Davis . . .

Davis is getting so big - I cannot believe that he is almost five years old!  He is really loving school right now and soccer.  He asks those two questions almost every morning:  "Do I have soccer today? and "Do we do school today?".  I am glad he is enjoying learning new things.  When we started doing school, Anne was so kind to come over and evaluate where Davis was at with some things.  At that point in September, he could not really identify individual sounds.  For example, if you told him "S" says "ssssss", can you think of any words that begin with that sound - he really had no idea.  For several weeks we would talk about all the words that start with the letter we were working on, but he couldn't make that connection to finding words on his own.  In the last two weeks this has started to 'click' for him.  All day long he will think of word that start with the letter we are working on for the week.  Just this morning at breakfast, he said "Pantry and my Pancakes both start with the "p" sound".  When we are riding in the car he also finds lots of things he sees that start with the letter we are talking about.  It seems like such a simple little thing, but it has been a sweet pleasure and privilege (that I wasn't expecting) to get to watch him learn simple, little, foundational things.  It is so exciting to me to get to see those lights turn on!  

Another sweet thing is how much he loves babies right now.  (Please refrain from the "time to have another" comments . . . those are outdated and fall on deaf ears:)  He talks about Evie and Hugh all the time and can't wait to get his hands on those kids when he sees them.  He was super into picking out a b-day present for Hugh and last night in the car, he asked if Mark was coming to Papa's birthday dinner and voiced his concern about him being around Evie since Mark has been sick.  That baby girl will be adored by her cousins!

We have also had some great conversations lately about spiritual things.  Davis used to be very opposed to talking about spiritual things and even reading Bible stories together, so it continues to encourage my heart greatly when he initiates talking about things.  God has also used it to encourage me to think about Him with the intrigue and innocence of a little boy.  Davis has been asking lots of questions about what it will be like when Jesus comes back.  He will look up at the sky and ask what it will be like when Jesus is coming back through the clouds.  One night, I was flustered making dinner and probably impatiently snapping at the kids to get to the table (Mark was gone) and the first thing Davis asked when we sat down was "why don't we get to KNOW when Jesus will come back?" - definitely made me stop in my cranky tracks and remember that my focus should be on that!  He asked his Sunday school teacher two weeks ago why we call God, "God".  This has given us the opportunity to talk about God giving Himself that name in Scripture and speak together about the authority of God.  Last night in the car he asked, "who is Jesus' Father?"  Trying to speak true things that he can understand about something like the Trinity reminded me of my study in John right now - that spiritual things can only be understood by the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts - and so we continue to pray that God would work in Davis' heart to give him understanding of these things and I am so grateful that I get to watch and be used by God in that process.