Tub Time

I really give kudos to single parents. Juggling work, teaching, boys, gymnastics, and dogs is really difficult. Of these duties, the boys are, of course, the most fun. With Matt gone all week, I look for opportunities for a minute to myself, but they are hard to find. However, as Joe & Jack get older they entertain themselves and find fun adventures around the house. Tub time is a favorite fun adventure. Once the water is started, Joe pulls his clothes off as fast has he can. Jack paces back and forth between the tub and bathroom door waiting for his turn to get naked. Joe will jump into the tub as it is still filling with water and take all of the bath toys out of the bucket where they are kept. Jack, on the other hand, likes to ease into the tub. He is still a bit unsure of the water, the toys and the bubbles. He likes to stand in the water for the first few minutes; and finally he'll sit town and start splashing his brodder.

Fun in the tub.

Waiting for the tub to fill.

A Little Something To Remind Me of Joe Joe in Little Rock

Today marks the beginning of a 12 day stretch of traveling and being away from home and the people I care about. My trip took me from from Sioux Falls to Little Rock, AR with a quick stop in Chicago in between. After some worries of not getting to "The Rock" as scheduled, the great people who work behind the scenes at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport got me and thousands of others to their destinations around some windy weather today. I guess I should have paid more attention to the brilliant minds that work in the weather department at KELO but life is short and I don't want to waste my time listening to Howdie Doodie and a guy named Jay tell me about Canadian clipper systems.

Howdie Doodie

A guy named Jay who gets excited about clipper systems

After checking in to my spacious room at the downtown Double Tree in Little Rock I unpacked a few things and remembered that there was a little piece of Joe that I brought along with me on my trip.

My spacious room at the Double Tree

Last night at dinner him and I had a conversation about him being the "man of the house" while daddy is away on business. I asked him if I could take one of his toys with me and he decided on the "Magic Carpet" from the movie Aladdin.

Now I would prefer to be at home with Amy and the boys right now. But if I do have to be away from home I'm glad I have this little piece or rubbery-plastic with me to remind me of Joe Joe. Not only that, but it gives Joe something to think about as well. I'm sure he is going to have all sorts or questions for me when I come home about my travels with his "Magic Carpet". As you can see, I am taking care of "Magic Carpet" while in Little Rock. He is resting comfortably in my bed as I blog.

So rest easy Joe Joe, "Magic Carpet" & Daddy are having a great time in downtown Little Rock!

Downtown Little Rock @ Night

Lincoln or Bust

We went to Lincoln this weekend. Matt and I had Monday off from work, so it was a perfect weekend to get away. We loaded the Yukon like we were leaving home for a month. It really is embarrassing the haul we take with us. Diapers, toys, DVDs, the Wii, clothes, extra pairs of socks, and coats are all required for our trip South on I-29.

Jack's Trip to Lincoln.

We always have a great time in Lincoln. We stay with Michelle. Michelle is a wonderful host. She is flexible and totally willing to accommodate the needs of Joe & Jack. Her hosting skills are remarkable. She goes from the social BFF to task-oriented kindergarten teacher flawlessly. She graciously goes to the Lincoln Children's Museum every time we visit. It is a great place for kids, especially when the temperature is 1. There are so many exhibits to see and so many activities to do. Here are a few of the highlights:

Michelle & Joe at the "truck stop."

Two squirrels peaking out of the tree.

Jack controlling the curtain & lights as the stagehand.

Joe viewing x-rays.

Jack pointing to the treasure.

Jack running on the alphabet rug.

Joe: the next Top Chef contestant.

Fun in the big, red chair.

Another big, red chair.

As you can see, it was a lot of fun. The boys enjoyed every minute. On Sunday, we made our way to another fun-filled location. I can't recall the name, but it was an indoor playland with playground equipment, inflatables, basketball court, mini-golf course, ball pit, sandbox, toddler area, etc. Due to the below freezing temperatures, it was packed with every Husker from the tri-state area including moms, dads, grandpas, grandmas, kids, brats, and one celebrity. Yes, we saw a celebrity there. Jack and Jack played with Joba Chamberline. Joba is a pitcher for the New York Yankees.

Our Yankee Playdate.

Of course Matt recognized him as soon as we walked into the place. This place was an obstacle course of kids and equipment. Kids would come shooting out of tube slide into a crowd of parents. Kids on swings would fly at one's face, almost kicking people in the head. I overheard Michelle say (in her kindergarten teacher voice) to an obnoxious 8-year-old girl, "you're not using the equipment correctly."

Michelle the safety monitor. (Joe is in the navy shirt; Jack is in the stripes.)

I love going to Lincoln. It is hard to pick a favorite Lincoln quality. Is it the big red chairs, the celebrities, the cold weather, the Huskers, or the hospitality? I think it is the kindergarten teacher.

