This is Jacob. Jacob is 10. Jacob doesn't know how to sit still. His whole life he has been squirrelly. He wiggles and giggles and makes up silly songs. Like today. He came in the house singing a made up song with the words "my booty is twice as big as your booty." I have no idea why. I don't even ask anymore.
This is Jacob. He is crazy. When he was a toddler he was everywhere. He wasn't a fussy kid, but he was into everything. I would put him down for a nap and close his door. Within seconds he was out of his room and coming down the stairs to see what I was doing. Without any thought about what he should be doing. I finally started putting him in his room and standing outside his door holding it shut until he fell asleep. Usually on the floor right inside his door, but hey...at least he was napping.
This is Jacob. He is a big goof most of the time. Tonight we went to dinner and I can't even tell you how many times we had to tell him to stop sliding down the booth bench and onto the floor. Or how many times we had to tell him to sit down. Or how many times he repeated the word fun, fun, fun, fun...
I always thought I knew how Jacob would turn out. He didn't seem like the brightest kid, but he was lots of fun. He couldn't sit still so I thought for sure he would be in trouble at school all the time. He was a clown at home so I thought he would be a clown at school. I was wrong.
Since 1st grade Jacob's teachers have been telling us what a perfect student he was. The kind every teacher would love to have. I had a hard time believing them at first. It couldn't be true. I would describe his behavior at home, and they didn't believe me. At first I just figured he had his 1st grade teacher wrapped around his little finger. Then he went to 2nd grade and that teacher said the same thing. So did his 3rd and 4th grade teachers. I have been astounded. Amazed really. And very happy that he was doing so well in school.
Today Jacob came home from school with his final report card of the year. He made all A's. Not only did he make all A's this quarter, but he made all A's the entire year and earned a High Honors certificate for the accomplishment at the end of the year award ceremony. He also received another award today. One that I am especially proud of. He was awarded the Character Award for demonstrating outstanding character throughout the year. This is the first year this award was given, and it was awarded to 4 students in grades PreK-6. Out of 141 students my Jacob was one chosen for having outstanding character.
(JACOB WOULD YOU PLEASE STOP SINGING I AM YOUR BROTHER OVER AND OVER IN THAT SQUEAKY MOUSE VOICE - THANK YOU)
This mom is proud of her son.
(JACOB, DID YOU HEAR ME?)
I think he turned out alright.
(JACOB!)
15 comments:
Congrats to Jacob, or as Abbie would call him, "Cute Guy!"
It is wonderful to hear that our children have character and not that they simply are "a character."
Kudos to you and Brian for a job well done!
Your Jacob sounds VERY similar to our Tony. And often the goofy, fidgety, nutty ones are the smartest.
I think you need to make sure that birthday-hat photo makes is set out prominently at his graduation party :)
CONGRATS, Jacob!
(And I think I sang that booty song this week, too.)
That is just beautiful! I can feel the pride radiating all the way over here :)
I think how he turned out has something to do with all the chocolate milk that child has drunk in his little lifetime. I'll never forget when all the boys went camping, Brian had to bring chocolate milk in the ice chest so Jacob would be able to go to sleep that night. Does he still like the stuff or did he get tired of it?
That's wonderful! You have done a great job...any tips to pass along??
charlie girl - thanks! he was pretty cute as he talked about standing in front of the elementary for so long "because they kept clapping". he's a good kid.
heyjoe - i guess so. i just never would have thought so when he was a toddler!
over-thinker - he begged me to put that picture on the blog post i did on may 11 to wish a friend a happy birthday. i didn't and i have heard about it since. now it is posted for all the world to see! you know that song? go figure!
~m - it did make me proud. for sure.
sharon - it is quite possible there was something in that chocolate milk that made him smart. he doesn't drink it as much as he used to. occasionally for breakfast. i totally forgot he drank it that much!
HO - i have no tips! i have no idea what we did right. we are really laid back which i think has helped some as weird as that sounds. we don't stress about things so neither does he. in order to maintain a stress free student life he just thinks ahead. determines how long a project will take and starts in plenty of time to finish it. he is the only one who does this though. the others take advantage of our laid back personalities to not do anything until they absolutely have to. again...i have no idea why he is different!
as far as the character thing he just has always been that way. very loving and considerate of others. very sweet to everyone all the time. and everyone always loves him. my other son is the exact same way. if he had been as diligent about his school work they would have probably both been up for that award! now my daughters...hm...i don't even know what to say about them. i can guarantee that ag wasn't even in the running for this award!
Ha! This post sure brings back memories! Sounds exactly like my Casey who is now 23! I think maybe they have so much energy and they keep it under control at school and channel it into learning. Then when they get home...watch out! Casey would also repeat things over and over in odd voices. Like I said, he is now 23, but when he was 11 he had his own business on ebay selling old atari games and would buy out flea market booths to get stock to sell. Then I realized that he was a planner! He always has at least a 5 year plan. He was always in the 'gifted' programs and graduated with honors from high school, got into the college of his choice, then went on to graduate from there with honors last year. Now he is working as a tax property analyst with a major company and will be getting his MBA next year. He is AWESOME! Funny thing is, he didn't get these traits from his parents. He's his own (wonderful)person and always has been! This is what you have to look forward to, Natalie!
I just thought of something else. We went to visit my parents one year for Christmas when Casey was still pre-school age, probably around 3 or 4. After the first day or two, she took me aside and asked me if he had Tourette's! We were so used to him, we didn't really notice how noisy and random he was.
Mamadallama ( I don't know why sometimes I can't sign in to my Google ID!)
mamadallama - well i am glad to hear that! we were walking to church this morning with a friend and he was laughing at jacob's crazy antics. he had read the blog post and said he was surprised at his school behavior too. i do love that he knows how to let his hair down though!
tourettes...that is funny. sometimes i do wonder about jacob!
My oldest? Just like Jacob. Gotta' love him.
Mine makes me laugh - at least when he's not going through his throws of 17 year old maudlin.
hahn at home - jacob is fun for sure. i don't know how i feel about 17 year old maudlin. i think i'd like for him to stay 10 for a bit longer!
"my booty is twice as big as your booty."
This...is awesome! Maybe it's just me, but that just struck a chord with me! Such a classic scene. And so ...I don't know..ironic, or random, or absurd or something. The total opposite of what a gang-signing little white boy would sing/rap/whatever. It's perfect!
nanny goats in panties - well jacob is just full of all kinds of awesomeness. for real, yo!
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