Matthew, Jerry, & Zachary

Jeremiah was invited to his first ever sleepover birthday party and boy was he excited.  He woke up Saturday morning and found his watch.  He carried it around saying, "I gonna be late.  It's almost time."  Yeah and the pick-up time was scheduled for 4 p.m.  We were in for a long day!

Jerry's friend and speech comrade, Zachary, was turning six.  Miss Suzanne and Mr. Bob picked Jerry up at 4 and off they went to Chuck E. Cheese's for some fun.  Jerry had been kneeling on the couch watching out the window for them and, when he saw their van pull up, he hopped down and had his backpack on lickety split.  It was too cute.

"Where a Kid Can Be a Kid!"

"MMmmm!"

Lego Time

After CEC, the boys (Zachary has a seven-year-old brother, Matthew) went home for homemade ice cream sundaes and Lego fun.  All was well until bedtime.  We recently got Jeremiah a Playhut pop-up Spiderman bed to try and ween him from needing to be next to a warm body.  He's been doing well, but often still climbs in between John and I around 4 a.m.  Feeling a little insecure in someone else's bedroom however, Jerry just wouldn't stay put.  He was on Matthew's top bunk first and then in bed with Zachary.  Finally, he proclaimed, "I wanna sleep with mommy."  Now I'll admit it, I wasn't real disappointed.  I missed him terribly!  We all commented at Subway for dinner that night how strange it felt not to have Jerry with us and how much we all missed him.

So after about six hours of birthday fun, home came Jerry, bookbag and bed in tow.  He climbed up on our bed and I think fell asleep before Suzanne was out of our complex.  The next morning after church, everyone was invited to celebrate Zachary's birthday at CiCi's Pizza.  Not only did Jerry want to sit with Miss Suzanne and Mr. Bob during praise and worship, but he insisted on riding to CiCi's with them. 

After Church

It warms my heart that, for a little guy who takes a while to feel comfortable with others, Jeremiah has cozied right up to this family.  He considers Zachary one of his very best friends.  It's exciting to see Jeremiah honing some of his social skills to this extent.  We always felt so bad for him because each of our other kids always got invited to friends' houses after church and poor Jerry just came home with mom and dad.  Often, he would cry about this.  Now, with his more controlled behavior and more stable emotions, he is getting asked over to his OWN friends' houses more and more.  Who knows?  Maybe next time he'll actually sleep over.