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Jesse's Page..! Because the size of this website exceeded the Providers limit, I have removed many earlier pictures. However, see a selection at "Life in pictures". Also, all previous pages have been saved, which is a memory of his developments in time. To enlarge the pictures below, just click on the photograph. Saturday 31st December The end of a year and time for a bit of reflection regarding Jesse's development. This is certainly an age where a child develops tremendously, both physically and mentally. He's become much more independent, now being able to wash, choose his clothes and get dressed by himself; help himself to a drink and make his own sandwich; go to the living room and get his colouring books or turn on the TV, PC, DVD or Playstation. He's more adventurous, 'daring' to stray from his parents side to discover new playing area's. But luckily not too far, he wants to know where mum & dad are, but also trusts that we'll keep an eye out for him. His nack for sports is further improving. He can do a backwards roll and a forward somersault on his back (on the bed). In fact, his gym club have asked if he's interested in taking extra lessons because of his ability and no-fear attitude. However, this conflicts with his Thursday 'sports academy', where he can experience all sorts of sports. Mostly he enjoys all from dance and rope-skipping to judo and handball. So far, judo and basketball are his favourites. His swimming is progressing nicely, although he sometimes seems over confident jumping in the water without fully realising the consequences, despite our words of warning. The sooner he is fully independent in the water, the better..! His thirst for knowledge is abundant. Fully into dinosaurs, he can already name 15 or so of them. Yesterday he expressed he wanted to write am children's book when he was 8! And he continues to amaze in the area of maths. The other day, whilst in the garage, he said, " I know what 4x 12 is. It's 48". Upon my question, how did he arrive to this he said "Well in the box of 48 Christmas-tree balls, there are 4 layers of 12 balls...." Mind you, he often states knowledge not (quite) there yet and he prefers to play games he's already mastered. Though he's starting to dabble in chequers and chess. It's a balance between him feeling confident, but also refraining him on expressing over-confidence or bloated ' expertise' . In the last school year, his apparent intelligence did not merit further research, but this year he has been tested. His IQ was adjudged to be well above average, but not extreme (thankfully!). There was some fear that this may inhibit attention or may spur impatient behaviour, but so far the school have been excellent in offering additional work and he is thriving in confidence at school.
Friday 6th October OK, so it's been 5 months since the last update. So I've had a sabbatical...! Anyway, there's quite a bit to say about the development of Jesse. In general is health is good, but he's still very dependent on his medicine to combat spells of heavy-breathing and asthma attacks when he has a virus or otherwise. His lungs seem pretty clean, but his nose is often a problem. In November we will again visit the specialist in Leuven. He absolutely loves school. After a year of competing with older lads, it seems that doing the same year again with children from his previous class is an absolute breeze. He's now one of the older children and this boosts his confidence. He has a good teacher that feeds his intellectual interest. He's like a sponge that wants to absorb anything he can. He is starting to read and recognise words. He can count in his hundreds and make quite complex maths such as 5x 10 or 50 + 100. He now understands time and when I told him that my travel to work was 50 minutes one morning versus 30 minutes normally, he said this was 20 minutes longer than normal! But he is very sensitive and an absolute perfectionist. He can literally sweat when doing anything, to ensure he does this right. He hates losing. There is no slacking and after sports he as absolutely whacked. At this moment, his sports greed is being well fed as he swims once or twice a week, gymnastics on Saturday morning and on Thursdays he participates in Sports Initiation; an initiative of numerous clubs in the vicinity to let children experience different sports. So far he has had volleyball and Judo; enjoying both! Swimming is going well. His dislike to water has completely reversed. He jumps in the pool without fear and last week managed three quarters of the pool without aids, before tiring. You can tell he's very sensitive because once, at McDonalds, a smaller child called him a wuss. The first reaction Jesse had was to come to Daddy and complain. It's not that he's fearful, he just doesn't understand such behaviour. After telling to be confident and not letting him affect his play, he later proudly acclaimed that he said to the kid that " waht he said was a reflection of himself..!". Also, one time he was quite bossy when a friend came to play. We clearly told him we were not pleased with his behaviour and the next day, of his own accord, he apologised to his friend for his behaviour. But he is feeling big right now. He wants to sleep the whole night in his bed and thoroughly brush his own teeth. He is on the verge of waking up and going to the living room to occupy himself. Small boys do grow up...!! Playmobiel has in interest now, although he's getting more into lego. On the Playstation its back to FIFA football above the Cars game that he's been playing diligently. His thirst for knowledge is quite amazing. The last time he went to the library, he picked out books on volcano's, dinasaurs, the Titanic and knights & castles. In terms of television it's Jimmy Neutron, Sponge Bob, Rocket Power and Avatar. Although, he'd prefer watching sports to cartoons if he can. He has quite a fear of changes. However, as long as photographs can be made "so that he can remember these" then it's OK. His recent room change is a clear example. He also wants to take a picture of everything he's built so that "he knows what he achieved when he get's older..!" Saturday 6th May Jesse is 114.5 cm's tall. His interest in football seems to centre around the goalkeeper at this moment as he wants to emulate Gomez (PSV) or Valdez (Barcelona). Swimming is going great and today he did his first length of the pool without floaters on his body (so only the inflatable arm bands). His remark to our proud encouragement was "yes, I was in form today!". Last week we visited my mum in Zwolle and on the way (after playing 'the car game" - seeing & identifying the make of cars in turn) we started talking about when I was young and about our dog "Bella". So we remarked that we would see photographs when we reached his grandmothers, upon which he remarked; "How can we see photographs...Grandma does not have a computer...!!" Talk about today's world! We visited Hilde & Jos (friends in Kortenberg) today and Jesse had his first try at table-tennis. He did remarkably well for a lad his age, managing to return several balls and mastering the serve quite well. He also was tireless playing football in the garden with the older Mathias & Pieter. Monday 17th April Jesse is a big 5-year old and proud of it! He'll tell anybody he can that he is now five. You can tell that he is maturing into boyhood. He's much more expressive in his face and mannerisms and can better judge certain situations. He often uses irony and humour correctly. Part of this due to the fact that he's in a class above his age. It has been a very tough year emotionally, but it seems that he is stronger for it. Last week when we went to Plopsa indoor, there was an older lad who seemed to take enjoyment in singling out a bumper-car ' victim' and in one case, this was Jesse. He didn't back down and went right back and eyed the 'offender' who in the end smiled and it was over. Mind you, it seems that Jesse does need to get the right balance as there is a danger of misunderstanding situations. But so far, it seems to be going OK. The late spring has also been physically, quite a challenge. He was ill at regular periods, including around his birthday. Thankfully, not to the degree that he had bouts of anxiety at night, but he did have restless nights and quite some days off school. He is still fully on medication with increased dosages as required.