Kisses for Sale

Jack has known how to kiss for awhile. But he only recently has understood the words, "Jack can I have a kiss?" Before you'd have to make the kissy lips and kiss-kiss sound. And now, he's looking to kiss everyone. Kisses from a 14-month old are the best. Jack doesn't know how to pucker his lips. He only knows to open his mouth wide for a kiss. He leans into the kiss as if he is yawning. It is too cute. It is also a requirement to clap after each kiss. And sometimes he approaches the kiss too aggressively and one ends up with little piranha-like kiss.

Jack the Kisser

Still Trying to Land a Kick-Flip

I have resisted, said it would never happen, and swore I would never do it. But, after reading what Amy has blogged, and being hounded at home about when I am going to make my first post, I have decided to give it a shot. So brace yourselves, here we go…!

As I was watching the Indiana/Minnesota basketball game on ESPN tonight, it reminded me of watching basketball games on TV with my parents when I was an early teenager. I was always involved in sports growing up so watching a great night of basketball on ESPN’s “Big Monday” was very enjoyable for me. And if you know my amazing mother, Val, you know she is always up for a good basketball game. This is a woman who has kept March Madness brackets since 1980 and plans her vacation around the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament! I could go on and on about how excited my Mom gets around this time of year but that is an entire blog by itself.

Besides being involved with sports at this time in my life I dabbled in other activities as well, one of them being skateboarding. Now I know my Dad didn’t think much of me skating, and I’m sure he knew then, what I know now about my skating talent….it simply wasn’t good. Oh, I could tic-tac all day long but launching off a quarter or pulling off a kick-flip was not in my array of talent as it was for many of my fellow thrashers. That’s right folks, I was a poser.

But after bringing home a great Mike McGill deck from Skate-a-Way USA (a skate shop in Providence, RI that I found when visiting my brother at college) and numerous other decks, trucks, wheels, Vision Street Wear shirts, an awful haircut and one nasty wipe-out , my wonderful parents supported me. They never told me I wasn’t as good as Pugh or Mitchell. They never told me to give up and stick with more conventional sports.

So as Indiana leads Minnesota as halftime approaches in this game I hope that I have enough patience with Joe & Jack as my Mother & Father did with me and my selection of range of activities growing up. If Joe decides to pick up a skateboard and grow his hair so it covers one side of his face how would I react? If Jack never picks up a Louisville Slugger and instead grabs a microscope, would I be alright with it? I’d like to think so, and once again, because of my parents. I was involved with sports and my brother, Brad, was involved with theater and concentrated on academics. So no matter what will become of these two little wonders that roam this house, no matter what activity they pick up, I know one thing, your Mommy and Daddy will support you. And if they do in fact pick up a board along the way, I hope they learn how to pull off a kick-flip to make their Daddy proud because he was never able to do it. And if they are able accomplish that trick, it will be as if I did as well.

Boys Just Wanna Have Fun

I do not have a brother. And most of my life has been influenced by women: my mom, my sister, my aunt, my girl friends, etc. I spent the first 20 years of my life surrounded by females. I think I'm destined to spend the next 20 years of my life surrounded by males.

Jack pulling Joe down the hall.

I don't get the wrestling, tough-guy, rowdiness of boys. I don't get the interest in crashing cars into each other. I don't understand using swords to capture the bad guys. I simply don't get it. Jack is getting to the age where he wants to tackle Joe. This is scary to me. I worry there will be injury and crying. What usually happens is laughter and snorting. At the same time, it is an overwhelming, intense feeling to see your kids interacting with each other. Joe can make Jack laugh. And Jack can make Joe laugh. Mostly, they don't do anything with each other besides make each other laugh and laugh and laugh. I can take the laughing...I can't take the rough-housing.

One of my favorite words that Joe says is brother, or "brodder." One of the books we read each night is called All By Myself. When we read books, Joe always takes on the role of the main character. In this particular book, Joe "looks after my little brodder" and "poors juice for my little brodder." The book mentions nothing about brodders rough-housing, using swords to capture the enemy, or brodders wresting in the hall with their shirts stuck on their heads.

Brodders Jacobson

Grandma

My grandma Bev died 17 years ago today. This is my mom's mom. I was 14 when she died. For only knowing her 14 years, I have countless memories of her. The thing I cherish most about my grandma is that I only knew her in the 'grandma' sense. At 14, I never knew her as an adult or understood her as a woman. She was simply grandma. To me she didn't have even one flaw. She was the perfect grandma.

Frosty the Door Man

Who knew that Frosty the Snowman could crush the heart of a 4-year-old? Not me. Joe likes movies. And like most families this winter/holiday season, we watched our share of Rudolph, the Grinch, and Frosty. In fact we DVR'd these holiday classics. Joe has since watched the aforementioned shows many, many, many times. His real 4-year-old concern lies with Frosty. What happened to Frosty? Why did he turn to water? Is he gone forever? Why are the kids sad? What happened to his magic hat?

