In Search of Myself

Silly kid

First day of school pics

I think my mom forgot to take pics of Jake before he went to school on Tuesday, so when we got home we went in the backyard and took a few.  His new way of smiling totally cracks me up -- looks just like daddy.

SPD update

Thought I'd do a quick update of Jake's sensory issues while I was thinking about it:

- Jake is obsessed with smelling things.  You know how babies will put a new object in their mouth to explore it?  Yeah, Jake does that with his nose.  Every time he gets a new toy he smells it, and makes ME smell it.
- He's finally eating ice cream, a little.  Only soft-serve.  I think he's had trouble with the cold combined with the texture (he won't eat pudding, either) so this is progress.
- He seems to be stemming a bit on a regular basis, and is excessively bouncy.  I don't know if this is because he isn't getting enough exercise, or that's just his latest tic.  (No longer twirling his hair and he usually doesn't grind his teeth, so I'll take what I can get.)
- has been having meltdowns again when he's faced with something new or something different from his expectations.  This comes in waves and he had been doing really well, then went crazy on Sunday at church.  Also had a melt-down at his preschool orientation when I left for work and he had to stay with my mom.  Good times.
- his grip on a pencil is getting SO much better, and he's really improving with intentional coloring.  It's still scribbly and not in the lines, but it's in focused spots and he's using more colors (rather than just scribbling one color on a whole page.)
- he's eating purple Fruit Loops sometimes instead of picking them out
- tried cherry-flavored juice at church and loved it.  Usually he refuses to try new flavors of drinks.
- still favors methodical play (lining things up, transferring water or sand from one container to another) but is doing good staying focused for board and card games.  He kicks my butt in Memory (because *I* can't stay focused!)

Taking over as family photographer

My mom went to Indiana over the weekend to see Kathy, so we had a Labor Day cookout at our house for the first time.  P (and Ben!) and the girls came over, and I was too busy enjoying myself to get out the camera.

Jake, however, thought to pull out his camera while we were sitting outside, and snapped a few pics:

not too shabby, kiddo!

Cute cute kid

What we've been up to lately:

- Jake turns 5 in a week!  CRAZY!
- yesterday was his 1st day of his 2nd year of preschool.  Is in Elauna's class again, yay!
- lots of playing baseball in the house.  (Plastic bat, very soft ball.)  Jake's suddenly very good at hitting the ball, so yesterday we went outside and he was hitting it REALLY far!  I'm not ready to put him in organized sports yet, but I love playing one-on-one with him.  He's got a pretty good arm, too.
- playing lots of games.  CandyLand is a current favorite.
- playing Little Pet Shop a lot.  I love those toys.  Most of the time when I buy them, they are for ME.  (Really, though . . . it's not like Jake is going to drag them off to college with him!)
- doing workbooks - we LOVE the Kumon maze books (we find them at Target and Barnes&Noble.  They are also at Amazon.)
- is on a kick loving the Max Lucado Wemmicks books (which I have been trying to get him to love for months.)  He insists on them at bedtime -- You are Special, You are Mine, If I Only had a Green Nose, and Best of All are his favorites (and, umm . . . mine, too.)  If you only buy one, get this one.
- Jake loves Backyardigans, Clifford, and Zaboomafoom (or however you spell that.)  Started watching Thomas videos again, too, after a brief hiatus.
- obsessed with eating carrots and turkey, but also loves Snickers, Kit Kats, and Reece's Peanutbutter Cups.

Back at work

Dude, after 3 days playing with my kid, reading books, and just chilling out . . . it is stinking HARD to come back to work.  I love long weekends, but the first day back seems to require more coffee than usual.

One of the books I read over the weekend (Emily Ever After) kind of sucked (I was fooled by the cool cover), but had two good quotes that totally apply to my life at work:

"There should be a law at {work}. Everyone must act normal until ten thirty or until we've all hard two cups of coffee, whichever comes first."

"I don't mind the work so much, but I'm just about up to my limit with people. I'm out of relationship energy. I can't be both pleasant and do my job this morning, so I've decided to just do my job."

heh.

My Lord, what a morning.

(anyone else know that song?  It's a spiritual; I played the piano for someone who sang it in college.)

ANYWAY.

My son had a nose-bleed at 5 a.m. this morning.  Not a little trickle; we're talking it took forever to stop and it was a MESS.  Luckily I had just woken up (because my body thinks it's hilarious to not let me get a full night's sleep), so I wasn't all groggy to deal with it.

Today we're going to chill out, and have a cook-out later with P and fam.  Already this morning Jake convinced daddy-o to bake some cookies, so the day just might redeem itself.