I'd be adorable even without all of my hair

He calls them (the loud, garish PJs) his "boots"

There's nothin' like wearin' boots and shootin' hoops before bedtime.

Some very important links

I have felt that introducing Jacob to the fun aspects of the computer could wait as long as possible. (Stay away pbs.org!) That being said, my sister Jana has proven my downfall. She made us a CD of old Sesame Street songs and it has brought me to (sigh) YouTube. Now, I have also never really cared for YouTube. But did you know that there are lots of copyright infringement clips on there? I don't want to see what you made with your camera at home, I want to see what you've uploaded to the computer (probably illegally)!

We searched some of the Sesame Street songs and found this little beauty. It is Jacob's favorite and he asks for the "Lum-de-dum" song quite often. Some observations:

1. Whoah, was Sesame Street ghetto back then. There's trash everywhere and not a primary color in sight. Quite a change from today's look.

2. Gordon has aged very well. In fact, he looks EXACTLY THE SAME. Check out the last five minutes of Sesame Street to see "Trash Gordon" and you too will be stunned at how young he looks.

3. What's up with Luis's whole outfit?

4. Maria is such a little chica.

5. Mr. Hooper. I have vague memories of him & I frankly don't feel much emotion about him, but it was very funny to read a comment on this video where someone said that "today's kids" don't know who Mr. Hooper was and that she thinks that's awful. It's not like he's Einstein! Come on!

6. Did I mention how dirty and ghetto Sesame Street used to be?

Matt and I also found what we remember most from Sesame Street. Here's his and here is mine.

Lastly, here is another clip that Jacob loves to watch and here's a link to some of our Utah fun. (I promise I'll blog about it soon...waiting for pics since I didn't bring my camera.)

Happy watching!

Defining "normal"

After Jacob's stomach bug he was different. Jacob, like most children his age, has a wide & varied range of normal...but there's still a range! Last week he seemed to have crossed over into a whole new world of crying and confusion. He truly didn't know whether to, "scratch his watch or wind his butt" (thanks Steel Magnolias). Monday, however, started a bit of a reprieve. He only had one tantrum (15 minutes long!) and the rest of the day was his old "normal" self. Since then we've had some smoother waters. Like I say, there are always outbursts and frustrations for our little guy, but nothing like last week. Let us all pray that "Angry-J" never returns. We don't miss him!

Here are some of Jacob's more recent goings-on.

1. He loves me again. (He was very anti-mommy last week.)














2. He is actually playing with his toys.


















(And trying desperately to keep Nicholas from playing with them.)














3. He's going to church and carrying his own dang bag!


















4. He's curious. I made cheesecake and he was fascinated by the whole process. (As you can tell he's resumed eating...check out that belly against that shirt!)














5. Lastly, he's talking. Talking about silly things all of the time. Lately he jokes that roosters say, "moo" and not "cockadoodledoo". He also requests "I-am-a-child-of-God-in-Spanish-really-fast" every night for his bedtime song. He just said, after about 5 minutes of quiet time, "Jacob's funny!" And you know what? He's right!

I'm glad he's back, baby!

Nicholas! He's the cheeky one...

I find myself staring at Nicholas just wishing I could somehow capture the pure incredibleness of his cheeks on film. It's impossible! He is not a chubby baby (don't let those love handles fool you, he's a lithe 16 pounds). But those cheeks. I know where he got them from. I know how much he will hate being known as the chubby cheeked kid. But, dag gum, they're amazing! Now I get why old ladies would pinch my cheeks. I get why my full face was always commented on. CHUBBY CHEEKS ARE FUN, PEOPLE! Here are some of the better pictures of his cheekiness.

Health and Cleanliness

Firstly, Jacob seems to be on the mend. He even asked me for a "glass of cheese" today...but I don't want to jinx it so I will say no more here. (I have become very superstitious when it comes to his tummy.) I'll report more after a few more "spill"-free days.

Secondly, look at cute Nicholas in the tub!!!! Aw man, I love it. Hello love handles!










































I'm Batman. (Gotham tubby.)

Spilling the beans and throwing down

It's hard for a two year old to understand being sick, especially throwing-up. Yesterday evening Jacob was sick 5 times in 3 hours and trust me, he was confused. He tried to bring it back to some sort of understandable level. Firstly, he noticed the nature of his "sick" and told me to "clean up the beans". Jacob had already dubbed throwing up "spilling" in November so, last night after a couple of sick times he said, "Jacob spill beans". I was impressed.

Later in the evening we told Jacob that throwing up was no fun. He said, "throw up in the sky" and so we said, no, um, we guess you threw down. So now he thinks throwing up is either "spilling beans" or "throwing down"...noooot quite.

He's doing much better now, but he was sick, sick, sick all last night and this morning. Here's the proof (and rest assured, there are no "beans" in these pictures).



































Nicholas has yet to get sick, and we are hoping and praying that he doesn't. Meanwhile he is enjoying his newfound friend the exersaucer in an attempt to keep him out of contaminated zones. (I am a germ freak and so my imagination is going wild with visions of invisible sick-germs getting at my little guy.) Lookee how cute he is.


















(By the way, we had a wonderful time in Utah...posts to come!)