It's hard to think about what to write about a 9 year old! Routines are on the outs and we are just having fun over here! Current favorites:
*Nintendo Switch
*Minecraft
*the color black
*Cocoa Puffs
*math
*swimming
*climbing
*driving his go kart
*reading
*Legos
*quesadillas, goldfish, citrus green tea, pepperoni pizza
*chocolate ice cream
Sutton got a Nintendo Switch for Christmas this past year, and since his iPad quit working, it was perfect timing. If it was up to him, he'd spend all his time on the Switch, watching YouTube. He watches videos about Minecraft, funny pet videos, and toy reviews.
We have been swimming a lot this summer! With a season pass to our local pool, we try to go as often as we can. Sutton does it all...diving board, slide, grabbing toys off the bottom of the deep end. We did swimming lessons at the beginning of the summer and his group learned 4 strokes, treading water, and diving. He was the best one in his group!
Daddy got a go kart for the boys a couple of weeks before Sutton's birthday. He has had a 4-wheeler for several years now that he loves, but Daddy decided to spoil him even further. Sutton LOVES it. He started wearing a track around our house from driving so much, so Daddy told him new routes he has to take so he doesn't ruin our grass. It was super exciting because last week, the wheat field by our house was finally harvested, so Sutton could drive the go kart out in the open field. That's now his favorite thing to do!
To celebrate Sutton's birthday, this year we decided to do a trip instead of a party. We drove up to Kansas City and met our friends Rachael and Rowan at Legoland. Sutton has been begging to go to Legoland for a long time now, so he was super pumped! While we were there, we stayed in a hotel, had birthday supper and birthday cake at Rachael's house, lots of play time with our friends, and we played at a park. On the way home, we made a stop in the Flint Hills so Daddy could film a property there. We found a gorgeous creek and spent a couple hours walking and hiking. Sutton said that was just as fun as Legoland!
Sutton likes summer, but is sad he doesn't get to go to school. He LOVES school. He's very social and likes seeing his friends every day, plus he's a great student so he loves schoolwork! His favorite is math - he brought home some math worksheets to do during the summer and couldn't wait to do them. He ended up finishing the school year with all A's (he had a few B's during the year - mostly for reading - but raised those grades)! We were so proud of him.
Sutton started a new school this past year, for 2nd grade. With Daddy quitting his teaching job and us not living in the district of his old school, we had to find a new one. We love it so much! Total small town vibes and great friends. Sutton's best friend is Axel who he met at school. Then we found out they only live a few blocks away from us. Other great friends are Eli and Hayden. We were so proud of how Sutton was really brave about going to a brand new school and making so many new friends. The move has been better than we could've imagined.
Even though it wasn't his strongest subject, Sutton has really developed a love of reading. His favorites are series of chapter books aimed at young readers. During the school year, he was always checking out books from the American Chillers series. This summer, we've been frequenting the library and he's gotten into Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Big Nate, and we just found a new series called Timmy Failure. His ultimate favorite was Dog Man for awhile, which are written in a comic book style. He also loves to read non-fiction books about animals or weather. His current favorite is to find books about natural disasters like tornadoes, floods, tsunamis, and volcanoes.
Sutton LOVES animals, especially cats! On August 1st, we found a kitten in our yard, who we named Ever and became super attached to. Sutton loves her and she loves him best! She puts up with the rest of us to an extent, but she really is his kitty. Ever just had kittens yesterday (post to come!) and both boys are smitten. Sutton says he either wants to be a vet or 'someone who helps people like a pastor' when he grows up.
Sutton and Ren are the best of buddies. They play together all the time and I just can't imagine them not having each other! But with any brotherly relationship, they fight constantly. It's more arguing than fighting. And it's always over the silliest things that really don't matter. Sutton always wants to be right and be in charge, and obviously that's not gonna fly with little bro, who wants things to go his way. Still, they share a love of Minecraft, go-karting, wrestling, playing in the foam pit, playing 'the bad guy game' and 'the puppy game' and so many more things. I just love having two boys and am excited to see how their relationship grows as they grow.
Sutton's favorite restaurants are Chili's (chips + salsa, pepperoni pizza, mashed potatoes), Subway (turkey, cheese, mayo on wheat), Taco Tico (chicken quesadillas), Pizza Hut (pepperoni pizza). He also loves chocolate shakes from Braums.
Our current routine : the boys share a room so they always get up at the same time. Lately it's been anywhere between 7 and 9am. We have just recently told them no electronics or TV til we are up. So they play or draw or do Legos until we're up. Then Ren goes to feed the animals while I make breakfast. Sutton either has Cocoa Puffs or toast with peanut butter. After breakfast, I usually need to work so they watch TV or iPad/Switch for awhile. After they've had a couple hours of that, I make them go play outside or in their rooms or downstairs. Sometimes this goes really well, sometimes they just argue and I get super annoyed. We usually have sandwiches for lunch if we're home, or we'll grab food on-the-go if we're not. We try to go swimming as much as we can and we fit in parks around errands. Daddy is usually gone all day on shoots, which leaves me home with the boys most of the day. Then I go out and shoot in the evenings and Daddy stays home with the boys and feeds them supper. They go to bed around 8 or 9...sometimes later since it's summer. We brush teeth, read a devotional, pray, and then they're supposed to go to sleep but we usually hear them laughing and talking long after we shut the door.
Sutton's personality is interesting and we've been through many difficult and good seasons. He is a first-born, rule-follower, needs to be in control of a situation type of person. I am not that way. I'm constantly telling him to "chill out" or "just let it go" or "it's not that big of a deal." He picks and picks at Ren and doesn't give him any room to be wrong. He's always saying "if you don't do it my way, I'm not going to play with you" then Ren cries and life is over.
At the same time, he has the kindest, sweetest heart. He is always writing/drawing me notes telling me I'm the best mom ever. He loves to tell me how skinny I am (hahah) and he tries (TRIES) to make other people feel good by giving them compliments. He loves Jesus - I recently explained what seminary is to him and he thought that sounded amazing. He's not a crazy, bouncing off the wall, rough and tumble type of kid. Though he has his moments of that too. He cries pretty frequently and talks about all kinds of deep things! I'm so glad he's my kid!
We just had his 9-year-old well child check. He weighs 73 pounds (80th percentile) and is 55 inches tall (83rd percentile).
Sutton enjoys going new places and meeting new people. We signed the boys up for VBS at a church they'd never been to and with no one they knew. Sutton LOVED it and was sad when it was over! He also gets super excited to perform, like the performance at the end of that VBS. He also had a Christmas program and a Spring program at school that he was very excited for but also nervous!
He prefers wearing athletic shorts or pants and t-shirts. He'll wear jeans if I ask him to but doesn't love it. He does like hoodies and sometimes wears a ballcap. He got Nike shoes for the first time this year and was very excited. That was like the first time that a brand has mattered to him, so that was interesting. I get it, but we're also trying to make sure those things aren't too important to him.
The best words I can think of to describe Sutton are: kind, compassionate, loving, smart, hard-headed, and all-boy. We are head over heels for this young man and excited to see what his 10th year brings!
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