More From the Mind of Jacob, October

We had friends over the other night who have a one year old daughter. Jake was happy to play with her, but he had a lot of questions. Andrew is happy to watch Jacob play, but Madeline wanted to play with the things Jacob had, instead of just watching him. He reluctantly gave her his ball, and then lamented that she wasn’t rolling it back to him, she was just touching it and chewing it! Finally, he gave up and gave the ball to her. Then he decided to watch TV instead. She promptly crawled over to the TV, pulled herself up and cruised along the TV. Only about 2 inches of her head were actually in front of the TV, so Jacob still had a decent view of the screen, but I heard him saying to her, very nicely, “Could you please sit down? I can’t see.” It was cute. I think he’s going to have some big adjustments over the next few months as Andrew gets bigger and more mobile and really starts getting into Jacob‘s things!
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We had some significant snow flurries here on Wednesday. Upon seeing them, I told Jake to look out the window. My thoughts looking outside were of shoveling, freezing temperatures, wet boots and gloves and all the winter mess. Jacob’s response was quite different. “Mom, you know what that means?”

“No, what?”

“Jingle bells, Jingle bells, Jingle all the way!”

What a difference in perspective from a kindergartner to an adult! I wish I could see it so positively!
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Last night I read Jacob a book about emotions. On the page for jealousy, I asked him if he ever felt jealous of Andrew. He said, “No, not really, but when you were in the hospital I really missed you, and I was sad. I didn‘t like that.” (aw - how sweet)

I said, “I really missed you too. It was a long time for me to be away from you, but I won’t be having any more babies, so I won’t have to do that again.” He smiled, said OK and we finished the book.

After I kissed him good night, and was on my way out the door, he said, “Mom, how do you know you won’t be having any more babies?”

Oh boy. I opened this can of worms myself! I said, “Because you can choose when you want to make a baby, and when you don’t want to. I already have two babies - you and your brother and that’s all the babies I need. I think our family is perfect the way it is.”

He agreed and then added, “yeah, if you had two more babies then we would have four kids in this house and there just isn’t room here for that many people!”

Actually, there’s plenty of room, if we chose to have two more, but I don’t think I need to go into the details of a tubal ligation with a five year old! He was happy with my answer and that’s all that matters!

Trick or Treat

Tonight was Trick or Treat in Hollidaysburg. Not sure why we trick or treat on the Thursday before Halloween, but that's always how it's been. Here are the pictures from the evening.

The whole gang - Jake, Karissa, Andrew, Brooke and Kiersten.

Jake and Katie

Jake, Greg and Andrew

Andrew waves his hand to surrender! Take me home and get me out of this thing!

Oh, well, maybe one more house!

Old Pros

Well, the band party is officially over. It went very well, and many thanks to those of you who came to see us play. I know that Greg had a blast. He was so excited, like a little kid! Fred and Greg played wonderfully, as usual. They really are decent for a band of two! And much credit to Karissa, my 13 year old niece, who sang two songs herself! It takes guts at 31 to get up there and sing, let alone at 13. She did a great job, and I know I overheard others commenting on how good she was. Oh yeah, I sang too, and no one threw tomatoes, so I guess it wasn’t painful for anyone to listen to!

Greg had so much fun, he wants to make it an annual event - a reunion of sorts for friends and family. He’s already planning the course of events complete with covered dishes, rental of the whole lions club park, and partying from noon till midnight!

Here are some photos from the evening. Thanks again for everyone’s support!

Greg concentrates hard on Wipe Out!

That's me...note the beer in hand!

Karissa belts out a tune.

Jake does his version of the twist...trying to avoid this little girl's advances!

The Williams clan cuts a rug!

Halloween! Halloween!

Here are some more Halloween pictures. Jacob is THRILLED about it this year. Luckily, he has two parties, trick-or-treat night, the Halloween parade and he went to the Halloween party at Disney, so it's been an extended holiday for him. It's fun to see him with so much enthusiasm, but the fact that he loves to SCARE us, especially the baby, is a bit disconcerting...especially at 7 in the morning or 10 at night, or when putting the baby down for a nap...

Imola, Denise and Julie at the FRC

Andrew and Jacob pose before the party.

Our house after carving the pumpkins.

Jake, relaxing amidst the fruits of his labor...oh wait, he just watched and ordered me around!

Proud of his mother's work!

Jump, Jump!

