Happy Halloween

Many more pictures to come...but Jake wanted to wish you a ROARRRRRING Halloween this morning!

Imagination Parade

Jake's daycare center has a yearly Imagination Parade for the kids. Each year the center has a theme, and then each room picks something within the theme, and they MAKE costumes for all of the kids to wear. The theme this year was Nursery Rhymes, and Jake's room picked "Little Miss Muffet", so all of the kids were SPIDERS. The teachers tie-dyed white shirts (they did dye them black...but once washed, they all turned purple), and then the kids made head bands with pipe cleaners sticking out for spider legs. I only saw ONE kid actually wearing the hat, so most of Jake's class looked like a group of kids in purple shirts with a bright red spider sticker stuck on their tummy's, but it was a very cute idea.

The kids walked around the block, and then tried to sit together for a group photo. Jake got so excited to sit on the big boy bench in the middle of all of his friends, that he started swaying back and forth with excitement...and boom...he went head first over the bench smack into the pavement RIGHT as all of the parents were taking great group pictures. Somehow the kid walked away without a scrape, but boy...it was hard to watch (and we have it on video!)!

Halloween begins...

My wonderful department has a yearly Halloween party where all friends and family are invited to The Gap for games, pictures, costume contests and the famed pie eating contest. It has been especially fun now that I get to bring Jake to the office all dressed up to meet my coworkers and friends. This year, Jake is a LION for Halloween. Today was kind of the dry run of the costume for the big day on Sunday, and surprisingly Jake wasn't tearing the head piece off the entire time, and instead was having quite a great time running around the Gap hallways.

Let's Win Giants!

Jake is wearing his Giants gear again today, in honor of the Giants making it to the World Series (thank you Darcy's for the great shirt by the way!!). Jake also loves to wear Papa's hats now...he gets quite upset when I try to take them off! Such a Papa's boy already...wearing the sports gear, watching the games, eating his raisins (ok...josh wouldn't go near raisins)!

First Swim Lessons!

We'd been talking about enrolling Jake for months, so with Josh and I both trying to get back to the gym more often, we finally signed Jake up as well. The YMCA in the Presidio near us has a fantastic pool facility, with an entire little person pool that is nice and warm and shallow. We enrolled Jake in the Shrimp class, and joined 7 other Moms/Dads & Babies for a "get acquainted with water" type lesson. Jake turned out to be the oldest in the class, but he seemed to really enjoy it. They did lots of water movements to songs, including to his favorite- The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round. I was not allowed to take pictures, but I had to sneak ONE since it was his FIRST lesson!

First Haircut!

It's been time for quite a long time...Jake really needed a haircut. He is almost 17 months old, and still has had nothing but Mom snipping a few long hairs off in the back. So, we walked into this salon that I had driven by hundreds of time in Burlingame and is just for kids...and what do you know, but they had just had a cancellation, so they showed us right in! Caryn sat us right down, plopped Jake on my lap, and away she went. Besides a tiny bit of grumbles at the very beginning, Jake was quite a star, sitting quietly (he was quite enthralled with the 10 year old boy sitting next to him). All in all, it was quick and painless and Jake looks like such a Little Man now!

Go Giants!

Jake is in the spirit...let's see those Giants win tonight!!

Pumpkin Carving

Tis the season...for Pumpkin Carving!!! It's something that I used to do every year with my Dad and Sister...and I just have to carve at least one pumpkin every year to carry on the tradition. My wonderful friend Brie shares my love of pumpkin carving, and so she joined Erica and I (and Jake) for a evening of pumpkin carving.

I didn't get too much time to carve, as Jake was ALL about getting his hands in my pumpkin. I'm so excited to carry on the fun tradition every year with Jake going forward.

(and yes...he was wearing his pirate PJs to get him in the Halloween spirit...and it worked!!)

(Erica made the gorgeous pumpkin in the middle, and Brie made the great Giants pumpkin on the left)

"shopping" as a Mom

Well...let's just say that one of my favorite past times, shopping, happens VERY rarely now. If I can't find something in one of the fine stores on Chestnut street near our home, I basically don't ever get anything fun any more. Yes, yes...I do some how find ways to continue to buy cute clothes for Jake (thank you online shopping), but shopping for items for ME just doesn't seem to happen (hence...the reason that I had to wear the SAME black and white dress to three weddings this summer as well as to my reunion...AHH). Basically both Jake AND Josh hate to shop, and get bored instantly, and I never actually get an afternoon to myself to play anymore (part of being a Mom I guess!). On Sunday we happened upon an Old Navy store while we were running errands, and thanks to the fantastic kids section with loud music, balls to throw and fun lights, I actually got 15 minutes to myself to roam the store. It was great...although, of course, Jake ended up with the most things, but I DID find a super cute winter jacket for myself...yeah!
Here are my boys occupying themselves:

16 months old is so much fun!

The last few weeks have been so AMAZING to watch. Jake has all of a sudden started picking up words and actually conversing with us on a normal basis. He is also super interested in puzzles, and he can actually put them all together, all by himself. We feel like he has just grown by leaps and bounds this month, and we can't wait to see what the near future brings =)
One of our favorite games is the animal sound game. Here Jake makes most of the animal sounds that he knows....yes, it is hard to catch him ever sitting still these days though, so he it may be difficult to actually hear him in the video, as he of course is wandering around the room...:

School Picture Day

So, Josh thinks I'm crazy for insisting on buying Jake's school picture each year when he is so young....but I just can't resist! For class picture day this year, Jake ended up taking a VERY serious picture. We're not sure if he was just in a bad mood because of the new shoes that Mama put on him hurt too badly (the poor guy really was limping for three days after he wore those new shoes to school...need to look into that Stride Rite brand!) or if he was just scared of the cameraman. I do have to admit, for this year, we do take much better pictures of him ourselves....but how was I supposed to know??
The class picture is hysterical. Apparently they brought in a REAL puppy to make the kids smile. ALL of the kids in the front row are literally leaning forward ready to run to the dog any second. The kid in the middle is Arthur...you know that one that Jake loves to talk about (I think he was especially interested in the doggy because he really is usually quite smiley).

