Les cousins

Last weekend, two of Jacob's cousins, Colby (center, 14 months) and Samuel (right, 2 1/2) were in town for a wedding- along with their parents, of course! Jacob adored having more family and fellow mischief makers living with him for a couple of days.

They had so much fun banging on pots...

Yelling at squirrels eating the birdseed...

And chatting it up.

(I'm uploading the video)

Sadly, the only shot of these adorable boys jazzed-up for the wedding. I had the camera with me the whole time...but failed to get more photos.

Here's the wedding aftermath: it was about 9:30 pm on Saturday night. What can I say, we like to party hardy.

There are more to come- and now we're in NJ with the whole Chell family. Craziness is already ensuing and I'll prove it with pictures soon!

On the Road of Life

They say that on the road of life...

...there are passengers and there are drivers.

Jacob wants to be a driver. But how can you say 'no' to that face?




Jacob is a very busy guy.



But he still takes time for his family.



Here he is celebrating his Aunt Grayson's 21st birthday.

Shortly afterward, Jacob's career took him back on the road. Here he is after a concert.

The camera loves Jacob. So does the person behind the camera- which is often mom!)

Yep, whether he dresses up...

Or dresses down...

or even when he's hard at work...

Jacob always looks his best!

We love you all immensely and we regret that blog posts have been minimal. I hope this makes up for the hiatus.

Happy Father's day to all the daddies out there!

jacob extravaganza

A whole slew of jacob pictures ranging from the drive to Phoenix back in May to just a few days ago here in the East!
Jacob still loves his Yertle...even after 11 1/2 hours in the car!

Swimming apparently means floating around while holding a ball- or eyeing the one he wants to be holding.

The fun of the swiffer was comparable to fun had bugging Izzy the dog- for Jacob that is.

Daniel had a great idea to visit Benihanna's (where food is made in front of you), but we couldn't get our sleepyhead to wake-up. It wasn't even his "naptime", but he didn't care. He finally opened his eyes when our chef made a loud train sound and had steam flowing from our vegetables.

Jacob has seen little television and aside from a seminarian friend's adorable music DVD, he's never cared to actually focus on it. Then, he saw Kung Fu Panda. He sat laughing and gesticulating wildly on Daniel's lap for 10 solid minutes....it was hilarious for all involved.

The Chell deck has been transformed by the addition the sandbox, an inflatable pool, a little basketball goal, and a baby-gate.

Every once in awhile the tent makes it to the deck, but Jacob loves playing in the tent indoors, too.

Jacob and Daniel after a long-day of CPE (chaplaincy internship for Daniel).

JDP helping his Aunt Grayson celebrate her 21st birthday by serenading her a bit (but really attempting to distract her so that he can beat on her mac).

Last but not least, Jacob was a patient kiddo and let me trim his hair! His little curls still exist, but he lost the Einstein look.

Until next time, I hope that suffices. Love to all!

I can't believe it's been nearly a month since our last post...yikes. A quick synopsis of our life for the past month:
-Daniel finished his first year of seminary, so then we said goodbye to some amazing friends in Berkeley and drove to Phoenix
-We stayed for several days with daniel's parents and Jacob got to do lots of 'swimming' (and I made no progress on my thesis- but that's a whole other story)
-We packed ourselves up again and traveled to the East coast where Daniel is interning as a hospital chaplain until mid-August
Phew!

There will be pictures to follow when I locate the cord to the camera and simultaneously have my laptop charged-up! Jacob is now 14 months old and it is truly amazing how much he changes everyday. And how hilarious he is...and I think he knows it. His new trick is to blow-kisses, say "bye", and shut the bathroom door on daniel as he brushes his teeth in the morning before work.
Spunky munchkin.

Daddy's little helper.

Some monumental moments of the past week or two:
Jacob so enthusiastically aided his dad with laundry and we had to document it. From what i hear, Jacob even pushed the button to start the wash...so proud.

Jacob tried peanut butter with no negative consequence, aside from a messy face and a new favorite food (especially when in mom or dad's sandwich).

Jacob not only learned about doing laundry, but he's taken to sweeping everything at any time. We just have to work slightly on deliberate and controlled sweeping motion.

Not a milestone, but of developmental interest: Jacob has taken to stacking things or putting things in order quite well. He also enjoys removing every toy or item in a bowl or bucket and then climbing in himself...as seen below.

(and he loves to remove his own shoes.)

Other things of interest: Jacob continues to go to the park and play with a ball the entire time. Today a little boy tried to take the ball from him but jacob clung so desperately to the ball that he belly flopped. It was hilarious. The boy gave up and Jacob was pleased to continue playing with the ball, holding it, and chasing it.

Our little boy is communicating well! He now says "up" as he walks up the stairs, uh-oh when he drops things, and blows kisses on occassion. He babbles and laugh all the time...and we are having a blast with this toddler!

a snippet of walking

Sorry for the crazy wind and ignore my talking! Other than that, here's the drunken old man Jacob walk from this past weekend.

A glimpse...

This past week Jacob gave us a glimpse of what kind of trouble we may be in for having such a high energy kid on the go. To preface this story, let us just simply review that Daniel and I are attentive, educated, and responsible parents, but it turns out that with Jacob that is sometimes not enough.

So, it was all a normal evening -Jacob was playing (aka: getting frustrated when his plane didn't magically shrink to fit through small places) and goofing around. He then had some dinner and even used his infant fork to play with some of his food!

After dinner, we let him continue to play with his infant fork and suck on the soft, squishy handle side, as seen below. In this scenario, the infant fork in question has metal prongs that are rounded (actually bulbous) at the tips as to not stab anything other than soft foods. Right.

Somehow upon his travels from the living room, where Daniel was, to the kitchen, where I was, he managed to insert the pronged end into his mouth and impale his soft palate. There was no fall involved nor anything to scare him and make him jump. It appears that jacob just outright got excited and jabbed the sucker back into his mouth.

Skipping right over the gory details, suffice it to say that our hearts stopped for about 5 straight minutes as we tried to assess the damage and next course of action. Fortunately in talking with nurses and doctors (our first call to the after hours number!), and because Jacob finally opened wide enough for me to glimpse the little wounds in his mouth...everything calmed down and hearts restarted. In all our nights with Jacob including the first anxious nights after his birth, that night was the stand-out worst. He was pitiful, in pain, unable to nurse, unable to sleep, frustrated, and exhausted. But, after that night, he never showed another sign of pain or distress.

Our lesssons learned:

First, Jacob won't be using a fork until he's 10.

Second, kids really are insanely resilient.

Third, Daniel and I realized that there will be more hearstopping moments such as this one as parents. And now we know our protocol for emergencies!

For those in need of proof of Jacob's resiliency, here's the little imp the following evening...with a block in his mouth.