Gorgeous Boy, How I Adore You. And Your Rodents.

This is Jack's hamster, Ziggy. Ziggy runs on her little wheel all night long. Ziggy is the friendly one. She'll let you hold her and usually, she won't do something mean or gross.


This picture, I snapped of my boy at the Texas Rangers game on the 4th of July. He really likes baseball. At least watching it.

My MOMMA took this picture. It was also on the 4th of July. Notice that my lens is covered in humidity??? Still, just love that boy.

Summer just isn't summer without a picture of Jack in the pool. I'm sure you'll agree. I sure do miss the local pools in Nebraska! Jack misses them even more, though.

I took this picture last night. Jack fell asleep reading his Bible Stories book. I love how his food is sticking out of the covers. I love how he looks just like he did when he was a baby. Gosh, he's gorgeous.

This is Rhino, the evil one. She poops on you or bites you if you pick her up. She's also quite fat and lazy. Notice the sleepy look in her squinty eyes....she's peering at you.

Jack is growing, ohsofast. Summer seems to fuel his body like sun fuels the fields. He always sprouts up on us in the summers. His little world is getting bigger and his sweet heart is, too. I'm always amazed with how conscious he is of the comings and goings around him. He's been a tremendous help to me in the last few weeks. He insists that I rest when I need it and he watches his sister without being asked. He's a truly amazing child.

Jeff and I were talking last night about discipline. We agreed we don't know too much about it other than to present a united front and to be consistent. Jack makes it easy. We don't have to use full-force discipline, hardly ever. He's a well-tempered child who wants to please. We just hope his sister follows that path in life.

He really hates living in New Mexico, and if he had it his way, we'd be in Nebraska. He doesn't hold it against us, though. He seems more than willing to ease the burden of life just by being a good boy. His favorite things are easily taken with him, so he's still relatively happy. If I made lasagna more often, he'd be in heaven.

He reads all of the time. Lately, he's gone back to some old favorites in the "Hank the Cowdog" series. He's also revisiting some Kate diCamillo books. He even reads to his little sister. Fortunately, the child has discovered that anything you want to know can be found by reading. He is slowly turning off his math fascination. I think he's just rounding out a bit. Math was the only thing that challenged him for a time, so he focused on it. Now, he's discovering some other things and it's summer, so worksheets are enough to make him whine at me about schooling all year.

He's a very effective communicator. He's not afraid to tell people "no." I'm glad of that. He doesn't abuse it, he's just good at expressing his point of view. His emotions have been a wee bit turmoiled lately, but that's to be expected. Nothing in his life or our lives has gone according to plan as of late. He's actually a super-champ for not turning into a beast.

Jack is just the greatest. Everyone should have one just like him!