My kid wants to party all the time...

It's been a busy summer for Jacob, with all of the parties and all. Don't worry, he's always home by curfew: 7p.m. sharp!


The summer kicked off with pool party at the Holiday Inn in downtown Fort Smith.
The highlight of this party goes something like this: Brian takes the large, black diaper bag to the restroom and changes out of his swim trunks while all the girls, and Jacob, awaited the pizza. Brian returns to the room, dressed as shown below, toting the large, black diaper bag. As he walks in, the birthday-girl's grandmother announces, "Hey, girls! The Pizza Guy's here!" She thought Brian was the pizza guy!! I love it!! Razorback Pizza Delivers!!



Our next shindig takes us to a backyard pool party. The water was a wee bit cold for Jacob's taste,

so he spent time hanging out with dad on the sidelines.In this pic, Brian's giving me a look because I tried to gently encourage Jacob to enjoy the brisk water by making him sit down in the kiddie wading pool. It didn't go over well and Brian spent the next several minutes calming down our son. I think I heard him say to Jacob as he was comforting him, "It's ok, son. She does crap like that to me. Like when I'm scared to pick up a cricket in the house and put it outside, she forces me to touch it. It makes me cry, too. So, it's ok. She means well. I think that she's just trying to toughen us up. She doesn't want us to be mamby-pambys. So, if you think about it in those terms, she's actually doing us a favor. You know, we should thank her in some way. Hmmmm....I know!! Let's clean the house for her!! Yeah, she'd love that!!"

Well, I didn't hold my breath. House is still dirty, floor is still dirty, as evidenced by the blackened feet of my 10-month-old after he takes a couple of laps around the house with his trusty chair.

Next, we have the Fun 4th Celebration with the Dean's. It had been several months since we'd hung out with our closest friends and we were amazed at William's ability to balance objects on his head.

Last time we saw him, this was just a burgeoning talent. But man, he's got it down! He taught Jacob his cool trick.

Then, of course, Jacob had to up the ante. He was like, "Hey, William. I can balance 2 of these rings on my head while gnawing on this here ball. When you're 10-months-old, you'll be able to do this, too." Just like a guy.

Dean was voted "Guitar Hero", not so much for his Guitar Hero skills but because of his pretty Hawaiian shirt.

Then we took the requisite 43 since-we're-all-together,-let's-take-some-pictures-of-all-of-us-with-the-cool-timer-option-on-the-camera pictures. You know what I'm talking about. The pictures where it's really funny at first to squeeze everyone together and you get a big kick out of being close to the person next to you to the point that you kinda become giddy. And then....click! Presto! The 1st timer pic. is born!

Then, you take 15 more and it just gets kinda dumb.And finally, your son gets bored and refuses to look at the camera but the Dean's are still into it.

Yeah, you know the process. Happens every time we're with the Dean's.

Anyway, I wanted to show you footage of how well it goes over when the Simpson's announce that they must leave the party. Here, Jacob tells William that we have to hit the road. Watch how he takes the disappointing news.

We're used to this reaction by now. I mean, it happens every time we leave. So, Jacob's decided that when it's time for the Simpson's to leave, he's going to give the people one more show. He calls it the Wiggles Dance:

It works, too, because we keep getting invites. So, the moral of the story is: give the people what they want---Jacob dancing---and your summer will be fraught with parties, too!!