Growing - Turning Seven!

J has turned 7!  He had his birthday on January 2.   I cannot believe how grown up he can be one moment and then need a snuggle and mommy time the next.  I am proud of his sensitivity and how much he loves his brother. I cannot believe he has been on this earth 7 whole years!  We spent a lovely lazy day at home as it was a holiday from work.  We periodically gave him a present and he played with it or used it for awhile, sometimes for several hours and then we would give him another. it was fun to spread it out not just give gifts at dinner and send him to bed. He asked to go to A.ppleb.ee's for his dinner and they put the largest ice cream sunday I have seen in awhile in front of him! He was in heaven and it was a nice finish to the day.

About J and school:  I have written before about J and his struggling a bit in school.  I have late diagnosed (not till college) learning challenges myself.  Thankfully I made it through schooling but I do have some self esteem issues that stem directly from that.  My sister has a form of dyslexia and struggled with things.  She too made it through schooling but it was not easy.  I am super afraid J will have this.  I don't want school to be hard or him to struggle. I also do not want to put ideas into teachers heads so I am careful about bringing my concerns to the table.  So. They are starting a new math program in the 1st grade and he came home SUPER disappointed when he didn't pass into the program because he couldn't write 25 randomly given numbers in 1 minute. For Gods sake the boy can do multiplication in his head in first grade!  There must be something wrong that he can't pass that test, right?  So I spent most of that night in tears.  Worried about him, worried about how to help him, worried about labeling him, feeling mommy guilt for a myriad of things.    So after a long email to the teacher and a heartfelt telephone conference, she does not see any of my fears. It's too early for dyslexia diagnosis as he is not a confidant reader yet and his errors could just be new reader errors.  The math program, I got the feeling she doesnt agree with it for first graders butshe is doing her job.  She is going to try to find him a 5th grade study buddy who can come and read with him and practice math facts at the end of every day.  We have resolved to try and do math and reading drills every night as well.  Sometimes this parenting thing is hard on the heart.

I have mentioned before we are blessed with many close friends who adore our boys and want to celebratewith them.  This group totals about 12 adults and 11 kids, add that to our 2 adults and 2 kiddos and we have a seriously full house.  Our house is not that big and in the past we were in an even tinier apartment, so we have always separated the groups and did 2 gathering but that's a lot of work and J is of the age now that he wanted to do a party at a place for some school friends too.  So, he invited 6 kids from school and daycare to join the oldest children of that group of friends for some indoor rock climbing.  Then the school friends went home and the other friends and the rest of the families descended upon our home to celebrate Z and J together.  We served a taco/nacho bar and plenty of cake. It was close quarters and we have to come up with a better eating place for the kids but it wasn't as bad as Husband had feared. It was great fun and it was over in one long day.

It also spurred us to get our house cleaned/tidied up.  I actually had some dedicated time and got J's room tidied up. Its been a disaster since September and I just haven't gotten to it. It was one of the things weighing on my mind. It looks so nice to be able to walk into his room and it feels good not worry about Z getting something unsafe to chew on!  My parents had given J a new comforter set for his bed to graduate from Thomas the Train.  He is so loving it and his room looks much older now.  We are also going to repaint his room in some cool bold colors, we need to pick a weekend to do this and we need my parents help but we are looking forward to that too. I will keep you posted on this progress I promise.