Brushing teeth before bedtime.

Jacob filling the vending machine with fruit snacks...of course he had to test it out when he was done!

Jacob loves cashews and pistachios. Last night, he was shelling pistachios with a channellock, which was pretty entertaining to watch!!

Jacob has been really whiney lately. I think he is working on some new teeth. The other day, it was really excessive, and I decided I needed a new approach, so I said, "Could you please put your whining away in your pocket?" Jacob was caught off guard, but it worked for a little while. I have used this several times now, and still have to laugh when I ask him to put his whining away. He covers his mouth with his hand, and "whines" (aahhh, aahhh) into his hand, and then stuffs the whining into his pocket. It is very cute, but it works!!

Tonight we went to a sock hop, and Jacob danced NON-STOP to the oldies!! They had hot dogs and chips there, and even while we were eating dinner, Jacob was boppin' to the music. He was totally fun to watch!! (See video)

Ready for work!

This morning, Jacob went to story time for toddlers at the library. Grandma said he did a good job listening and got to pet the storyteller's puppet. When we got home tonight, Jacob was sitting at the table as I was slicing a cucumber. I gave Jacob a slice to keep him occupied a few more minutes. He ate it and started reaching for another as I was setting the table for dinner. I thought this was fine...cucumbers are good for him. About a minute later, I brought something else out, and noticed that all of the cucumber slices were still on the plate, but "someone" had taken one bite out of each of them!

See video of Jacob spelling his name as I sign the letters.
(I like his blinking at the beginning!!)

Jacob likes having his hands (and feet) traced. Today he was drawing a picture to bring to Grandpa in the hospital. He put his hand down on the paper, and drew lines outward from between his fingers, trying to "trace" his hand.

We also started learning how to spell his name and identify the letters and signs for J-A-C-O-B. We've been talking about his birthday coming up, and he can tell you that he is going to be 2, but he'll also tell you about Grace's birthday, since she turns 2 the day before. And he signs "deer" when he talks about his birthday because we celebrated birthdays last weekend at Papa and Nana's house, and we saw 5 deer in their back yard. Birthdays can get a little confusing, but we're excited that it's coming up!!

Today I got out the bristle blocks I had when I was a kid, and showed Jacob how they work. Each block is covered with little plastic teeth that interlock when you push 2 pieces together. Jacob also made his first cup of hot chocolate today. He loves to scoop and stir...no matter what he is making.

Tonight Jacob and I picked up Chinese for dinner. As usual, Jacob pointed out all of the churches along the way. But tonight, when we passed our church, he said "church...Pastor's church!!" I just love his logic.

Jacob loves seeing new snow. When he woke up this morning (and a few days ago), I told him it snowed and we went to the living room to look. Jacob got all excited, pointing to his tongue because he wanted to catch snowflakes on his tongue like they do on the Charlie Brown Christmas movie. He loves to touch the snow and walk in it too!!

The other day, Jacob was looking for Fellow, calling out around the house "Feh-woh...Feh-woh...Feh-woh". We were coming up the stairs and I was a few steps behind him. Jacob turned the corner into the living room, and I heard "Hi yah Feh-woh!!!!"

The past few nights, Jacob has really had fun with chalk on a chalk board. He loves to draw circles and lines "up and down", and erase. He also likes to identify what I draw. Chalk has kept him busy from dinner to bedtime 2 nights in a row now.

One of Jacob's goldfish died this morning, so I explained that the fish doesn't move anymore, and didn't have to eat or swim anymore, so we could take him out of the bowl. Jacob seemed to understand. He thought for a moment, and then he signed "fish" "broken".

Later we went to visit Papa and Nana in Elk River. My mom has a toy shopping cart there that I had when I was little, that Jacob likes. He pushed his cart into the kitchen, loading it full of boxes of Jello, canned goods, and a box of spaghetti noodles. I gave Jacob some money earlier, and he pushed his cart to the dining room and unloaded it onto the dining room table. When he was done, he reached into his jeans pocket without coaching, pulled out the money, unfolded it, and gave it to Nana. Nana had fun playing cashier!!

This morning, Jacob and I made banana bread. Actually, I am mostly there to tell him what ingredient comes next, and to make sure it's stirred well. I really try to let him do as much as he can, from scooping flour to peeling the wrapper off of the butter. This morning, he sang "mash, mash, mash, mash" as he mashed up the bananas in the bowl with a fork. Anyway, 8 hours later I watched Jacob go into the kitchen, pull open the kitchen utensil drawer, stand on his tip toes, and pull out a little meassuring cup. Then he went over to the pantry, I heard the pantry door open, it got really quiet, and then Jacob came in with his meassuring cup and said "zuh-ga" (sugar). Thank goodness that was on a higher shelf in the pantry, but it was really fun to see his thought process. And he was content with pouring cotton balls into a bowl with his measuring cup instead, so it worked out.

Today I showed Jacob some pictures of him when he was a baby. When I asked him who was in the picture, he'd say "Bee-bee Zae-bop" (Baby Jacob).

The other cute incident that happened today was when Jacob came up to me and he said "downstairs", because he wanted to go downstairs but the gate was closed. I asked him what was downstairs that he wanted, and he said "Da-bop's downstairs".

TGIF

Jacob has kept really close tabs on me since I came back from Texas. I was a little worried about leaving him again to go to Washington DC last weekend, but he was in good hands with Grandmas and Grandpas, and we talked every night on the phone again too. Having Jacob now, I tend to notice things on vacation like airplanes, balls, cranes, trains, flags, and trucks...the everyday things that Jacob would wow over. Jacob got new glow in the dark stars from DC that we put up over his bed last night. He liked them, but it took a while to figure out that they were supposed to glow in the dark, and they didn't turn off with the light switch.

Jacob has been learning to cut fringe with scissors around the edge of paper lately, and is pretty good at that.

Jacob's newest phrases:
"Sor-row"...translation: "see you tomorrow"
"Bascall hoop"...translation: "the basketball hoop attached to Grandma's garage" (Jacob always wants to be lifted up to touch it!)
"No, no, no...mama do"...translation: "Only mommy is allowed to help"
"Da-bop self"...translation: "I can do it myself"