Saturday, November 3, 2007

And, In No Particular Order, Here They Are (Part 1)





Jesse Stefan


Jesse was chosen by his dad from the Old Testament. It is a Hebrew name meaning "gift". Stefan (Shte-fawn) is his Romanian grandfather's name which translates over to Stephen. We didn't realize it at the time, but our children are the only name-heirs in the family, and we scored big time points by naming our first son after the grandfather whose name he carried!


Jess is 10. He is in 6th grade. He is in middle school this year. Electives are a cool new thing for him. He decided to take Unified Arts so he could do the home-ec cooking unit. I did mention that he loves to cook, right.


Jesse has been making his own omelets since he was about 6. He likes them with Parmesan cheese and Herbs De Provence. If you just checked your spice drawer to see if you even had any of those- well, don't worry, you're not alone. We do tend to have an abnormal assortment of things he needs for his cooking.


About 3 weeks ago I twisted my foot and fell in our driveway. That put me on crutches for a week. It was a pretty good excuse to lay on the couch for a few days with my feet up. The bad news was that we already had dinner plans with some great friends that I really didn't want to reschedule. Not a problem, really.


Julie and Craig brought over salad and pumpkin pie, I made a batch of biscuits, and Jesse made Roasted Cod With Leeks and Cream. Impressive. I know. Actually, I hate fish. This was good enough that I tried it again this week. The sad thing is that it didn't turn out as well as Jesse's did.


Where did the kid get such a recipe? Well, Jesse decided he would go to study hall after school one day. When it got to be the end of the day he realized that he had all his homework done already. However, The big rule at our house is that if you tell mom and dad that you are going to be somewhere then THAT IS WHERE YOU WILL BE. Since he didn't have anything else to do, Jesse started reading cookbooks. Weird, I know.


The video is fresh off of his Cod success. I love it because it shows so much of his personality. He is either going to be a scientist or a chef. He's not sure yet. Maybe he could be both.


Jesse is the pot stirrer at our house. Calm drives him crazy. My mother always prayed I would have a daughter just like me someday- God answered her prayer in the male version of me.


Jesse is a "wordie" just like me. Before he could walk he was speaking in simple sentences. At 8 months he looked at me after bed time prayers and said, "Mom, yight off, peese." I'm not kidding. He didn't start walking until 11 months. I realized at about 1 1/2 that he had complete command over the English language when he started changing all the words to the songs he knew. Yes, they still rhymed.


One day at about 2 years old we were out for a drive and Sebastian and I were sharing a smoothie. Well of course, Jesse wanted some, too. We handed it back to him and he gulped away at it. All of the sudden, Jess smacked his forehead, screwed up his little face and said, "Ooh, this hates me!" and handed the smoothie back. Yep, you guessed it- brain freeze. Another day we were out shopping with my sister and she decided to drive through Taco Time. When Jess realized where we were he chirped up from the back seat, "Oh, lucky day! Lucky day!"


This is the big year for friends for Jess. He has never had to go looking for any because he has a built in set right here at home. This year, though he is at a different school- he left all of his siblings behind at the elementary school- and has had his horizons widened. Already he has brought home a bunch of phone numbers and1 party invitation. This is a tricky one for me since our kids don't go to people's houses unless I have met the parents and seen the house. Does any one have any advice on how to handle this one and still leave my middle schooler with a shred of dignity. The rule doesn't change, I'm just wondering how to do it without totally embarrassing him.


Jesse doesn't play team sports. Unless you count chess club. Actually we don't have a chess club, but he would be in it if we did. He is going to join the science club on Monday. It was a hard choice for him because both the science club and the library club meet on the same day. Go ahead and laugh. I am.


Obviously I could go on and on, but I will spare you the novel. He's cute and lively, and he may just be your son's boss one day- or President- who knows!


P.S. Sorry the video is sideways, I couldn't figure out how to turn it.

1 comment:

Lee Ann said...

Hi Gina,

I'm Trish's friend and I love your blog! I love to learn from more "seasoned" moms as my girls are 1 and 4.

I have a little tip my mom used when I was at other people's house that I thought I'd pass along. I'm not saying it's for your son now, but I just think it's a good one.

I liked to play with a neighbor girl whose home life was a bit shady. Her parents fought a lot. After I had been at her house for a few minutes my mom would call and ask to talk to me. She would ask me yes and no questions. "Is everything ok?" "Do you feel safe?" "Do you want to come home?" That way if anyone was listening to my conversation they wouldn't know what we were talking about. If I did want to come home my mom would make up some reason why I had to leave early.

I think as moms we need to always educate our children on ways to get out of situations where they don't feel comfortable and this was one way my mom did that.