Dylan

I remember a couple years ago when we would occasionally lay with our kids at night.  Dylan was never the one to beg us to do that, but he allowed it and would chat a little and ask us to tell him stories.  I didn’t realize he would push us away so young.  Kylee did not.  She still allows us to lay with her and cuddle and talk.  Dylan refuses.  He doesn’t even give real hugs anymore.  I’m hoping it’s just a phase.  It’s like pulling teeth to get that kid to hug me for more than half a second, or barely touching his hands to me.  I tricked him into laying in my bed with me a few nights ago, but he stayed far away from me, no affection.  And he was trying to read instead of chat.  It’s a phase, right?  He will come back around to loving me at some point?

Dylan still rocks the perler beads.  He still loves Harry Potter, but has been reading a lot of other books.  His favorite thing is listening to audiobooks while doing perler beads.

He’s doing soccer and wants to do indoor through the winter.  Ryan was trying to get him to do basketball again, but he was not interested at all.  I can’t really blame him because he feels like he’s not very good at basketball since he doesn’t make many baskets (he grabs rebounds and blocks well) but he doesn’t enjoy it as much.  Ryan and I both felt like he needed something to keep him busy if he was only doing soccer on Saturdays in the winter.  I told him he could choose between bball and piano.  He didn’t like that.  I was kind of fibbing, I don’t actually have a piano teacher for him but I could probably find one.   We told him he needed something to do instead of being bored at home.  So he proposed karate instead of our options.  I had thought about karate before but it’s a year-long commitment, like dance.  And he was involved in football and basketball so I didn’t think it would work.  But his friend Jaxon does karate so I decided to try to get him in the same place.  Jaxon has been taking for awhile now and has moved up so him and Dylan won’t be in the same class right now.  But Dylan was okay with that.  I’m excited for karate because I think it will help him a lot with purposeful movements of his body (he is not the most graceful- okay, he’s the opposite of graceful.  He’s scrappy.)  Also respect.  The instructors teach respect a lot.  And of course it’s a workout.  He will get stronger.  I was nervous that he wouldn’t like it because it’s hard work.  And he did say it was a lot of work.  But he liked it and wants to continue.  So he’s officially signing up for two days a week.  My plate is beginning to overflow with all the activities and places I need to be or have kids to.  But I truly think it will be worth it.

Dylan started GATE, which is the gifted and talented program.  They leave their school every Thursday and spend the day with other kids doing different things.  I wish I could be a fly on the wall to see exactly what they do there, but I just get vague answers from Dylan.  The first day he told me about how ghetto the school is and how they can’t bring backpacks because the area to hang them is tiny.  The second week all he said was, “we got to go outside today.”  Kylee is more descriptive.  I hope it will be good for them but I’m happy to pull them out if they feel like they don’t want to go any more or if it’s hurting their regular schoolwork.  Dylan’s teacher started off by giving him all the “busy work” that they do in class to make up.  Dylan took it with him to GATE and finished it.  I’m not sure if the GATE people saw him or asked him or what, but apparently they contacted his teacher and asked him not to give him that homework.  Thank goodness.  I was waiting to see how Dylan handled it and if it was something Dylan really needed the practice on.  And I was planning on contacting either the teacher or the GATE people to get him to understand how unnecessary it is (Dylan shouldn’t be punished for going to the gifted program, right?)  So I’m glad that happened without my intervention.  I’m having a hard time reading Dylan’s teacher.  To me, it seems like he isn’t really seeing the whole picture, just the few tasks he has that he wants to accomplish.  But I’m trying not to judge too quickly.

I’m so glad Dylan is a smart kid.  I can’t even tell you.  If school did not come easy for him, we would have some real struggles.  His teacher told me that he was behind on multiplication and needed some practice.  He gave me a worksheet for Dylan to do with double digit multiplication, like 16 problems.  When Dylan came home from school and I showed him the paper, he actually broke down.  Because he hates math, especially multiplication.  And he thinks if he knows something, he doesn’t need to practice at all anymore (he says that about soccer “I know how to play soccer” insert over-exaggerated eye-roll here).  Well, he clearly didn’t understand how to do it, but he thought he did.  He may be a bit hyperactive, or just a very quick thinker.  I will admit to tuning out teachers when they are talking about things I know.  Then checking back in later to see if they’ve gotten to something I need to listen to.  I imagine this is what happened with him.  He listened to enough to where he thought he got it, then started working and tuned out everything else.  But he missed some important things.  And he was not very patient when I was trying to explain it.  He’s not an easy child to teach if he is not cooperating.  So yeah, I’m glad that he gets things right away.  Seriously, so blessed. 

Dylan is a germiphobe lately.  He won’t eat a candy bar someone else has bitten from.  He won’t taste something from my spoon.  If he drinks water that someone else possibly drank from, he pours it in his mouth without touching the bottle to his mouth.  But it’s not like he washes his hands excessively.  He still bites the skin off his toes…  So yeah.  The other day I gave them some caramel dip in their lunches at school.  He told me he couldn’t get a lot of it out of the section of his lunchbox.  I said, “did you use your finger?” (This is totally something they all would have done in the past, and I’m pretty sure Sadie DID do that day.)  His response was totally serious and he said, “no. Because I’m not an animal.”  I burst out laughing. 

He’s my most challenging child (though Sadie is really trying to catch up.)  But he is also the most fun-loving, active kid.  If you’re doing something fun, he will have the time of his life and make everyone else have fun too.  But when he’s done, he wants to go home.  Right then.  And has a way of making you miserable.  He CAN’T HANDLE boredom.  At all.  That’s why he likes books.  He will bring a book if he thinks he might be bored somewhere.  If he doesn’t have one, that’s when he starts bugging everyone.  It will be interesting to see how he matures as he continues to grow.