Today we found a new park!

Happy Memorial Day
We had a lot of fun outside this weekend!! We planted flowers, ran through the sprinkler, and played on the patio. Jacob was so interested and patient about planting the flowers. He did a great job!!

The other night, when it was time to go to bed, Jacob asked about the sun, and where it went. We talked about how when the moon is shining over Jacob, the sun is shining over China, and vice versa. The next morning when he woke up, this was the first thing he talked about. I wasn't sure if he actually understood it, but later in the day I asked Jacob, "When the sun is shining over Jacob's house, where is the moon shining?" Jacob thought for a moment, and then said... "China's house!"

Today we picked out some flowers to plant this weekend. Jacob especially liked the purple ones, and was a good shopper. Tonight we went to a carnival, and Jacob went on several rides. He even did the tilt-o-whirl and the scrambler, in addition to the kiddie rides. Everytime a ride was over, Jacob wanted to go again, signing "more". The past few days, he's also been singing his ABC's a lot while he plays, or while we're riding in the car. (See video)

Jacob loves matching!! Yesterday he and I had the dominoes out, and we practiced finding pairs, making a long row by matching ends..."same!!" Then this morning, Jacob was reading an alphabet book. He was all the way to the letter Z when the school bus stopped in front of our house. Jacob saw the bus, and frantically flipped through the pages to the page with the letter B and a picture of a school bus..."2 busses!!" This afternoon, Jacob was playing with some little dolls from a play house, making them jump and dance. He picked up the Mom doll and held it up next to my face and said, "2 Mommies!!"

Tonight we picked up Hannah, and had a picnic at the park, and saw a softball game going on. Afterwards we had sundaes at DQ.

Tonight was Jacob's first ride of the summer in the convertible!! We just drove in the residential area so it wouldn't be too cold or windy for him, but he was so excited to be able to see the tree tops, and an airplane in the sky. He laughed out loud and clapped because he was so excited! He had his sunglasses on, and I looked back at him towards the end of the ride, and he had his hands up behind his head smiling, like he was laying on the beach. It was really fun to see! When we got home, he cried because he wanted to leave his car seat in the convertible.

Yesterday was Jacob's last day of swimming lessons, and he passed his swimming test! Today we went to the stables and Jacob rode a pony, and we went on a hay ride. On the way home, we stopped at the air show, and Jacob got to see all kinds of airplanes, a helicopter, and a fire truck. He even got to go inside an airplane. When we got home, Jacob took a nap and he prayed "Dear Jesus,
Thank you jumped to teacher (swimming lessons),
thank you airplane...
helicopter...
take care Marv (a friend's dad)...
help Pastor's mom fall down bump (which he remembered from a few weeks ago)... amen".
I love listening to what he thinks is important to pray about!!

Tonight we went to a college graduation at the Metrodome to see Kristen interpret the ceremony using sign language...She did great!!!! After the ceremony, guests were invited onto the field for refreshments, and Jacob got to run around in the outfield...He had such a great time!!! He loves talking about baseball, but tonight was a fun opportunity!! Here he is catching the picture of a baseball...

Tonight we went bowling!!! Jacob started out by pushing the ball down a ramp, but soon caught on to just rolling it down the lane "granny style". He pronounces bowling as "oh-wing", and explains the process as "rooooooooolling a ball, and breaking the pins!!" Jacob's score was 65 and he had a really good time!! (See videos)

Yesterday in swimming lessons, Jacob got to wear a life jacket, and practiced jumping off the side of the pool into the water. He even got to "jump off" the diving board (see video). All day after swimming lessons were over, Jacob said, "I jumped teacher!!" ("I jumped to the teacher!!") He was very excited that he did it.

Kristen helped Jacob make a mother's day gift for me. Jacob noticed that I had hung it on the wall and I said, "Who made mommy that nice present for mother's day?", and Jacob replied, "...Kristen made it!"

This morning during church, we went up for communion, and Pastor puts his hand on Jacob's head and says a little blessing. At the end of communion, Pastor makes the sign of the cross in the air before we go back to our seats. When we got back to our seat, Jacob gave me his explanation of what happend, putting his hand on his head, then searching for his index finger, made the sign of the cross in the air...just like Pastor.

Jacob has been really interested in the pictures on his new calendar. So tonight when we went grocery shopping, instead of writing out a list, I gave Jacob a piece of paper with pictures of the things we needed to get. When we found each item in the store, Jacob would find it on his list. It worked out really great, and was a good way for Jacob to be involved too!

Today we went to visit the lighthouse in Duluth! Jacob was so excited!! He ran all the way across the pier to the lighthouse, and had a fun time!! We had lunch at Grandma's Restaurant, where Jacob got to sit on a motorcycle, and then we went to Two Harbors to see the big trains!!

Last weekend, we had "Banana Split Night". After dinner, I set the timer for an hour, and told Jacob that when the timer beeped, we would have ice cream. An hour later, Jacob and I were playing in his room when the timer beeped. Jacob put his finger to his ear and said, "Beep, Beep...ICE CREAM!!!!!", and ran to the kitchen. He had about 6 cherries on his banana split that were gone by the time he brought it to the table!! It was a fun theme, so last week we tried pajama day. Yesterday I made Jacob a magnetic 2 week calendar with magnetic pictures to put on it so he knows what is coming up. The lines in between each day have moons and stars on them so he knows that something will happen after a night of sleep. Some of the pictures are people he will see, others are things he gets to do (like swimming trunks to symbolize swimming lessons). Tomorrow has a picture of a lighthouse on it!!!

Jacob had fun playing with his blankets tonight. He rolled himself up like a burrito, or just laid on them flat and looked up at the texture on the ceiling which he calls "stars". He also liked shining his flashlight up at the "stars"! Kept him entertained for quite a while!!

Tonight we stopped at the store, and as we were leaving, I reminded Jacob to hold my hand in the parking lot. We stopped at the edge of the curb to see if it was safe to cross, and I asked Jacob, "Okay, do you see any cars?", and he pointed to the parking lot full of parked cars. When we went for a walk later, Mommy practiced asking, "Do you see any cars driving?", when we needed to cross the street!!!

When I came to pick up Jacob today, we saw a rabbit in Grandma's front yard. Jacob watched attentively, and was pretty excited. The rabbit ate some dandelions, and eventually hopped into some bushes, out of sight. When we got home, I asked Jacob what he saw at Grandma's house, and he remembered "rabbit" and signed "rabbit". I asked, "What was the rabbit doing?", and he said, "Eat yellow flowers!", signing "eat" and "flowers".