October 2010 - December 2010

It's been quite a while since I've caught up with things in a long-term kind of way, so I decided to back-track a little bit in order to keep track of our memories.  It looked like October was the month where I started to lose hold of recording the days.  So I'll start in October and finish up the year in pictures. 

 

 Jacob turned 7 at the end of the month.  I made his cake again this year and stuck with the baseball theme, but this time I think I got it right.  The year before he'd asked for a baseball cake, so I made it in the shape of a giant baseball.  Jacob explained to me that when he asked for a baseball cake, he's wanted a baseball themed cake.  So I waited a whole year to redeem myself, and this was the result.

 We asked again that people not bring presents for Jacob's birthday, but instead could bring a donation for the animal sanctuary.  After his birthday we took our annual trip to the sanctuary and turned in our donations.  We took a tour and Jacob sponsored a rabbit named Harvey.

 For Halloween, Jacob wanted to be Jorge Posada.  I found a decently priced jersey at Target, and then had a hell of a time getting the letters and numbers on the back the right way.  But it was worth it, I think he looked pretty cool.

I always try to match the kids up somehow for Halloween.  Since Jacob was a catcher for the Yankees, Sabine became a baseball.  I found a used homemade baseball costume on ebay for six or seven dollars, and it was just the right size.  It was a nice, warm outfit for another frigid and rainy Halloween.

 My brother and his girlfriend, Katie, got engaged.  Congratulations!  More family drama to come, I'm sure!

 Jacob and Sabine are both still taking gymnastics lessons.  Sabine takes a class on her own now (no longer parent and tot).  She's awesome; taking classes with four year-olds but doing just as well, or better.

In November we hosted Ace, a black lab puppy, but huge nevertheless.  We pet-sat for the better part of a week and it was chaos.  Zach and I decided that we were definitely at our max with kids and pets; we were full-up at two kids and six animals.  It was just a few days later that I found out I'm pregnant.

  

We also played host to a number of the kids' fantasies.  Little Baby (in the foreground) started joining us at the dinner table on most nights, as well as certain Lucky members of Bob the Builder's crew (Roley, Dizzy, Muck and Party Muck can be seen in the background).

 Years after his obsession with his animal friends began, Jacob is still enjoying setting up dinner parties and luncheons for his crew.

 

Sabine provided me with many photo opportunities.  Here she had just gotten into my makeup and discovered the enhancing effect of lipstick. 

Just being a ham.

  

Little Baby got the thrill of her life when she was asked to be a stand-in for Baby Jesus at Christmastime.  I find that her pose is actually quite conducive to filling that role.

 Sabine got to spend lots of time with her cousins around Christmas.  Here she is finally coming out of her shell and warming up to twins, Nicholos and Christopher, respectively.

 I attempted a from-scratch gingerbread house.  While our efforts started out strong...

...The final result ended in disaster.

 For Christmas gifts this year, we use all home-made wrapping paper.  My favorite design was Jacob's reindeer.

And then it snowed and snowed, and snowed some more.  The end.

Day 86: The Sand Dunes

That's what Jacob likes to call this place that we walk to from Camp. I don't really know what it is other than a giant pit off of the railroad tracks. I used to think it was a landfill when I was younger. We visited there a few times this trip, as it was a nice retreat from the crowd at Camp. Jacob built and elaborate system of houses for the mice to use when winter hits.

This day's photo was a toss-up between the sand dunes and the walk to the sand dunes. In the linked photo Sabine is walking Ginger (and by the way that's not a pacifier in her mouth, it's a teether for her molars) and it wasn't long after that when Ginger took off, dragging Sabine behind he just like in the cartoons. I'd been warning Sabine to let go if Ginger went too fast, but she didn't listen.

By the way, this photo is late again, still because of the hardwood floors, but they're done now and just drying. It will be a couple days before we can put furniture back on them, and then Zach still has to take on the new walls.

There's a line I've never heard before...

After Playschool today we headed to the library because after three straight days of being in the house all cooped up, I didn't think our little trio could survive another afternoon at home. Inside the library I'm picking out books to read to Jacob and he's working on a puzzle when a chatty little girl comes around the corner. She's standing there waist-high to me, talking about the videos she's got in her hand. Then suddenly it's like we're in a dark bar as Jacob comes sauntering up to the girl and says, "Sooo....did you know I'm a farmer?" This is the moment when I realize maybe Mom should take a hike and give the boy his space.

Dog Years

Tomorrow is Smitty's birthday. Or so Jacob says. But he's been saying tomorrow is Smitty's birthday for a week now. Apparently he doesn't have the preparations is order so he has to keep putting it off. Or at least that's what I'm assuming. For now I'll have to be grateful that Jacob hasn't asked me to bake a cake and get ice cream like I had to do for Pilchard's birthday last year. Pilchard celebrated her birthday for two months straight. Now it's Smitty's birthday and each day the number of years he is turning changes. I can't remember where it's at now; Jacob makes up a new number each day.

Smitty's been going with us everywhere these days. He came to Playschool today. And when it was so bitter cold walking across the parking lot, Jacob stuffed Smitty into his coat to carry him in.

Right now Jacob is trying to get him to bed. He's in a preemie sized sleeper and Jacob is nursing him in the rocker. He just explained that Smitty didn't dirty any diapers today, although I hear that he grinds his teeth in his sleep (hmm..so does Jacob - projection anyone?) so Jacob has to put a special mask on Smitty. I wonder if they make this mask for five year old humans? He told us how he has to try to stop Smitty from grinding his teeth because it's bad for him. This is what we tell Jacob for an excuse when he wakes up with us pressing on his jaw, or occasionally me with my finger jammed between his top and bottom teeth. I don't actually know that the teeth grinding is bad for his teeth, but I'm willing to pretend it does in an effort to get Jacob to stop because the sounds that it makes is worse than fingernails on a chalkboard. It makes me want to cut my ears off.

The jaw rubbing started because I think I read about another mother's experience with her daughter's teeth grinding. She said that when her daughter would grind her teeth she'd gently rub the girl's jaw to relax her muscles and make her stop. It was the only thing I ever came across suggesting you could do anything to stop the annoying habit. So I started to use the technique on Jacob and it worked at first. Then after a while it didn't work so well. The jaw rubbing would actually wake him and he'd swat me away. But that sound is so awful I can't let it go.

Now he's progressed to violently fighting me off in the night while actually still grinding his teeth. So the jaw rubbing has zero effect except to make me feel as if I've got a little bit of control. When that doesn't work I get desperate to make it stop and that's when I try to pry his teeth open with my finger, hence the finger jamming. His teeth are clenched down so hard that I often have trouble getting in there. What kind of stress could be coursing through his little body at night that would make him so physically tense?

When the finger jamming doesn't work I basically try anything to wake him up. By that point I'm so freaked out by the grinding sound that my primal instinct overrides the fact that the source of the noise is my own flesh and blood and I'm afraid that someday it might drive me to actually punch him in the jaw (not really).

What does this have to do with Smitty? I'm not really sure. I'm convinced there must be some root problem to the teeth grinding. If the physician and dentist tell me that there's nothing you can do about it, then maybe I should see what the psychologist has to say about it. I have to get to the bottom of it for my own sanity. And if I have to role play with Smitty, then so be it.

Our Jacob

We sent Jacob to my mom's last night so we could get some stuff done. Well Beans was up till 10pm screaming her head off in our arms. And then she was up again at 7am, cooing and doing cute stuff in the bed next to us. Her diaper was full so I went to pull it off in the dark and the runny poop that was in it basically went everywhere you can imagine. So that was the bulk of our morning.

But I digress. This post is about Jacob. We're down here having coffee now, talking about Jacob. It's nice to miss him now and then. It puts all that annoying stuff he does into perspective. So he wants a chicken for Christmas. He's being realistic about it and asking only for one. He saw 'Santa' at the mall the other day - and don't get me started on how Santa was like, "A chicken? That can't be ALL you want for Christmas" Seriously? Don't encourage him to want more, more, more when he's happy with less. American kids are the most spoiled kids. Being Santa at the mall must be one of the most depressing jobs, listening to greedy kids list of their requests all day long.

Also, don't get me started on how suddenly Jacob is buying into the Santa Lie. One conversation with a certain family member and now he thinks Santa is going to come to our house and bring presents. Great. I can't really break his spirit and tell him that's not true, when he seems to want to believe it, now can I? I'm definitely not going to start agreeing with him and acting like Santa is coming to our house, but I guess I can't outright tell him that's not true. I'm just kind of playing dumb.

Anyway, Jacob wants a chicken so bad. And I can totally see him with one. He gets up every morning, hops out of bed and jumps into his Carhartts. It would be a natural progression for him to walk out back and feed the chickens. He pretends about them all the time, like he's in training for the day when we finally agree to it. We have to get him chickens. I'm to the point where there's no way around it. Tons of people we know have chickens. It would be a totally normal thing to do.

Zach says NO WAY. In capital letters. Well he just found out that Mara, at work, used to have chickens. I should have guessed. She's like one of those people who's lived everywhere and done everything. Zach really listens to her though. I'll try to convince him of certain things, take this herb and you'll feel better, or maybe your problem is that you're not doing X, Y, Z...but he doesn't listen to me. Only when Mara suggests it does Zach listen. That's ok. We call her his work wife. So I have a grand plan to bring Jacob in to visit Zach at work....we'll go visit Mara too and the two of them can chat about chickens. Jacob can tell her about his imaginary chickens, and she can tell him how she used to live on a farm. Then, later, Mara can tell Zach how impressed she was with Jacob's dedication to him imaginary chics and that Zach really should get him chickens for Christmas.

Can you imagine the look on Jacob's face on Christmas morning? He would go berserk.

Ohh...Burn!

We have lots of verbal sparring in my house. Jacob gets carried away with it, and since I'm the mother and I'm older and smarter, I always win. Jacob just can't stand to not have the last word though. So lately his last ditch effort at having the final say is, "I'm gonna call the aplice (police).

Tonight he's mad that Benny the Dog might be coming up to Camp this weekend. Nobody really likes Benny on account of the three P's (peeing, pooping and puking in the house), plus he really smells and is annoying. So Jacob's telling me that Benny can't come because his goats are coming up to Camp this weekend and they'll fight with Benny, they might even kick him.

"Well you're just going to have to leave the goats at home this weekend," I tell him.

"No, they need lots of attention!" he insists.

"Then maybe you'll have to stay at home with the goats and not go to Camp!" I say.

"Fine! But I'm gonna call the aplice and they're gonna throw Benny in the woods!"

The New Kid in Town

This is Smitty. I prefer to call him Schmitty. Smitty can't really talk, so he can't tell me the origin of his name. Bummer, cuz it's an interesting one. Anyway, he hitched a ride home in Jacob's carseat the night they were at Yankee Stadium. I guess he was tired of living in the city. Either that or he was afraid of being being crushed when they tear down The Stadium (Zach tells me you must capitalize this) and sought refuge in the country.

I wasn't convinced we needed another dog in the house, so I actively tried to 'escort' Schmitty to the curb via the garbage can, but Jacob successfully petitioned his acceptance into the house by insiting on letting Schmitty come everywhere with us that I finally just got used to him. We've decided to let him stay. He and Pilchard immediately hit it off because they have a common interest (see attire below). Jacob even let Schmitty wear his mini Yankees hat (backwards of course). The rest of the gang is gradually getting used to him and I expect one day very soon Baby Tigger, Little Bear and Moosey will all come to love the little guy just as Jacob does.


T

There's no turning back now

Zach's cousin works in NYC and often gets perk tickets to Yankee Stadium. He had four tickets for this past Wednesday's game and gave them to Zach. And you know where the seats where? Fifth row behind the Yankee dugout. Zach looked it up online...those are $400 seats, $1600 total.

