Spring, spring, spring said the frog!

I'm overdue, so want to at least post some photos for the Fans of Jake club.  He's doing well, as are we.  Since the last post, my parents came to visit, Jake and I did a road trip to Tennessee to see old friends, and we took a very short jaunt down to Destin, FL to see the beach.  Oh, and we found out we're moving to Stuttgart, Germany!  (sorry, I've been slow to get the word out).  We think it's great news, but more on that later!  With that, on to the photos:

The arrival of molars was heralded by very rosy cheeks!

We've placed these all over the house
and neighborhood.   Keep a few in the
car, too.

Sir Buckethead,
ready for the day's battles

A foolish duck taunted this tiger.  As did Jacob,
but he had the advantage of tiger-proof glass.

The air is rare up there.  Luckily, Jake
gets happy when he's hypoxic.

 The photo of the tiger is courtesy of Lindsay, Jake's nanny.  She and Jake got to watch the tigers chase the ducks in the pond along the fence, and snack on this one.  Jake thought it was great fun!  I'm not sure in this picture if the tiger is eyeing Jake as dessert, or just making sure no one gets near his duck.

Good times were had during his Grandparents' visit, too.  They watched him for a couple days, and saw much of Montgomery, to include the zoo.  No life lessons from the carnivores this time, though.

Enraptured while riding the zoo train with Grandma.

Jake also took advantage of his Grandpa's height to practice some basketball.  He favors the dunk these days.  This is probably his favorite spot in the neighborhood lately.  It's a little harder for me to get him to the hoop, but he waits patiently under the net for one of us to get him up there.

He's also fond of waiting for elevators, as my parents found out.  It doesn't matter much if it's out of order, or even if the maintenance man stops by to tell Grandpa that it's broken.  Some things are just worth the wait.

Road tripping to Tennessee

Keeping up with Mark on the
Shortsprings trail.

Mark slowed him up momentarily to teach
him about smelling the flowers.

In Tennessee we stopped by Arnold to see some of my old co-workers and friends.  We also got a first rate tour of a farm, a great hike just outside of Tullahoma, and a couple fun nights with Bart and Leslie and fam.  Their daughters introduced Jake to gymnastics, trampolines, ATMs, and I don't know what all else.  Despite it being a short trip, we both had a great time!  Thanks to everyone in beautiful TN!

Then, one day to rest back at home, and off to the coast with Mom. Nice beach, weather, and water!

Don't leave without checking out the tiger video!  You can skip to about 30 seconds in, but turn up the volume.

They Sew Up So Fast

In case you hadn't already heard, Jake got his first stitches last Friday - three in the middle of the forehead.  I missed the event, but he was apparently not too keen on it.  Especially the part where they strapped him down to a board in a baby straight jacket.  Still, by all accounts he did admirably well, and "has the strength of a three year old."  By the next day he was off and running, and didn't pay any attention to his forehead for the next week - we just had to keep him from wrestling his stuffed animals.  This Friday he got the stitches out.  He sat quietly for it, which was a huge relief.  I feared he'd be back on the waterboard again.  Apparently, the week of cleaning the area and changing band-aids paid off, since he got used to letting me mess with his forehead.  The only downside - incoming molars (as best we can tell) put him in a bad mood for the day, and he did some headbanging leading to a slight re-opening.  Not enough to justify more stitches, thankfully.

Laurie hung in there with him through it all, but is clearly the more emotionally scarred of the two.  We passed through "I'm a bad Mom" phase on days 1/2.  The lingering effects are simply her reawakening to the Danger That Is Everywhere.  Not to make too light of it.  We did re-inspect our own home and are trying to get rid of the worst offenders - the many things we didn't worry about before he was sprinting everywhere and had the strength-of-a-3-year-old.  However, the accident happened at a park with Laurie standing right behind him.  I guess in some respects I'm a fatalistic father - I just hope that the many accidents and injuries in his future are learning experiences that we all readily move on from.  Even Laurie has to admit, though, that I worry quite a bit about his safety - just not in the same ways as she. 

An aside - his hair looks combed here.  I have no idea how that happened.

On a happier note, I think, the obsession with balls continues.  In fact, "ball" is the only word he says now, and he says it a lot.  Lots of other sound effects, mind you, but no consistent words except for "ball."  With all the practice, I'd say he's already pretty good at throwing and kicking - relative to a 16 month old, of course.  His strength-of-a-3-year-old (okay, last time) throwing technique does sometimes send him off his feet, of course.

Also, his Nana Mimi is in town for a visit, which is fun for all of us.  I haven't challenged her to my ritual losing game of Scrabble yet, as I'm trying to make ground on a research paper (procrastinating at the moment), but there may be time yet.

To close with, a couple of cute kid shots.  Enjoy!

