Cereal and Peanut Butter

This has been another exciting week of firsts! Last Wednesday, Jacob had his first taste of peanut butter, and this morning, he had a "real" bowl of cereal. (Real, meaning cereal with milk.)

The peanut butter went over well. I have to admit, after all the stories I've heard recently about children being allergic to nuts, I was a little scared to let him try it. I gave him a little taste on a spoon and when nothing happened, I gave him half of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He liked it, but didn't seem overly excited about it. I am just happy to have another lunch option for him! Sunday after church we ate at Panera and ordered him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. To our surprise, he ate almost the entire thing! He usually doesn't eat sandwiches very well. He mainly likes to pull them apart and spread each component across his plate. So, peanut butter or "buh-yah" as Jacob calls it has officially been added to his menu.

This morning's cereal was a hit too. I gave him cheerios with little pieces of banana mixed in. I figured he was big enough to eat this now since he uses a spoon and fork so well. I was right! He loved it! The whole time he ate it, he kept saying, "Moolk" (milk) like he was amazed there was milk in his bowl. I am so excited Jacob can now experience the full joy of eating this delicious food! Cereal (of almost any kind) is one of my favorite things to eat. :)

Jacob really is growing up fast. He even helps me bring in groceries from the car now. He's been helping to put them away for a while, but bringing them in is something new. He's so proud of himself when he is able to carry a bag all the way from the car to the kitchen. It's funny to watch him do it because those bags look so big when he's carrying them.

Katie started preschool this week and I think Jacob is already missing her a little. Yesterday, at the grocery store, I let him ride in the race car buggy. I usually only push that thing around if I have both him and Katie with me. It's so hard to maneuver and I always crash into aises and other innocent shoppers. Oops! But, this time I gave in to his crying and put him in the race car. Throughout the trip, he kept patting the seat next to him saying, "Katie...Katie...Katie" because he knows she usually sits there with him. We'll definitely have to schedule some playdates!

They had a blast playing in the tents and the tunnels last week. They chased each other over and over again. When Katie walked in the house and saw everything set up for the first time, she said, "This is COOL!"

Those New York cowboy pictures were actually taken the morning of the birthday party, but I thought they were cute so I posted them.

Playtime with Jacob keeps getting more and more fun. This morning, we played with his grocery store, monkey chair, basketball goal, piano, busy ball popper, phone, and then we read a few books. He pulled out his monkey chair and played with it for a long time. He pointed to the monkey's mouth and said, "banana." I asked him if the monkey had a banana for breakfast and he said, "Noo....faffle....bo-guck (waffle and yogurt)" He's so funny! Reading a Blue's Clues book led to making a fan because that's what Steve does in the book to cool off. Jacob went to the drawer, pulled out a piece of paper, handed it to me, and said, "fat....fat...fat." That's how he says "fan." When he pulled out his toy phone, he proceeded to call several people and "tak" (talk) to them. He makes me laugh everyday, especially now that he's talking more. He's quite the entertainer!

Here are some pictures of Jacob playing with that monkey chair in May '07. When he was nine months old, he liked to climb on it, pull the eyebrows and hair out, and bite his nose. Things have definitely changed! Now, he talks to the monkey, actually sits on it and tries to guess what the monkey has had for breakfast. I will say, Jacob still does enjoy pulling out its eyebrows as well as climbing on it and making it fall over.

What We Did On Our Summer Vacation

Since we live near the beach, we decided to head up to the mountains for our summer vacation this year. We went to Gatlinburg, TN for a week and stayed in a cabin with one of my college roommates (Cassie...better known as Floyd) and her husband, Chad. It was actually a surprise for Floyd that we were coming up for the week, so that was fun.

We drove up last Monday and the trip went well. If you can believe this, we actually left on time! Well...almost. We ended up leaving only an hour after we said we would -- not bad! Jacob is still such a good little traveler. He played with his new Thomas the Train book the entire way (except when he was sleeping). Of course, it's one of those books that plays music and sounds, so Heath and I were on the verge of insanity once we made it to Tennessee, but Jacob was happy.

Our cabin was nice; however, the drive up the mountain to the cabin was a little cumbersome. With the high temperatures (yes, it was almost 100 degrees even in the mountains), our car got a little hot every time we drove up. We were afraid it might overheat, but it never did, thank goodness!

Tuesday we spent the afternoon at the community pool and I couldn't wait to see how Jacob would react. He was unsure about it and a little scared when he realized he couldn't touch the bottom. He couldn't be as independent as he likes to be and became very frustrated with the whole situation. He wasn't happy in the baby pool because he wanted to be where the big kids were, but he wasn't happy in the big pool either because he couldn't walk around. I guess we need to take him to pools more often and look into swimming lessons to get him used to it.

Hooray for Dollywood......
We celebrated Jacob's birthday by visiting Dolly Parton's "one-of-a-kind Smoky Mountain Family Adventure" on Wednesday (better known as Dollywood). It was a really fun day despite the 100 degree temperatures. I think that was the hottest day of the whole week!

A Chapel in the park. A sign out front said they hold services here every Sunday.

Dollywood had a great toddler area with several rides Jacob could ride all by himself. He started out on the Flying Elephants. Daddy had to ride this one with him.
Here he is on the Piggy Parade. There was a scarecrow in the middle and Jacob kept pointing at it saying, "What's this?"

You can't tell from his facial expression, but this bee ride was one of his favorites. He loved it. There was a little green button he could push to make it fly up in the air. He may have pushed it a couple times, but I think the little girl in the backseat was doing most of the "driving."

While he rode the Lucky Ducks, he kept pointing back at the Bee ride saying, "Bee....bee....bee!"

