"How Do You Keep Up With Him?"

...asked the Kindergarten teacher following Jakob's evaluation.

GOOD QUESTION!

Rewind 1 week.

Me: "Jakob, next week you get to go to your new school and meet some teachers and they're going to ask you some questions about what you know."

Jakob: "Well, I know alot because my brain is really smart."

Me: "It sure is!"

A couple of days later...

Me: "Jakob, are you getting excited to go to your school in a few days?"

Jakob: "Yeah."

Me: "Ok, good..."

At this point I start to get a teeny bit worried...not that he isn't up to par, but because if you know Jakob, he can be quite moody and difficult to deal with sometimes...and I was starting to have some anxiety about him just not wanting to cooperate.

On the morning of the evaluation:

Me: "Good morning! Guess what? Today is the day you get to go to your school and talk to the teachers!"

Jakob: "Cool!"

A few hours later he was in a terrible mood and saying he wasn't going to go to school. My fears were being realized. At that point I just hoped that by the afternoon he would mellow out and would be ready to go and be back to my sweet, funny, brilliant Jakob again.

Brad came home from work to watch Joshy and Drew while I took Jakob over to the school. I was a little bit nervous on the way over there...but was trying not to show it. Jakob was happy, but pretty quiet. As we walked up to the kindergarten area, he started to act a little bit shy by walking behind me, hiding. Then we sat down to wait, and ended up having to wait about 10-15 minutes before it was his turn. He was actually pretty quiet as we waited, and I wondered if he was nervous, but I didn't want to ask for fear of putting the idea in his mind that maybe he should be nervous!

Finally his turn came, and I waited about 10 minutes while he was inside with the teacher. When he came out, he had a big sticker on his shirt and a big smile...he was excited! This was looking good! I started to feel very relieved...and then the teacher held up her paper to her face, kind of covering her mouth and said in an excited whisper, "He did AMAZING!"

Imagine a huge proud grin on my face at this point!

Then she continued..."Have you been working with him? ... He's so smart! ... I asked him how he got so smart and he said, 'it's my brain! and do you know what else? sometimes I keep secrets from my mom' ... what kind of secrets? ... 'like how I can count to 100!' ... oh, those are the kind of secrets we like!"

Then came the question up in the title of the post, "How do you keep up with him?" I explained to her that it's not easy...he just has the kind of mind that craves knowledge, and he has to be kept busy or he kind of wigs out! He is a little bit too smart for his own good sometimes, but he's so much fun and comes up with the most creative things!

WOWZA. PROUD MOMMY MOMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!

I seriously felt so overwhelmed with joyful pride...as if I needed that small reminder that my son is extremely intelligent, creative, intuitive, etc. It was just so nice to hear a teacher GUSHING over him!

Oh yeah...I almost forgot, she also said, "I hope he's in my class! I LOVE kids like Jakob! They are so much fun to be around!"

So, class rosters were posted on Friday, and lo and behold, he is in her class! I am really glad because I heard it from her that she WANTED him in her class...wow, that makes me feel good!

On the way to the car I gave him a hug and a high five and told him how brilliant and awesome I think he is...then we went to 7-11 to get Slurpees!

I was going to wait to post this when I had a cute pic of Jakob to include...but I've been waiting to shoot some pics of him until he gets his cute new faux hawk haircut! So, those will be coming soon...

I also wanted to share a cute idea I found in a parent magazine... You have your child leave their backpack on the front porch on the night before school starts for the Backpack Fairy to leave treats in. You can fill it with some new school supplies, a cool new shirt for the first day of school, and maybe a book to read together. Well, Jakob is really into drawing right now, and hates notebook paper "because the lines get in the way" -- so I'm thinking of a small sketchbook and some pencils. We'll see if I can find a cool new shirt for him to wear without him knowing about it!

I can't believe his elementary school career is just a few days away...I didn't cry when he started preschool or extended kindergarten...but I think I just might shed a tear or two when he starts next week. This is for REAL! Wow...I can't believe it.

