Signs of Growing Up...And Not...LOL

It's been an interesting past few weeks for Jake.  There are some new "firsts" to report, some past troubles that have stopped (thank God) and some that continue (which may cause us all to drink heavily before he gets out of first grade).

Let's start with a few exciting "firsts"...  After 5 years of only wanting to take baths and absolutely HATING having water on his face, one day Jake decided that he wanted to take a shower ALL BY HIMSELF.  Now of course, his Nanny insists on overseeing the entire process (and believe me, it's a process...you know the boy, everything is a set process).  Every day he comes home from school, plays for a while and then announces that he's going to take a shower.  It may sound like a small thing, but you try bending over the tub for 5 years and see if you're not dancing the "woo-hoo shower" dance too when bath days are over!!!

Jake has also finally graduated to his booster seat.  I'd been holding off saying he hadn't quite hit the 65 pound limit on his big car seat, but those days are gone as he's regularly over 65 pounds these days.  Personally, I still feel safer with him in the big car seat, but he does look a bit like a teenager sitting in a milk crate back there at times.  Not to mention that he was relentlessly asking for his booster each and every day...so OUT with the car seat and IN with the big boy booster!  At the rate we're going, he'll be asking to drive next.

To my complete and utter surprise, Jake has been beginning to experiment with different foods lately.  The last attempt was with a bean burrito, which he actually really liked.  And at the Jet's game, he asked to have a taste of my meatball sandwich and all I ended up with was one bite of meatball.  He ate it all, right down the last little corner of the roll which he so kindly gave to his momma.  Now, keep in mind, this is the kid who has NEVER eaten a meatball in his life!!  LOVES them now...go figure?

This past weekend, Jake completed his FIRST level of Mental Math and passed the test with an A for speed and an A for accuracy!!!!  The teacher said he's really picked it up fast and that he has a real knack for math (no, really?).  He's earned 2 weeks off and then we're back to start Level 2.  If you're wondering if it really makes much difference, I can tell you it DEFINITELY has.  The other day, we were talking about something taking 3 weeks and he was quick to tell Nanny and I that 3 weeks was the same as 21 days because 7+7=14 and 14+7=21.  Aunt No No will have him down at AC playing Black Jack with her any day now...

School has also been an exciting series of new firsts for Jake.  Some of them good, some not so good.  On the good side, he was given the Dolch Sight Word test by his teacher and went through lists 1, 2, 3 and 4 without missing a single word (about 20 on each list).  So the teacher had him skip to the last list (#11) and he was able to go through that one without missing a word too, so she said he's basically done already with what kids need to know at the END of 1st grade.  Everyone else is working on either list 1 or somewhere in the first 10 and he's now onto learning how to spell the words.  And of course, Nanny is already coming up with creative ways to teach him to spell some of the harder words.  Let's hope for all our sakes she doesn't resort to singing them like she did when she taught him his home phone number. I'm still convinced he learned to memorize it just to get her to stop singing...lol.

Jake is also way ahead on reading and is the only child who is reading chapter books.  Some children don't yet know the sounds that each letter makes, and yet others are reading fairly well, so he's a little ahead of some and a world ahead of others.  He really enjoys reading and sometimes even reads by himself now, which is VERY new for him.

Yet another first for Jake... he officially started CCD (defined as the catholic catechism class that all kids dread, but is necessary in order to make your First Communion and Confirmation which is non-negotiable in a good Italian family).  So far, he complains less about going there than to Mental Math, so counting my blessings on that front.  Although, if I'm being really honest, the very first day that he went there (and yes, it was a disaster because I had actually not signed him up and then had to do everything to get him enrolled all in one day while at work and so I had rushed home early from work to drive him there like a crazy woman), as we pulled in (on time, I might add...and Stac, I heard you say "yeah, right!") he looked out the window and saw the church and said "Momma, what are we doing here?  You know I HATE church!!"  I said "Jake Anthony, how could you say that, God can hear you and  he's going to be SO disappointed".  To which he replied... "OK, hey God,  I'm sorry, I was just kidding."  Then asked "Momma, does he also know when you're not telling the truth too?"  Left me wondering if it was possible to flunk CCD?????

