My Other Kids…Jake

I have had the idea for many months now that I would write about my other kids, at least once.  I hardly find time to write coherently about Lucy’s updates, so this idea was not prioritized.  Well, God reminded me of it again and this time he used words, through someone else’s mouth. So I’m not only listening, but acting!!!

We have four other children besides Lucy.  She is the youngest.  I will focus today on my oldest son, Jake.  There he is just a few days old.  It seems like just yesterday and now he is 16 years old and will be a junior in high school this fall.  WOW!  I can’t believe that.  Time flies so fast.  If you look closely at the photo at the top of his head you can see a very large swelling.  This is where his head proceeded to hit my tailbone through four hours of pushing.  Me, being a naive 20 year old, thought that labor and delivery would be uneventful.  Looking back this event has set the stage for just about everything in our lives.  Nothing is “uneventful”.  I still remember the Irish nurse, who told us she was a midwife back in Ireland…NOT!, saying with every contraction “push, Tracie, push”.  Tracie is my sister-in-law who was at the birth.  Anyways, Jake decided to keep his head in the posterior position throughout labor and pushing.  Therefore, he was born by c-section 30 some odd hours later.  He was a very good baby.  Slept, nursed, etc. all great.  Jake was also a very advanced baby.  He stood before he could crawl, he climbed before he could walk, he walked at 9 months, talked in complete paragraphs before he was potty trained, and stood during his entire baptism…

Here are some more pictures.  The family photos seems so small.  It must have been so easy to take them with only one child.   I couldn’t choose just one of such a cute baby.  I’m sure you’ll notice Jake wasn’t the only one who looked like a baby either.

Click on the photos to enlarge…

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Jake began to be interested in art at a young age.  When he was around 7 or 8 years old he started to make stop animation videos.  Since these were all done on a non digital video camera I won’t be able to post them here for lack of time, but he was very creative.  He also has been drawing since he was very young.  He has really polished his skills over the years.  Here are a few examples of his more recent work.

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Two years ago Jake and Ely expressed an interest in taking piano lessons.  We had no idea that they would be so talented.  They started to take lessons in August of 2009 and by Jakes first recital he had learned to play the “Can Can”.

Over the course of the next few semesters he learned several more complicated pieces as well as writing some of his own music.  I will leave you with a few videos of his recital performances.  I hope you enjoy reading about my other children for a change of pace.

After only four months of lessons Jake performs Hard-Driven Blues and the Can Can.

This recital was after only 9 months of lessons. Jake performs St. James Infirmary Blues and The Pink Panther.

After only 1 year and 9 months of lessons Jake performs St. James Infirmary Blues that he arranged himself and a piece he wrote himself “Untitled”.

In Christ’s Peace,

Katie Guy