My Boy

Zeke had his 5 year check up yesterday. I originally made the appointment early so that I could get him there, get him seen, and get him out in time to still make it to school. However, when I realized it was on a Tuesday, and that he's due to see the dentist again, and that the dentist only sees kids on Tuesdays at the clinic thing he sets up at the indoor playground on post, I changed the plan. Josh took Zeke in for his appointment, then brought Zeke to work with him where he was supposed to hang out until I got there with the other 2, to take them all to the dentist. However, when I called the dentist in the morning to make sure they were still doing the Tuesday morning clinic thing, the woman on the phone told me that they are still doing it but that the dentist is gone until February. So I called Josh, let him know this, and asked him to bring Zeke to school, which he did, because he's wonderful.

When Zeke came home from school I asked him how school was, and all he wanted to talk about was going to work with Daddy. He was so excited by that part of his morning, he talked about it all day long. Listening to him talk, you'd think it was the best 10 minutes of his entire life. But for those of you who are curious, Zeke weighed in at 41 1/2 pounds (50-75% for his age) and was measured at about 3 foot 8 (75%).

Now that Zeke's speech is really coming along, he says some of the funniest things. The other night I was teasing him and asked if he wanted broccoli or bananas with his waffles for dinner (yes, we have waffles for dinner sometimes). He looked at me and said, "Why don't we wait a little bit and then see where we're at." Zing! Nothing like hearing your own words coming right back at you. The week before Christmas we moved Zeke's speech lession from Saturday morning to Tuesday afternoon. It was dark out when we left, which is different from leaving and having the sun come out like usual. So as we exited the building Zeke said, "Hey! Who turned on the dark?" I laughed and said, "I don't know. Who did turn on the dark?" He replied, rather matter of factly, "Miss Kathie (his speech teacher) did it." There's also his way of making verbs like "picturing" and "teachering". Or when we had spaghetti two nights in a row (leftovers) he sat down and said, as he slapped his hand into his forehead, "We're having this again?" followed by heavy sighing and head shaking. Yeah, he's a funny kid.

He's also a big help around the house, and apparently at McDonald's. Today, I overheard a boy on the play equipment saying, "I need help" (he was having a hard time navigating the spiral staircase). Immediately after I heard Zeke say, "I will help you." As I looked up I saw Zeke take this little boy's hand and lead him up the stairs. He also chose to sit in the middle row of the car on the way to McD's last week so he could help Finn, should Finn need help with anything on the way, instead of sitting in the back row with his friend Evelyn.

Zeke is also starting to understand more about emotions. One of his new things that started last week is that, when he gets home from school he "slams" his hat and mittens into the bag we keep them in and says, "I'm angry." Or he'll stomp around the house, kind of grunting, and say, "I'm angry." He's never angry when he does these things, but he's displaying that he does understand what the word means. Yesterday he took it to a new level though. Since he was overtired from getting up way too early to go the doctor's, he took forever to decide which episode of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse he wanted to watch. I told him if he didn't pick soon, I'd pick the one I wanted to watch. Well, he stood there and said, "Um...um...um...um.." so I played the one I wanted. He got all upset with me and went behind the couch and sulked. After a few minutes I said, "Are you okay, Zeke?" He said, "No. I'm mad at you." If it wasn't so cute and funny my feelings might have been hurt. He did eventually get over it, but he's said that to me at twice more since yesterday.

My sweet boy also enjoys the usual things like reading, coloring, trains, cars, trucks, balls, football, dragons, etc. To counter all the "boy" things, Zeke also enjoys a good princess movie. His current favorite is "Beauty and the Beast", although we did play "Enchanted" for them the other night, and he's asked for it a few times since. I saw it's because of the talking animals (or talking household [castlehold?] items) but I think it's the storylines. He gets so excited at the end when the prince and princess get together. I have recieved so many kisses when the prince and princess kiss in the movie, usually because he's so overcome with happiness and excitment himself.

He's such a great kid. And even though he does have "moments of attitude", and even though he does get a bit "over sensitive" about things sometimes, I'm having a lot of fun watching this boy grow up.