Early thanks

After an emotional afternoon visiting our friends and their 2-year-old son in UCSF's pediatric intensive care unit, I'm feeling especially thankful for Jake's health, and extremely ashamed of how often I take it for granted. Hoping with all my heart that our little friend Lucas gets the answers he needs from the specialists at UCSF so he and Jake can play together again soon. 

Thumbs up for pudding

Jake is getting there, but he's still not that much of a sweets guy...
until I recently shared one of my pudding cups with him. (Remember
those pudding cups? They're so good and don't upset heartburn!) This
was his expression about two seconds after I handed him the cup.

Driving the green car

It's funny how you research the top spots to bring your kid to enrich his life (and how much you spend to go there) only to find out maybe he could care less. We brought Jake to see Thomas the Tank Engine, to the world-renowned Monterey Bay Aquarium, got memberships to the local children's discovery museum and zoo, and checked out every park and playground around that yelp suggested as "good for kids." But what does he talk about constantly? "I drove the green car with Daddy." It took Dave and I awhile to even catch on to what he was talking about, but when he wouldn't let it go, it finally clicked and I brought up some photos on my phone of our recent trip to nearby Gilroy Gardens, this kind of run-down, defunct, horticultural-themed amusement park. That was it - he got all excited and looked at the pictures over and over. We took Jake there a couple of weeks ago just to get out of the house and because we had free passes. No planning ahead the night before, no strategy on beating the crowds, no googling like crazy to see if there were discounted tickets. I threw a diaper, sippy cup, and a couple packs of goldfish in my purse and we just hopped in the car on a whim and went - I don't think we even brought a real camera. Hell, I don't even think I took a shower! Yet this is what he remembers, and obviously cherishes. Maybe it's time to rethink that drive to Muir Woods.... 

2 1/2

Jake turned 2 1/2 on Saturday! So hard to believe - he's growing up so fast. I know I'm biased, but he's the sweetest, cutest, smartest, 2 1/2 year old. Ever.

As far as milestones, Jake can count to 10... and is working on 20. Right about '13' he starts going "16, 17, 16, 18, 14...." It's one of those things that is too cute to correct. He also knows his alphabet, but o is sometimes "big circle." He's eating just about anything and everything, and Dave and I were surprised that when we grabbed lunch on Saturday he ate more than the two of use combined! His favorites are TV shows like "Thomas" and "Dora the Explorer" (he asks for TV way too much, though, so we're trying to limit it), going on slides at the playground, anything having to do with cars and trucks, and reading books (mainly books that have to do with cars and trucks). He loves 'helping' by helping me with the laundry and emptying the utensils from the dishwasher. The things that come out of his mouth are funny, and sometimes so sweet, and recently he's gotten a little harsh. His best recent quotes are:

"I like this pink chicken!" (salmon)
"Mommy you bigger than a monster truck!" (kind of true)
"I do it all-my-by-myself! No touch me!"
"... H, I, J, K, L, M, N, "big circle," P, Q, R"
"I love you Mommy. That make you happy." (in response to "Jake I'm mad you did that.." He's totally right by the way, I can't stay mad at him when he says that)
"Mommy, you got pants on?" (When he comes to wake me up in the morning. Don't get the wrong idea - the funny part about this is I don't know where it came from. I do, in fact, wear pants to bed. Every night.)

We celebrated the big 2-point-5 with a trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which was really crowded and maybe a bit over Jake's head. But we hit up Dennis the Menace park after that which was awesome! It's a huge oceanside park with tons of slides and play structures.

 Started the day out right with pancakes shaped like cars and trucks (I can't take any credit for these... they were all Dave. Best dad in the world!)

 Looking at fish at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

The jellyfish exhibit

Dennis the Menace Park.

The "big lellow slide" at Dennis the Menace park.

On a real antique steamtrain at Dennis the Menace park

The slides at Dennis the Menace park - check out the end where Jake comes down head first, feet up in the air and some strange man tries to save him by catching Dave.

