1st Day of Kindergarten Tomorrow!!!!!!!!

Boy, did this day sneak up on me BIG TIME!!!! Last time I checked, I was waiting for Jakey to learn how to crawl...which he eventually all but skipped in favor of walking. Now he's 5 and ready to start kindergarten tomorrow?? How did THAT happen?!?!

We're both a little nervous about the big day tomorrow (ok, so truth be told, he's sleeping like a baby and I'm the one pacing around nervously...checking his list of supplies, double checking his extra set of clothes, making sure I have the camera ready...which come to think of it, I actually don't...crap) See?? Nerve wracking!!!! You'd think I was sending him off the college. Which, unfortunately, if time doesn't slow down a tick or two will end up seeming like only next year.

A couple of weeks ago, Jake had his 5 year checkup and true to form our boy remains off the charts. He measured in at 46.5" and 53.2lbs, which ends up being 97% for height and 95% for weight. That means in the last year, he grew 3.25" and added close to 12 pounds (which anyone who has tried to carry him, dance with him, or just even pick him up for a big hug can attest to). It also means he's added 3 or more inches each of the past 3 years in a row and the year before that he grew 5"!!!!!!! As the pediatrician always says...man, that's amazing, what are you feeding this kid?!?! Little does she know he lives on only about 5 or 6 basic foods, most of which are breakfast foods... though there is some exciting news to note on the food front. Jake tried and actually liked his very first HAMBURGER a week or so ago. (And yes, I know, that really did deserve a very own blog of its own) For those who don't know, he NEVER, and I mean NEVER, eats beef (other than all beef hot dogs, which he only eats because he doesn't know they're made of beef). Not a bite of steak, hamburger, meatballs and not even meat sauce.

Then one day while at our swim club, I bribed him with the promise of having an ice cream from the snack bar IF he tasted my hamburger. He took a bite and actually said "mmmm, that's good, mommy". I nearly fell off my chair!!!!!!! The next day, we returned to the pool with Aunt Bear and Aunt No No and he actually asked me to order him chicken nuggets AND a hamburger...which I was SURE he was not going to eat. Well, he not only ate some, he actually ate HALF. Not sure how many mommies actually celebrate their child eating half a hamburger, but for me (and bear and no no), it was BIG!!!!!!! And no, I didn't have the camera...uggh.

Jake has really made a lot of progress over the summer when it comes to reading. He now will read the signs we see while we're driving and of course, the "literal" reader that he is, this generates all kind of questions and interesting discussions. Such as..."mommy, that sign says No Stopping or Standing, but why would somebody stand there and get run over by a car?" And I go on to try to explain that they're not referring to someBODY standing there, but a car. At which point we get into an endless debate about how cars can't really "stand". Ahhh, so true.

Last time I was in Belgium and was being driven from the hotel to the office it really hit me what it must be like, as a child, to NOT be able to read signs and billboards and store names. I honestly had never really thought about it from that perspective before and it certainly makes a lot of sense to me now while he's so excited to be able to read everything. And, of course, point out to me when I'm going over the "speed limit", etc. Still unbelievable to me that he can actually read a book to me at the age of 4-5... but I guess we old timers were all just slackers back in pre-k and kindergarten;-)

A couple of weeks ago, Pops and I took Jake to his second Jets pre-season game and for the very first time, he made it all the way through the entire game. Actually, truth be told, I was so disgusted by their play in the second half, I was the one who wanted to leave with a few minutes left and he told me I needed to sit down and be "patient" and wait until the game clock said "0:00" (which is what I used to try to convince him to do). It's a lot of fun to take him and to see him there with his pops and actually learning about the game. Though he still finds some way to make it more about the numbers than the sport as his questions still often sound like "momma, why do the numbers only go up to 50 and then back down to 10 again? where's 0?" He'll likely be the one who can tell you all the stats on every game, as compared to him mommy, who rarely ever even remembers the score (though anyone who is a Jets fan knows that's more of a defense mechanism than anything else). So, this year he was able to go with both his pops and nanny to the pre-season games and fingers crossed, maybe we're only a year or two from attempting a regular season game.

In addition to seeing the Jets play, we've also been VERY fortunate to be able to attend 2 of the Liberty playoff games and sit courtside. This was quite a thrill for the boy and of course, quite a risk for the rest of us. Armed with "thunder sticks" he was frequently seen poking at players. towel boys and refs and it took many, many threats to keep him from launching one or both of his out onto the floor during play. He loves to go to the Garden though because he's convinced that his Aunt Amy runs the place and loves to tell everyone we meet (in line for twizzlers or the bathroom, etc.) as much and the highlight of his night is when we walk over at half time to go and see her. He just knows that some big security guard is going to try to stop him and that once his Aunt Amy sees him he's going to get to run right past that duffus and into her arms. During one game he even got to hold the game ball during a couple of time outs as one of the officials walked over and handed it to him and was on camera up on the big screen with his aunt bear. VERY exciting!!! Here's a picture of him and his Aunt Bear and Aunt CC on their way into the game.

Over the Labor Day Weekend, Jake, Nanny, La La and I went to visit our cousins Gerard and Amy and their 4 boys (2 of who are twins and are the same age as Jake). The boys swam the whole afternoon away in the built in pool in their backyard and for the very first time, Jake was able to swim in the deep end withOUT his life jacket!!!!!! We sort of tricked him into it by removing all of the flotation pads from his life jacket and not letting him know that the jacket itself has no buoyancy. Once he jumped off the diving board and swam to the side like that, we broke the news to him and although still a bit nervous, he jumped in without it. From there on out, he never put it back on the rest of the day!!! What a difference from a year ago when he wouldn't even put his face in the water.

Here's a picture of him and his cousins (same age, though preemies and twins, but not sure that accounts for the "slight" size difference??) ...

and a couple from the board walk with Nanny where he picked up 2 older girls so that he could ride on the Himalaya (neither mommy or nanny were signing up for that).

OK, I'm off to find the camera now!!! Back with his belated birthday post another day soon...