23 Months!

Today is the last 'birthday' that I can officially state Jacob's age in increments of months. After this, he will be two years old! How can all this time have passed already? They said it would go fast, but it went faster than fast.

For one more month, Jacob is still a baby... but once he turns two, I can't call him a baby anymore. Get used to it, I guess.....

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!! I will have to get caught up on pictures and happenings after the holidays. :)

Happy Birthday Mama!

We had a fun day today, complete with a girls' birthday lunch (with Amy & Bella), and lots of cake, cards and flowers! Mommy was very spoiled today. Jacob & I started out with cupcakes for breakfast, and I put a pink candle in each one and we 'sang' happy birthday. I took a video, but Jacob was rather skeptical of the whole situation, so it's not much more than a still-shot of Jacob looking serious!
Later after dinner, I put another candle in a small piece of cake, and this time Jacob was really into it. He helped me sing, and he chuckled like it was the silliest thing ever. I showed him how to blow out the candle, and again he chuckled like this was the neatest game he'd ever played. Then whoooosh!! He blew out the candle and we clapped and went "Yayyy!!!" We both laughed and laughed, and that moment was truly the icing on my birthday cake.

California Wildfires

Wildfires are once again wreaking havoc in Southern California - less than 15 miles away from us. But they won't reach our area, so we're in no danger. I just hope the wind changes direction so we don't get so much smoke and ash. But boy is it ever dry as a bone here!!! Hot and dry desert winds have been blowing all day and evening. Even my hands are chapped!! I put lip balm on Jacob's lips before he went to bed. He's been sucking his thumb and/or chewing on all four fingers all day and evening, so even below his lip is red and chapped.

Halloween Pics

Finally - - here he is, the little blue monster:
Not liking his costume much...

Wow - SO much candy!!

Some of the neighborhood kids with Jacob on our porch.

More neighborhood kids (minus a few that were refusing to be in the picture).

The other neighbors had a cool inflatable Halloween globe - Jacob LOVED it.

..and they also had this inflatable Haunted House - complete with a strobe light and screaming sounds. Jacob does not let go of his pumpkin full of candy the entire night.

Hittin' the streets w/ the boys.

"I'll push my own buggy now..." This was Jacob's mode of transportation for the evening.

In front of a neighbor's really cool decorations.

The best picture of the night - - if only I had used the flash!! :(

Kickin' back with all that candy, with Finn, Ethan (in the back), and Flat Stanley.

Election Day - P.S.

I forgot to mention that while we were at the voting booth, Jacob was so enthralled with the voting machine that he cast my ballot for me - - long before I was finished voting. There is this big, red, enticing button that says, "Cast Ballot" and it was way too tempting for him to not get to and try out, so he pushed it! Luckily, there was also a 'Back' button that took me back into my ballot. Whew.. that was only the smidgen of the 'excitement' that we had trying to vote. Jacob was the loudest person in there... by far. A very nice poll worker entertained him while I finished voting. NOT an easy task taking a bored & sleepy toddler to the polls!

Election Day Comfort Food

What else do you do when an election isn't quite going your way? You order pizza!! This was a first for Jacob and me. I haven't had pizza delivered since I was preg-o (and the sauce gave me 8 hours worth of heartburn).
Wonder what our comfort food will be for the next four years? Our pizza money will get eaten up by taxes starting in January.
Jacob got to sit at the table like a big boy for this one, and he was very happy about that! But there was no time to smile for pictures - this boy was chowing. I kept asking him, "Jacob, is your pizza good?" and he would vehemently shake his head 'no' and say "Uh-uh, uh-uh..." (the answer to every question is 'no'...). I tried to get a video of it, but of course you know what happens when you turn on the video camera....nothing. Oh well. Here he is eating his pizza: (Mom: click the arrow to start the video ;)

He Loves Me...

It's official: my baby boy loves his Mama!

