Six Years Ten Months Old

 This Spiderman is one outstanding super hero!  At any given moment you might see him run through the house or fight off some nasty pirates with his sword to protect his baby brother.  He's been the lead guard lately who defends his mom.  Sometimes he puts on his Batman pajamas and Batman underwear; this way he can be a super hero through and through.  Rocco is all about adventure and imagination.  When bad guys are all around, Rocco is there to protect!

 He's convinced that he is going to be the next quarterback for the Georgia Bulldogs.  Then, again he may just be a receiver. H'e so good he can play offense or defense.  Any position.  You name it.

In the way of television, Rocco has really started to like the Disney sitcoms.  He watches Jessie, Dog With a Blog, Austin and Ally, and Good Luck Charlie.

Rocco is not just an excellent speller, but he is a tremendous writer.  He's working on a book at home titled "Wild Cats."  He would watch National Geographic videos online, listen to me read a book about wild cats, and then add to his book.   He even wrote on his pages on his day off from school.  When he's at school, he gets to attend a special extra class where he is learning about poetry and publishing books.

On January 6th, Rocco was baptized.  This was a special event for so many reasons.

First of all, Rocco accepted Jesus as his Savior back in December.  Once he acted on his faith and prayed to Jesus for forgiveness of his sins, he wanted to get baptized to show others that he belonged to Christ.  Rocco was one of 10 who was baptized on this day.  Since Jason is the pastor where we attend church, Rocco was baptized by his daddy!

The ten individuals were the first to be submersed in the baptism pool in our brand new sanctuary.  On this special day, we dedicated our building to the Lord, baptized 10 people, and dedicated 13 children (Maverick was one of them). Here's our family portrait that was taken that day.

Rocco is a deep thinker.  One day he asked me if he would be a kid in heaven and if time passed in heaven. Would he get older?

The other day he cracked me up with something he said.  Out of the blue in the car he said, "Mom, I'm glad I wasn't born in 1978 because I don't want to be in those wars back then."  In his mind 1978 is forever ago, and I guess when he thinks of ancient wars 1978 is as good of a date as 1800.  I laughed and told him that I was two years old in 1978. It wasn't that long ago!

10 Months Old

At ten months old, Maverick is above the 97th percentile for his height. He measured over 31 inches long, and his head circumference is 49 cm.  He is a big boy, but he is lean for his height.  His weight is slightly less than 23 pounds.  He continues to nurse and eat stage 2 Gerber fruits and vegetables.  His favorite seems to be the rice cereal that we mix with breast milk.  He tried chicken noodle soup broth and really liked it.  Gerber Puffs are a new treat that he's experienced recently.  They're small enough for his little fingers and soft enough for his new teeth and gums to chew.  This month we also introduced Gerber baby cookies.  He turns them into pure mush between his fingers and it just drools out of his mouth.  Rocco has informed me that he can't watch his brother when he does this because it is just too gross.  I think it's rather sweet.

And just look at those 2 teeth.  They're shining through really well, and we predict new ones will be coming in soon.

He cruises really well now when he is holding onto the couch.  And he's standing for longer lengths of thime without holding on.  He will slowly squat back down without just falling over all the time when we let go of his hands.

Maverick loves to be read to, especially when I sing the book to him.  At the sound of any music or rhythm he will start bouncing.  The other day David began playing the guitar at our church.  Maverick was bouncing to the beat.  That baby's got rhythm.  I keep saying that he's going to be my drummer.  He's really good at patting, and he loves his toy drum.

What a sweet mess our boy can get into!  His new thing is seeing how many Kleenex tissues he can pull out of the box before we come running with, "No, Maverick."

Throughout the day he just jabbers away.  He will go down the roll call.  Mama, dada, nana, baba...He can say, "Bye."  He knows ball and can say it, too.  He doesn't wave as much as he used to .  We are currently working on blowing kisses.  He's not there yet.

He knows how to use a brush now.  It's cute watching him try to fix his hair.

