NUMBER TWO

No, number two is not a blog about bowel movements.

This blog, a belated blog, is dedicated to our oldest son and second child, Jake, whose birthday was actually on the seventh.

I've tried to edit the content of his eleven years into a medium-length blog and a good read. I think I accomplished the "good read" part.

Jake is stubborn, strong-willed, hard-headed, headstrong; get the picture? From the moment he was born, holding his breath until he turned blue and heard the doctor threaten to smack his pink, skinny, wrinkled newborn hiney. Little did we know, this was an omen of things to come.

He shares his birthday with his Aunt Erin, about which he is proud; although, I think this is where he gets his stubborness from...yeah, definitely.

Jake about did me in, nursing every two hours round the clock until about a month in, I started adding a small amount of cereal to his diet. His appetite satisfied, he was a great sleeper and a really good, happy, chunky-cheeked little squirt.

Finally, his appetite waned about the time he turned two and would no longer eat anything but meat and junk food, absolutely no veggies; however, about every third day, he'd sit down to dinner with us and eat us all under the table, veggies and all. I discovered after having two more boys, this is common in small males in our household--don't ask me to 'splain it. Believe it or not, he is now an avid salad eater.

About the age of three, Jake decided that he was going to start getting up at 2 or 3 a.m. and making his own meals. We grew weary of waking up in the wee hours of the morning expecting to find a large rodent rummaging through the pantry, only to discover little Jake standing on the counter looking for "seral," fridge door wide open and food scattered on the floor. Too bad for us, SafetyFirst had already invented the velcro safety lock for fridges or I might be typing this with a diamond ring on every finger.

We painted his room the color of dirt, literally, when he was about three; best decision we ever made.

Jake's toddler days were filled with bouncing balls, racing HotWheels, Thomas the Train, Jay Jay the Jet Plane, jumping on the bed, jumping down flights of stairs, torturing his sisters, and the family dog, sneaking donuts...and getting spanked. Did I mention he was stubborn? I never thought the kid would make it to see second grade. I think he enjoyed the thrill of us wrestling him and pinning him to the bed so we could get correct aim and seeing our pink faces and hearing our labored breathing. He was a strong, wiry little fart and I'm glad those days are over, knock on wood.

He started playing in a bball rec league when he was in his late 3's, yeah 3's, and he was a natural. Since, he has tried his hand at flag and tackle football and soccer but bball is still his favorite.

Jake's early elementary days were filled with ABC's, recess, lunch, reading, writing...and, of course, spankings, but he learned the most valuable of lessons of life in second and fourth grades when we had to leave family and friends behind to move to other states. Hindsight dictates that they were good lessons to learn early, while still in the arms of family; he learned the value of true friends, the sting of life circumstances, the swiftness of time, not taking family for granted and the ability to adapt to change.

Jake has finally learned to balance and control his strong will and is on his way to becoming quite the example of a strong, principled, compassionate leader.

He is a wonderful, expressive reader and is often asked to read stories out loud in class because of that enthusiasm (thanks in part to his grandmother who also possesses this gift). He's been recently selected by his school to represent them in a regional speech contest at the end of the month.

He's a good-lookin', goofy, tweener with glasses and cowlicks all over his head, poor kid.

He loves to have friends over or just chill with his two little brothers.

We tease Jake that money doesn't burn a hole in his pocket, he just doesn't even have pockets. He already has a plan for spending his birthday money next year.

He loves The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Nerf guns and is a dead-eye w/an air rifle. He loves just plain, vanilla ice cream, BBQ chicken and playing baseball w/Papa and Uncle Mark in the backyard.

He's a better trash-talker than his dad and reminds Gerald often when he beats his butt in pickup bball.

He's only had stitches once and no broken bones which is a testament to his guardian angel--the most overworked angel in all of heavenly history, of this I'm sure.

He already has his first wedding present--an ugly monkey lamp he broke just recently in a second-hand store. We unhappily bought the thing and I remind him often, it's his first wedding present.

He's a loverboy, always very affectionate, definitely be watching over this positive character trait to keep it reigned in.

He's made us proud and am confident he will continue to do so. We'll hang onto him as long as we can, but realized early on that his life was going to someday impact the world. We're nourishing his roots daily, giving them strength for his trials ahead, at the same time, fitting him with the best pair of wings we can for his flight, and readying ourselves to hold on for the ride.

Happy Belated Birthday, Jacob Taylor, this is your edited life!