Kitchen helper

I got Jakey some of his own kitchen utensils and he is proving to be very good at making --and tasting brownies. At first he mixed pretty well, only tasting a little bit.

Then it turned into a crazy batter eating free for all.

Halloween magic

This year Jacob was old enough to enjoy all of the Halloween festivities. He decided to be Spiderman for Halloween more than a month ago, so I was able to get most of his costume secondhand. The only thing we had to buy in the store was the mask. Here he is preparing to dive into Candyland.

He also directed the pumpkin carving this year. He wanted a mad pumpkin and a happy one. This was the mad pumpkin, and it won for scariest pumpkin at our annual Halloween pumpkin carving party.

Spiderman!

Jakey knew that he wanted to be Spiderman for Halloween months ago. This gave me time to scout out the best costume--which I actually found at his daycare yard sale. When I first got it, he couldn't be parted from it, not even for a quick wash. It was pretty cute. Then, he got out his Spiderman coloring book and wanted to try out all of the poses. He also realized from looking at the Spiderman pictures that he was missing the all important mask, gloves and boots that would make his costume complete. Today, Nate found a mask to go with his costume at a Halloween store, so his costume is complete.

Jakey --3 years old

Jacob is 3 now. He is our little buddy. He loves to play with Playdoh, watch movies and play with his cars. He sometimes sleeps with his George Monkey or his superhero cape. He really likes his cape because he can fly in it. He was inspired to ask for a cape because his friend Jasper sported one at Jakey's birthday party.

He loves to ride on trains, go on walks with mom and dad, ride in the bike trailer, dogs and cats, go to parties, eat lollipops, sing Deep and Wide, read Berenstein Bears books, watch Bug's Life and Cars, listen to Sesame Street songs in the car and go swimming in the wading pool with dad.

He has recently started to wear underwear. We've had a few accidents, but none while we were out. He has managed to go to the bathroom pretty well in public restrooms, but he seems to forget about it while we are at home.

He really wants 3 baby brothers like his friend Z., and he wants a dog.

Friends

Here we are visiting some old friends. Jakey got to play in their amazing treehouse, and he got to watch Curious George all in the same day.

These are some of his last moments with the Sponge Bob wall. He had a great time throwing beanbags at it for days after his party. He also got to have a little puppet show, but it finally had to go back to our neighbors.

Fun in SF

I think the highlight of our trip to N.CA was Jakey's first ride on a cable car. He was beyond excited. We had to wait for about an hour to get on and rode it to Fisherman's Wharf. I think it might have been my first time on one too.

We also visited the children's playground at Golden Gate park. It was a lot nicer than I remembered it.

More party fun

Superhero strikes again. Here is my bargain basement pinata. It actually doesn't look too bad in the pictures. It also holds a LOT of candy which might not be a good thing.

After a summer of birthday parties, Jakey's pinata swing is improving. He's really learning to get his weight behind his swing.

Good old Guinness Chocolate cake. Death by chocolate, but such a pleasant way to go.

Here is Mr. Cake face admiring his presents. We had a hard time getting him to move from present to present. He always wanted to just open up the present he just got and play with that one for a while.

Jakey's party

Fun food made its appearance at the party. We tried to have all of Jakey's favorites. In the jars, we had kettle corn, oatmeal cookies, chex mix and animal crackers. Of course we also had dinosaur cake and his favorite sandwiches.

Jakey spent a lot of time in the pool. He had a great time with his friends. He probably would have stayed there the whole time if we didn't force him to get out and eat something.

I found these awesome foam animal visors at Michael's. All the kids got one and got to wear them at the party. Jakey had a few that he was interchanging depending on his mood.

Here is our visiting superhero trying his hand at the beanbag toss. Love the cape!

Mother's Beach

We don't go to the beach much, but we might come back to this one. This is a little inlet, so there aren't really any waves. Lots of moms and kids hang out here, so the crowd is friendly. Jakey had a great time and could have stayed here longer.

Aquarium Day

This was our first visit to the LB Aquarium. It's not as good as the Monterey Bay Aquarium, but Jakey didn't know the difference.

I don't know who is scarier, Jakey or that shark. The cool thing about this aquarium is that they did have a shark pool where you could touch little sharks.

Someday he's going to be embarrassed about this picture. I just love how kids are so un-selfconscious at this age.

And of course, copying is cool at this age too.

Denver and NM

We went to a great Children's Museum in Denver. There was so much for Jacob to do. One exhibit had clothes for the kids to dress up in and little places for them to play. He is a little sheep playing in the bird's nest.

My birthday breakfast contribution for Amy: dutch babies. I love how puffy and light they get. This was my first time blending up the batter in a blender. I think I might have to make that a regular part of the recipe.

Nate and I got away for a few days to Taos. We took the back way to get there and stopped at this church in Chimayo. I love all of the adobe in NM.

Mother's Day

For Mother's Day, Nate outdid himself and got me some antique glass bottles from a nearby antique store. He tried to find replacements for the 2 glass bottles we got on our honeymoon in PEI, which have broken in a couple of accidents in recent years. It really made my day that he gave me such a thoughtful gift. I made the cinnamon blueberry muffins --a favorite recipe from Epicurious.

Jakey has been really into Birthdays recently so he wanted to sing Happy Birthday and blow out a candle with his muffin. He looks a little tired because he had an ear infection. Both he and I ended up with ear infections that week.