A funny thing happened while Jaron was growing up. One day he was sitting on my lap asking for a cupcake at a birthday party, and the next I came to the realization that he hadn't been hoarse for weeks because of his allergies. His voice was changing and all of a sudden he started sounding like his dad. I thought I would forget a lot of things from my youth as I got older, but having kids actually triggers some of the most vivid memories. When Jaron takes the baseline to hit a jump shot under the basket it brings back hours of my life that I spent in the bleachers watching his dad do the exact same thing.
I see pieces of myself in Jaron. Our sense of humor is the same. It takes a lot to get us upset, but when we get there it takes a long time for us to forget about it. Mostly I see Kevin in him.He makes me laugh when I am trying to be mad at him. He dribbles a basketball like Kevin did. He smiles his dad's crooked smile and he spends more time watching people than talking to them. They stand the same way. They walk the same. Both of them would rather not be the center of attention. I tried to have an 8th grade graduation party for Jaron, and he was adamantly opposed to the idea. He asked me not to have a cake with his name on it. I suggested a class party for all of them and he was on board with that. The cake said Class of 2022. I think that maybe because he is not a huge fan of attention, I don't blog about him enough so I just want to say how proud I am to be his mom.
Whether it is because he is a boy, or our middle child, or just because he is Jaron, he is by far the most easygoing of our kids. He still requires something to eat on a pretty regular basis. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and it sounds like there is a raccoon in my kitchen. In the morning I will find crumbs from a frozen pizza, an empty muffin pan, or evidence of pancakes or ice cream in the sink. Although Jaron is a teenager and a head taller than me now, he has never gotten snotty or hateful with me. Sometimes I am caught off guard by his perception of the feelings of those around him. If I am upset, he immediately picks up on it, and it makes him so easy to confide in. Your secrets are definitely safe with him. He reads people with a wisdom beyond his years. He has never been selfish when it comes to sports, and I love the way he never chooses to be a ball hog. He doesn't know how graceful he is on the basketball court. I have never known him to question a game official's call or talk back to a teacher in school. Because Jaron is more private, we always know that when he asks for something it is important to him, or he wouldn't bother bringing it up. When I consider the fact that he doesn't ask for a lot, and I have always been a sucker for big, brown eyes, I have a hard time telling him no. He is the kind of guy who holds his girlfriend's hand and helps her across the parking lot pot holes on the way into a formal dance. He loves basketball, he plays baseball, and he is going to break records in track one day and he doesn't even realize it. I love watching him grow into the man he will become. In fact, I love watching him be the young man that he already is.
