Connor is my first child, and will always hold a special piece of my heart. It was for him that I first felt that overwhelming love that only a mother knows. But being the first, he's also been my experimental child. At every phase he enters, I feel like I really have no idea what I am doing, and so there is a lot of trial and error going on. And some days I feel like I really might ruin him completely!!
But then there are those other days. Days when I'm so proud of him I feel like my heart might burst. It seems like there have been a lot of those days lately, so I need to write a little about this unique kid.
Tonight at dinner time, our question of the night was, "How would you describe your personality?" Connor had a difficult time coming up with some words for himself, and so I finally helped out with a few of my own.
The first word I thought of was
determined. Connor has always had great determination, and when he sets his mind to something, he goes for it whole-heartedly! This has been so helpful to him in developing a variety of talents. Most people think of Connor as a sports guy, and he is that. He absolutely loves football, basketball, and baseball, and I'm not sure there is even a word for the way he feels about pole vault. But he has also worked at a few other things in the past few years. One of those is his school work. The other night, Connor received an award for being above the 85th percentile in their standardized testing in reading and math. This is a nice award for any kid to receive, but Connor and I know that the reading part of that did not come easy and has required some of that determination I love in him. Early on, Connor caught on to reading really well, and in 1st grade, he scored very well on the MAPS reading test, above the 90th percentile. However, as each trimester in 2nd and 3rd grade passed, his reading score dropped. By the end of 3rd grade, he was at the 58th percentile. He and I sat down and had a serious talk about this. He told me that he didn't like to read (which he didn't need to tell me--I knew that!) and didn't think it mattered. He was still good at math, right? And so we discussed why reading might be important, and how reading eventually will affect his math as well. That summer, we had his eyes tested and found that he had a problem with his eyes not tracking together well. He started doing daily exercises to train his eyes to work better together. This helped him with comprehension as he didn't skip lines as often, and also helped him to not have headaches as often when he read. That fall, he and I started reading together every night before bed, and he found some books he really liked! He got serious about his AR reading and set and achieved a goal to have the highest number of AR points by the end of the year of any boy in his class ('cause let's face it, girls are just more "booky" than boys, right??). The scores went up. And up. And we were both thrilled when we got his scores for this past MAPS test and saw that his reading score was back up above the 90th percentile once again.
I just had to add this next photo to the post. Connor doesn't do anything half-way. So it isn't any surprise that when it came time for the Cowboys NCAA tournament game this year, Connor work every Cowboys article he owned!
Another way that Connor is trying to become well-rounded is by participating in 4-H. He is raising his 4th steer this year, and has also competed in meat judging for 4 years. These things have taken a lot of time and work, and there have been many days when he doesn't feel like going to another practice, or working with that dang steer again. But he goes. And he works. And I am so proud of him for that. This past weekend, he went to state meat judging. One of the areas they are judged on is their ability to explain why they ranked a class of meats the way that they did, or give "reasons" for their judgment. This is done one on one with a judge. Not many kids have the opportunity to do something that requires them to develop the poise to speak clearly and confidently, backing up their opinion, to an adult. Connor has really improved in this area and took 4th place for 11 to 13-year-olds in this category at the state competition. Win or lose, first place or last, I am proud of the work he has put into his 4-H projects, and for the talents and important skills he is developing.
Another word that describes Connor's personality is
confident. Like most personality traits, this can be a good thing or a bad thing. There have been times when Connor has been over-confident about things. But most of the time, this confidence has helped him. In his sports, he is not afraid to try new things or push himself outside his comfort zone. He feels confident that he can do it, and that helps him reach higher and higher. The easiest one of the sports to measure his improvement in is pole vault, since there is an exact height involved. This year, he has almost cleared 9 feet several times. If you were to ask him if he's going to clear it before the season is over, there isn't any, "I don't know," or "We'll see." He KNOWS he'll get it!
Connor is also a wonderful big brother. He knows all the jobs of big brother very well, like letting little kids tag along, entertaining 2-year-olds while mom is busy, trying to convince a younger sibling that his idea is really the coolest, and of course, teasing and teasing and teasing. Although Mom could do with a little less teasing, I really appreciate the little things he is doing as the big brother. Today after church, he helped Brady change into play clothes and had him super excited and out the door on an adventure while I prepared dinner. And then later on, he helped Mariah prepared her Family Home Evening lesson. I love seeing him take the lead in these things. The other kids really look up to him and think their big brother is pretty cool!
One final thing I love about Connor is that he will always talk to me. Now I realize that this may slow down as he enters the teenage years, which is part of the reason I'm remembering to love it right now. Connor loves to tell me about things he does with his friends, things he learned at school, the play-by-play of his football game, or the different techniques used by different vaulters he's been watching. This weekend, he sat up front with me all the way to Laramie and back home, and he talked and talked. And I loved it.
In the words of his teacher this year, "Connor is his own man." That is so true in so many ways. Connor doesn't care much what others think of him. Part of that confidence, I guess. But I hope he cares what I think of him. At least the part about how much I love him, and how proud I am of the young man he is becoming. My life just wouldn't be complete without my (big) little bud.
