this much [30 months] | Jarvis

I know I say this every month, but I just can not believe how blessed we are. This boy, my oldest son, has such a sweet and loving nature. I am constantly blown away by him. 

It seems like every month his verbal and cognitive skills nearly double! He speaks in complete sentences and is learning to use correct grammar. He understands nearly anything we say, and as a result, we have taken to spelling quite a few words! He can now follow a conversation and pick up on tones and feelings. And he will repeat just about anything you say to anyone! 

He fell in love with swimming while we were in Texas and spent nearly every day in the pool. He can kick his legs and blow bubbles, but holding his breath is still questionable sometimes! He just needs to get his arms working and I think he would be swimming on his own! Floating was still a foreign concept though! He did work up his courage to jump off the top step into someone's arms, but not the side of the pool yet. He learned to 'crawl' around the edge of the pool by holding onto the side and walking his feet on the side. However that resulted in some sore fingers and toes!

He had such a wonderful time in Texas visiting family, but I do have to say that the grandpas/uncles were his favorites. He really enjoys all of them. He has so many grandpas and uncles that he insisted on knowing their names so he could call them 

Grandpa ___. 

He has wonderful manners and it is so nice to see our hard, consistent work paying off. He will now say 'no, thank you' at least 80% of the time instead of just screaming no. This has made my days so much more enjoyable!! He is so sweet with his brother and sister and always shares toys with them and comforts them. He always says, 'it's ok, it's alright' if one of them is crying. It made me so happy to see him behaving and showing his real, sweet self in Texas. It makes my heart swell with love to hear people tell me he is a joy to be around.

home[pre]school update: He can count up to 13, and knows many numbers above that, although not in order. He know nearly all his letters and most letter sounds. He has several sight words and we have been working on rhyming. He is starting to recognize colors, and I think he knows most of them, but I'm not sure he understands the concept of shades. I have an activity planned to focus on that this next week. We almost have our first bible verse memorized and hope to move onto another next week!