Jacob, What Does the Fox Say?

Jacob does great tricks these days, he's talking up a storm now (phew), even day care stopped us yesterday and told us how much more he's talking.  He LOVES to tell us what sounds animals say and I'm not sure if you've heard that incredibly annoying song "What Does the Fox Say?" but the kids love it and Jacob sings along to it.  Anyway, I've taught him that elephants say "toot toot" and raise their trunks so he pretends his arm is a trunk, he also tells us what the fox says (according to the song at least).  If you haven't heard it yet, you can hear it here.  And sorry because it will be stuck in your head FOREVER!  He didn't particularly want to perform for me on camera (probably because of fear that it would be on the internet forever for his college buddies to google and haunt him with forever) but you get the idea, he does great tricks!

Rubber Band Bracelet Craze!

The rubber band bracelet craze has hit our house in full effect!  Ri has been making them at school and has been begging us for a loom.  She's been visiting the kindergarten class (yes, between her visiting kindergarten and Jacob sitting on the potty and us just purchasing his first pack of Pull-Ups, it's almost too much for this momma to handle) so that she can make bracelets with the school age kids, plus her phonics teacher is covering for the kindergarten teacher while she's on maternity leave and she's the rainbow loom master!  I bought Riley a Rainbow Loom but plan on holding on to it until after her surgery because I figure that will be a great activity for her while she is recovering (she's been dropping several hints that the bracelets would be so much easier with the loom) so in the meantime we have been YouTubing videos on how to make them with a fork.  Even Marc is getting involved in making them, they are quite addictive, I spent an hour and a half making a chevron pattern bracelet on Saturday.  And the best part of this craze, she will sit quietly for at least an hour working on these bracelets!

The bracelet Daddy made!

What's going to work?  Team Work!  Jacob likes to be the administrator of the rubber bands

My fork chevron bracelet, it would probably be easier with an adult fork but I use one of the kids' forks so no one loses an eye ball when the fight breaks out

Even Jacob likes to try to make some bracelets, I figure it's good for his fine motor skills so I let him pretend as long as nothing goes in the mouth.  Notice the monkeys on the table, we've almost successfully gotten the pacifier out of his mouth when he's awake, instead he totes around Beans the Monkey (need to get a backup and a little monkey he call "ooh ah ah!"

Family Day

Friday we kept the kids home from day care and decided to make a family day of it.  We took a walk to Peet's in the morning because Ri loves to ride her bike or scooter down there, put the kids down for an early nap, then out to Fuddrucker's for lunch (Ri's choice), followed by a trip to the zoo.  We've never been in the afternoon and most of the animals were quite active.  We've never seen the tigers moving around and all four of them were up and playing.  Jacob was running around the zoo yelling "baboons" because they are one of our favorite exhibits, we love the baby baboon and now there is a new baby baboon that was born in the last month or so.  And when we would move on to the next set of animals, he'd yell "bye guys!"  We also saw a giraffe running which we've never seen and quite frankly, I didn't know they could run.  They look pretty awkward running, but who am I to judge.  As always it was a fun visit to the zoo!

A running giraffe, who knew?

Bye guys!

"Baboon! Bye guys!"

And if thinking this is hilarious makes me a child, then I don't want to be an adult!!! :)

What I Can Get Done When I Don't Work

I've been off since December 19th and don't go back until January 2.  I had a whole list of projects that I wanted to get done.  Organize the play area, clean the kids rooms, clean my closets, get rid of magazines and I've gotten to most of them.  We've even fit in a shopping day.  Of course I've been bringing the kids to school because there is no way I'd be so productive with them around.  Jacob just moved to the toddler room on the 20th and so they told me to bring him as much as possible while I was off to get him acclimated to the class, especially since they were going to be light on kids, he'd get more attention and adjust easier.  So twist my arm.  And well Riley is Riley and does better in her routine and with the social stimulation so they've been going to school most days.  I will say drop-offs have gotten easier because they now have breakfast together so Jacob goes willingly with Riley.

Here's some stuff that I have gotten done!

For the play area - I made a magnetic chalkboard.  I just spray painted an oil pan from Wal-Mart with chalkboard paint.  I still need to get some clothespins to clip to that ribbon above it so the kids can hang their creations from it

I hung owl decals on Riley's wall.  I bought these well before I left ConAgra and they have been sitting in her closet for oh over 3 years

I hung these owls in her room - these were a 4th birthday gift, under a year to get something done is looking pretty good these days!

A panoramic view of Riley's room

I also went through 3 years + of cooking magazines and pulled out and scanned all of the recipes that I have lofty aspirations of making one day!  A lot of these magazines were older than Jacob!

And on top of all of this, we got rid of bags and bags of clothes!

And I'm so not ready to go back to work!

Winter Gala Part 2

This year they split up the performances for the school's winter gala, the younger classes went on Thursday and the older classes went on Friday.  I had mixed feelings about this.  While it nice having less crowds, it meant going there twice which was a pain but I think it worked out ok.  Riley DID AWESOME!  She was in the front row and she smiled and sang the whole time.  She's matured so much since her last performance and had 0 stage fright this time around.  Her friend Joseph's mom leaned over and told me how adorable she was doing her performance.  And Marc grabbed Jacob and he loved watching his big sister on stage!  They sang a Santa song and then "I Have A Little Dreidel" and she was so proud singing the dreidel song, and Marc and I were happy because this is the first time that they've done a Hanukkah song!

*-

All In A Days Work

What a day!  I can't believe our Jake-Os is 2!  That's just crazy but he was oh so fun today.  We had breakfast at home and then Riley wanted to take him to Build A Bear Workshop to make him a bear for his birthday present.  She wanted to use her own money and all, it was incredibly sweet so we headed to the mall at 9 and got there when they opened and before the Christmas shopping crowd arrived.  We picked out our bear, put him together and he and Jacob have been inseparable ever since.

