January 2016

January 2nd, he was very excited to try and get his return visits home. Neither were home which disappointed him. I did give him a lesson in how to keep track, writing the date and time. I need to get him a real call book though. Right now it's all small pieces of paper to keep track of.

He has decided his new favorite game is Monopoly. I told him how much I hate the game but I'm willing to play it because I love him and want to be with him. So we played.  I cheated in his favor a few times - not requiring him to pay as much, or letting him pay less for a property even though I could afford to buy it (that's not really cheating, you can do that in the rules). He had his mind set on owning Boardwalk and I was the one who landed on it first. I let him buy it since he was saving his money for it. But I did buy Park Place when I landed there to prevent him from having that monopoly. This very much frustrated him.  He kept offering me other cards and cash to let him have Park Place. 
The next day - he came to me saying, "you love me, and I like Monopoly, so won't you play with me?" How do you say no to that??
A couple of days into the game (we'd just play for an hour here and there) he came to me first thing in the morning and announced that he made a trade for me.  He gave me three properties in exchange for Park Place.  I told him that wasn't his place to do that, that I didn't consent to it - but I let it slide. He actually gave me the ability to have two monopolies and all the railroads too. Not a very good move on his part so I gave another property to him so he could have a monopoly on Baltic and Mediterranean too. Then he spent all his money putting houses and hotels on them all.  Wouldn't you know, I land on one of them every other round. lol   I haven't built any hotels or houses yet because if I did - he'd lose the game rapidly. I'm letting it get drawn out so he gets his fill of playing.

January 3 - on the way to meeting he said he wanted to go back in time and be a baby again. I asked why and he said, "I want to remember what it was like."  I told him, other than not being able to do as much, he mainly got more hugs and kisses. He loved getting hugs from us back then. He has been so much more into hugs since I said that!  Even after he was put to bed, he came back out and said, "Mom, I started to cry in my bed.... because I didn't get any hugs and kisses from you."  So I went back and made sure he had plenty - which he still said wasn't enough.  I'm soaking it up!! 
I have been trying to tell him in some way every single day - just how much I love him, how happy he makes me, how glad I am Jehovah let me have him, how much I appreciate and value him, how wonderful he is, what a great heart he has, etc.  I kind of dread his going back to school. Winter break has been fabulous.

January 5th, we paid for a truckload of wood for the newly installed fireplace. Andrew helped carry and stack the wood but thought he caused the pile to fall and quit helping for a while. We assured him it wasn't his fault. He started helping again when we were almost done.  Then he was super excited to have a fire going. He so badly wanted to roast marshmallows.  He asked me if he could go outside to see the smoke exiting the chimney. I consented, and a few minutes later I see him - in his shorts and t-shirt pajamas, and snow boots - swinging on the swing.  It was barley 40 degrees out in the sun - nevermind the shade. Silly boy.

"Mom, what time do I need to wake up for school."
"7am is good."
"Okay, I'll get up at 6."    ???

For the first week and a half back at school after winter break, he seemed to be more self-entitled and defiant and headstrong. It was very frustrating to deal with.  He was also deliberately disobeying the rule about getting out of bed even when he could recite the rules back to us. Every night he was getting out of bed to read.  Finally on the 15th, we moved his books downstairs and rearranged his room. No toys, no books. He understood and didn't fuss about it.  That day after school, the teacher said Andrew had a pretty tough week and I told her how our week went at home. She said she saw some of that at school too, and said we made a good decision about the books. A lot of gifted kids have trouble falling asleep, especially when they are enticed by something in their room.

Thursday 21st - he was upset from school. Apparently he got in trouble again for talking, but claims it wasn't him. That eats him up inside. He was upset about his dinner even though he liked it before, and then he was upset that he had the Bible Reading. He didn't want anything to do with it. I did get him to open up and talk to me a bit about everything and cuddle with him, but he still didn't want to give his part. I gave him several pep talks.  He even went up to brother Geiger before the meeting on his own asking him if he could quit the school and got another pep talk.  Then he told me Geiger "said no" to him. (there was a LOT more said so I'm sure that's just what he took away from it)  I gave him some homeopathics for apprehension and got him to smile a few times - and he did superbly on his talk despite his bad day, bad attitude, and having a cold. And felt much better about the whole world afterward too.

Friday morning he brought me the scissors and asked if I'd cut his hair "because it looks awful."  Turns out - he'd already cut a few chunks off the top!! Short too!  I told him it'd be best to go to a professional after school.  He had her leave it long on top at first, like his usual haircut - but after seeing it wasn't perfect, he consented to having the top short like the back and sides and ended up with a buzz cut. He says he likes it - that's all that matters to me!

He is very much into jokes right now. So I bought him his own Joke book for Kids book. He loves it - but it can get wearisome being asked so many jokes in a row.

He has asked to enter the Science Fair this year. And he and daddy chose the topic "how planes fly" and will be working on that together. They bought a model plane at the craft store and Andrew assembled it by himself to have as a display with the project.

January 23rd was gorgeous, sunny, and 60 degrees. The boys (daddy, Andrew, and Kevin) decided to work some more on the treehouse. Got the second window installed and then got most of the siding done. I think there is just one and a half sides left to put the siding on.  While we were outside, I started trying to chip away at the ice layered on our patio. Its shaded so the ice doesn't melt.  Then the boys took a break from their work and started helping me break up the ice and shovel it off. They're so handy!  Andrew enjoyed eating his lunch of fruit and cheese up inside the treehouse. And of course swinging from it whenever someone would hand him the rope swing.

January 28th, the teacher sent home a class newsletter. The students have been working on their GT Tech Challenge. They had to learn to develop a research question, research facts, and then put together a google slide presentation and present it to the class. Apparently Andrew's was about the rainforest. I had no idea until the newsletter, but he was one of two Semi-Finalists in his class!