Eleven! You're heading into 5th grade this fall, which means this September you'll walk onto campus as one of the biggest kids in the building, and one I know you're going to take it seriously in your own quiet way.
Your love of anything transportation related has been around for almost as long as you. At three you became fascinated with the train across the street from our home and this summer you learned how to sail. These days it's the flight simulator as you currently want to be a pilot, and you make sure every guest who walks through our door gets an offer to watch you fly. And that habit of yours — stopping mid-conversation, head tilted, listening for the pitch of an engine before you've even spotted the plane — that's not new either. You've been doing some version of this for years, pausing to make sure the whole family looks up at whatever you'd noticed. Now it comes with real analysis: is it a double-decker? A Cessna? Where do you think it's headed? Landing or taking off?
Your passport got another stamp this year when we went to Ecuador, for your heritage trip. Watching you take in Quito — the noise, the mountains, the food, spray foam at the parade— and then watching you again on the boat through the Galápagos and snorkeling was a highlight. Yet true to form, you seemed to love the whole adventure of getting there and back almost as much as being there: the planes, the van rides, the boat rocking under your feet.
You are one of the most generous people in this family, and it's not something we taught you as much as something you just are. You're thoughtful with your teachers, you're kind to adults who cross your path giving them compliments about their haircuts, or asking meal time questions. Some of my memories this year have been the small ones — you and Sophia in the kitchen baking something together, flour everywhere, or the two of you putting together the snack tray on Saturday nights to kick off Sabbath.
We've prayed some version of the same prayer over you for years now — that you'd grow into a protector of your brother and sisters, at home and wherever you go. This year, as you step into being one of the oldest kids on campus, that prayer takes its next shape: my prayer for you, Jason, is that you'll use that spot to look out for the littler kids.
Happy 11th birthday, buddy. We are so proud of you.
Love,
Dad
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