Tonight he said "I love you" for the very first time! Well.. sort of. And yes it was prompted, but what can you expect at this age? It went like this:
Me: "Jacob, tell Mama 'I love you' "
Jacob: "Ahh Luh Thuh..." with a really big smile and slobbery mouth all over my cheek. But I'm not complaining - - my boy loves me! :o)

A Night of Fright

A little story before I get the Halloween pics posted... Last night we were trying to get out the door to go trick-or-treating, and my friend Karen was there with her boys Finnigan, 8, and Ethan, 3. They were wearing these awesome glow-in-the-dark skeleton pirate costumes, with a skeleton mask. Jacob was being incredibly clingy to begin with, but when Finn put on his skeleton mask, I saw actual FRIGHT out of Jacob for probably the first time in his entire life! He screamed and held onto my arm for dear life. He was sitting next to me on the stairs (I was trying to get his shoes and socks on him), and he kept squeezing his body as close to me as he could, while screaming and gripping my arm and digging all 10 fingernails into my arm. Wow! That was a shocker. When we all realized what was scaring him to death, Finn was so considerate, he yanked off his mask and said, "I won't wear it, it's scaring Jacob too much!" .. sooo sweet. The boys all had a great time and got tons of candy! More stories (and pics) after I get the kitchen cleaned up. :o)

Hope everybody had a Happy (and less frightful) Halloween!!!

A Year and 9 Months!

Wow - it just seems like yesterday that I was saying, "I can't believe my baby boy is already 9 months old!" Now... add a whole YEAR to that statement..

We hit another pumpkin patch today. Jacob is still recuperating from a bad cold and cough, but since we were only at this place for about 30 minutes, I think the sun did him some good. I LOVE these new pictures.....


Being so good... he really poses for pictures now.


Sometimes with a silly face!

Running through the punkins... Surrounded!

Success with a Spoon

My little man has mastered eating soup with a spoon! His first bowl: butternut squash soup. He seemed to love it, but maybe he just loved his newfound skill.... :o)

My camera memory card was almost full, so I only got a quick snippet of him here. He knew the camera was on him so he was starting to do a little showing off, then the camera stopped. :)

In the 3 seconds that it took me to grab my camera off the kitchen table and turn it on, he had already inhaled most of his soup. When he's hungry, he doesn't mess around....

The Purpose of Random Things

Jacob loves to get out a bag or box of things and play with the contents... and now that he is tall enough to reach the top of my bathroom countertop, he gets my toiletries bag down and dumps it to see what kinds of goodies are in there. He knows the purpose of most things - lip balm goes on your mouth (or on his tongue), and sunscreen goes on your skin (he often pretends to put sunscreen on me). He will even pull a baby wipe out of the container when I'm changing him, and he will wipe himself 'down there' - it makes me laugh every time!

Earlier this morning he got my toiletries bag, sat down on the floor and started pulling things out. He pulled out my deodorant, took the lid off, wiped his 'hiney' with the deodorant, put the lid back on and dropped it back down into the bag. I thought I would die laughing.... Now that's one 'purpose' that I didn't know about. :)

Jacob Goes to Vegas!

Yep, me & my little guy hit 'Sin City' last weekend and he lovvved all the lights and bling. It is not the most toddler-friendly place, for sure, but luckily none of us were into gambling anyway. Instead, we found plenty of entertainment at Margaritaville (restaurant), the beautiful outdoor water fountain show at the Bellagio, and the ultra-cool light show on Fremont Street. And speaking of Fremont Street, the funniest part of the whole trip was Jacob pushing his little bubble/popper toy alllll the way up Fremont Street while strangers looked at him and smiled.. some laughed.. and some made comments that that was the funniest thing ever! I only wish I had gotten a picture of that!!In front of the Las Vegas Welcome sign.. actually it was a gift shop, since the 'real' Las Vegas welcome sign is in the middle of a busy intersection... And of course we took Flat Stanley with us - he is our friend Thailei's 2nd grade school project! We are taking him to all kinds of random southern California hot spots. :)

Jacob enjoying himself in front of Caesar's Palace.

