Disney with Grandma & Grandad

A couple of weekends ago we met Grandma and Grandad in Orlando and took Jacob to Disney for the first time.  Before we started our Disney adventure one of our long time friends from Blacksburg, Shane, flew into Orlando for his youngest brother's wedding and came to visit us for a night.  We took him to Satchels of course and Jacob had a great time showing Shane all of this toys in the back yard.  It was great to catch up with him, thanks for coming to visit Shane!  And a big congrats to Shane and Jamie on the arrival of their daughter, Drew Emma Whittier.  She was born on Saturday 5-4-13.

Showing Uncle Shane how to golf

Looking at a lizard

Eating pizza in the bus at Satchels

Our bus driver

Buddies for life

Saying goodbye to Uncle Shane

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 We took Shane back to Orlando Friday and picked up Grandma and Grandad from the airport.  Then we went to Downtown Disney to walk around before eating dinner and heading to the hotel.  It was really hot that day so we ended up taking a little boat ride around the lake and eating early. 

Checking out the boats and Lego monster with Grandad

Stopping (for a second) to smell the flowers

All smiles on the boat ride.  This is where he learned who Mickey Mouse is, he saw a picture of him in a life jacket and thought it was a dog because of the tail. As soon as I told him it was Mickey Mouse he talked about him the rest of the trip.

Amazing figures at the Lego store; of course Jacob liked the dogs

Riding the train at Downtown Disney with Grandad.

 Storms came through that night and cooled things down tremendously so we got really lucky with the weather for our day at Disney on Saturday.  We spent Saturday at Animal Kingdom.  As you know Jacob loves animals so it was the obvious place to go.  We started off the day in Africa on the Animal Safari.  Between seeing all the animals and riding a bus it definitely one of the highlights.  After the safari we walked around looking at more animals.  Lots of birds, fish, a hippo and some gorillas.  Then we took the train to another area of the park.  Jacob loved the train too and we ended up going on it again later in the day.  The train took us to a place with a petting zoo but we didn't end up seeing those animals because Jacob was terrified of the Rafiki character he saw when we got there.  He just kept saying "no monkey, no monkey".  Our afternoon consisted of a bird show in Asia, another round trip ride on the train, and an attempt to say Hi to Mickey Mouse.   Then we went back to Downtown Disney to eat at the Irish Pub for dinner.  The second highlight of Jacob's day were the Irish Dancers at the restaurant, he loved them!!!  At the end of their show every hour they let kids come up on the stage and dance with them.  He saw the kids up there for the first show and wanted to go the second time.  He had a bit of stage fright once he got close though and stood at the bottom of the stage watching. 
Sunday we went to to outlets in the morning after breakfast and then took them back to the airport before heading back to Gainesville.  It was a fun weekend and we're hoping to plan another similar trip soon.

This was actually at the end of the day.  There aren't too many days at Disney when you still feel like taking a picture at the end of your park visit.  We had perfect weather!

Excited to see the animals

Beautiful giraffe

Elephant posing for us

NOGOS!

Daddy and Jacob

Hanging out in the Ergo with Mommy at the end of the day

Grandma & Grandad

Jacob loved these giraffes

Spotting the animals on the safari with Grandad

Looking at all of the birds

Jacob the gorilla

Jacob and Mark gorillas

Walking to the train

The zookeepers :-)

Watching the bird show

Grandma & Grandad with Mickey

Mommy & Daddy with Mickey (Jacob wanted nothing to do with him!)

Checking out more birds with Grandma

Checking out the hippo from underwater

Exhausted after a fun day at Animal Kingdom

A little school bus driving at the outlets.  Had to get all the transportation in one weekend.

21 months (1.75 years)!

• He calls the color orange, oranges but he also called oranges, oranges.
• He calls his paci a bap
• He makes things plural when they need to be and singular when appropriate (most of the time), how do they learn our confusing language so fast?!
• He calls flamingo "nogos"
• When you ask him what he saw at Animal Kingdom two weekends ago his first answer is always BIRDIES! He loves birds!
• He can do am excellent imitation of a crow
• He calls his ukelele "row row Lele"
• Did I mention he loves birds? All animals really but especially birds. My guess for a profession at this point is a Veterinarian or Ornithologist.
• We turned his car seat around to face forward last weekend. I'm still adjusting to the change, he seems to like it. He is very interested in car keys and now since he's facing forward can see the keys in the ignition and he pretends to drive. He also has an excellent view to look for busses! Since he can see more of what he drops in front of him now from his seat he's also picked up a new phrase "Mommy get it".   He will say please when I remind him and then will say thank you when I give whatever he was missing back.
• He's finally had more teeth pop through in the last month. His first set of upper molars and his bottom canines. Still waiting on the top canines and 4 more molars.
• Jacob's other latest phrase is "one more minute", and he tells us this whenever he wants to play longer(or doesn't want to do whatever we're planning next).
• He mimics all of our hand motions and mannerisms and is always listening! We were at his doctor last week because he scratched his eye and at the end of the appointment she was sitting talking to me and moving her hands while talking. We both looked at Jacob and watched him standing next to her mimicking all of her movements :-)
• He has a toad that lives on his play house.  He's not always there but when he is Jacob gets very excited and says "Hi Toad" over and over and over.  
• My recent favorite Jacob story happened on the playground at school on Monday. A moment I wish I had on video. I was picking Jacob up from a school and before he leaves he always finds Audrey and give her a hug goodbye. Monday, instead of hugging her he stuck out his hand, gave the perfect little handshake to Audrey saying "bye" and walked away. His teacher and I stood there is shock and started laughing since we both had no idea he knew how to shake hands. He talked about it the rest of the day and seemed very proud of himself
• Happy 21 Months sweet boy!

