Pumpkin

We finally made it to the pumpkin patch for a little FHE action on Monday. Jake was convinced that the patch was actually a giant obstacle course, and he took his mission to climb over each and every pumpkin quite seriously. It was adorable watching him scale the ravines, lift his little legs over the big pumpkins, and then clap for himself as he'd accomplish his goals. Jake would have stayed there all day if we'd let him! Finally, he landed on the perfect pumpkin, so we paid our dues and took it home.

A few hours later, we whipped out the paint and let Jake go to town. Unfortunately for the little guy, the paint resembled this yummy thing called icing... but didn't taste anything like it! He felt quite betrayed when he put the paint in his mouth and tasted something quite different from sugar. (Thank goodness for non-toxic paint, though, right?) One chocolate chip later, we were back on the right track. Jake loved making his messy little masterpiece.

Neverland on the run

Introducing Peter Pan and Tinkerbell in running shoes:

We got way into the Halloween spirit for a little 5K on Saturday. It was incredibly cold at 28 degrees (don't let the sun fool you!) but we somehow managed to get over our frozen hands and have a jolly ol' time. And speaking of time... instead of running for time, we got into character and had a party instead!

Matt literally ran the entire 3.1 miles in the "on guard" position -- with his right hand holding the sword forward and his left hand on his hip -- and we took regular "leaping" intervals. All that was missing was pixie dust, which I had been oh-so-tempted to toss along the route (it would have been kind of rude to Mother Earth though, you know?). Peter Pan was a big hit with the spectators and passing cars, and Matt ate it up by posing for every single cheer or honked horn. He makes everything so much fun!

Who knew Matt had such mad leaping skills?

As a side note, this Tinkerbell costume was Heidi's when she was like seven. So hooray for keeping old costumes around! Also, I made Matt's hat with a hot glue gun because I'm resourceful and un-domestic like that. And lastly, how awesome would it have been to have baby Jake as Captain Hook in the stroller? If only it had been about 50 degrees warmer...

A Haircut

It was time.

Okay, it was actually time about six weeks ago, but there's just something sad about cutting a baby's hair that makes you put it off and off and off... until your baby boy has enough hair for pigtails. (For Jake's future sake, I'll leave that picture off the internet.) And then you realize that maybe it's time to accept that fact that maybe your baby boy is turning into more of a little boy, and maybe it's okay for little boys to have their hair cut.

Jake was a little unsure at first, but quickly warmed right up and put on a show for his crowd of adoring fans. All the while, the light blonde locks fell to the floor. In the end, Jake looked like what he is: a little boy. And a handsome little one at that!

This video was taken right before naptime and right at the end of the long haircut, so Jake was kind of over it by then. But he has the best little disposition and turns his fusses into giggles. I just love him! In this clip, Jake babbles a bit and shows off some of his vocab with "Heeeyyyy," "Diddy" (kitty), and "Heidi" all in one tiny video :)

The Zoo

We believe that the best things money can buy are memories, so it's a tradition in our little family to give experiences as gifts. (Like hang gliding for Matt's birthday or going on anniversary trips.) For Jake's 1st birthday "memory" gift, he unwrapped an elephant pull toy along with zoo tickets.

Last Friday, we made good on the present and headed to Hogle Zoo. Jake is beyond obsessed with puppies, kitties, birds, his Sophie giraffe, and his stuffed monkey, so we were pretty sure it would be a highlight of his little life. And it was! Sure enough, Jake squealed and clapped and beamed at the animals. My family has two cats and Jake chases them around squealing "diddy! diddy! diddy!" (his version of "kitty") throughout the day. Imagine the excitement when he saw the biggest kitties ever at the zoo! The tiger was the first cat he spotted, and he kept clapping and saying "diddy!" over and over, and thereby charmed all of the passersby.

The Hogle Zoo has three babies right now -- an elephant, a giraffe, and a snow leopard. They were adorable! The baby animals were definitely my favorites. Jakey's favorites were the kitties, the monkeys, the giraffes, the sea lions, the meerkats, and the lion drinking fountain. He squealed excitedly and clapped for all of them. The polar bear also captured his attention as it kept swimming up to the glass to peek at its fans, but Jake was a little unsure about all the screaming children that were also watching the bear. Meanwhile, he didn't care much for anything that just sat there or moved slowly, including the big animals like the elephants or the rhinos. Jake just looked at them like, "And your trick is...?" Which is kind of funny, because I bet those will be his favorites in a few years.

Jakey clapping for the tiger

Jake being a gorilla

Stealing sunglasses is Jake's favorite

By the way, while we're on the topic of Jake's first birthday which was an entire month-and-a-half ago... I keep not blogging about it because I lost half the pictures in the great external hard drive crash, and I've been holding out a glimmer of hope that I could get them back. Sadly, though, I've now been told twice that my data is entirely unrecoverable, so perhaps it's time to just accept defeat and move on. To add insult to injury, my laptop crashed two weeks after the external did. Therefore, this blog has been coming to you from my mother's basement computer. Many apologies for being behind in commenting on all of your blogs, but it's just sort of cold down here so I browse from my phone instead. And we all know that typing on a phone is a pain. I just sort of hate technology right now.