"HELLO!"

This cracks me up!! He's figured out how to make the ringer work on this old cordless phone. Hilarious!!

No matter where we are, if he he hears a phone ring, he yells, "Hello!" The dude at the car repair shop said that they'd hire him to answer the phones. He had everyone in the waiting room laughing--he all but screamed "Hello!" every time their service phone rang.

Big Wheels Keep On Turnin'

The kid is utterly fascinated with trucks, cars and wheels. The bigger the vehicle, the bigger the response. God help him if he sees a semi. You'd think he was having a heart attack. He points as hard as he can and says, "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" and will continue to make the exclamation until you acknowledge him.

When we go walking around the neighborhood, he runs up to all the vehicles, especially trucks, points at their wheels and says, "Wheel, Wheel" over and over until, again, you acknowledge the wheel. He comes home with grimy, greasy hands from molesting unsuspecting cars and trucks parked in driveways.

On one of our most recent walks, he saw a truck to beat all trucks parked in a driveway. I didn't see it at first, but I could tell judging by his emphatic "Whoas!" that it was an impressive truck. And, boy, was it! It was a giant Penske moving truck. We spent a good 30 minutes walking around the truck, over and over, pointing out the wheels and hubcaps and making sure to touch all the lights.

So, today, what should he get in the mail but a toy NY City cab from Grandpaula!! He freaked out while I took it out of it's bubble wrapping, and once he got his little hands on it, he's yet to put it down! He has driven it over every surface in the house, every surface outside and in the car. He's figured out how to open the trunk and the doors. He sat with it while we read our 2 stories before bed and he was so reluctant to part with it upon night-night time that I let him take it to bed with him.
(the mismatched shoes were his idea) Good job, Grandpaula!! You sent the perfect toy at the perfect time!! Sadly, I'm going to confiscate it and keep it hidden until Wednesday, when we're on the plane headed to NC. Isn't that awful?? But hey, a girl's gotta do......

(Oh, and thanks for the Biscoffs! They should get me through the evening.)

I went to the Animal Fair

We decided to head over to the Tulsa Zoo once it got warm. Boy, what an interesting day. I don't know if Brian and I enjoyed the animal-watching nearly as much as we enjoyed the people-watching. Truly, folks, there are some skanky people out there.

Anyway, Dolly was not really interested in the animals at all. In fact, he wasn't interested in anything much past running around. I mean, even when we go to the park or the playground at the mall, he doesn't want to play on the toys there; he wants to take off and explore. So, we let him run around at the zoo while Brian and I snickered to ourselves about the people around us.

Finally, we got fed up with having to chase him in and out of exhibits, got fed up apologizing to everyone, and plopped him in his stroller, graham cracker in hand.

We thought he'd be interested in the animals that were loose in the petting zoo. Nope. Just wanted to stand on the benches.

Brian and I were frustrated with him initially. Here we drove 1 1/2 hours to the zoo, to see lions and monkeys and bears and all he wanted to do was run around. Once we came to terms with the fact that he's just too young to care about these things outside of books, we all had a much better time.

As for the people-watching, that was well worth the trip!

February

My, my, my, I have yet to blog about our February adventures--and it's March!!

Let's begin with the week of Valentine's Day. What a great week! First Jacob gets sick with a nasty stomach bug, then me, then Brian. Make no mistake, this was sheer misery. The misery carried us through the week until my Dad and Paula got here on the weekend. As a special Valentine's Day surprise, they got Jacob this ABC Train. Just what we need around here: more stuff to push around (which translates into more stuff that I have to pick up at the end of the day) and more stuff that lights up and makes noise (which translates into more silly kid songs that I learn and find myself singing at random times during the day--"Happily we chug along, learning letters, singing songs. Happily we chug along, on the train."). Sigh. Jacob was still cranky and crabby throughout the weekend. Dad and Paula were good sports to put up with his fussiness!I guess we were do a sick spell. Jacob really hasn't been sick, save for minor ear infections here and there. Really, I don't even know how to take his temperature. So, I guess we were due.February was kinda a landmark month, though. Jacob turned 18 months! Wow! A year-and-a-half! Hard to believe. He's 27lbs and is off the chart for his height. Can't remember the exact measurement, but off the chart, folks!

Then, he and Brian took off in a plane to N.C.--I've already blogged about this event, but it bears repeating how thankful I am to Mike and Nancy for keeping the little guy while I put in some extra time at work and Brian put in some time taking a really hard test (results to be know at the beginning of April).

So, that was our February. I've noticed that beginnings of the year historically haven't been very good to Brian and me. '08 began with significant car repairs. '09 has begun with illness and medical bills. Here's to hoping that the year gets better!

Lawn Boy

Now that it's warming up, you will undoubtedly need someone to mow your yard. I've got the perfect person...Dolly!!

All you gotta do is call him up on his cell,

set up a time and he'll be there.

Give him some time to check his equipment And he'll be mowing your yard in no time!

It's imperative that you allow him to conduct his yard-mowing business as he wishes. He's going to need to look around, check to see if the ground is solid, say hello to the neighbor dog, make sure Jodie has rolled around enough to get just the right amount of grass on her and inspect the spigot to make sure it's in good working order. Just go with it.

His fee? He just wants to be able to brush and lean on your dog (and maybe pull its tail, but we won't talk about that).

His grandmom just got him a book called "Tails are not for pulling." So, we're working on it.

So, give him a call, won't you?

Boy, was I wrong!

For the record

I just want to go on record as having said that I think that I'm having a girl. We'll know for sure tomorrow. Keep in touch!