He always looks so expressionless when he is on a ride, but I know he's loving every minute of it. I did manage to get a few smiles out of him, but didn't catch any with the camera.

This was another favorite. I liked it too since it was the only thing I was allowed to ride! When it was over, Jacob kept yelling, "Horsey, Horsey!!" so Heath rode it again with him.

Jacob enjoyed some raisins while Daddy rode a roller coaster.


When we got back to the cabin that evening, we let him open a birthday present -- his laptop computer or "poo-yur" as Jacob says.

Thursday, the weather cooled down slightly and we went to Splash Country (Dolly's water park). Jacob, again, was a little funny about the water, but he had a good time on the slides and in some of the play areas.

Friday was our "driving day." We drove out to Cades Cove, which was absolutely beautiful. The weather was perfect so that made the day even better.

Jacob was napping in the car during this stop. We figured that nap was WAY more important than letting him see the "scenic overlook." I don't think he was a bit upset that he missed it. :)

Ok...you have to look closely at this next picture, but there is a bear walking towards the road. It was a lot closer than it appears in the photo. It was A LOT bigger too! What I couldn't believe is how many people just stood there with their cameras out while it was walking directly towards them. This was the second bear we saw on our trip. We had seen one a couple nights earlier about a block away from our cabin. I was afraid to get out of the car that night!

Saturday we went back to Splash Country for more water fun and I think Jacob enjoyed it even more that day. He found a spot where the water wasn't squirting out with quite as much force -- perfect for a 2-year old -- and played there for a long time. He was also getting a little more patient while waiting in line for the slides.

Water Slide Mishap: I actually missed the funniest thing that happened on our trip, but just hearing about it still makes me laugh so hard I could fall out of my chair. Before we left Splash Country on Saturday, Chad and Heath decided to ride one of the water slides together. It was one of the slides where you go down in a big raft with up to four or five people. Since Heath and Chad didn't have anyone else riding with them, the lifeguard asked two other people in line to join them in their raft. Now, Chad is a big guy -- He's 6'7" and looks like a football player. Apparently, the two strangers with them were also fairly large. After everyone was seated, the lifeguard had trouble pushing them off onto the slide and said, "Once you get going, you're going to fly!" And that's just what they did. The raft went airborne a couple times as they went over little hills and bumps. Then, when they reached the bottom, instead of coming off the slide straight, they were up on the side. When they finally hit the water, they came down with such force that Heath flew up out of the raft and knocked Chad in the face with his knee! Can't you just picture that? I can't believe I missed it! I wish I would have been there with the video camera.

The week went by all too fast and we were very sad to be leaving on Sunday. I especially miss the deep fried rice krispy treats I had been eating nightly. Yummmmm. It's probably a good thing we left when we did. Vacation diets are never a good thing for the waistline -- not that I have one right now, but still.......

The Mind of a Child

I have often wondered what goes through children's minds when someone tells them there is a baby in someone's tummy. Yesterday, I found out.

Scene: Jacob was napping. Katie and I were sitting on the couch looking up names in a baby name book. She had just blindly chosen "Edwina" as the perfect name for our baby. (Katie, I'm not sure about that one). I noticed she was looking at my stomach.

ME: My tummy is getting big isn't it?
KATIE: Yeah.
ME: Do you know why it's getting so big?
KATIE: Why?
ME: There is a baby growing in there.
KATIE: (very puzzled) Oh. (long pause) Did you eat it?
ME: No. I didn't eat it!
KATIE: Oh. (long pause) You just feel it?
ME: Yeah, I can feel it.

Jacob isn't old enough to understand the whole baby thing yet. But, I imagine if he was, he'd probably be thinking the same thing!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Jacob!!

Birthday to you.....birthday to you......birthday to you

That's what Jacob has been singing ever since his birthday party on August 2nd. It's so cute!! He's been dancing for quite a while, but now he's turned into a little singer! I can't believe he's two years old already! Where has the time gone? It seems like just yesterday we were having his first birthday party and now he's two!

We celebrated the occasion at Island Playground. He invited several of his friends from church and I think everyone had a great time, parents included. In fact, I think some of the parents enjoyed themselves even more than their kids! Island Playground is loads of fun! Of course, I took about a million pictures. Here are a few of them:

Jacob loves these little cars. He especially liked this police car.

"Dumpin'! Dumpin'! Dumpin'!" ( That's how Jacob says "jumping")

Choo-choo tain! (Jacob leaves out the "r" in train)

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm........too take. (Jacob does say "Pooh," but when he combines it with "cake," it comes out as "too take."

More please! I think he actually had 2 1/2 pieces of cake that morning! ONLY on his birthday will that ever happen!!

Look Mom! Can you believe this?? I got some monkey slippers!!!!!

Jacob colored a "birthday t-shirt" right before we left to comemmorate the occasion. He actually did a very good job!

The fun continued when we got home. Since we wanted to give the kids as much playtime as possible at the playground, Jacob opened most of his presents at home.

This is what happens after a morning at the playground, 2 1/2 pieces of cake, a couple slices of pizza, and a full afternoon of opening presents and playing with toys. I don't understand why they thought they needed a nap. Do you?

Again, this year, I decided to bake the birthday cake which, again, turned out to be a lot more work than expected. BUT, I was really pleased at how it turned out. A HUGE thanks to Erika for coming over and helping me get it done. I would never attempt something like this alone, but Erika is great at these things. Just like last year, we worked on it until almost 1:00 AM. In case anyone's interested, here's the "cake progression" from beginning to end:

Based on my previous baking experiences, I couldn't believe the cake didn't stick to the pan!

Ok, so maybe the edges could be a little smoother, but smoothing that stuff out is harder than you would think.

Check out my mad Winnie the Pooh icing skills!!

Almost done!


Ta-Dah! The finished product.