Five!

Jakey,

Today you turn FIVE! What a blessing it has been to be able to call you my son for five years … you are such a force of nature, a completely unique, totally scrumptious, 100-percent-boy little boy.

You’ve continued this year to be the best big brother to Amelia that you know how to be. You have to give her a hug and a kiss first thing when she wakes up, right before she takes her nap, and last thing before she goes to bed for the night. If Daddy or I forget your routine, you fuss at us and then give us the silent treatment, complete with a scowl on your face and your arms crossed over your chest. It’s a sin you don’t forgive.

You’re going to start Kindergarten this Fall, and you are beyond ready. You’re reading Level 1 Readers independently, and I think you’re going to blow your Kindergarten teacher away. I can’t wait to see how you do at school when you join Nathaniel and Nick … all three of you at one school. I hope you don’t blow the roof off the joint.

You have a sensitive heart … you’re very attuned to other people’s feelings, and you’re pretty good at verbalizing your own. Just the other day, you nearly broke my heart. You had hit your friend Alex at school, and he was upset with you and told you that he wasn’t your friend anymore: “Alex said I’m not his best friend anymore. But I was NEVER really his best friend; he was MY best friend. He has other good friends, but he was MY best friend. And now he isn’t going to be, anymore.” I remember that feeling. I remember feeling it all the way from your age through a couple of years ago. I’d love to tell you it gets easier, buddy, but it doesn’t.

I love that you still run up to me and give me hugs, all hours of the day and night. Sometimes you just seem to need them. You still sit in my lap a lot, just to watch TV or read a book, and sometimes you rub my arm lightly or rest your hand on my arm. You kiss me on the cheek, or occasionally on the lips, and I just think it’s the cutest thing … you’re so different from your brothers in that way. Mr. Lovey Dovey!

And of course, you always give me compliments when I’m wearing my PJs, have no makeup on and my hair is up in a messy bun. You just LOVE the granola look. Mark my words: you’re going to marry a minimalist woman.

I have no idea what I did to deserve you, but I’m so glad God saw fit to put you in my life. You keep us laughing, you keep us hugging, you keep us loving. You’re the family glue, and I love you to pieces.

Love,

Mommy