21 Months!

Another baby in the family!

A big congrats to Becca & Eli on the birth of their son Wally! And congrats to Great Aunt Susan(GAS) and Uncle Dave(GUD) on becoming grandparents! He's adorable!

Wallace Wolfgang Jorné
4/13/13
2:35 am
7 lbs 1 oz
19.5 in

Ukulele

Just wanted to post a quick video of Jacob singing "row row" and playing his ukulele tonight. It was a battle to get him to not take it in the bubble bath or sleep with it tonight! Born musician?

Here is the link to the YouTube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTNQH8HVU-U

20 Months

Ready for football (or picking up acorns)

Half smile

The day after Easter Jacob turned 20 months old, so this post is mostly for us to remember what he is like at 20 months.  He seems to still be growing, his 24 month clothes are almost all tight so he's wearing 2T now.  He is talking in many 2-4 word phrases and his vocabulary still seems to be expanding daily.  He loves being outside and helping us around the house.   His memory also amazes us!  He can point out all the parents of the kids in his class and the kids in his suite, knows whose lunch box is whose and whose jackets is whose, remembers the grocery list I told him 2 weeks ago, and other crazy things that even take me a while to recall when we're talking about them.  Two examples from this week:
-I told him Devon and Nolan were coming to visit this weekend and he immediately started talking about the ducks.  I then realized he was remembering the duck pond at their apartment complex we walked around when we were there a month ago. 

-Two weeks ago we went to the store and while we were getting ready I told him some things we needed to buy, orange juice, bananas, yogurt, milk, applesauce.  Then, last weekend I told him we needed to go to the grocery store and he starting naming a bunch of foods.  It completely caught be off guard until I realized it was the same foods I told him we needed the week before. 

Mr. Serious

Favorite books:  The Zoo Book (thanks Aunt Jessie) & Opposites (Sandra Boynton)
Favorite foods:  fish, hummus, berries, oranges, butter rolls from the bakery up the street, muf mufs (muffins)
Favorite animals:  dogs, birds, cats, flamingos and baboons

He's learning is colors and letters and to count which amazes us!

He still points out every bus he sees while we're driving and then asks for "more, more, more"  In fact, when he sees anything he likes he says the name of it and then asks for more.  How it is so innate in boys to like dirt and balls and transportation?

On his 20 months birthday our baby wrens hatched and Jacob asks everyday to go see them.  He also stands on the couch and watches the birds out the window, getting so exited when he seems them.    

Hey!

This weekend Devon and Nolan did come visit.  Jacob wasn't feeling well Friday afternoon and evening so we had a long night Friday night.  He had a high fever and was obviously very uncomfortable.  Fortunately it was just a 24 hour bug because by lunch Saturday he was doing ok again and we were able to go with them to the Spring Arts Festival as originally planned, then strawberry picking and out to dinner.

I hope you have a wonderful week, it's going to be a warm one here.  Spring(or summer) has finally sprung.

Happy Easter!

We had a wonderful Easter weekend! The weather was beautiful and I was feeling a bit better for the first time in a month. Saturday we played at the park in the afternoon with The Holmans (Genevieve's family) and then Sunday we celebrated Easter with egg hunts, church, Easter baskets, yummy food with friends and lots of sunshine and laughter. Jacob spent every waking hour outside that he could(surprise, surprise). He was in heaven! We put all the eggs out in the living room Sunday morning when he woke up and he played with them until church. Other than asking for the bunny once at the beginning of church he didn't make a peep. In seemed very interested in the music and then fell asleep in my arms at the start of the sermon and didn't wake up until the service was over. We gave him his Easter basket after church and he had a blast playing with his new toys. He got some new cars, Elmo eggs, The Egg Book, a puzzle and a blue ukulele. After a short nap we had an "egg hunt" outside and then Mark made a yummy dinner and our friends Aaron, Melissa and their 5 month old Lilla came over.

Fun with eggs

Such a happy boy!

Silly Jacob

Easter Basket 2013

Ooooo . . . The Egg Book

Playing with his new airplane and helicopter cards

Happy boy!

Playing his new ukelele

 

 

They love each other!

Showing me his new helicopter car

A rare picture of just the two of us, thanks for our friend Aaron.

Family picture