Veteran's Day

Jake and I enjoyed the mild weather (ok, honestly, to me it feels like it's freaking 100 degrees every day and it's the first time since I've moved out here that I've wanted to be back east for winter, but I digress) and a day 'off' (daycare was closed for Veteran's Day) by exploring a nearby park. We've been to the playground but never on the hiking trails at Vasona Park in Los Gatos. I'm excited that Jake seems to have such a love of the outdoors, and he's such a good little walker, I thought it'd be a low-key, crowd-free "adventure."  I've mentioned before that my little guy is now a talker, so strolling around while having a conversation was so enjoyable.... except where I was trying to piece together phrases like "I went to timeout because Julie was mad" (???)  "because I touched the waterfall" (???). Either way, it was a nice day, and Jake was more agreeable than I thought when I asked him to sit on a bench so I could rest a bit. We watched the ducks for a while and he polished off some fruit snacks. We continued on the trail and circled back around to head back to my car. When we passed the bench we had a originally rested on, Jake looked up at me and said "Mommy, our bench." I know I'm not supposed to be lifting anything over 20 pounds anymore, but I had to pick him up and squeeze and kiss him ... love that little guy.

Jake watching the ducks ("He's swimming under the water Mommy!"). I took this from "our bench" :)

Playing hooky

Jake and I took quite a detour on our way to daycare this morning. I thought I could get away with playing hooky from work since most of my coworkers are celebrating Diwali (turns out I was wrong, but that's a different story) so I decided that while I'm still mobile, I wanted some one-on-one time -- a full day -- just Jake and me. He asked if we could "go on an adventure." After me asking "what, put your pants on?",  I got what he was saying, and it was persuasion enough to pass up Happy Hallow and venture off the peninsula for once. I remembered when Jeanne, Mike, Jack, and Allie visited 7 years or so ago, and we went to the Bay Area Children's museum in Sausalito. It sits in Fort Baker, right at the base of the Golden Gate bridge. I hit the jackpot, if I do say so myself, because Jake just LOVED it. It's a great little "museum" that's set up in old military barracks. It's like it was made for Jake - dump trucks, train tables, boats, and lots of things to climb. When we had to leave, he cried, and not a bratty no-I-don't-want-to-leave cry, but a heartbreaking sob that actually had me thinking that maybe we would just stay there until it closed, or longer! But I talked him into going to see "the big bridge"to get him out of the museum and we got these pictures of him admiring it. I also got him excited to drive over it (he slept on the way up) so it wasn't a total tearful goodbye. Despite finding a bunch of frantic "where are you?" emails from work, it was totally worth it, and I'm hoping the two of us can get in a couple more playdates before January. 

Happy Halloween!

This was the first year Jake really "got" Halloween, which made the weekend so much fun. On Friday, we went to downtown Willow Glen for their preschool trick-or-treat with our favorite neighbors, Adelaide and Delia. It was crowded and hectic, but the perfect place for Jake to practice saying "trick or treat" and "thank you." It also quelled my fear about him not being into wearing a costume - he loved his firefighter costume.




















On Saturday we went to UCSF medical center with Dave's mom. Each year, the NICU has a celebration/reunion for all the survivors. Dave was born there a full three months early 35 years ago. I don't think Jake got the whole "Daddy was born here!" thing, but he loved seeing all the kids in their costumes. I got a big dose of reality, and left feeling immensely grateful for my big healthy two-year-old after seeing tiny little babies that you could see were little fighters.

On Sunday we went to History Park in San Jose. It's a cute little park that's a replica of what downtown San Jose looked like... a long time ago. Hm, maybe the early 1900s? That was fun because we didn't have to worry about cars - Jake thought it was just awesome that he could be in the "street" without holding my hand. He also got to ride on an antique trolley. Perfect for his this train obsession he's going through.

That night we went around the block to trick or treat. A little stressful because we live in a prime trick or treating neighborhood so there were lots of crowds on the sidewalks, but fun nonetheless. Jake caught on pretty quickly and decided that he wanted to go trick or treating "all my by myself!" We said ok, and the first house he hit "all my by" himself, he decided to open the front door and walk in on his own! We didn't know these neighbors, but luckily they got a kick out of him. (He really was the cutest kid out there!)