COUSINS

Jake has a whole passel of cousins

(and two more are due in October)

Jonas 1 (Jared's youngest) & Reagan 10 months (Shay's daughter) - are very close to being mobile. Jonas is working on walking and Reagan has recently discovered the joy of crawling. And in no time, they will be romping around with their other cousins.

Ella is 3 - she and Jake often enjoy chasing one another, riding her trike and jumping on beds. (Ella is obviously better at dressing and undressing.)

I am having a great time watching all the kids interact and grow together.

Mr Fix It

Jake LOVE tools. He loves Grandpa's tools, especially screw drivers.

So much so that Grandpa got Jake a set of plastic tools from Toys R Us.

Anytime, Grandpa has any kind of project that requires repair, yard work or installation Jake is all over that situation.

Jake is blossoming. He has such a cute personality. He is charismatic, strong-willed and very funny (cute sense of humor). Downside - he is a screamer. He screams almost everything throughout the house and in the yard. I worry the neighbors always know when the obnoxious neighbor kid is outside. And some days I can tell Mom gets really worn down by the noise. I am trying to gently encourage him to use his "gentle" voice or his "soft" voice. He will scream stuff like, "Uh-oh, Mama the door is open!" as if it's a crisis. (Maybe it's because he has only recently figured out how to articulate the occurences he see around him?)

Today we went to the beach for the first time and spent 3 hours playing in the water and sand. Jake loved it. We both had a great time playing in the sun today. He is talking up a storm and pretty much mimics everything we say.

Some of his new (brillant) words include:

Denna = Music
Shide = Outside
Feener = Finger
Happy
Tigo = Tickle
Dwy, Dwy = Dryer
Sha de doe = Shut the door
Hug
Wat-ter = Water
Wock = Rock
Shun = Sun
Weenoh = Window
Mopen = Open or Broken (depending on the context mopen is used)

Uncle Jason Gets Married

A little over a month ago Jake and I traveled to Utah to see Uncle Jason get married.

While the wedding was idyllic the trip to Utah was not. Unless you count the scenario where you are trapped on a full flight and your child screams the entire time. (Not just 10 minutes, not just 45 minutes, but the ENTIRE 90 minutes.) Yes, that was MY trip. In retrospect I have come to a few conclusions. First and foremost, NEVER book a trip during naptime. It may seem like a good idea at the time when you are booking the reservation. I had good intensions that Jake would nap on the flight - but should of realized he would be too excited about being in public, being in a new situation to be able to settle down. NEVER book a window seat. Book an aisle seat so you can get up and walk up and down the plane OFTEN. DO bring new toys that have never been seen before. DON'T bring cheap new toys that only hold 5 minutes or less of interest. DO bring favorite familiar story books OR new never-before-seen story books. AND lastly, I would have brought chewing gum to ease any inner-ear pain I was too obtuse to pick up on.

I have enclosed a picture of Jason and his new bride, Marin.

I have also included a picture of Jacob with Granpa Meyer and Grandma Sherry. And his cousins R-L Jack, Jacob, Ella & Jonas. Jacob was the first one crying and influence all his cousins to cry. Yep, my kid is the ring leader...