So, on the not so good part, Jake continues to struggle with managing and controlling his emotions.  He's a pure and simple PERFECTIONIST to the extreme and feels that he MUST do everything exactly right and be the absolute BEST at everything.  Obviously, in a class of 20 other children, things don't always work out that way for him and he's having a hard time dealing with that reality.  He also doesn't like to do anything that he feels he won't be GREAT at right from the start.  This really worries me because it translates into not being willing to work hard to get good at anything.  If he's not great right away, or it doesn't come easy to him (as most things have), then he gives up and has a meltdown over it.  Piano is a great example of this because every week we go through the same painful experience.  He gets 2-3 new songs to play and expects to play them PERFECTLY the first time he tries.  When that doesn't happen, he ends up in a rage on the floor, throwing things, banging the keys and shouting that he's the "worstest" piano player in the whole world.  Forget about the fact that he said the very same thing the last week and now plays those songs beautifully without even looking at the music.  There's absolutely NO reasoning with the boy...NONE!

In school, the teacher has this discipline system which involves "turning over a card" from green to yellow if you don't heed her first warning.  Jake has had to turn his card over 3 times already and even went one step further and had a note sent home yesterday.  One day it was because he refused to take a guess at how many objects were in a jar.  It was meant to be a fun exercise to demonstrate the art of estimating and it was done in conjunction with the guess that your parent (in this case, Aunt Bear, who attended Back to School Night for me since I was in Belgium on business) made the night before.  He absolutely refused to make a guess... Why?  Because he was sure he would not get it right.  Can't be perfect, why try?  Why play?  Oy vey!  And over goes the card...

Yesterday, the note came home from school because he got in an arguement with another boy over who was going to be last in line going to lunch and eventually got so frustrated that he spit at him.  (Luckily he hasn't really learned to spit yet, but just read about it in the book "Holes" and decided to give it a try.)  Needless to say, the teacher was not at all pleased.  Earlier in the day, he had his card turned over because the assignment involved drawing a picture of yourself doing something and he refused to draw himself because why????  Because he knew he couldn't draw it as well as other kids could.  So, can't be perfect, why try?  Hmmmm... anyone sensing a pattern here?

I asked the pediatrician for the name of a counselor that specializes in working with children and we now have an appointment for this Saturday.  At the rate things are going, I'm the one that's going to need therapy and possibly some really strong meds...lol.  Who knew 1st grade could be so damn stressful?!?!?!?

On another good note, the extreme and never ending hunger pangs have seemed to subside.  For a while there, all Nanny and I ever heard was "I'm STARVING", which usually was screamed less than a half hour after eating some big meal.  I was starting to think I was going to have to bring Nanny out of retirement and send her back to work to be able to afford to feed him.  I owe a BIG thanks to Ellen (Amy's sister) who was kind enough to listen to me go on and on about how worried I was about his insatiable appetite.  As always, she had some very logical and sound advice for me and was able to quickly talk me off the ledge!  (Thanks, Ellen!!)

That's it for now... Hope everyone is doing well!!

Checking In and Catching Up...

Where did the summer go?  Seems like it was here and gone in the blink of an eye!!  Last I checked we were getting ready for Kindergarten graduation and "blink", it's the first day of 1st grade.  Personally, I think that's taking this whole "time flies" thing a bit too far.  So, where to begin...

I signed Jake up for 2 weeks at Rambling Pines Day Camp, which is this unbelievably awesome camp on 120+ acres of open fields, 4 pools, ponds (including one fully stocked to teach fishing in), streams, rivers, tennis courts, street hockey, basketball courts and a hundred other sports fields.  I was excited for Jake to try this as it would be his first experience at a camp where 90% of the activities were outside.  I was also a bit nervous because his past camp experiences have all been in what you might call very "pampered" places where this was a place where kids really did have to rough it a bit.

Well, to my surprise, the first day he walked off the bus he couldn't wait to tell me that he wanted to go the WHOLE summer.  I waited till the end of the first week to see if maybe this excitement would wane, but it only seemed to grow with each passing day.  So, he ended up attending 7 of the 8 weeks of camp and loving every day!!!  (there was one week where he, Nanny and La La came on a business trip with me to CA and visited with Jake's cousins, Darian and Shay, while I worked)  I know this will come as quite a shock, but he even ended up with a tan this summer...yes, my little casper the ghost with a tan!!  lol

As I mentioned, in the beginning of August, we took a trip with Nanny and La La to CA.  Jake had a good time visiting his cousins and we all spent quite a full day at Disney where he rode every roller coaster in the entire place, including space mountain.  Of course, I still wasn't able to go on any rides that went "around" without feeling sick, but luckily he had his cousins and Aunt Mahsa and Uncle Mike to ride with for those.

