Jaydon's First Day of Kindergarten

Who would have thought that the little 6lb. 10oz. bundle that was handed to me on November 11th, 2002, at 12:10PM would be going to Kindergarten already? Who would have thought that he would be ready? Who would have thought that the little boy of no words for nearly 4 years would turn out to be so intelligent? Who would have thought that this day would be the hardest for his Mother?

Last night, I could not get to sleep. I was busy thinking about all of the joys that Jaydon has brought me for the past 5½ years. I was thinking about how we thought that he was Autistic, and went to doctor after doctor, diagnosis after diagnosis...only to be told that he would eventually be fine. I was thinking about how excited he was to start Kindergarten, while I was racking my brain to make sure that I had put enough to eat into his lunchbox, and whether or not his new Gymboree outfit (courtesy of Abuelo) was "GQ" enough for the first day. Had I done everything that I could to make sure that Jaydon was going to succeed this year?

6:30 AM came very quickly after finally dozing off around 12:30, and the butterflies started...no, not for Jaydon...for me! Oh boy! The day is here - it has finally arrived. The day that I have been counting down for since the last day of Pre-K. Would Jaydon cry like he did in Pre-K? Would I be able to contain my emotions?

We got ready and took a few pictures at home. Of course, Jaydon's eyes are closed in almost all of them. SO typical, but hey, that's Jaydon! I had his brand new brown Skechers ready for him to wear, and after he takes his first step in them, he says, "These shoes are just too hard, Mommy." (Meaning not broken in.) Then he says, "Watch while I walk like a penguin in them." Jeremy and I just laughed and decided that his comfort on the first day was more important than cute shoes, so we put another brown pair on him. We'll worry about breaking the new ones in later.

We got to the school only to find a parade of people and cars EVERYWHERE. We might as well have walked there considering we parked in our own neighborhood. Jaydon sees our neighbor, Marissa, who is also going into Kindergarten. They immediately start talking about him being a King and her being a Queen, and they hold hands all the way up to school. It was very precious! Jaydon says that he is "worried" because there isn't an American flag, a Texas flag, or a Christian flag hanging from the flagpole. Observant, aren't we? This isn't Glenview Christian School anymore, my dear.
Then we go in the front doors, and I have to swallow as not to tear up...
Okay, in the doors, first hallway on the left, first door on the left...Mrs. Goolsby's Kindergarten classroom at John D. Spicer Elementary. Okay Jessica, relax - inhale, exhale. The note last week at Meet the Teacher night said, "Say goodbye quickly." So we go to Jaydon's hook and he hangs his backpack. Then we take his lunch out, and he puts it into his cubby. He puts on his name necklace, and takes his crayons from his cubby to his table. WAIT - MY son knows what to do? How did THAT happen? When did he decide to do things for himself? Okay, so Jaydon sits down and I tell him I love him. He says, "I will see you at 2:25, Mom." ...and that was that. I only told you once that I would be there at 2:25. How did you remember that, Jaydon?
He gives me a kiss, (SWEET - I still get kisses from my boy!) I squeeze him tight, and then Jeremy walks in to tell him goodbye. (We took turns standing out in the hallway with Jacoby as not to bombard the classroom.) Jeremy comes back out, I take one last look, and Jaydon is content. WOW - SUCCESS!! Except wait, wait just one minute! Tears - oh, no...tears! How did that happen??? He was JUST fine! Yes, I am bawling! Not Jaydon...me - his mother is crying like a complete fool! I had to put my sunglasses on so I wouldn't embarrass myself. Thank God I hardly ever wear make-up in the Summer anyway!