One thing Maverick loves is the large canvas portrait of himself that hangs above his changing.  "Where's the baby?" I'll ask him.  He is a squirmy worm when we change him.  He will roll over, get up, and try to grab his picture.  I'll point out his mouth, eyes, and nose on the canvas.  Then, I'll go for Maverick's belly and tickle him.  He loves it.  Peek-a-Boo is still another one of his favorites, too.  He will also play pat-a-cake with his hands open now instead of closed.  Of course we are holding his hands to help h im.

I'm still so blessed to be working just part time at the school.  I only teach Tues and Thurs from 8 - 3:30 and Fri 8 - 11:30.  This allows me to be at home with Maverick. Nana and Granddaddy watch him on Tuesday and Thursday.  They have to put up barricades in the living room just to contain him.  Jason watches him Friday morning.

And he's ten months now but this was his first time he ever slept in his crib. Nana laid him down for a two hour nap while I was gone one day.  When she told me he was in his bed I couldn't believe it.  I told her to take a picture, and she did.  Just look at that sweet little miracle.

Salvation Has Come

On December 23rd, the Sunday before Christmas, our church had a time set aside for families to come in the evening  for a candle light communion.  As we were getting ready to go to church, I told Rocco that we wouldn't be having a regular service and that it wouldn't last as long tonight because we were going to have the Lord's Supper.  I also told him that he would not partake of it because he didn't understand what it fully meant to be saved.  He informed me otherwise.  

As we made our way to the bathroom to finish getting ready he let me know that he did understand what it meant.  

"You have to ask Jesus into your heart," he told me.  He continued to let me know that he had already prayed that prayer to ask Jesus to save him.  He said one Wednesday night he prayed by himself before he went to sleep.  He said that he had asked Jesus to forgive his sins.  Could this be?  I was beside myself!  I continued to ask him questions.  Yes, he believed that Jesus had died for our sins. And he knew what sins were and that he was in need of salvation.   Yes, he believed that Jesus arose again, and He certainly is the Son of God.  And he even told me that when those trumpets sound that he was going!

Ever since he was a baby, Jason and I have prayed for his salvation.  I have prayed and asked God so many times to speak to Rocco's heart at the right time and place.  Being so young and tenderhearted like he is, I wanted him to have a true salvation.  Anyone can repeat a prayer, and I knew Rocco wanted to go to heaven.  Who wouldn't?  But with him learning so much about Jesus in Sunday School, Children's Church, Wednesday night's Team Kid, and in the car through a lot of our talks, I knew he was beginning to understand what salvation was.  A few months ago he even told me with much urgency, "We've got to find out if I'm saved!"  I just kept putting it off because I didn't want to force him into anything.   I wanted to be sure he understood what he was doing and how important this decision to follow Christ was.  It is a life changing decision.  

And so I told him that when we got to church we would talk to his daddy.  After he assured me that he had prayed to accept Jesus, he asked, "So does this mean I can have the crackers and juice?"  

When we got to church, it was near the end of the drop in times.  After the Callan family finished their communion, I had Jason talk to Rocco about his salvation.  

Once Jason talked to him, he saw that  Rocco was sincere in his prayer to trust Jesus as his Savior and seek him for forgiveness of his sins.  Seeing he had accepted Jesus, he was ready for his first Lord's Supper.  Rocco knew that the cracker represented the broken body of Jesus and the juice stood for his blood.  He also knew that the Last Supper was when Jesus ate with his disciples one last time before he was nailed on the cross.  

 Here's our family after we took the Lord's Supper.

He's such a good listener.  The other day he told me, "Mommy, I'm glad we don't live in the Old Testament. We would have to kill animals."  He knows Jesus is our sacrifice, and He knows He is the Son of God who can save...even a six year old.  

What an awesome God we serve and what a Christmas this has been already!  Thank you Jesus for the Holy Spirit who still speaks to us and draws those of all ages unto salvation.  Thank you for speaking to Rocco's heart and for answering his prayer for salvation.  It just takes a simple, childlike faith.  Thank you for the simplicity of it.  It may be simple but it took a very large sacrifice.  I know it cost you everything, Lord!

