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 ;)