Pre-stitches - he loves bath time every night!

The bike trailer box - he likes it much more
than the bike trailer.  Drat!

Christmas in Colorado

Jake, as it turns out, already likes Christmas.  So much that he woke up around 2 am and wouldn't go back to sleep.  He didn't care so much about opening presents, but he just knew he'd better be awake to enjoy the day, even if it was still about -20º outside.  Things he did like about Christmas:  trying to pull down the Christmas tree (his Grandpa had secured it to the wall), ornaments (especially bells), and strings of popcorn (mmmmm);  sled rides and snow piles;  gingerbread cookies;  Grandpa's egg nog (well, he would have liked it);  and giving the stuffed animals sled rides inside. Oh, and Grandparents.



Grandpa Tibboel took my place as second favorite, hands down.  Grandma and I settled for 3d and 4th.  It was pretty consistent from the time we showed up - maybe the immense heights were exciting for him - but the ranking got cinched up on the final day when he got to help inspect the dishwasher.  Big times.  Meanwhile, Grandma convinced him that saying "mama" was a good thing again, with a little jig she called the "mama" dance.  Fun for everyone and, hey, it worked!  Maybe I should try the "bicycle" dance - see if I can introduce his first 3-syllable word.

The Stay-Puft snow suit and big-honker snow boots kept him warm, but it took him several days to progress from wadling to running in the snow.  In his defense, he got only limited time outside during most of the first week - it's hard to keep those big ol' cheeks warm!  (yeah, you try to make him wear something on his face)

As for me, I got my one planned day of telemarking in, at Winterpark.  Snow conditions were relatively lousy (much better than 'Bama), but I was worked by the end of the day anyway.  The other days we cross-country skied from the condo, or lazed about.  Never did get Jake down to the nordic center for a ski trailer ride, but judging by his initial reaction to the bike trailer this last week, I'm not sure it would have gone that well anyway.  Especially since with mittens on he has a hard time playing with toys or snacking.  On the flip side, he was amazingly docile - a lump on the proverbial log, even - during sled rides by Grandpa (see the top photo).

Two more photos to share, from before the trip to Colorado (nothing above is in chronological order, anyway).  He got a gift from Nana Mimi and Papa Lyle before we left, which he's been making heavy use of and really enjoying: a table and chairs.  Much of his time with is still just getting in and out of the chairs, but the table is good for eating, playing, talking, thinking, painting, climbing - and more to come, I'm sure.









And finally, just because I like it, a shot from the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, where we stopped before catching our flight to Denver.  The fish, as it turns out, held about the same interest for him as the TV, since he couldn't grab them.  Maybe less, even, since he couldn't turn them on and off.

Happy Holidays!

Hello, fans of Jacob!  I'm done with school until after the New Year, and we head to Colorado shortly to see Grandpa and Grandma Tibboel for Christmas (and of course to ski!).  Should be grand.  The lead in to Christmas has been fun with Jake, for the simple reason that he's fun!







For Thanksgiving we stayed at a little get-away that Maxwell AFB keeps down on the Florida coast (on the inland waterway, anway - a short drive from the real beach).  Their cabins were booked, so we stayed in a single wide - not much to say about that except that Jake couldn't cause too much damage; and it was just a few steps away from a pretty good little beach that Jake loved.  It was hard to keep him out of the water, so mostly we gave up on that.  Notice the wet but in these pictures.

This is on the real coast, Destin FL

Shortly after that was an exciting first for me:  the first time I saw Jake carefully take legos apart (vs the usual destructive swipe) and actually put two together.  It brought a tear to my eye - he really is my boy!  For all those keeping track, mark November 28th as a day to celebrate in Jake's long journey to manhood (or engineer-hood, which really isn't even remotely the same thing).

A little tid-bit that has been a constant since at least the move to Alabama, but that I don't think I've written about before:  it's true that music soothes the beast, but in Jake's case there seems to be only one song.  Anytime he's in the carseat, cranky, tired, and generally fussy, the only near sure bet I've got is "The ants go marching two by two."  No other song works remotely as well, and this one almost without fail calms a crying Jake into a state of quiet contentedness - at least while I keep singing, that is.  The saving grace for me as I sing it over and over again is that he doesn't mind me changing up what it is the little one stops to do each time (admittedly, when they're marching five by five he always stops to do the hand-jive).

As for the rest of this blog, some cute pictures:

Clearly winning a wrestling match with Dad

Halloween pics, finally

I've been chastised for not posting pictures of Jake's award winning costume yet ($25 WalMart gift certificate!). So to satisfy the masses, here's a few. Laurie made the whole costume, to include the 500 lb barbell. Unfortunately, he promptly hid one of the black socks from us (we still haven't found it), so Navy blue had to substitute on Halloween.

