get way more out of him when tucking him in at night.)

He loves the Packers (to his dad's dismay) and the Cubs. Him and Zach have epic Nerf gun battles. He could play Legos for hours as well as video games if we let him. He wants to be in the Air Force when he grows up. Loses everything/needs help finding everything (this I hear is an inherited trait.)

Things we are working on... 

Even though you have something to say, sometimes it's more wise to keep it to yourself. Once we as adults figure that out I'm sure it'll be easier to teach him. wink.

Focusing on the task at hand and staying engaged during things that aren't interesting to him (school work might fall into this category) are things we struggle with but even in the last few weeks I've seen really good strides in this area.

We are slowly giving him more and more independence. I know they say if you don't give them independence then they will just take it. Little things like letting him get water whenever he would like. It's hard because he is the oldest and I think we are much more protective and controlling with him than we will be with the others.

I couldn't have picked a better big brother for our family. He is patient. He is compassionate. He loves. Like really knows what love means and shows it well. He gets what his role is in our family and tries to fill it the best he can. He has a really good heart. One that is concerned with justness and how other people feel. He speaks very matter of fact-ly about his beliefs and asks such good questions. 

In eight more years he'll be able to DRIVE.