The Bedtime Blues...

Mama, Why are you always dressing me and undressing me and then dressing me again.

Why do I have to wear pajamas anyway? I am not going to bed! I am going to climb Daddy!

Daddy plays with me. He is fun. He doesn't understand why people have to wear clothes to bed either. (James managed to take this picture of all three of us, I guess that is one advantage to being tall and having long arms)

I will just climb and play with Daddy all night long.

Hold on a minute!

Why can't babies have hot chocolate? I went on the walk in the cold weather too!

Just a little bit. Come on I won't tell Mama!

Please Daddy! I don't think the pediatrician will care! I am a big baby, caffeine won't hurt me.

Oh, I can't believe you drank it all without sharing it with me! How could you? I thought we were friends?

Well, what else do we have to drink around here?

I guess I will take my bottle, BUT THIS DOES NOT MEAN I AM GOING TO BED!

END NOTES: I apologize for the mess in the background. We had just gotten back from a walk. We don't get a chance to straighten up until Jake actually goes to bed. I don't think it looks this bad when people come over, so don't be afraid to come visit me based on these pictures. One day National Geographic is going to come do a story on a unique phenomenom that happens at our house called toy migration. No matter how many times I put Jake's toys in his toy box in his room, within seconds they creep back out and spread across the confines of our house. Occasionally they even spill over into my car. Those silly toys!

Block Party at Church

Jake was very excited about going to the Block Party. The weather was great, and he got to play on the grass while James and I helped set up for the party.

After a while, Jake decided he wanted to help us.

Jake said he thinks it was the best Block Party ever. Of course it is the only block party he has been to yet, but everyone else seemed to enjoy it as well.

Choo Choo Train!

On our way back home from a walk, we stop to watch a train crossing near where we live. Jake was watching the train, while wearing his train cardigan (knitted by my Mom) with train engine buttons on it! Unfortunately, in these pictures you can only see the lights from the train, as it is a good distance away from where we are standing.

What daddies are for!

James and Jake have some after bath time/before bedtime fun with a helium balloon and the ceiling fan.

"Can I have a turn?"

"Where did it go?"

Jake at Carrie's Coffee House

Jake loves music, so James introduces him to the drums.

After watching his Daddy, Jake thinks he is ready to give it a try.

Jake loves the drums! In the background you can see my Mom taking a picture (in case you wondered where I get the habit of taking pictures from).

Jake is also fascinated by the disco ball.

Off with its head!

Poor Dinosaur!

Around the house.

Jake 'reads' a book. He quickly bores of such easy reading and moves on to something more his level.

When James was studying for his engineering exam he didn't have as much time to play with Jake as he used to so Jake decided to help him study!

Even though the baby gate no longer bars Jake from entering the kitchen, he still enjoys trying to climb it. He likes to push his larger toys up to what ever he wants to climb... the couch, the chair, the baby gate... and use them as ladders. He is so smart and so strong. I think some of the things he moves around our living room weigh as much as he does. When we moved to Tupelo we 'baby proofed' our living room. We bought these soft ottomans that double as storage containers. They contain things that we don't leave out around Jake, like phone books, picture albums, playing cards, etc. Even though they are heavy (I weighed one a few minutes ago--it was 18 lbs) he can lift and turn them over and push them across the carpet.

Out and about with Baby Jake.

These pictures are from the beginning of October, when it was still warm. In the first one Jake is picking at some candle wax on a table on the front porch/balcony.

You can see how easily Jake can get around. He loves staring at my flowers and we have to keep a careful eye on him to make sure he doesn't eat any.

Here we are going for one of our many walks! These pictures were taken in front of our church, which only two blocks from out home.

We stop to swing at the Church Street Elementary School playground which adjoins the Robins Noble walking track.

Here Jake is trying out his hood, as the weather was cooler this night. This was right before one of our walks. He loved the hood, but when we first put it on him he would crawl around bumping into things as he could't see out from under it. He has gotten use to it now, and he has grown into it more (he was sort of between sizes at the beginning of the month).

Sir Jake and the Dragon

This is Jake typing over his "Drop and Roar Dinosaur" or "The Dragon". He thinks it is funny to knock it over.