Initially I told Zach he'd better not even think of taking Jacob down there...but we eventually worked out a deal and Jacob did go with him. Zach's mom and Alex also went with them. I was totally freaked out the week leading up to the game, and I cried when they left. It's the furthest I ever been away from Jacob, distance-wise. I am not crazy about the city and the protective part of me basically thought I would never see them again. They had a great time though. It was really important for Zach to take Jacob because they had such awesome seats, and because it was one of the very last games to be played at Yankee Stadium before they tear it down.

Back at home I had a very quiet day. I went to turn on the game at 7pm and found out it wasn't on network TV like it had been the night before. Nobody bothered to tell me that beforehand so I didn't get to watch the game. I could have gone up to my mom's to watch it but they taped it instead. I was psyched to watch the game because I was sure Jacob would be one of those cute kids that they put on TV in between innings. We tried to watch the tape tonight but something went wrong and it's just fuzz. Guess we need to get tivo. Jamie watched the game and didn't say he saw Jacob, but Jacob is a seriously cute kid and I can't believe they wouldn't have him on camera at some point, considering where they were sitting.

So anyway, it's official, Jacob has been to the world of Yankees and back...and he is now a fully devoted fan. There's no turning him over to my side now. Maybe Sabine with be a Boston fan.

On the upside, when we went to the park the next day Jacob played baseball with Jeter and the rest of the team instead of going to a job site with Spud, so that was a nice little break from all that for me.

Alex walked Jacob up to the dugout during batting
practice and one of the players tossed him a ball.

This is my personal favorite. Zach said he took
this photo for me - he knows me well.

And this is my favorite of the ones with Jacob
in them. Classic.


The boys showed up at home at 1:30am.
Jacob came in, told me a few highlights, then
passed out on the floor like this.

These last two pictures are zoomed in pretty far. I wondered how Zach could get in so close, and then he pulled a telephoto lens out of the bag. He bought it last week when he found out about

the tickets and surprised me with the lens after they came home from the game. I'm kind of in shock about it. I don't deserve it or feel like I've earned it because I didn't spend half a year saving up for it. I guess that's my reward for being a brave little mother and letting my baby go to the big bad city.

Dear Jacob: July/August 2008

Dear Jacob,

This was supposed to be July's post, but we were rushing to leave for Camp, to surprise you and I never had time to finish. Then we got back from our weekend away and there was catching up to be done and it got pushed down on the priority list. Then we left for Camp again and I swore it would be done. Well now we're back and it's definitely getting done. I can't say it's going to be organized though. In fact, it's probably going to be a little disorganized and rambling. The only kind of order is going to be chronological, the way I recorded the notes. There may be be some repeats and tenses go back and forth, but this all just goes to show how chaotic our lives have been lately.

July and August were characterized by the 'dirty face' that I so hate, the sudden violence, the constant movement. I think this may be what stands out for me as the four year old thing - the constant movement. The jumping on things, jumping onto things, jumping off of things, running around, climbing things, hitting, being grabby. You've been a flurry of movement, like the Tazmanian Devil.

The acting up got out of control since the baby was born. I hate the dirty face so much that sometimes I want to slap it away. You're so stressed out that you grind your teeth like mad at night. I think the one thing you need most is to be still with your parents, be given attention with no mention of the baby, for us to act like she doesn't exist.

For a few days we'd been able to give you more individual attention and it did wonders for your behavior. When you act up I remind you that you don't have to act up to get attention, to use your words and we'll give you what you need. You've been getting better at that, and I've been getting better at listening to you and stopping what I'm doing to give you the attention you're craving.

You love your little sister. When you're doing something particularly 'grown up' or dare-devilish, you want me to hold her up so she can watch you and learn from you. One morning in bed I caught you leaning over whispering in her ear "I love you so much" when you didn't think I could hear you. You're starting to sing these little sing-song ditties, which I think is related to the soft, high-pitched voice you use with Beanie.

We'd been swimming a lot this summer and you were getting better and better. You were asking to take off your swimmies, so one day in MamMa's pool we did. And then you were suddenly swimming on your own! You paddle around fast and furious and the swimmies haven't gone back on. I can't believe you can swim like that now, I'm so proud of you!

