Graham turned nine years old in August. How is that possible? He is enjoying 3rd grade much more than 2nd. Ms. Seetai is much sweeter and soft spoken than Ms. Leandro and it seems like a better match. Graham has always been a great student and has no problem understanding concepts in school. I know his teachers always sing his praises and he has lots of friends at school.
Mr. Graham was on the swim team here at Sigonella for a while, but then started to have ear trouble. Another set of tubes helped his chronic pain and irritation, but whenever he got in the water, he couldn't stand the discomfort. So......he had to stop. He enjoyed his time swimming, even if at times he claimed to hate it. His favorite stroke is the breast stroke.
The big event of this spring is his role in the school musical. It's more of a community musical here in Sigonella. He got the lead in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang! He is Jeremy! Rehearsals have started and he's doing a fabulous job! I think we were all a little surprised that he got it, but he has a great voice and is such a bright kid. I can't wait to see how it all goes down! Graham loves playing with his friends. He feels very, very frustrated when a day passes when he didn't get to just "play". If he has homework and then has to go to sports practice or scouts, he isn't happy that he didn't get time to just "relax". His favorite Wii game is Mario Galaxy and he loves to play Minecraft on the iPad. Graham is a great big brother and is almost always great about letting Benny follow him around and play with him and his friends. Henry Boller is one of his best friends and they share a lot of the same interests. A bunch of the neighborhood boys love to get together and play a live version of Minecraft outside on our street.
Graham is also a fabulous soccer player. He loved playing goalie this year on his team, The Fire Breathing Rubber Duckies. I had fun watching and coaching him this fall. He is signed up to play basketball starting next month. He claims that's probably his favorite sport. For breakfast every morning Graham has pancakes (if Jason has made a big batch recently), but if there aren't any, he has two pieces of toast with peanut butter and "sprinkles". We got the sprinkles from a package that Susanna sent us from The Netherlands.
Graham has a tough time getting up for school. It starts so early here! They have to be out for the bus at 6:55 am! He has a hard time settling in to sleep at night, too. Of all my kiddos, he seems to need the least amount of sleep time. He really needs time to read a book for thirty minutes or so in order to relax and get tired. Sometimes Jason and I will come up to go to bed, and we will have forgotten to tell him to turn out his reading light and go to sleep. He will have read for over an hour and a half!
One of my favorite things about this boy is his expressions and enthusiasm. I've always said that it's all or nothing with this boy and the same still applies. If Graham likes what J or I have made for dinner, he goes on and on and on about how good it is and that he loves it. If Graham thinks that something is unfair, it's all we will hear about for a very long time. He's quite the little debater, too. Just the other day, he didn't want to do his after school chore. I told him that he doesn't get paid and that he'll be upset when he doesn't have money when we go to the store. He promised that he wouldn't and said, matter of factly, "You should just be glad that I'm not commercial." When he talks about something he's excited about or mad about, his blue eyes get really, really big and his eyebrows raise really high. Every time. I love it when he is getting ready to leave the house to play and he'll say, "I love you, Mom" before walking out. He does the same thing when he has asked to play the iPad and I say yes.
Graham loves it when I assign him to watch Sullivan for a while as I shower or get something done. He plays with him and can really get him laughing. He doesn't, however like it when I let Sullivan play in his room while he's at school and he destroys his whole Minecraft Lego set-up. Oops.
This boy has a very tender heart. When we told him and the other kids about Grandpa Lynn's death, he was very, very sad. He cried for a while and I could tell a lot of his heart ache came because he was sad for Jason. During the funeral, he cried nearly the whole time. It made my heart hurt, but also made me grateful to see him feel something so strongly about someone else.
I love this boy. So very much. As my first son, he'll always have a special place in my mother heart. He teaches me so much. Yes, that includes patience, endurance, and humility. He is also teaching me how to not let the small stuff matter so much and to focus on the most important things.
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