Hat and Playdate

Jake really likes playing with this hat. Too funny on him.


Today we had a playdate. I had a good time chatting with Kristin while Jake played with sisters Totty (16 months) and Jade (5.5 years).

Birth and Baby

At 12:45am my friend Aimee paged me to say that her water broke but everything was quiet. I put my clothes on and went back to bed, so excited for her. She paged again at 3am and I got up and gathered everything, bundled up Jake and put him in the car, and we headed for the birth center Bella Vie. Even with all green lights and no traffic, it still took almost an hour to get there, but it was beautiful that time of night.

When I got there I greeted her and gave her the "dream catcher" I made with all the beads that were given to her by friends at her baby shower and left her to do the hard work of birthing a baby.


I hung out with Jake and her two older children, Austin and Kaitlyn. I was present for Kaitlyn's birth, so it was so special to be there for the birth of her 3rd child as well.

Here Jake and Kaitlyn are playing with the toys at the birth center. Kaitlyn is growing out her bangs but her barrettes were forgotten when they were gathering themselves up to go!
Aimee birthed a beautiful, perfect baby boy around 7:30am. He weighs 9lbs 4oz and was born in the water. Jake loved getting to see a brand new baby. Here the new baby is in daddy Reg's arms.
The beautiful mother with her new baby. I am so proud of my friend.

Thanksgiving Weekend at Black Butte

We went to Black Butte for the Thanksgiving weekend. Jake is always happy to arrive and see the toys that we keep there, because it's like having new toys again! I have no idea why he's sticking out his tongue...
Oooh found the swimming pool ball!
Such a cute little space under the stairs for his toys. When we first built the house we had that space carved out for the dog's use -- Tessa the dog's food and water bowls and toys would go under there. Now it's perfect for Jake.
Jake playing with his toy dogs by the window. "Arf! Arf!" they say.
Jake is getting ready to go for a walk. The day before we left for Black Butte I ran to Patagonia to buy this winter suit as the temperatures did not rise above the 30's (F) while we were there! It was in the 20's most of the time, including during the day when we went for walks. Brrrr.
Grandpa, Mike, and Jake ready for a walk, all bundled up.
Jake spent a lot of time reading. Here he is telling Grandpa about the boats.

17 Month and 60th Birthdays

Today Jake is 17 months old and my dad is 60! The 20th was a good day to be born...
We had a dinner party for my dad at my parent's home. There were 16 of us and we had so much fun. Each couple wrote a poem to my dad and the poems were sweet, FUNNY, and wonderful.
Jake with the extended dinner table in the background.
We had a great time.
Me and my mom, the fabulous party planner!

This is Jake a year ago. He's eating a pear in this picture, which, oddly enough, he refuses to eat this season. Maybe next year? Jake is a wonderful 17 month old. He is so incredibly active right now, and loves words. He is saying more and more words in English (cracker, da-da, shoe, etc.) and knows an amazing number of signs. He loves to show people that he knows the words for things. He's so sweet, hugging us and getting excited about simple things, such as playing music. I can't believe how much fun this is!

Children's Museum

Today Jake and I had to get out of the house so I took him to the Portland Children's Museum for the first time. He loved it! There was lots to explore there, however, once he caught sight of the waterworks, he wasn't interested in anything else. I showed him other parts of the museum and he briefly played, but always ended up signing "bath" meaning he wanted to go back to the waterworks.

Signing "duck" at the waterworks.

Exploring a "log" in the baby garden (which is for children 2 and younger, but interested him the least of any part of the museum!)

Driving the ambulance in the health section.
Back to the waterworks.

So in the end he spent about 30 minutes at the waterworks and got himself almost completely wet despite having a water apron on. I didn't think to bring a change of clothes so he rode home wearing his fleece coat, diaper, and socks, and with mama's coat on him to keep him warm! He fell asleep on the way home, worn out from the excitement of playing with the water.

P.S. Today I noticed for the first time that one of Jake's top canine teeth has already poked through, I was so surprised to see that! The other top one looks like it's getting ready to come out soon, too. It won't be long before he has a full set of teeth. Amazing.

Cell Phone

Jake found an old cassette tape of mine, and converted it to a cell phone.
He was having a very intent conversation with someone -- he walked and paced and gestured as he talked on the phone.
It was a good conversation.
There was even a really good laugh!
Then, he got annoyed by the paparazzi.
Still annoyed, he continued the conversation.
Once the conversation was over, he hung up.

First Haircut

It was time for Jake's first haircut. You can see how shaggy he is looking, with his hair growing over his ears and long in the back! Here we are with Shoreh, who does a fabulous job cutting hair for our family. She has 2 boys of her own so she has experience with little boy hair. Grandma Jean took the pictures.
Sitting in the chair... see all that long hair!!
First Shoreh sprayed his hair to get it wet. He immediately got upset!
He was very upset by the whole thing. Obviously getting your hair cut doesn't hurt, as we all know, but he just didn't like a strange person touching him.
We even tried to distract him with toys, including Nemo the fish. Didn't work.
Just did the best we could while Jake tried to avoid the snips!

All finished. Whew, what an ordeal (it lasted all of 5 minutes?)
Using the roller to get hair off our clothes. I saved some of his snipped hair for the baby book.
Doesn't he look great? He looks so much more like a boy now, and less like a baby.

Old playthings, new playthings

The other day I had a cleaning/organizing spree. I was feeling jealous of Mike driving a very clean, uncluttered Sippy, so we cleaned Subie until it felt like new. Yay! I also put away a bunch of Jake's toys that he was bored with, and got these blocks out. Yup, they used to be mine and I have fond memories of my sister and me using them to create mazes for our hamster.
He frowns as I take yet another picture.
Jake and Daddy enjoying some coconut bliss ice cream.
We took Jake to a new playground today. It was full of kids! Jake took awhile to get used to it -- spent time observing the other kids playing before really getting into it himself.
He actually turned around and posed for the camera! Yay!