Happy Tenth Birthday to Our Jacob Brian!

Dear Jacob,

Today you’re ten!!  Two hands.  Ten fingers.  An entire decade old! 

At ten, you’re slowly growing out of your childhood and growing into a tween, and watching you grow into the person you’re becoming is both rewarding and heartbreaking all at the same time.  It’s pretty cool to watch you learn and experience and try new things, but on the flipside, it’s so hard to think that you’ll never be little again.  I’ve seen fewer and fewer glimpses this past year of the baby you once were, and that is tough.

This past year has been another great one for you!  You excelled in school, getting straight A’s the entire year (with the exception of one B that was only a B by one point), and that is really something because fourth grade is not easy!  You sure did make it look that way, though! 

Not only did you excel academically at school, but you were chosen for Student of the Month for all of fourth grade in the month of May for demonstrating the school’s four core values of faith, honesty, loyalty, and respect.  I think I’m even more proud of you for that than your grades!  Character is everything, Boo.  I hope you remember that.

You enjoyed another two seasons of baseball, shocking us all when you started showing an interest in pitching, but proving yourself to be pretty darn good at it!  You made some new friends on the teams and you made many more wonderful memories that I hope you tuck away in the corners of your mind to revisit every now and then as you grow.  

In addition to baseball, this year you also tried golf and tennis for the first time (just for fun with Daddy) and you turned out to be a natural at both of those as well.  On your most recent golf outing (and only your second one ever), you made par on one of the holes and you bogeyed on another… it’s making us all wonder if maybe you should try playing golf for sport…

The first time Daddy put a tennis racket in your hand was only a few months ago, and on that first day, you were returning serves and volleying back and forth with Daddy like it was nothing.  Hmmmm… maybe you should try playing tennis for sport, too?

Your besties are still Jack and Julian from school, but your number one fan happens to be right here at home… my goodness your sister adores you so much!  The two of you are still as close as ever, and also as mischievous as ever.  You do, of course, bicker every now and then, but ninety-nine percent of the time you get along… well, maybe ninety-five percent.  ;o)  I hope your friendship continues to flourish as you both grow.

While you haven’t found many good fiction books to get into lately, your love for non-fiction has grown exponentially this year, and you have devoured many a library book this summer – dinosaurs, marine life, architecture, the human body, animal friendships, weather, random facts… nothing is off-limits!

Your most favorite thing to do in all the world is still to build a new Lego set from start to finish.  There isn’t a Lego set that you can’t or won’t build, and your bedroom is basically a Lego museum.  You’ve taken on Minecraft sets and Super Mario Brothers sets and 1,200+ piece sets and sets for ages 16+ and sets with light kits.  Whew.  You love every single bit of Legos and you can’t get enough.  It’s literally the only thing you asked for this year for your birthday.

You love spending time with others, but you recharge and thrive on your alone-time.  You often retreat to your room to take a break from the hustle and bustle in the house… AKA OLIVIA.  Haha.  You have no issues entertaining yourself, and you rarely proclaim that you’re bored… although we have heard it a few times this summer. 

You’re still an early riser most days, but you’ve slept in a little more this summer than ever before… probably because you’ve been staying up a little later than ever before. 

You still love video games, and your favorites are Minecraft, Super Smash Bros., and Super Mario Odyssey on the Nintendo Switch.  Your taste in TV shows and movies has also evolved a bit this past year, and you’re mostly interested in live action stuff rather than cartoons.  You and Olivia started watching Walk the Prank on Disney+ earlier this summer, and you can’t get enough!

You’ve also started showing an interest in magic (watching it and performing it), you still love figuring out how things work (and explaining it all in great detail), and you still love to draw and create.  You have started drawing some things from memory and it blows my mind how accurate most of them are… I suppose that means your photographic memory is still going strong!

You love music, often turning on your clock radio in your room to listen to some tunes when you’re in there by yourself.  I mean, it would be hard to live in this house and not appreciate music since your Daddy and I love it so much and listen to it constantly. 

You’re still my shy guy, only coming out of your shell when you’re warmed up and comfortable, but you’re as goofy as ever when you’re with your people.  You’re a typical kid in that you love burps and farts and butts and all other things tacky, and you and Olivia are constantly laughing your heads off at gross stuff like that.  But on the flip side, you do still love your stuffed animals.  ;o)

You’ve grown a couple more inches this past year but, unfortunately as you’ve grown, your taste for healthy food still has NOT.  Sigh.  You will barely touch a vegetable and there aren’t a ton of fruits that you’ll eat, but you will tear up a 1/2-pound burger… my goodness, you still love a burger… especially from Five Guys.  You also love chicken nuggets, fish sticks, hot dogs, grilled cheese, corn dogs, mac n cheese, and all of that junky stuff, but you do love watermelon and honeydew… and that’s how we do get some healthy foods into your body.  I’m hoping one of these days you’ll outgrow your pickiness, but until then, burgers it is, I guess!  Haha.

You still like for everything to be fair and balanced, structured, and for everyone to follow the rules, but I think we all know that the world doesn’t work like that.  I just hope one day you can be at peace with that.  If you’re anything like your momma, you will struggle with this daily, probably forever.  Haha.

You are serious, thoughtful, inquisitive, and tender-hearted, and I have enjoyed every single second of watching you grow these last ten years.  Daddy, Olivia, Maui, and I all love you so very much, and we’re all so grateful you were born!

Happy TENTH!  Now let’s go celebrate!

Love,

Mommy