Growing Jacob

Jacob will be three in a month or so, and I have to say that the older he gets, the more fun he is. I love seeing him figure out the world in new ways, and am continually amazed at his perceptiveness. He's great with numbers, even doing simple addition and subtraction. He also knows all the letters and their sounds, and can spell his name (the other day I came downstairs and found he had googled "Jacob." That was a little disconcerting.) He loves to read and having a book in front of him is about the only way he'll hold still for any length of time.


He likes playing games on the computer, and can use the mouse himself now, which is great for me. We've recently discovered The Friend magazine's website, which has great interactive games for children (it used to be our Sunday fallback, but now he asks for it pretty much every day).



Here he's coloring a picture of Family Home Evening on the Friend website (friend.lds.org). As you can see, his favorite color is black. He wants everything to be black (he asked for black cotton candy at a carnival) and isn't happy with a picture until every item on it is solid black. Should I be worried about this?



Speaking of being worried, we've been doing lots of crafts lately, and let me tell you that it takes all of my Mommy restraint to let him express his own creativity and not take over to make it cute. We made a popsicle stick doll the other day, and it could have been darling, but I let him choose everything and we came up with this. Pretty creepy, if you ask me, but he was delighted with it.



Here he is looking menacing with Mr. Incredible and "Doll" (as he named her). I'll be honest: I was not disappointed when he lost interest in Doll and I was able to put her out of sight.

Anyway, I figure it's all part of this toddler figuring-out-the-world process, and I'm delighted to be along for the ride.

Fourth of July 2009

Happy Independence Day!

Since the Fourth fell on a Saturday this year, Bryon got Friday off, and we made a weekend of it, camping in Midway at Bryon's grandparents' house. It was the first real camping trip for Jacob (we took him backpacking with us when he was an infant, but he was more of an accessory rather than a participant. This time, it was all about him.)

We started by helping to feed Grandpa's cows.

Jacob's look says it all: "Wow! Cows!"

While Leila napped, we hiked to the top of Memorial Hill, across the street from our "campsite."

Jacob walked up by himself pretty much the whole way, holding a sucker most of the time. He's got priorities.

We made it!

Check out that view! Midway is so beautiful.

Jacob taking the easy way down.

We had some downtime in the afternoon, and Grandma introduced Jacob to one of Bryon's favorite childhood games: Uncle Wigglebottom. (Okay, I could be wrong on that name). Anyway, it involved lots of counting, and Jacob loved it.

Later that day we drove down Provo Canyon to Vivian Park and Bridal Veil Falls. Bryon dropped me off at the bottom so I could run the Provo River Parkway with my sister.

In the evening, everyone roasted hot dogs and marshmallows for dinner.

Yeah, I think Jacob liked the marshmallows.

This was our campsite in Bryon's grandparents' yard. A firepit, picnic table, and plenty of shade. It was perfect!

Our 4th of July morning started off not-so-wonderfully when the town shot cannons off at sunrise (around 6 AM). Jacob slept through the first 12 blasts or so, but eventually woke up and then woke Leila up. There was no getting them back to sleep, so we got up and went to the town celebration where we heard singing and listened to a speaker. We sang the national anthem and then had a pancake breakfast. Considering Jacob had been up for two hours by that time, he was pretty hungry. But, I guess you can't really expect to sleep in when you're camping with little kids. It was a fun way to start the day.

After breakfast we went for a family bike ride/run. Jacob got out of the bike trailer to join me for about a block. He was pretty proud of himself for running faster than Mommy.

We went to the Dairy Keen in Heber for lunch. Jacob loved the trains. He was so wiped out, though, that he was practically falling asleep while eating his ice cream cone on the way back to the car. He slept all afternoon.

In the evening we had a big family get together in Midway. Bryon's brother, Adam (second from left) just got back from his mission to the Philippines, so it was fun to have him there.

Leila and Grandpa Clegg. She wouldn't keep her cute 4th of July bow on.

I'm being patriotic, even without the red, white, and blue.

Jacob and Leila in cute flag shirts, courtesy of Grandma Carol.

The Poulter grandkids. Leila wasn't digging this photo session.

Jacob and Ambree. They're just so happy.

Watching fireworks. Jacob was still a little intimidated by the real deal. (Last year he was terrified, so we're making progress.)

The next day, Sunday, we went up to Brigham for a family get-together with the Nyes. My sister, Doreen, made this awesome pinata. Note that Jacob is peeking. He didn't really get the whole pinata concept. Oh well, at least he got the candy.