Take me to the other side...

...Of Jacob's life as a third-grader. Tonight was the parent/teacher conference for the spring semesters. Jacob is always somehow amazed when we can glean any tidbit of information about his "school life." It's almost like he thinks that's his own world where we are not allowed. And that we never cross paths or exchange email with his teachers... So it makes it fun to learn more about our guy through the eyes of some of the adults he spends most of his time with.

Before we went in to meet with the teachers, I did some sleuthing of my own and rummaged through his locker. A couple of pair of gloves, a water bottle full of musty liquid and a "Musician of the Day" award... From December 4th... Guess that's not a cool thing to be. :)

So, overall the reports are great. He is doing very well this year, as we expected. We absolutely adore his homeroom teacher (and he really fancies her, too, but we're not supposed to know that!). She is so kind and personable and gushes wonderful things about our big guy. Scores are great, behavior is good and third grade seems to be the sweet spot. This is exactly how learning is supposed to be... What a blessed life we lead...

a

Moneyball

I knew it was probably a mistake as it came spurting out my mouth last weekend, but I was quite frustrated at Jacob's lack of intensity on the basketball court. I have given him many visualizations to demonstrate what I wanted out of him, but all were unsuccessful.

"Run your legs off and hustle, hustle, hustle!"

"Think about the ball being like your DS and a bully is taking it!"

"Pretend the other guy is Josh and the ball is your favorite Star Wars ship!"

All falling on deaf ears... But last week, oh, last week, I came across the motivating factor of all factors. Shouldn't surprise me, but I was desperate... Money.

I know, definitely a contradiction considering that he's playing in a Christian-based basketball organization, but I didn't know how to get through to this kid that was all daggers at the dinner table, but fluffy sheep and butterflies on the court... So, the gauntlet was thrown down. For every rebound you get, I'll give you $1. Ha ha ha ha ha ha... The only stipulation I had was that he could not take it from a teammate to make a quick buck. Considering last week he was watching the ball sail out of bounds like a spectator watching a pro tee off at a golf tournament, I thought I'd only give up a buck or two... Oooooh! Ahhhhh! There it goes!

Nope. My boy likes a challenge and proving his mom wrong. In only three periods (yes, I said periods again), he got seven rebounds. He was intense! He moved his feet! He went after missed shots like there was no tomorrow. So, there he was. Confidence in his eyes and the oven mitts removed from his hands... Oh, the team also won 20-9. And Jacob scored a beauty of a bucket... From dowwwwn towwwwn...

After the game, I had to do some quick thinking for next week. So I told him I'm reducing the bounty per rebound. "Just so you work harder," I told him...

And so Mom doesn't go broke. :)

Doctor, Doctor... Gimme the News...

Well, Josh had his four-year doctor visit today. It was officially confirmed that he is a peanut! He weighed in at 32.5 pounds and is 38.25 inches tall. All of that left him squarely in the 10th percentile for both categories. However, his personality definitely makes up for his small size. Think about the chicken hawk that torments Foghorn Leghorn... :) He also got two of the four vaccines needed for kindergarten today. I know, it's still a year and a half until that happens! But they were thinking ahead and offered up two today and two at the five-year visit. That brave little guy didn't even flinch when they stuck him in the arms twice! Of course, I didn't even tell him that it was going to happen (why do that?!?), but he barely noticed the first and only said "Ow!" after the second. He was more excited that he got two suckers for his two shots!

Tonight we went to Bingo Night at Jacob's elementary school. We had a pretty good time and Jacob actually got a bingo and won a prize! He was able to pick from an array of prizes and came back with a $25 gift card. To PetSmart. What?!? Picking that over Moe's (a local Mexican joint), Price Chopper (the grocery store) or other similar choices? Hmmm. Something must be up with that line of reasoning... Of course, it was. He was thinking that $25 would be enough to buy a puppy. Or a frog. Or a hamster. Or any other living thing that we have already turned down in the past. Silly boy... So, we'll have to do some major negotiating over the next couple of days to see what the impulse choice winnings will be spent on.

This weekend we'll be enjoying the beautiful weather and hope for some thunderstorms to close out the weekend. Of course, we'll sprinkle in a Saturday full of basketball, church and more basketball on Sunday afternoon... Looks like we'll be yearning for a weekend from our weekend, too!

Much love to all... J&A&j&j

Happy Birthday, Josh!

Josh was so excited because he turned four yesterday. Not sure how four years of my life have blown by so quickly, but we had a great time celebrating our "baby's" birthday! On Friday, we had some photos taken of him (yearly tradition). I realized that I didn't really have any of the two of us like I had with Jacob at this age, so we had a few shots with just Josh and Mom. Here's my favorite...


