Holy Cow!!

Recent pics

Nanny and her Chuchee's on Easter / At Jet's training camp with Pops

OK, so "Holy Cow" was about all I could say when I logged on and saw that it said my last post was on April 17th!!!!!! OMG... in the life of an almost 5 year old, that's really just about a lifetime ago. I could come up with a ton of excuses, but I'm fairly sure I've used them all already at one time or another. So, as I'm fairly certain every mommy has to do for one reason or another each and every day, I'm going to forgive myself and move on...

The question is, where to even begin???? We had yet another awesome vacation to the Dominican Republic and yes, it was our 5th time returning to the very same resort. At this point, we're almost like family. Nanny, Aunt Bear and Aunt No No were with us this time around and other than a little rain on the first day, we had beautiful weather.

Jake was absolutely AMAZING in the water this time around. Nanny and I had to laugh thinking back only just a year or so ago when he would cry anytime water even came close to splashing on his face because this year he was jumping, sliding down the slides and swimming (still with his vest) in the deep water in the big pool. To see him DIVING for rings though, honestly left me speechless!!! Just two weeks earlier during his swim lessons at the YMCA he would barely put his nose into the water when the instructor asked him to put his head under...so it was just amazing to see what a difference two weeks can make (and the incentive of diving for something).

The trip was fairly uneventful, other than a little episode at the Japanese restaurant. At home, when we get sushi, Jake typically eats sweet potato rolls and loves them. Well, at the Japanese restaurant they served sushi as an appetizer before the actual cooking began. Before I could say anything, Jakey ate 2 or 3 of the rolls that contained God only knows what kind of raw fish. I wasn't sure if I should stop him or panic or both, and so I basically just sat and watched and waited. Well, about 5 minutes later, he laid his head on my shoulder and I had a feeling things were about to get interesting. As I turned to ask him if he was ok, up and out came the sushi (and just about everything else he had eaten all day, it seemed). Aunt Bear, who was on the other side of him, sat there in a state of shock for at least the first 2 minutes and then I think No-No must have slapped her to force her into action. Luckily the others sharing our table were VERY understanding and after a complete change of clothes and a showering off, he was back at the table good as new (with a bowl of dinosaur "opameal" brought down from our room).

All in all, a great trip and I have lots of pictures which I'll hopefully get around to posting sometime before he turns 10...lol

Jake has made a ton of progress in terms of gross motor skills... he swings a bat with authority now and likes to play hockey in our driveway with uncle JJ (and make him use the little stick), he road his bike around our entire block for the first time and it's a mile around, with a few pretty tough hills, he's gotten good at gymnastics and is even going to move up a level in Sept. To my surprise, he even asked if he could play soccer when he turns 5, so I've signed him up for the fall session and hopefully, this time around he won't spend the majority of the time sitting on my lap.

He's going to start kindergarten in the fall at his Montessori school because our public school only has half day kindergarten and there was no way to make that work! Academically, he's still just amazing and the teachers have started to call him Doogie Howser because of his math skills and now even his ability to read and learn new words so easily. I think a lot of it has to do with his amazing memory...the kid can really just recall anything he's seen or written back till what seems like 5 days after he was born. Most of our conversations these days start with "mommy, remember when..." and most times, mommy doesn't remember AT ALL until he spends the next 10 minutes telling me everything that surrounded the event...what I was wearing, where we were, who else was there, what he said, what I said...until finally this old brain of mine locates the memory in between all of those cobwebs.

He's frequently heard telling people how to spell his name backwards, his phone number backwards, and all kinds of other freaky smart things. I have NO idea where he comes up with this stuff, but I'm quite sure he has some form of photographic memory that allows him to visualize whatever it is he's repeating backwards...whatever it is, he continues to just amaze us each and every day with something.

He still struggles a bit on the socializing side of things and truth be told, he probably gets that from me because I'm not good about getting to know new people or talking with strangers. It seems he's much more comfortable talking with adults than with children and when asked who was his favorite friend from his first day at camp, he answered "my teacher, Ms Jane" ...which, sadly, did not surprise me. He had brought in his geography floor puzzle to school that morning, and the other kids really wanted to do it with him, but he got very frustrated when they were trying to put the continents in all the wrong places and especially when one tried to put North America below South America...you would have thought the other kid had insulted him momma!! LOL

Jakey Line of the Week...

We had a bit of rough start at summer camp this year and he was basically crying and every morning about not wanting to go. One day, he even almost negotiated his way out of it when he promised his Nanny that he would be good if she would take him home with her to the shore. So, yesterday, we tried a day at a new camp which just so happens to be on the same campus as my office (can you say, oh so convenient?). As with any first day at a new place, he was a bit nervous and shy and I arranged to stay with him for the first hour and we brought in his picture book so he could have something to show his new friends and talk to them about.

Well, in the course of page flipping with his new teacher, we came upon the picture of him and Jordan and when the teacher asked who that pretty little girl was, he said proudly "that's my sister, Jordan". I wasn't about to correct him, I know better than to get into that debate...been there, done that, not pretty and no intentions of going back ANY time soon. Then we came to Hallie and baby Lea and the teacher asked who are these 2 adorable little girls and he answered "that's my sister Hallie and my other sister, Baby Lea". Well, at this point, the teacher was definitely looking at me and I was still not talking.

Then we turn to the page with all of his donor siblings and the picture of the donor in the middle. Well, at this point I was seriously questioning what the heck I was thinking when I had agreed to bring that damn book in... And in the very next breath, he points to the picture in the middle of the page and says "that's my OWNER (aka, donor), he's my daddy, but he just doesn't know it". Now it was the teacher's turn to be speechless. So, he goes on to add "he gave he sperm that my mommy's egg needed to make me, but mommy never met him either because the doctor put the sperm and egg together". Again, I don't look up and she says nothing...mouth clearly agape at this point. So, on he goes sensing he has a captivated audience..."the doctor knows who my daddy is, but he can't tell me because it's a secret and he'd get in big, bad trouble if he did. But that's ok because I have a pops and a JJ and a nanny and mommy says daddy's aren't always all they're "smashed up" (aka cracked up) to be. Plus, I have a posse and I don't know anyone else who has one of those, do you?!"

Needless to say, I had a lot of explaining to do... LOL LOL