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!! :)

Mommy Goes to Work

Today was my first actual workday since Jacob was born! And Jacob's first trip to a babysitter's (my friend Heather babysat... so not just 'any' ole babysitter :). I'm doing some software consulting for a company here in Irvine, and today I only had to be there for just a couple of hours. But, a couple hours of work requires several hours of preparation before ever getting there.... I was in the shower at 6:15am and it's been non-stop ever since.

I packed the car last night with all of Jacob's necessities for the day, then while the little sleepyhead slept in this morning, I packed his lunch. His new favorite thing for lunch: a peanut butter and jelly sandwich! (cut into 6 triangles..)

I had wanted to leave by 8:30 this morning, but had to wake him up at 8:20 because he was still sound asleep. Breakfast was rushed so he only got a half a banana, and I took the pancakes that I had already made with us. Heather has a 3-year old son Preston (who weighs less than Jacob!) and a little girl, Janelle, who is 3 weeks younger than Jacob, but she is sooo tiny and adorable and petite, she makes Jacob look like Bam-Bam. He is almost a whole head taller than her. So the kids ate the pancakes that I brought, and in fact Heather said that Jacob ate two of them. That's my hungry little monster. :) Heather's back yard is like a toddler wonderland, with every toddler-sized vehicle and riding toy that a kid could want. So when I kissed Jacob goodbye, he just looked at me like, "I'm realling liking this red car, Mom." I knew he'd be fine. heehehee

When I finally picked him up, Heather's husband Phil had gotten home just before I got there. Jacob was soooo into Phil that he did not even notice (or care?) that his Mama just walked in!! Geez... all that work and I get ignored?? LOL Actually, I thought that was a very good sign and it made me very happy that he had such a good time that he couldn't care less that his Mom just walked in the door. That's the way it should be. :) Jacob obviously was very comfortable there (he was even putting his feet on the coffee table!) and then gave everybody a goodbye kiss.

His huge appetite continued through dinner, as he powered down two helpings of peas, a whole hotdog bun (toasted), and an ENTIRE CHICKEN BREAST. Not a child-sized one... and he ate every bite. Plus peaches. *burp* Makes me full just thinking about it. :)

I'll post pictures later.... Mommy is tired... :)

Day at the Lake

Today we went to Lake Mission Viejo with my friend Julie and her daughter Jenna who are visiting from Texas. Jules was one of my very best pals from way back in 1996 when we used to work together. I hadn't seen her since I was pregnant, until yesterday she came over to visit and then we went to dinner. I hadn't seen Jenna since she was 5! She's 9-1/2 now.. how time flies...
She also got to meet Jacob for the very first time. We had a great visit!







<-- Jules & Jake It was a rare overcast day here! But it was very fun and Jacob enjoyed himself, although he wasn't real sure of the sand, it was very weird to him and he kept trying to pick it off his toes - HA!

Happy 4th of July!!

Jacob started celebrating already! He loves my flag (given to us by a local realtor) and was wagging it around all over the neighborhood the other evening. Tomorrow will be a long day of parades and fireworks, but it should be fun. Happy 4th of July!!!!

"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.

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!!