Do I start explaining about water vaporizing into clouds, the clouds getting heavy with moisture, and at 32 degrees, the water turning into snow? (If only Shawn Cable, my favorite meteorologist, was around.) I believe this will only encourage Joe to ask more questions. I decide an at-home science experiment would help. Joe and Matt collected snow from outside and kept in a bowl, inside our warm house. I hypothesized to Joe that the snow would melt, just like Frosty did. The snow, of course, did melt. Findings of our at-home science experiment: "So Frosty melted into a pond that ducks can swim in?" asked Joe. "Yes, he melted for the ducks."

The remains of our Frosty the Snowman experiment.

Privacy Please! In Jack's 14 months, he has never had any real privacy. When we bought the house, what would be his bedroom didn't have a door on it. The door existed (downstairs in the storage room) but wasn't hung on it's hinges. So all of these months, Jack has gone with little privacy. He has had an audience for every event from diaper changes to bedtime stories. Finally, on Sunday, Matt hung the door to Jack's room. I think Jack likes his new door. He likes to swing the door back & forth, back & forth. The dogs are confused by the door's back & forth motion. They can't figure out if it is an invitation to enter or a warning to stay out.

Jack & his new door.

Wii Have a New Saturday Schedule

Usually our Saturdays consist of sleeping in, cartoons, toys, cleaning and laundry. This has recently changed. I bought Matt a Wii for Christmas. For those of you who have a Wii, you know what I am talking about. Sadly our Saturday priorities have gone from kids & cleaning to simply our Wii. Even Traci, my sister, has fallen victim to the Wii.

It turns out Traci is very good at Wii. Specifically she is very good at Wii bowling. She has the funniest form; Matt and I think she looks like the Statue of Liberty. She rolls her virtual bowling perfectly straight down the lane. Yet with her "give me your tired, your poor" approach, she consistently beats Matt and I.

Traci the bowler. Wii think she looks like the Statue of Liberty.

I personally like Wii tennis the best. Each time you play an opponent, you either earn or loose points. Once you earn 1000 points, you are considered a pro. I am a "pro" in tennis. This label is probably misleading. I can make a few good shots, but often find myself unable to get the ball over the net. I do enjoy the bowling as well.

Joe and Jack are too little to enjoy the Wii. Joe can take batting practice and do some of the boxing drills. Unable to play the Wii, Jack has started a new game. When we eat dinner, he'll raise both arms in the air (similar to his Auntie in above picture) and wait for Joe, Matt and I to raise our arms in the air. It is like a mini-wave you'd see at a sports stadium.

I am unsure where Jack got the idea of sticking his hands in the air. I'm not sure if he thinks he is in a hold-up situation and is being told to "sick 'em up" or maybe he is dreaming of becoming an NFL official some day "touchdown." He could be working on his YMCA dance..."it's fun to stay at the..." I can only imagine what goes on his cute little Jack-a-Roo head. Each day I see less and less of my baby. Where did Baby Jack go?

Happy Birthday Amber

Amber as Amy Winehouse

Today is Amber's birthday. She is 32. Matt has known Amber since the 4th grade, and I met Amber in the 7th grade. A 20-year friendship, wow. I have vivid memories of walking to and from Patrick Henry with Amber - in particular on icy sidewalks. Probably my favorite memory is Amber and I at the mall with girls who were popular at the time (who would later go on to never graduate high school). They decided to shop-lift. Not being shop-lifters, we decided to ditch them and have our picture taken at some fly-by-night kiosk. Our picture was taken and then printed off on a 1987 comupter printer that took 20 minutes to print one page. I still have the picture.

Happy Birthday Amber

Introductions Please

Okay this is it: my first blog and my first blog posting. Matt is going to think I'm nuts for starting a blog. Matt is borderline obsessed with technology, but he has yet to embrace blogs or myspace pages. I have started reading friends' blogs and find them informative, but mostly entertaining and funny.

Anyone who spends time reading this blog know us: we are the Jacobson family. Matt, Amy, Joe and Jack. Joe is 4 and Jack is 1. Joe and Jack go to 'school' at iCare. They love iCare and we love it too. Joe is in the preschool and Jack is in the toddler room. The "toddler" label is new for Jack just this week. He officially is no longer a baby...he is a toddler. I guess when you can walk, throw food & pull the dogs' tails, you are officially a toddler.

Speaking of dogs' tails, we have 2 dogs. Wrigley is 7 and Chance is 2.
Chance is big; Wrigley is not as big. We love them.

I work for the USD School of Medicine and Matt works for Alltel

The focus of the blog will be on the boys in my life: Joe, Jack and Matt. They are funny, wild, naughty, entertaining, and they are my world. This is for them. Enjoy.