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.

My Poor Sick Boy

Jacob has been soooo sick this past week. It's so sad to see this little tough-guy suffer. He had the worst cold with a cough and congestion. He would look at me and stare with the most pitiful look on his face, like, "Can't you help me??" We spent a lot of time in the rocking chair, and mealtime was nothing like the hungry monster he normally is. I couldn't help but pick up the camera and snap a picture after his lunch the other day. Thankfully he is much better now....just in time for Mama to get his cold and sore throat. :(

Little Mr. Parrothead

We are having a beautifully warm day in SoCal today...so Jake & I took advantage with some warm-weather shorties and a little outside excursion. He got another chance to wear his little 'Cheeseburger in Paradise' Parrothead outfit from Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville in Key West, FL that Uncle Allen & Aunt Sabra got him. Such a handsome little Parrothead!

Drinkin' up...

"License to Spill" -- and 'spill' he does! Reaching for the camera, as usual.

Steppin' outside...

Bird watching...

I'm the cutest Parrothead ever.

"I can wave so fast that my hand disappears!"

Say Ahhh!!

We have this new game that Jacob & I play...it's called 'Say Ahh'. This little scrounger will find any random thing to put in his mouth (usually paper), and all I see is something going in, or else I see his mouth chewing, when he's obviously not supposed to be eating anything. It has proven nearly impossible to pry his little teeth apart to see what he's put in his mouth, so our new game is much more fun. I open my mouth wide and go "Ahhh!!!" and he thinks this is so funny, that he does it too. Lo and behold there is a chunk of paper in his mouth that I can easily grab. Jacob thinks this new game of showing Mommy what's in your mouth is so fun, that he plays it all the time, including when he's eating Cheerios. He was being especially silly yesterday morning... :)

Happy Birthday Uncle Greg!

Today is Uncle Greg's 50th birthday - wow! Jacob & I wish you a fabulous birthday and a great birthday week! So in honor of Greg's birthday, I will finally post some of Jacob's long-awaited birthday pics.....

Now let it be known, that Jacob did not just have ONE birthday cake....he officially had six of them. Yup. His mama (that would be me) made him a cake on his first birthday, including his own personal 'baby' cake (which he is digging into, above). Then for his party, the cake place made him what I call a 'dyslexic cake', below:

I was horrified after seeing this cake! I wanted to tell the bakery that if my son ends up dyslexic, I was going to blame them for messing up his very first party cake. But after my neighbor Elisa was nice enough to call and tell them they made Jacob a backwards cake, they volunteered to quickly bake another one, promising to not make it dyslexic again. Along with this big cake came TWO little cakes! Enter the final, and sixth, birthday cake....

He lovvvved the blue icing, and for some reason decided that it felt good to smear it down his neck. He had blue icing from his nose to his collar bone....but isn't that what birthday cakes are all about?! :) Every time he saw me get out that blue cake in the next few days, he went crazy wanting some of it. Once he about climbed out of his highchair when he saw the cake on the countertop.
First picture of the day on his birthday, Jacob had the whole blanket wrapped around his head, and his body was perched up on top of his stuffed giraffe in his bed. And he was actually sleeping this way...His morning bottle from Grandma...(with one froggy slipper missing):
A sip from Grandma's coffee cup:

A quick peek in the garbage can:

Birthday bath in the kitchen sink - woohoo!
Sucking the water out of the washcloth:

Happy to be clean......