BFF

Jacob has a large and diverse repository of friends:

his cool cousin, Macie,

businessman William

and rocker Alex.
And the ladies:


lovely Lanie,




lean Lauren



and Little-Bo-Peep Marissa.




All of these relationships pale in comparison to the love between Jacob and his BFF:


ROOMBA!

Ahhhh, Roomba!!. How Jacob loves thee.

But Roomba can be a fickle friend. Here, Jacob goes to greet Roomba. A friendly "Hello", if you will. And then watch how Roomba abandons him, leaving Jacob to crawl after him.

This next footage is not suitable for the weak-at-heart, those with pacemakers or IBS. What you are about to see is horrendous, heart-breaking. Roomba leaves Jacob in the lurch.

All's fair in love and war. Roomba does take a lot of patting and climbing on from Jacob.

I guess that's what friendships are all about: give and take.

There this one friend, though, that Jacob just can't seem to get along with. Ok. Jacob downright hates him. Who? This guy:

Looks like a jerk, doesn't he? To be honest, everyone in the toy box has problems with guy. Dog-in-the-tractor-guy just thinks that he's soooooo cool. I mean, he's a bully. Watch here as Jacob and Roomba are trying to play, and Dog-in-the-tractor-guy keeps butting in. Soooo obnoxious.

He's got this holier-than-thou attitude just because he can go fast. Well, enough is enough. Here, Jacob's decided he's not going to take it anymore. I don't usually condone violence, but I told Jacob to pick up and throw Dog-in-the-tractor-guy next time he bothers him and Roomba. And that's exactly what happened.

Maybe that's the wrong thing to teach a child. I mean, I don't go throwing Brian every time he annoys me. That'd be too tiring. I guess we should be working on conflict resolution. Yeah, I need to re-think my approach with Jacob and Dog-in-the-tractor-guy. Anybody out there have suggestions on how to reason with two things that don't possess reasoning capabilities? I'm all ears.

In the meantime, Jacob will focus his affections on Roomba. All's right with the world when Roomba's around.

I've been everywhere, man!

Wow! What a crazy past 11 days it's been. Let's begin with our trip to Florida to visit Grandad and Grandpaula.

Jacob and I went to yet another aeropuerto to fly solo, again, to visit the 3rd set of grandparents. Isn't he a lucky boy to have 3 sets of the great gift-givers, rule-breakers, spoilers-of-the-worst-kind in his life? Not sure if this setup will bode well for Brian and me.

Anyway, our flights to Florida were great! No big events to blog about. Oh, except for Jacob continuously kicking the seat of the gentleman in front of us, prompting him to turn around and give us a look.

Jacob didn't care. He just kept right on. Looks smooks.

We landed in Florida and were greeted by Grandad. Jacob's such a good share-er (unlike his mom) and let Grandad wear his favorite hat right off the bat.

The two of them spent lots of time in the pool together, cracking jokes and chillin'.Ok. We have to be honest. Jacob wasn't exactly pumped about the temperature of the pool. It had rained a lot in sunny Florida, leaving the pool less than tepid. Enter Grandpaula. She used her magic charm and wooed Jacob into enjoying himself.He even allowed me to chauffeur him around the pool.Brian made the trek to Florida a day later. He and Jacob commenced to being goofy together (what else is new?).And, to top off the whole trip, my Dad & Paula and Brian flew in my best friend, Julie, from Brooklyn!! A BIG surprise, belated 30th birthday present for me!! Julie, you're so sneaky!!Jacob and I hadn't seen her since October. So, he decided to show off for his Auntie Julie by demonstrating his mad, crazy crawling skills.She was impressed! See, the last time Julie saw Jacob, he cried pretty much all the time. I explained to her that not much has changed. Ok, well, he can crawl and he's got teeth, but he still pretty much fusses all the time. But he's still really, really cute!
Julie and I ran a 5k in the muggy Florida heat. Here Dolly (yes, I call him "Dolly") and I are at the finish line.I would have won the race but I had to run the 3.1 miles with Jacob on my hip. He's become quite clingy lately and refused to part from me. So, I came 2nd. Julie was a close 3rd. She didn't want to upstage me, with it being my birthday weekend and all. Our times? I ran the race under 12 minutes; Julie under 13. It seems that running with Jacob adds about 4 minutes to my time. The sacrifices a mother makes.

Brian and I celebrated our 6-year-anniversary over the weekend. Grandad and Grandpaula were nice enough to entertain little man so that Brian and I could have a romantic outing, consisting of dinner at Wendy's and watching The Strangers. There's nothing like a salad and baked potato and a gruesome horror movie to commemorate an anniversary.

While the cat's away, the mouse will play:

We decided to test Jacob's self-feeding skills by putting him in a turtle or umpire suit (you decide) and making him eat a waffle. You never know when you'll have 4 to 5 inch thick padding strapped to you. We were teaching Jacob survival skills.This challenge, he informed us, was mere child's play.

