five.

I genuinely cannot believe that my little man is a five-year-old. I remember when he was born, I would look at the people around me who had children around five or six, and I would think that it would be forever before my child was that big! Moms always say it goes by fast, and since I generally like to buck the cliche, I just chose to ignore that. But they all say it because it's so darn true... the past five years have gone by in a blink, and every year seems to get faster and faster. The good news is, every year just seems to get better and better, too. Sure, I already miss his baby and toddler phases, those cute chubby cheeks and sticky hands, but with each passing year his personality gets bigger, his laugh gets louder, his knowledge and curiosity about the world gets deeper, and my love for him gets stronger. Sure, we have our days when we drive each other a little nuts, but that happens at any age... it's just a part of it. And just so that I never forget, here are some of my favorite things about our sweet, baby Jake:

• He loves to get a laugh! He tells jokes, makes funny faces, and already understands sarcasm far better than most kids his age. And when HE laughs, it's the loudest, most amazing sound in the world and it fills the whole room. I know this comes from his dad, and that's what I love most about him, too!
• He is such an encourager and thinks of others first! No matter what we're doing or who we're with, he is always telling others how wonderful they are, how they can do it (whatever it is in the situation) and giving others a turn. He always makes sure to make cards for his friends on every holiday and even invited a friend of Lilly's to his birthday party so that she'd have someone to play with. My heart melts with his sweetness.
• On a similar note, he makes friends with everyone, everywhere he goes. We stayed at a condo in West Palm on our trip, and the pool was surrounded by snowbirds. He swam right up to an old man and said, "Hi, my name is Jacob. What's yours?" He befriended a 90-year-old named Robert, and eventually had the full attention of just about every senior citizen around. On our next leg of our trip he swam up to a kid around his same age, introduced himself again, and then added, "I like to play video games. What do you like to do?" I love his boldness, and hope it never goes away.
• He is fearless. Seriously. Take this kid to an amusement park and he wants to ride Ev-er-y-thing. We just got back from Disney where he went on the Tower of Terror like it was no big deal... and of course he had a huge grin on his face the whole time.
• His L's are still W's. I know the day that he says "Lilly" instead of "Wiwee" will crush my heart, so I am soaking it in while it lasts.
• He is always hungry! It does not matter if we just ate a huge meal, he will be asking for a snack about five minutes later. Any time we arrive at my parents' house or Josh's dad's house, the first thing he says is "I'm hungry." It's a bit of a running joke actually. He doesn't really love sweets, and dislikes chocolate, but he loves fruit (mostly watermelon, cantaloupe, pineapple, and apples), cereal, and ice cream sandwiches.
• He's way into Lego's. He still wants us to build them, but will play with them for hours.
• He's even more way into video games. He'd play all day if we let him (which we don't!), and I am always in awe of how quickly he can pick up on any game and excel so quickly!
• He's athletic, but we still don't know what sport he'll end up playing. The kid loves to run (and he's pretty fast!) and he's got the build to play just about anything. We're trying baseball this spring, but we'll see how it goes. He also loves to swim and just last week ditched his floaties. I asked him to try and he swam all the way across the pool two minutes later. I was one proud mama!
• He loves babies... partly because he has their undivided attention and they laugh at him. I cannot wait to see him with our new little one here soon!
• He is pretty particular about what he wears. He will get dressed and then tell me that he's "stylin' and profilin'!" He tears a whole in just about every pair of pants that he has (the same knee every time) and then refuses to wear them anymore. I can't wait for this warmer weather so we can do shorts again!
• Aside from that phrase, he has many that he says on a regular basis. Things like "silly me" when he messes something up and "what are you kidding me?" I have no clue where he picks this stuff up.
• I love hearing him pray... it's the sweetest, most sincere, conversation with God. He can also tell you several Bible stories, but almost all of them include Noah in some capacity.  :)

Although we celebrated a couple of times on our trip to Disney last week, Jake basically informed us that he would be having a party. He told us who would be invited, what kind of food would be there, and that he would have an Angry Birds cake. I have to say, it was the most last-minute, impromptu, but incredibly stress-free party planning ever... and maybe one of our most successful parties, too! I think we should just throw it all together at the last minute every year!

Happy birthday, Jacob Stephen. Thank you for making our lives so much FUN!