Jacob Style

I realized in looking at our pictures from February that I neglected to document the fact that my oldest child turned 12 years old! 12 YEARS OLD! I am sure that I have told the story I am about to share many times before but for the sake of proper documentation, I shall tell it one more time.

On the very first day that I went solo on my new mother gig, I had a little mini breakdown about 30 seconds into it. My mom was gone, Chris was going back to work, and I was sitting in the front room of our Provo house with my newborn son sleeping peacefully in his bouncy seat on the floor. The sun was shining on his blond hair, it was quiet. I immediately picked up the phone and called Chris (who wasn't even out of the neighborhood yet).

Me: sob, sob.
Chris: What's wrong?
Me: sob, sob
Chris: Amy...is everything OK? Is Jacob OK?
Me: sob, sob
Chris: Do you need me to come home?
Me: No. I just don't know what to do with him.
Chris: What to do with who?
Me: What am I supposed to do with the baby? He isn't going anywhere for 5 years....sob, sob.

It suddenly seemed like such a LONG time to be at home with a child. *(Please put this in the context of my heightened post-pardum anxiety). How many walks can you go on? How many bottles can you feed? I was coming off working full-time, going to school part-time for my master's degree, consulting for the school district, and going full speed ahead all the time. The pace just seemed so different...the day to day so mundane. How was I going to make it until he went to kindergarten?

And now he is 12. We made it to kindergarten...and this week I registered him for 7th grade...at the middle school. HOW DID THAT HAPPEN SO FAST? You literally blink sometimes and they have changed, grown up, matured. I think the most important thing as a mother is that you gain perspective. Our time with our children is SO short...there are days that are eternal, phases of our motherhood with young children when you feel like things will never change but then one day you look around and everything has changed...and believe it or not, there are moments you mourn for those days that they were all at your side and the biggest concern was what you were going to fix them for lunch.

Jacob has been a joy since the moment I was pregnant with him. I KNEW he was a boy and we KNEW his name was going to be Jacob. I had some incredibly rough patches emotionally towards the end of my pregnancy with him and I remember a very poignant and beautiful blessing that my husband gave me where he assured me that Jacob was aware of everything I was going through and experiencing and that he was grateful for my willingness to do those things on his behalf. He also assured me that Jacob loved me and was helping and supporting me. I have felt those things from my son all his life.

Jacob is SUCH an amazing young man! He is funny...he has an incredible sense of humor. He is smart...so smart. He is curious and loves to learn. He is a voracious reader. Devours books. He bears his testimony every single month in sacrament meeting and I love hearing his feelings and thoughts about the gospel. He is passing the sacrament now and every week I puff up with a little mother pride when I see him in his suit participating in this sacred ordinance. He loves Star Trek and Lord of the Rings and wants to learn Klingon and Elfin. He is always game for an adventure and always willing to try anything. I love and adore this boy of mine!

Good heavens...where were we? Ah, 12 year old birthday party. So Jacob asked if he could have a birthday party. Chris and Jake designed the invites and Jake handed them out. I wasn't being as diligent as I normally am in monitoring the exact number of invitees and before I knew what was happening, we were having a movie party at our house with a million 6th grade boys. There were a lot of them...do you watch Phineas and Ferb? You really should...it is hilarious. This is one of my favorite scenes:

 Candace Party

I thought we were having an "intimate together"...and literally at one point in the evening I had 15 sweaty, stinky 6th grade boys dancing to this song in my basement with the bass pumping and everyone yelling "Jacob party! Jacob party!" in the appropriate places in the song. I will admit it was hilarious...
Anyway, our intimate get together started with the boys arriving and immediately finding the dress up box that I thought I had hidden and locked up downstairs.

Next came pizza and then treats and a movie. Most of the boys did pretty good during the movie but I did find myself downstairs doing some minor crowd control...and the further along we got in the movie, the more restless I could feel the energy getting. When the movie ended, we came upstairs for amazing cupcakes that looked like popcorn containers. (Remember my in-house cake decorator/designer? It is AWESOME!)

 As we were winding up with the spectacular cupcakes and present opening, Chris and I looked at the clock and realized we still had ONE HOUR left! ONE HOUR!!!! Do you know how long that is when you have 15 restless boys, no energy left, and nothing else planned? Someone turned on the iPod and the problem was instantly solved. These kids partied like it was 1999 for a solid hour in the basement. I sat downstairs, monitored the music, and periodically reminded them not to knock over the furniture or body slam each other.  But they DANCED...crazy dancing. At one point we even had a congo line going...I have to admit being thoroughly entertained. By the time parents arrived, we had some really sweaty, really tired, really hyped up boys. Leave it to be the unplanned event that becomes the most memorable...but then again, isn't that how it ALWAYS is?

It will take me a little while to recover from this 12-year old "intimate get together"...but man was it fun while it lasted!