Then there was the night mid-August when you first told me you hate me. It was 11pm and I wouldn't let you play your Caillou game on the computer. Even though it was about something stupid, it still felt like an arrow through my heart. You said, "I'll get mad if you don't let me play it and I'll be happy if you do." I think this was when the threats began.

You've also been really into your 'man parts'. And if I haven't already embarrassed you I'll also say that you went through a short phase of 'marking your territory'. And I'll leave it at that until you come home with a new girlfriend someday and I need to come up with a really good story to tell.

When you were a tiny baby we said, "Oh, this is the best age." And then we kept saying it for each new phase of your development. All your stages were the best at one point, but not this one. This is the first time I have felt myself longing for an earlier time. It's your little punk phase. You've been really learning a lot of crap from Marisa, most notably, that pose from Hannah Montana when you watched it with her one day. Then there was the middle finger issue which I think we were able to stamp out within two or three days of its inception. I don't think you know what it means, and I don't know where the actual gesture came from, but sadly, I have to admit that part of your awareness about it came from within our house.

And lastly, by far the one thing that occupies your brain energy the most is your fantasies and imaginary play are all about Spud. You and Spud did this, you and Spud did that. You and Spud are going to build something, you and Spud are going to destroy something, play a joke on someone, you guys ate a certain something for lunch, you're going to start a farm with him. Anything you can imagine. I wish I could say I'd written down some of your conversations with him or about him because they're really something, but I am unashamed to say that I have began tuning them out and responding with, "Oh really?", "Uh huh," and neutral statements as such.

To end the month, I am extremely happy to report that you have begun to come back to us, and it has made me so happy.

At a playgroup a couple weeks ago you were being absolutely, downright mean to me (as you had taken to being). I don't believe I've ever left a playgroup early because of your behavior. You don't usually act like that in front of other people, and also, I'm too selfish, I don't want to leave so I never threaten it. You were talking back to me, hitting me, running away when I told you to stay put...all the things you'd been doing. And I snapped. I said that was it, we're leaving, picked up our bag, the baby and walked to the gate. You suddenly turned into the sweet little boy I know and started begging me to stay but I held firm (I never threaten something if I don't plan to follow-through) and we left.

Things only got worse when we got home and I went off the hook taking things away from you. You lost your Scoop tent, your tool bench, all your tools, a ton of other stuff. I put it in big bags and told you that every time you were mean to me or acted out such as you had been that you would lose one thing from the bag permanently. Each time you've exhibited good behavior (without the getting back your toys) I give one back.

I don't think it was necessarily taking away most valuable possessions, but more the fact that you were waiting to see where I would draw the line and I finally showed you. Not that I hadn't snapped in all the weeks before that, I guess I just got it right that time. Of course things are not perfect now, but they immediately got better. It's like I chased the beast that possessed you right out of your system. You've come back to us in a big way and it feels like a thousand pounds have been lifted from my heart.

Dear Jacob: March 2008

Oh Jacob. You are too much lately to just say 'Dear Jacob'. This month you get an 'oh', as in 'OH BOY'.

You are too much these days. I take my eyes off of you for a minute and you're into something completely new and fascinating, like say, packing a huge bag of all your clothes and most important tools because you're leaving for Florida in the morning and you won't be back for six years. You're going with Bob and some of the machines. The bag ends up by the front door where it sits all week because I'm not allowed to touch it. I have to be sneaky and take out clothes as you need them. And then, eventually one day you're onto something new and I take advantage of the bag being temporarily forgotten and can finally unpack it. Although many times I've jumped the gun and gotten in trouble and lose a little trust from you.

One of your other things lately is rearranging the furniture and moving around different objects in the house as you see fit. You get these big ideas of how things should be and then just act on them. Consequently, I can find anything in this house when I need it anymore. I have to be sneaky about fitting those things back into their original places as well.

