We celebrated the fifth of our five birthdays in the Fike house just recently. Ally turned six in December (on the same day that Brian and I moved forward in our 30s 🙂 ), Natalie turned one on the 11th of January and our middle child Jack turned three on the 30th of January.

So let’s talk about Jack…

He’s my “Zoo Bear” (yes, I have silly nicknames for all my kids). He came into the world in less than three hours, he was our largest baby and he had lots of hair (mohawk included, just like Ally). He never experienced being an only child, but he provided the gift of having a sibling to his older sister. He could still win a milk chugging contest and is always thought to be older than he is (he’s a big boy). He has a new found love of drums (as you’ll see in this post) and he’s full of adventure and noise and curiosity and charm and crazy. 

Brian said it best when he recently remarked that “Jack lives hard.” And boy does he! He’s strong and emotional and strong-willed. He wants to do everything and he wants to do it now, and quickly! He doesn’t want to miss out on things and he so very much cares for his sisters. He’s always telling us how much he loves us (he goes through a big list of names when doing so) and he’s become a decent little snuggler (SCORE! 🙂 ).

And he loves to play drums. We got him a drum set for his birthday and it was more than appropriate to take his three-year portraits with it. He’s got some rhythm and he’s impressed so many with his natural skill. We’re excited to see where it takes him, and we think it fits him perfectly! 

Happy Birthday, Jack!

P.S. I used this as an opportunity to experiment with some off-camera light. He sat for about five minutes, which wasn’t long enough for me to perfect anything, but I at least got some that are a little rockstar-like with those harsh shadows!