birth (story || pictures) || 1st Birthday || big TWO || Three || 4
Jackie Dean,
You. My Baby. You’re five. One whole hand. It seems like only yesterday we were anxiously awaiting your arrival and like most things in your life – you decided when to arrive. I planned and prepped and prayed for January 5th – the selected day for my c-section – confident that you would share a birthday with no one. You had other plans and in the darkness on January 3rd morning, things became abundantly clear that you would arrive quickly and when YOU wanted. The day seems like a whirlwind to me still, but the details are ingrained in my memory.
You are a leader. You pave your own way. You even rang 2016 just the way I had imagined – with an attitude that someone had paused your movie so we could countdown to the New Year together. You blew your noisemaker in defiance and slumped back down into your bean bag chair when the movie resumed. Once you had your fix, I finally snagged that New Year’s Eve kiss I wanted twenty minutes later.
You expressed your disgust at the Christmas present you didn’t want – a tiger to replace your kitty cat pet. You have grown to love him, but that’s usually how things go. You voice your opinion and then you slowly come around…if it is something you really want.
You love all things carb and bread related. You eat carrots occasionally, cheese often, and snacks always. You are slowly eating me out of house and home with your constant demands for something to feed your growing body (the limbs of which give you pretty wicked growing pains). Your curly-headed mop is a signature feature on you and one that I am not quite ready to get rid of yet.
You feel emotions on both ends of the spectrum and that’s about it. You either hate the world or love it with a passion so intense that I’m not quite sure they are ready for yet. You will do amazing things and sometimes, it is a struggle to let you develop that little character because it occasionally drives me to madness.
You have a kind heart and think often of your buddy who now goes to school full-time. You love family time, live for your cousins, and still are madly in love with your first crush, Elaina. You love clocks, LEGOs, and the color purple. You have slowly gotten better at losing games, but you still prefer to win. Candyland with Grandma and Sorry with Momma. You have a soft spot for Poppy and secretly, I think he’s your favorite.
I am not ready for my baby to be five, but you are oh so ready.
I love you forever and a day,
Mommy
Oh how I love that little boy! I still can’t believe he’s the same child that was born to you in Palos Hospital on that day in January so long ago. I remember looking at that very dark hair and thinking to myself that there must have been a mix up in the nursery. All of our little ones have blonde hair that gradually gets very dark as they grow. Of course Mr. Jack chose to do the opposite. I remember how long his arms and legs were and how he wouldn’t stay swaddled in his blanket for one second! It was like you had given birth to a two month old child. Yes indeed, that is Jack. He asks a million questions and is never satisfied with your answers. Surely, there is more to the story than you’re telling him.
He loves with his whole heart, and he’s never afraid to show his love for anyone who is blessed enough to be loved by him. He will come running across a Little League field with his arms open wide to hug you as soon as he sees that you have arrived to watch his brother’s game. It doesn’t matter that the game in in full swing. I guess it really doesn’t matter since it’s a game being played by six year olds anyway, right? What harm can be done? Recently, Jack and I were walking from our house to Charlie’s school for the annual Halloween Parade. Jack was excited about seeing his brother in the parade and we were talking as we walked the four or five blocks to the school. I asked Jack to remain on the side away from the street as we walked together. In typical Jack fashion he asked my why this was necessary. I explained that I wanted him to be safe, that while it was highly unlikely to happen, I didn’t want a car to jump the curb and hit him. Jack immediately assessed that situation and said, “But Grandma then you would die and that would make me sad. I love you and I don’t want you to die.” My heart melted and tears filled my eyes. I think I got something in my eyes as I recount this story as they are tearing up again. This is Jack.
He is the little boy who will tell Grandpa what he cannot eat because he has had a heart attack. Yet, he will state that eating healthy food will kill him (Jack). He will have a major meltdown if he loses the game of Candyland and he will accuse me of cheating. Remember, he loves me in spite of my lying, cheating ways! He loves various super heroes and will patiently tell me about them since I don’t know anything about anyone but Batman, Superman, and Spiderman. He will also tell me about the villains that the super heroes have to deal with on a daily basis. He knows a lot about video games because Daddy plays them. He also asked me once if I think Daddy is a bad Daddy because he watched, “The Walking Dead,”. He actually asked me if he should get a new Daddy. I asked him what he thought about it. He told me that he loves his Daddy. I breathed a sigh of relief and told him how happy that made me since I’ve always been rather fond of his Daddy. This too is Jack.
He reminds me of a little boy who lived with us so many years ago. That little boy always asked questions too. He was never satisfied with pat answers. Once he asked me if Santa Claus existed. I had never told any of our kids that the jolly old elf existed, nor did I debunk his existence. I love everything about Santa Claus. I would take our kids to the mall to have them photographed with Santa. I have a Santa Claus collection that no one is allowed to touch. Our kids were pretty smart and realized that there were a lot of Santas around and the story was a little bit hard to believe. I asked this little boy what he thought. He said that there was no such thing as Santa. Besides, we didn’t have a fireplace for him to come down anyway. I thought that four year old boy was pretty good at figuring things out for himself. I think the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Happy birthday little man! I love you with all my heart. I hope your hair stays curly too.