Jeremy tries to comfort me, but nothing at this point will work...except looking into Jacoby's eyes and telling myself that I will get to do this over again in 5 more years, and then again another year after that. I cry the whole way to work. Listening to the sappy stuff on 106.1 about the first day of school didn't help. Am I crying because Jaydon has started a "new life?" Am I crying because I am not needed anymore? WHY am I crying?
Then, I realize something. I realize that there is just a special bond between a parent and his/her first child. It is not to say that you don't love your 2nd, 3rd, or 4th (or more) children the same, but there is an inexplicable bond between a parent and their first child. THIS is the child whom you shared everything with before other children came around. THIS is the child that you saw walk, talk, pee, poop, and smile for the first time. THIS is the child who will always hold the first spot in his Mommy's heart.

The tears subside after realizing that Jaydon is ready. He is a big boy, and the time has come. Jaydon is ready for Kindergarten. I did what I could, and he has proven that he will be okay. That's all a Mother can do.

Jeremy gets home at 6:10 today. Mind you, he didn't get to work until 8:45 today after going with me to take Jaydon to school, and then dropping Jacoby off. Jeremy rings the doorbell and runs. Jaydon hurries to the front door to find a "CARS" bag with a new toy, a new book, and a card in it. He also finds a bowl of spaghetti out there from what he calls "Pizza Planet". (Roma's - his favorite spaghetti place.) Jaydon is SO excited and brings it all inside. Then Jeremy comes in through the garage door. Jaydon starts opening his gifts and says, "Daddy, I think it was you that brought this for me." He opens his card and it says "Best Boy" on it. That's what we call Jaydon. (Jacoby is our "Best Baby".) There are a couple of tools from the Handy Manny show, a book about starting school, and a card from both of us. What a thoughtful Dad! I had NOTHING to do with that and didn't even know what Jeremy was up to. He says that he could hardly wait to come home to hear about Jaydon's day, and he wanted to see us. Words cannot describe what a perfect husband I have. He says, "I wanted to start a new tradition that on the first day of school every year, for each of our children, they get a new toy and their favorite dinner." Who on EARTH would have thought of that? We love you, "Best Daddy!"

Enjoy the pictures below. I took quite a few more including some of the entrance of the school, the sign with the school name on it, etc., but I don't want to bore everyone and it just takes too dang long to upload them 5 at a time which is all that blogger allows!
The video "interview" was done after school. Be sure to turn up your volume for that. It took 3 tries to even get Jaydon to answer my questions, but you'll get the point. He did well. He ate his lunch, saw 2 of his friends, and had a good day. I couldn't have asked for anything more!

Summer Picnic

This weekend was nice - temperature wise! It finally "cooled" down a bit, and we got some much needed rain. By "cooling down", I mean it only went up to 90º max. which is nice for the Dallas/Ft. Worth area in mid-August.

We took full advantage of the nice weather...

