Jakey

Sadly, it is true, Jake has turned 4 years old. I think in the last two months he has grown about 6 inches, he's so big all of a sudden. There is nothing babyish left in his features, no round cheeks, no little pot belly and no leg rolls. Total big boy and growing every second. *sniff* *sniff* So buckle up, here's a quick tour of the life of Jake!

Coming home with jaundice...
Hanging out with his buddies (from left to right there is Riley, Micah, Emma, Peyton and Jake).
Jake and Micah in some synchronized drooling...Fast forward a bit and here are Jake, Dan and Micah opening presents this morning.Thanksgiving in Ohio, looks a little different from Southern California. Jake was not at all impressed with snow. Jake used to watch Crocodile Hunter with Erik after work every day. His favorite spot was sitting in the laundry basket so that hopefully Erik would push him around like a car. The orange thing is Maxie, a lion that was a present from Micah. Maxie now resides in our laundry closet and his head is hanging on by two threads. I couldn't bear to throw him away because Jakey loved the thing so much. He still opens the laundry closet occasionally and says "There is my Maxie!" On our last stop to visit family as we passed through Texas on our way to California from Ohio last summer, wow, that was way too many prepositions, Jake jumped off of a recliner at my grandmother's house and broke his leg. He chose this construction orange cast cover and a tricycle instead of a crutch.
And here we are yesterday, doing chores and being too big. We had to wash Emily's car before she came back from Texas because we nibbled like rabbits on crackers in the backseat and that's a little messy. Tons of fun and silliness though! We also used all of her gas so to make up for it we let the kids spray her car with the water hose and called that "washing it." I think it evens out in the end. Jake likes to do man things like go to work with Daddy and fix flat tires or install new brakes. He told me he needed a belt like Daddy the other day and his chest swelled with pride as I slid the little belt through the loops on his 5T pants to keep them on his skinny little bottom. At Cubbies last week all the children were supposed to finish the sentence "My special job is..." to their teacher. I heard several finish the sentence with "...to be a princess," "...to play toys" and "...to have fun." Jake said "My special job is to mow the lawn." Yeah, I'm doing a bit of bragging, just deal with it.
Finally, this morning Erik, the devoted father, arose at 5 am to make a donut run for Jake's special breakfast. He is such a sweet boy and I can't imagine life without him. I love watching him play trains and call each train by name. He tells the naughty trains that they must shunt dirty freight cars until they learn to be useful engines then hums the theme song for Thomas the Train. It's a little British, sometimes he is cross with them for being cheeky. Sometimes Jake is a bit cheeky... He is not a perfect child but he is so special to us and we love him immensely, and God loves him even more!

I love the way he tilts his head to the side when he asks a question, every one of which starts with "Hey Buddy?" I love the way he falls down on purpose sometimes just for sheer entertainment. I love his goofy grin with the silly capped tooth in front. He fell and killed the tooth early this year and had a super fun root canal. I love that he is carrying on the family tradition of a love of technical stuff and all things geeky. I love to hear him recite his memory verses every week. I pray that he will continue to hide the Word of the Lord in his heart and grow in knowledge and wisdom of the Lord. I pray he would come to know Jesus as his savior this year!