My Grandson, Jonathan

One of my other grandsons, 14 year old Jonathan, asked me to write a blog entry about him since I had written about James. So this is my entry. Obviously we love all our grandchildren and Jonathan is no exception.

We have a special bond with him too. When he wasn't quite three years old, he spent the summer with us while his mom finished college. She and his father separated and were divorced only a few months after Jonathan was born, so Cindy was a single mom at that time. That is another sad story in its own right. We enrolled him in daycare and I drove him there every morning and picked him up many nights when his nanny didn't.

One of the main memories I have of that time is how smart he was. I bought a Sesame Street program for the computer and that first afternoon he sat on my lap and watched me work the program for a couple of hours, moving the mouse around to play the game. He was fascinated. He didn't want to stop playing when it was time for supper, but I promised him we would come back after supper. I shut down the program completely and we went to eat.

As soon as we finished eating, he started begging to go back to the computer room. I told him we would after Nanny and I finished talking. This was always our time to decompress from the day's activities as we shared what our day was like and what happened at our jobs. Suddenly I realized he wasn't there and it was way too quiet. I went into the computer room and couldn't believe my eyes! Somehow he had opened the program and was sitting in the computer chair and he was playing the game using the mouse! He wasn't just moving the mouse around, he was actually playing the game and making all the right moves to play the game. I quickly got Cheryl and we stood behind him for about five minutes and just watched in awe. I have no idea how he even got the program open or how he knew how to open it. As far as we know, that was his first, but definitely not last time on the computer.

Well, next week he graduates from 8th grade and next school year he will be a high school freshman. That is so hard to believe as it seems like yesterday he was just a toddler. He is still quite smart. He does particularly well in Language Arts class and he reads on a college level according to achievement tests. His only difficulty is math, but he is passing. He wants to be a pilot and will be enrolled in a special program called Physics through Aviation.

Jonathan likes wearing his hair very long, but today he got it cut short. He looks so different, but tonight he said he is getting used to it and likes it (he didn't at first).

Before: During:He could use your prayers has he has been having some difficulty lately in a few areas. He is also in big trouble with his dad (step dad, but they have a true father/son relationship and Jonathan legally changed his last name to match). Earlier this week he didn't completely follow directions and put a large dent and hole in the side panel of his dad's pickup truck. Jonathan was driving the truck with an attached flatbed trailer in their field, which he has done many times. He was doing this as he was told to go dump a load of rocks. However instead of just going straight like he was supposed to, he tried backing up and really blew it, but kept going. The trailer jackknifed and punched the hole in the truck. Ouch! Hopefully a few years, or decades, from now they will laugh about it.

He really is a good kid. Puberty is just not being kind with his emotions. Remember those days?

Can you tell he takes after his grandpa?