Our Jacob

We are mid-birthday season here in our household (two down, two to go!) and were recently able to celebrate our little manchild Jacob. He's a handful, that one. The morning of his birthday we were eating oatmeal and he managed to dump his entire bowl into my lap. Emily promptly started reciting from The Seven Silly Eaters:

Mac was charming, round and plump;
But if his oatmeal had a lump,
Mac would dump it on the cat.
(Mrs. Peters hated that.)

I was surprised, after seven years of living with little children, at how much that bugged me (the oatmeal in my lap, not the impromptu poetry recitation). Poor Mrs. Peters! Oatmeal is icky stuff to have to clean up!

I also remember for probably the week leading up to his birthday whenever I would go up to check on the kids I would find Jake sleeping on the landing at the top of the stairs. It would totally freak me out every time, so I would scoop him up and deposit him in his bed, only to find him at the top of the stairs again in a couple of hours. Thankfully, this behavior has stopped. Maybe turning two has made him too grown up and mature for stunts like that!

Baby Jacob is also a funny little guy, and a sweetie. He is forever making us laugh.
One of my favorite things is when Joseph walks in the door after a long day at work and Jake drops everything, yells "Wo-wuff!!", and runs to give him a great big hug around the knees.

And here are a few pictures celebrating Jacob.

All tuckered out after church. I took off his tie and loosened his collar, but didn't get him changed into the onesie. That blue blanket there is his best friend, btw.

Normally Jake rides on my back for our hikes, but he decided to tough it out for a while this day (I think it was Thursday the 7th).

Aren't they all great little hikers? Actually, on this particular hike, Caleb was a baby about it the whole way, Em brought some toy binoculars so was totally happy to go for as long as I wanted, Elinor was a tough, stolid little trooper as always (wearing leopard print tights, an apple skirt, and her "running shirt"), and Jake was content to hike for a while and then ride the rest of the way while munching on graham crackers.

Jake enjoying a lollipop at the bank after we deposited a birthday check. These pictures are always sort of fun to see what we can get as I twist around awkwardly with the phone in my hand.

All the kids enjoying their lollipops at the same bank. This picture was taken on Emily's birthday though.

Let the festivities begin! The kids were all so excited for Jacob to open his little stack of presents, and Jake was elated to be able to do it on his own without someone bigger and faster getting the job done first.

Jake's present from Grandma Cooper. It was a total hit! ... literally. That hammer has been confiscated more than a few times. But all the kids love it.  Plus, Jacob can practice passing the sacrament with the tray the tools came in. He's getting pretty good.
Sidenote: one of my favorite memories from Physics at BYU was when two guys were asked to hand out polarized lenses to an auditorium of students, and I heard them discussing strategy beforehand, deciding to do it "like the sacrament."

Grandma Oba's gift. Everyone loves these stacking toys, though they're meant for smaller kids. They're neat because they stack like a regular stacking toy, but can also be arranged in all kinds of other configurations that the older kids get a kick out of. Surprisingly, Emily has probably spent the most time with this toy.

And, the birthday cake. He did require some assistance from Emily to blow out that second candle, but it was cool to see how much he'd progressed in his understanding of everything since last year. This was a cake that Joseph MacGyvered using kitchen tools on hand. He ended up beating everything by hand, but it turned out perfectly (and with three layers!)! Very yummy, especially with a scoop of s'mores ice cream on the side.

And just because, here's a group shot of the kids at Google. These chairs were cool, but pretty typical of the kind of stuff around campus there.