In Search of Myself

Go Jake!

Last night when we walked in the door, Jake took his jacket off and hung it on the closet doorknob -- with no prompting from me at all.  Every day we come home and I stand there and tell him to do a few things to transition into the house, but yesterday I didn't have to say anything.  Lou saw him do it and he was in awe.  And you know, it's nice when total strangers or friends let you know they think you're doing a good job as a parent, but when it dawns on your spouse that you're doing something right . . .  well that will make your day.

A little re-arranging . . .

Well, you know every blogger eventually gets to the point where something has to be rearranged.  I'm at that point.  This is a little change and shouldn't affect you -- much.  I haven't had time to keep up Jake's webpage since I've started blogging, and really I've realized I don't need to put ALL the pics I have of him up, just the highlights. 

So within Typepad we have 3 options for accounts, right? One, of course, is this one -- Searching for me.  One WAS Weighing In but will change to (drumroll please) a site for Scrapbooking for Beginners!!!  This will happen starting next week.  (Help me with a title!!!)  I'm going to use the 3rd account for Jake stuff (titled "Jake" -- how original, eh?) and I will make that the default blog.  Thus my watered-down, share with the family blog will be where jenjen.tyeppad.com takes you.  This will contain just the pics and stories of Jake and only very PC stuff.  There won't be anything there that won't be here, I'll just copy and paste anything about Jake I write on this one to the other. 

The reason for doing this, is if family were at the Jake blog but the default was still Searching for Me, they could easily get to Searching for Me -- and I want at least a little freedom in writing here.  As is, I know I am so easily google-able, and there are a lot of things I don't say that I might if I were more annonymous.  And I want to be able to give out "jenjen.typepad.com" to people, it's easy to remember.  But hey, it's all good.

Anyway, if you accidentally find yourself at the watered down blog, I will make sure my e-mail address can be easily found so you can e-mail me to find your way back.  Or just ask Kelly, she always knows where to find me.  ;o)  Make sure your links to me on your blog take you to jenjen.typepad.com/searching_for_me, not just jenjen.typepad.com

Cool?

Give me a hug

Gosh, I love how much these kids love each other!  Lana and Jake were on the couch together last week and I was trying to get a good picture of the two of them together (they NEVER look at the camera and smile at the same time, it's impossible.)  So hoping for a smile or for them sitting closer to each other, I told Lana to give Jake a hug.  So stinking cute.  And they're also to the point where they will nicely share snacks out of the same bowl and not fight over them.  Seeing them sitting at Jake's table together, happily sharing and having fun just did my heart good.

P.S. Don't forget to read about Jake at 30 months (2 entries down) if you haven't yet.

My 200th post!

And it will be just a hodge-podge (my mom loves that word) of my weekend.  Probably too boring for you to want to read it, but I feel the need to write it anyway.

30 months!

So my BABY was officially 30 months (TWO AND A HALF YEARS OLD!!!) this past Saturday, March 12th.  Ok, so here's all about Jake at 30 months:

My mom . . .

Yesterday after my piano lesson with Alexis (which went REALLY well, yay!), Priscilla and the girls came over to my mom's house.  Mom hadn't seen the baby in a while, and I thought I'd let Jake and E play with the mom's house set of toys.  (Plus, mom's house is bigger than mine, and it's nice to hang out there sometimes.)  Mom had a blast holding A, who really is the SWEETEST baby ever.  (I'm telling you, I love this baby more every time I see her.)  Mom looked so happy holding A and having her smile so big . . . my mom is like me, she's really the happiest when she's playing with children.  Later when I was holding baby A, mom was sitting in her rocking chair and her eyes looked red and teary, like she was going to cry.  (And my mom does NOT cry.  Not very often.  Unlike me . . .)  I asked her what was wrong, and she said, "I'm just looking around the room, taking it all in . . . you start to do that when you get older." I gave her a what??? look (she's almost 51, which doesn't seem old to me), and she said, "I was just thinking about spring coming, and that if I live to be about 70 -- if I make it that long -- I'll only see spring come 20 more times." And I don't know why, but every time I think about her saying that, I start crying.  So that's nice and depressing to start your Friday out.  (Now I have to figure out how to stop crying before anyone in the office notices.)

Silly Jake

(kick-ass picture courtesy of my awesome mom!!!)

