Jacob's First Birthday Party!

Although his birthday was on Sunday, the 22nd, we decided to have his party on the 21st at my parents' house in Manteca. We had just moved the weekend before and having it in Manteca just seemed to make so much sense. August in the valley is usually incredibly hot, but the 21st we woke up to cool temperatures, so we even got to have the party outside in the backyard. (I'm sure it's a lot easier to be able to hose down a first birthday party mess than to have to scrub the tile floors...luckily, I really didn't do much clean up.)

Jacob did very well despite only sleeping about 45 minutes that morning. The party started at noon and we had hamburgers, watermelon, and grapes. Then we opened presents. Jacob didn't really get into the presents, but he did like the little soft Tonka cars from Uncle Mike and Auntie Karena. Tijs also liked playing with Jacob's toys.


Here Tijs is actually playing with the gift that he gave Jacob. I guess that's an advantage of being 8 months older...


Anyway, then we had cupcakes. I made them different colors so they might look like balloons.



Jacob was not sure what to do with the cupcake at first. I don't think he realized he could eat it. Once I broke it up and fed him some of the cake part, he got right into it.


Jacob's Uncle Mike Z thought it was funny to add frosting to Jacob's face so he'd have more colors. Jacob seemed to like the frosting a lot!

After a quick bath and a diaper change, the party was over, and I think it went very well!

Moving!

About a week ago we rented out our house in Patterson and are now going to rent a townhouse in Los Banos. The main reason we are doing this is because Larry will be teaching in Hollister now (70 miles from Patterson), and Los Banos will be closer. (He'll still have to drive 45 minutes to school every day). At least we'll be only an hour from Manteca and Modesto. I'm pretty excited about the move mostly because I really enjoy packing and unpacking; I don't, however, enjoy all the cleaning so our house looks good for the renters!

Here is Jacob playing his grandma-great's piano for the last time. My dad came and picked it up to take back to his house. We are really going to miss it.

Jacob has also deciding to help me pack. He just climbed right in when I was packing all our games.

All this packing has really started to agitate Jacob. Sometimes we all just need a few sips of wine!

Cause and Effect

Jacob has begun to climb EVERYTHING, especially the couch and his stroller. The other day he learned a valuable lesson. He was playing in his stroller...

I WAS watching him, and it didn't look like he was going to fall forward...However, when I was out of the rooom, I heard a crash, followed by crying. I think he tried to reach for the keys in the cup holder and the whole stroller tipped backwards. I think he would have been okay except I'm pretty sure he somehow cut his forehead with the keys. Here was the result: