Who's Kid Is This?

Yesterday morning Jacob woke up in a bad mood. He was kicking me, thrashing so, and yelling something about wanting chocolate. I take it he had been dreaming about having chocolate (that's my boy!), and I hope in this dream I wasn't taking it away from him, as it often seems is the case in his dreams. Well that incident was about the worst we've experienced the last couple weeks. Seriously, he's been the perfect child; all pleasant and loving.

Last Tuesday I decided must be the peak of his happy stage, as I took the following notes that day because I wanted to remember them: Got ready to leave the house pretty much by himself; played quietly at the doctor's office and was so well-behaved; asked to go back to gymnastics; didn't want a donut when I offered to go by Dunkin Donuts; let me return the 'Baby Santa' video "so other kids can take it out." I guess he's pretty much plateaued since that day, and it's probably good that he did because otherwise I would have started to look the gift horse right in the mouth by asking, "What's wrong with him that he is behaving so well?"

For a while I couldn't put my finger on what it was that felt so different. Jacob had been great, things seemed to be going smoothly, but it all felt somewhat odd, not quite right. And it was unnerving that I couldn't identify the cause of my distress. Then it hit me that the feeling was EASY. Being Jacob's mother was suddenly easy. Is mothering ever easy? Is it supposed to be? Well heck, I don't know because this is the first time I've experienced this. I'm of the philosophy that if something appears too good to be true, then it probably is. So I'm not expecting this to last. Don't get me wrong, it's not all smooth sailing right now, but when we do hit bumps, they seem to smooth themselves out pretty well. If Jacob does something 'bad' then he apologizes - without being prompted! Maybe he's not getting ready like I've asked, but when I raise my voice, he actually listens!

Have I mentioned before how much Jacob loves to get stuff for us? It's gotta be his favorite activity. It doesn't matter what Zach and I are doing, Jacob wants in, and he's happy with the crummiest of jobs. Anything I do in the kitchen, Jacob is game. Sometimes I make up little jobs just because it pleases him so. I have to admit his is a very good little go-fer. "Look it, I being very careful...I bring your tote bag over, and then the chair," he pointed out the other day as he slowly maneuvered a messy pathway to the couch.

Another day, as he was getting settled into bed, Jacob first said to me, "We had such a nice day." Then a few minutes later I was in the hall and I overheard him say to Zach, "I'm such a lucky boy because I get to stay up late." Yeah. 'Get to' is not the way I would put it, but how does he even know that he's different in that regard? I don't even think he realizes that other kids have their own beds, in their own rooms.

Whenever Zach and I are having conversations about whatever it is we talk about, Jacob always has to chime in with his 2 cents. It doesn't usually have anything to do with what we're talking about, but he catches one familiar word and takes off with it, telling a 'tall tale'. For instance, road: "One day there as a wion in da road and me and Bob had to go get it," or something like that, but usually always involving Bob the Builder and animals, and always outrageous.

Jacob also loves to tell real stories to people, whether we know the people or not. Today he was telling everyone about how I got stuck in an elevator. It happened when I was 9 and in Disney World, of all places, but Jacob tells it like it was yesterday because I don't think he can comprehend a time when I wasn't exactly like I am now, and a time before he was around. This morning Zach found out about the death of someone he knows in the running community. While we were at Zach's work (and I was skating on the ice, by myself) I guess Zach told Jacob about it. Since then I've been fielding various questions about the subject and Jacob has been telling everyone. I think continually repeating the story is a way for him to deal with it, and to understand that people die (a fact I had previously omitted from conversations with him).

One last thing about Jacob: He's been doing something lately with the way he pronounces certain words. I think it's a kind of two-steps-forward-1-step-backward kind of thing. Instead of femes, he says 'afemes' (machines); for Mosa (Marisa) he says Amosa; instead of baloney or balloon, he says aboney and aboon. He's creating his own little Pig Latin, the rule being remove letters to first syllable, except for the first, and put an A in front of the word. Hehe, it's so cute.

Anyway, today was nice. We finally got to play in the snow. Jacob got his wish...he's been asking about it every day. He's also been asking to see Evy and we finally did that today too. And we were also in Zach's work where I got to skate. There were only 2 other people on the ice so I go to breeze all around and do some jumps. It was So Nice to be able to do that. Sometimes I forget how much I love the ice. I'm going to post some pictures from today down below, and the last one is a 'before' shot of the back of the house.