days of nuwanda

Paying homage in LEGOs

Jacob's fave song is "God's Not Dead" by the Newsboys. (They are his fave band, behind NeedtoBreathe.) So of course they get some LEGO artwork props...

Chicks!

Jacob's class at school had a 3 week-segment studying embryology and had a bunch of chicken eggs in a hatchery inside their classroom (in coordination with Purdue University). It seems a little odd for 3rd graders to even know the word embryology, but who wouldn't love cute little chicks hatching from eggs, right? 19 of the eggs hatched into cute little chicks, and the kids and I visited his class last week. Jacob adopted a little guy that he named Peeps who has a black spot on the top of his head. Very cute, and he didn't even poop on us. :)

Painful fun

Our great friends the E-family had a bday party for their 8 yr old daughter on Sunday, and they had this giant outdoor Twister board spray-painted on their grass. (Great idea, BTW, for any party!) The kids loved it, and my competitive son would NOT go down w/o a fight. Besides, he couldn't let a girl win! They eventually called it a draw between him and 2 girls b/c they played so long (about 15 minutes) that they were getting sore. HA! Who knew Twister to be a painful sport??!!

He's not smiling--he's in pain! And yes, his behind is still off the ground, by about 2 millimeters. Trust me--we checked! HA! :)

So grown up

Jacob seems like such a big kid lately, and it terrifies me. Well, it also makes me proud, but he's only 9. How did we get to division and book reports and building parallel circuits in 4H? Shouldn't he still be learning to tie his shoes or something???

Easter Sunday he helped Dad in the tech cage for Kids Worship at church. He ran the graphics on the Video Wall in ProPresenter.

And when he sits in the drum cage for lessons, wow....he seems to age right before my eyes...

Dad has a video of him drumming which I'll have to post later. His teacher Max is totally impressed by how quickly he's learning. He said Jacob has passed some of the middle schoolers he's been teaching, after only 2 months of lessons. Perhaps Jacob has found his calling? He looks right at home whenever he sits in the drum cage, and I get that little lump in my throat from Sappy Mom Syndrome... I'm crazy proud of him. :) 

MI beaches are beautiful even when it's cold

We were in MI last week w/ my parents over spring break, and of course we were wondering why we usually find ourselves heading NORTH for spring break, but oh well. :) It wasn't too cold and didn't snow, so that's something. We visited our favorite beach--our little piece of heaven every July 4th for fireworks--and found it to be just as beautiful even though it was about 40 degrees. And no, we did not stick our toes in the water. Our lips turned blue just standing next to the water; standing in it did not seem wise. :) I do love my Michigan!

I get this a lot...

This is the "too cool to smile for Mom" look :)

Three distinct individuals

My little drummer boy

Practicing on the drum set during his last lesson :)

Facing peer pressure without losing yourself

I had the coolest conversation w/ Jacob this week. It's always obvious when he's gotten in trouble at school--he has an air about him as soon as he walks in the door, a guilty air. So he explained what happened (a tiff w/ another boy about LEGOs) and it led to this deep talk on friendship and fitting in w/ your peers.

I think as parents you never imagine *your* child would ever have trouble fitting in. You see them as these cute, funny, amazing little people who are popular and well-liked. The reality, of course, is that every child in the history of the world has been made fun of, picked on, and felt like they had no friends at one time other another, usually many times. Kids pick on anyone different from them, for whatever reason which changes almost daily. Kids pick on other kids who are too smart, not smart enough, too tall, too short, too fat, too skinny, too rich, too poor...and everyone was at some point in life, on both ends of the spectrum--the kid picking on someone else and the kid being picked on. 

Bottom line for Jacob is that he's trying really hard to fit in w/ a certain group of boys who play LEGOs at recess. (During the winter months when they can't play outside, they have to stay in their classrooms, which sounds ridiculous to me and frustrates him b/c most of his friends are in another class.) Anyhow, for some reason, these boys  seem to not want him in their group. It could just be a personality thing (Jacob can be a bit tedious and anal when it comes to making up rules for games!) or it could simply be they just don't like him. Either way, he worries about it. Now he is only 9, so his worry is mainly that he has no one to play w/ at recess, not that his social life has fallen apart. But it's interesting that even at this age, he's willing to make changes to join a group. He's been saving his money to buy a big LEGO set for quite a while now, but then suddenly he was looking at completely different sets. It didn't matter to me, but through our conversation, I learned that he wants to buy a set w/ more figures in it b/c that's what the "cool boys" play with. A decision based on peer pressure. 

That led to a cool time of sharing my own struggles w/ peer pressure and trying to fit in. I said,

"Jacob, if you wanna buy the set w/ all the figures, go for it. It's your money. But don't buy something b/c you think it'll make you fit in. Don't try to please other people all the time. Because you know what?"

He responded, "Next week they'll be playing w/ something else, won't they?"

He totally got it. Then we both got emotional when I told him that the best way to make friends is 1) to be the kind of person people should want to be friends with and 2) to just be himself. After all, if you change who you are for someone else, you will always, always regret it. 

I know we've barely scratched the surface of peer pressure in school, in life in general, but I hope we laid some foundation for when the real stuff comes. 

Lord, thank you for the tender heart of my son. I hate to see him upset at all, but I know that this is how he learns and grows. Help him to never lose himself, the boy you made him to be, in the search for friendship and acceptance. Guide him and encourage him.

Class Rudolph play

Jacob's 3rd grade class performed a Rudolph play last week about diversity and accepting people who are different from us...i.e., Rudolph's bright red nose. They had cute costumes, and they all worked very hard to put this play together. Jacob was Elf 11 and had a few lines. They held it in their classroom b/c the auditoriums were being used by other groups, so it was crowded and I didn't get many pics, but it was fun.

Jacob is on the far left

The elves building toys in Santa's workshop

Good-looking elf :)

Jacob and his very sweet teacher Mrs. M--she's amazing!