Happy Birthday Day Jakob!!

Today you turn two my Jake. I can hardly believe how time has flown. Watching you grow up has been such a joy! I don't even know where to start...

You are wonderful! You have such a sweet disposition, you smile and flirt with everyone. You are generally a happy boy, you enjoy life and you love your family. You dance to music and make up your own songs. You are speaking in pretty complete sentences, I love listening to you describe your world. You are currently saying, "Wow, look at that..." and then telling us what you see. We love watching you explore your world. You are very expressive and you feel things deeply. With that come some fits...you aren't a fan of being told no. You jump up and down and yell no! or I don't want to! You love to say that, 'I don't want to', to anything we ask you to do. So, we explain that we didn't ask if you wanted to...sometimes a time out helps. I think everyone need sometime to cry, yell and get out their feelings and calm down. It's good for you to express yourself and know that those emotions are normal just not appropriate at all times. Ok, anyway, you are a great kid. We love hanging out with you, taking you places and having fun. You are wearing size 3T clothes and size 7 shoes...you have pretty big feet. You like to pick out your clothes, really you have an opinion on most things. You are loving this Christmas season. You love Christmas Trees, "look, big Christmas Tree" and you talk to them like they are real...you explain things to our Christmas tree and you love to show Teddy the Christmas Tree. Oh yeah, Teddy. You have become seriously attached to Teddy, he's this cute brown teddy bear that I got for my 10th birthday from my Grandma and Grandpa. You have dressed him in a T-shirt and take him with you everywhere. You talk to him and play with him, you love your Teddy! 

You still take a nap everyday for about two hours and you sleep about 11 hours at night (sometimes more). You are sleeping in a big boy bed and have recently learned how to open the door handles in our house so you wake us up by coming into our room in the morning or jiggling the door handle. Now I have to figure out how to keep you in your room, we have those leaver kind of door knobs...which are nearly impossible to baby proof...the baby locks for them require you to glue something to the door...not going to happen. Oh, well. We are trying to teach you to stay in your room. This is why parents keep kids in cribs until they are older...so they understand to stay in bed...you are a little young to understand invisible boundaries but you do pretty well. You go right to sleep at night. I hope that as time goes on you will learn to stay in bed even after you wake up. You are such a big boy, wanting to do big boy things. Except for today, you are insisting that you are one!! Funny boy. 

Well, we are starting a new tradition with you. Every year we are going to ask you some questions. I think it will be fun to see how your answers change over the years. So here are your answers...

Yearly Interview with Jakob:

What is your favorite color? 

Green (you have gone through a few favorite colors but this is your current favorite)

What is your favorite toy? 

Cars (any kind really but you love your hot wheels) 

What is your favorite TV show? 

Bubble Guppies (You love this show and it doesn't totally annoy me, which is nice. You also really like Calliou.)

What is your favorite food? 

Mac n' Cheese and waffles (I think you said waffles because you were eating your birthday waffles)

What is your favorite treat? 

M&M's and Hot Chocolate (you are currently obsessed with M&M's the plain or peanut butter kind.)

What is your favorite drink? 

Chocolate Milk and Lemonade (you kept insisting lemonade but you always ask for Chocolate Milk) 

What do you want to be when you grow up? 

Teddy Bear (Your first answer was a Teddy Bear, you said Teddy's make people feel better, until I gave you some examples and then your said "Firefighter....weoo...weoo...(siren sound)"

What is one thing you do awesomely?

Color (you actually told me this and you do color awesomely!)

What are three words to describe you? 

Smart, Silly and Pretty (The first two I said and you agreed but the last one you came up with on your own...spending too much time with Mommy!)

What is one thing you dislike? 

Having my mouth wiped...(again, I came up with this are you agreed)

What is your favorite book? 

Bible Stories...(I told you to grab your favorite book and this is the one you grabbed!)

What is your favorite band/song? 

This little light of mine (you hold up your little light and sing with me, you love to blow our the light or cover it with a bushel!)

What is your favorite thing to learn about? 

Cars (you love to learn about types of cars, your daddy loves that you know different cars and he loves teaching you about them.)

What makes you happy? 

Being with family (when I asked you this question you said Mommy and Daddy)

What makes you sad? 

When people leave (you mumbled peoples names and said bye-bye) 

What is your favorite thing to do with Dad? 

Work on cars (you came up with this answer quick and your eyes lit up, you started talking about painting Daddy's wheels)

What is your favorite thing to do with Mom? 

Color (this answer surprised me, I'm not sure what I thought you would answer but this makes me smile, we color together all the time and I'm glad you enjoy it as much as I do!)

Who is your best friend? 

Teddy Bear (You love this bear!!) 

It surprised me how well you answered these questions. I asked you in spurts so you didn't get overwhelmed and when you got distracted I let you but whenever I would tell you I was going to ask you some questions you got excited. You were so proud of your answers. I think this yearly tradition will be fun!

Today we spent the day: eating birthday waffles, watching Bubble Guppies, playing cars, coloring with markers and eating a special birthday lunch! 

Tomorrow is your second party, you are pretty excited, you love parties! 

So, here's to you, the coolest two year old I know. We are so excited for all the growing you will do and the boy you are becoming! We love you!