Ok Folks, It's Official...

I'm taking the plunge into the wonderful world of portrait photography! To some of you this may come as a surprise...to others, it's old news. Either way, I wanted all of you to know about it!

Check out my new photo blog here.

What to do?

Ok friends and family, I need some opinions here...most of you know that every couple of years I chop all of my hair off and donate it to Locks of Love. Well, I was thinking of waiting until Nov/Dec to do this...but I am seriously so sick of my hair right now! For the past few days I've been browsing short hairstyles online, and these are the few that stood out to me. I am just asking for your vote on which one(s) you think would look good on me! Oh, and by the way, I have no idea why they are all blonde! I have NO desire to go blonde...no offense to any of you blondies out there, but I just don't think I could EVER pull it off! :) I look forward to hearing your votes!

#1

#2

#3 (all 3 are of the same girl)

#4

#5

I've Been Tagged...

My Joys:

1. My family. Seeing my boys' smiles and hearing them laugh always makes me feel good...and being married to my best friend is the coolest thing EVER!

2. Period Dramas - my favorite type of movies!!!! (i.e. Pride & Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Sense & Sensibility, Mansfield Park, Emma, An Ideal Husband, etc....) I LOVE watching these, and can do so over and over and over without ever getting bored!

3. Reading - I love the escape from reality and jumping into an imaginary world that someone else has created...I even like reading non-fiction! I may not be a speed reader, but I am ALWAYS reading something!

My Fears:

1. That something terrible will happen to my kids...like being kidnapped/murdered/abused.

2. Spiders

3. The dark. I have a very active imagination...so thank goodness we have night lights all over our house!

My Current Obsessions:

1. Photography/Photoshop

2. The Twilight series - although I am not nearly as passionate as some out there, I am still STOKED for the movie to come out!

3. Exercising - ok well, maybe I'm not "obsessed" but it has become part of my normal routine, and for that I am very grateful! I've lost nearly 50 lbs since I had Drew! (Prenatal weight was 237, now I'm 190!) I'm keeping my fingers crossed that once I stop nursing I don't gain a ton of it back!

Surprising facts:

1. I love to do outdoor things - getting dirty/sweaty has never bothered me...however, I am married to a man that isn't quite into "roughing it" - so since we've been married, we haven't done much of ANYTHING of that sort. :( But, we have 3 boys, and I've always said that it would be really sad (but maybe a little cool?) if they learned the art of camping from their Mom and not their Dad... what do you think?

2. I have secretly wanted to have a pimped out car and be a street racer -- you know, a la "The Fast & The Furious?" -- when that movie came out I saw it in the theaters 6 times!

3. I played rugby in college. Painful at times, but very, very fun!!!! And there were lots of hot guys to meet at the tournaments!!!!!!!!!

People I've tagged:

1. Evaly
2. Kristie
3. Vanessa
4. Leigh

Goodbye Leroi

The saxophonist Leroi Moore from my favorite band (Dave Matthews Band) has passed away due to complications from an ATV accident earlier this summer.

Click here for more on the story.

If any of you know DMB very well, you know that a major part of their sound is their saxophone and electric violin... So Leroi will be missed, and very, VERY hard to replace. So sad!!

A Sad Story...

So almost TWO WEEKS AGO (yes I know, and I'm just NOW blogging about it...) our sweet little friend Kai stepped in a fire pit at the beach and burned one of his feet. It was daytime, and the fire pit was full of white ash - that someone neglected to cover with sand/douse with water - and he happened to step up onto the cement edge and slipped in.

It all happened so fast, but the next thing I remember is Kai jumping up and down screaming that he needed a life guard. So Tori dropped her stuff, scooped him up in her arms and took off running toward a life guard tower. Now, if you've ever been to Huntington, you know how far away the life guard towers are from the fire pits, so it's not easy to get to. I was left standing there in total shock at what had happened, with Jack (her 2 year old) and all three of my boys, staring after her while she ran. Then Jakob and Joshy started chasing her, and Jack was kind of following also, so I tried to grab her stuff, plus my stuff, plus the baby and after about 10-15 steps realized I couldn't carry all that! By then she had reached the tower, and I saw a life guard truck approaching from the other end of the beach.