This is Jake giving the dragon mouth to mouth resucitation or just chewing on the dragons bottom lip, we aren't sure which.

This is Jake doing surgey on the dragon. Jake tries to take EVERYTHING apart!

This is James teaching Jake how to feed the dragon. James put a zebra from Jake's animal train set in the dragon's mouth. Jake thought this was hilarious.

After lots of good laughs with his Daddy, Jake came crawling over to me looking for his bottle. Then he took a bath and went to bed. And we all lived happily ever after.

Early October trip to Water Valley

This is Jake with James's five year old cousin Emily. Jake was not too happy about having to sit on her lap, as he would rather crawl around and explore. Emily really wanted to hold Jake and I can remember being her age and wanting to hold my cousin Kati. So I always try and accomadate her, but she doesn't have any siblings and is not really good at 'playing' with babies. She get upset because Jake doesn't play these complicated games she comes up with. I had to show her how to play with a baby. I got her to crawl around on the floor and play Jake's version of tag. She knows patty cake, Old McDonald and Jake's favorite--the Itsy Bitsy Spider. I think they both ended up having a good time.

This is Jake and James's Papaw on his porch. Jake is fascinated by eye glasses.
James wanted to go scouting around in the woods to look for signs of deer. Jake and I volunteered to join in the hike as we both love going for walks. It was 90 somthing degrees! We took turns carrying Jake. Jake loved it, but I got eaten alive by something called a deer mite. Jake and James were relatively unscathed. I guess they just like the way I taste.


This is a spring fed pond out it the middle of the woods near James's family's land. His uncle, father and grandfather all own ajoining land in Water Valley where they live. Some of it has been passed down for about five generations now. It is very pretty to walk through and that is where James goes to hunt.

Jake at the Zoo.

Jake climbing a ladder at the Native American section.
No, they did not have Native Americans in the Native American exhibit,
just ladders like this to remind us to respect the land like the Native Americans do.
I am sure that the Native Americans would really approve of the whole concept of a zoo.
It is sort of like a reservation for animal if you think about it. You take a cheap
piece of wasteland, build a fence around it and stick a bunch of animals on it from all
the world. The animals aren't allowed to leave, and they probably couldn't survive in the
wild anymore, but hey--they don't have to pay taxes!

Jake's favorite animal was the elephant. Go figure!
I have no clue why he was so fascinated with it.

So many pictures, so little time.

I took so many pictures in the month of October that I have had to upload my camera twice (my camera holds 256 pictures give or take depending on how many movies we have on it at the time). When James and I looked at camera cards, he wanted to get the biggest one (that's a man for you). I told him I wanted one big enough to hold all the pictures I could take in one day, but small enough so that I can remember what the event(s) surrounding the pictures was. As usual, I won. Of course, I think I was pregnant at the time, which meant I got two votes to his one. It seems like I am always finding excuses to cheat him out of his vote. However, for those of you that think I must boss him around, I don't. James does what he wants. All the votes in the world don't get you anywhere if you can't enforce the decision. James lets me get my way on the small mundane things that he doesn't really care about, and in return, I get to feel like I am large and in charge! Those of you who REALLY know me, know that I am about as indecisive as you can get. I have meltdowns over what kind of toothpaste to buy. That, my friends, is why I am only in charge of small decisions like what size camara card we own!
Anyway, back to the reason we have so many pictures from October. At the beginning of the month we went to the Memphis Zoo with James's parents and his sister, then there was the annual Block Party at church, the Fall Festival at church, Halloween, a trip to Jackson, and 31 days of cuteness in the month of October. James had to go to Jackson to take his Fundamentals of Engineering Exam, which is a really fun 8 hour test (so I have heard, I am exempt from anything dealing with math). We drove down the night before and then Jake and I went shopping and walking around the Agriculture Museum (where James's test was scheduled). After James finished that evening we met Miranda (Ashford) and Jimmy Hamilton and their newest member, Baby Ally, for dinner.
I will do my best to post the pictures and explanations for them ASAP.
Oh, and by the way, spell check has not worked for me for the past three blogs. If I make a typo or show my ignorance by mispelling or misusing a word, please excuse me.