So like me.

I find it interesting that every so often my little boy is so much like I was a child, so much like his mother. I don't think it has to do with the way he is being raised but rather something innate, something inside of him. My mother gave me a bunch of photos of when I was a baby, and as a baby he looked exactly like me. Kind of scary. Now he has so many of my traits. It doesn't really make it any easier to understand him, or deal with him, or hold my temper when he drives me nuts, but it does make me smile sometimes.

Like me he is a scaredy cat. As a child I was the one who could not watch anything scary without having nightmares and not being able to sleep. Even up to recently I need to be tucked in with the blankets, for fear of something "under the bed". He is the same, he tucks himself all in to keep safe. I didn't teach him that, he came up with it on his own. He refuses to watch anything with a bad guy in it, even Disney movies. Though for some reason he really likes Big Hero 6, which is odd as I've never watched it. He saw it at a birthday party once. He refuses to watch Cars or even Planes, though he has seen that once in theatres. He will watch anything with dinosaurs in it, even scary documentaries where the adults end up eating their young! Crazy kid like that.

He is also a perfectionist. He doesn't like to try something if he isn't really good at it, right away. He won a big basket at a school raffle, I bought him 3 tickets and he chose which ones he wanted to try for. One was filled with candy and the other two were filled with outdoor toys, he won a toy one thank goodness!  It had a badminton set and a horse shoe game, among lots of bubbles, sidewalk chalk, skipping ropes and balls.  We tried out the badminton and horseshoe games. He of course has never played before and so wasn't the best. He got very upset that he couldn't "get a ringer" or hit the birdy. I think this is also why he doesn't want to try and learn to pedal his big boy bike. He loves his balance bike because he is good at it, the other one he gets upset with. I am the same way, I don't like to do new things. But as an adult I have forced myself to do so, and I hope that I am enough for him, telling him that he has time to learn and the important thing is to try and have fun. It's why in gymnastics he doesn't want to do somersaults, he isn't very good at it.

He hates when people are upset with him. He has been quite upset at school because his teachers "yell at him all the time".  I sent a note to them, and we spoke about it. He has been very difficult during any transitions. And while I understand he doesn't like to do something else when he is having fun, obviously he needs to do these changes. He will be in grade 1 in the fall, he needs to do what the class is doing. Hopefully our discussion has helped and he is doing better. Again, I have the same trait which I work hard to overcome. I have even noticed that when we are rough housing, as you are supposed to do with children (tickle fights and such) if he hurts me by accident he is very upset that I am made at him, though I do explain that getting hurt is not a nice thing of course, when we apologize for an accident, we don't need to feel so badly. Obviously he knows not to hurt people on purpose, but to say sorry when it's an accident. Hopefully he will learn not to take things so much to heart.

He is growing up so fast, as kids tend to do. He likes sports, he likes to learn, and he likes to play. He is all boy, but cautious, taking care even at the park not to climb too high. He really wants to be able to read, but isn't quite there yet. He is very good at math, anything with numbers, and even learning french in school. I can't believe he's almost done with kindergarten.

His giant basket prize