I realize that Jake takes up a lot of my blogging sometimes - but its just because, honestly the kid takes up a lot of my life.
I have said in the past that parenting/raising him was twice the work that Kaitie and Mandy ever were. Yep - you heard it here first… I think parenting Jake was harder work than parenting twins!
That boy has given me the highest highs and the lowest lows in my adult life. It has definitely been a roller coaster.
Right after Emma was born we were fortunate enough to discover the Feingold Diet for him. A diet that rightfully claims to help with behavior and other issues. Well, as Marc and I were so very seriously at the end of our ropes with him… we thought: Why not! We jumped into the diet and within days we saw a miracle.
We had a little boy that we actually wanted to be around.
Lately, we have been getting a little slack with the diet. Not being as careful about what he was eating and it started to show. Nothing too bad… but it was starting to work its way back to somewhere we didn’t want to be!
We reordered our food list and started back at square one a few weeks ago. And what do you know? It still works 
Within a few days he was back to a “regular” little boy. ( well, regular for that crazy kid!)
So the whole purpose of this post is to tell a short little story of our trip to Target today.
The last time we were in Target together ended horribly. Jake screaming… and I mean blood curdling crazy screaming that reached each and every corner of the store. Condemning stares from people who no doubt saw that I was pregnant, with Emma in the cart and Jake doing his thing, wondered why I was bringing another kid onto the world when I couldn’t even control this one. Me in the car, crying out to God, “Why can’t he be normal?” “WHY!?!” Texting Marc the same and then feeling guilty that I was thinking so negatively about my son.
In a word… it sucked.
Today… after 3 weeks back on Feingold, it was like night and day. He was great in the store. So great he called Daddy who gave him permission to pick out a new toy. With Bionicle in hand he proudly walked up to the register and waited and skipped out to the car as happy as can be. But that was not what got me… it was the woman who smiled when she saw him talking on the phone and commented “How cute.” It was the Mom who smiled at him and gave a little chuckle as he was trying to pick out a toy that was under $10 (and having a hard time) and finally it was the cashier who commented on how happy he was holding his new toy.
I got to see people see Jake the way I see him. The real him. The awesome him.
Its probably just those crazy pregnancy hormones, but I cried all the way out to the car - with a big smile on my face.
