Dear Jakey,
You’ll notice your birthday letter is a bit delayed… well, technically you won’t notice but still…
In March you turned 7— it blows my mind. I look at you and I can just hardly believe how fast you are growing-up. I think you woke-up on your birthday and had me measure you, convinced you would be taller.
So in my annual tradition, a few observations on our newly minted seven-year-old Jacob.
You are the reigning Connect Four champion of our entire house. I honestly have to concentrate so hard to try and win. You beat me most of the time, fair and square. You are a master trap-setter. Somehow you must have hit the 10,000 hours mark last summer at Y camp.
Speaking of traps, you continue to negotiate Every. Single. Thing. You certainly have a future in deal-making. You drive a hard bargain, but are finally beginning to accept “no” for an answer much more frequently and graciously than in years past. Your latest negotiation whims have zeroed-in on Minecraft.
And on the topic of gracious, I continue to see amazing glimpses of your growing maturity. At Easter you decided to re-hide the eggs so Devon and Bryan could look for them. I can always find you with your arm wrapped around the shoulder of your little cousins, gently steering and coaching them in the right direction. And last week at Nate’s tee-ball game, you pinched-hit as the second coach’s assistant. Daddy was on his own and as I herded cats on the bench, you helped to find them batting helmets and picked their gloves and hats up out of the dirt. You even leaned over the third base line and high-fived every kid as they headed to home plate. You’re a natural coach and helper and will likely be promoted to Assistant Coach before me.
I mentioned dirt… and you are covered in it. Dad tells me it has to do with the blacktop at school, but you generally join the dinner table looking a bit like a hungry orphan. Earlier this year, you and your friends had a recess hole digging project at school.
And did I say something about food? Last August I finally put two and two together and figured out you have very volatile blood sugar and what is called sugar sensitivity. This discovery has changed our life. I see you making better food choices and seeing how the food you eat affects your emotional highs and lows. You also sleep better and are eager to climb in bed now that we focus on keeping you fed on time. Boy can you eat. You love sliders and pigs in a blanket and spaghetti with ground buffalo. You still enjoy Brussels sprouts, apples and seaweed chips. But you get sick of things easily and if I let you, would just eat bread dipped in ketchup.
Speaking of ketchup, for your birthday party with Nate, we went to Bass Pro Shop’s Uncle Buck’s Fishbowl and Grill. You and Helen fell right into step and there just weren’t enough spots for all your best friends to sit directly next to you. Uncle Buck’s included bowling where the ball is spit out by a giant octopus and shark. We overdid it on chocolate cake… again. And then we all went to watch the trout and climb on motor boats for an hour. It might have been our best birthday party yet.
And on the subject of motor boats, our little motor mouth has started spontaneously speaking Spanish at home. Your vocabulary is tremendous and you still love being read to, but are now reading to us.
Speaking of us, when you grow-up you’ve told me you’re going to make me a teleporter. You have all sorts of useful, imaginative, lucrative invention plans. I am really looking forward to the teleporter. Seriously. I can hardly wait.
I love you Jakey Cakes. You are the most wonderful blessing a parent could ever hope for. I am so excited to watch you learn and grow into the unbelievable person that you are.
Love,
Mommy