Jolon latest

Jolon latest. December 2, 2009.

Ibuki has mentioned several times lately how Jolon is doing “fuzakeru,” (goofing off/making his friends laugh) a lot at school. He’s also having trouble staying on track doing his “shigoto,” (daily chores). Ibuki being Ibuki, she told me in a very casual, kind, non-judgmental way. Mom has just been here for a few weeks and although I would have thought the extra attention here would have made him less seeking of attention at school and had more of a positive effect, it’s possible that the change in routine caused some anxiety which has played out at school. Most likely though, it’s just normal 5 year old boy stuff. But once she mentioned it, I’ve really noticed how he is harder to deal with then he was a few months ago. So, Jolon latest:

Loves kagura and swords. Loves making sticks and swords and other things out of paper. He is happiest when he is either dancing around the room wearing a kimono or when he has a stack of scrap paper and a roll of tape.

Pees the bed more than Kellan these days. We think it’s the cold weather…too hard to get out of bed. He’s on MAJOR liquid restriction at night but we’re convinced he’s drinking the bath water or something.

Experimenting with lying. When he and Kellan are in a room together and Kellan comes out wailing after being hit, he knows we haven’t seen what happened, and he’s been enjoying making up things that Kellan did to provoke him. (although Kellan is getting better at defending himself both verbally and physically) Jolon has come up with some doozies lately and the other night, Jan started the bedtime story routine by saying, “So, I’m going to tell you the story about the boy who cried wolf,” to which Jolon replied in a bored voice, “Mommy’s already told me that one. I want one about pirates.”

Just like at school, he can be really slow to do things such as get dressed, put his toys away, etc. We struggle to find new ways to get him to put his clothes without telling him 20 times and without yelling at him.

Fights with and gets annoyed with Kellan but enjoys playing with him far more. We went to a party last weekend with mostly Kellan’s friends and several kids were playing under a table. When Kellan tried to join them, one boy said, “You can’t come in, Kellan.” Kellan said he was coming in, but the boy said again, “Kellan hairen,” (Kellan can’t enter). All of a sudden in a very calm, but loud voice, Jolon said, “Kellan haireru!” (Kellan can come in!). Kellan entered with a big smile.

Wakes up EARLY. He’s usually up by around 6:00 or 6:30 and will often go for his morning poo without waking anyone else up. He can happily sit and sing to himself for up to an hour or usually until the next person wakes up and comes in and gets him to move. He still naps at school for about an hour and a half (on weekends he gets to choose if he wants to nap or not and lately he always wants to) and goes to bed about 9:00. I’m seeing to Esme and getting stuff ready for the next day, but Jan usually finishes reading the boys books around 8:00 and puts them in the tatami room together. They take turns annoying each other and coming out for various reasons but these days are falling asleep pretty easily.

He’s got a lot of energy and while I really wouldn’t consider him to be a hyper child, he’s definitely not a calm one. In a fairly small apartment and neighbors below to consider, it gets tiring constantly telling him to calm down.

One of the nice things Ibuki told me about Jolon several months ago in his half year report was that he’s like a big brother to everyone, and that he’s kind to both the boys and girls. I saw what she meant when we went on the overnight camping trip with his class recently. He’s definitely loves playing rough with his boyfriends, but several times I noticed that he was the only boy playing with the girls. I saw him take hold of Rin-chan’s hand to show her something across the room.