The Biker

Jacob went to Michael and Huey's on Thursday while I went to the Dr and ran some errands. A much needed break for both of us. We took his Batman three wheeler and him and his friends rode bikes on the square just outside of their apartment. He was exhausted from playing all day with his friends.

This video is of Jacob riding his bike in our complex. He calls this the circle and he just goes around and around. There is even a finish line near where I am standing but he never finishes, unless I tell him it is time go. I get hot standing there. If you notice there is a little water-way that runs under the sidewalk and his back wheels have landed in there several times and dumped him out. We just tell him that he has to focus on keeping in the middle of the path and he has been doing better. He used to not look ahead when he drove and he would run into things or get stuck. He learned quickly.

The Package

The Thursday before Max's b-day we got a wonderful package in the mail. It was like it was everyone's birthday. Nonna and Papa had sent us each a pair of tennis shoes, a silly card, and some cash. Jacob was so excited about the money and had it spent before we left the house. Whenever we go shopping or he sees something he wants we tell him that he can get it when he has his own money. Little did we know that he had a running list of things in his head that he was going to get when he obtained money. He got a round house for his train table and some little people. We all love our new shoes and they fit great for not having tried them on. Jacob says his are FAST!! Thank you Nonna and Papa!!

The Last Week

Opps, it has been a week. I didn't realize! I have been sick with who-knows-what and just day-to-day stuff getting in the way. Max's b-day was on Friday and Jacob and I surprised him at work with balloons, a pack of pepsi, and lunch out. The next day Max and I went to lunch and saw "Harry Potter" while Jacob stayed at home with a teenage babysitter, Sari. Of course, Jacob loved having someone to entertain him and was sad that I had to take her home. Now all he keeps talking about is how many legos her brothers have (enough to fill up his cars bed). Max is chomping at the bit because Sari's mom said that the boys could part with some since they never play with them. Legos is Max and Jacob's favorite thing to do together. They love to create!!  We have had lots of rain for the last week or so. Huge storms every afternoon. Jacob has become accustom to them, hasn't used his earplugs, and he says that he is being brave. I am off to the Dr today and Jacob gets to go play with his friends, Michael and Huey.

What Did You Say?

Yes, another Jacob story. Bear with me. He was getting into my canning stuff and he dumps out a bunch of my lids. He states "I recognize these. They are lids." What? Recognize? So a few seconds later he says, "Mom, look. I am playing with your lids." And I responded, "I recognize that."

Our Little Artist

Jacob has been drawing pictures today and he brought this in to me and said, "Mom, this is Grandpa Doyle." It was so sweet. I asked what the thing on his head was and he said it was long hair like mine with a circle around it. He also said he drew legs and toes too. The scribble below his arm is his food (chicken).

 

Our Happenings

Jacob took his toy golf club and reached it over his shoulder to scratch his back. He came over to me and said, "Look, just like Nonna and Papa's back scratcher."

Earlier in the day we were having a conversation about how my middle name is Pearl and my whole name is Raundi Pearl Lee and also what dad's whole name is. He didn't believe me.

Later he comes up to me and says, "Mom, your name is Raun-dee." Uh huh. "Raun--dee." Yep. "Raun, like Harry Potter's friend, Ron?" Yep, Jacob, you are right! He connects things so well. (Why can't he connect his bum to the toilet when he has to go poop???)

A few days ago the Director of Human Resources for the company Max works for came to stay at his hotel while doing some family business. She requested to meet with Max in the morning. They had a nice long talk and there were lots of kudos in there for the work that Max does. She mentioned that he would make a good dual GM (over two properties, he tried to tell them he could dual when there was an additional property open in Boise but they had some bad experiences with duals and decided not to try then, bummer) and that they would keep him in mind for other advancement opportunities. It was a wonderful meeting altogether and Max has been in a good mood since (not that he is ever really in a bad mood).

I just got done canning a bushel of peaches. We got 21 jars, 18 cups frozen puree (for smoothies, which will go along great with our strawberries and blueberries I got on the cheap and froze), 1 peach cobbler, and a few snack peaches. Not bad for $30. My friends at playgroup were jealous that I was able to get Georgia peaches, and for so cheap.

Our Atlanta Trip Continued, Continued, Continued

Ok, so this should be the last post of our vay-cay. One thing that we thought was amazing was the plant that grew everywhere and on everything.

