Hey Jakey,
I guess the above photo just about sums up how you're doing nowadays: so small, but so grown up, figuring out everything for yourself and dangerous as hell. We keep underestimating you, and you keep blowing us away.
Your latest favorite thing to do is flash cards. We have about 20 different sets: action words, descriptive words, kitchen words, colors, shapes, etc. There is one set that has a picture and the corresponding word on one side, and the other side has just the word on it. I never even thought to flash you the side with just the word, until a few days ago. I assumed that you were naming the pictures on each flash card.
So I showed you the cards with just the words. Smarty-pants. Apparently you've already learned to read but you forgot to tell us about it. "Computer", "refrigerator," "undershirt," "violin." What... don't tell me you've secretly been doing trigonometry after the rest of us go to sleep?
Your speech therapist informed us that you probably have fluid in your ears, and that may be the reason your language skills are right on target, but your speech sucks ass. A visit to the ear-nose-throat guy last week confirmed this. He has you scheduled for an additional hearing test in a couple of weeks, and he spelled out the worst-case scenario, which would be tubes in your ears.
The speech therapist noted that she has seen many kids with speech problems that resolved very quickly once a hearing problem was diagnosed and ear tubes were inserted.
That said... I wish I could impress upon you how much you have improved since the beginning of this year. Whole sentences, an explosion of vocabulary, a wicked sense of humor, a curiosity that comes with being an active little man, rather than the reactive toddler that you were.
You have a deep and abiding love for your sister, with flashes of pure, unadulterated irritation. Especially if she messes with your beloved cars.
You still have an endless fascination with cars. Your dozens and dozens of Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars. Movies about cars. Cars that go up and down our street. Emergency vehicles of all kinds. Car noises.
Meltdowns can still be scary, but they're a bit fewer and farther between. It's also a bit harder to pinpoint their origins. Yesterday you had a tantrum over some kind of toilet activity? I still can't figure it out. You went and peed before dinner, and started shouting for daddy, pointing at the toilet bowl and going ape-shit. We tried to drag you back to the dinner table, but you were having none of it. You can be So Weird, sometimes, Jake.
You're down to almost no tv as of late. Maybe a few minutes of Koala Brothers while you're waiting for the school bus in the morning. Your XBox consumption has gone way down; I think the novelty has worn off. You never play with it while I'm in the house, but I suspect that your daddy let's you play as much as you want when I'm not around.
You cuddle in a way that Waverly doesn't. You're content to snuggle up in my arms, fall asleep and stay there all night, whereas Wavy likes to carve out her own little space at naptime, a good arms-length away.
I'm teaching you to finger-spell, and you're picking it up like a champ. I may regret this someday. If you're anything like your momma, finger-spelling can become a nervous habit, which it has been for me since I learned it in fifth grade.
You love to help. Folding the laundry, taking stuff to the trash, picking up your toys, vacuuming, putting dishes away. Locating the baby and dragging her back within view. I think you're at your best when you feel like you're being useful. That's a handy trait that will serve you well your whole life long.
You're such a different little boy than you were a year ago. You're growing up so fast. You're clothes are too small, we're letting out slack in your car seat, we grunt when we pick you up to hug you. Every day is something new with you. It's fun, it's exciting, it's scary, it's exhausting.
Love you!
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