Jake Turns 8!

A little over eight years ago, I was almost a week past my due date with our second child.  I had two more days to let the baby come on his own or I was going to have my second C-section and seal the fate of all my future deliveries.  To distract myself, I went minivan shopping.  I mean, "Why not?"  When I found one I liked, I dragged Mike down to the dealership. We test drove it, liked it and decided to sign papers.  I had started having a few contractions during the test drive.   While we waited to get the paperwork, I began pacing the waiting room, pausing every four to five minutes to breathe through the contractions.  I eventually went up to the clerk's desk and said, "I know you are probably already working as fast as you can, but I'm in labor and should probably be heading home to get my stuff together to go to the hospital.  Not sure what more you can do to speed things up, but thought ought you know our situation."  He sped it up and we drove our new van off the lot! A few hours later, we went to Labor and Delivery.  Progress was slow through the night and there was a critical point where Jake's heart monitor would start to do some crazy things the nurses and doctor didn't like.  I said a little prayer, "Please, please help him be okay and let us deliver vaginally."  His heart rate would only drop when I laid on my left side.  So I asked the doctor if I could stay on my right.  She allowed the nurses to mainly keep me in that position but would have them get me on my left side for a minute to keep the epidural effective on that side.

Almost 24 hours after arriving at the hospital, Jake came out with the chord wrapped around his neck.  The doctor quickly got him untangled and laid him on my chest.  He wasn't crying.  I panicked and shouted, "He's not breathing!  He's not breathing!  What's wrong?"  The nurse kept rubbing his back and he began to turn a beautiful pink.  She reassured me, "He's breathing, he's just not crying."  I began to sob uncontrollably.  I was gloriously happy that I had just had a "normal" delivery and avoided a painful C-section, and our baby boy was going to be okay.

Jake did not utter his first cry until almost 48 hours later.

Fast forward eight years.  I watched him sing during his school grandparents day program on Friday.  I loved his continuous smile as he just enjoyed singing his heart out.  My heart swelled and a few tears welled up in my eyes.  Those tears came from the knowledge that Jake came to us in a time where Mike and I were healing over a very hard two and half years.  Let me explain: We had become parents for the first time after a somewhat traumatic 2-day delivery.  Caleb had horrible colic for nine months, and I fell apart.  Mike had begun his career as a firefighter and we had moved to a new city--all major life changing events by themselves, but we had them all together in a span of one year.  During Caleb's second year, we pulled away from each other.  I think we both had to reassess what we really wanted and what we needed to do to get it or keep it.  Fortunately, we both realized we had what we wanted, we just needed to turn to each other and hold on.  When we found ourselves in a good place in our marriage, we decided to expand our family.

 Jake became a symbol to me that hearts and marriages can heal and grow into something more beautiful and grand than we can hope for. And so, yesterday, as I watched him smile up there on stage and move jauntily to the music, I welled up in gratitude for him.

Jake has been my monkey, my Bam Bam, my Jake Jake, my non-procrastinator, straight shooter, non-communicating, strong, loving, kind compassionate boy.

How grateful I am for him!  And what he brought to our lives after climbing a two and a half years Mount Everest journey as a family.  We love you so very much Jake, thank you for coming to our family.  Happy 8th birthday!

The Party

To celebrate, Jake asked for a Pokemon party.  These were the invitations:

I got to do my decorating thang:

Little side note:  Mike was still at work until two hours before the party began.  He is usually my decorating assistant and my level headed, keep your cool, don't stress out sidekick.  Without him, I found my level of stress skyrocketing.  Caleb noticed and stated, "So, if I help you get all the decorations put up, you will calm down?"  Yep.  So he dug in and helped.  Love that boy.

Mike had this great idea to ask the party participants to bring a stuffed animal (a.k.a. a Pokemon).  Upon arrival, they had to register the Pokemon by getting them weighed and measured.  Once this was complete, they were placed in a tournament. Here's Jake registering his Pokemon:

We took them to "Jake's gym" (the basement) so the trainers (party participants) and their Pokemon could battle it out.

Jake, the trainer, and his Pokemon, Blazekin, take on McKenna and Herdier: 

 (Mike was a great MC.  To some of you, Mike is this quiet, reserved, stoic fellow.  But he has many sides to him that when unleashed...well, let's just say, those sides blow you away.  Oscar performance, for sure.)

After the tournament, a surprise visit by Xerneas, a legendary Pokemon, left them all speechless.  (Caleb did such a good job acting out the part.  This was probably my favorite part of the whole party.)

Emily and her Pokemon, California Bunny, didn't back down from the undefeated Xerneas:

Jake requested to have two legendary Pokemon on his cake, Yveltal and Xerneas.  Lucky for us, a local grocery store will take a picture you print off the internet and print it on edible paper and plaster it to a cake.  So easy!

I think everyone had fun and Mike and I survived another party!  Really, it is a lot of fun, but also a little stressful trying to get it to all come together.  Next up, Michaela's Frozen party in November.  Stay tuned!