We started the 2s out in our birthday suit and by dumping his rice krispies on the ground followed by a temper tantrum.  Seems about right!

Ri helping Jacob make his new friend

Then we dropped Ri off at school, came home, baked some cupcakes for Jacob's birthday and also their teachers, napped and then headed to Jacob's 2 Year well-check.  Everything checked out great and he weighed in at 28lbs 9oz (60th percentile, Ri only weighed 22lbs 4oz at 2) and was 34 1/2" (62nd percentile).  I swear he weighs more than that!  All Jacob cared about was getting his lollipop.  And I think he cried harder because he had to take his clothes off than from his shot.

After the Dr we headed to Jacob's school for his winter performance.

After the performance we celebrated with dinner (Red Robin for one of Jacob's favorites - hamburgers), presents, and singing!  Jacob blows out the candles every time someone sings to him.

To My Jacob Liam on Your 2nd Birthday

Oh my Jacoby!  How have the years flown by so fast!?!   I can't believe you are a big sweet 2 year old.  I feel like it was only yesterday that you came into this world and completed our family.  Jacob, words can not express how much joy you bring to our family each and every day.  You are our cuddle bug, you give spontaneous hugs throughout the day and you love to cuddle and give kisses. 

Your development has been so much fun to watch over the past year, you have a bit of a temper, you definitely know what you want and are passionate about getting it.  You are obsessed with bags and bracelets.  You can watch The Wiggles all day if we let you and now look forward to doing your breathing treatments so that you can watch them.  You are beyond obsessed with airplanes, love Mickey Mouse and Elmo and love to find any car (real or toy) and get behind the wheel and say "beep beep."  You are a man of few words Jacoby, which I'm not going to lie, had me worried for a bit but you've come around.  I've noticed you only speak what's important to you - food, airplanes, "bahs," Wiggles, dogs but you communicate in sentences now and your favorite word is "no."  You're favorite sentences right now are "Ahplane on my bah" and "Momma, agua, ice momma." and your personal favorite right now "No only momma."  Because you are after all a true momma's boy and really won't let any one else hold you or do anything for you other than your momma.

You are also fiercely protective of your older sister, which I love.  I always imagined having you first so that you could protect your younger sister but I see now that it can be opposite, though you are 3 years younger than your sister you have a strong urge to protect her and get extremely upset when she's hurt or upset.  You got upset when Riley got her casts off this summer because you thought they were hurting her and when Dr H took her out of the room to exam her feet you got upset because you could no longer see her.  When you saw her get knocked over recently, you said over and over "Uh-oh RaRa" until we could convince you that she was ok.  I love this protective nature that you have sweet Jacoby. 

And as sweet as you are, Riley has also met her match in you.  You are starting to become your own person and no longer let Riley lead you around.  You tell her no and exert your opinion when playing together.  This can often lead to conflict but despite your 3 year age difference, you hold your own quite well. 

Oh Jacoby, you my sweet boy, are growing up way too fast!  You so desperately want to be a big boy and before I know it, you will be there.  You spend much of your time trying to keep up with Ri and her friends and so desperately want to sleep in your big boy bed.  Please my love, slow down on your growing up.  Stay young and sweet and innocent as long as you can, there's plenty of time for you to be a big boy but only a limited amount of time for you to be my little man.

Happy 2nd Birthday my sweet love, "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for alway, As long as I'm living, my baby you'll be!"

My How the Time Has Flown By - Jacob is Turning 2!

Saturday we had Jacob's 2nd birthday party.  It's hard to believe our little man is turning 2, time really has flown by and Jacob loves nothing more than airplanes (except maybe food) so we opted for an airplane theme.  I took Friday off of work and transformed our home into an airport for our little man.  I have to say it was an awesome day off, one of the best I had, I had so much fun being creative and of course baking cupcakes.  I was truly in my happy place, maybe one day I can quit corporate America and do this sort of thing full time.  I really enjoyed myself.

I also rented a jumpy house, and if I was ever going to say we really lucked out with the weather, Saturday would be the day.  After an entire week of 20s as our low and 40s as our high, Saturday hit the 60s and was beautiful.  It was a perfect day to bounce and kept all of the kids entertained for hours.  Marc and I even went in to it while the kids were napping.

Jacob had a blast, he loved being sung to and he even blew out his candles on cue (Marc practiced with him).  The best part of my day, after the naps the kids and I went into the bouncy house just the 3 of us and jumped and jumped and jumped.  We laughed and played and I felt like a kid again.  It was an awesome hour of quality time spent with them.  I felt my age again this morning but those memories are priceless in my mind.  It's hard to believe how big my kids are getting, I'm just trying to sneak in every enjoyable moment with them before I'm too embarrassing to be seen with.

Here's some pictures of the day, sorry there are so many, of course our fabulous friend Jimmy took over our camera and capture some great moments for us!

Tattoos!

Baggage claim goody bags for the kids

Now boarding!

Happy Birthday - Please remain seated

Airplanes everywhere!

Pre-party jumping

I love the way she's looking at him

Such a happy boy

Crazy girl!

Mr Blue Eyes!

A boy and his balloon

Food court

Cupcakes!

Airplane tattoos

Tattoos

Jacob's airport

Big boy!

It's my party and I'll eat again if I want to

Fuel up!

Jacob looks like such a big boy here to me

The gang

So happy to have the attention

Happy Birthday my sweet boy!

He huffed and he puffed and he blew his candles out!

Yay Jacoby!

Love these two!

Silly boy!

Jacob and Dadda

Still a Momma's boy!

The 4 Musketeers!

My handsome birthday boy!