Taller than me by a couple of inches,
Such tremendous growth in one year.
So cute, so cool,
Slender but strong.
Jeans, striped polo shirts (HTMMA), and skate shoes,
Face framed by light brown hair with a bit of curl.
The age of Clearasil.
And clear braces you can hardly see,
Knees hurt from rapid growth
Have taken months to recover
And still require ice packs.
But still fleet of finger, foot and skate!
Cusses me out over the slightest thing,
But perhaps he was too agreeable before.
More sibling fights,
Hope they learn new ways to get along.
The year of High Tech Middle Media Arts.
The great time at the eighth grade retreat:
Sports, playing the piano in public,
And cabin with best friends Seb, Carlos and Evan.
The Ber-Ber board, made with Dad,
The Love Poem T-shirt,
The Blogger.com writings and comments,
The balloon racer, which Jake built once,
And then rebuilt on his own.
The year of air soft battles at White Sands,
Between Jake and his gang of four:
Cooper, Geoff and Danny;
Sometimes with Nick and Nathan too.
The system of trenches the boys dug …
The joy of multiple sports:
Football after school at HTMMA,
La Cross with Cooper,
Learning to surf with Zach, or at least trying to!
Sadness I’ve suffered over Jake growing older,
However he is still our sweet, beloved Jake.
Older, different,
But still healing and sustaining us.
Daria Doering 
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