Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Bubbles & Contagious Laughter

Tonight, while Keith was getting Jacob out of the bathtub, I heard Jacob start hysterically laughing. I wasn't sure what was going on. All I knew was Jacob was laughing and laughing. I grabbed the video camera and this is what I saw:



Please forgive the shaking that occurs in parts of the video - that is me trying to stifle my laughter. Apparently, this is a game that Jacob and Daddy play with the tub bubbles while Jake is in the tub. Tonight, Jacob asked him to do it after he got out and it was obviously a hit! Jacob thought it was especially funny when Daddy would have to wipe his face off on Jacob's towel!

Isn't his laughter contagious?! I love my boy!

Thursday, April 21, 2011

"The View from Here": March 28-April 3

Here is our "View From Here" for Week #7 (a few weeks behind!):

Monday, March 28
Jacob definitely loves to eat! And, like any little kid, the messier the better! On this day, he somehow got yogurt all over his face. Silly boy!


Tuesday, March 29
Remember, this post, where I showed you how Jacob was becoming very indecisive about what videos he wanted to watch? Here is a picture from a typical morning around here. He likes to look through all of the DVD cases and tell me what they are. Then he will tell me which video he wants to watch while he is eating breakfast. (Don't worry, I removed all of the DVDs from the cases so that they wouldn't get broken!)


A few weeks before Jacob was born, we were blessed with an awesome baby shower hosted by my mom, sisters and sister-in-law. The shower had a wagon theme and Blakely actually made the cake in a small wagon. That wagon was given to us and for a year and a half, it sat on a shelf in our garage collecting dust. Jacob saw it one day and asked to play with it. It is the perfect size for him to pull around. He likes to take lots of things for rides - mostly cars, trucks, and stuffed animals.


Wednesday, March 30

On Wednesday, my Mom's groups had a fun playdate at the Bounce-n-Play in Charlottesville. We have only been there once before and Jacob had a good time. He is still a little too small for some of the bigger slides (and Mommy gets really tired carrying him up the steep steps of the big slides!). He did however enjoy bouncing around and going down the smaller slide!






At the beginning of the year, a newly relocated family joined our Mom's group. The mom, Lauren, and I became good friends and I hope our little guys stay close throughout the years. They have a lot of similarities - both are named Jacob and both were due to be born on the same day (Jacob W. is just a week older than Jacob D.), and apparently they both love books too! Here they are checking out the selection at the Bounce-n-Play.


Saturday, April 2

On Friday, April 1st, Keith headed up to PA to spend some time with his mom while she was recuperating from her surgery. She had been staying with her sister and brother-in-law and he went up to help her move back to her apartment. Like we often do, Jake and I headed to Richmond to visit with my family while Keith was away.

Jacob has fallen in love with the book "The Missing Tooth" that is at Mimi & Papa's house. It is an old book (1988) and was most likely my brother's when he was a kid. It is a Step 3 book (one that is used to help kids read) and is fairly long, but Jacob loves it and wants it read over and over again. Here, he is "reading" it while he waits for me to prepare his lunch. I definitely think this kid is going to be an early reader!


Sunday, April 3

Jacob loves to take a bath in Mimi & Papa's big tub! There are times when he has to share it with some of his other cousins, so it is really fun when he gets it all to himself!


Friday, April 8, 2011

"The View from Here": March 21-27

I'm behind again - two weeks this time! Oh well. I've been crazy busy with work, home, and everything else in between! Here is our "View From Here" Week #6:

Monday, March 21:
Jacob has moved from using snack traps to using bags for snacks. He would consistently take the top off of the snack traps and the food would go everywhere. At least with a bag, only the crumbs get tossed around sometimes as he tries to get every last morsel out. Here is a sampling of some "snack bags" that were sitting on the counter recently (and yes, three out of the four are cereal - mini wheats, lucky charms, and kix. Jake is on a cereal-loving kick lately!)


Tuesday, March 22:
On March 22, our Tuesday morning playgroup met at the Charlottesville Discovery Museum on the Downtown Mall. There were quite a few moms and kiddos there and we all had a great time. It was our first time there and Jacob enjoyed playing with all the neat things. Here he is playing with the train table:

They have this really cool contraption called "Amazing Airways". According to the website, "Puffs of air make balls and scarves fly through the Amazing Airways maze!" It was a really cool concept! The kids had fun putting the balls and scarves in the hole and watching them go through the maze and come back out!

Jacob and Reid "playing" Checkers

Jacob enjoyed playing with the wheels on the wall


Outside the Discovery Museum, there is a small carousel. It only seats seven and it is not mechanical, but it is FREE! and the kids loved it! Thankfully there weren't that many people on the Downtown Mall that day so our kids were able to play on it for a good while. Jacob would have probably stayed on it all day if I let him. I literally had to pry him off of the horse kicking and screaming!


I love this picture! He was having such a good time (as were Virginia & Wade who are in the background!)



Wednesday, March 23:
On Wednesday, I watched Reid for Katie while she and Pierce went to the dentist. We went to a friend's house in the morning for playgroup, but then the boys and I returned home for lunch and naps (for them, not me unfortunately!). Here are the two cuties enjoying their lunch (I love Reid's cheesy smile!):


These two are definitely "all boy" and they love to play with the cars!


Later that night, after his bath, Keith let Jacob run around naked. It was funny to see him doing "normal" things like reading books with no clothes on. He loved it though and wasn't too happy to get his clothes back on.


Thursday, March 24:
Thursday was a rough day for me. Remember, this post? I am still not sure why I was feeling so blah, but I know that I was definitely feeling better later that night! Four friends and I went to Ladies' Night Out at the Melting Pot and we had a fabulous time (we even closed the place down - we were talking and laughing so much that we didn't leave until after 10pm)!! I had a wonderful frozen strawberry margarita and we scarfed down yummy fondue foods! I am so blessed to have these awesome girls in my life and I cherish the fun times that we all have together.



Friday, March 25:
Fridays are usually lazy kinda days in our house as we normally don't have anything planned. We spend most of the morning in our pajamas just playing and hanging around. This particular day, Jacob kept taking his pajama pants off and walking around with them around his ankles. He was being overly goofy and finding it really funny! The more he laughed, the more I laughed - I wish I had gotten a video - it was one of those really fun silly moments.

Here is a not-so-funny moment that I did capture on video. Jacob's indecision lately is driving me crazy!


Saturday, March 26
I didn't take any pictures on Saturday. Probably because I was out running errands a lot of the day. Keith graciously took Jacob with him into town to the library while I did some local shopping at CVS and Food Lion (the only two stores that I can go to without driving at least 15 minutes). It seems like mundane shopping, but it was nice to be able to spend some time looking at greeting cards & shopping for deals instead of throwing stuff into the cart while trying to keep Jacob occupied! CVS had a great deal on the shampoo and conditioner that we use, so I stocked up for our Semester at Sea trip (4 months worth!). They also had Multigrain Cheerios (one of Keith's favs) on sale 2/$5 so I grabbed four boxes! CVS is one of those places where you wouldn't necessarily think to buy food, but they often have some really good deals if you time to look for them.

Sunday, March 27
We awoke on Sunday to a dusting of snow on the ground. Seriously?? Isn't it the end of March?? This year's weather has been so weird - in the 30s one week, 80 degrees the next and snow the next! I'm definitely ready for Spring and more consistently warmish temps (but not 80 just yet!)


This is a very random picture, but I was just amazed at the size of these boneless chicken breasts that we got from Sam's Club. No, they are not organic and yes, I realize that they were probably injected with something to make them this big!