One of Jake's Heroes

This is Danny, Jake's Cul-de-sac hero, livin' large in the hood.
This next picture just cracks me up. After doing a wheely or two, Danny casually pulled up to the curb and laid his bike down so he could go check on the progress of the house across the street. Jake proceeds to ride his trike over to the same spot, but instead of just parking it next to Danny's bike, he heaved it up onto just two wheels so it would "lean" against the curb just like Danny's.

Three Musketeers

How cute are these kids? I'm biased about the little guy on the left, but come on, these are all some cute kids.

Sidenote: Have you ever seen those ads at shopping malls for cute kid contests? It's something like $20 to enter the contest and they promise some big payoff, but that sure is a brilliant scam. What parent doesn't think their kid could win a cuteness contest? The guy that invented that is probably retired on Fiji.

To Jake's left are his old daycare buddies, Jocelyn and Rachel. They came up through the ranks together, barely crawling when they first met, and now look at 'em!

So, Ali and I were talking and we both thought, "Gee, Jocelyn sure looks just like her Mom and Rachel sure looks just like her Mom". But we were both stumped about which one of us Jake looks like. Maybe we just can't see the resemblance because we're too close to him? Or does he look less like either of us, and more just like himself? This gives me an excuse to try out the new survey feature of the blog (see survey over/up there -->).

Go Pony!

"Come on No. 9! I've got $2 on you in the Trifecta!!"

Here we are at the Laurel horse track taking in a few afternoon races. Jake loved watching the ponies, and with Mommy's predictions, we came out slightly ahead. Not quite enough for a new pair of shoes for the baby, however. Here are a few more shots.

Saturday Morning

This morning we took the kids for a bike ride to the Falls Church farmers' market. It was Sadie's first ride in the trailer, and Jake was in charge of making sure she was safe. I think she dozed off, but Jake had fun. I heard lots of "Weees" when we went down hills and "Eyeyeyeyeyes" when we went over bumpy patches. The farmers' market was packed! We got to taste some ripe ripe tomatoes and peaches and nectarines and fresh baked bread and artisan cheeses and homemade empanadas. We hit the adjacent playground for a bit, and then started the ride home and back up our little mountain of a hill to our house. I'm proud to say I made it up, towing what must have been 70lbs. "Get your muscles out Daddy!"

More Giggles

Here's a short clip of Jake making Sadie giggle. She's really starting to react to Jake, and he's loving having an audience. Little moments like these are a nice balance to the tantrums that are starting to appear.

Mango Juice

"Would you like some juice with breakfast?"
"JUICE!"
"How about apple juice?"
"Howabooooouuuuuut..........MANGO JUICE!"
"We don't have any mang-"
"MANGO JUICE!!! MANGO JUICE!!!"

Recipe for Mango Juice
(for toddler who doesn't know any better)

2 parts apple juice
2 parts orange juice
1 part cranberry juice

Shake well and serve in sippy cup with straw

Enjoy

Giggles

We got back from the lake this afternoon and decided to give Jake a bath. When he got out of the tub, we handed him a towel and he proceeded to walk right out of the bathroom, towel over his head.

Since he's been taking baths, he's always waited for us to wrap him up like a mummy and carry him out, so Ali and I looked at each other and realized we'd passed another little milestone.

We followed him into his room, where he was playing with the Chicken Elvis that Deni and Patrick got him. The towel was still in the hallway, so he was running around his room naked, making airplane noises and holding Chicken Elvis high above his head. Ali had Sadie in the Baby Bjorn carrier and we heard a little chuckle from her. I saw that her pretty blue eyes were following Jake around the room. She chuckled again, and then really started laughing. The more Jake ran around, the more Sadie laughed and laughed. Ali and I started laughing too, and then Jake realized he was making the three of us laugh so he started giggling and running around even more. It was just one of those moments....