The Zorio Family: Carter at 8.5

Our sweet, smart, soccer-loving, thoughtful, considerate, competitive, big brother/little brother/middle brother/middle child, hilarious, exercise-loving, joke telling, compassionate Carter reached his half birthday, and as of October 13th he is 8 AND A HALF! Carter is such a wonderful boy. He’s such an easy kid. He loves fun and doesn’t hide his enjoyment. If he has to do something not fun, he finds a way to make it fun, a game, or a competition...for example-“Hey Dawson do you want to race to see who can finish their math lesson first today?” (Obviously, I don’t let rushing through math fly, but you get the picture that he tries to add something he enjoys to anything not fun to make it fun.).

Carter is so sweet, thoughtful, considerate, and compassionate. He loves his family and his friends. He loves big, and for this reason he does get his feelings hurt when a sibling says an unkind word or uses an unkind tone toward him. He’s sensitive in that way, but he’s also just as sensitive toward others’ feelings which makes him such a sweet boy and brother.

Carter has been SUPER into soccer this year. More so than ever. And, I’m not just saying this because I’m his Mom, but he’s actually really good. He is competitive and fast and has good ball control. It has been so fun to watch him practice his skills this season and play in games. Carter also loves exercising. He keeps weights in his room and lifts them daily along with doing push ups and sit ups. This kid is one solid muscle! I think I need to hire him as my trainer! Haha. And he’s motivated to do it all on his own.

Carter has always loved to laugh and this has not changed now that he’s 8.5. He loves a good joke or prank more than almost anyone. He reminds me of Pop in this way and of John who has always loved a good prank. Carter also comes up with some clever and witty comments to say at just the right time that leave us all laughing.

Carter is a smart kid. He’s definitely a math brain. When we are doing homeschool he always asks to do his math first. Many times he quickly knows the answer of a problem but dislikes being bothered to write down his work. “Why would I waste my time to write it down if I already know the answer?” This is a commonly asked question during our school time. He says math and science are his favorite. He likes all the hands on activities in science, and math just makes sense to him. I’ve also been surprised at how well he has done learning cursive this year. Carter doesn’t usually like to be bothered to take the time to write letters carefully and neatly, so I had wondered if he would dislike cursive, but he has done well at actually enjoyed learning this. Carter remembers facts like no kid I’ve ever met before. He loves facts. His recent favorite thing to do is ask Alexa to tell him facts. Then over dinner he rolls out questions for me like, “Do you know how long it takes a raindrop to fall to the ground? What about a snowflake?” “Do you know what 2 sports have been played on the moon?” Etc. I must say, I learn a lot from Carter.

Our wonderful brown-eyed, big hearted, intelligent, fun loving Carter is 8 AND A HALF!

Here are a few pictures of Carter over the past 6 months...

He lost another tooth the first night we arrived to the beach for vacation in June. He put his tooth in this solo cup for the tooth fairy (since we left the tooth fairy pillow at home), and was thrilled to find the tooth cup had been visited by the tooth fairy even at the beach!