What's Been Goin On So Far

Not a lot. We have been pretty lazy in 2013 so far. 

   A lot of time has been spent on the iPads.  They "join" together to play a game called Minecraft (see Christmas post where he got this game for Xbox.)  Why are they playing on the floor in the bathroom?? I don't know.

Jon got some free Grizzlies basketball tickets and took Jake.  Jon caught a tshirt and a ball that they threw into the stands.  I got to stay home and be ALONE.  

We went to some friends' house and watched the Super Bowl.  Jacob was rooting for the Ravens and wanted a shirt.  Since the team was in the Super Bowl, of course the shirts were OUTRAGEOUS.  So I went to Michael's, bought a $3 tshirt, printed out a Ravens image that Jacob picked out, and ironed it on.  Ta-da.

As I have mentioned before, his school does several fund raisers, but my fave is the one where all the classes have are given a theme and they have to draw a picture.  The first year the theme was winter, and last school year the theme was fall.  Then the "proofs" are sent home and we can order things made from the artwork, just like you would do from Snapfish, etc.  Jacob drew the 2 cats sitting on the fence, the 3rd pic on the top row, from the left.  What do cats have to do with fall you ask? Well, duh, "they sit on the fence at Halloween time."  Sheesh. Anyway, many a gift is given from the fundraiser.  This past Christmas, my Dirty Santa gift was a hot pad/oven mitt with the artwork on it.  A couple people actually fought over it.  Hallie, Grammy, Grandmother (Jon's mom) and I also got one for Christmas.  They were a hot item indeed. 

And just when you think kids these days don't know how to write a thank you note, Jacob proves you wrong.  One of our employees at work really likes Jacob (I mean, who doesn't???)  and she gave him $20 for Christmas.  I told him he should draw her a picture telling her thanks.  Well, here it is.  Needless to say, she loved it. 

Again, video games are quite popular with the 8 year old crowd. Here Jacob and Jon are playing Madden Football...

Jacob and next door neighbor playing Minecraft...

 Morgan and Jacob playing Minecraft...

Jacob and next door neighbor figuring out to join together even when they are at their own homes.  Yep, just call me mother of the year...

 Sometime before Christmas Jacob decided he wanted to put the HUGE air hockey table we got from Aunt Debbie in his room.  At the time, we had it in the attic, saving it for when he was older (we bought it about 3 years ago).  When we moved into this house, the options for Jacob's room were 1. put him in the room closest to us, but it was the smallest, or 2. put him in the bigger room, but it was furthest away from us.  So we gave Abby the bigger room and put him closest to us.  Well, with the addition of the air hockey table, YOU COULD NOT MOVE IN JACOB'S ROOM.  But Abby kindly allowed us to switch rooms.  IT IS SO MUCH NICER TO HAVE SPACE.

Jon found this awesomeness at a garage sale.  Jacob uses it as a dresser. Awesome.

The air hockey table and many posters.

That table was a desk you would find in a library, with all the sides and everything.  The college where mom works is forever having sales where they sell old furniture to employees.  Mom got me 2;  Jon took the sides all off and uses 1 as a work table and the other is here as a bedside table in Jake's room. 

 About 2 years ago Jessica, Morgan, Jacob and I were walking through Garden Ridge looking for something for her new place.  Jacob spotted this stuffed shark with a torn tail.  He had to have it.  It was the only one left, but of course I told him no because it was torn.  He pestered me the entire time we were there.  So finally I told him if they would discount it, and if he wanted to spend his own money, then he could get it.  Well, they sold it to him for $2, he bought it, I sewed it up when we got home, and he is still obsessed with it to this day.  As is every kid who comes over.  It always gets played with. Boys.

Paper clip thingy from Grammy because an ordinary bulletin board is just unacceptable!

I actually did not want him to do this because it messed up my whole zen thing I had going on, but he wanted to print out the 2 logos from his 2 fave NFL teams, and then (gasp) draw that sign above it, and hang them all up.  The sign he drew says, "Yo, they's (these) teams Rule."  OCD mom shudder.

Jacob's teacher's birthday was a couple weeks ago and I got with the room moms to put together a sundae party.  It was a lot of fun and not chaotic at all, which is what I was totally worried about because we set it up buffet style.  In years past, whenever I have brought sundaes, I have the kids order what they want, we pre-make them at the store, and I just bring them. But this really was a lot of fun.  **You see how I manage to swoop in, come up with a fun idea, but don't have to do the work of the official room mom?  Oh yea, that's all part of the master plan...

 Jacob hates Valentine's day.  HATES it.  Has never really liked it.  Doesn't care that he usually gets candy; the whole thing is just not worth it to him.  But, in order to not have him looking like the only grump in the room, I force him to participate.  He had to decorate a bag and I offered to print out a regular colored camo page to make the heart from, but he consented to the pink as well as the red glitter in honor of the day.  He does love some glitter... 

I patted myself on the back for this one.  The card part is the part he hates.  So I used the blank address labels and instead of putting an address, I typed "Happy Vday from Jacob" and got him to stick them to the back of ice cream coupons.  These were his Valentines he passed out.  I got told, "that's a good boy-mom idea," and he high-fived me.  It's those little things that get me these days :)

Last but not least, we have a star chart.  Oh yes, I love a star chart.  It all started with the famous Poo Poo Chart back in the day.  This one here came about because a boy has no interest in doing well in school.  Well, I guess some do, but not mine.  He has never cared much, but this year it is affecting his grades.  I had been noticing that most of the time when he did badly, he had either not completed the work, or not read the directions correctly.  When asked why he didn't finish or didn't follow directions he would say, "I don't know" without any hint of regret.  ***I think this indifferent/rebel attitude should have been foreshadowed to me when he was learning to write his name forever ago and refused to make just the first letter capital.  He would randomly capitalize some letters throughout his name because, "It's my name."  Anyway, obviously I couldn't let this go on so I started punishing him by taking about all technology.  And he would be really upset-a sure sign it will have the desired affect right? But then it didn't...  So I decided to come at it from a different angle-reward him when he does it right.  He gets 1 star for completing ALL his school from the day, and reading and following directions.  So if he comes home with 3 sheets, completes 2 but not the 3rd, he does not get a star.  And now that it has gone on for so long (because I was trying the whole punishment thing at first) I was afraid that he was behind in what he was supposed to be learning.  So with Bethany's help, I found some websites that offer free printable worksheets.  He can earn another star for doing an extra worksheet at home.  Once he fills up the chart, he gets a reward.  For the completion of this first chart, he wants-try to contain your shock-another controller for the Xbox.   So far, fingers crossed, it really seems to be working.  He hasn't come home once with incomplete work since we started it, and it had become an everyday thing.