Marcus

Let's do Marcus, now, and then tomorrow I'll post some Easter pictures.
Marcus has the most beautiful blue eyes--they're striking. He needs a haircut and sometime we'll need to figure out a time to do that. Tim is our in house barber and Marcus enjoys watching some superhero videos on youtube while Tim buzzes his hair (that's all we can do around here: buzzes).
Marcus loves kindergarten and is nicknamed "The Math King" because he's so quick with equations. His teacher came up with the name and he gets all blushy and happy when anyone calls him by that name. He is also turning out to be a good little reader, so good that he soared right through the 5 Bob book sets we got him for Christmas. The 5th set proved a little more difficult for him so I suggested we go back a set to practice some more, but he insists that we keep reading the books from that 5th set, so that's what we'll do. I'm glad to see him enjoying school and learning (most of the time) sometimes he doesn't want to have our daily after school homework time, but most of the time, he's great. He still struggles a bit with his handwriting, but my hope is that with continued practice we can get better there, too. Earlier on in the year, his teacher told me she was a little worried about his fine motor skills so we've been working on those throughout the year and she told me she has seen great improvement. Hooray! I was happy to note that on his last report card she'd marked Meets Expectations for everything, but in the "works well with others" boxes she'd marked Exceeds Expectations. I am glad to see that he is a nice boy to others because raising kind children is really important to me.
Marcus is playing t-ball right now and Tim is his coach. The weather has been yucky, so I've only been to one game with the babies, but Marcus tells me that his favorite position is catcher because he gets to wear all the cool equipment and catch the ball a lot. He also really likes the snacks they get at the end of the game. One of his best friends is on his team, too, so he really enjoys that as well.
The kid is an amazing builder of tracks and block creations.
Marcus does chores now because I am determined to raise boys who can clean! We are starting out very small and basic because I find that in our house, small and basic are the only things that stick :) He has 3 everyday chores: feed and water Lucy the cat, make bed, and clean room. Then during the weekdays he picks 2 additional jobs that he must complete that day (I have little job cards that my mother and sister-in-law made me a few years ago). I have been helping him the past week so that he does the jobs correctly and I had to laugh because the other day he told one of his friend's mom's that he is doing chores now. She asked him if I helped him and he replied, "No, I do everything and she watches." Nice.
Marcus is five so he likes to talk in extremes like if he wants me to make waffles one morning but we don't have time so I say we'll make them another day, he says, "We NEVER have waffles!!!" or if it's a day that he doesn't want to do his chores it's "I have to do EVERYTHING!!" or another one I hear is "I NEVER get to pick the movie!! Eli ALWAYS gets to pick the movie" Oh, wait, maybe that last one is true . . .
I feel like I will probably always have a special sort of relationship with Marcus because he is my oldest and because we go through so many firsts together. Starting school, starting t-ball, these are things that I am doing for the first time as a mom and they are all with him. I love going on "dates" with Marcus. We've seen two movies at the theater, together recently, and it is so fun.
We don't always get along, sometimes he can be pretty emotional or I can be pretty emotional, but for the most part, I'd say he's a pretty easy going kid and for that I am very very grateful.