Six years nine months

6 years and 9 months old - Rocco is enjoying first grade.  He is one of the top readers in his class.  Jason and Rocco are a team on the Accelerated Reader program.  Rocco will bring a book home, most of the time it is a non-fiction book about animals.  He and Jason will read it three times together.  Then, Rocco will take a test at school on it.  I've helped him a good bit, too.  Only Meg Kapustay has more points than him.  He has over 20 points which means he's read at least 40 books this school year.  Several months ago Jason told him that he would give him whatever he wanted at the end of the school year if he would reach 20 points.  Well, only half of the school year is over and Rocco has reached it!  Here he is with his first grade teacher, Mrs. Ashworth.  He's wearing  a scarf that she made him.  For Christmas, she made every student a scarf and also gave them a bag of goodies.

Here are a few of his classmates at their Christmas party before school let out for the holidays.  

And speaking of Christmas, Rocco racked up this year.  He only asked Santa for one thing when he talked to him at school.  More hexbugs with tracks.  Santa brought that and so much more!

 Some of his favorites were the Spiderman tent...

 toy knife that has a fake blade going in and out...

and he even got a Sheriff's outfit.

I don't have a picture of him, but Rocco's favorite toy was a turtle that lights up.  When you turn off the lights, Stanley (what we named the turtle) will project stars and the moon on the ceiling.  It is like a Dream Light, but Nana Carolyn found this one because he isn't fuzzy and I'm not allergic to him.  Rocco goes to sleep each night with Stanley lighting up his room.

 This Christmas season we stayed busy at church.  Construction was in full swing on our new sanctuary.  The children's play was held in the old sanctuary while we waited for it to be finished.  The title of the play was The Joy Story.  Rocco played a toy soldier who cleared the way for the toys to arrive.  I was the toy store owner, Mrs. Joy.

 The adult choir was able to sing in the new church building for their musical, Noel Born is the King.  Rocco played the young, boy Jesus.  Here he is with the wise men.

 Of course my birthday was this month.  I turned 36.  My best friend from South Carolina showed up at our house on that Friday after I got off work.  She drove four hours to come see me.  Surprise!  Jennifer, Rocco, and I went to Chattanooga to see the Polar Express on the big 3-d I-Max screen.  Jason stayed behind to watch Maverick.  After the show, we drove to LaFayette and ate at the Dari Dip with my mom and nana.  Afterwards, we drove about a mile and stopped to see the lights downtown.  Even though it is small, I love going there every year because all of the lights are synchronized to the music.  My brother, his girlfriend, and my dad joined us.  Here's Jennifer and me.

And here we are at the lights.  Rocco and I danced...and his favorite part was racing Tyler and me around the track.

In other updates this month, Rocco lost another tooth.  This one was on the bottom.  He lost it Dec 20th.  It's neat that I have one son losing teeth and another one getting them.

Rocco loves to sing Jingle Bells, but when he does he sings, "Bells on bobcats ring!"  He's such a fan of wildcats, and even though I told him that wasn't right, he just keeps on laughing and singing it that way.  I love my silly boy!

Nine Months Old

 Some things haven't changed much since last month with Maverick.  He is still in size 3 diapers, can handle a sippy cup pretty well, cries when you take something away from him, dances to music, loves to play with his big brother, Rocco, and still mostly full of smiles.  I call him "Smiley" sometimes for this reason.  This month has been filled with a few firsts though.

For starters, he began waving (12-4-12).  It's the sweetest thing.  Another cute thing he does is lay his head down when he sees a pillow on the floor.

And a BIG first for Maverick was his first tooth.  It came in on December 4th.  By the end of December, he was showing a second tooth.

 He was already mobile and crawling everywhere last month, but most recently he found that there are lots of goodies hiding in the cabinets.  Just look at all those pots and pans he's pulling out (not to mention all the ribbons and bows he crawled through while I was trying to wrap)!

 He also experienced drinking juice this month.  I mixed just a little apple juice with some water.  With all the teething he's done lately he treats the sippy cup more like a teething toy than something to drink out of.

