We're changing his name to "Bruiser"

Jacob's 18 month "birthday" is today. It's hard to believe that he is already a year and a half old. Well actually, the truth is, it's hard to believe he's a year and a half old when he's sleeping peacefully in his crib like a little baby. I am quickly reminded of his age when he's awake and shaking his finger at me saying "no, no, no!" Now that's a true toddler.

Unfortunately, we celebrated at the Doctor's office with a shot of the chicken pox vaccine (poor baby) :( The good news, though, is that he climbed back up to the 95 percentile in height AND weight. He was 34 1/2 inches tall (he grew 2 1/2 inches in 3 months) and 31 lbs 14 oz! If I've heard someone call him "bruiser" once, I've heard it a thousand times and the nurse didn't hold back either. "He's such a BRUISER!" she exclaimed. Hmmm, I don't think I've ever heard that before?

He may look like a bruiser, but underneath that tall, padded exterior is a little boy who requires a kiss of any body part that he has slightly injured, who also gives kisses on demand (even to people he doesn't know!) and always greets strangers with an emphatic "hi!" (with a wave) and "bye!" (with a shout and a blow of a kiss). A bruiser he may be, but man is he a softy. That's just the way I like it.

The future's so bright...

Jacob is finally starting to realize how cool it is to wear sunglasses.

Priceless

Mark, Jacob and I went to Toys 'R Us yesterday to kill some time after lunch. Jacob loves to run around and play with everything in sight as we follow him around and put things back on shelves, balls back in bins, etc. Somewhere along the way he got a price tag stuck to his shorts. He was running around the store with an $89.99 sticker on his zipper (no jokes please.)

When we left the store, Mark put the sticker on Jacob's mouth and said "Now, I'd pay 90 bucks for that."

Ha.

So would I baby. So would I.

Now that's what I'm talkin' about

Ahhh, summer. I had forgotten how fun summer was in San Francisco. Oh wait. That's right. That's because summer was always FREEZING in San Francisco (and not so much fun.) All that fog rolls into the city in June and July and you forget summer ever existed as you bundle up in your gloves, scarf, down jacket and hat.

The beauty of living in the Peninsula is that every day is 70 degrees and sunny and every weekend is filled with some sort of celebration of summer (art, wine and blues festivals, concerts in the park and farmer's markets.) We went to yet another festival in Menlo Park last weekend where we feasted on snow cones and danced in the grass. Jacob's hair is turning blond and he is tanning like a true little Italian.

I captured a few pictures of him today as we played outside again....enjoying every bit of summer.

Not so fond of auto transport

I am without a blogging topic and nothing interesting has happened in our lives as of late.

Instead, I will just ask this: When will my child stop screaming every time we get into the car? You'd think the straps were cutting into the kid's skin with the way he wails when we get into the car. Obviously they grow out of this at some point, right? Otherwise, I'm imagining him 16 years from now when his date asks him to strap on his seatbelt. WAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! Wah Wah Wah WAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Good gracious lord above. I hope he outgrows it.

The world's smallest baby pool

Another week has gone by, and I have been a bad blogger. Unfortunately, I have been completely swamped with work this week which has made me appreciate the time that I normally have to sit and recount those precious moments with Jacob in this blog. So, for the sake of brevity, I'll just give the highlights:

The 4th of July was a blast. Jacob sported his USA hat for all of about 5 minutes so I only managed to get a picture of him in it while he was in his stroller. We went to the Redwood City Parade and Festival and Jacob got to ride yet another carousel (he's going to start thinking these things exist everywhere we go) and got his groove on (yet again) to some fun bands. This time, Daddy joined him (I wonder if the beer had anything to do with that?)





On Wednesday night, we had dinner with our fun, new neighbors across the street and their 3 little girls. They had the baby and kid pools set up so Jacob ran around with the girls in the backyard in his diaper all night long and he never once showed signs of tiring. By 8 pm, he was still going strong (an hour and a half past his bedtime) which convinced me of 2 things: 1) Jacob needs a playmate and 2) Jacob needs a baby pool. The first observation will undoubtedly take some time so I jumped on the baby pool idea.

I couldn't get to the store on Thursday so I tried to make a "water table" that Jacob could play with. I filled up one of his toy storage bins with water outside and thought he'd have fun playing with his cars and trucks in it. This plan completely backfired because if Jacob sees any pool of water (no matter the size) he wants IN it. Amused, I de-clothed him and let him climb into the bin and laughed hysterically as he squeezed his whole body inside. Literally, it was the world's smallest baby pool.



Don't worry, I made it to the store on Friday and got a baby pool that Jacob will fit comfortably in.

Happy Hollow makes Happy Jacob

Jacob and I met up with our Wednesday playgroup yesterday at Happy Hollow in San Jose. Happy Hollow is this super fun park for kids (mostly smaller kids) with a petting zoo, kid rides, and multiple playgrounds. Unfortunately, the park is closing for the rest of the year for renovations and let me tell you, it is a great misfortune we won't get to visit again for many, many months. Jacob and I had a BLAST and would go back once a week if we could!

I wasn't quite prepared for one thing in particular. I think I mentioned in a previous post that Jacob really loves carousel rides...to the point where getting off of one was a minor tragedy in his eyes. So, having witnessed his love for carousels, I naturally thought that he would love to ride on this baby car ride at the park. I was a little apprehensive because the kids ride by themselves but after hearing that Owen, his playmate (born 3 days before Jacob), rode it and loved it, I thought he'd be fine. So, I strapped Jacob in to his little car and exited the ride. I'm watching from the fence when the ride starts and OH HOLY NIGHT Jacob starts screaming like I have never heard him scream before. The ride operator looks over at me and signals to me something along the lines of "turn it off?" and I said "YES!" He stopped the ride and I had to run in and get Jacob out of this little car. Poor baby...I guess he's not ready for moving rides without momma.

Other than that though, he couldn't get enough of the petting zoo, the outdoor maze or the endless amount of playstructures he could climb on (including every bench in the park.) Here are some pictures of our fabulous day.

"momma! More food for donkeys please!"

"I could feed the baby goats ALL day long"

"I love my friends Jaemie and Owen."

"Hmmm, not quite sure what I'm doing in this car."

"Bad choice momma. BAD choice. Get me outta HERE!"

"This carousel was fast!"

"I loved the Danny the Dragon ride."

"I always make time for snacks."

"The maze was my ABSOLUTE favorite part."

"I could spend HOURS in here. Yay Happy Hollow!"