It's Jacks first birthday. He is the big zero one today so Happy Birthday buddy!While today's birthday party is going to be a low key affair, we will have a bit more of a celebration next week at Mom and Dad's place in Mckinleyville. We hope to see a lot of you folks there.
Jack is doing very well and is learning new things everyday. He is working on standing on his own right now and enjoys it so much we can hardly keep him on the floor. Every time we look around he has pulled himself up on his feet and is cruising around. We did have to spend a little time teaching him how to get down once he got up on his feet, but he seems to have it figured out pretty well now. While he has been up on his feet for a few months, he seems to be getting closer to actually walking on his own. You can almost see the gears tuning in his head as he starts to figure out this whole walking thing.
Jack seems to be on the verge of forming some words. He is making "M" sounds which sound a whole lot like "mama". Perhaps you have to use just a wee bit of imagination, but you can hear it if you listen closely enough. We have also started him on baby sign language. It is something we are all learning together, but it is fun and increases the amount of interaction between us.
I continue to be amazed at how well Jack has integrated in to our family. I honestly feel like he has always been with us and that he is every bit our son.
I don't know what I expected, but it has surprised me just a bit to see how quickly the whole thing happened. It seems as though our trips to Kyrgyzstan were so long ago, yet it has only been several months. Funny how the time flies in one sense while going so slowly in another.Mackenzie's last day of school is tomorrow and she will officially become a first grader once she walks out of her classroom. We are very proud of her. We continue to be amazed at how well she and Jack get along. Mackenzie takes very good care of her little brother and he is very fond of her. It would be a lot more work for Kate and I if she was not around to help keep him occupied. Mackenzie is also becoming a very good little reader. Each night we spend time going over her reading books and she is doing very well. The really great thing is that she actually enjoys it. Math and reading skills will continue to develop over the summer as we plan to do some work each day.
Kate and I are doing great as well. We are staying very busy with the recent increase in our family size but we are happy and feeling great. We continue to look forward to hearing from our friends and family, so please drop us a line when you have a minute or two. We would love to hear from you.
I have placed a couple more photos up on the public site so go and take a look. the link is at the top of the page. I also have a link to John and Debbie's site up there as well. I know a lot of you are following their story as well.
Bye for now,
Scott
