Oh my goodness, I have been so busy lately - working every day during Jacob's nap and then again most nights after he is in bed. Add in three weekend trips to Richmond over the last six weeks and I have had NO time to blog! Obviously, I am WAY behind on posting these posts from April but I have had them in the "Edit Post" category for awhile so I am going to publish them. At the very least, it will give me something to look at years from now! Here is our "View from Here" for Week #8:
Monday, April 4
While we were visiting my parents' house, Jacob was enjoying playing hide and seek with their front door. He says "Where are you?" while he is hiding and then he'll say "There you are" as he appears. It is really cute!
Since we stayed in Richmond until Monday, I had an opportunity to meet up with my good friend Lisa. Jacob enjoyed playing with her two of her kiddos (her oldest was in school and the littlest one was napping). After we played outside for a bit, we went through the drive through at Chic-Fil-A and then had lunch at a local park/playground. It was a lot of fun catching up and having the kids play together.
Tuesday, April 5
Jacob likes pulling the suitcase around the house. In this instance, it had been emptied the night before from our trip to Richmond. He was helping me take it back to its storage space in the garage.
Wednesday, April 6
On this particular day, we made a trip to Walmart and I bought some burner covers and new drip pans. I was tired off stuff getting on the burners and the old dip pans looked awful! Before I replaced everything, I decided to give my stove & oven a really good cleaning. Not fun, but now it looks a million times better.
Looks shiny & new!
Thursday, April 7
Unfortunately we don't have a lot of grass in our back yard. But that is ok when you have a little boy because he is content with turning our beach sand toys into "dirt" toys. He loves to shovel up the rocks and dirt. I am hoping that he enjoys the sand this summer just as much.
We got our patio set late last summer so we weren't really able to use it that much before the weather got cool. This year, we have used it a ton! Most days when I tell Jacob that I am making dinner, he says "Deck...eat on deck". It is definitely more work to take everything out there and then bring it back in, but he loves sitting out there. We sort of live on a corner (the corner lot is not developed) so he is able to see lots of vehicles going by. We are also able to see plenty of birds and squirrels and sometimes even a deer!
Friday, April 8
On Friday, I hosted playgroup at my house. I also watched my friend, Kathy's son, Luke for a few hours in the morning. Luke and Jacob are very close in age (Luke is one week older) and I hope that they will grow up to be good buddies!
Doesn't Jacob looks so huge next to Luke? I often forget how big he is until he gets around other kids his age. I wonder if he will always be on the tall side - only time will tell.
Saturday, April 9
Jacob got a "Tickle Me Elmo" for Christmas from Uncle Mike & Aunt Blakely. And, even though he was loving Elmo around that time, he really wasn't too interested in it until recently. He now thinks it is hysterical when Elmo "laughs" and shakes and he will press on his stomach to see it happen over and over again!
Sunday, April 10
On this particular Sunday, we attempted to go to a new church in our area (the church isn't new, it is just one that we hadn't been to). Unfortunately, it didn't go well...AT ALL! Not long after arriving, Jacob expressed interest in going to the nursery to "play with the toys" (he had been in the nursery at a different church a few weeks before this and did fairly well). I was hesitant to put him in this nursery, just because I didn't know anyone there and I was certain that he wouldn't do well since he still has A LOT of stranger anxiety and doesn't like to be away from us.
Well, we decided to try it and see what happened. About 10 minutes after taking him down to the nursery, Keith returned to our seats saying that Jacob was not happy when he left. I told him that I probably wouldn't have left him if he was that upset, but we would just wait and see. About 5 minutes later, our "number" flashed up on the screen at the front of the church alerting us to come to the nursery. Within seconds of that happening, I could hear Jacob crying very loudly from the lobby of the church (I am pretty sure everyone in the service could hear him!!). Keith went down to get him and I followed about a minute later.
After getting him calmed down, we attempted to return to the balcony area of the church and went into the "crying room". Jacob did OK in their with us for about five minutes before he got really upset and started crying very loudly again. Since there were no speakers in that room (so we could not hear what was going on in the church) and it was clear that Jacob was not happy, we just decided to leave.
We ended up going to Lowe's (all dressed up in our nice church clothes) to get flowers and mulch for our front garden. After that, we went to our local Mexican restaurant for lunch. Jacob was much happier there and enjoyed eating his (not-so-Mexican) hot dog & french fries with lots of ketchup.
Condiments weren't really his thing until recently and now he can't get enough of them. Ketchup, mustard, salsa, and hummus are his favorites, although he loves anything he can "dip" into. I think he would eat them with every meal if he could. Today when I asked him what he wanted for breakfast, he said "Mustard". That kid is crazy!!
