Oh, what fun!

Things have been moving right along here in the Simpson household over the past couple of weeks.

We have spent lots of time with grandparents:

We've been walking:

Eating lemons and doughnuts:

Hanging out at the beach:

Playing in Grandma & Grandpa's bird bath:

Going to fall festivals:
We've been getting to know hayrides & slides:

We've been delighting in seeing dad strung up by his manhood on "The Human Velcro Jump" (ok, so it was just me who delighted in this):

And just being so darn cute!:

October has been a fun month, no doubt. But it's time we steered on into next month, for Grammy and Grampy will visit, as well as Grandma. It's the most wonderful time of the year! Well.....almost!!

Trial run

As I stated in an earlier blog, I am going to New York City at the end of the month, leaving Brian and Jacob to their own devices. What fun! I've never spent the night away from Jacob; I think the longest I've gone not being with him was 8 or so hours. Which means, Brian has never had to deal with him, solely, for an extended period of time. So, when I was invited to go to dinner and attend a fall festival with some friends from work last night, I thought it'd be good practice for Brian. So, he had to plan and prepare Jacob's dinner, monitor and play with him during bath time and read 3-9 stories to Jacob before night-night...all without my help.

If you had to guess, what would say was the 1st thing I did when I got home last night? Yep, run, not walk, and check on my sleeping child. All seemed well, as he was crunched up in the crook of his crib, like normal. So, good work, da-da!

I nonchalantly drilled Brian on the night. How was Jacob? How much did he eat? Did he have poopy? How'd he do on the walk? Did he go sleep easily? Apparently Jacob had a hearty dinner: rice and beans, a veggie dog, broccoli AND applesauce. Not too much water on the floor from the tidal waves that Jacob creates while bathing and story hour went off without a hitch. Everything seemed to be on the up and up.

During the interrogation, though, I noticed that Brian had food stains all over his shirt and that he had crazy black stuff in his ear. I also noticed pieces of sausage on the floor. I assumed the food on his shirt and the crap in his ear was from Jacob's poor table manners. Nope. As it turns out, Brian ate a pizza after Jacob went to sleep and managed to get tomato sauce all over his shirt and crust in his ear. The mysterious sausage on the floor was from the pizza, too. So, it got me thinking: did Brian have some kind of mental breakdown after Jacob went to bed? One that involves not being able to properly feed oneself so that food ends up on clothing, ears and floors? Was watching the kid unassisted by me that stressful? I work in the mental health field but have yet to come across this type of PTSD.

My eyes continued to wander and I was shocked at myself for not noticing before: the house, especially the kitchen, was a complete wreck! Oh, my! I CANNOT stand dirty dishes in the sink, toys strewn about the house* and half eaten pizza on the counters. So, we immediately commenced to cleaning up our living space.

Was the trial run a success? I'd say so. Jacob got to spend some quality time with da-da without ma-ma following up behind everyone with a sponge and broom. But, if this was any indicaton of how my house and husband are going to look after 5 nights of me being gone, I'm worried.

So, is it safe to leave my child with Brian for 5 days and 4 nights? Definitely. Is it safe to leave my house with Brian for 5 days and 4 nights? Probably not.

*Toys strewn about the house when Jacob's up-and-at-'em is different from toys strewn about the house when his day is done.

Some like it cold

I love the cool fall weather. Jacob dons his footy pajamas, the down comforter comes out and the windows stay up morning and night. When it's really chilly, I do make the concession and turn off the overhead fans.

Anyway, I realized that I need to keep Jacob kinda bundled up in the mornings, at least until the sun comes out and warms up our house, when I heard his 6 1/2 teeth chattering, saw him shivering and noticed that his lips were blue. So, Here's what he looks like in the a.m.

All warm and cozy with his pants, long sleeved shirt, hoodie-jacket but no socks. You've heard of Shoeless Joe Jackson? This is Sockless Jacob Simpson.

It's completely pointless to put socks on this kid. Even his school has stopped doing so. Apparently it's hilarious to pull them off. Sure wish I got as excited when taking off my socks. And Brian, with his athlete's foot...there's nothing funny about his socks. So, must be a kid-thing.

