Maturing

J. Lamb 2011

I haven't documented what's going on with my boy lately, not for lack of progress mind you, he continues to amaze me. At almost 13, Drake is becoming the teenager he almost is in physical stature and has been taking the task quite seriously! I have a rule at my house, you cannot have lunch on the weekends until you get yourself dressed for the day. Drake has been known for foregoing the meal as long as possible, just so he doesn't have to get out of bed. This would probably frustrate most parents, but I love that he exerting his freedom of choice and is just acting like a kid.

The seventh grade has brought about it's own challenges. Drake continues to love the violin and plays in the advanced orchestra and has improved in technique tenfold. He is taking pre-algebra and getting A's and B's in all his classes, except Language Arts in which he maintains a C. He is so quick to learn and master concepts in all subjects, his downfall is turning all assignments in. *Sigh* Drake's younger sister is attending the same school as him this year and where I love that she is there to keep track of him, I worry that she holds him back in someways. Nevertheless, I was pleased when I visited with his speech pathologist (Drake has a lateral lisp) and she noted that he is trying very hard to correct his speech and seems to be interacting with  his peers better too. I also got a call from Drake's Language Arts teacher a couple of weeks ago, in which she confessed that she had taken away Drake's Lego's (which he is not supposed to have in class, by the way) and he had been very upset about it for the entire class remaining. She felt awful and I assured her that he would be okay (outbursts still occur, but are few and far between anymore) and we discussed the no Lego rule again and why.

We've had many, many discussions about behavior in public and interacting with others:

"Drake, it's nice to smile at people when they talk to you, it lets them know you are friendly."

"If you don't want to say hi to someone when they say hi to you, at least smile and wave, so they know you saw and heard them."

"Please don't shout at people when you are talking to them."

"Please don't run naked to bathroom when you are getting into the shower, you are just too big to not be covered up anymore."

That last one was a little embarrassing! Let's just say, we seem to have curbed that behavior. Yikes!

I'm not saying that everything is perfect, we definitely have some work to do still. Drake asked his grandma loudly why she always has to bring cookies when she visits, on Christmas. Good thing grandma is pretty used to it! I made sure to apologize for him and noted that it was Christmas and was sure he was overstimulated.
 Our little dog passed away a couple of weeks ago and as we were discussing it with Drake and his sister and Drake commented, that "at least we don't have to feed him anymore." We had a conversation about appropriate comments in certain situations at that point. Um, yeah. I actually think I said, "Yeah Drake, that's not helpful...."
The funniest thing has to be my dad though. You see, my grandpa has been in poor health (he has improved now) and my dad said to me, "You know that as soon as we are born, we start dying...." I chuckled and told him that he sounded just like Drake! I have heard that statement from him many times...come to find out, so had my dad.

You never have to guess where you stand with my boy, Drake. ;0)