Later in August, we held Jake's 6th bday party and it was a rock'in time at his favorite Bounce U place.  We took everyone over to our pool club after bouncing and had a great time swimming and eating pizza all afternoon.  A week earlier, Jake finally PASSED his deep water test at the swim club!!!!!!!!!!!  I could NOT have been more proud of  him...he did it with ease this time!!!!!  (This was his 3rd try)  So he spent all day going off the diving board and down the two water slides with all of his friends.


Gotta love those handsome Bilotti Boys!!!



Lotta love going on here!!

For his birthday, he got a very cool basketball set up for our driveway (from his Aunt Bear and No-No) and we've spent hours and hours out there playing.  He's becoming a real good bball player and will definitely have the height to excel at this game should his interest level continue.  One thing we continue to work on is demonstrating good sportsmanship... he loves to play the game O-U-T, but frequently stomps off into the house when he reaches O-U...he says those are his least favorite letters of the alphabet now...lol

He also got a very cool razor electric go-kart and he rides it like a speed demon up and down the sidewalk and over everyone's lawns.  It's very low to the ground, which I'm hoping means he won't be flipping over any time soon...and has a tall flag on it so that cars can see him flying by.  I've got some video of his first driving experience which I'll try to attach here.

We also had a chance to attend one of the Jets pre-season games and as you can see here, he was very happy to hang out with his Nanny and Pops!!!

Today is the first day of 1st grade in his new school and his first time attending Public School (instead of Montessori)!!!  I'm convinced that  I'm more nervous about it than he is... I even had the urge to run after (or drive after) the bus when it pulled away this morning.  I wish I could sneak up there and take a quick peek in on him to see how he's doing.  We met his new teacher yesterday, Mrs. Francescone, and I now understand why they call her "Barbie"... Nanny was with us and the first thing she said was "wow, we didn't have teachers like that when I was in school"  Of course, Nanny went to Catholic school and had nuns for teachers, so that's probably not a fair comparison.  lol

The classroom was AWESOME!!!  Very big room, with a bathroom right there attached to his room (the school is HUGE and we even got lost trying to find his room so I did have some worries about him finding his way to the bathroom and back by himself...but not any more) and little library area and round tables of 4 children each.  And as luck would have it, the one child he knows in his class is sitting right across from him at his table!!!  And his table is front and center in the room, so hopefully this will help him to stay focused and pay attention (and not talk when he's not supposed to).  I actually considered attaching one of those small wireless lapel microphones to his shirt collar so I could listen in on how his day was going.  Thought I could park out on the street within range and monitor the situation...it's the electrical engineer and mommy combination to blame for these crazy ideas!!

Jakey continues to progress in his Mental Math class, which is a really interesting approach to teaching kids to add, subtract, multiply and divide in their heads by using an abacus to start.  He's able to quickly add and subtract now to sums under 100 and is one chapter away from finishing the first level.  He's also continuing on with his piano lessons and still amazes us on a daily basis with the songs he can play and how he can translate them to his clarinet, saxophone, flute and trumpet.  His teacher feels he has a real talent for music and could one day be a fantastic musician...again, just depends on whether his passion here continues.

Just to catch everyone up on how he's growing (and man, is he growing)...we had his 6yr check-up and he grew 3.25" (he's 4' 2" now) and gained 14 pounds (he's 67 lbs now) this past year.  That puts him at the 99+%...which basically means OFF the charts.  When I look at the chart, he's the size of an average 8 year old!!!!  All other things checked out perfectly...eyes, hearing, etc.  And he looked very cute in his little blue gown...lol

While at Nanny's house last week, I was determined to get him to ride his bike without training wheels.  Nanny's street is really flat (which ours isn't) and so I knew this would be our best opportunity.  After convincing him (translation...bribing him) to give it a try, we were off and running (well, one of us was running).  He was able to do it!!!!  After riding a little ways without me holding on, he made the mistake of trying to just put his feet down to stop and as you might imagine, the bike just kept on going and he ended up tangled up in it...seems I forgot to teach him how to stop...bad mommy!!!  That was it for day 1.  The next day, we gave it another shot and although my head was clearly saying stop running next to him, he's got it now, just stop running...my heart just wouldn't let my legs stop and so I spent the entire time running along side the bike up and down the street.  I'd say we're 98% of the way there...with the 2% being left on my side of the equation and not his!

