Have you met Jacob?

Jacob has the most vivid imagination of anyone I've ever known. And he doesn't get bogged down in details...it doesn't bother him that the protective plastic is missing from his goggles.

















Jacob also loves the Word of God more than almost anyone. He spends hours, literally hours, reading his Bible. He pores over the pictures of his Bible, even the kids Bible dictionary. How many dads out there have had the privilege of their child asking, "Daddy, can we read my Bible for a bedtime story tonight?" Don't get me wrong, he reads other books and plays aplenty. But he loves his Bible, particularly stories of David and Goliath and also Joseph-they're higher-ranking than the stories of Jacob.
Our Bible curriculum is from Grapevine Press, "Stick Figuring Through the Bible." The boys love it! Here is Jacob with his embellished stick figure of Joseph in his coat of many colors...he was so proud of it, he asked me to take a picture of it!

I guess he's stick-figuring through everything...here's his rendition of daddy with his beard and mustache.
















And this? This, my friends, is Jacob flossing his toes. Why? I have no idea. He just disappeared right after the whole flossing and brushing routine, and I found him calmly sitting on the couch, doing this. And when I asked him what he was doing, his nonchalant reply distinctly impressed upon me that this is a perfectly normal, routine activity that he'd been at for years now.









And do you know about perler beads? You know, those tiny plastic round pegs that are placed on a mini pegboard shapes, and then you iron the beads to fuse them? Those tiny plastic beads that aggravate mothers to no end, because they will scatter to all corners of the house in no time, but are tolerated because there has yet to be a child born that won't sit for hours working on a project? Yes...those beads.
Jacob was panic-stricken while working on a project the other day, and I'm glad he was panicked...because a perler bead fell up his nose. While we haven't covered the rules of gravity, I clearly established with him that beads don't just fall up ones' nose. Good thing, too-aren't you relieved? Thankfully a good hard nose-blowing was all that was needed to remove the weightless, self-willed yellow bead from his nostril.

Have you ever wondered what your kids think about during that time between being put to bed and actually falling asleep? The other night Jacob had the flu, and was really nauseated. After hopping out of my bed 6 times in a half hour when he would start to cry like he does right before throwing up, I finally just crawled into bed with him for the night. His stomach did finally calm down, and we were both drifting off to sleep. In the sweetest whisper-voice, I hear him count to twenty...and then start over and count to twenty again. Then I hear him spelling his name to himself a few times..."j-a-c-o-b, j-a-c-o-b," and then reciting the alphabet song, twice. I don't know which of us fell asleep first, but it was so neat to get to "eavesdrop" on his own little world.

One last anecdote of Jacob that is too funny to risk forgetting. (Stop reading here if bodily functions gross you out). Jacob loves identifying letters everywhere, especially letters in his name. And, well, I hope that you don't think we're crude...but everytime he poops, he generally can identify a letter formed there in the toilet; and because of the spelling of his name, he's especially delighted that it's often a "c" or a "J." Well, with all the illnesses springing back and forth between all of us, Jacob had diarrhea the other day. He finishes, hops up, and peers into the toilet. Trust me, I was there...no identifiable letters to be found. No identifiable anything. Did I mention Jacob has a vivid imagination? "Mommy! My poop looks like an angel reaching up to heaven!"

(PS: Aren't you glad I didn't have a picture to go along with that one? And I did warn you)!