Visits go by so fast! Grandad, Jacob and I posed for our last set of pictures before boarding the plane back to Arkansas.

A big thank-you to Dad & Paula for being such wonderful hosts!! We all had a great time!!

Flights home were a-w-f-u-l!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Jacob was a-w-f-u-l!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 'Nuf said.

Jacob, Brian and I then went to Springfield, MO for 3 nights. While at the Discovery Center, Jacob and I heard the tornado sirens. We quickly loaded up in the car and began driving back to the hotel, in search of the storm. It was very scarey driving through the tornado, but we did it! We've been talking about becoming storm chasers. Not sure, though. Need to look into our insurance policies first.

So, yeah. Jacob has been pretty much any place you can name. Carolina Beach, North Carolina? Check. Kernersville, North Carolina? Check. Greensboro, North Carolina? Check. Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas? Check. Homossa, Florida? Check. Guatemala in utero? Check. Belize in utero? Check. Yes, they count, too!

My favorite picture of Jacob

This is awful, but I wanted to post this picture of Jacob. It's my absolute favorite picture of him thus far. I think it does a great job capturing his essence.

Story behind the pic: I was trying to get him to hold up this sign thanking his Grammy and Grampy for some clothes that they bought him. Each time I put this sign near him, he would scream, grab it out of my hand, crumple it and throw it down. Not sure why.

I crack up each time I see this picture! Probably because this is what I see and deal with on a regular basis. I'm a saint, I know.

We're going to Kansas City...

...Kansas City here we come!

So, my 30th birthday came and went without a hitch. Well, there was one hitch: TURNING 30!! Good Lord! Anyway, Brian surprised Jacob and me with a trip to Kansas City. I was a little nervous about my active and squirmy child riding in a car for 4+ hours. But he didn't seem to mind:

Actually, he minded quite a bit. I just didn't take pictures of those times. Too busy handing him toys, food and anything else to appease him. And he's already broken in this new car seat. Yep, already peed in it and everything.

Jacob insisted that Brian and I make a pit stop at McDonald's. He was adamant that Brian have a hot fudge Sundae. I think it's because he wanted a bite or two of ice cream. Then he wanted to sit outside a while and pat the picnic tables. He's into patting things nowadays.

Since he likes to pat things, I thought maybe he could grow up and be a baker and bake me some Oreos. I need to research baking schools and see if any specialize in Oreos.

We arrived in Kansas City and headed to one of my most favorite restaurant genres: bar-b-q. Brian was really looking forward to inhaling some famous KC meat. I was denied service, as it is "strict policy not to serve anyone over age 11 anything from the kids' menu." And since I don't eat meat, and the peanut butter and jelly sandwich on the kids' menu was my only option, I went without. In the 12+ years that I've been a vegetarian, I've never had this happen. I enjoyed my water and watching Brian woof down pulled flesh.

Anyway, on to the hotel. Brian booked us a room in a very swanky hotel in downtown KC. Unfortunately, the room didn't get dark enough in the evenings for Jacob to sleep soundly, so we dealt with a cranky infant all day Saturday. I was impressed, however, with how well he pitched in to help keep the room clean. Something about how he didn't feel that it was right to make the maids have to pick up after us. So, here he is helping to make the bed:

I tell you, if this kid is always this happy when it comes to cleaning up and keeping an orderly house, I will be in heaven!

We spent all day Saturday touring the amazing Farmer's Market (I'm such a sucker for plants, flowers and Oreos) and sightseeing.

Except for the all-vegetarian restaurant, we didn't fare very well at dinner times. We attempt to eat at a Mongolian grill Saturday night. I absolutely love Mongolian grills (and Oreos) and was so soooo excited about this prospect but Jacob had other plans for us. It turns out that napping off and on in the stroller throughout the day is no substitute for a solid 1 to 1 1/2 hr. nap in a dark room with a crib and white noise. So, by the time we arrived at the Mongolian grill, he was done. He let it be known that he was not going to sit in the high chair by screaming and not bending his knees. Sitting on my lap, he told me (and everyone else in the place), was not going to work either. What would work, he said, was for us to leave, go by Wendy's, order a salad and baked potato off of the 99 cents menu and have dinner in the hotel room. His arguments are very compelling and we decided that this was the best option.

Jacob slept better the 2nd night. Brian and I were awakened bright and early Sunday morning by little man and we decided that it'd be best if we headed home. Jacob slept the majority of the way which really helped to recharge my patience.

I've decided that when Jacob's older, I'm going to insist that he apologize for his behavior at the Mongolian restaurant and explain to him that he can right this wrong with some good 'ol Oreos. After all, they are mine (and milk's) favorite cookie!