It is called kudzu. On the trip home I decided to google it and found out some funny stuff. Kudzu is not native to the south. It is from Japan but was introduced in the early 1900's and used for erosion control, animal grazing, and to beautify (like to hide power poles). The stuff got way out of hand because the south is a great environment for it to grow in and in the 70's it was declared by the us government to be a weed.

This plant can grow up to a foot an hour. The legend goes that in Georgia you must keep your windows closed at night to keep the kudzu from coming in. They can't find anything to kill it. If you leave a car or house, or anything for that matter, unattended for too long the kudzu will eventually cover it. We have some here in Louisiana but not like in Georgia and Alabama. Despite the fact that it is beautiful, it is a nuisance. But there are many recipes out there that use the leaves and the flowers. It is very nutritious. Interesting!

This picture shows the beautiful foliage along the freeways. Also, if you look way down the road you can see some haziness and the car lights. That haziness is an instant downpour. We ran into several of these coming home and had to slam on our brakes. We could barely see in front of us.

Jacob took this picture of the stormy sky. He is becoming quite the photographer.

Here is a picture he took of his toy that we bought him because Burger King was all out of kid's meal toys (of course they were the coveted transformers). We are looking at the ball's smile. This green guy that Jacob dubbed "sea urchin anemone" (because he was spiky and soft) kept him entertained for much of the trip home. It was the best $1.50 I ever spent.

Here is another picture Jacob took of me on the ride home. After he took it he went, "Awwwww!!"

Our Atlanta Trip Continued, Continued

We went to the Georgia Aquarium which boasted to be the largest in the world. It was enjoyable, especially the dolphin show. Every time we stopped to look at something Jacob got impatient and wanted to keep walking. He only wanted to see the sea urchins, and even then he looked at them for a few minutes. When we had seen everything and it was time to go, Jacob was angry and wanted to stay. We explained that we were done and that he chose not to be patient and enjoy being there. Too bad, but I think he did like it because he talked about it the rest of the day and made sure I told everyone about our adventure. Here are some picts we took.  

How would you like to have this job? Cleaning the inside of the tank and posing for pictures. Jacob would not go near him or any tank for that matter.

This is one of the dolphins that was in the show we saw. They wouldn't let us take picts during the fantastic show so this is all we got of the dolphins.

One of the exhibits was a huge cold water tank that had a tunnel through it. Fish were swimming overhead. This is why I got dizzy, looking at everything. We think this is called a saw fish, or it should be if it isn't. He smiled for the pict! 

This fish is huge!! I left the people's heads in the pict so that we could see how big these fish are. How would you like to reel one of these bad boys in!!

This big guy is a whale shark. It was 45 ft long, the length of a school bus.

This is an albino alligator.

All right, enough of our aquarium slide show.

Our Atlanta Trip Continued

  We stopped to see the Atlanta temple that had just been renovated. It was closed for the day but we found the entrance from the church building side open.

This is the view of the street. The temple is up the hill a little. It was very beautiful.

Jacob would not let us take his picture so this is all I got of him at the temple.

View from down the front steps.

Temple plaque by the front door.

The beautiful Chattahoochee!!

I just loved how serene it was.

There was a hovercraft from the fire department practicing. Jacob hated it because it was too loud and he had just woken up from a nap in the car.

One of the many things that past by us on the river. Stroke!!

I just had to get in. It was cold but not like the Boise River. It was refreshing from being in the heat, although all along the river is shaded which helped with the heat as well.

I definitely want to "shoot the hooch" the next time we go to Atlanta. They have all sorts of water craft you can rent and it would be a relaxing, beautiful ride!

A house on the hill overlooking the river. I am sure the view from up there is amazing!

This guy was on the little island on the right and I was wondering how he had gotten over there. Later, I saw him wading across the river. I had no idea that it was that shallow, at least right there. And this is a reserviour.

My two cute guys!! Jacob got very tired and had to ride on Max's shoulders. Of course, he was no longer tired when we came upon the playground!

Jacob loves to swing high in the baby swings. He ducks his head, closes his eyes, and just feels himself swinging. FYI, this pict is deceiving. The swing actually started out about 3 feet off the ground, so Jacob isn't swinging that high.

One last picture of a house on the river. You can barely see it underneath all the beautiful trees.

