N. 4.5 years old

• He still LOVES trains.  He is very determined to be a train engineer when he grows up.  He talks about going to school to be a train engineer and is very serious about it.

• He is quite the pro at doing puzzles and can now do many 100 piece puzzles without help.

• I started journal writing with him--similar to what I did as a teacher.  The original goal was to do it every night, but it probably happens more like once a week.  I have him do his best at sounding out the words and writing the sounds he hears.  I also have him read it back to me.

• He loves Disney Cars.  I think he jumped on the fan bandwagon a little late, but nonetheless he loves the movie, the cars, has the underwear, stuffed animals, puzzles, etc!

• Every night as I'm tucking him in and leaving his room, he says, "Good night see you in the morning."  If I leave before he's said it (meaning he's stalling and not letting me leave), he frantically says it really fast.  I always say it back to him--it's our little thing:)

• Whenever he first sees me in the morning, he always says, "Good morning momma."

• He has been doing various chores to earn money for quite some time--he puts away silverware, helps fold laundry, sweeps & mops, cleans his toys, organizes.  He earns a dime for each one he does (yes, I'm cheap).  He has earned about $7, and finally for the first time, bought something.  He normally doesn't want to spend it, but his first purchase was a little pack of plastic dinosaurs for $1--they were in the Valentine's party favors section and he was worried that the wouldn't be there next time. 

• He loves friends, playing with them, going to parties, having friends over--I mean who doesn't love friends!  We are SO very blessed to have so many close friends!

• He loves school--loves his teacher!

• He can write his full name (first, middle, and last) and spell it on his own.  He is so proud and writes it on all of his homework.  The other day at church he started whispering in my ear the letters in his name--he was so excited that he knew them.

• N. is my sweet, sweet boy.  He tells me he loves me all of the time.  He prays for others--he prayed that Kyle (my sister's little preemie boy) would get enough air for over a month--then we talked about how now he doesn't need air now, so he said, mom, it (my prayer) worked, so now he prays that Kyle and Cody will grow healthy and strong.  The other day, I was crying over something, and he said mom, don't cry, don't be sad, be happy.  Today, my allergies were bad, so I was feeling junky, and he said he wanted to paint a picture to cheer my up.  I'm grateful for his sweet, thoughtful spirit.  

He's such a sweet big brother (most of the time;)

PJ day at school--so he always wants to wear his Angels for Atticus shirt to bed--anytime it's clean, you can bet he's wearing it!  We love you Atticus!

 Journal page: (I went to school. I play in the snow.  I had fun in the snowball fight.)