Jacob - The Little Boy Who Was Love

Admittedly, I have been slightly obsessed with taking pictures of my baby girl as of late. If you were to visit my facebook pictures right now, you would have to look to find new pics of my boys. Not too hard, but look nonetheless. Granted she is a baby and it's our first and only girl, so that's my weak excuse I guess. In any case, I wanted to share some thoughts specifically about my oldest son Jacob.

So, I know that mom's love their kids. It's their job. But Jacob sure does make my job easy.

1 Corinthians 12 expounds upon the idea of the church being a "body", going so far as to describe individuals as actual body parts. With that in mind, I believe that when God created Jacob in my womb, he was created as a heart. I know, it sounds cheesy, but it is true. Anyone that knows Jacob knows what I mean. He is not an emotional child exactly, but he is compassionate and caring. He notices people that might otherwise be ignored. He sees babies, toddlers and other children smaller than him and cares for them without a second thought. You might argue that it is a trait he learned by being an older brother, but I would disagree. Rather, it is a trait that God blessed him with that makes him a great older brother and an example to his siblings.

He is not perfect though. He's still occasionally sneaky. At times he'll quietly convince Liam or Domenic (usually Domenic) to do something that has a 99% chance of failure and discovery. He fights with his brothers and does have melt downs. He can pout when he doesn't get his way and he'll every now and again talk back. He's rambunctious and energetic, which can result in broken toys and running through the house yelling. No matter how many times I've told him to keep toy cars off of the walls, I find that he regularly defies me and gravity and drives them on the rough surface anyway. He also regularly turns on the t.v. or the xbox without permission and acts kind of surprised when we make him turn it off. Nothing major. Even still, he continues to grow and mature and his behavior is an ever evolving creature.

Some say it's better to be a lover than a fighter, but he's also a fighter, but in good ways! He fights to achieve average grades in school! Each day during the school year he gets up knowing that he may have to work twice as hard as the other kids to achieve half as much. But he does it! He waivers between hating school and loving it. He's found that he loves science, dinosaurs enthrall him and astronomy fascinates him! Through practice and hard work he's significantly improved his artistic ability over the last few years! Sometimes I have to ask if he drew something or if he traced it, to which he assures me that it was his skill alone.

Though I am thrilled to have my baby girl, Jacob's birth is the event that started it all! If I had to visualize what happened on that sunny day in September 2001, it would look much like this:

My heart grew! It had to. There was no way that my heart could have contained or expressed the amount of love that began to fill it. Really, he changed my life in so many ways. Not just in the obvious ways either. Yes, he did cause my time and money to be reprioritized. Yes, he did stabilize and ground my lifestyle. But, more than that his small yet consuming existence redirected my life back to the path God had layed out for me. He was a living, breathing, eating, sleeping, pooping, crying, smiling, laughing reminder of God's love for me... His unconditional love for me. Jacob still is all of those things for me and in addition to all of that he also challenges me to be more openminded about people.

Here are some stories or generalities about Jacob that might help better illustrate him.

1. In second grade he befriended a boy who had transferred from another school. The boys father admitted that Jacob was his first friend at any school and that his son finally enjoyed going to school.

2. At the park with a large group of friends and their children, without being asked, he followed around a toddler on his hands and knees making sure that the toddler was ok.

3. He is the reason my younger sons think of their brothers when being offered a treat. Whenever Jacob was offered a treat, he would always make sure he came back with something for his brothers. If he was unable to get something for the younger boys, he would always share what he had. He still does that and now, so do they.

That is just a couple of anecdotes. There are many more.

Aside from all of the above, he's also just a rough and tumble kind of boy. He was climbing up slides and using skate boards to slide down furniture when he was less than 2 years old. He really enjoys skateboarding and is a daredevil when it comes to jumping into the swimming pool. He's equally daring when it comes to food, too! If it's spicy, weird looking, weird sounding, unusual or foreign, he'll try it with zeal! Frog Legs, Mussels, Oysters, Crawfish, Sushi.... the crazier, the spicier, the better!

God has big plans for this boy! I look forward to watching him continue to grow as he walks the straight path that God has planned for him! I have no desire for this time to pass quickly, but know that there will be a day when he stands tall at my side, a mighty man of God and next to him, his family (in all likelihood, his wife will be a yellow haired girl since that is what he has said since he was 4)! I am blessed to be his Mom! One thing that I regularly tell him (and all my kids, really) is that I would like him even if he wasn't my kid, and it's true! I would.