And licking Flat Stanley's head (Jacob is really into licking things these days, especially books:).

My friend Leona, who lives in Vegas.

Having a great ole time at Margaritaville...

Another friend 'Hoppy' who was visiting Las Vegas... and at his hotel pool. Jake & Hoppy were instant friends! This is my favorite picture.

Corn on the Cob and Three Blind Mice

Two new firsts for Jacob today: he ate corn on the cob for the first time (not an easy task), and he actually sang a real tune for the first time, too! He didn't get the words... just the melody, but he was right on key! It went something like this (to the tune of 'Three Blind Mice"): "Ah-ah-ah. Ah-ah-ah." and then up the scale he again went, "Ah-ah-ah. Ah-ah-ah." And that was it. He seemed very pleased with himself. ;) I'll post the video of him eating corn later today......

Update: the video is too large to upload here, so I'll have to put it on YouTube and you can get the link to it from this blog.

Bookworm

If Jacob could only have one toy, it would be a book. And you know those 'board books' that are made of heavy 'unbendable' paper to prevent them from the wrath of a toddler? They provide no such protection from my little willful one. His board books look like they've been around for a decade or more... they've been chewed, bent to pieces, ripped, pages splintered, you name it. But he loves them... OH does he love them. I finally captured him 'reading' to himself the other day....
By the way, today Jacob is 19 months old!

One and a Half! ..And Jacob's 1st Earthquake

Jacob is officially one and a half today! And what a day it was. Today was also his very first earthquake. And where was Mommy when all the chaos unfolded? Nowhere near Jacob. He was doing another first: HE WAS IN DAYCARE! Of all times.. of all days.. I had just dropped him off for his very first day ever in daycare.. and we had to go and have an earthquake. I had spent as much time as I could getting him acclimated to this strange new environment with all these brand new little faces (probably a dozen babies/toddlers), then I finally (hesitantly) moved toward the door, then he started screaming. ugh.. My heart sank, but the daycare lady motioned to me that she had everything under control, and as I pulled the door shut, she seemed to have successfully distracted him, or at least for that moment.

About 20 minutes later is when southern California got rocked with this quake. About a 5.4 magnitude I heard, so not too bad. The weirdest part of all: I never even felt it! I found out through the grapevine. I was driving back home from dropping Jacob off when it hit. My house had random things tipped over and jostled around, and Pebbles (our kitty) looked like she'd seen a monster when I walked in (I didn't realize why at the time). My tall outdoor plant had taken a big nosedive on my patio, so that was a big mess, but nothing else major was broken.

But alas, the earthquake was my excuse to call the daycare lady and ask her about Jacob. She said he cried a little when I left (which probably means a lot), and was trying to go to sleep (my boy never has trouble going to sleep...), but I guess that's to be expected. She said the earthquake shook them up pretty good and two of her glass vases fell off and broke in her house (not near the kids), and that it was utter chaos in the daycare trying to scramble the kids together to keep them safe. NOT what I had in mind for Jacob's first hour on his first day in daycare!

When I went to pick him up at the end of the day, I took him a little strawberry Dum-Dum sucker and gave it to him when we got in the car. I helped him with the wrapper, but let him finish taking it off, then he saw the pink candy on a stick and without a moment's hesitation, took a tiny little taste, and his eyebrows went up and he looked at me with a little surprised smile, like, "Hey.. that tastes good!" He jabbered about his day the whole way home.
Happy 1-and-a-Half Birthday, Baby!! :)

Mommy Goes to Work

Today was my first actual workday since Jacob was born! And Jacob's first trip to a babysitter's (my friend Heather babysat... so not just 'any' ole babysitter :). I'm doing some software consulting for a company here in Irvine, and today I only had to be there for just a couple of hours. But, a couple hours of work requires several hours of preparation before ever getting there.... I was in the shower at 6:15am and it's been non-stop ever since.

