That other kid

Most of the recent posts have been about Mariella, so I thought I should give some space to that other kid that lives in our house too. Jacob has been a great big brother, though we are starting to notice that he's a little impatient with her at times. It's hard to hear that you have to wait because the baby needs to be changed. Or fed. Or a million other things. Most of the time, he's very helpful and very loving to her. He's making up for his lost attention by being a bit more bossy and demanding, but we're trying to give him chances to make "big boy" choices and give him some responsibilities that make him feel special.

He's been really enjoying going to his class, and playgroup, and the nursery at church--really, anything that is familiar from his routine before Mariella was born. He asks to play with kids a lot. It's been good for all of us to get out of the house and be with other people. Jacob really keeps me on the go!

We've had some opportunities to get outside in the past couple of weeks, and I think Jacob is wishing for it to be nice every day so we can start going to parks. I have a feeling we'll be living at parks again this summer, just like last year. He is also going to get a bike this spring, so we'll be sure to take some pictures when we give it to him.

Here are some recent pictures of Jacob:

Reading his High Five magazine in the car. We'd never seen him do this before, but he was very engrossed in it.

A favorite activity: running cars down the slide

Playing with Claire and Gracie, trying to get one of them to take a bone

Snuggling with Daddy on the couch on some lazy morning

Checking out Daddy's birthday cake (he's 30 now!)

Attempting to help Daddy blow out candles. Jacob doesn't quite get it yet, but he sure tried.