Have You Seen My Mommy?!?!?

After spending two weeks out of three without his mommy, one day this week Jake asked his teacher..."Have you seen my mommy?" Enough to make a mommy's heart break into two! Luckily, Nanny has been there through it all to take care of his every need...including his daily donut surprise and his new early (7 pm) bedtime routine. God only knows what we would do without Nanny!!!

We seem to have gotten past the rough spot at school and hopefully, this will take him out of the running for the "golden gloves" once and for all...or at least until the next time a little girl refuses to let him kiss her...LOL Speaking of kisses at school, he has developed quite a following in his new class. Whenever I arrive to pick him up at the end of the day, at least 3 girls run to give him a big hug and kiss good-bye and one (Amira) even stands at the window blowing him kisses as he walks to the car. All this at the ripe old age of 3...can't begin to imagine what the future holds in this regard!!

Last week, Jake had his first school concert. Aunt Bear and Pops attended with me and although I managed to bring my camera with a totally depleted battery (used it all up from the Please Touch Museum play date with Hallie and Lea), we did get some very good video of the momentous event. I know I'm totally biased here, but I believe he was definitely the most handsome little boy there! Here are a couple of pictures (post event in our kitchen) of him in his concert outfit, complete with tie.

The video is actually hilarious, as Aunt Bear can attest to (since you can hear the two of us laughing in the background the entire time). Jake may have actually sang 10 words the entire time, if that many. He was too busy directing other children to their places, waving to people on the side of the stage or in the audience, staring at the other children as they were singing and basically just being in awe of the whole deal. Let's just say it's a good thing he looked so cute...

Last weekend, we had a very rough start to his swimming lesson as he cried in protest almost all the way there. In order to get him out of the car without physical force, I had to promise that I would tell the swim instructor that he did NOT have to put his face in the water. (On a couple of occasions, she has actually pushed his head under the water...which, as you might imagine, did NOT go over well) Well, he totally shocked me and his instructor!!! He not only put his face into the water unprompted but jumped in from the side and went completely under without any concern at all! Go figure...

Jake continues to do really well academically at school. He's getting better and better at writing his name...funny part is that he doesn't feel compelled to put the letters all in a row, so they may be spread all over the page in any number of directions...but they're all there and very easy to identify now. In the last couple of weeks, he's started writing MOM too, which is always a nice surprise. He's now able to write most letters on his own, though there are a couple that he still asks for help with.

As for reading, he's able to sound out most 3 letter words and is VERY good at knowing what letter words start with just by sounding them out himself. (This, of course, makes it much more difficult to convince him that stores are CLOSED that are actually OPEN now...because he's quick to point out that the sign on the ice cream store starts with an O and not a C and can now even sound out the word OPEN...hmmm, seems I'm in for trouble now) We've starting reading chapter books and it's fun to mark the page and see him experience the excitement of continuing a story from one night to the next.

Jake has the continent song down now and can even identify which continent is which just by its shape...of course, I am absolutely horrible at geography and have to look at the label on the back of the shape to even know if he's right...which he always is these days. Still amazes me that at 3, he knows the continents!!! Yesterday, when I picked him up from school he took me over and showed me Europe on the globe and told me that was where I was this week when I was in Belgium...amazing...somehow I doubt my brother could have even told me that! LOL

One of his favorite sayings these days is "mommy, did you never know....?" and this can be followed by any number of facts like...did you never know that some shapes have corners and some don't? An octagon has 8 corners, did you never know that? And to be honest, sometimes I know and sometimes I don't...LOL.

Jake's also really stuck on wanting to go the "baby store" these days...not sure if this has something to do with spending so much time with his nanny (who would give her right arm for me to have another baby)? He frequently asks if we can go to the "baby store" and pick out a baby. When I ask if he will take care of the baby, he assures me he will, but is quick to point out that he wants nothing to do with changing smelly diapers...LOL I have a feeling he would love to have a baby doll from the toy store, and I know that there's nothing wrong (conceptually, anyway) with a boy playing with a doll, but the last time I went into Toys R Us thinking I might buy him one, we walked out with two new trucks, a righty baseball glove (because his Aunt Bear is convinced that he throws better righty than lefty) and a Diego bike. Probably for the best because Uncle JJ would surely have a stroke if he saw him playing with a baby doll!!!! LOL

Last night, he was telling me about some of his friends at school and he mentioned their mommies and daddies. Whenever the subject of "daddies" comes up, I hold my breath in anticipation of the day when he asks where his is. Last night I decided to confront that fear head on and I actually asked him where his daddy was. It was an amazing thing to watch as he contemplated the question for a moment. Then he asked for clarification...he said "do you mean JJ?" To which I responded, no, JJ is your uncle. Then he said "do you mean Pops?" And to that I responded, no Pops is my daddy. And that appeared to leave him completely stumped... leaving me to believe that he's really never contemplated this question before...very surprising to me. Then he ran from the table (which scared me to death...thinking that I might have upset him) and ran up the stairs. I called after him, but he told me that he had to get something and would be right back down.

After a few minutes (which seemed like an eternity), he came back down with the Family Book that we frequently read. He turned to the page that says that some families only have one parent and said that he only has a mommy! And then, with a completely innocent, but inquisitive face, he turned and asked "mommy, did you never know that?"...LOL If I'm being honest, made me tear up a bit to see just how very well adjusted he is!!!

Not sure there's a luckier mommy in all the world...