Jack, Sam, & Sophy

Jack is growing about an inch a day (I exaggerate), and he is doing well in 5th grade. We're having to adjust to the work load of middle school. Other than that, he's made a fairly smooth transition. His foot pain has returned with a vengance, so we're readying ourselves for the fact that he will jump 2-3 foot sizes in the near future. He recently weighed in at 89 pounds and is 5'2 or so. I had hoped he would be able to wear his size 14 jeans from the end of the cold part of last spring, but no. That will not be the case. I recently purchased size 16's, which for those of you who don't know, is as high as you can go on the boy side of the store. Not only is my boy in the men's sized shoe section, it seems we'll be in the men's clothing section by the end of 5th grade. Sniff, sniff. Still hasn't topped a mile in the pool, but he's oh-so close. He has an appointment for next month to set a date for his braces. We think we have all of our prep extractions completed, so we're on to the next step. When did this happen? My boy is a young man. He is VERY interested in cars and can tell you which one you should buy, which one has the best engine, and what year model he prefers to the current option. He's very well read on the subject, let me tell you.
Sam, after NOT growing for years, has started eating us out of house and home, and recently weighed in at 86 pounds. Yep, he is 2 pounds shy of his big brother and wearing a size 6 shoe. If we're not careful, he's going to be wearing Jack's clothes by the end of elementary school. Ha. His first football game was set for last weekend, but it was cancelled due to bad weather. We'll have his first game this coming weekend, and he is fired up about it. Practice continues to go well, and he continues to work hard. It's hard to believe he'll be NINE years old in a little over a month. He's 8 going on 28, for sure. Still my building man. Still my crazy scientist, chef, inventor, etc. School is going well for Sam. He continues to struggle with reading, but he has improved a good deal. His new favorite library book is the Diary of a Fly, Worm, Spider, etc. series. He LOVES them! And I'm just excited that he's CHOOSING to read a library book! Willingly! YAY!
Sophy is loving 2nd grade and is especially fond of her teacher. Miss F is young and fun, and Sophy adores her. So far this year, Miss F. has started off some very neat classroom projects and activities, and Sophy has really enjoyed the work. Her progress report grades were extremely good, and I'm very thankful that her year is off to a good start. She told me this evening that 3 times as many people in the US drink bottled water as drink tap water. She apparently read this in a newspaper. She reportedly prefers bottled water as well, so she feels like she is in the moral majority when it comes to water consumption. She also told us this weekend that if we ever wanted to punish her that she would appreciate us NOT sending her to Germany. She recently read about the Nazis of WWII, and frankly, Germany is NOT "a place where nice people live." So there.