Well, by the time we made it there, they were pouring cold water on his foot, and Tori was crying saying "His skin is just falling off!" Jakob watched it all, but of course if you know Jakob he was fascinated, not traumatized! Kai was very brave and was barely even crying. The life guards told Tori to take him to the ER, so they left and took him to Hoag. He was sent home that night, and was told to go to UCI the next day, where he was actually admitted to the Pediatric Unit.

He has 2nd degree burns on all of his toes and the top of his foot. They have to scrub it and clean it every day, and because of the pain (can you imagine it???) they actually had to totally sedate him to do it, and ended up moving him to the Burn ICU. POOR KAI!!!! They had a special Burn Team come and evaluate him, and they said he shouldn't need surgery...but now there is one spot of dead skin that isn't coming off and he may have to have a skin graft...we're praying that won't be necessary.

The boys are so cute in their prayers asking for Kai's foot to get better soon. We've gone to visit him a few times, and he always has a smile on his face when we see him and I bet all of the nurses there are just totally in love with him. We don't know when he'll get to come home, but we hope it will be soon!

Jakob, Kai & Joshy (of course he wouldn't smile!)

Here's Kai trying to get Joshy to smile!

We love you and miss you Kai! Keep up the good spirits and know that we're all praying for you!!!

EVERYONE PLEASE BE EXTRA CAREFUL AND KEEP YOUR KIDS AWAY FROM FIRE PITS!

TWILIGHTERS -- FYI!!!!

We now only have to wait until November 21st to see the movie! Check it out here:

http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1592949/story.jhtml

p.s.

The movie premiere party is still a go -- I'm trying to figure out a good plan for that...and maybe Tiffany will be throwing it with me???

For Vanessa...

Here are a few of the pics so far...I hope you like them! If you don't like the fuzzy/soft look on the one of Sam, let me know and I will change that. I was just messing around with it. :) Give me another week or so and I'll have them all ready for ya! Thanks so much for letting me take your pictures! It was fun and such a good learning opportunity for me! :)

I wanted to show you both black & white and color...

Fun times with Daddy...

Brad has always been able to get Drew going, I mean REALLY going, laughing hysterically by tickling and playing with him. It is so cute and I finally decided to catch it on video tonight! Oh yeah, and Drew clapped for the first time tonight too! Once he figured out how to do it, he didn't want to stop! It was so cute!

(scroll down and pause my music so you can hear the video...)

Breaking Dawn Concert Series

Last night, I went to the Breaking Dawn Concert Series at Royce Hall on the UCLA campus with a friend of mine and her cousin. It was really fun...mostly to see and hear Stephenie talk and to see what she's like in person. There was a cool Q&A session, and the singer from Blue October, Justin Furstenfeld performed a few songs for us. I love acoustic music. It's so cool to see/hear the raw talent! We got to have Stephenie sign our books, and briefly said hello and thank you to her...well, Jenny said a bit more, but it was really fun. Like Stephenie, I am a mom of 3 boys myself (as are quite a few of my friends...) and I couldn't help feeling kind of sorry for her that she wasn't at home with her family, but instead was out visiting with 1800 crazy fans! She's a trooper...I don't know if I could do it. Anyway...it was really cool, and so I wanted to share with the rest of you...luckily someone posted most of it on youtube already, so here are the links! Enjoy!

* * * * * * * * * FYI: VIDEOS CONTAIN BREAKING DAWN SPOILERS * * * * * * * * * * *

(So if you haven't read it yet, don't watch these clips until after you read the whole book!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-LJFzukBY4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6x3cGJbOcg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOnkWT13InQ&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7rdQ2KnN8Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ln9zgT8neVI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls6ilwovRjY