Some days you just get so hyperactive that all day long we're telling you to stop yelling, to keep your voice down. You yell at the top of your lungs about everything. In your pretend play, at the dogs, when you're outraged by something or just when you get excited about something. Oh my God it's the most frustrating thing. We have to scream at the top of our lungs to be heard over you so we can tell you to stop yelling. And then you still don't stop. And when you do, five seconds later you're yelling about something else. The yelling also usually accompanies the running around like a maniac. Holy crap spring can't come soon enough.

Lately you're all about your friends coming over to play, but you never want to go anywhere, always dragging your feet about it. It was taking all my energy to get you out the door, and it's not like I have much energy left after getting myself ready. About halfway through the month you switched and all at once it's ok again to go places and you're the same happy kid you've always been. I think this has largely to do with the class that I was taking and the fact that it threw off your routine. Actually, until that point I was sort of unaware that we had a routine. Maybe not so much as in a schedule, but in our own little way. And within a week of my class ending, and things getting back to normal around here, you were suddenly back to your old self again.

Although I say you're back to your old self, one annoying behavior that has remained is that on some days you act as if nothing ever goes your way and you whine about it. You can go on for a long time whining about a certain thing, but on the upside I'm sort of building up an endurance for it because I can go longer and longer now just ignoring it. This avoidance method doesn't work all the time and often I just have to do something to shut you up. That usually involves taking a privilege away. The privilege loss works to quiet you, but you're also learning from it. Somehow you've gotten the idea that it's a two-way street in that regard and you try to take privileges away from me. This is pretty funny.

My class ended just in time because that's when Daddy's busy season started up at work. In addition to all the crazy stuff at the college, Daddy's been working on two different jobs simultaneously, one a bathroom remodel and the other just a paint job. This is the time of year we hardly ever see him because he's working 12-14 hours each day. When your daddy is home, you spend most of your time attached to his body in some way, most usually on top of his head, or on top of him in some regard. You guys love to wrestle. It's all you ever want to do with him now. That and play "Eat My Ear" or it's companion game "Eat My Nose" - incase this is not self-explanatory it's where you make us pretend that we're eating one of your body parts. Fun.

I can really see your spiritual development occurring in these last couple months. About once a week on average you do this freaky thing where you suddenly state out loud the thing I am thinking about at that moment. I mean you don't announce what I am thinking, but you voice aloud the same thing that is on my mind. Last week we were in the backyard playing on one of the nicer days and I was looking around at all the leaves leftover from last fall thinking that we should rake them up and burn them in the fire pit. From the other side of the yard you came over and asked me if we could have a fire in the fire pit. The last time we did that, or even talked about it was last summer, so it's not like it's something that happens a lot.

Also, you and I talk to each other about our dreams when we wake up. Most of yours seem made up on the spot, but sometimes you talk about them unprompted, and you get the idea of dreaming and appreciate hearing what I have to say about my dreams. And you really love talking to the baby, kissing the baby, hugging the baby. Anything to do with the baby. People seem surprised to hear me tell them that you totally understand what's going on and what's going to happen when the baby is born. I don't think it's such a huge step for a kid like you. From the beginning I knew you'd want to be at the birth and I decided that was ok with me. So that's the plan for now, and incase you change your mind or get scared them we have a back up plan. But I think you can handle it.

Speaking of the baby, you wanted a girl for the longest time, but then you bounced back and forth between boy and girl for a while. Finally you settled on wanting a boy. Somewhere along the line you got the idea that if we have a boy he too can become part of the work crew that you and Daddy make up. Then you decided that it would be a good idea for me to have eight children all together, all boys. Then you'd have a really big work crew. And the only acceptable name for this baby is Bob. If that baby should happen to be a girl, I am to name her Wendy. When I argue that I don't like those names for the baby you tell me that it at least has to be a name from Bob the Builder. We'll see about that.

So overall this month, you've left me wondering who's really running the show around here.

Tired from always serving as the extra in the Bob videos...