I packed the car last night with all of Jacob's necessities for the day, then while the little sleepyhead slept in this morning, I packed his lunch. His new favorite thing for lunch: a peanut butter and jelly sandwich! (cut into 6 triangles..)

I had wanted to leave by 8:30 this morning, but had to wake him up at 8:20 because he was still sound asleep. Breakfast was rushed so he only got a half a banana, and I took the pancakes that I had already made with us. Heather has a 3-year old son Preston (who weighs less than Jacob!) and a little girl, Janelle, who is 3 weeks younger than Jacob, but she is sooo tiny and adorable and petite, she makes Jacob look like Bam-Bam. He is almost a whole head taller than her. So the kids ate the pancakes that I brought, and in fact Heather said that Jacob ate two of them. That's my hungry little monster. :) Heather's back yard is like a toddler wonderland, with every toddler-sized vehicle and riding toy that a kid could want. So when I kissed Jacob goodbye, he just looked at me like, "I'm realling liking this red car, Mom." I knew he'd be fine. heehehee

When I finally picked him up, Heather's husband Phil had gotten home just before I got there. Jacob was soooo into Phil that he did not even notice (or care?) that his Mama just walked in!! Geez... all that work and I get ignored?? LOL Actually, I thought that was a very good sign and it made me very happy that he had such a good time that he couldn't care less that his Mom just walked in the door. That's the way it should be. :) Jacob obviously was very comfortable there (he was even putting his feet on the coffee table!) and then gave everybody a goodbye kiss.

His huge appetite continued through dinner, as he powered down two helpings of peas, a whole hotdog bun (toasted), and an ENTIRE CHICKEN BREAST. Not a child-sized one... and he ate every bite. Plus peaches. *burp* Makes me full just thinking about it. :)

I'll post pictures later.... Mommy is tired... :)

Day at the Lake

Today we went to Lake Mission Viejo with my friend Julie and her daughter Jenna who are visiting from Texas. Jules was one of my very best pals from way back in 1996 when we used to work together. I hadn't seen her since I was pregnant, until yesterday she came over to visit and then we went to dinner. I hadn't seen Jenna since she was 5! She's 9-1/2 now.. how time flies...
She also got to meet Jacob for the very first time. We had a great visit!







<-- Jules & Jake It was a rare overcast day here! But it was very fun and Jacob enjoyed himself, although he wasn't real sure of the sand, it was very weird to him and he kept trying to pick it off his toes - HA!

Happy 4th of July!!

Jacob started celebrating already! He loves my flag (given to us by a local realtor) and was wagging it around all over the neighborhood the other evening. Tomorrow will be a long day of parades and fireworks, but it should be fun. Happy 4th of July!!!!

"Appie"

Jacob has a new word! We were reading a Cookie Monster book about food, and I showed him the apple, telling him, "apple.." Out of the clear blue, he went "Appie!" Yay! He's finally beginning to pronounce things. We had a big celebration and he's so proud of himself. Today he overheard me telling Grandma on the phone about 'appie' and he went around going "appie..appie...appie.." or I guess you could spell it 'appey'... whichever, he's saying it nonstop! :o)

He has mimmicked my syllables for a long time now, like when his bath is over and we/I say, "Bye-bye water" or "Nite-nite bathtub" and he immediately follows with "Da-da-da-da" using the exact same intonation.

On a different note, we went to our neighbor Ashley's 3-year old birthday party yesterday up at the pool and had a great time. All the 'favorite' neighborhood kids were there, and they swam 'til they dropped. We had some incredible Korean BBQ and Jacob chowed down on it. He also loved the cake, which had strawberries in the middle. Here he is having a great ole time in his new float!

Also... today Jacob is 17 months old!! Almost a year and a half! Not such a baby anymore....

Road Trip!

