Isaac at 12

I’ve been so out of the habit of blogging, that I forgot to write about Isaac on his birthday and only just noticed that I had forgotten.

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Twelve is a big age.  Isaac is starting Jr. High in August (which is making me incredibly nervous).  He was ordained a deacon in the priesthood at church and he is old enough to participate in the first proxy ordinances in the temple.

Isaac has been excitedly anticipating these new experiences.  We were able to take him to the temple in the week that followed his birthday to do some work for family names.  He was so inspired by the experience that before we left the temple he asked if he could research some more names to take to the temple.  He spent the entire next day and much of the day after researching our family history and even made some breakthroughs on our Lithuanian side.

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Isaac loves math, science, and history.  He’d rather read a scientific magazine than a good novel and I often find him reading science or math books in his bed at night.  For the past three years, he has participated in the knowledge bowl and every year his team wins top honors.  Isaac enjoys going to hour long study sessions 2-3 mornings a week for months to prepare.  This year the topic was science and Isaac led his team to victory.  It was his best year yet.12806117_10153625746093003_5598140189641988774_n

Isaac’s other passion is technology.  He has been teaching himself how to code and is quite adept with computers and tablets.  I consider myself technologically literate, but there are some things that he can do on the computer that I’ve never learned to do.

Isaac completed another year in the accelerated (ALL) Class.  This class has been amazing for him.  His classmates are accepting, kind, and encouraging.  They look out for each other and have almost been like a family to Isaac.  I’m sad that he can’t just stay with them forever.  He’ll be taking some accelerated classes at the Jr. High, but he’ll also have a lot of classes where he’s mixed in with everyone else.

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Isaac has been playing the piano for years and is getting better every year.  This summer he attended band camp at the Jr. High and started learning to play the trumpet.  He still mostly sounds like what his sister would describe as “a sad elephant,” but he’s really excited to learn to play.

Isaac is a thoughtful and compassionate kid.  His class had several occasions to work with the small group class at his school this year and Isaac really enjoyed the experience.  He said that they paired him up with the perfect kid for him and that he would consider that kid a good friend.  On other occasions, I’ve seen him show particular care and concern for one of his siblings.

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Isaac has deepened his friendships this year and has several friends that he feels comfortable spending the day with.  Evan is still his best friend and it has been great having Evan next door because they get lots of opportunities to hang out together.  I was filled with gratitude as I reflected on how he struggled for years to develop good friendships before we moved back to Utah, but this year we had to limit the number of kids he could invite to his birthday party because he had too many friends that he wanted to come.

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Isaac was actually very excited to get braces this year.  We are trying to correct his underbite so he has to wear head gear at night, but for some reason he actually likes his braces.  Maybe it’s because he has something like a gadget in his mouth.

Isaac still loves to build things and take apart electronics.  He loves to go on adventures and he loves his family.

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Here is what I wrote about him last year.