Fifteen!
Our oldest teen turned 15 on Sunday. I'll try not to get maudlin but will most likely fail! If you break the teen years from 13- 18 into thirds, (excluding age 19 because you're an adult by then) then you have the years 13-14 as the young teen years, 15-16 are the middle teen years, and 17-18 are the old teen years. So at age 15, Jacob is in his middle teen years now. Also when you think of the ages of 15 and 16 the word "driver" comes to mind since 15 and 16 are the years for that commencing. I'm trying to block all thoughts of Jacob driving from my mind; 15 and half is when he can get his temps- 6 glorious months away!!
We let Jacob have a sleepover from Saturday into Sunday (he's still grounded from sleepovers but we made an exception on Saturday evening since his birthday is on Sunday). He spent the night at AJ's and then came home in time to go to church with us. We came straight home from church rather than stop anywhere to eat.
We were invited to our friends' open house in Centerville which was part holiday/ part housewarming and couldn't decide on a good time to go. Jacob didn't want to go at all- it was not the way he wanted to spend his day :). We made him go (we all went) for a little while in late afternoon. He hung out with AJ prior to our going to the open house. Our friends have a son Jacob's age and the boys used to play together when they were much younger. As they've gotten older, their interests have become completely different (their son is super into his studies and not into sports at all) and they aren't friends. The silver lining for Jacob at our friends' house was that the food was really good. Jacob and I polished off quite a few mac n cheese appetizer bites.
At 7:00, family came over to help us celebrate Jacob's birthday. The Bengals game wasn't over so we finished watching that and then Jacob opened his presents. He received some much wanted gifts- money, gift cards, a new PS controller, a new PS game and some clothes. The girls even bought him a present, some Reese's Cups (they did this with Donnie- I didn't even know about it). Then we had cookie cake and cupcakes and ice cream.
I think Jacob had a good birthday despite having 1) to go to church on his birthday and 2) having to go to our friends' house. Jacob has been on an anti going to church rally for a little while now. I think it has more to do with his having a tad bit of ADD than not liking the message or Christianity in general (I sure hope so!). Jacob doesn't have ADD per se, but he does get fidgety when he has to sit down for awhile and he's always been the kind of kid who needs to get up fairly often after sitting for awhile to run and around and burn off some energy. Regardless of the reason that Jacob doesn't like to go to church, he's going. He can choose whether or not he goes to church when he's out of the house. He has to choose to have faith or to not have faith. But, I'm not going to aide the latter by allowing him to not hear God's word being spoken. Anyway, so going to church was a must do for him, even on his birthday :). Regarding going to our friends' house, I understand that it wasn't something that sounded appealing to him. It stinks that the date of the open house fell on his birthday. But, we didn't stay long and the food was good. So, it wasn't that bad!!
I'm proud of Jacob for making good choices most of the time. He really is a good kid. Despite his giving us an attitude at times, (he is well into his teens) Jacob is a keeper and we'll let him stick around the next few years. As Donnie quick to point out- he will not be living in our basement when he's older so his years are definitely limited at this point ;(.
Little baby Jacob was my favorite Christmas present 15 years ago. Being a large part of that tiny baby's growth has been the best part of the gift that keeps on giving. We are imperfect parents raising an imperfect child who's loved very much.