Last week, Jacob & I took our very first 'road trip'! (Not including airline excursions, that is...) We drove down to San Diego to visit Kelley and little Aidan in their huge new house! It was such a wonderful getaway, and Jacob slept overnight in his playpen for the very first time. He did great! The first night, I think the lights from outside were freaking him out, because they actually kind of looked like a spaceship coming at him the way they were shining through the blinds. But a quick adjustment of the blinds and his soft satin blankie put him right to sleep. Make that THREE blankies... :) But he had a great time running around their big house, and Mommy had a great time visiting with Kelley and getting caught up on all kinds of things. We even hit the jacuzzi after the boys went to sleep.


The next day we went to the San Diego Zoo, and it was a 'first' for both of us at a major zoo. Jacob LOVED the orangutans and the fish... he stood up in his stroller and squealed and screamed when the fish swam right in front of him, even strangers were laughing.

Kelley, Aidan, myself and Jacob...surrounded by wild animals!

Silly monkey wearing Mama's sunglasses! Kelley snapped this picture while we ate in the restaurant.

I'm not quite sure what I was laughing at... but we're sitting on top of a bronze hippopotamus statue.

The orangutans came right up to the glass and rolled and scratched and showed off for the boys. They were eerily human-like...and the boys were both fascinated. Jacob took time away from clutching my cell phone to yell at one of them. HA

Jacob was enthralled with the fish. You can also see the hippo's butts under the water!

He really loved the elephant too, although he was getting a little tired at this point.

Buddies at breakfast the day after the Zoo.

Home from our San Diego trip with his new and old favorite things: his new panda from the Zoo and his favorite old 'chewy', an Aunt Jemima syrup bottle that he keeps digging out of the trash -- he took off with them the instant he got out of the car.

Sweet 16!

Today is Jacob's "Sweet 16" -- sixteen months, that is! He is still my little tiny baby at times....and other times he is my defiant toddler who has his own ideas on how things should go (and lets me know, in no uncertain terms, if he is not pleased). Yesterday I took his bowl of pasta to re-warm it in the microwave for a few seconds -- and I explained to him what I was doing -- but he got SO MAD that I took his bowl that he threw his spoon across the room and swatted his water bottle off the tray, then screamed and looked at me with this "you-took-my-food!!" look on his face. W-o-w...it was quite the display. I couldn't help but laugh (as I held my ears to prevent any further hearing loss :)...

This picture was taken a few weeks ago. He's learning to use his own spoon (or mine) - he snatched the fork that I was stirring his food with in this pic. I let him use the spoon all by himself for this particular meal, and you can see how much he enjoyed it!!

Jacob the Fashionisto

Urban Dictionary.com's definition of a fashionisto: "The male version of a fashionista, some what of a metrosexual, a lot of (brand name) lables, a lot of time spent in the hair studio; the "look" is everything."

Well, so maybe the hair studio thing does not apply in his case, but nonetheless, Jacob was in Nordstrom's Spring fashion show this past Saturday and he certainly lived up to the 'fashionisto' part! Thankfully he was over his horrible cold. Kelley's little Mr. Aidan was in it too, and of course our boys were the stars of the show!

Jacob modeled swimwear by Hatley in some cool blue & red colors, then he added his own twist to the outfit by clutching onto his sage green satin blankie when he walked out. Not exactly the ultimate accessory... but I could not get that blanket away from him for anything. If only I'd had the water bottle sooner, I might have lured it away. But when she announced Jacob's name and favorite things, the crowd chuckled when she said his favorite thing was his satin blanket. Yep....there it was, hiding his cool duds. :)

Jacob walking down (or rather, alongside) the 'catwalk' (minus the blankie)....(click the arrow to play the video)

An attempt at getting the boys' picture together, but Jacob is one serious moving target. Aidan is modeling his dapper new Easter duds. (LOVE the penny loafers!)

Handsome Aidan waiting for his turn to strut the catwalk.

I actually had a 2nd outfit picked out for Jacob - here he's sporting Guess jeans, a "PJ Rex" shirt, and a Hatley raincoat with dinosaurs all over it. He looked soooo cute in it that I bought the jeans (they gave us 15% off for being in the fashion show).

Mama and the fashion bug.