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!! :)