Front row kids (the back row are mostly all new kids who I actually don't know yet!): Oliver (Oliver LOVES to talk to Jake- they are the two big talkers of the room, Maya (she likes to give Jake love taps in the face when he gets too close to her), Arthur (Jake's favorite), Jake and Jacob (this kid has two parents who are over 6 feet tall...makes Jake look like a shrimp).

Jake the pirate

Jake and I headed over to the Discovery Museum on Saturday while Papa had to watch the Cal game. It happened to be the Goblin Jamboree, so the entire place was decked out with Halloween games and booths. Jake didn't quite know what to do with all of the Halloween stuff, as he was most interested in playing on the old "pirate ship". Next year we'll get him dressed up and head back over there, as he will just LOVE it next year for sure!

Sleeping..

I rarely get to watch a sleeping baby during the day anymore...had to take a few pics

(Mom....why do i have to wake up to that camera in my face!!)

More pics from the 10 year reunion

Just wanted to post more pictures from the 10 year reunion (all taken by wonderful Brie). It really was a great time!

Jake and Erica

Jake has taken to Erica like she had never left...very sweet to watch. It was great fun taking the day off work to watch my Mom and Sister play with my son for the day. Granddad even stopped by as well!!
We're so glad that you're home Erica!!!

Surprise..Tia Erica is home!!!!

Well...boy did we surprise Nana first thing this morning. My sister Erica has been gone for a YEAR, and somehow I convinced her to come home without telling Mom and Dad, for a big SURPRISE! We never ever get to surprise them, so we thought it would be so much fun! So, Erica wrote up an entire fake itinerary of her flight plan so that they wouldn't get suspicious, and her and I devised a whole plan..... So...she actually arrived here in SF on Tuesday night, and we were SO excited to see her after an entire year away. She really hasn't seen Jake since he was six months old, although this blog has certainly kept her up to date. My parents were on a trip until Wednesday night, so we figured that the best way to tell them that she was home, was to wait for my Mom to come up for her normal Jake day on Thursday. So...we plotted and role-played the entire encounter much of Wednesday night in anticipation.
Needless to say, this morning was a SUCCESS!! She really was incredibly surprised, and we got it all on tape!!
But, most of all...WELCOME HOME TIA ERICA!!!!

Playing with Tessa

Little Tessa, our upstairs neighbor's 11 month old daughter, is now getting old enough to interact with Jake. It's quite adorable watching them flirt with each other through our glass front door whenever she goes by to get into her home. Last week Tessa and Dan stopped by to play, and it was fascinating to watch Jake interact. As Jake is obsessed with reading books, he of course wanted Dan to read him a story. Poor Tessa wanted in on the action as well, so both of them climbed onto Dan's lap and sat together for a story...very very sweet to watch. It's going to be so fun watching them truly play together as Tessa starts to walk in the coming months...not sure who is going to be chasing whom!

Fleet Week

Our neighborhood was CRAZY this weekend, with thousands of people coming in to watch the air shows each day. Sunday we spent much of the afternoon down at the water, walking around and watching the air show ourselves. The Blue Angels are always amazing, and Jake was actually quite interested in calmly watching them. Jake also enjoyed running around all of the army vehicles on display, and giving High-5s to the soldiers.

10 Year Reunion!

Wow...yep...I've hit that milestone...it was my TEN year college reunion at Santa Clara this weekend. We actually had a fantastic time catching up with many old friends. Saturday afternoon was a family picnic, with jumpy houses, petting zoo and food....Jake had a wonderful time (pictures to come). Saturday night, thanks to Grandma Lee Lee and Grandpa Bill, Josh and I had our first REAL night out since Jake was born. It was just wonderful of them to watch Jake for the evening, into the wee hours of the morning, and Josh and I (well, especially me) had a fantastic time dining and dancing with some of my best pals in the whole world!

There will be many more pictures added, but I only got this one below on my camera. Here I am with some of the best girls EVER!

16 Months Old today

Yep...our Little Man is 16 months old today! Can't quite believe it.

Some stats at 16 months old:

Favorite food: Grapes (went through a blueberry phase, then a strawberry phase, now it's all about grapes!). Of course...mac and cheese is his #1 fav, but grapes are a close second

New words: Car, "No Way!", Purple, Roarrrr, Turtle, "Howryou?"

Bad Idea

With the weather turning colder, and Josh much more busy or away in the evenings/weekends, I've been trying to find random new activities to do indoors with my busy-busy boy. Yesterday I thought we could play with a big bowl of marshmallows (practice putting small things into cups/bowls, scooping/pouring small items, fun textures...etc). Well...Jake cooperated for a whole 5 minutes, before my little project turned into this:

Yeah Papa!

Josh ran the Bridge to Bridge race here in SF this morning. Despite the early morning rain, he got up early and ran the 12K like a champ. Jake and I cheered along the way, and found him at the end. Papa even carried Jake across the finish line...SOO cute!!