Ten Things I love about J: Birthday Edition

Our oldest son J just turned 14. So instead of just a regular birthday post I thought I'd do ten things I love about J.

1. He loves his baby brother. Every morning J comes in to see if the baby is awake, and to get him to smile. Sometimes teenagers aren't that interested in baby siblings, and I love that J loves Baby D so much.

2. J loves seminary. In our church when kids start high school, they also start seminary, which is an early morning church class (at least it is where we live) that is before school. J is not a morning person, and I wasn't sure he would be excited for seminary, especially since he is a year younger than most Freshmen, but he loves going despite being tired in the mornings.

3. He loves to cook. Cooking is something J and I have in common. He asks me almost every day if he can help cook dinner, and I love knowing that if I really don't feel like cooking, he knows how to cook a few meals and is always willing to pitch in.

4. I love J's freckles. I hated having freckles as a kid, but I love that I passed my freckles down to my own kids. D doesn't have freckles, so I know they got them from me.

5. His imagination. J has always had a great imagination.

6. He loves to read. J learned to read when he was three (not because of anything special I did-he just learned how to do it automatically). He reads even faster than I do, and I read pretty fast. I love it that he likes reading. Most of our kids will read if we make them, and they like it once they get started, but J just likes reading and we don't have to motivate him to do so. He also likes to read a lot of the same kinds of books as I do.

7. His sense of humor. J was diagnosed as being on the Autism spectrum when he was in Kindergarten. He has since been labelled as having Asperger's. When he was younger I wasn't sure he would ever understand sarcasm or subtle humor, but he has gained quite a good grasp of it as he has gotten older.

8. His laugh. You might think that this goes along with a sense of humor, but trust me, J's laugh is in a category all it's own. It isn't one of those forced laughs. I will admit that I sometimes call it a cackle. What I love is that when he laughs he does it from his core and you know he isn't faking it. If he laughs, he really means it.

9. His innocence. I suppose our kids have lived somewhat sheltered lives, and that is okay with me. I like that they are still innocent in so many ways. A lot of other kids J's age aren't so innocent and that makes me sad.

10. He is musical. J loves music. He plays the clarinet and he appreciates good music, including classical. I'd love to take him to see a symphony sometime, I know he'd love it.