Happy Birthday Jacob!!

Since we've already had two "parties" for Jacob, we just hung out and relaxed today, Jacob's first birthday!! We went to play with some other babies and their moms this morning, like we do every Wednesday morning. Then, after a nap, Jake and I headed to the mall to check out the Old Navy baby sale. We found a couple good deals and he got to play at the mall's play area...one of his all-time favorite activities! After that, he ate supper, then we went to the park. We also "played t-ball" tonight... Jacob can now hit the ball of the tee!! He uses his short bat (it's about a foot long) and hits a big hollow plastic baseball off of a tee! After a nice long bath, he got into his new footie jammies (doesn't get much cuter than a little guy in footie jammies.. I'll have to take some pictures later!!) and went to bed! He has his 1 yr checkup in the morning, so I'll hopefully have some weight/height updates tomorrow! It's so hard to believe it's been a YEAR already!


Here are some pictures of bday party #2 with grandpa and grandma Haan! I used the same cake pan, but didn't put the two halves together to cut down on the amount of cake leftover! Jacob ate from one half and everyone else split the other! I thought I'd change it up and do a basketball theme! What a lucky kid, getting 2 birthday cakes! :)

Jacob loves his fruit salad-- especially the watermelon! I started slicing soft fruits in an egg slicer and it makes a perfect Jake size fruit salad.. big enough pieces to pick up and small enough that I don't have to worry about him gagging on it when he shoves handfuls in his mouth!

He thought that the watermelon was a ball.. he was quite entertained by it and kept saying "ball!"

Just another little something we've been up to... fingerpainting! I used the cardboard box from his wagon to cover part of the tub, so we could make a mess, but keep it contained! I didn't have to worry about him crawling or walking away and getting it all over carpet or anything that way! He only took one quick taste and learned fast that it was NOT edible! (Between the taste and me frantically trying to "clean" his mouth with a papertowel....) He liked making art on the tub walls, which thankfully washed off very easily!
Still one of his favorite foods.. spaghetti!!
So, another thing that Jake's been doing lately is opening the dishwasher and trying to play in the dirty dishes. He also likes to start the dishwasher. I am writing this to ask for solutions! If we lock the dishwasher, he is able to start it. If we leave it unlocked, he opens it to play with the dishes! He has also learned how to lock and unlock it. We redirect him and tell him not to play with it, but being the curious little guy he is, he still wants to do it all the time! The other day, I was feeding a bottle to the little guy I babysit 2x a week and all of the sudden heard the dishwasher change cycles. I thought to myself... "that's odd, I don't remember starting that!" Then it dawned on me that I didn't.. somebody else did...a little guy just over 2 1/2 feet tall... Any ideas from anyone out there??