Jake's 7th Birthday Letter

Dear Jake,

Our lives continue to fly by full speed ahead. You turned 7 a couple months ago. 7? Really--7??? That can't be right. How in the world did you turn 7 already? 

I may try to fool myself, but the evidence is obvious. You are very clearly seven years old now. For starters, you have a couple permanent teeth, and several wigglers. And your sense of humor definitely matches your age. You are starting to enjoy watching movies with real people in them instead of just Disney cartoons. You've lost even more of your baby fat, and are starting to look more and more like your daddy all the time.

    On a more serious note, lets talk for a second about how your 6th year of life started out. In 2014 you had a pretty rough summer. We bought a house in Gilbert about a week before you were supposed to start 1st grade. As excited as you were to be living closer to Omi & Opi, you were very nervous about changing schools and needing to make new friends.  To make things even harder, you had some major health problems relating to a rare auto immune disorder that began right around that time.  Luckily those are all sorted out now, but for about 2 months, you had to endure some tough stuff.  At the worst point you couldn't walk,  were in and out of doctors offices, and had to miss a bunch of school.  That experience was a humbling one for our whole family. You learned at a very young age what it meant to truly be brought down to your knees in prayer.  It ripped my heart out to see you feeling hopeless like that, but I can see now how much you were strengthened. I've been saying for years that your spirit is unique.  Your "old soul" was tested, and you came out strong. Since then, I've seen you grow even further.

You were named a "Super Shark" (student of the quarter) last Fall. Also, your teacher, Ms. Lish, had a behavior chart where the class was racing to win the most star stickers. You don't like getting into trouble, and it hits you at an emotional level if you are scolded.  When you won the behavior contest, you were so so proud of yourself.

You didn't make one specific best friend, but would always happily tell us that you loved all your classmates. Whenever I would volunteer in your class, I could tell you were happy and comfortable there. In academics you've excelled.  You are a fluent reader now, reading a full grade ahead.  You love   reading to your sister Mia all the time. (And you are finally reading fast enough that she's stopped rudely saying "This is boring! it's taking foreverrrrr") You're favorite things to read are your Marvel Comic stories and the scriptures. 

    You started playing soccer this year, and you are having a great time! You loved your coach and team mates. Even though you were one of the rookies on the team, you still kept up, and even scored a goal once. We loved coming to watch your games this past Spring, and you can't wait to start back up again in September.

Although I still think you are more cautious than the typical little boy, I do think you've become more adventurous this year. You've had a better attitude about trying new foods, you can get pretty wild when you wrestle with your siblings, and you are tougher when you get hurt. You've ridden most of the rollercoasters at Disney, and you are learning how to skateboard!

As a big brother, you are basically killing it. You and Mia still fight plenty, and I can't say you aren't occasionally sneaky, but I'm really lucky. The relationship you have with your sister is becoming more and more fun to watch the older she gets. Your brother Caleb has been sick a lot the past several months, and sometimes I have to let you big kids entertain yourselves all day. You guys find so many fun ways to fill the time up.  Playing the Wii,  building forts in the play room, building lego sets, and doing art projects are some of your favorites. A couple months ago I realized that Mia now knows how to write her whole alphabet, even though she hasn't had a day of school (or any tutoring from mom). I asked her how she could write so well. She just shrugged and said "Jake showed me".

Caleb is a very rambunctious toddler--we are sure he is part monkey. There isn't a shopping cart he can't get out of anymore. The only thing that holds him down is this crappy old umbrella stroller.  For the past several months, I have specifically waited to run my errands until you were home from school, because I need you to push the stroller so I can push the shopping cart. When we finally upgraded to a nicer small stroller a few weeks ago, you jumped right in with your opinion on the handling, steering, and overall ease of use. You were possibly just as excited as I was for the new model, because honestly, you have to push it the most. Seriously kiddo, not sure what I would do without you. I'm more grateful every year that you are the oldest.

You continue to set the bar for the rest of us in this family.  About 6 months ago, it was your turn to say the family prayer. At some point, you said "and thank You for the scriptures.. we try to read them whenever we have time." It was a sobering moment for your dad and I, realizing that maybe we weren't doing the best job of consistent scripture study with you kids. From that point on we made a renewed effort to put it up as a much higher priority. I remember one night in particular, I went to check on you in bed, to make sure you were asleep. I caught you reading your Book of Mormon with a flashlight. I snuck a quick picture, and then when you saw me, you said "just one more page Mom". In that moment, I felt like I was standing on sacred ground. Your inner strength is amazing.  Even if you don't always understand the content of the words you study, we've noticed that you often use a highlighter or pencil to mark the words that are special to you.. words like "God, Jesus, commandments, faith" etc.  

In less than a year, you'll be turning 8. As you know, that means you'll be getting baptized.  You talk about it, lamenting how far off it is, and how you can't wait! For me, the time is just speeding by. I know it'll  be here before we know it. Next time I sit down to write one of these birthday letters to you, I'll be including pictures of you from that day. 

Motherhood has changed my heart. Its strange how the good moments make me happy, but also make me ache. I'm not sure how we got lucky enough to have you sent into this family. You are truly an important piece of our little puzzle.  Thank you for making me a mom. Thank you for blazing the trail for your siblings who follow after you.  As always, I'm looking forward to watching you grow into yourself. It's one of the greatest joys of my life. I love you Jake, probably more than you will ever know.