Several blogs that I read are written by moms of really young kids and babies. Their posts on their kids' birthdays contain the likes and dislikes/ interests of their kids. Sort of tongue in cheek but sort of to really document what he likes at this age in time, I'm going to write his likes and dislikes:
Jacob at age 15:
Likes: Sleeping in, playing video games, (specifically 2K on his PS4), hanging out with friends, playing on games/ social media on his phone (an iPhone 6 that he bought last year with birthday/ Christmas money), running around outside playing either basketball or football or baseball if AJ is around, watching sports on TV
Dislikes: Waking up early, cleaning his room, going to school, studying (specifically studying anything German related. He hates the language with an intensity that is almost funny. Almost but not quite so to annoy him/ help educate him, I sprinkle lots of German phrases into our everyday life), going to church, going to sit down restaurants, Santa Claus- regarding SC, while Jacob may not be proclaiming his faith from the rooftop in addition to not wanting to go to church, the whole concept of Santa Claus irritates him. That parents would tell kids that Santa exists when he doesn't, that he had to act like Santa did exist when he was younger because his friends would be devastated if they found that he didn't exist, that SC takes the emphasis off of Jesus at Christmas time, for these reasons and maybe more, Jacob doesn't like SC. I've not encourage this intense dislike but I'm not upset about it at all- kind of glad he feels passionately about it :)
Food likes: steak, cake, cookies, spicy chicken sandwiches (he eats two for lunch everyday at school), Doritos, peaches and cream oatmeal, pears, Extra Cheddar Goldfish, chocolate and peanut butter, Hawaiian pizza, burgers, fish sticks, Chef Boyaredee Beef a Roni
Food dislikes: every single vegetable, any baked goods with nuts in them, cookies with oatmeal in them
Friends: he has a lot of friends at school whom he mentions quite a bit about but he doesn't hang out with most of them outside of school. Perhaps like many, he has his "set" of friends whom he hangs out with regularly outside of school. He hangs out with Casey, AJ, Malcolm and Calvin mostly. He also has some good girl friends- Blaine, Whitney and Lily. He doesn't hang out with the girls as regularly and will go a couple of months without doing anything with them but then will go through a spell where he sees his "girls" a lot. Also the girls are all friends with the guys that he hangs out with so it's one big happy friend fest (hope that's all!) when they're together.
Here are some photos from his birthday and then a few random shots of him over the years:
Oops- camera was on the wrong setting...
A PlayStation controller...
Candy from his sisters...
A gift card and a smile...
Cash and a smile...
A Cavs shirt and a smile...
Another gift card...
Clothes...
Cookie cake...
A few random pictures from long ago...
Jacob and AJ
The same two as superheros...
Big brother once again (whether he wants to be one or not and whether sister number two wants him to be or not)!!
Good smile!
Good sport (while he had his face painted)
Christmas excitement!
What a good big brother...
With cousin Sophie...
Cavs fans...
Jacob and Nick
TKD competition...
Oh goodness- too cute for words!!
In Jamaica
With Sophie and Alyssa
Cool dude!
In the Bahamas
In a tree...
New short 'do in time for starting 6th grade...
If I had the time, I'd posthundreds thousands more pictures!! I have so many of them that capture this boy's sense of adventure, love of friends, love of his sisters (from all of their younger ages :)), playing sports, etc. It's been a fun (mostly- notable exceptions include getting him to clean his room- see dislikes from above) fifteen years with this kid.
We let Jacob have a sleepover from Saturday into Sunday (he's still grounded from sleepovers but we made an exception on Saturday evening since his birthday is on Sunday). He spent the night at AJ's and then came home in time to go to church with us. We came straight home from church rather than stop anywhere to eat.
We were invited to our friends' open house in Centerville which was part holiday/ part housewarming and couldn't decide on a good time to go. Jacob didn't want to go at all- it was not the way he wanted to spend his day :). We made him go (we all went) for a little while in late afternoon. He hung out with AJ prior to our going to the open house. Our friends have a son Jacob's age and the boys used to play together when they were much younger. As they've gotten older, their interests have become completely different (their son is super into his studies and not into sports at all) and they aren't friends. The silver lining for Jacob at our friends' house was that the food was really good. Jacob and I polished off quite a few mac n cheese appetizer bites.
At 7:00, family came over to help us celebrate Jacob's birthday. The Bengals game wasn't over so we finished watching that and then Jacob opened his presents. He received some much wanted gifts- money, gift cards, a new PS controller, a new PS game and some clothes. The girls even bought him a present, some Reese's Cups (they did this with Donnie- I didn't even know about it). Then we had cookie cake and cupcakes and ice cream.
I think Jacob had a good birthday despite having 1) to go to church on his birthday and 2) having to go to our friends' house. Jacob has been on an anti going to church rally for a little while now. I think it has more to do with his having a tad bit of ADD than not liking the message or Christianity in general (I sure hope so!). Jacob doesn't have ADD per se, but he does get fidgety when he has to sit down for awhile and he's always been the kind of kid who needs to get up fairly often after sitting for awhile to run and around and burn off some energy. Regardless of the reason that Jacob doesn't like to go to church, he's going. He can choose whether or not he goes to church when he's out of the house. He has to choose to have faith or to not have faith. But, I'm not going to aide the latter by allowing him to not hear God's word being spoken. Anyway, so going to church was a must do for him, even on his birthday :). Regarding going to our friends' house, I understand that it wasn't something that sounded appealing to him. It stinks that the date of the open house fell on his birthday. But, we didn't stay long and the food was good. So, it wasn't that bad!!
