November 16, 2005.
A Wednesday Wrap-Up
1. We are very happy that our friend Megan is back home from the hospital today following surgery earlier in the week. We hope that her recovery goes well. Jackson and Megan's little brother Samuel are such good friends now that they hug when they see each other. Megan's little brother Matthew is also one of Jackson's best friends and is his latest Sorry competition.
2. On Monday, Jackson stayed to watch the adult class that follows his karate class. I don't think I've ever seen him happier than when they asked him if he wanted to join them. I'm talking Christmas morning happy. He followed up an hour and half class with another hour of working out. His little head was drenched with sweat because I think he worked twice as hard in the adult class to keep up. He wouldn't cheat on his exercises and if they had to do thirty crunches, he wouldn't move on to the next exercise until he had counted thirty of them. I was also happy that he had the confidence to do things the way he has been taught to do them, even if the adults didn't do it that way. The class was very quiet, but he still did his loud kiais after each kick, even though no one else was doing them. And I couldn't help but laugh when they lined up for the running kick exercises. They line up in belt rank order in Jackson's class, so he looked at all the adult's belts, then stepped in front of everyone with a lower belt rank than him, even though they were all six foot tall adults. That was pretty funny. I had to drag him out at his eight o'clock bed time. He didn't want to leave, but man did he slept hard that night.
3. Benjamin's cousin Caleb gave him
his old bunk bed when he moved up to a full size bed. We put it in Ben's
room last night and think it will work out well. But today when Amy went
into check on Ben during naptime, she found him asleep on the TOP bunk.
She also found the lights on with his little step stool directly under the light
switch.
4. Amy bought this JimmyZ shirt a few weeks ago. She was very happy about finding it because it was the same brand that she wore back in high school. Her dad's name was Jimmy and he had a 280Z that he called Jimmy's Z. I happened to be talking to her the first time she put it in the washing machine. I watched as all the color drained from her face. She was speechless and I couldn't get her to tell me what was going on. Here's the scene. Amy grabs the shirt to put it in the washing machine and sees that it says this in giant stenciled letters on the back. So for just a moment, she thought that she had accidentally bought a shirt that said that on the back, then walked Jackson through his elementary school and to his kindergarten room in it and ran errands all over town with Ben in it and went who knows where in it without anyone telling her. As it turned out though, the shirt was inside out and that was actually printed on the back side of the front decal. I still laugh when I think about it.
5. When Ben gets frustrated with Amy he says "IN THE KITCHEN, MOMMY! GO TO THE KITCHEN!!"
6. Ben will only let Amy kiss him when he has a boo boo and only wants her when he wakes up during the night. Jackson is that way too. If he wakes up cold or hot or thirsty in the middle of the night, he yells "MOMMY!". If I go to his room he will not let me tuck him back in. He will only let Amy do it. Same thing when Amy works past their bedtime. Jackson will go to sleep on top of the covers because I apparently don't know the right way to tuck him in. Only his mommy can have that honor.
7. Jackson started playing chess a few weeks ago and is really good at it. I thought that it would be too complicated. But I only had to show him how each piece moved once, before we started playing. I didn't have to correct him any during our entire first game. He played his cousin Jesse and about twenty minutes into the game I came into help Jackson. I showed him how he needed to be more aggressive and go on the offense. He lost on the third move I made for him. I promised that I would never help him again.
8. We had Ben signed up for swimming lessons but they cancelled them because not enough people were interested. We were very disappointed. It would have been his first lesson of any kind and he has continued to ask about the pool all fall.
