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!!