Love, 

Mommy/ still slightly in denial that you are two!!

Quote:

"Brush the waffles out" - Jakob

We had waffles for dinner tonight. At bed time we were brushing your teeth, you stopped, pointed to your mouth and said this...

It cracked me up...oh, the things you say...I love it. 

Growing Up

Hey Jake, 

This is your last week as a one year old. It's hard to believe how much you have changed this year. You learned how to walk, talk, form sentences, run, throw a fit, flirt (although I'm pretty sure you war born knowing how to do this), stack blocks, beat box (daddy is trying to teach you), dance, sing songs. You became a person, with real emotions and desires. You became a little boy...you are no longer a baby. In some ways I am sad about you growing up so quickly but you are such a joy. Even when you pitch a fit. I love that you are learning to express your self and that you are figuring out your emotions. You are becoming quite the delightful little boy. You are so polite, smart and loving. We grow to love you more each day Jake, you are such a gift. We just try to soak up every moment with you...your daddy and I adore you!! And we know you are going to be such a great big brother! 

So, here we go...almost 2...Holy Crap!! I can't believe it!!

Love, Mommy/ slow down on the growing up ok?!

Angel Breakfast

Hey Jake, 

Your Nana and Papa's Church has this Christmas event for little ones at their church called, "Angel Breakfast". It a fun event where the youth girls dress up like angles, serve the families breakfast, we take pictures with Mary and Joseph, make a craft and pet some awesome animals. So this year, you were old enough to go! Your Daddy and I have played Mary and Joseph at this event before. We were so excited to get to do this with you. Plus, it's a big thing for Grandparents too...they get to show you off!! 

This is you talking to one of our Angels...Ali!

You and your Nana

I'm not sure what face you are making here...but this is our cute family!

You and your Papa

Petting a goat

"animals mama!!"

Chasing some ducks...these poor ducks, kids just chased them around all morning!

Brushing Donna the Donkey

Daddy, Mommy, you and our Angels (Ali and Addison)

Love this picture...going to make our craft!

Daddy helping you make your manger scene craft...you did a great job helping...you even got creative and glued hay to the cows and sheep...you said they were eating!...we had a great time crafting together!

We finished our craft early and got to color...your favorite!

At story/song time we had you stay with us instead of going up on stage with the older kids. To keep you busy and quiet you ate fruit snacks. 

We sang some Christmas songs...as we were singing Silent Night and you started clapping and singing your own little song...it was so cute!

I love this picture of you talking to Nana. 

You had a great time at Angel Breakfast...it was such a joy to share this experience with you and your Grandparents! 

I love Christmas time and all the fun stuff that comes along with it!! 

Love, 

Mommy/ Excited to share this time with you!

Look Like Daddy

Look how cute you are! You look so much like your daddy with his glasses on. You think it's funny to play with Daddy's glasses. You learned early on to not touch them but now you love trying them on. 

You are too cute my boy!!

Decorating The Tree!

Hey Jake, 

We decorated our tree today...you had a great time! Here are some pictures of our time...

You were so good about being gentle with the ornaments

 You tried to shove the ornaments on the tree...

 But you quickly learned how to hang them...and then asked, "more ornaments please!"

 You really did a great job...

 Look how cute you are...very focused!

 You enjoyed yourself too!

"Shinny!"

 Our Tree...you were sad when we were done.

 Merry Christmas!

This Christmas season has been great so far. It's so much fun with you running around, amazed by everything.  It's such a joyful time and we love sharing it with you!

Love, 

Mommy/ loved decorating the tree with you...next year you will be three and have a brother!

Christmas Tree Hunting

To get Christmas started in Grandma and Grandpas house we go Christmas tree hunting! It's been a life long tradition for me and something that I'm so excited for you to experience too!
The place we used to go when I was young was far away and had this scary cliff we had to drive next to. The place we go now is in Holister...a city just south of us. Its a short drive and this place is owned and run by a great family, us there is a bunch of stuff for you to do...besides run around in the dirt!
Here is our journey Christmas tree hunting...

First...you are not a fan of Santa, I don't blame you, he's a strange man in a funny outfit...

Then, You grabbed a saw (a kid saw with a plastic blade...I'm a good mom I promise!)

And we were on our way

Then we debated which one was the best...tall enough...full enough

You were just excited to chop a tree down with your saw!

Then you got a little bored and you and daddy went exploring...when you sit on your daddy's shoulders you either play with his beard/side burns or you stick your fingers in his ears...it's just you loving your daddy

Daddy intimidating the trees...

Then we found it...the tree we got was a little stubborn and Santiago helped us chop it down...with a chainsaw, which you loved

Then we waited, the guys put our tree on the shaker and then bagged it and helped us get it on the car.

Jack, you were here too...you are about 27 weeks old here

After we got our tree we went on a tractor sleigh ride

You were pretty excited...

You loved watching the tractor!

I love this picture...just a sweet moment

And I can't get enough of this picture...you were talking to us and plopped your head down...so cute!

After the tractor ride we went to the petting zoo...

It was quite a fun day...you really enjoyed yourself.

I keep thinking back to last year...you were almost 1 and not walking, now you are running around, speaking in sentences! What a difference a year makes.

Jack you were here too...and next year you will have a great time with your brother! I can't wait!!