As you can see, he is quite a little goofball. He is very loud. He is also very funny. He has a quick wit like Matt. He also got Matt's math abilities. Some kids just "get" math, while others have to work at it. Both my boys "got" math at a very early age. They would know the answer to problems before they could explain how they knew it. He loves science. He likes to get on the internet and look at bugs. He also googles things like: the strongest man in the world, the biggest dog, the biggest snake, etc.
Chris' interests are very eclectic. When he was younger, Matt was worried that he had not found a "niche". In fact, he had too many interests to narrow it down to one or two. Riley was obsessed with balls and sports from the age of 9 months on. Chris was not ready for organized sports until a couple of years ago. I think part of it was that he was frustrated that he couldn't do things as well as his big brother. He seems to forget that he is 3 years younger than Riley. In his mind, they are only 12 to 18 months apart. Although he is following in his brother's footsteps, playing hockey and baseball, he does it his own way. He has an advantage over kids his own age because he has been trained at the school of hard knocks: keeping up with Riley and Bradley. They don't cut him any breaks. They usually put themselves on the same team opposite Chris.
Chris is the hardest working little kid I've ever met. He will usually help out with whatever we are doing whether we are digging post holes or planting a garden. His favorite jobs are cutting down trees and making burn piles. He helps Nanna with jobs around the house. He helped Uncle Michael pull a refrigerator up a flight of stairs and put together two wardrobes. He has a hole on Nanna's property that he has been working on since last summer. He told me this morning that he wanted to work on his hole. I asked him what the hole was for. He said "I don't know, I just want to dig a giant hole."
Chris loves dogs. The first thing he does every morning is come upstairs and lay down down on the floor between the dogs. Either he's petting one with each hand, or one with his hands and the other with his feet. Sometimes he curls up on the floor next to our bed and falls back to sleep on top of the dog bed.
The greatest thing about Chris is his compassion for others. It's hard to see is sometimes because he acts so tough and macho. Underneath all that false bravado, he is a big marshmallow. When we first brought Maya home, he was very kind to her. One time she was crying and we couldn't figure out why. I think someone accused her of crying for no reason. Chris said "Nobody knows how Maya feels. Only Maya knows what's like to be Maya." He recently told me he feels sorry for Maya because she is always getting hurt.
The first PG-13 movie I let the boys see was Avatar. When the Home Tree was being bombed and all the Navi were running for their lives he said to me "This is really sad!" The older boys were more focused on the guns and the bad words. After the movie they kept saying "We're mated for life" and giggling. I told them only Chris got the point of the movie. Riley got it, too but didn't express it in front of his friends.
Sometimes we forget he only a little boy. When Riley was little, he watched Pinocchio and Dumbo. But by the time Chris came along, all he saw was Air Bud and The Sandlot. When Riley spends the night at a friend's house, it's nice to spoil Chris and treat him like a little boy.
Opening presents
A dragon from Maya
A ball and bat from Riley
At Nikiski Pool with Cole and Ethan
Ice cream at Cold Stone