Luckily, the weather is turning better and he enjoys being outside, especially playing football. I views this as being an 'easy' sport and now regularly kicks the ball against the wall on his own. Also because of the FIFA 2005 on the playstation and Dad watching plenty of football on the TV. Two weeks ago, Barcelona played the Champions League return against Benfica and as Jesse had Easter holiday, we let him stay up to see the first half. He was absolutely enthralled en totally immersed in the game. The following morning he woke up exclaiming that he didn't want to know the score, but wanted to watch the 2nd half (which I recorded). He wants to know all players and teams and now seems to understand the concept of different national leagues and internationals. His favourites, not surprisingly, are PSV, Barcelona and Liverpool. He considers basketball 'too difficult', but he can now bounce the ball repeatedly and scores now and then with his mini-ball when in the sports hall with Dad. Above you see Jesse celebrating his birthday and enjoying playing with Chloe. Granddad & Grandma were captured in 'Sepia' and below you see playing football with Dad, tricked basketball photography and playing with his Lego knights; one of his favourite past-times.
His gymnastics and swimming are both going well. He now has his swimming lessons in the big pool practicing his strokes with the cork-floater and arm bands (now only 1 segment). He is still as fanatical as ever with games, but can accept loss better. He's also learning the ways of the world too. After agreeing to a one Euro-fee carry and drag many branches to the front after work in the garden, he worked really hard. He asked whether he had earned his Euro and Elza said "yes", after which he said; "OK, then I'll now continue for the second Euro..!!". He also washes the car with Dad to earn a wage too. He is an absolute sponge in letters and numbers, counting beyond 100, making simple sums and recognising letters and sometimes simple words.
Saturday 18th February Over 2 months since the last update...so it's about time!! Jesse is now 1.12 m and 21.7 Kg and his 5th birthday is just around the corner (2nd March). He's quite excited about becoming 5, not the least because he is 'letting go' of his soother/dummy. Following his birthday at four, we had the rule that he was only allowed to have the soother in bed. We have always maintained that at 5, this should be a thing of the past. But this is not that easy. However, he is very courageous and offered a planning all by himself to reduce soother time. So, at the moment on alternating days, he will fall asleep with or without his soother. Jesse is definitely more comfortable at school. It took him a few months to settle in emotionally and especially to deal with some of the older children in his class. Because of his older age (in Belgium, class is decided by calendar year) and the large size of his class, he moved up a year with 5 other children. Intellectually he is coping fine, but emotionally, this has proven to be quite a challenge. But we are proud of his progress. He seems to have taken his place with the other children, dealing with a potential bully and sometimes even standing up for the 'victims'. We do monitor his progress and he seems to understand the pitfalls of 'siding with the bully'. Despite his abilities, we have decided to let him rejoin his former class next year and redo the year. We do hope that he will remain intellectually challenged as he sometimes does have the tendency to undermine achievements so as not to stand-out. Having said that though, during the St. Nicolas celebration of my employer in December, Jesse seeked the centre of attention by immediately assisting the clown during a performance in front of some 150 people and even volunteered to sing a song. So he has no difficulty with the shyness his mother 'suffered' when being a young lass. Jesse still loves playing games and he's started learning backgammon and loves FIFA 2005 on the Playstation (he's quite good too! Often beating Dad!!). But he doesn't like losing! Although he's not one to cry, on occasion (when he's tired), he will burst into tears if behind. Also after a losing the first game, he'll announce that 'this was a practice match!'. The other day, during Triomino's, he picked the joker and was able to increase his tally and started crying, exclaiming that this was due to the fact that he was so happy!! He is fanatical and full of zest in all that he does and his enthusiasm seems to know no bounds. He's extremely inquisitive and athletically able, so there would seem to be few limits for him to pursue what he wants. At the moment his sports activities are concentrated around gymnastics for young children and swimming, but his ambitions lean towards football. Mind you, he is sports crazy (I wonder where he gets this from!!). When zapping channels, he'll often prefer watching a cycling race, or the winter Olympics rather than a cartoon. He wants to know all sports and athletes, even enjoying snooker and curling! Speaking of kids programmes, at the moment he's still into Rocket Power, but also Winx, Spong Bob and Pokemon. An only child is prone to being spoilt and to a degree that might be the case with Jesse, especially as he has grand-parents with few grand-children. Nevertheless he (normally) doesn't act spoilt and generally is a very polite young lad appreciative of what he receives. Of course, we couldn't be prouder (would you expect anything else!!). When talking about he wants to marry, his answer is (perhaps predictably) Mum and Dad, but also Emma, his cousin (see below right during fancy dress)
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