The Car Ride to Atlanta

Our trip began last Sunday and was actually a very fun drive. Jacob does very well on trips and doesn't get too antsy. It took us about 8 hours to get to our hotel in Kennesaw, 30 minutes north of Atlanta, with only one stop for gas and potty along the way. One of the reasons it was such a great drive is because this is new territory for us. It is also a beautiful drive. We went from Baton Rouge, over to Biloxi, Mississippi, north east across Alabama, through Mobile and Montgomery, and then crossed into Georgia. As we went through Tuskegee I had to use my iphone to learn about why I have heard of that town. We just loved seeing more of the south!! We will probably stop by and see the ocean/coast on the way back on Friday. One of the things that kept Jacob occupied was his "lesson". I suprised him with a folder of tracing letters in page protectors, dry erase markers, and a rag. He traced the letters in his name, his dad's name, and my name for about an hour. He calls this folder his lessons and we are not sure why. After waking up the first morning in the hotel, he pulled the lesson folder out from under his pillow and said that it helped him sleep better.

My Fun Guys

Here is a cute vid that I thought I would post. My two guys being kids and having fun in a park along the Chattahoochee river.

My Curious Little Guy

We arrived at the hotel in Atlanta yesterday and Jacob was concerned that he didn't have his own bedroom like the hotel in Baton Rouge. After a while we set up the hide-a-bed and thought it was amazing that there was a bed hiding in a couch! I began talking about how I used to sleep in one at times when I was a kid. I stopped explaining for a second while I did something and Jacob exclaimed "Moooommmm! Tell me more about it!" That cracked me up and so I tried to recall all the whens, wheres, with whos, and my feelings about sleeping on a hide-a-bed as Jacob battered me with questions. When he woke up this morning he exclaimed that he didn't want to hide his bed. What an adventure!

Who Can('t) Cook?

Here is a wonderful chicken dish with all the goodness of butter, cream cheese, and Italian spices that I serve over rice or pasta. Looks good, huh? Well, it isn't!!!!! I just had to dump it down the rotten food crunching, cockroach grinding garbage disposal, where it didn't deserve to go. It did nothing wrong. The cook only did one thing to cause this untimely demise. She didn't put it away!!!!! There it sat, all night long, wondering if anyone would remember to divide it, package it up, and put it in the freezer for what could have been at least three delicious meals. The worst part is, this is the second time that the cook has done this with this same dish. (Aaaauuuurrrrgggghhhhhhh!!!!!!!!) I guess this yummy dish is just not meant to be eaten by my family. (Sniff!)  

Who Wants Popcorn?

We have a Whirley Pop and it is one of the best things we have ever purchased for our kitchen! Basically it is cooking popcorn the old fashioned way but you don't have to shake it over the burner like crazy. Put in a tablespoon of oil and a 1/2 cup of popcorn and turn the handle while it pops. Soooo goood!!! Jacob loves to request it, help make it, and then eats about a cup and he's done. Fine. More for me!! Tonight he asked to have some after his bath (I think it might be becoming a tradition) and when I put the pot on the stove and was going to put the lid on he runs over to the stove and says, "No mom, let me attach the lid on myself!" Attach? I don't even say attach. I say "I gotta put it together" or something. Where does he learn these things and how does he know when to use them? Anyway, the popcorn was good and Jacob chose to eat it with a spoon because we didn't have any napkins and he didn't want his hands dirty.

Who is a Mobster?

Today at church a lady told me that her two teenage boys refer to Max as the Mobster guy. They seem to think he looks like a member of the mafia!! Too funny. I guess he'll have to carry his machine gun to church with him next week.

Who is the Water Melon Wrangler?

Yeehaw!! Rope 'em and ride 'em. I like how he shows us how to spit out the seeds when you eat the watermelon. Silly boy without any pants on.

 

Who Got a Great Deal?

Me, I did!! I have been looking on Craigslist and going to garage sales for a while trying to find a bigger, taller, nicer computer table than the one we had before. I found it on cragistlist a few days ago and Jacob and I went to look at it. I paid for it on the spot and Max and a friend went this morning and picked it up. Max loves it too!! It just so happened that earlier that day I sold our jogging stroller for $40, this was only $50, so I only paid $10 out of my pocket! I just love how nice it looks and how it has a little bit of antiquing in the black wood finish. Now I don't have to redo it. Later I might paint the reddish wood but we shall see. Now I just have to find some drawer/boxes/baskets to go in the cubby areas to keep our junk hidden.

Who's Birthday Is It?

Wow!!! I was finally able to add a video! A couple of weeks ago our boy decided to celebrate Blue Dog's birthday. He rounded up every chair in the house and sat several of his stuffed toys around the table (see Diego peaking). He gave them all a tiny piece of cookie and cracker, a fruit snack, and they all shared his water bottle. What a gracious host ;)