I'm proud of Jacob for making good choices most of the time. He really is a good kid. Despite his giving us an attitude at times, (he is well into his teens) Jacob is a keeper and we'll let him stick around the next few years. As Donnie quick to point out- he will not be living in our basement when he's older so his years are definitely limited at this point ;(.
Little baby Jacob was my favorite Christmas present 15 years ago. Being a large part of that tiny baby's growth has been the best part of the gift that keeps on giving. We are imperfect parents raising an imperfect child who's loved very much.
Several blogs that I read are written by moms of really young kids and babies. Their posts on their kids' birthdays contain the likes and dislikes/ interests of their kids. Sort of tongue in cheek but sort of to really document what he likes at this age in time, I'm going to write his likes and dislikes:
Jacob at age 15:
Likes: Sleeping in, playing video games, (specifically 2K on his PS4), hanging out with friends, playing on games/ social media on his phone (an iPhone 6 that he bought last year with birthday/ Christmas money), running around outside playing either basketball or football or baseball if AJ is around, watching sports on TV
Dislikes: Waking up early, cleaning his room, going to school, studying (specifically studying anything German related. He hates the language with an intensity that is almost funny. Almost but not quite so to annoy him/ help educate him, I sprinkle lots of German phrases into our everyday life), going to church, going to sit down restaurants, Santa Claus- regarding SC, while Jacob may not be proclaiming his faith from the rooftop in addition to not wanting to go to church, the whole concept of Santa Claus irritates him. That parents would tell kids that Santa exists when he doesn't, that he had to act like Santa did exist when he was younger because his friends would be devastated if they found that he didn't exist, that SC takes the emphasis off of Jesus at Christmas time, for these reasons and maybe more, Jacob doesn't like SC. I've not encourage this intense dislike but I'm not upset about it at all- kind of glad he feels passionately about it :)
Food likes: steak, cake, cookies, spicy chicken sandwiches (he eats two for lunch everyday at school), Doritos, peaches and cream oatmeal, pears, Extra Cheddar Goldfish, chocolate and peanut butter, Hawaiian pizza, burgers, fish sticks, Chef Boyaredee Beef a Roni
Food dislikes: every single vegetable, any baked goods with nuts in them, cookies with oatmeal in them
Friends: he has a lot of friends at school whom he mentions quite a bit about but he doesn't hang out with most of them outside of school. Perhaps like many, he has his "set" of friends whom he hangs out with regularly outside of school. He hangs out with Casey, AJ, Malcolm and Calvin mostly. He also has some good girl friends- Blaine, Whitney and Lily. He doesn't hang out with the girls as regularly and will go a couple of months without doing anything with them but then will go through a spell where he sees his "girls" a lot. Also the girls are all friends with the guys that he hangs out with so it's one big happy friend fest (hope that's all!) when they're together.
Here are some photos from his birthday and then a few random shots of him over the years:
Oops- camera was on the wrong setting...
A PlayStation controller...
Candy from his sisters...
A gift card and a smile...
Cash and a smile...
A Cavs shirt and a smile...
Another gift card...
Clothes...
Cookie cake...
A few random pictures from long ago...
Jacob and AJ
The same two as superheros...
Big brother once again (whether he wants to be one or not and whether sister number two wants him to be or not)!!
Good smile!
Good sport (while he had his face painted)
Christmas excitement!
What a good big brother...
With cousin Sophie...
Cavs fans...
Jacob and Nick
TKD competition...
Oh goodness- too cute for words!!
In Jamaica
With Sophie and Alyssa
Cool dude!
In the Bahamas
In a tree...
New short 'do in time for starting 6th grade...
In his happy spot- the ocean. Pictured here in Cancun, Mexico
If I had the time, I'd post
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