New Pic of an Old Pic - 2-1/2 mos. old

I just got this portrait printed for the first time yesterday. Jacob was not quite 3 mos. old when I made this (what I thought was a failed) attempt at getting his portrait taken. He CRIED and CRIED when we were in the photography studio... to the point that after this ONE and only shot, I gave up and told them I would come back another time.

Fast forward to when he was 5-1/2 months old... and that was the next time I got him back to the photographer.

So.. fast forward again to yesterday. Knowing that the studio kept the portraits for 2 years, the thought started nagging me to go back into the studio and have this picture printed after all this time. The memory of taking Jacob in there and how sweet that one-and-only shot turned out, well it was just too good to pass up. So here it is... first time unveiled... the "I'm too scared to have my picture taken without the comfort of my Mama's arms" portrait..... Enjoy. :o)

A Video from Easter Sunday

Forgot to put this in the last post.. My camera ran out of memory just as this video was getting good, but oh well, it's still rather cute if I do say so myself. ;) Jacob was saying "Chirp, chirp!" (meaning the birds), even though it sounded like "toot, toot". Mama KNOWS her boy's language... :o)

Happy Easter!

We had a very full Easter Sunday today, complete with a nice church service, an egg hunt, a trip to the beach, then dinner and another egg hunt at my friend Heather's house. Jacob had two very short naps in the car, and that's it! But he did amazingly well, and was in a great mood all day.
Arriving at church, with fresh new duds on, complete with fresh new milk spilled on the back!!! (That's what happens when Mr. Sleepyhead eats his breakfast in the car...)

The Easter Egg Hunt in the toddler (3 and under) playground at the church. He was not the most aggressive kid on the hunt, but he got his fair share. The other parents were very considerate of their kids taking eggs, and made it a really fun event.

Here Uncle Skippy, hold my egg basket, will you?

Mama had to hold him up high to reach this one... blue egg camouflaged in the blue playhouse.

Such a poser...... The church playground and some of the other egg hunters in the background.

Big boy sitting on the swing all by himself! Uncle Skip is a good swing pusher. :o)

Then church started...... and they had the children's moment. He was soooo good and really paid attention. You can see the pastor's black robe and sleeve at the left side of the pic.

After the children's moment, they whisked the kids off to their classrooms to play while the parents attended the church service. I was afraid Jacob would cling to me, but he didn't! He bellied up to the little kids' table in his classroom and began his serious project of coloring. His teachers said he did great, and was their very best helper! Jacob lovvvvves to put things back where they belong.... a trait that I hope lasts!

After church.... proud Mommy!!!

Mr. Hollywood with his shades on... heading to the beach after church. "Bye!!!" he says as he waves...

Stopping for a Kodak moment with Newport Harbour behind us.

Carrying his Easter basket (and his eggs) with him everywhere he goes....

"Let me see what's inside this thing...." Takin' a break to check on his eggs.

Mama & Jacob - Corona del Mar, CA (Mama's former stomping grounds :)

After we left Corona del Mar, we went to Heather's house for another egg hunt and dinner. For some reason, Jacob did NOT like the Spiderman eggs that were hidden. He kept giving them away or putting them back! He even found two of them in the house afterwards, and there he went, carrying them back outside to their "rightful" spots in the grass. LOL!!

Our Crazy Month of December

December was filled with illnesses, airline woes, and more illnesses, but we still managed to have a super fun Christmas and exciting New Year's. We started the month with a visit from Grandma, who arrived not feeling so great. She was rather under the weather the whole first half of her visit, but we finally managed a short shopping trip to Laguna Beach.

First order of business - breakfast in the living room! (Looks like Grandma approves.. :)Grandma, Jacob & Mommy at sunset with the Pacific Ocean behind us in Laguna Beach.

I think Grandma blinked on this one..Pausing along the boardwalk..
What happened to that sunset??
The hills of Laguna Beach in the early evening moonlight. Jacob calls the moon "mmmm".Jacob holding Flat Stanley (our friend Thailei's school project) with the Laguna sunset behind him.Warming up at BJ's Pizzeria - Grandma helping Jacob color.

Mama's Lap: No Better Place to Throw Up

(Another update from December.......)
I can now officially say that I have been thrown up on. Like, not partially, not just 'nearby'.. but completely and totally puked on. Oh well, what are moms for, anyway? I remember throwing up on my mom at least once, so this is the cycle of life. :) He didn't know what was happening to him when he would feel sick, so he would come moaning over to me and next thing you know.... oops... on my lap.

My poor sick boy... I didn't realize how he must have felt until I got the same virus the very next night. We had his pull-out 'sofa' in the kitchen where it was much safer to get sick..and he could still watch his cartoons. But all he wanted to do was go to bed in his crib.

Three Days En Route

Once we finally were well enough to travel (I postponed my flight to WV twice because of being sick), Jacob & I ran into every sort of airline issue imaginable. We left California on Thursday morning, got stuck overnight in both Houston, TX and Columbus, OH, then finally got to Mom's house on Saturday night at 9pm! But I have to say, as much of a nightmare the travel was, I have the BEST cousins in the entire world. My cousin Tim in Houston drove an hour to pick Jacob & I up at the airport, took us out to dinner (good ole Texas BBQ - yumm!!), put us up in his guest room, then took a half-day off work the next day to cook a nice breakfast for us and take us back to the airport. We even got to visit with other cousins who live in Houston who came over and had breakfast with us. What a treat!

After a full day in the Houston airport and seven failed attempts to get a standby seat, we finally managed to get on a flight to Columbus, where Tim saved the day again and arranged for my other cousins Debbie and Kelly to come get us (at midnight!) and put us up for the night! Like I said... yay for cousins!!!

We got lucky on most of our flights and Jacob got his own window seat. He really loves looking out the window! This is leaving Orange County, with Newport Beach below us:

Jacob's first time in Texas - and he had a great ole time! He made the flight nightmare so much more tolerable.Jacob really loved cousin Tim. He would've been happy to just stay a while!

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.