On Friday, we went to dinner at Logan's. I have to get my red meat in while I'm pregnant! Oh, and of COURSE I ate 3 rolls. I didn't eat any dessert though which is shocking, I know! Then we took a stroll (walking) down through the shopping center there by Northeast Mall. Jaydon wanted to go to Barnes & Noble to play with Thomas the Train, so we did. Then we went to Target and bought him this Handy Manny toy that he has wanted for months. That TOY was $60! (He has been entertained with it the entire weekend, so we cannot complain. He deserved it!) Aba was on her way home from Dallas Market and she surprised him at Target. This Target was not on her way home, but leave it to Aba to go out of her way to see her boys. He was so happy to see her - it was cute. Even Jacoby recognized her!
Then on Saturday, we lounged around at home. We played outside with the boys in the morning, and then at 3:00, I couldn't take Jacoby's fussiness any longer. I decided to do a web check-in at CareNow. They called back within minutes and said that the wait would be 45 minutes-1 hour and they would call back when it was time for us to head up there. I took a quick shower and by the time I got out, they were already calling. Thank goodness! I took Jacoby up there and sure enough...the poor boy has a double ear infection. I was SO upset because it brought back memories of Jaydon. Jaydon NEVER got sick - EVER, except for the frequent ear infections. I just PRAY that Jacoby doesn't head down the same path with tubes, ear aches, etc. They gave us a 10-day Amoxicillin prescription. Jaydon is allergic to penicillin, so we never got that. We always got a 3 or 5-day Zithromax with him, so it was weird to get a 10-day prescription. Jeremy and I both had bad ear infections as children. Jeremy had tubes and I didn't, but only because my parents didn't want me to have them. I have spoken to 2 doctors who both say that ear infections are not hereditary unless you are Eskimo Indian (something with the way that the Eustachian Tube forms in that culture?), but I am finding it hard to believe since it seems like my entire family now has ear issues. Jeremy, Jaydon and I all outgrew them by age 4ish. We spent the rest of the evening indoors playing with Jaydon's new toy, and we watched a Caillou movie (a PBS cartoon).
Today, Jaydon wanted to go on a picnic...so we did. It was SO nice out, and there was a gentle breeze. The only problem was that we didn't have any picnic/lunch items here. (We hadn't been to the grocery store yet.) So we went to Wendy's and had a "city" picnic. We found a great park with a gazebo in Keller, and spent the majority of the afternoon there. Jaydon played on the playground, swings, and slides. We set a couple of blankets down on the ground in the gazebo and actually ate there instead of at the tables. This way, Jaydon would "feel" like it was a picnic. He already told us that next time, "You need to bring a picnic basket Mommy and fill it with sandwiches, apples, crackers, milk, and flowers!". Oh the imagination! I will be buying a basket this weekend. It was SUCH nice family time. We hung out on the ground a lot and everyone was on the same level. It just felt nice to be that close to the family. The boys played together, and it was great.

Tonight, we put Jaydon back on his "nightly ritual" for the start of the school year. Take a bath at 7:45, read 3 bedtime stories, say a prayer/talk time, and then lights out by 8:30. We hope that doing this for the next 8 days will get him back in a good routine. Kids REALLY do function better when they are on a routine, so this should work out just like it did in Pre-K last year. We may have to adjust bedtime a bit depending on how he does after the first couple of weeks. We shall see...

That was our weekend - we hope that you enjoyed yours!

PS: The pictures below are just a couple of MANY from the picnic. There is one where I thought that the camera was in "video" mode, and it wasn't. I was trying to capture Jacoby crawling over to Jeremy, but it was too late when I realized that I was in the wrong mode. You'll get the idea...
Also, look at Jaydon's gap in his mouth. Jeremy loves giving him a hard time about that. Oh, and Jacoby does NOT take a pacifier. He just LOVES playing with them and biting them.
ENJOY the pictures, and all of the drool...

Stop the Monotony!

Monday-Wednesday this week:
6:00 AM - Wake-Up
6:40 AM - Leave to A Advanced
6:55 AM - Arrive at A Advanced
7:00 AM - Begin Working
12:00 PM - Eat Lunch
5:00 PM - Finish Working
5:20 PM - Arrive Home
6:30 PM - My Boys arrive with Jeremy
7:15 PM - Jacoby is SO tired that he falls asleep
8:00ish PM - Jaydon follows suite
7:00 PM - 11:00 PM - Watch the Olympics
11:30 PM - Go to Sleep
...and sleep for 6½ hours, just to do it all over again the next day!

Do you remember the Groundhog Day movie? THAT'S what I have felt like the past few days. I know that most people do the same routine daily, but I have gotten spoiled the last year with not having to work, and being able to do different things every day. I forgot how boring monotony can be!
Such is life though. I HAVE to work to help with the family finances. The boys HAVE to go to Aba's so that I can work. Jeremy has to work so we can survive.
One day, we will be able to do as we please.
For now though...this routine just has to work.

