first ER visit...

we've been so fortunate in jake's 22 months.  he's rarely sick.  even as a baby, he never got more than a runny nose.  he did have rosela when he was almost a year old but that was the worst...until december 2011.  this has been the month of runny noses, fevers, coughs and...CROUP.  he started off with a simple runny nose and within a few days he had a fever and cough that sounded like nothing i'd ever heard before.  this particular night his voice was horse and his cough sounded like a barking seal that was gasping for air.  we took him to the ER and they diagnosed him with croup.  i was a first time mom wreck crying harder than him at the hospital.  they only allowed one parent back with him while they did all of his vitals (including the dreaded rectal temp) and matt took one look at me and told me to go sit in the waiting are while he handled it.  we got a room pretty quickly and they gave him an oral steroid, gave us some information and sent us on our way.  way scary for mom.  jake's like his daddy...no fear.

flashback from when he had roseola...

always smiling...even when sick

time with grandpa marks

this is late because he actually spent time with my dad in october but i'm just getting around to posting it.  my dad means the world to me and what means more is that he's still around to experience my son.  he's 77 this month and i feel so fortunate that he's still here.  i always worried that he'd be gone before i had kids but i lucked out.  he still lives in the bay area but comes down to visit my brother and i every few months.  there are so many things we learned from my dad and i try so hard to pass those on to jake.  sometimes i have to be careful that i don't impose those same ways on my husband because he has his own way but it's hard not feel that we were raised so well and i want to repeat it with my son.  jake will be so lucky to get even just some of the wisdom and knowledge my dad has. 

jake loves grandpa's beard

thought i'd throw in one of me and hubby.

thanks to my bro for the entirely too close, close-up.

pretend city

i had the whole week off for thanksgiving break so i took jake to pretend city, children's museum in irvine.  it was our first time and he loved it.  the whole place is life, but make-believe.  they have a post office, vegetable garden, construction site, stage, fire station, bank, grocery store and much more.  it's the perfect place for kids to pretend.  

some of his favorite spots were the fishing/water area, beach, stage, construction site, anyplace with a car, the art station,  and the vegetable garden.  he ran from place to place and then back to his favorites like 5 or 6 times.  i think when he's a little older, he'll really grasp the concept of pretending to act out the different scenarios but he made up his own play.  we'll definitely be back.

fishing

he kept trying to scoop up the "sand" to

fill his bucket and kept looking at me like

why isn't it happening.  'cause it's pretend sand, son.

in the infant/toddler playroom

at his workbench.  daddy would be proud!

he spent a lot of time on the stage and was obsessed with the maracas, drums and the microphone.

in the library

"911, what's your emergency?"

licking all of the vegetables.  wish he'd do 

that in real life.

bbqing his steak.  again, daddy would be proud.

mommy lives for this kind of stuff.  i love spending time with you, jake, and seeing you have fun and discover new things.  you get so excited over everything, just like mommy, and i love that about you.  doesn't take much to make you happy.  it only takes you to make mommy happy.

Thanksgiving

for thanksgiving, we woke up and lounged in the morning time.  jake was in his pajamas until we left the house at 3:00.  off to carm's house to hang with the family like we do every year.  i went in sweats (velour, at least) because that's what i live in right now. everything is tight and uncomfortable and i really wanted to get my grub on with no restrictions.  it was our typical family gathering with all of the family, lots of kids running around and lots of full adults sitting around chatting.  i'm thankful every day for all of the blessings in my life but extra thankful this year.  jake didn't nap so he ran around all day/night with the cousins and was asleep by the time we hit the corner when leaving carm's.

this is how we roll

uncle jason and lohia

mommy's baby

in the pajamas 

i wanted to get a family picture with daddy but mommmy was too lazy to dress nice.

halloween

i LOVE halloween.  it has always been one of my favorite holidays, even though i didn't have kids.  i LOVE seeing all of the little ones dressed up going trick-or-treating.  it was one of my "can't wait for" moments when i had jake.  he was only 10 months old last year so it was more about the costume/photo op for me.   

last year he was in a cutesy, baby costume but i knew this year i wanted to something more fun edgy.  i saw a mc hammer costume last year and have obsessed over it for the last 12 months but lost the fight (real fight) with matt.  he wasn't havin' it, so i decided to find something that jake liked that would mean something to him.  he loves jake and the never land pirates cartoon and walks around the house saying "arrrrrgh!"  and a few days before halloween, i found it!

he got to wear it twice.  carma had a halloween party so we dressed him up for that.  he was front runner for the kids costume contest but we left early. imo...you shouldn't have had to be present to win but i'm not bitter.

2 days later it was halloween.  my mom and i took him trick-or-treating on our block while candy monitor matt stayed back to pass out candy. i know i'm biased but he was the cutest pirate and all of the neighbors fell in love.  he walked right up to each house and stuck his bucket out for candy.  he even tried to go inside a few houses.  it was a defining night in motherhood for me.  goosebumps up and down the block.  jake, you bring mommy so much happiness. 

on a side note...there was some chatter about whether or not he could have been prince in his purple rain days.  i'm okay with either label.

purple rain flashback?

pooped after the party

getting in a little leap frog letter learning 

before trick-or-treating.  c'mon son, let's go...mama's excited!

halloween 2010- 8 months old.

pumpkin patch

my mom and i took jake to the pumpkin patch while matt stayed behind to finish our fence. we took tai and tafa, too.  great times.  he ran around everywhere and rode rides with tafa.  i tried to get him on the pony but he started to cry.  i should have done like last year and put him on there anyway so i could at least get a photo (jake will thank me later...or at least his wife will).  didn't feel like getting stank stares from other parents thinking i don't care about my kid's feelings. 

he loved the train ride the best and the petting zoo.  afterwards we went to ruby's for ice cream sundaes.

ever tried to get hay out of an afro?