Update

I haven't blogged in a while. I swore we'd have a laid back, relaxing summer and so far we have been running like crazy people. Ugh. I think we've calmed down now though at least for about a month until we go to Hilton Head for vacation in mid-July.

Well, Jake definitely has the imagination thing down. I had been modeling it for him and then one day he and Keeton were out playing and I heard Jake tell Keeton, "You cannot run over my toes with your scooter. You can pretend in your imagination but you can't REALLY do it!" Then, the next day he was throwing rocks as we were leaving the pool. Craig and I explained why it isn't a good idea to throw rocks and he asked us if it would be okay just to do it in his imagination. Uh, sure. Then, we've had several more instances of both of those times. Most recently was just about an hour ago when we all got ready and went to the pool and found it to be closed b/c someone had had an "accident" in it and it needed to be cleaned. I told Jake that a baby must have pooped in it and so we couldn't swim in it until tomorrow. I asked him if he wanted to swim with poop and he and Lydia were both like "ooooh! No way!" Then, after somem thought Jake said, "We can just imagine we are going swimming tonight with the poop but we don't really want to!" Uh, okay. Imagine you are swimming with poop. I'll pass, thanks.

Jake got invited to what I am calling his first "real" playdate today. He and Keeton have always played outside on in our house with me supervising. Well, Keeton called this morning and invited Jake over to play inside his house...without me. It was so weird. I am thankful that it was at Keeton's house though b/c I know and trust his mom. He went over for an hour and she said he behaved very well. Both boys seemed like they had fun. We were supposed to have Keeton over for movie night tonight to watch Meet The Robinsons, but Jake lost his movie night privilege b/c he is choosing not to follow my instructions the first time for the past couple of days and keeps tell me "here is what I *AM* going to do." Uh, not going over real well.

Today at gymnastics it was his first class of a new semester. So, different kids and all that. The class was HUGE. 17 kids, 2 teachers. Some kids MUCH older than Jake. A total bomb. BUT, for some reason he and this little girl who he never had met before decided that they did NOT like each other. She was a mean little girl. I could see him upset and arguing with her so I went in and asked him if he needed to come sit out. He said no, so I asked his teacher (Chad). Chad had this confused look on his face and said, "No, but these 2 don't like each other AT ALL. She is being mean and Jake isn't putting up with it. In fact at one point you could tell he wanted to deck her." So, after class I asked him what the deal was with the girl in the pink outift. He said, "The pink girl kept telling me I had safety violations and I didn't have any safety violations." (Safety violations are from Lou and Lou Safety Patrol on Playhouse Disney.) I said, "What else did she say?" He said, "She said I wasn't doing anything right." (Jake is one of the best little gymnasts skill wise for his age at that school according to Chad.) I said, "Hmmm. Was she being nice to you?" He emphatically said, "NO!" I said, "Is she your friend?" He emphatically said, "NO!" I said, "That's right. She was being mean. Friends do NOT treat each other like that. She is not your friend. You don't even know her name. She is just some girl at gymnastics." I think he is really doing a GREAT job of reading other people and their intentions and figuring out this friendship thing. He is turning into such a little social butterfly these days and all the neighbors keep commenting to me about it. In fact, we were in Omaha, Nebraska a couple of weekends ago at a waterpark hotel and Craig and I commented to each other that Jake is one of those kids that can make a friend anywhere! Then we looked at each other like "Did we just say that about JAKE!?!"

His OT is also VERY proud of his handwriting, coloring and cutting progress. His conversational skills continue to improve as well.