Jake's Five... and almost a half.

Well, it has been over 3 months since my little man turned 5. I guess I should write about it, right? Maybe I'll eventually get caught up!

Dear Jake,

I can’t believe that you are really 5 years old. It seems impossible to me that my little baby boy is already old enough to start Kindergarten. It kind of breaks my heart… except that you love to be a baby still. You’d let me treat you like a baby every single day of your life if I could. You would let me carry you everywhere, dress you, feed you, and cuddle you up every second of the day. You are my lazy boy. While I try my hardest to make you be the big boy that I know you really are, it’s so hard to resist your charms. And I really don’t want you to grow up so fast, so I keep hanging onto your baby days. You make my heart melt with your adorable smile and big green eyes. You remind me so much of your dad… you both always seem to have that unique ability to get me to laugh or smile when I don’t want to. I hate it for all the women that will come and go in your future… they are going to have a rough time with you, my little charmer.

You have grown up a lot, despite your desire to still be babied every day. In the past year, you have actually grown enough for us to justify buying you new clothes. J For what seems like the past three years, we have just added a bit to your wardrobe each year because you’ve been wearing the same size forever. You are growing taller and skinnier each day. I wish I could get you to eat more, but you really just don’t require much food. You don’t like a large variety of foods. You take the same thing for your lunch every single day – spaghetti-o’s (or red soup as you call it), cherry tomatoes, grapes, pepperoni, a boiled egg (ugh, the smell makes me want to die), yogurt, and a nutri-grain bar. Occasionally, we can mix it up with some trail mix, raisins, and strawberries. That’s about all you’ll really eat. You love cereal, pop tarts, chicken nuggets, hot dogs, and fries… oh… and spaghetti, pizza, and Mexican dip. That’s all. I really think that is everything that you would eat. You love soda… love it. I have to sit mine up high where you can’t reach it or you’ll sneak it up to your room and hide to drink it all. And, you’ll drink the entire can in one steady stream, just like you are drinking a baby bottle. It’s awful. J You are my baby, though. I love soda, too.

You have most recently decided that you want to grow up (sometimes) and get big muscles like your daddy. I love that you have begun idolizing him so much. I heard you telling one of the neighborhood kids the other day that your daddy’s muscles were huge and he could beat up everyone… except the Hulk, of course. J You are still obsessed with superheroes, but it seems to be wavering a bit. Or maybe I should say expanding some… you are now also very interested in Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Pirates of the Caribbean.  You love to reenact scenes from your favorite movies and video games… and you laugh so hard at yourself that we end up laughing with you even when we have no idea what you are doing or saying. You have a great sense of humor… unless it’s morning time. In which case, God help anyone within earshot. You are still hateful and whiney until you eat. I started waking you up about 30 minutes early and feeding you before I get you dressed or anything else… and that seems to really make a big difference.

You played soccer in the fall and the spring… and you really seem to love it that your dad coaches you. I don’t think you really care that much about soccer – you just like it that you get to play with your friend, Warren, and that your dads are the coaches. I asked you to play basketball and/or t-ball, but you stuck with soccer only. You did do swimming lessons all winter at the YMCA and you are incredible at swimming. You make it look very effortless (which is probably because you don’t really try that hard), and I keep thinking that if you actually applied your full ability to it, you’d be awesome at it. But, I’m being patient and not pushing you… I hope it’s something you want to do as you get a bit older. You’ve got the perfect little build for it and you really seem to be talented at it.

The theme for you, Jake, seems to be that you have so much potential in everything. You are so smart… you are so funny… you are so athletic… but you just don’t seem to care to try. You are still very immature. And, while it sometimes drives your dad and I crazy, because we know you have so much more potential, we also realize that you are 5. And, we also realize that you are stubborn like both of us. And, if we push you too hard, you are only going to totally rebel against us. So… we sit and patiently wait for you to decide that you want to apply yourself.

With that being said, we made the decision to give you a full year of maturity before sending you to Kindergarten. Yes… we are sacrificing and paying another year’s worth of tuition (J) at LCA for you to go to Transitional Kindergarten… to take your time to mature and grow into the Jake that we see just under the surface of your charms. We know that you could totally do Kindergarten this year, but we also know that a year’s worth of growth has made a huge difference in the past year… so I know it will be better for you in the long run.

Plus, you are learning so many wonderful things at LCA… your prayers are enough to make me beam for days. I think my heart will melt when you ask me to say a prayer with you on the way to school… and then you pray that it won’t rain so that you can play on the playground. J The innocence of your age and the sweetness of you saying, “Thank you, God… I wuv you” reminds me that I could be such a better child of God myself.

Your sweet little smile and your big eyes are enough to make anyone smile. I hope that you will always keep your sweetness, and your stubborness, too, because I know that it will make you such a strong and compassionate leader. I hope that you will never outgrow giving me hugs and kisses whenever you feel the need, that you'll always come into the room just to tell me you love me, that you'll always be such a good little brother to your sister, and that you'll always admire your dad.

I'm sorry I'm always late on these things, Jake, but I hope that one day you'll remember that I was spending a lot of time beating your butt at video games, taking you out for a run or a bike ride, playing the damsel in distress for you to rescue, dancing with you to our favorite (country) tunes, and taking you all over the place to enjoy life. You are the most amazing little boy (my favorite in the world) and I love you with all my heart... to the moon and back.

Love,
Mom