Coley-Bear.

That's what I call Cole much of the time: Coley-bear :)

Cole inherited only my sweet tooth. The rest of him is pretty much just a mini-Mark.

When Asher was born, people said he looked like Mark. I think maybe people just say that about boys and their dads. But when Cole was born, a lot of people changed their minds. Just look at Mark at 7 years old compared to Cole at 8!

Cole is a kid that just wants to be happy. If I were to peg Cole on the Enneagram (which, I try not to but I can't really help it), Cole would definitely be a 7, just like Mark too. He doesn't care what we are doing most of the time, as long as he can have fun doing it.

He also likes to make noise. All the time. Clicking, tapping, making strange noises... he is almost always moving, grooving, and occupying himself somehow with some sort of motion or sound. It can get pretty annoying, pretty fast.

This boy often seems like an anomaly to me. While he isn't always eager about schooling, or tremendously self-motivated, he is very eager to participate and learn when someone else initiates. For instance, he is in Essentials this year, which is an English Grammar and Writing class for 4th-6th grade students. His birthday is August 31st and he is the absolute youngest you can be and still be in class. Yet, despite not being particularly skilled in English or Grammar, he LOVES class and strives to figure it all out, raising his hand every time I ask a question and always ready to try and chime in.

Now, start talking about something he is not interested in and his brain will leave his body. He won't even hear you speaking. He definitely has some ADD tendencies and also something called Auditory Processing Disorder, but despite these things he is doing really well in all of his schooling. We recognized these things early on and it really confirmed our homeschooling decision. He's SO good at acting like he heard you, or that he knows what you meant, when really he is totally clueless. This does not go over well for kids in large classrooms with little inner desire to learn on their own.

Despite his learning or attention issues, which are really very minimal, he loves school and learning overall. Yes, he complains about certain work on a regular basis, but he really wants to know things.

Something sweet about Cole is that he really feels bad when he recognizes his own wrong behavior. That initial issue of getting him to see when he has done something wrong can be a long and frustrating event, but when he sees his tendency to sin or things he did against someone that were hurtful or mean, he really takes it to heart. He also really hates to see me sad or frustrated or hurt, which is sweet.

Cole's best subject is definitely math! He's not actually great at skip-counting (or memorization in general) but abstract math concepts come so easily to him... it kind of freaks me out. He will be passing me up WAY too soon.

I can't wait to see what things he ends up pursuing in life! It's good to see that he is such a happy kid, and I hope he always finds joy in the places God will lead him.