On the coffin from Dad's haunted house.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned before how great the neighbors and neighborhood are. One of the neighbors bought a pirate pinata, and all the kids gathered in costume before trick-or-treating for a warm-up candy extravaganza. As the smallest kid, they let Jake hit it first -- the older kids gave a sigh of relief that he didn't break it open too soon, before they got their chance. Almost every kid in that line is a regular out there, and they've all taken a liking to Jake - they look after him pretty well (with some parental supervision, of course). Many of their parents have also gone to great lengths at times (or offered to do so) to help us out. Old house, but living here is pretty good!

Birthday Blog

Yeah!  He made it through year 1, largely unscathed, much bigger, and with lots of new tricks up his sleeve!  As importantly, we survived the colic and have been having a ball with him since then.  Now's the hard part, as I understand it:  Laurie and I now have to figure out how to be good parents beyond just lavishing him with love and play time (we've gotten good at that).  I think my biggest fear at this point is spoiling him.  Where do you draw the line between encouraging exploring his world (including learning to throw balls) and teaching him not to do certain things (like throwing the biggest, heaviest thing he can pick up)?  The good news is we have a lot of great neighbors who seem to be raising some great kids, so I don't have to just read books.  Plus, you'll all weigh in and help us, right?  (I mean that sincerely)

The birthday party was fun, though I complicated it by having a few neighbors and friends (including a few USAFA classmates and their fams) over to grill at the park in our backyard during his afternoon nap, before the party.  I think everyone had a good time, though Laurie and I realized (again) that trying to organize anything and take care of Jake doesn't really work out that well.  He woke up (Laurie thinks I woke him up - not quite true) for the birthday part.  The top pic is him making his way out to the gazebo.  Here he is not having any of his cake.  Not even frosting or rasberries.  He's been generally unwilling to try too much new in the last couple weeks -- just as well with regards to frosting, anyway. 

A few friends disregarded our no-gifts request, so Jake got some help in opening presents.  He was, as might be expected, mostly interested in the bags and the kids helping him.  But he got some great toys that he'll be enjoying over the next year (and one from my Bosnian classmate that he's already into!).





Taking the Not-Too-Far-Back Machine, I've got some good pics from the previous weekend to share.  Over the long weekend, he got to the zoo, the fair, a fun-farm (not sure what else to call it), and a hike in Tuskegee National Forest.

Arriving at the farm.  The first time since about
3 months old that he's slept in my arms.

 The corn box.  Infinitely cooler than a sand box.  I'm going to have my own some day.




















 He can't reach the pedals yet, but is an otherwise champion tractor driver.

We did elephant day at the zoo.  The outfit is from Aunt
Twyla and Uncle Greg in India.  (click on the pic for a
better view of the shirt)

Getting so big.  Yet so small.

During our hike, he got a little tired of sitting in the backpack, but he loved walking in the woods on his own two feet! Pinecones were an amazing discovery.

First Haircut

Last Tuesday (Sep 27) was a mini-milestone.  Not so much for Jake as for us - we finally let someone cut his hair.  Which was cute, but out of control.  Now it's shorter and out of control.  Wavy, curly, and what-not.  Anyway, he doesn't mind, and neither do we, but now I don't feel like a as a bad parent walking my unkempt kid around the grocery store (interestingly, I have no qualms about letting him run up and down the cooler isles putting his hands and occasionally mouth on the glass doors - I figure no one else is touching down there.  should be clean.  right?!?).  Without further ado, before and after pictures:

Hey, Babe.  Wanna go for a ride
and toussle my golden locks?

Rose is cool, but I'm not
digging the cape.

Rose!  How could you?!?

 

Okay.  Older girls still dig me.
I can deal with this.

In other news from Jake-land (this is pretty stale by now), all his grandparents visited in early September, though it was all pretty quick. Still, we had a brief mini-reunion, and I got an Iowa pork chop and some corn on the cob in the deal!  The timing was good, too:  they got to see him just after he'd started walking.

The Alley in Montgomery

Since that visit, he's kept getting better at walking.  The worst of the bruises are dissipating, and we're amazed by how much he can push around (examples:  the ottoman, a full recycle bin).  He's got 'getting down' figured out (off the bed, off the couch, down the stairs), and actually tries to be constructive at times.  Though trying to stack blocks and the like is clearly more frustrating - sometimes it's still easier and more fun just to knock things over.  Sharing is pretty easy, and he's starting to get that, too - at least with us.

As a closing note, Jake's Great Grandma Cornelia Tibboel passed away on September 9.  Although Jake won't remember her, we're glad she got to spend some time with him earlier this year.  We'll miss her, and think daily of Great Grandpa Tibboel as he deals losing his partner of over 66 years.