Jaydon wants to learn how to play the violin. Yes, we asked ourselves the same thing... "Jaydon - are you SERIOUS? THE VIOLIN???" We tried to convince him to pick another instrument, but his heart is set on the violin or the drums. We opted for the violin - for now. I have called 3 different music teachers this week and only heard back from one. I want to get a feel for all 3 before I just pick one. So this school year, he will be playing baseball at the YMCA, (we are coaching again this season) and he will be taking violin lessons. Jeremy and I both agree that 1 sport and a music lesson is perfect for a child his age. We HAVE to keep Jaydon's mind "working" because we have a feeling that Kindergarten may be just a little boring for him.

The Olympics have been awesome! I love the gymnastics, swimming, diving, & track & field (which hasn't started yet). I could live without the soccer, basketball, and volleyball. Those are sports that we can see whenever, so I'm not as interested in them during the Olympics. The men's swimming relay the other night had me screaming, and the gymnastics is just always really good!

Football season is about to start, and I'm VERY excited about that. Go Miami Dolphins and Texas Tech Red Raiders!!! My Raiders are ranked pretty high this year in the pre-season. It should be interesting to see how they do. For those of you who don't know, I am a DIE HARD football fan. I am almost as bad as a man...okay, I might be worse. I actually love a lot of sports, but football is my favorite to watch. Do NOT bother me during this time - especially if Texas Tech is playing!

Not much else to share. I need to post some pictures. I guess I should take some first. I will do that this weekend.

Talk to y'all later...

Jaydon Day...

We had "Jaydon Day" a couple of weeks ago. This was on Friday, July 25, 2008 to be exact. The objective was to hang out with Jaydon - alone - and do what he wanted to do all day long.

He wanted to play out in the yard while I got things together for the day...so he did. Then the day started off at Barnes & Noble. He wanted to play with Thomas the Train there and read "The Three Little Pigs" and "Goldilocks & The Three Bears"...so he did. Then he wanted Chick Fil-A for lunch...so we went. (Mommy & Daddy ate Genghis Grill.) Then he wanted to go to the water park...so we did. Then he wanted to play sand volleyball...so we TRIED. Uh - the sand was a million degrees and you couldn't stand in it - so we opted to play soccer on the fields next to the volleyball courts instead.

Jaydon had SUCH a great day, and we are happy to be able to do things like this with our son. We had a GREAT day just being with him.

The pictures below show all of his doings the entire day. I tried to put them in order, but blogger won't let me - ARGH!!!!! Sorry!

We love you, big boy!!!

WATERPARK: Look at that face - tell me he's not having fun!

VOLLEYBALL: ...or not!

SOCCER: GOAL!!

AT HOME: My middle name is Calvin...KLEIN that is. Nice bod, Jaydon! WOO HOO!

BARNES & NOBLE: Playing w/Thomas the Train

...and again...

EATING: Chick Fil-A is my favorite!

CHECK OUT THE BLOG BELOW, TOO - I BLOGGED TWO TIMES TONIGHT!

(Oh, and I cannot find the pictures of Jacoby for his 7-month update. I think I deleted them accidentally. TOTAL BUMMER!)

Jaydon's Teeth & MUCH more...

So maybe I should say LACK OF teeth...
My big boy lost his first 2 teeth yesterday. I'm so proud of that! What a silly thing to be proud of, huh?
He lost them both at the same time. He was at Aba's house and he jiggled them both out. They were SO loose and we were counting down the days until they fell out. So Aba gave him $20! Twenty freakin' dollars for teeth - are you SERIOUS, Mom? Jaydon decided that he wanted Chick Fil-A with that money and he said that he would buy my dinner too. Then we put his teeth under his pillow last night. He didn't want the tooth fairy to take them...so we didn't. We told him that the tooth fairy had to at least see the teeth though, and he was okay with that. We gave him $10. Yes, that's probably too much, but how do you compete with Aba's $20??? So my son made $30 for losing 2 dang teeth. I wonder how I can make all of mine fall out. Hmmm... LOL!
Random thought: It's so weird that Jaydon lost the same 2 teeth that Jacoby just got last week!

