Running Circles

In this video, Jacob is running around in circles with his friend, Sophie. That's Sophie's mom in the middle. We're at Rosh Hashanah Under the Stars at Oregon Ridge Park.

Wow, he did what???

The list of firsts for Jacob just keeps growing and growing. Everyday we are amazed by something Jacob has done. Caroline and I have stepped up our efforts to get Jacob potty-trained and it's working! Yesterday, Jacob put a Number 2 in the potty! It was an amazing effort on Caroline's part, because Jacob was very scared of the idea of pooping in his potty, but when he was done, he was very proud of himself.

Jacob is also making progress learning his letters and counting. Bubbe sent him flashcard books and he loves them. He wants to count all the time.

My favorite new thing that Jacob is doing is singing. He sings songs to himself like "Thomas the Tank Engine." He also sings Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and the Itsy Bitsy Spider. It's so cute!

Here's a picture from Jacob's first day of school. He has a new Cars backpack and he loves it!

First Letter

Yesterday Jacob wrote his first letter -- the letter C !! Hooray! Now he can count to 11, and identify most letters, and write one.

What's Up With Jacob

This week was Jacob's last week of school as a toddler. When he starts camp in a couple of weeks, he moves to his new classroom - the Twos. Is every mother this emotional? Well, we are so happy with the Baltimore Hebrew Day School family. They are really warm and wonderful and we feel really good about the experience he's having there twice a week.

The pool opened Memorial Day weekend and we are all so HAPPY about it! This morning, Jacob convinced Caroline to take him to the car when he woke up and he climbed into his car seat and directed Caroline to drive him to the pool. He loves it there. We will be spending a lot of time there this summer! Yay, pool!

Last week we took a whirlwind trip to New York City. We stayed with Caroline's cousin again. It was 48-hours of constant moving! We spent some time with Jacob's dad, Jack. We also got to see my aunt, who I haven't seen in many years.

We spent some time at our favorite park, and the fountains were on! Here's a picture:

The summer promises to be as busy as the spring. I hope we can keep up!

More Fun-time Videos

I'm going to post a couple of videos and then hopefully an update if Jacob's nap lasts long enough!

That was Pool-time fun. This one is Jacob dancing at Belvedere Square.

How About a Video?

I hope you view these videos from my phone:

A better update

In my haste to make sure everyone is up-to-date with cute Jacob pictures, I haven't been able to fill you in on all the neat changes going on with him this year.  So here is my attempt to do just that.

As I've mentioned in previous posts, Jacob is growing and changing all the time!  It is a very fun time with him nowadays.  His current likes are cars, trucks, trains, and airplanes.  He's really been enjoying matchbox cars recently.  As a matter of fact, yesterday as I was folding laundry, Jacob happily played with his cars and trucks by himself for at least a half hour.  This was big (and happy) news for me.  Who knew such an inexpensive toy ($.96 @ Target) could make a boy so happy.  We take them everywhere with us to provide Jacob with something to do while doing the mundane activities in life, like errands and waiting for dinner to arrive.  He also loves to point out big trucks and buses to us while we're driving somewhere.  It's as if motorized vehicles are in a boy's DNA.

Besides trucks, Jacob still loves books (especially books about trucks).  One of his current favorites is "A Truck Goes Rattley-Bumpa" by Jonathan London. We discovered it at Mother Goose on the Loose (the story time at Enoch Pratt Library) and borrowed it from the library, but he likes it so much, I think we'll be getting our own copy soon.  He also loves books with animals and he's good at identifying the animals too!

We try to be outdoors a lot now that the weather is nicer.  We go to the Maryland Zoo almost weekly. The weekend before last we ventured back to the Waverly Farmers Market, and the Baltimore Flower Mart.

Jacob is talking a lot and communicating his needs more with language (thank goodness).  He can say sentences like "I want a drink Mommy" or "All done with this." He's learning to say "Yes, please" and "thank you." He's still pretty shy, but he warms up, especially to people his age (or height).  He's very social and sensitive to other kids feelings.  We still struggle with the "learning to share" and "taking turns" concepts but at times, he's very good with it.

Another fun thing Jacob started doing is singing.  He's always liked music but now he sings along to CDs when we're driving and when we sing together at home.  One of his favorite songs is "Old MacDonald" and he likes it sung in all kinds of styles.

Aidan is still his best buddy, but a few weeks ago we met neighbors on our street with a 2 & 1/2 year-old girl named Sofie.  Jacob and Sofie have become fast friends and it's great to have someone his age so close by that we can just stop in for an impromptu play-date. 

On the medical side, Jacob nose is constantly running. We thought it was allergies, but learned he was prone to viruses due to his unusually large adenoids. The doctor told us to pretty much expect Jacob's nose to run all the time.  When he's three, we can take him to an Ear, Nose & Throat doctor who will probably remove his adenoids at that time. (Oh joy.) So for now, we have to live with the chronic coughing and runny nose.  It's not so bad for Jacob - he doesn't seem to care that much except that he gets tired of getting his nose wiped all the time.  It's harder for Caroline and I who just want to see him healthy and comfortable.  As a result though, Jacob is learning how to blow his nose, reducing our need to for the aspirator (aka, snot-sucker).

Well, of course, I have some more cute pictures for you to enjoy.

He still looks angelic while sleeping.

Jacob & his new friend Sofie.

Jacob & Aidan at Herring Run throwing rocks in the water.