 One of his biggest tricks is walking behind a push toy.  I got a text from Tonya, my sister-in-law, while I was  at work on Dec. 20th.  It was a video of him doing just that.  I texted her back, "Sit him down until I get there!"  Sure enough when Rocco and I got to nana's to pick him up, he showed us that he could pull up on the toy and walk forward across the carpet with it!  Nana and granddaddy bought him his own walking toy for us to use at home this Christmas. Just look at those sweet, chunky legs!

If you want to get a smile out of Maverick, playing peek-a-boo is a sure way to do it.  He's even learned to pull a piece of paper or a bib over his eyes and then pull it down to look at you.  Sometimes when he is on the changing table, I'll lower myself down and say, "Bye bye!"  Then I'll pop back up.  He seems to never tire from this silly game!

Another thing he never gets tired of is playing with Rocco. I can't put Maverick in his play crib unless Rocco is in there with him or he'll cry. With Rocco in there, I can get so much done.  They'll just play and play.   They have so much fun in this ball pit that Aunt Ta and Uncle Ben got him for Christmas, too.

And of course Maverick experienced his first Christmas this year.  Here are the boys the night before Christmas with their cookies for Santa.  

 And here's little man all into the packages and bows!

 Maverick just loves his granddaddy Gary.  If you ask him, "Where's granddaddy?" he'll look right at him and smile.  If you ask him where anyone else is, he'll just stare at you.  Perhaps that's because granddaddy bounces him on his knee like a horsey.  If granddaddy stops, Maverick will start bouncing to try to start it up again.

One last new trick that may get him into trouble later is shaking his head no.  It all started when I would change his dirty diaper and say, "Shoo."  I'd shake my head no.  Now when I change his diaper, he'll automatically start shaking his head.  And even when he doesn't want something, he'll shake his head.

Unfortunately another first he experienced this month was a high fever and a double ear infection.  I just praise the Lord that he is doing better now and is back to his smiley self!

6 Years 8 Months Old

Rocco is really into football these days.  Throughout the college season, he's stayed up with the Dawgs.  With the help of his daddy, he could tell you who they were going to play each Saturday.  He also could tell you which teams are in the SEC.  And he's also really good at telling you the different referee symbols and what they mean.  I was listening to him play the other day with his little football figures.  I heard him say, "After the review, the play was no good.  Automatic first down..."  He certainly knows all the lingo.

He's not very much into the outdoors.  He'd rather be inside playing with his toys or a game on the Wii or playstation.  He still really likes the football game.  He knows he can play one (sometimes more) games a day, so he'll cut it off during third quarter and think he can start another game.  "But the first one didn't count because I didn't finish it."  He thinks he's getting away with it, but his daddy caught on real fast.  Every now and then we will play the Mario game.  I think it's cute how he still calls Luigi "OOeegi."

Rocco's appetite has picked up some.  One of his favorite's is chicken legs.  On Papa's Sunday, we have to make sure we have enough of them because all of the cousins go after them.  Pringles potato chips, BBQ and sour cream, are also some of his favorite food.  He doesn't care for cupcakes or cake.  He'll eat cookies though.

Will is still one of Rocco's best friends (far right).  He and his brother, Weston, have come home with us a couple of times after school.  The boys always have the best time together.

 During the Thanksgiving season, Rocco dressed up as an Indian at school.  They had their usual feast.  This year Jason went to it.  Now that I am part time I only work half of a day on Friday, and I was home with the baby.

 We had the best time during Thanksgiving break.  Here are a few of the games we played together.  We had to put Maverick in his bouncy swing because he kept getting into our Candyland game pieces.

Every Wednesday night, Rocco attends Team Kid at our church.  He continues to attend Sunday School (Joan W. is his teacher) and children's church (Carol Ann is his teacher).  I also talk to him a good bit at home about the Bible.  He can tell you what the ABCs are of becoming.  Admit you are a sinner, believe Jesus is the Son of God, confess.  He still does not completely understand what all of it means, but he is quickly learning.  At our children's Christmas musical they sang a song about faithful Abraham.  I talked to him about how in the Old Testament people had to kill animals, specifically pure lambs or goats, so that their blood could be offered up as a sacrifice.  I continued to explain that we don't do that anymore because Jesus was our sacrifice.  He took it all in.  Later he asked me something like, "Why couldn't they just kill a cat?"  That boy is a mess, but he is a smart one!

