The Kids, Part 2 - Jalen

Jalen was born a couple of minutes after his brother. I remember that as the doctor showed him to me over the surgical drape, she said, Here's your Gerber baby! It was true - he had a perfectly big, round head, chubby cheeks, and tufts of blonde hair. But what was that noise? His cry sounded like someone was revving up a chainsaw! To this day, Jalen has the deepest voice of any child I know. I wonder what's going to happen to it when he hits puberty.

Carter vomited his way through his first year of life, but Jalen's really our puker. There was a time when he would projectile vomit several times a week. I can't even keep track of all of the places he has thrown up - Target, Baby Gap, Perkins, McDonalds, Old Country Buffet, on an airplane (that was the best), on the sidewalk, on a boat, and the list goes on. It usually happens when he overeats, so we have learned to be very careful about monitoring his food intake at restaurants, especially because is really gross to have someone in your dinner party throw up all over his plate. As he has gotten older, it is becoming less frequent and he is getting pretty good at hitting the toilet.

As he matures into a pre-teen, I see the suave, preppy boy coming out. He loves to look sharp, and has a suit and 4 ties that he actually likes to wear. He is also very good at matching his outfits. A ladies man even at four years (I saw him flirting with some teenage girls at the Dairy Queen!), I fear for what will come in the next few years.

Jalen is also the most physical, er, aggressive of our children. He's not terrible, but he sure loves to wrestle and has gotten into trouble a few times for hitting his sisters. Ironically, he is also our most sensitive child, especially when it comes to animals. He had a pet rat, Ubie, who died in his arms a few years ago. We made a little card with his pawprint on it and every once in awhile he will get the card out and just lie there with it, crying. It breaks my heart! As rough as he is with his siblings, he is very gentle with the pets.

Jalen enjoys a variety of activities, from sports to drawing (robots and fantastical animals). He has even shown interest in taking a hip-hop dance class. Although the rest of the family skis, he decided to take up snowboarding and he also likes to skateboard on his RipStick. Like his brother, Jalen is an excellent student (freaky smart in math) and is taking piano lessons, which he doesn't exactly love, but he's actually pretty good at it so we won't let him quit.

A perfect day for Jalen would be to watch some cartoons on TV, RipStick for awhile, hang out with his friends, go to a Chinese buffet for dinner, play a soccer game, then watch the Twins or Vikings on TV as someone (preferably Grandpa) tickled his back. We can get him to do anything by tickling his back.

Jalen is always inventing/creating super complex machines to solve the world's problems. Well, at least on paper. So it is natural that he wants to be an engineer or computer programmer/designer as an adult. However, I am willing to put at least a little money on him becoming a veterinarian...  I guess soon enough we'll see!