Andrew loves the exersaucer/jumpy thing my sister gave us. Ella, my niece cast it off like the plague, but at our house, it's a real treat. The video is blurry because he's such a nut, jumping around.

Caps for Sale!

Andrew is slowly accumulating a hat collection. Some of them are just so cute, I had to post pictures. Poor thing spent last night modeling for me! Now, if we find him asleep against a tree with all of the hats stacked on top of one another...

L.L. Bean Boy

This is For the Dogs Boy

Old Navy Gone Wrong Boy

Ski Patrol Boy

Halloween Homeboy

Little Rolling Man

Andrew has become a Rollie Pollie (spelling?) as of late. He instantly rolls when you lay him down and in a matter of minutes, he's 10 feet away! It's comical, but also worrisome. If this little guy is that active just with rolling, I fear my days of calm little baby will come to an abrupt stop once he starts crawling, or worse yet, walking! It also means that he now has the ability to puke more uniformly of his own volition...

This is the starting point.

Getting ready to roll!

This is the ending point, 5 minutes later, bib removed to prevent choking!

Close up of the cutie!

The Number Game

Jacob's newest "trick" is to add three single digit numbers in his head. Last night at dinner, Greg and I took turns quizzing him with different addition problems, and he got them all right! We were very impressed. When he's adding, you can hear him hum the numbers as he counts. He told Greg that he did it all in his head, and Greg said, "I know, I heard you." Jake answered, "Yes, but you can't see the colors of the numbers I make inside my head." Greg said, "No, I guess not." Jake replied, "They are outlined in yellow with blue insides." I guess that's the key to the trick!

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Jacob can also count well over 100 accurately now. He demonstrated this ability over and over during the course of the weekend, and through a trip to Target. It's amazing what you can learn to tune out! :)

Tailor Made Experiences

Last weekend I read the church bulletin from front to back. Usually I just glance over it, but I had run a little ad looking for an in-home sitter, so I paid closer attention. Our priest always writes a short reflection, something for us to ponder as we go through our daily lives. In general, I really enjoy his thoughts. He’s a very realistic, tolerant and down to earth priest, a gift that not all Catholic clergy possess. Perhaps it was not a coincidence that I read the bulletin last week, because what he wrote really struck a chord with me. What he said, in a nutshell, was this: That he has begun greeting each day with the thought that God has made each day specifically for him. Meaning, the sole purpose of our past experiences is to prepare us to handle whatever situations come our way each day, good or bad.

It’s amazing how much your outlook on life, even the mundane, can change when you view it with that perspective - that you have been in training, so to speak, just for this, whatever “this” may be. Maybe it’s a matter of not losing patience so easily with the kids, not becoming irritated at slow drivers, or being less judgmental of others’ behaviors. When I took the time to think of my situations with such regard, I found that my reactions were significantly different than when I was my typically unfocused self and allowed myself to feel easily hassled. There is beauty in this approach as well, because it need not be applied only to frustrating scenarios. It was helpful in simply not taking for granted the boredom of my routine daily activities. Wouldn’t we all really rather have boredom than turmoil? Maybe those perfunctory activities are really a gift, a mindless moment to be used to recharge rather than being viewed as tedious or humdrum chores. I don’t think that I ever looked at all of the items on my to-do list as a gift before.

Don’t misunderstand me. I still get irritated when I see a sink full of dishes or know that that laundry is yet unfolded, lunches need to be packed, floors need to be vacuumed, groceries need to be bought…It’s just nice to change it up once in a while and remind myself that many people would be grateful to be lugging around a very heavy baby carrier in the rain with 16 bags of groceries. I’m lucky to have the things that I have and the family and friends that I have. And God certainly did not bestow those things upon me for me to be agitated or annoyed about being with them or doing things for them.

Trying to always be grateful, patient and appreciative isn't always easy, but I'm finding lately that being more conscious of my actions is actually more liberating than it is restrictive. Not that I did much before that was worthy of condemning, but simply changing my outlook to be less selfish, more giving, more grateful, more loving - it’s freeing, because at the end of the day (hey, in the middle of the day) I feel good about myself. And that feeling creates a snowball of good - do good, feel good, do more good, etc.

Now…to make a list of where to apply these principles: when Jake takes 25 minutes to get out of the car, when Greg asks me for the 15th time what I am doing today, when the house is a mess and I am tired, when the person in front of me in line at Giant Eagle has to go back for one more item after I’ve already unloaded my cart and the baby is crying - oh yes, life is full of opportunities to practice what I preach!!