Sunday, March 22, 2015

Jake's Actual Big Day

He is now officially 7 years old.  
This boy who prefers to be shirtless now matter what the weather. 



The boy who has conversed with every adult like an equal since the day he started forming sentences. 
 The boy who raids our office and staples countless of white sheets of paper together so he can write and especially illustrate another story.
 The boy who can't sleep at night because his tooth is wiggly and he can't stop thinking about it ...and he comes downstairs 3 hours later with a tooth between his fingers and the biggest grin you've ever seen.

 The boy who is happiest when he can dig through the trash, find just the perfect empty box or paper and take out the tape, stapler, glue, pens, screws, nails, paint, odd looking tools, a few rocks, some dirt, hand soap, and food coloring and then spend the next 3 hours working on his next big project.
 Only to find that when I walk into another room, the other project remains that he had been working on yesterday, are still scattered all over the floor, not to be touched because there are still just a few more things to touch up.
 The boy who has a very sensitive heart.
 The boy who claims he has hated living in Chile the entire time we have been here because we have kept him away from his best friend and cousin Brik.

 The boy who has ALWAYS dreamed big and has one of the biggest imaginations around.
 The boy who LOVES to make people laugh and thinks he is pretty top notch when a joke goes off well.
 The boy who thinks being treated fairly is more important than a lot of other things.
 The boy who absolutely adores swimming and is great at it, but put him in a class or on a team and you have just betrayed the one you love.  You are the worst person in the universe for even thinking it could have been fun.  Because free time is valued more than anything else.  
 The one who loves to make all sorts of creations (in that disorganized office) and surprise his mom and dad, his brother and sister, his teachers at school, his friends and family with these gifts.  They are treasures straight from the heart. 
 The boy who still finds excuses to come down and snuggle in our bed at night when I'm too tired to even realize he's there.
 The boy who prefers vegetables over fruit.
 The boy who can walk away from sweets and dessert like it's nothing.  He'd rather have a second helping of dinner.   Except brownies for your birthday!
 The boy who always volunteers to be my sidekick when no one else will.

 The boy who cries dramatically and collapses to the floor when it's something small, but is tough as nails when it hurts so badly, others would drop.  
 The boy who still believes he is a superhero and I tell him every day that he's right.  Except for the flying part.  

 The boy who needs this the most out of all 3 of our kids.

 Because he is his very best self when Dad is around.

 The boy who will play catch for like 5 minutes and then decided that all of the rocks need to be moved from one spot in the yard to another because there was a secret treasure buried in that spot thousands of years ago and he needs to dig it up.

 The boy who could build lego cities with his sister all day long.
 The boy who never cried as a baby.  Even when he got every single one of his shots.  
 The boy who sometimes would rather sleep in the bottom bunk with his brother Luke, instead of the top bunk alone.  

 The boy who sometimes asks for 2 PBandJ's in his lunch because he likes one for snack and one for lunch time.  Then when he's home, he'll ask for apples (his choice fruit) and another sandwich.  "What?!  I'm hungry!!!"


The boy who thinks it's a total honor to be the class clown.  And yet is very logical in his thinking.  When he wasn't invited to a birthday party, he asked me why.  I told him I didn't exactly know the reason.  "Can I go ask his mom, why?"  My heart sunk to my toes.  Sometimes kids aren't kind.  But before I could say anything, he had turned to find the mom.  Moments later he came out and reported that the mom apologized and explained that their apartment was too small to have a large party her son was only allowed to invite 4 boys.  He had the truth.  He was good with that.  He picked up his backpack and started telling me about the rest of his day.  Never mentioning the party again.  It wasn't an issue.  Honesty and being straight forward usually is best with this one.

 The boy who won my heart over 7 years ago and I pray every day that I'm doing what I should be to raise him to be his very best self.  Sometimes I feel like I fail miserably.  Other days the heavens are smiling down on me.  I love those days.

 I love you, Jacob James.  With all of my heart.  And so does everybody else!
Happy Birthday, Buddy!

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