"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.