Here we are in our children's Christmas play at church.  The title was the  Joy Story.  I played the part of an old fashioned toy store owner, Mrs. Joy, who had joyful news of the real meaning of Christmas.  My toys talked and taught a high minded New York toy store owner about Jesus.  Rocco was one of the toy soldiers.  He was so excited that he got to use a real walkie talkie during his speaking part.

8 Months Old

Maverick now weighs a little over 22 pounds and is in a size 3 diaper. And speaking of diapers he has suddenly turned into a little squirmy worm when it comes time to get a new diaper.  He tries to turn over on his left side and then sit up.  We're constantly having to wrestle him just to change his diaper.  He is still mostly breast fed, but he also eats Gerber rice or oatmeal and stage 2 Gerber fruits/vegetables.  Recently he began to get a little water out of a sippy cup.  He likes it when I give him about an inch worth of water out of a straw. He does not take a pacifier, but he chews on it sideways as a teething toy.

Within the last month, Maverick experienced his first Halloween .  He was the cutest dalmatian.

This was the first Thanksgiving without my Papaw Billy.  Although it was sad, we still carried on.  It was Maverick's first Thanksgiving.  Here's a picture of him sitting in the same high chair that I used over 30 years ago.

He and Rocco watched some of the Macy's Parade at Mimi and Papaw's house Thanksgiving morning.  (Because they live out of town, we spent the night there Wednesday.)

Later that day we had a big lunch with my side of the family.  My mom, dad, nana, brother, Daelyn, Jason, our boys, and I were there.  My brother's girlfriend and kids also joined us.  That evening, the boys and I headed to my cousin Jana's house.  She has 3 boys and Rocco likes to play with them.

That night my mom, the boys, and I headed to KMart to do a little shopping.  It wasn't truly Black Friday yet, but many stores were opening up so we headed there to see if we could find some bargains.

This is our family Thanksgiving picture that was taken at my parents' house.

Our little boy is into everything.  The last week of November he really began to crawl more with his arms straight (not just on his elbows).  We have to put up barricades (Rocco calls them 'barricaves"), and even then he crawls over them and makes his way to the TV cords or the Christmas tree.

This month he began pulling up and standing.  He's so good now that he just stands there with only one hand holding on to something.  I don't think it will be too long before he starts cruising.

Maverick loves to be read to.  He will take his little index finger and point to different parts of the book. He's good with his fine motor skills; just the other day he figured out how to make Granddaddy's recliner move by pushing a button.  At our house, he pulled his toy to him by tugging on the string attached to it.

 Music is another thing that he likes.  He's begun to rock back and forth when he hears something he likes, as if he is dancing.  When he's playing in the floor it's common for him to bang items or pat on things as if he is a drummer.  I think he likes the clanking noise they make.

We have four Christmas trees up this year, one in the living room and one in each bedroom.  Here's a picture of Maverick in front of the GA tree that is in Rocco's room.

 And speaking of GA, it is a shame that we lost the SEC championship game to Alabama this past Saturday. We would have had the opportunity to go up against Notre Dame for the National Championship title.  Oh well.  We are still training our boys to be DAWG fans.  Just look at this little bulldog.

There are still no teeth in sight in his sweet little mouth, but you can bet he drools like crazy.  At any given time you can likely see a small stream flowing off of his chin, especially if he's been chewing on a toy.  Most things still end up in his mouth.  Recently we started giving him really big stick pretzels when he is sitting in high chair.  He likes to gnaw on it.  He can't really chew it, but you can bet he makes a slobbery mess!  Baby spit is sweet (at least Maverick's is).

On Nov 24, Rocco called out, "Mama come here!  Look at Maverick!"  I came from the kitchen and peeked into the living room.  He had climbed onto the first step of the landing.  Oh no!  It seems like now there is no limit as to where he will end up!