Today we went to the Como Park Conservatory. Jacob got his own camera to take whatever pictures he wanted to. He took about 90 pictures, and although the flowers were beautiful, Nate and I just loved watching Jacob take pictures of what was important to him. There were pictures of his shoes in the car, Dad driving, the pattern on the floor in the conservatory, etc. Below I tried to match Jacob taking a picture, followed by the actual pictures Jacob took. There are a few extras at the end. We will definately do this again. We all had a really fun time!

Jacob still likes writing "I love you" notes pretty much every day...(and I love getting them!) He just figured out how to make his own envelopes with tape and paper, so he has been hard at work playing post office lately. The past few days, he has also started adding "bills" inside the envelope with my notes. He doesn't expect any payment, but treats them more like an extra surprise in the envelope. When we pay the real bills, Jacob's job is putting the address labels and stamps on. He also does really good with putting the paper and the check inside, and making sure it is facing the right way, not upside down, that you can see the address in the window, etc., but I still supervise him with that part. He likes being involved, and having his own job.

Jacob also likes typing words and notes on the computer. This week I showed him how to open a new Word document, how to tell the computer to print, and how to save what he types in a folder icon on the desktop named "Jacob" that we set up. He was really excited the other night when Nate came home from work, and he was able to click on the right things without help to find and show Dad what he had typed while Dad was at work.

On the paper below:
"I (heart) U MOM

HAOO (how) DOO

U DOO I (heart) U

I (heart) U I (heart) U
MOM"

1. "Hi Mom.
How do you
do Mom? Love, Jacob I love you
Mom."
2. A painter

1. Polar Bear
2. Penguin in a snow storm
3. "Hi Mom Hope you have a great day
4. "Dear Mom, Is my snuggie (favorite shirt) clean?"

Zachary is here visiting from TX this week, so we celebrated Jacob's birthday tonight. The boys had fun playing with the new rocket from Zachary.

Teaching Mommy Fellow how to shovel

"I want to be a detective when I grow up. I want to figure out how they make those suckers with the chocolate inside."

I submitted my resignation for my job on Monday, and will get to stay home with Jacob until he starts school full time. It was an emotional day for me, and Nate came home on Monday with 2 dozen roses, and Dairy Queen (an excellent role model for Jacob!!) Anyway, the roses needed to be trimmed today, so Jacob and I played "flower shop". We wore aprons, and set up a work station. I taught him how to cut them at an angle with the clippers, and change the water...we had such a great time! Jacob is still totally into marketing (billboards, coupons, sales, fliers in the mail...he notices everything!). When we were done with the flowers, Jacob wanted to make a video to market them. When he was done with the first video, he asked to see it, and then wanted to make another one, and another one...very fun! Some of them I could not put on the blog because he gave our address so people know where to buy them, but I posted a few of them! (See videos)

Quotes from Jacob:
Jacob and I had already talked about what Lent is, and the concept of giving something up during the Lenten season. During the Children's message at church this morning, Pastor, also talked about Lent, again explaining that some people give something up during Lent and why. In the car, on the way home from church:
"Mommy, did you hear Pastor during the Children's message today...He said SOME people give something up for Lent. He didn't say everyone had to!" (03-01-09)

Sometimes if Nate or I do something sweet or silly, Jacob will say, "Awe...what a mom!!!" or "Awe, what a dad!!" He hasn't done this for a while, but this morning, he put his shirt on backwards. When he looked in the mirror, and realized what he did, he said, "Awe, what a me!!" (03-02-09)

We had dinner at church tonight, and I forgot to throw away my cup afterwards. I had it in my hand while we were hanging up Jacob's jacket in the coat room. I tried to tell him we needed to stop back in the kitchen before we go into church because "I forgot to hang up my cup". Jacob thought my mistake was really funny, and as we were walking down the hall back to the kitchen, Jacob said out loud sarcastically, "My mom is crazy!!" (People thought this was funny, and were stopping us to ask Jacob why he thought I was crazy, and he told them the story!) (03-04-09)

During bedtime prayers:
"...and thank you for being in mom's heart, and thank you for being in dad's heart, and thank you for being in my heart, and thank you for being in Fellow's heart, Amen.
...Mom, is Jesus in HIS heart?" (03-04-09)

Nate came home from work, and gave Jacob a hug:
"Oww, I got stabbed with your beard!" (03-06-09)

I showed Jacob a book I had at work, full of pictures of illegal drugs. I thought he would like seeing all of the pictures. We talked about that these are the bad drugs that hurt your body, and trick your brain, and not the ones a doctor would give you, and that we never want to take these drugs, etc. He asked good questions, and the opportunity seemed to go well. A little while later, Jacob came in with a police car, and wearing a police badge. He had a bowl of stickers that we were playing with earlier this morning, and he said, "I'm taking these with me!" (pretending they were drugs). "I put the bad guys in jail, and I'm going to make the bad guys eat all of them, since they tried to get the good people to eat them." (03-06-09)

At Bonanza tonight, Jacob went over to see the baby across the aisle. He smiled at her, and then winked at her before walking away! (03-06-09)

At Bonanza:
Jacob was half turned around in the booth, with his hand over one ear ("to keep the sound from getting out"). I asked him to turn around, and he said (rather loudly), "I'm listening to that man talking", pointing to the table behind us. I redirected him again, and he said, "But mom, I can hear talking at our table, and his table". I redirected him a third time, and laughed out loud when Jacob finally turned around, as he said, "Hmmm...it sounded like an interesting conversation!" (03-06-09)

Nate did not give in to Jacob at bedtime tonight. Jacob came out a few minutes later, and I met him in the hallway. He was crying and over tired:
"Dad hurt my feelings...I need an ice pack for my feelings." (03-07-09)

The boys finished the model tow truck last night.

Jacob has been really into the National Anthem lately. I guess it started with the Winter Olympics, and now he hears it before the Nascar races start each weekend. Anyway, he continually asks us to either sing the national anthem for him, or play a video on the computer of someone singing it. Jacob knows at least half of it now, but won't sing it if you ask him to, because he isn't confident of all the words yet. But I catch him singing it sometimes while he's playing, or in the car. When he sees a video or I am singing it, he stands perfectly still like a soldier throughout the whole song, and then at the end, does a fly by over his head with his toy jet...just like they do before the races. It is really fun to watch. Ironically, today was National Anthem Day, according to that website I found...no kidding!

You can always tell when it is Nascar season, when Lego creations usually involve some kind of pit row, race track, garage, etc. This one is pit row with the race track going around it. The Cherios boxes now have Lego race cars inside them that have interchangeable parts, which only adds to the addiction!! Jacob has 3 of the 6 cars now, and I always let him pick out the lucky box to put in the grocery cart. The boys really enjoy watching the races together. I usually like the last 50 laps or so the best.

Today we took Hannah and Jacob snowmobiling for the first time. They both had a fun time, and Jacob said he wanted to go more. In fact, when Jacob's ride was over, I helped him off the sled. He looked up at me and smiled, and imediately walked right back over, climbed on by himself, and pulled down the face shield on his helment, ready to go again! (See video)