He loves to play in the yard. Often, he will walk over to the hose and start playing and pretending. Then he says "I want to get wet mommy, I want to get wet." I usually wait for Mike to get home because it often becomes a big job. Also, there's no one he would rather play with than daddy. There are lots of videos of the same play day but, hey, that's what I have.
The last time dad and Kathie came for a visit they wanted to go to the San Antonio Zoo. At the time it was too cold. So months go by and Jake becomes more interested in more things. I decide to take a trial test to the zoo before they come back for their next visit. Well Jake had a blast. He loved the hippopotamuses and the monkeys. The butterfly garden too. I think he truly enjoyed everything. They have a petting zoo for kids but it only has the goats you see in the pictures. He was apprehensive at first until mommy started petting the animals. Then he became very interested in the tails and the little holes underneath. He would tickle the tails just to see them wiggle and then giggle himself.
Now I've been taking Jake to these inflatable places for a couple of months now trying to scope out the best ones. Turns out I have to go to Georgia for the cleanest and best one yet. They even have a rest area for the parent with recliners, a giant flat screen and ports for your laptop. Needless to say the kids, all of them, had a blast and fell asleep on the way back to Blairsville.
Mike took these pictures of Jake and the tractor. Said "his eyes got so big when he saw that thing and he did not want to get off of it." Anything that has a steering wheel he wants to drive. He loved to walk around and look at all the different country stuff. On the way there however all he wanted was out of his car seat. He slept maybe two hours the whole way there and keep in mind we drive overnight. That was not a fun part of the vacation. But then again the driving never is.
This video was taken at 'Inflatable Wonderland' in The Rolling Oaks Mall. Jake is jumping in the stairwell and the slides are on either side. They have about 15 different inflatables. Some had slides, some had obstacle courses. Lots and lots of benches for the parents to sit on because we aren't allowed on the inflatables. They also have a mini movie theater with a pretty big screen and some arcade games. He had such a good time and was very mad at me for taking him out. Not for long though. We started driving for about 30 seconds when I looked in the rearview mirror and watched him pass out. He was sooo tired. Mike cannot wait to take him. I think it's because he wants to sneak onto the rides.
This one is just for Tara. The video is too big to send through e-mail and some of you may not even be able to download it at all. Tara, I hope you are able to download and save this one because I'm probably going to delete from the site since its kind of big, but I wanted you to be able to see it.
So we decided to bring out Jake's pool but discovered overnight that it was deflating. We went out and bought the same pool, different color. Needless to say that now we can't go outside without wanting to go in the pool. Jake just loves to splash. I went to the dollar store and bought a bunch of pool toys and the biggest hits were the blow up beach ball and the sinking dive toys. On extra special days daddy gets into the pool with him and that makes for an extra happy Jakester and a cooled off Eskimo (Mike). 
Jake and Abby playing with bubble makers. It's amazing how bubbles can entertain the little people. While Art was grilling the meat we all sat out on the patio. It's covered and the weather was breezy. It turned out to be a nice day. This part of the yard was a nice spot to take pictures of the kids. The little ones have started calling the toys "mine" but have been doing well at sharing.
This is Abbygale's kitchen. It's on the porch in the shade. The doorbell works and well that's another button for Jake. They ate their lunch here and played peek-a-boo through the window with me. There are two little seats inside, a sink with a faucet and a phone. Also there's a mail slot right underneath the doorbell.
For any of you who have ever been around Jake, you already know how much he likes to play with buttons. Well, he got hold of the camera and just started pushing away. This was the best picture he took of himself. I love the thumb!
He loves to be outside with daddy. Here he is helping daddy water the flowers out front. "outside with daddy, outside with daddy."
This is Jake's cousin Abbygale, Art and Cheryl's daughter. We had the family over for dinner while David was down from Houston for a couple days. Jake didn't want to do anything without Uncle David and kept calling "Uncle David, Uncle David." Even after David went back home he kept calling for him. Jake and Abby had a good time playing with just about every toy in the house. Jake would call "Abby, where are you. Abby, where are you?" Mike and I just loved seeing Jake so happy playing with another little person. He had a really good time.
This was a pretty cool free event sponsored by KLRN television. They had all kinds of information booths, free goodies and lots of games and crafts for the kids. Jake loved the bubbles so much that he soaked his shorts resulting in a pull-up clad little boy walking around with the whitest legs. He looked cute though with his socks and shoes still on. The last picture is with Jake's second cousin violet who is only a couple months younger. All in all everyone had a good time but boy was it hot!
"Don't I look just like my daddy now?"
Jake and Mike at the cemetary readying flowers for Grandma and Grandpa (Mikes Mom and Dad). He likes to visit the headstones that have different decorations such as balloons and stuffed animals. He also likes the wide open space so that he can run and run and run away from mommy and daddy. The last time we actually had to drive the car to him because we thought he might come back to us. Yeah right! But he sure does look so cute when he's running with both arms going like a choo choo train. The only thing that slowed him down was a headstone with a colorful pinwheel. Whew.
This is my favorite picture of Mike and Jake. They were laying on the grass in the backyard and watching the sky for planes and birds. They lay there about 30 minutes. It was precious to watch
This was taken at Mom and Sam's new house in Washington state. The two pups had quite a week full. On the left is Nina (border collie) and on the right is Jasper (australian shepherd). They were told beforehand that the tornado was coming. Poor things. They were so well behaved. Nina would get up and walk away or go and hide her face behind her people. Jasper would bark at the air.
Here's jake enjoying a ride on the turtle at the indoor play yard in the mall in Olympia, Washington. He really wore himself out the first time he played there. I take him to the indoor playground here in Texas when the weather isn't great, but I never saw him run around that way before. We took him to this one twice and to the Children's Museum. Yes, I forgot to bring my camera. There was a miniature dump truck that he just loved to pretend drive. He would flip the switches for the lights and play with dumping and hauling the fake rocks in the miniature wheelbarrow.
Can you tell how much he was enjoying the icing on his cupcake for his second birthday? He would work his way through the icing so that he could have another cupcake. And he ate the icing on that one too. Left the cake parts. This little one loves chocolate and oatmeal cookies and ice cream. But don't worry, he's the first one to eat his fruits and veggies. He really does eat very well. He'll eat almost anything we put in front of him.
***Just in case any of you were wondering where I got the inspiration for this blogs name.***
