Happy Birthday - on September 24 - to my precious baby, my youngest son, Jonathan.  Some of my favorite Jonathan stories:

5) Soccer was Jonathan's sport. One night, playing for Rome High, his junior year, Jonathan was kicked in his head. When the resulting gash bled, Jonathan was forced to leave the game.

His coach almost never took Jonathan out of the game.

[caption id="attachment_982" align="alignleft" width="278"]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Jonkicking.jpg"><img class="wp-image-982 " title="Jonkicking" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Jonkicking-745x1024.jpg" alt="" width="278" height="383" /></a> Jonathan playing sweeper for Rome High[/caption]

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Dr. Rogers, whose sons also played for Rome High, offered to take Jonathan into the weight room to stitch up the gash.  Jonathan, his Dad and Dr. Rogers disappeared into the school, while Jonathan's mother - me - paced back and forth between the field and the school.  I didn't know exactly what they were doing, only that Jonathan was getting stitched up. I certainly didn't know that Gregg held a flashlight to provide Dr. Rogers with enough light to do the stitches.

The doctor gave Jonathan a choice: a local anesthesia for pain, and Jonathan would not be able to return to the game.  Or no anesthesia and he could continue to play.  Jonathan opted to go back in the game.

Six stitches later, Jonathan came running out of the school. He waved as he ran past me, and up to the sidelines, where his coach put him immediately back in the game.

Gregg and I returned to our seats in the stands, just in time to sit down, tell our fellow spectators that he's gotten 6 stitches, then we looked up to see Jonathan head the ball down the field. The same head in which a doctor had just sewn six stitches.

You should have heard the collective gasp from the Rome High parents. I can confidently tell you that my youngest son is one tough young man.

He certainly earned some serious macho points at Rome High that night.

4) Jonathan's cousin Lillian is only two months older than he is, and she lived in the same town, growing up. I babysat for Lillian while her mother worked. People saw Jonathan and Lillian together and thought they were twins.

<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/JonLil-3-yr.jpg"><img class=" wp-image-1273 alignright" title="JonLil 3 yr" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/JonLil-3-yr.jpg" alt="" width="359" height="212" /></a>

Lillian's role in life seemed to be to tell Jonathan what to do. Jonathan's job seemed to be to drive Lillian crazy by NOT doing what she wanted him to do.

One day, when they were not quite two years old, the three of us were driving somewhere. I could hear the two of them, conversing behind me. Lillian talked in long, clear sentences; Jonathan still mostly babbled. On this occasion,  he said something like, "La-la-ta-ta-do-do. . ."

"Aunt Debi," Lillian informed me, "Jonathan just said 'Do-do'." I tried to explain to Lillian that children Jonathan's age often babbled, making noises just for fun. But I noticed that Jonathan had picked up on our conversation and understood that the "do-do" noise had special meaning for Lillian. Soon he was leaning forward in his car seat, looking straight at Lillian, saying "Do-do-do-do-do-do!"  Just to drive her crazy.

3) The first year Jonathan played soccer for the YMCA, he scored 20 Goals in that one season. He was six years old and was used to playing soccer with his older siblings, brothers who were 9, 7 and 3 years older and a sister who was 5 years older.

They cut him some slack for being the youngest, but not much.

The other six-year-olds played "herd ball," running in a group up and down the field. While Jonathan stepped in, stole the ball and dribbled it into the goal.

[caption id="attachment_1282" align="aligncenter" width="480"]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Jsoccerteam7yr.jpg"><img class=" wp-image-1282 " title="Jsoccerteam7yr" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Jsoccerteam7yr.jpg" alt="" width="480" height="236" /></a> The year Jonathan was 7 years old, his soccer team was the Georgia state champions. This was the night they beat the Alabama state champions. That's Jonathan with his arms in the air.[/caption]

One game, the coach put Jonathan in as goalie, probably to give other players a chance to score. Jonathan <a title="Soccer Goalie Scores a Length-of-Field Goal" href="http://motherhoodstress.com/2012/01/07/soccer-goalie-scores-a-length-of-field-goal/" target="_blank">kicked the ball down the field</a> and scored anyway.

2) Three of my best friends at our church and I were all pregnant in 1988. We all had boys - Jonathan was the oldest, then Isaac, then Micah, then Aaron. Those four boys all went to PALS together, to Sunday School and Wednesday nights together. As teens, they all went on youth trips together. And they graduated from Rome High together.

[caption id="attachment_794" align="aligncenter" width="497"]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/JonIsaacmud2.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-794" title="JonIsaacmud2" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/JonIsaacmud2.jpg" alt="" width="497" height="522" /></a> Isaac standing, watching Jonathan slide in the mud in front of our house. They were six years old.[/caption]

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[caption id="attachment_806" align="aligncenter" width="479"]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/LilHuntIsaacAaronWedding.jpg"><img class=" wp-image-806 " title="LilHuntIsaacAaronWedding" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/LilHuntIsaacAaronWedding.jpg" alt="" width="479" height="281" /></a> Lillian, his cousin, Hunt, his best man, Isaac and Aaron at Jessica and Jonathan's wedding June 2011.[/caption]

1) Some of my favorite Jonathan photos, from over the years:

[caption id="attachment_1279" align="aligncenter" width="385"]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/BenJonMatt2yr.jpg"><img class=" wp-image-1279 " title="BenJonMatt2yr" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/BenJonMatt2yr.jpg" alt="" width="385" height="385" /></a> Benjamin and Matthew with his arm around Jonathan, age 2, in our yard.[/caption]

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[caption id="attachment_1272" align="aligncenter" width="373"]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Jon1-yr.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-1272" title="Jon1 yr" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Jon1-yr.jpg" alt="" width="373" height="234" /></a> Jonathan at one year old.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1280" align="aligncenter" width="406"]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/JonrunwithMark.jpg"><img class=" wp-image-1280 " title="JonrunwithMark" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/JonrunwithMark-682x1024.jpg" alt="" width="406" height="609" /></a> Jonathan running with his cousin Mark Crouse, who is now in his teens.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1281" align="aligncenter" width="424"]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/MattGJonBenVermnt.jpg"><img class=" wp-image-1281 " title="MattGJonBenVermnt" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/MattGJonBenVermnt.jpg" alt="" width="424" height="400" /></a> Matthew, Gregg, Jonathan and Benjamin in Vermont in 2006.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1149" align="aligncenter" width="800"]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/ALBJJGDgrad2011.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-1149" title="ALBJJGDgrad2011" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/ALBJJGDgrad2011.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="493" /></a> Lisette, Andrew,Jonathan, Jessica, Benjamin, Debi and Gregg, the day that Andrew and Jonathan graduated from Asbury University, May 2011.[/caption]