Evil Bob snapped and hung Real Bob from the scaffold on the job site one day. It wasn't a pretty sight to come home to, but I guess it was bound to happen eventually:

(click on the picture for another view)

Also in Bobsville, Pilchard had another birthday party. I guess the last one was her 'family' party, and this one was her 'friends' party. All her friends came, Little Bear, Baby Tigger, and new to the crew, Moosey. Let's all give Moosey a warm welcome. He comes to us from Libby Lu at Christmas time, and is actually a reindeer, but don't try to tell Jacob that. Moosey has been trying to get in good with the rest of the gang, and I'm happy to announce that it seems his status in the group has now been confirmed as of two days ago when he was Christened 'Moosey' by Jacob.

Also at the party were Little Pilchard and Little Scrufty, but they 'don't show up in pictures'. Little Pilchard is Scrufty's pet cat, and Little Scrufty is Pilchard's pet dog. Just in case you were wondering.

Apparently my kid's not the only one...

The last couple times I've seen Beckie, she's reported that her boys have been pretend playing with me as the main character. I think it started with a balloon and one of them stuffing it under their shirt and walking around like they were pregnant, saying "I'm Stacey!" And then the other followed suit. After that it was with grapes at lunch (as in we were the grapes) and Zach and Jacob got parts in the play too. They were pretending to be our whole family...but other than that I'm sketchy on the details because I was laughing too hard at the time to hear the rest.

When your kids do something cute and funny, you naturally tell people about it...and since little pitchers have big ears, the kids tend to tune in when they're being talked about. And you know what happens when an adult finds something funny...the kids tent to repeat it. So I guess it's become a game now, a thing. Jacob is no longer the only kid in our immediate world who makes up crazy stuff about creatures (real or fake) because Nate and Harry play pretend Stacey games all the time. And if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then I'll take that as a compliment!

Pilchard's Birthday

This is Jacob's new thing: It's Pilchard's birthday. I guess it all started last week when my mom was here helping out with him and Jacob wanted to bake something. I could empathize with his wanting this because I was the kid who took all the ingredients out of the cupboard and put them together to create a masterpiece. I think that I've got one of those written 'recipes' I created somewhere around here. So I OK'd the activity in the interest of getting my work done that night.

This was the result:

mmmm....banana something supreme!

Apparently this was fun for Jacob and the idea stuck. Now he wants to bake all the time. And I guess he's decided that to get the adults to comply, he's got to come up with a reason. So he came home from my mom's the other night all fired up to have a birthday party for Pilchard. It was her birthday and she was turning six!

The next day Jacob decided we couldn't have her party because Pilchard got stuck in Bobsville due to a snowstorm. So it would have to wait one more day, which happened to be the same day as the LOST premiere (yesterday). From the minute the day began, Jacob couldn't wait to get the preparations in order. He called MamMa and Papa and instructed them on what to do. Big plans were under way - cake, ice cream, cupcakes, guests, games...Jacob wanted the party to start right away but I told him that it had to wait until the end up the day when we were up at my mom's (for LOST).

Jacob argued that we had to have it right then - Here I had to employ some of my newly acquired critical thinking skills..."But Jacob, Pilchard has to work at a job site all day anyway."

"No, Pilchard can't work on her birthday."

"Yes, Bob had to work on his birthday. Remember how he thought the whole crew forgot about his birthday and then when he came back from the job site that day they all had a surprise party waiting for him (an actual plot from one of the books we have)? So if Bob had to work on his birthday, so does Pilchard." Boy that class is really working for me.

Jacob made it through the day. We compromised on just cupcakes and ice cream, except I forgot the ice cream, but we had pizza to celebrate the return of LOST anyway, so it all evened out. He had packed a huge bag of random toys to entertain the gaggles of his friend we were supposedly inviting (which never even came out of the bag at my mom's). We sang happy birthday and Jacob got to blow out the candle on account that "Pilchard doesn't have a real mouth because she's stuffed (the first I'd heard she wasn't real) and can't eat or talk." It was a lot of work and Jacob is pretty lucky to have so many adults who care enough to humor him to that extent, but I didn't hear anyone complaining when it came time for cake!