Jakie-baby

So this is my baby he just turned 4 years old this month. I can hardly believe it has gone so fast. He is so funny. He insists on being called Jakie baby. If I call him something else I get corrected immediately with "no i gakie baby"
He enjoys being the baby and we have all enjoyed having him as the baby. He loves to hug and kiss. He loves his mommy and his Alec (that is his cousin Alex he has her wrapped right around his little finger and they both love it).
Jake just started his first time in a organized sport (well as organized as a bunch of 3-5 yr old's running around after a soccer ball can be).
His first game did not go so well. Neither Aric or I could be there so we had my Dad take him and he refused to play. He is not a big fan of strangers or new experiences. I hoped rather than believed that I could convince him to play at his second game on the following Wed. I was amazed when after relatively little effort I got him to stay out on the field with his team and warm up. Then he went right in and played when the game started. He was smiling and running and then he got tripped and fell to the ground and his shoe came off. He was devastated and ran to me crying. All I could thing was well I guess that is the end of soccer for now (he is not known for his ability to rebound from something he finds scary). Surprinsingly within a few minutes he was ready to head back into the game. After about 2 more minutes of playing down he went again, after another few minutes of tears he went in as goalie. He seemed to really like it. He was very happy that no one was tripping him and making him fall down. He did go back in the game and play and even fell down one more time but this time no tears he just jumped up and went after the ball.
I guess Gakie baby is trying to be a big boy after all.

Happy Birthday to Me!!

Well I turned the big 34 on Friday and here I am still around to blog about it. It is a little disturbing to think that I am at the end of being in my "early thirties" but I am sure I will live with it (please no eye rolls from those of you a little older than myself).
My Birthday started off early with the exciting news that my long wait to find out about my bus situation is over. While it is not the exact outcome I wanted it is pretty close. Karli and Mack both have spots on the morning bus to school but, due to the fact that our neighborhood has an abundance of afternoon Kindergartners there is only two spots available after school and of course with Brody in afternoon Kindergarten I have three kids coming home from school. The principal and I decided to try a compromise of having Karli line up for the bus last and if there are open spots she rides the bus home and if it is totally full she will go to the office and call me so I can run and pick her up. We are going to see how this works. So far the two days we have tried it she has gotten on so hopefully it will happen that I do not have to pick her up too often, otherwise I will have to come up with a new plan for her. I really appreciate all that Amiee and Valerie did to lobby for me in my time of trial and injustice!!(ha ha) seriously thank you for keeping me in the loop on where we were at and how things were progressing it really did help me from going crazy!
My next Birthday present came in the form of a day early B-day lunch at Cafe' Rio with my friend Aimee. It was a great afternoon away and how can any birthday go wrong with good company and Cafe' Rio??? Thanks again Aimee!
On my actual B-day I went to lunch with my Mom, Grandma, Sister, and Neice Rikki (Jake got to come too but he was so busy stuffing every bite of his hot dog and fries into his mouth we hardly noticed he was there).
The day ended with Aric and I going to our favorite Thai food place and stuffing ourselves silly then home to watch a movie together.
All in All I say a pretty great end to a pretty great year!
Thanks so much to everyone for all of the great B-day wishes and to Roni and Kimberly for your thoughtful gifts.