Jake has been trying to talk his way out of bedtime lately.  With his limited vocabulary, it's actually really cute.  A lot of times he'll say he has to go potty, and we'll get up and he does go potty.  Then back in the bed.  If he doesn't have a puppy toy to hold on to, he won't sleep.  Luckily we have 5 different puppy dogs between my mom's house and mine, and he is fine with any of them.  (The annoying part, though, is when we're already upstairs and I've forgotten, then I have to stumble downstairs again to grab a puppy.)  The approach he keeps coming back to, though, is the reasoning that he shouldn't have go to sleep if someone else is awake.

So we're laying in bed Tuesday night, the lights are out.  We went to bed early because I was exhausted and he was whiny and being a pill.

me: Go to sleep, baby.
Jake: Mama awake.
me: I'm only awake because you won't let me sleep.  Go to sleep and I'll go to sleep.
Jake: (shakes puppy dog.)  Puppy awake.
me: No, your puppy is asleep.
Jake: Nana awake.
me: No, Nana's asleep, too.  It's bedtime.
Jake: Grand-dad awake.
me: No, Grand-dad is asleep.
Jake: Aunt Kat-ee awake.
me: Kathy's asleep.
Jake: Dog awake.
me: Sadie the dog is asleep.  You go to sleep.
Jake: Lana awake.
me: No, Elauna's at her house, and she's asleep. (Although really?  It was only 9 p.m., she probably wasn't.  But he doesn't need to know that.)
Jake: Daddy awake.
me: Well, daddy's at work, he doesn't count.
Jake: . . .
me: . . .
Jake: ONE . . .TWO . . . TWEE . . .

Who dat?

Jake LOVES his scrapbooks.  Almost every night, at some point in the evening he walks over to my scrappin' desk/hutch, points up and says "Scrapbook?  Scrapbook?"  So we get one down and I let him look at it.  He's really good at being gentle and turning the pages by the corners and such, so sometimes I let him do it by himself while I'm off doing something (in the same room.)  When he's looking at the "misc" album -- where I've put everything extra that doesn't warrant its own album quite yet -- he always says "Where Jake?" because he's not in it much.  His very favorite pages, aside from the ones with puppies or dogs on them, are the two LOs of Cara's kids -- one from our trip to see them last summer, one of them from his birthday party.  Jake loves to point to each person and say "Who dat?" and I'll say Cara or Liah or Dylan or Baby Jay.  Jake thinks this is grand fun.  We do it over and over and over.  Now in the LO of our trip, baby Jay isn't visible -- his pictures are in a mini-book you have to flip out.  So the other day when Jake gets to this page and has asked me who everyone is, he then says "Where baby?" 

You know, he doesn't say much, but his brain is definitely a-workin'.

Want some free clothes? *Edited*

Those of you with girls -- do any of you want some hand-me-downs?  I have some really cute stuff that's barely worn, that my cousin gave me for Priscilla -- P went through them (she's picky) and there's still a big stack of clothes.  I separated out the so-so ones from the nice ones, and took the so-so ones to Goodwill.  The nice ones, Once Upon a Child didn't want them (I have no idea why, those people are so weird), and I can't bring myself to give them to Goodwill, they're too pretty and perfect!!!  Most of the clothes are for 2 to 4 year olds.  Does anyone want to look at them?  I could take pictures, if you want, and you can pick and choose what you want.  I don't want to deal with selling them on ebay, I don't have the patience or energy to keep up with it.  I just want to give them to someone who needs them and who will use them.  Any takers?

P.S. 3-9-05  Ok, I will take pics of the dresses (probably this weekend) and get them to JenA, Rae, and Becca if she wants to look . . . then you guys can tell me which ones you like and I can divide them up.  If I have any left, I will send them to Nino.  Sound good?  If you want to help me with shipping when I send them, you can; if not, that's ok, too.   

Happy Birthday, Lana!!!

Thursday after work I went to my mom's and got ready for Alexis' piano lesson. It actually went pretty well, and I think she and I are making progress. I want so badly for her to do well, but her stubbornness and flighty-ness in lessons (refusing to pay attention to details) gets in the way. Mid-lesson, Priscilla called and I told her I'd call her back. When I called her back, she wanted to know if we wanted to get together that night (we usually don't plan things until the last second -- sometimes we try to call during the day or I call her while I'm on my way home -- but sometimes it's "Hi, we're getting in the car to come home, do you want us to stop by?") I was trying to figure out what we were doing that night, and she said, "Well, because it's Elauna's birthday, so I was thinking . . ." and I thought CRAP. How do I forget my best friend's daughter's birthday?!!! We'd been talking about it for the past several months, tossing around ideas about a park birthday party, but then decided that would be too complicated. And all day at work that day, as I wrote "March 3rd," I would think "Damn, I know there's something special about March 3rd, now what is it?" So we decided she would stop by Starbucks on the way to my house and get us some drinks and a little cake for the kids.

