Random Jack, September Edition

It was a matter of hours between the last Random Jack post when he offered up this gem.

It's lotion.  Lotion, and lots of it.  He had just gotten out of the shower and applied his own lotion.  He normally does that task himself, but I had bought a different lotion and this was his first time using it.

Me:  "WOAH!!!  JACK!!!!  WHAT THE HECK?"

Jack:  "I put on my own lotion.  It smelled so good I just couldn't stop putting it on."

I've not laughed that hard in a LONG, LONG TIME.  It was CLASSIC.  And the look on his face is awesome.  He clearly has no idea how funny he looks.

He also planned a runaway trip again this month.  This time, he packed a tiny bit differently.  He decided to take an old soccer trophy and a transformer with him.  The WII remote was still a part of the package though.  Because Bubbie is not allowed to have any sort of fun after Jack runs away.

School is going well this year.  Jack is not having any trouble learning his letters now.  We only need to spend three days per week learning instead of five, YAY!  He is still having trouble remembering week to week how to actually WRITE the letter, but if I can just get him to be able to properly identify the letters I will consider that a success.

If Jack participates all week during school, we do a fun activity.  His favorite thing to do is always a toilet-paper tube craft.  He insisted I blog about his toilet paper craft obsession.  Every time a roll is emptied he declares "YES!!!!  MOM, WE GET TO DO A TOILET PAPER CRAFT TOMORROW!".

Goodie.  Ha.

I have recently been called to be the First Counselor in Primary for church.  I get to spend second hour with Jack during singing and sharing time.  I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised that Jack actually SINGS and participates during class.  I wasn't expecting that.  He does not like to sing at all and the first time I actually HEARD him sing was in Primary!  I couldn't believe it.  He knew all the words to the song, too.  Shocked me beyond words.  That gives me hope that he will participate more in regular school than I think he will.  

My boy likes to dress up for church.  He prefers bow-ties to regular ties.  Seriously cute.  

Jack had his first fight a few weeks ago.  We were at a play place at Chik fil A and a little boy punched him dead in his head, randomly.  I was watching the entire thing, and Jack hadn't said anything or done anything to the boy.  The boy came out of nowhere and just punched him in the face.  Before I could even react and in one fluid movement, Jack lifted the boy up off of the ground, spun him around and body slammed him into the ground.  He then punched the kid while he had him down on the ground.  For lack of a more appropriate phrase, he beat the hell out of the kid.  I got to him around the same time the instigating boy's Dad did, and we exchanged apologies with one another (he knew his son instigated it).  Jack had snapped.  I have no worries about him defending himself, he can certainly do just that.  If that same thing ever would have happened to Justice, he would have walked away.  

However, that incident sort of traumatized him.  He's been very irritable, angry, jumpy, and cries a lot since it happened.  I joke around that he needs to come with me to the PTSD clinic at the VA for my appointments, but that's really not that far from the truth. It really did impact him in a negative way.  If anybody sneaks up on him or just barely bumps into him, he snaps and attacks that person.  It's not good, especially leading into soccer season. 

Soccer season started a few weeks ago.  So far, not so good.  Jack's behavior has been horrible.  If he gets pushed on the field, he attacks the pusher.  If somebody steals his ball from him, he takes it back in a very unpleasant way.  And he won't stop crying.  He cries constantly.  Basically, he is overreacting to everything that happens to him physically.  He is not being a bully, because he is responding to contact, not instigating or initiating it.  It's been an absolute nightmare.  His fight was only a few weeks ago, so I will give it a little more time before I take him to see somebody, but if things haven't improved he will be making a trip to a counselor. 

With that being said, he is a beast on the soccer field.  He scored all five goals for his teams first game of the season.  I'd like to say he was having fun doing it, but I'm not so sure.  He was either angry or crying during the whole game, and when a kid elbowed him during play, he stopped playing and pushed the kid to the ground.  

He also got to go to a birthday party this past weekend, and he had a great time.  Well, except for when he fell and totally overreacted, and kept thinking people were trying to conspire against him and hurt him.  We have got to get him past this fight.  He also has had a bad sinus infection, so I'm not completely sure whether that's had something to do with his nasty demeanor.  I'm hoping so, and that when it's completely gone and he isn't suffering from a bad headache all day long that his personality will return back to normal.  We shall see.  

The train at the party.  Super fun, the kids loved it.

Ten minutes after we left the party, he fell asleep.  That good and hard sleeping with his eyes open kind of sleep.

Until next month, Jack.  Or until an hour from now...