I had a long day today...
This morning, I spent the morning cleaning and doing laundry - my usual Wednesday duties. Then I bathed both boys and got them ready. I got myself ready and left at 10:15 to Aba's house to drop the boys off. Then I went to my 11:00 OB appointment. All is well there! The baby's heartbeat was 164 today, and my stomach measured fine. I am 15.5 weeks and I have gained 1 whole pound. WOO-HOO! (According to my scale at home, I have gained 1 pound since April which is when I conceived. This means that I'm headed down the same track as with my first 2 pregnancies with only gaining 10-12 pounds.) I go in again on September 3rd at 4:30, and that's when we find out the gender! :)
I had to get labs done and they can never find my veins...EVER! So I got poked on my forearm with a little butterfly thing that they use for babies and takes FOREVER to draw the blood. My arm is very sore, and I can hardly move my 3rd finger. She had no luck on my right side, so this is on my left side. I'm a lefty, so it's been a long afternoon with a sore arm.
After that, I went to Jaydon's pediatrician's office to pick up his shot records. (Jeremy picked Jaydon up from Aba's and took him to speech today.) Then I went to register Jaydon for Kindergarten. I had already made copies of everything that they needed for registration because I didn't want to have to wait in any lines. I had also printed the form they needed, filled it out, and had it ready to go. So I'm to the 3rd station moving along quickly when I get a HUGE packet of stuff to fill out! HUGE! It was like 5 different things ASKING FOR THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER AGAIN! Ridiculous! WHY COULDN'T YOU HAVE PUT ALL OF THESE FORMS ONLINE? It took me about 10 minutes to fill it all out. I ended up buying the school supplies there. I didn't want to be bothered with going to stores and fighting the crowds, and then not finding exactly what they were asking for. They said his school supplies would be at his desk on the first day, so that's fine. My Mom used to do the same thing for us when we were younger. $57 for school supplies (Kindergarten's were the most expensive because of all of the construction paper) - but that's fine, it will beat the hundreds that I spent on weekly items last year at Glenview Christian's Pre-K! I also bought Jaydon a school shirt for $11. I can't have him not fitting in on school spirit days - DUH! :) I debated buying the school supplies there, but Jaydon is not "into" picking stuff out anyway, so it's no biggie. Then they said that they had a Kindergarten readiness test, and it was up to me as to whether or not Jaydon took the test. Since he had gone to Pre-K and I had his last report card, it wasn't mandatory. I was going to turn it down, but then I thought I should have him take it just in case. So OFF to speech to meet Jeremy there before Jaydon's class was over to bring him back to his new school. Jaydon wanted BOTH of us to go with him, so Jeremy's lunch hour turned into a 2.5 hour lunch. Nice hubby - he can't STAND to see Jaydon upset. We get to the school and Jaydon goes right into the "eater" (the cafeteria) and takes the test. (He cracked us up when he said, "Mom, why are we going to the eater?") We were able to sit with him while the teacher gave him the test, but just not help. WHY DID I BOTHER? WHY DID I HAUL A&& TO BEDFORD TO RETURN TO FORT WORTH TO HAVE HIM TAKE THIS TEST? My son made a 100% on the test - NO KIDDING! He had to know how to spell his first & last name, how to write it, all of his upper and lower case letters and the sounds the letters made, (not in order) a variety of numbers, then he had to count as high as he could out loud (she made him stop at 100), all of his colors, a bunch of shapes, his age, and then his birthday and where he lived (which his answer - Texas - was sufficient for now.) UH - hello! Pure genius I tell ya! She kept laughing when he wasn't missing anything. He said that the letter "R" makes the "RA" sound instead of the "RR" sound, and I gave her the evil eye when she almost marked it as wrong because if you sound things out that start with "R", it DOES sound like RA and not the RR sound. Don't question my 5-year old, dangit! At the end, the teacher administering the test said, "Well, he's definitely going to make some teacher happy - he will definitely be "teacher's pet"". BINGO! JUST what Jaydon's Mother wanted to hear! :) Jeremy and I were SO proud of him. The whole time I sat there thinking - pull out a book, ask him to read to you. I know, I'm bragging about my son!
Then I bawled the whole way home because I couldn't believe that I just registered my son for KINDERGARTEN! SO scary to think that he's going to a new BIG BOY school. SO scary to think that he's excited about it. SO scary to think that somebody might make fun of him. THAT is my biggest fear. I want children to be nice to him and not make fun of his lack of social skills. I just need to stay positive and know that this is all part of life and I will have to let go one day...but just not yet!
So after that, I was beat and I went to pick Jacoby up from Aba's. We came home and hung out the rest of the afternoon. Jaydon and I did some activities at our dining room table - cutting, writing, speech stuff. Then Jeremy came home and now I'm blogging!