I RUSHED home with Jake and threw together an impromptu party. I still had the table-cloth and birthday banner from Jake's party, as well as several balloons. Picture me trying to keep Jake occupied, happy, and out of my way, while I clean my living room/dining room/kitchen, blow up 4 balloons and tie ribbon on them so they'll hang from the ceiling light, hang up 2 "happy birthday" banners, situate the tablecloth on the table, realize it's still sticky from Jake's birthday party 6 months ago (oops), clean it off, search high and low for candles but all I could find was a Winnie the Pooh "ONE" candle, and find some icing. I actually did pretty well, for throwing it all together in 10 minutes. So they finally arrive (P, Elauna, and baby A) and E is THRILLED to see a Sesame Street "Happy Birthday" sign, and totally excited about the balloons. P said I didn't have to decorate, that she just wanted to spend some time together and wasn't expecting anything, and I was saying no, I totally had to do it because I was HORRIBLE for forgetting it was her birthday. I mean, I knew when her birthday was, but I didn't realize that day was the day. (Because I'm an airhead.) She already knew that I wouldn't have money to buy a present until the next day, so I didn't feel guilty YET because I had already planned to go shopping that weekend. And OMG, I bought her the CUTEST pink easter dress and sweater at Target, along with some Little People animals and people. I'm going to take them over there tonight. (And the sweater E's wearing in the pictures, I got her -- I have good taste, huh! [just nod your head.])

Anyway, we sat the kids down and Jake actually understood that we were having a birthday party (he totally didn't "get" the concept when it was his birthday, so YAY! He's figuring things out!) He said "Cake. Whooo. (blowing out a candle.) Hat." And I said "Oh, no, do you need a hat?" He said "Yeah. Hat." And I would have made him one after the cake, but he forgot. I made a big "E" on the cake for the kids to share (which looked dumb, but we don't care), and lit the Pooh candle a few times and let them each blow it out. They loved the cake. P and I sat and drank our yummy drinks (we have GOT to stop going to Starbucks -- she totally goes almost every day. heh. They just opened up a new one literally on the corner by my house. Right before I hit the interstate. And it's drive-thru. They are smart people.) A from her carseat made noises to get our attention, making sure we knew she was there. She is SO funny. When I do look at her and talk to her, she gets the biggest smile on her face. I think I finally understand how mothers can have a second child and love them just as much as the first, because when I found out last year that P was pregnant, I didn't think I could love another baby as much as I love Elauna -- and I am SO in love with Aowyn!

I got out the video camera and got a few minutes of the kids playing together, and of A rolling over on a blanket we put her on -- I have video of E rolling over for the first time, too. ;o) The last thing we had on the video camera was the Christmas piano recital! Oops. I had meant to tape some of Christmas but I guess I forgot. I do take video clips with my digi camera but the clips are pretty low resolution. But whatever. I don't have any video of me as a child, and I turned out ok. I tried to take pictures of the girls, but they didn't feel like cooperating. E had been holding A and loving on her a few days before when I didn't have my camera near, and we tried to get them to do it again and they just wouldn't. I really need a better camera, because the internal processing of each picture takes like 5 seconds and I have to wait for it to reset before I can take another one. It makes me so mad when I'm waiting! Those 5 seconds are important when you're dealing with babies!!! Oh well, we had fun anyway.

Of course, when any child has a birthday, you stop for a moment and think about their development and their life thus far . . . I was remembering when Elauna was born, and even before that, when I met Priscilla at my baby shower and I was so excited to find out that she was pregnant, too, and I hoped that she would become my friend . . . then our Thursday night "Friends" nights (back when Must See T.V. was worth watching) and getting to know each other gradually . . . somehow between then and a year later we cemented our friendship to something absolutely wonderful. I've loved spending time with Lana, taking pictures of her, baby-sitting her, holding her, and seeing those big, gorgeous blue eyes light up as she came to know me and knew that when Aunt Jenny walked in the door she was getting hugs and kisses and lots of attention. It's so sweet how excited she gets when she sees us walk in the door, and how disappointed she always is when our visits end. I especially love her girly-ness, and having her to balance out the fact that Jake is all boy. If you haven't yet, look at this SB LO I made last year about Jake and Elauna. If you click on the pictures, you can read the words on each page. Happy Birthday, Lana!