Over Labor Day, we attended the 3rd annual donor sibling reunion in the Virginia mountains (and I mean backwoods mountains) and had a great time.  This year the kids that attended included Hallie, Baby Lea, Ben, Jessica and Jonah.  Unfortunately, Abby (one of Hallie and Lea's moms) wasn't able to attend this year because of work, so Sharon and I made the trip together.  For those who know Abby, you know that she is usually the one who has everything planned out and is ready for any and all eventualities...so I was a little nervous to see how Sharon and I would fare on our own.  I'm happy to report that we managed to return with all 3 children in tact and even managed to keep them fed and rested and happy while we were away...though we did certainly miss Abby a lot!

The kids picked up as thought they just saw each other last week (and not a year or more ago) and it was very interesting to see how much they've all grown and how much they still resemble each other.  We were fortunate that Ben's moms, Rebecca and Claire, hosted the event at their new weekend home as it was an absolutely BEAUTIFUL place with 5 bedrooms and a big pool in the backyard.  It's wonderful to have this connection to them all and for Jake to continue to develop these relationships with his half-brothers and sisters!!

Well, I think that about catches us up now.  As always, here are some memorable Jakey quotes from the past couple of months...

"Momma, it's not fair (which is by far, his favorite thing to say these days) that you and Nanny get to stay up and I have to go to bed.  You told me that you have to sleep to grow and you and Nanny need to grow as much as I do because Nanny says you're both munchkins."

To his sister this past weekend "You're definitely part of my family because your dad is my dad and even though he doesn't know it, we know it so that's all that matters."

To his Nanny while I was away on a business trip... "Nanny, why can't we ride with the top on your car down just because it's raining?  We each have an umbrella and we can put it up while you drive."  To which Nanny replied... "because a policeman will see us and arrest Nanny for being a nutcase".  Which only made him want to try it more.

"Momma, I don't want to go to mental math today.  Why do I need to know how to do math anyway?  Pops bought me my own adding machine and I can just take it with me everywhere and add anything I want."

"Momma, how old do I have to be before I can have my own car?"  To which I reply, "well, you have to be 16 to drive, but even then you don't automatically get a car when you get your drivers license."  And he said... "OK, well then I want to start saving now for my car, ok mom?  I have that jar of quarters that I've been saving for practicing my piano and doing my math homework, so I should be really close to having enough already."  Hmmmm...maybe for a matchbox car?

After asking why his Aunt Bear had to go and ride her bike in the middle of his birthday party... "Why does Aunt Bear have to ride her bike all the time, Momma?  Does she need money for gas for her car, I can give her some of my quarters?  As long as she pays me back when I'm ready to buy my own car."  Wow, if that's all it took, we'd all give her gas money...lol

Walking out of the pediatrician's office after his 6 yr check-up... "Mom, why did Dr P ask me if I knew the alphabet?  I bet she was confused and thought I was only 3 today."  Hmmm, not likely considering you're as tall as an 8 year old.

After passing his deep water swim test (on the 3rd attempt and after significant bribing to even try again)... "Mom, why did you look so worried, it was "easy peasy".  Well, sure, after I had to drag you here kicking and screaming.

To his friend at the pool... "We have to go now because I have to go and meet "MY posse".  To which his friend replied... "what is a posse?"  Then, with a look of confusion, Jake asked "what do you mean, don't you have a posse too?"

After one of our all too frequent debates about him always being hungry... "Momma, I'm starving!!  Why won't you let me have any more to eat?  I know, you're starving me so you won't have to buy me any new clothes."  Hmmm, would that actually work?

Well, that's probably more than enough for now!  Hope everyone enjoyed the summer...or the blur that appeared to be summer, anyway.