Oh, and I think it's safe to say that Dolly's walking. I mean, he doesn't do it all the time, but he does do it. So, mark 13 months as the official "He started walking" age. Not too many milestones left, huh? Potty training, starting school, driving, graduation, graduation,(he's going to be some kind of a doctor, he's already told me. maybe a vet or astronomer or podiatrist so that he can find a cure Brian's recurring athlete's foot) marrying...whoa, getting waaaaay ahead of myself. For now, we'll just focus on perfecting his walking ability (and finding the right ointment for chronic fungal infections that occur on the foot). And we'll continue to enjoy the fall chill in the air.

What we've been up to

My goodness, a lot has transpired in the past couple of weeks! Jacob and I have been to NC to visit Grandma, Grandpa and Great Grandma. We did soooo many fun things while at the beach, including actually going to the beach. I left the NC pics in NC on my mom's computer. Once she e-mails them to me, I'll have those up.

For now, here are some pics of Dolly on the carousel at the fair with Dad.

Wonder who's humoring whom?

Did you see Dolly put his arm around Brian as the carousel began to move? Love or fear? You decide.

And no, he's still not chosen to bi-pedal unassisted, although he is able. He continues to prefer crawling or being assisted by his cart or stroller.

I tell you what, though, this little boy loves his momma!

And pigs.

His newest thing? Offering you some of his food off of his nasty, mushed food-filled, grubby fingers. You'd be a jerk to refuse.

He loves to read books. Here's what he's like when he wants you to read him a book. This video also demonstrates what he's like when he needs a nap.

We have a big month ahead of us. Granddad and Grandpaula are coming to visit and so are Grammy and Grampy. Another big event occurring this month: me going to visit my best friend in NY for 5 days..... sans kid!!! Which means Brian is going to have Dolly all to himself for 5 DAYS AND 4 NIGHTS!! Won't that be fun??!! This will be the first time that I've been without my child for a significant amount of time and it will also be the first time Brian has been with Dolly for a significant amount of time...alone....unassisted by momma. Can't wait to see how that goes!! I'll keep you posted!

The kid is Brilliant!

Take a look:

Yes, he still loves Roomba. And now, after figuring out how to turn it on and make it go, Dolly is never without a friend!

Found 'em!!

Thanks to my computer prowess, I was able to locate my beloved pics and videos. Now we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief.


Let's begin where we left off, shall we? First, I wanted to brag about my son's balancing act. He has been practicing tirelessly and is now able to balance a Spaghetti-O on the tip of his ear!! Phenomenal! (Sorry, Julie...these are some food-on-the-mouth shots. You may want to avert your eyes.)

I know, I know! He's unstoppable with all of his feats!

Next, I think we've decided upon a Halloween costume for this year. I was inspired by this picture of Jacob sleeping:

Yep, little man's going as a bandit; a candy bandit. And then his mom will bandit all of his Reese's Cups from him.

In this video, I wanted to capture Jacob waking up. What I hadn't planned for was him initiating one of his favorite games upon awakening. He loves to throw his blankie over his head and delights in Brian or me saying, "Where's Dolly (or Friendy, Pally, Funny, Crazy-anything but Jacob)?" (Poor kid's never going to learn his name.)

Next are some bath-time pictures. Look at how impressive Brian and Jacob's hiding-the-pee-pee pose is!
Oh, yeah, Jacob stands up during his baths. Guess it's too babyish to sit down and play with toys.

Better to clean his nether regions, I guess.

And the newest of the new things that Jacob can do is crawl into the dishwasher. He loves to help load and unload dishes...and himself.

I have some footage of him walking but it's too dark to see. So, I'll have to adjust my lighting and get that to you in another post.

And finally, we have tooth #7. This explains the runny nose and trouble sleeping at night. Other than that, life is good!

Boo-Hoo

I sat down tonight to give you, dear readers, a blogger update on my wonderful child. Somehow, however, I misplaced my pictures and videos for this post; I can't find them on my computer. So, this will be the extent of my blog for now. If I'm able to find them, I'll surely continue with my post. Otherwise, so long cherished pics and videos.