Happy Eleventh Birthday to Our Jacob Brian!

Dear Jacob,

Tomorrow you’ll be eleven and I can hardly believe it!  I know, I probably say that every single year, but it truly is mind-blowing to know that you’ve been with us for that long.  You may notice that the chalkboard pictures are gone this year, and yes, that’s because I decided to retire them after age ten.  I felt bad doing the chalkboard last year because it seemed a little too baby-ish for you at that age, and I knew I needed to draw the line somewhere.  Ten felt like a great number to do that, so consider yourself to be an official graduate of the birthday chalkboard!  (Even though you informed me yesterday that you still wanted to do it.  Hahahaha.)

Your eleventh/fifth grade year started out tough as you experienced the death of one of your classmates, but you and your friends spent the entire school year honoring her memory in various ways, and it ended up being a great year for you overall. 

You made excellent grades yet again, and as usual, you made it look easy.  You rarely crack a book at home, and you barely have to study, but you continue to make straight A’s because that little mind of yours remembers every single thing!  And lucky for you, math comes naturally, to you, too.  Must be nice.  ;o) 

This year, you were chosen to be Student of the Month yet again, and you were also chosen for Student of the Quarter once for demonstrating all of your school’s core values of faith, honesty, loyalty, and respect.  Your character will always be more important than the grades that you make, and it makes me so happy that your teachers think so highly of you.  I hope you always remember to treat people with kindness and be a good human.  There is just not enough of that in this world.

You enjoyed two more seasons of baseball this past year, you had an excellent spring season, and then you possibly played your last baseball game ever as you have decided that you want to play golf instead.  *Tear*  All summer long you have been taking golf lessons and then playing the course with Daddy afterward, and you are doing so well!  You tend to seek familiarity like me, so I love that you’re being brave and trying something new!  We will always support you wherever your dreams may take you…

In addition to golf and baseball, you started taking piano lessons, something you’ve wanted to do for quite some time, and you are loving that as well!  Your teacher is awesome, and you really get along great with him, and he has been so impressed with how quickly you have been learning.  You went from reading zero notes and knowing nothing about playing the piano (other than the tinkering you do for fun on the keyboard at home) to reading music and playing with two hands after just four 30-minute lessons!  Your teacher said that you picked it up so easily, that he has skipped a few lessons in your book because you already know them well.

Your friendships are still going strong with Jack and Julian, and you were grateful to have Julian in your class this past year.  Jack was, unfortunately, in the other class, but that didn’t stop y’all from hanging out at lunch and recess every single day.  Another major thing that happened this year, was that you started using my phone to text Julian… up ‘til now, you had only talked on the phone with Jack a couple of times, but now that you’re getting older, we wanted you to be able to have some way of contacting friends on your own this summer, so you have been texting Julian from my phone to his iPad since neither of you have phones yourselves.  And by texting each other, I mean, mostly just sending memes and gifs back and forth and stuff.  Hahahaha.

Speaking of phones, you have been begging for one, but sadly for you, you’re just going to have to wait a bit longer.  Mommy and Daddy are not ready for that, and we don’t think you are either.  ;o)

In addition to Jack and Julian, your #1 bestie continues to be none other than your little sister.  Y’all are stuck together like glue, I tell ya, hanging out every single waking second of the day!  Olivia goes straight to your room every morning when she wakes up, and y’all hang out together all morning, watch cartoons together, play video games together, play basketball together… you do literally everything together and you never like to be apart.  Any time one of you is at an extracurricular activity that the other isn’t a part of, whoever is at home is just lost without the other.  It is so sweet.

And speaking of basketball, we got a basketball goal back in December, and you have absolutely loved shooting hoops since then.  I highly doubt that you’d want to play for sport, but you sure do love playing for fun!

While you still don’t love to read fiction, you do still read plenty of non-fiction books for fun – your one true love is still anything with random facts – but you did start reading The Hunger Games for your summer reading and you’re loving it.  How on earth are you already old enough to read The Hunger Games, by the way?!

Oh, and speaking of reading, your number one thing to thumb through these days are your Lego manuals.  Yep, you literally pull them out and “read” them for fun.  If you don’t end up having some sort of career in engineering, I will be shocked.  You love to see how stuff works, and you are constantly getting caught up in the tiny little details of all the things, so much, that you’re slow at everything you do. 

Your Lego collection has grown exponentially this year, and you still love a good Lego set above all things.  We just installed a wall of bookshelves in your bedroom to display all of them, and it’s pretty much your favorite thing now.  You are just like your Momma… you love a good, organized space, and you haaaate when something doesn’t get put back where it’s supposed to be.  It’s so nice to have a designated spot for each set, and not have them all over the floor now!

Even though you love your Lego collection, video games definitely come in a close second.  You still love Minecraft and Mario games on the Nintendo Switch, but your latest obsession is the new Kirby game.  You have completely abandoned Minecraft for now as you try to beat Kirby.

You also love watching TV shows and movies, and we have been working our way through several different series this past year – Walk the Prank (which was probably your favorite), Secrets of Sulfur Springs, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air (which you LOVE), as well as some live shows like America’s Got Talent and American Idol.

You’re still an early riser, typically the first one up in the household, but you always stay in your room and quietly tinker with your Legos or read Lego manuals while listening to music on your clock radio.  You turn that thing on every single morning now.

You’re still the pickiest eater, so it’s a struggle to make sure you’re getting a variety of foods in your diet, but we make it work.  I have to be very intentional about the meals I cook and the things I put in your lunchbox for school, because if I didn’t, you’d happily eat a cheeseburger every single day.  Yep, if we were still doing the birthday chalkboards, cheeseburgers would be near the top of the list!

You’re still as shy as ever when you’re around people you don’t know, but you’re still as funny as ever around all of your friends and family.  You have a very serious side, but you also have a super goofy side, and depending on the day, you’re one or the other.  You’re still very sensitive and you have a very tender heart… while I worry about that being tough for you, it is a great quality to have.

Gah, I can’t believe you’re a pre-teen now, Boo!  I’m so grateful for you and every single thing that you bring to the table in this family of ours.  You bring to the table a great sense of humor, the sweetest smile, a photographic memory filled with endless random facts, and a HUGE heart, and I’m forever grateful that everything worked out the way it did to get you here with me.

Love,

Mommy