Chipper

Last Thursday Chipper turned 13 years old! Wow! He was the sweetest baby, all smiles and grins. My grandmother swore that she should pinch him to make sure he knew how to cry. He is the only one of our children born in Arizona.

Being our third child, everyone assumed that we were 'done.' I guess we bought into that, too, because I sold a lot of baby things after he outgrew them. It's funny to look back now, knowing what the Lord had in store for us!

At age 3, Chipper was a very bright little boy who couldn't understand why his older brothers could go to school, but he could not. He was begging to go. He was really ready! I was disappointed that the preschools close to home were not academic but eventually I was able to find a Montessori program for him 30 minutes from our house.

Now my sweet baby is 13 and in 7th grade. He was recently invited to take the ACT or SAT tests, his choice, because he scored so well on his school's latest round of testing. He is playing on the school's 'A' football team, even though he has never played before this year. He spent much of his birthday weekend at deer camp last week. I think he is growing up rather nicely!