Happy Happy birthday, Jacob dear...

One of the hardest things about August is getting ready for Jacob's birthday.  It's not that it is unenjoyable, because we love our son and are grateful for the opportunity to celebrate his birth.  No, our angst comes from a completely different angle.  We have the hardest time trying to figure out what to get him for presents.  

You see, Jacob is an individual who is VERY focused in what he likes.  At any given time, he has a maximum of 2 things that he is "in" to, and these periods usually last for over a year.  That means that any time we treat him with something or a major present-accompanying holiday comes by we try to find something that is related to one of those 2 (if we're lucky) things.  What this means long-term, is that if he is "in" to the same thing for a really long period of time, we run out of DIFFERENT things to get him that he would be interested in.

Such was the case this year.  Jacob has been in to The Legend of Zelda for a long time now.  A REALLY long time...  So much so that we have run out of "run-of-the-mill" things to get him that relate to that interest.  In desperation, we started putting aside for something that was a bit more than we would traditionally spend on a birthday present.  We decided to get him a used Nintendo Wii U so that he could have the last Zelda game that he wanted but didn't have.  Somebody MIGHT have been excited...

SO excited in fact, that we just HAD to have his friend (and his family) over to hang out and "share" it with.

Then there was the obligatory "candles on the cake" shots.  Both our kids are starting to get "up enough in years" that if we keep doing a candle per year, there's going to be more candles than cake.  We're going to have to go to using those number-shaped candles soon.  How did we get to a place in life where we have kids that old?  That's for OLD people... :P

 

We are so grateful for our family, especially our son on this, his birthday.  He is turning into such a gentle and caring young man and we are so pleased with him.  We love you, Jacob!  Happy Birthday, and may you have many more to come!

- Josh