Happy Birthday Jakey! (or Seven Years Gone)

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I have hazy memories of the day Jake was born. Most of it centers around me, in the afternoon, walking out of the hospital to a nearby KFC to get something to eat. Bizarrely, I can’t remember whether he was born at that point or not, just that the darkening skies chose that point to open. As I returned to the hospital, lightning flashed across the sky above the building, and heavy, warm rain started to descend on me.

I think I was wearing a white shirt, which implies that I’d gone to work that morning. Had I? I can’t recall. It’s shockiing how quickly the details start to get blurry.

It reminded me at the time of that episode of Only Fools and Horses where Del’s first son was born and Rodney was convinced that he was the devil. Especially when they called him Damien.

In the maternity ward, a photographer often comes around to take pictures of the newborns for their parents. In Jake’s first picture he looks like a little tough guy, eyes seemingly squinting up at the lens. Funny, that’s not how he turned out at all – he’s a sweet kid who’s battling what used to be a crippling shyness. He’s smart, funny, affectionate and handsome as hell. He’s absorbed with arts and crafts and every single day last year he returned from school with some paper invention he’d created in his breaktimes.

He’s just gone to bed, but he’s had a great birthday. On his second birthday, Jake actually hid under the dining room table and cried when his cake came out and friends and family sang Happy Birthday. That’s the kind of shyness that’s been typical of him up to now. But he’s becoming more confident, finding ways to make in-roads with new people and not being frozen in fear when he encounters new people.

This year, he was happy to be the center of attention and relished it whenever I bounced downstairs this morning and sang Happy Birthday to him. He even asked Lisa for an encore performance later in the day. And why not, it’s your day Jakey, you’re a wee sweetheart! Happy birthday, son.