Jax’s Three Year Old Pictures

Jax.  Jax.  Jax.

He is wonderful!

He’s sweet, sensitive, helpful, caring, concerned for others’ wellbeing, a peacemaker….just a good soul, ya know? There’s a depth and goodness about him that can’t be taught but just exists as a part of who he is.

Although he’s not very socially outgoing people flock to him and love him. My mother-in-law always said that Ben and his brother Kurt always made her look good as a mother.  Jax does that for me.  He’s so smart, well behaved, and polite.  I wish I could take the credit but he came to me that way and I’m just doing my best to keep that goodness intact.

A few details about the little guy….

He’s always been very verbal.  He talked at a young age and his pronunciation is clear and word choice is unique.

He’s scared of most animals, yet animals seem to be attracted to him.  Once I was changing his diaper outside and a squirrel came and sat right on his shoulder.  Freaked me out.  Another time I was holding him outdoors and a bird flew out of a tree at us and got within a foot.  It’s kindof weird.

I think he’s Ben’s twin.  His body shape is identical and their personalities are so alike!

He calls Sadie “Saderades” and she and ‘Maffias’ (Matthias Smith; one of the few words he says quirky and it’s so cute) are his best friends.  He and Sadie really are very, very close!  They play together beautifully….most of the time 🙂

He’s scared of water.  He usually plays around the pool but doesn’t like to get in it much.  He insists that he won’t be baptized when he’s 8 because he’s too scared of going completely under the water!

When he was younger he was pretty attached to Ben but the last year things have flip-flopped and now he’s entirely attached to me.  If he wakes up at night he won’t even talk to Ben.  He only wants me and he wants me to come in his bed with him until he falls back asleep.  I love that we’re so close now.  I felt bad that his first two years of life I was sick during a pregnancy and then occupied with a newborn.  Ben did a great job of loving, nurturing, and bonding with him but I’m happy it’s my turn now to be his favorite.  He’s probably the most attached to me of all the kids. McKay and Sadie are actually fine with going to the gym or being babysat overnight but it’s always Jax who starts saying, “I want my mommy to come back now.”

He’s our only child that plays with toys and can be independent for long stretches of time.  Sadie and McKay want to be entertained and around people all the time.  Jax is content to get a box of toys and play by himself, as long as I’m close by.  Sadly, what usually happens is McKay comes along and destroys whatever he’s building 🙁  I always tells Jax to just go in his room and close the door when he wants to build something but he’s too nervous to close the door.  So, although he can entertain himself, he’s usually out in the family room where his siblings mess up whatever he’s trying to work on.  Poor kid!

He has a pretty long attention span for a child his age. He’s not super hyper or active considering he’s a toddler boy. I keep them pretty active but he’d be content with a more lazy lifestyle.

Jax has always been difficult to get to sleep.  He slept through the night at the youngest age (by far the winner!) but he is difficult to get down for naps.  For over a year he slept in his infant car seat, in the stroller, in my bathroom.  I would put him in the car seat and push him in the stroller until he fell asleep. He despised his crib so around 14 months we moved him to a big boy bed and that helped a lot.  He still wakes 2 or 3 times a week because he’s scared and needs reassurance.  He hasn’t taken naps for a long time.  Sometimes he’ll take a short nap in the car or if he’s had a really, really busy morning he’ll take a nap.  That only happens every couple weeks.

Thanks to Sadie he knows all his letters, their sounds, and can spell probably a dozen words.  During McKay’s nap time I try to do school stuff with Sadie but Jax is always eager to participate, too.

He enjoys being funny and making others laugh.  I love that about him!

He still loves sports!  His obsession has cooled off a little since last year but that’s probably partially our fault.  We haven’t taken him to play tennis or golf in a while.  Those are his two favorites.  He’s a non-contact sport type of kid, I think.

He has a major sweet tooth!  Also, he has no stop mechanism when eating sweets. He’ll just keep going and going and going.  That must be why his insides are so sweet, too.

Jax seems to be quite musical.  I’m not saying he’s a Mozart or Bach but he definitely feels music in a way I don’t.  He also loves to dance to music in a hip-hop, break dance sort of way. When he’s older I plan to sign him up for a break dance boys class. How he will love that!

He’s our child that says funny, unique things.  He also frequently surprises us with what he knows.  A few cute quotes he’s said recently…..

• He whispered in McKay’s ear during the passing of the Sacrament on Sunday, “McKay, do you want to be resurrected?” McKay shook his head NO!  Jax replied, “It’s really fun!”
• Today my hair had been in a ponytail but it was bothering me so I took it down.  He politely asked me to put my hair tie back in my hair.  I told him it was hurting me and I didn’t want to.  He insisted. I resisted.  Finally he said, “You don’t look like my mommy anymore though.”
• We were in Kohl’s today and McKay was sitting on Jax’s lap in their cart.  They have weird carts so this is hard to explain.  They have like a long bag.  Well, I had Sadie and McKay in the two seat areas and Jax was sitting in the deep bag area.  McKay asked to sit with Jax so Jax said he could sit on his lap.  A lady walked by and saw them together in there and Jax replied from deep within the bag, “This is my little brother but he’s really growing up but he’s not suppose to!”  It was pretty adorable.

He is pretty adorable.