We had a great time celebrating with food, family and - of course - presents! One of his favorite gifts was his very own Playstation 2 game of Lego Batman. Jacob always tells him that he has to "ask" if he wants to play with any of the video games because they're all (by default) Jacob's. He's now the proud owner of his own so we had to remind Jacob that the rules work both ways. Right now they're downstairs playing together and still no crying! Woo hoo!

Going to take some much-needed decompression time this afternoon with the boys and just veg out. After all of the activities the last two weeks, it will be much appreciated. But it's not for long... Jacob has basketball practice at 5:15p and we're all headed to a Super Bowl party at church tonight. Go Steelers!

J&A&j&j

Checking in...

Ok, so it's been almost a month and I've already posted four entries! (Now five!) Things are a little hectic in the house as this is Josh's birthday week. I have no idea how four years have passed since my "baby" was born. I can remember maternity leave like it was last summer. Sigh.

This past weekend we had a joint birthday party with our dear friends the Rugensteins as Nathan (Josh's best friend) turned four last week. The boys have all of the same friends, so we thought it would be a nice thing to do for our friends and let them get the party done in one fell swoop. We had the party at the Matt Ross Community Center's indoor aquatic center in Overland Park. The kids had so much fun. It was awesome to be in the pool in January! Once I figure out how to add photos to this blog, I'll be sure to post some of the kids having a great time.

This weekend brings the much-anticipated grandparents' visits. Josh is very excited because he knows that he gets yet another party on Saturday (which is also his actual birthday). Should be a low-key affair that will allow him to be in the spotlight - which he relishes. (Wonder who he gets that from?) ;)

Everything else is going well. Amy's new job is past the honeymoon phase and into "prove yourself" phase which is challenging, but expected. No big deal, really, just need some time to pass and all will be bliss again...

Jacob's basketball career is also going fairly well. Their team hasn't won yet (only two games into the season), but he is really having a great time playing. I think we finally found a sport that captures his love of being in motion every second of the day and mom's love of staying indoors.

Hope you're all well. Look for photos within the next week. (Or two if you really know me!)

Love, J&A&j&j

He shoots, he scores!

Today was the first day of Upward basketball games. For those of you not familiar with the Upward program, it's a Christ-centered sports program that rewards kids for modeling behaviors that are consistent with the church of believers. Our church - GracePoint - is one of the co-sponsors for this program and Jamie is the Boys' Basketball Commissioner (and Jacob's coach). Today was the first day of games and Jacob's first time to play organized basketball! Well, early in the 2nd period (yes, I said period - more in a minute), Jacob found himself open out on the wing and threw up a beauty. It went in and Mom almost started crying tears of joy from seeing his face as he realized what happened. It was awesome! The team played fairly well, but the other team was very good and had two good ball-handlers (one of which is a friend of Jacob's). The final score was a loss of 40-16. They play 6 periods - 3 in each half - to ensure all kids get equal court time.

Josh was so excited about the whole thing that he fell asleep. Dead to the world. Limp limbs and a boat anchor on my lap. He even slept through all of the super-loud buzzers and Mom's cheering and clapping. Must have been a tired boy!

We were there a good part of the day, but Jamie was there longest. As a commissioner, he went up to the school late last night (think after a high school game!) to set up and got home at midnight. He was right back up there this morning at 8am and got home shortly after 6pm. Needless to say, Mom gave the boys a lecture about leaving Daddy alone for a while tonight so he can relax. :)

Funny story of the day... Jacob and I worked in the concession stand for a few hours before his game. Josh was really good and eventually wanted to come back and help us organize the candy. Jacob had some money burning a hole in his pocket and kept begging me to buy candy, drinks, popcorn... You get the picture. At one point after one of Jacob's forlorn looks and pity parties of hunger, Josh looked squarely at me and proudly parroted back, "We're here to work, not to buy." Ah, out of the mouths of babes...

We're looking forward to enjoying the rest of a long weekend as Amy and Jacob are off on holiday on Monday. Poor Jamie - who will spend the weekend "working" basketball games and practices - has to go back to his paying gig. Much love from KC...

J&A&j&j

Sweet Sunday Story...

Just a quickie to share a sweet thing that happened today... At church, there is a point in the service where the children come in from their classes for the "Children's Message." The boys came in with their respective classes and sat down front. Josh usually looks for Jamie or me just for reassurance, but he didn't see us. I saw he was looking for us and tried to move down on the edge of the kids so he'd give us his toothy grin and settle in. Instead, he spotted Jacob before he saw me. Jacob motioned for Josh to come sit near him, then changed his mind and patted his lap. Josh happily sat down on Jacob's lap for the entire message! Jacob wrapped his arms around Josh's little body and I saw them quietly whispering to each other. I sunk into the shadows and just watched with misty eyes. How incredibly sweet...

Thinking about it now almost makes it possible to completely drown out the crying and arguing that's going on as I type this... :)

J&A&j&j