Jack at Four

My sweet Jack turned four in June and I thought I'd take a moment to share a little about what he's like at this age. 

Jack is all boy.  B.O.Y.  If he could spend all day every day outside, he would.  His primary obsession now is riding his bike.  He got a bike for his birthday, but turns out he was still a little to small for it.  He's currently borrowing a smaller bike and he absolutely loves it.  He rides from our driveway to the neighbors driveway and back and forth.  Occasionally we let him ride it to the K&W (our local hole in the wall ice cream spot) while Mark pulls Claire in the wagon.  I'm glad he's finally found something that keeps him away from the creek behind our house.  He's still interested in it, but not nearly as much.  I can only watch him throw so many rocks.

Another new experience for Jack this summer has been swimming lessons.  Sometime I should write about the gymnastics debacle from last summer.  From early on, Jack has been a cautious, shy and sometimes anxious kid.  He doesn't like new experiences.  I was very similiar as a kid and even now as an adult.  But this summer has brought something I wasn't sure I would ever see.  Jack has really come out of his shell and is taking pride in doing things on his own and enjoying new experiences like swim lessons.  He's taking them at a facility that requires parents to sit behind a glass wall to watch the kids.  This helps tremendously.  He forgets we are there and he focuses on his teacher and he's really doing great!

Swimming lesson at the YMCA

While he's matured in a lot of areas recently, his tantrums and anger seem overwhelming at times.  As Claire enters the "terrible twos" I was expecting this behavior from her, but instead I'm getting it from Jack.  I haven't figured out the best course of action for this yet.  Time outs are becoming increasingly less effective and I think we are at a cross roads in terms of his discipline. 

However, we have a new discipline tool in our arsenal now.  Jack has recently started doing chores, something he should have been doing long ago.  But because Jack and Claire were born barely two years apart, I hadn't gotten my act together until now.  I bought him a cute chore chart from Olliegraphic on Etsy a while back that was customized to look like him and I can reprint it as many times as I need.  He loves putting stickers on his chart at the end of every day.  If he completes his chores every day of the week he gets an allowance--4 quarters.  He has three jars in which to put his money:  one for save, donate and spend.  One quarter must go in each jar and then he gets to choose where the fourth one goes.  Surprisingly, he did put his extra quarter in "save" last week. 

Jack's first completed chore chart

All in all, Jack is a sweet boy.  He's come a long way from the little 3 pound baby I gave birth to.  He's big on giving hugs and kisses and I hope that never changes.  Stay tuned for pics from his cowboy birthday party.