Oh - and I have to go to my regular doctor's office to have my thyroid checked this week. I was going to go today, but decided against it because the one blood draw earlier in the day was enough. You aren't "supposed to" draw blood twice in the same day from the same arm, (my nursing school paid off knowing that) so I didn't want to chance 2 sore arms. I will go on Friday.

WOW - now THAT'S a long blog, huh?

I need to pick up a bit more, finish folding some laundry, read a few other blogs, and then get to bed.
Gotta be up at 6AM for my A Advanced duties.

Have a good week all...

7 Months...

Dear Jacoby Cade Rogers,

You are 7 months old today! I can't believe how quickly time passes. You weighed 18.0 lbs. this morning, and you were too busy moving around to get measured accurately. Most of your clothes are in the 9-12 month range except for your GAP outfits which are 6-12 months in size.

In the past few weeks, you have started doing some pretty cool stuff...
1. You are sitting up on your own and playing with toys while you sit. You no longer deflate or fall to the sides. You do get tired of the sitting position though - since you are a "mover and a shaker".
2. You cut 2 bottom teeth last week - in one day! You drooled like crazy and were awful fussy, but the joy of seeing your first 2 teeth was priceless.
3. YOU STARTED CRAWLING! I was so happy to be able to see you take your first 2
"crawling" steps. You are not by any means going at a good pace yet, but you are definitely moving. You had been getting up on all fours for a while now, and you would do headstands and move your feet, but not your hands. You finally decided to "go for it" and move your hands...and it worked! Nice job, little man!
4. You are reaching your arms up when you want us...okay, so you are only doing this for Daddy. I have witnessed it one too many times! It's okay, I can't get upset at that. I am happy to see that you love your Daddy as much as your brother and I do.
5. You have become completely attached to your big brother, Jaydon. You smile at him like you've never smiled at us, and it's such a good feeling to see that you are already looking up to him. I hope that you and your big brother love each other forever!
6. You have developed quite a strong personality. I can tell you that you definitely did NOT get that from your Daddy. It took 2 people to make you so if your Daddy didn't give you that trait, then I'll let you guess who did. :)
You will push your bottle away when you don't want anymore, you will shut your mouth TIGHT when you are done eating, you will SCREAM at the top of your lungs to get my attention, you will look at me from the corner of your eye when you've dropped a toy and then smile. Hmmm...

Your Daddy and I never thought that it was possible to love more than one child. You have shown us these past few months that you absolutely can love more than one child. You have shown us that our hearts still melt whenever milestones are achieved. You have shown us that children come in all shapes, sizes, and personalities...and even though you are more needy than your brother was, that just makes you special - it makes you Jacoby, and I love you for being you.

Your Mommy has fallen off the blogging wagon, so please take note that she hadn't blogged in over 2 weeks, but didn't forget to update everyone about your 7-month birthday.

I will attach pictures tomorrow. The camera needs to be charged before I can do that.

Jacoby, thank you for being so special. I love you with all of my heart, and we can't wait to see what this next months brings us...

Love,
Mom