Cannon

This has been a big year for Cannon and I feel like he's really grown up a lot! 

He has grown physically.  He had a growth spurt and is about 45" tall and just under 45lbs.  He loves to climb and do flips on the climbing dome.  Today he figured out how to hang from the bar with just his legs.  He is still an avid swimmer and likes to do different jumps.  He can swim long lengths and tries to see how long he can hold his breath while doing laps.  Sometimes we ride bikes outside, but we are anxiously waiting for cooler weather before we hit the trails. 

For Christmas I got an underwater camera and we've been having lots of fun with it!  I just love how happy Cannon is in the water!

Selfie!

Cannon and Dyson love to swim together!

He is really into Legos and Star Wars right now and our Lego collection is slowly growing.  He likes to build his own creations, which he saves on a shelf in the playroom, and also enjoys the kits to build cars and Star Wars ships.  He spends hours everyday building with Legos.  One night after dinner he spent three hours just building Legos!

Ryan has read him four of the Star Wars books.  I was pretty impressed that he could listen to hundreds and hundreds of pages without any pictures. He has not seen the movies, but he knows everything about Star Wars! Right now they are reading the first Harry Potter book and only have two chapters left.  Ryan reads to him before bed when he is home.  Sometimes during the day he and I will read our own chapter books.  So far we have read The Boxcar Children, Charlotte's Web (twice), and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  We started reading the Wizard of Oz when we were at my mom's house.  He was really into it, so I'll probably end up buying it.  We aren't always reading chapter books.  He still very much enjoys ALL of his picture books, even his baby board books. 

Cannon is also really into games!  His favorites are: go-fish, war, slap-jack, Battleship, Trouble, Enchanted Forest, and Austinopoly (the Austin version of Monopoly).  I think we play war at least once a day. 

The biggest change for us is that he started school!  We are doing a mix of homeschool and private.  Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we do our homeschool and Tuesday and Thursday he goes to St. Thomas.  Tuesday is a half day and Thursday he stays until 2:30.  This was one of the best choices we have made!  We debated on different schooling options for him once we left Florida, but I feel like we made the right decision and I have no regrets. He LOVES school and only has positive things to say when I pick him up.  He is so happy and that makes me happy. 

Homeschool is also fun.  There is definitely a learning curve to it, for both of us, but we're getting the hang of it.  I am doing project-based homeschooling and it is working out well.  I bought a book for $10, read it, and started to implement the principles.  I love that there is no curriculum to buy since Cannon is leading his learning.  Right now he is wild about space!  He is so inquisitive and he came up with 10 thoughtful questions about space and astronauts.   We checked out books from the library and have watched a couple videos online.  He has figured out answers to lots of his questions and has added more.  We even took a field trip to NASA last week which was so cool!  I got him a large cork board so that he can pin up his questions, pictures, and plans.  Right now he wants to make an astronaut suit for his project.  I am amazed at his creativity and solutions.

I am very excited about this school year!  I can already tell that it's going to be a great year and that we will both be learning a lot.

First day of school last year compared to this year.  And he's wearing the same shirt.

First day of homeschool!  He wanted a picture of me too. 

Some of his work

NASA!  They are working on Orion and we got to see some people working and testing!

Some pictures Cannon took at NASA

Here are some other pictures for fun. 

Blue loves her new toy - a teddy bear with a squeaker.

We've been able to spend more time with Aunt Shae!  Cannon loves Shae's boyfriend, Dave, and they make up songs together on the guitar. 

Sometimes we watch my friend's 2.5 year old son and we always have fun with him!

FHE s'mores with some friends