School Daze

Jacob's first semester of "school" is over. Mother's Morning Out wrapped up the fall/winter season with a kids Christmas party this morning. Jacob was decked out in his Christmas gear, fired up and ready to go!

He has really warmed up to his teachers and enjoyed his time there. He has missed a few days because of sickness and had a couple of "downer" days where he has cried for his Mommy but other than that, it's been great for him.

His teachers are good to him. They made him a couple of tree ornaments. Thank goodness for these as you all know what happened to many of our ornaments a couple weeks back!

Jacob has also honed his artistic skills some more. You may remember the pumpkin from Halloween. Well, check out the Christmas tree! If you look closely, you will notice the colors Jacob used in the first picture match the colors on his art below! This boy gets it!

This last picture is my favorite. It's grainy because it was taken by a cell phone. Our friend, David Parnell, was picking up his children when he looked in Jacobs room and surveyed the scene below.

If you can't tell, Jacob is reading a book to himself in the rocking chair. This is the first picture that I'm aware of inside of "school." It was actually taken this morning during the Christmas party. There is very little that will get in the way of Jacob and a good book.

Birthday Wishes

A very special Happy Birthday today to Mommy! We will not reveal how old Mommy is considering she's the oldest of the bunch. Shhhhhhhh. Mommy had a great birthday; now you all get a treat...Jacob reading through one of his Christmas books.

From Mullet to Man

Jacob, who has been spotted impersonating a homeless man recently (see above), was in dire need of his first haircut. You could really see his flowing hair was getting under his skin (see below).

Mommy to the rescue with a quick dash to the local Stadium Cuts. At first, Jacob did not enjoy this experience either.

But soon he calmed down...and came home a new man.

See how refreshed and polished he looks???

Just in time to impress Santa. I believe the two meet face to face the second time in a couple of weeks. Hopefully, his hair will not have grown back by then!

An interesting weekend

Christmas 2009 is in full effect in the Brister household. I used to love putting up Christmas decorations as a youngster, but I don't know what's happened in my adult life. If there is one thing I HATE, it's putting up Christmas lights. I got the tree up with relative ease and then discovered approximately seven strands of our remaining lights were not working. This set me off on an hour-and-a-half, three store venture to find white lights (to go outside). I found them, got frustrated after a while and quit. Su has worked hard decorating everything else in the house so I offered to give Jacob his bath. Well, apparently while the bath water was running, THE TREE FELL!!! Oddly enough, noone heard it. After I got Jacob to bed, I made the gruesome discovery. Ten to 12 ornaments (the nice ones of course) were smashed into thousands of pieces. I got the tree back up after a struggle and IT FELL AGAIN!!! I now have it snugly secured and if it goes, the entire window seal goes. I am sure this will be funny one day but yesterday added up to be a horrific experience. The only thing I take solace in is that Jacob was nowhere near the tree. As you will see below, he loves it. The scary thing is that the tree fell right where he is standing in the picture below and where he and his Mommy are opening the present in the picture below that.

Sunday turned out to be a more fun or at least more normal day. Jacob and I went with David Parnell and the twins to do a little Christmas shopping to give their respective mothers a break. Of course, Suzanne does not know the meaning of "break" and she cleaned the entire house today. Thank you, Su, for making it so nice. When we got home, Jacob apparently still had mall fever because he kept pulling Mommy's shoes out of her closet and we caught him in the act trying one of her shoes on.

Thanksgiving 2009

I'm back! Thanksgiving 2009 has come and gone. Jacob, Su, and I spent a couple of days in Grenada. As always, it was great to spend time with my Grenada family. Below is the yearly family photo. I find this picture hysterical, namely because of the way Jacob is positioned. It would appear that Su and I are being neglectful parents and that Jacob is hanging on for dear life. Without giving away too many secrets, I will reveal that Jacob was actually asleep when this picture was taken! I'll leave the rest to your imagination! In fact, Jacob slept through the entire Thanksgiving feast. Otherwise, he was an absolute angel on his trip and thoroughly enjoyed playing his Bebe's piano and listening to the grandfather clock, much like the one at Nana and Pawpaw's house.

Here are a few more pictures that I snapped, primarily of him playing with his cousins McKenzie and Matt. For more pictures, head to their website (Cummings Chronicles) on the right side of the page.

Jacob's Walking! (And running! And doing all sorts of other neat tricks!)

About this time last week, Suzanne and I noticed Jacob was beginning to get a little pep in his step. And like a flash in the night, he is suddenly moving all over the house in record speed. I do have some "traditional" video of him walking smoothly but thought the video below was too good to pass up. You get the point.

Halloween Festivities

What a wonderful time we had over the last two evenings with some of our friends. Jacob is doing great and did very well at two Halloween-themed parties we participated in over the weekend. The first few pictures were taken at the Beau Chene Country Club where we met up with the Parnells for a Halloween feast. We had a great time. Beau Chene really does a good job with these events.

The second batch is from a party hosted by our friends Boyd and Bonnie Kate Kitchen. They always have a big neighborhood party and the Kitchens are gracious enough to invite "outsiders" into the neighborhood.

Jacob before going to Beau Chene Country Club

A very stoic scarecrow at dinner

Lila Parnell as The Queen of Hearts

Elise Parnell as Alice in Wonderland

Bennett Parnell as the Mad Hatter

Jacob and Daddy watching the balloon man

Jacob and Daddy getting our balloon

Jacob swinging at the Kitchen's house

Will and Camille Barrois

Nick and Myrt Mills

Lila Parnell (my favorite picture of the whole batch)

The gang enjoying their meal; in one of the funniest moments of the night, David Parnell later broke that chair

Elise Parnell and Ella Barrois (or as I was calling them...The other Parnell Twins)

Ella, Will Kitchen, and Elise

Jacob and Myrt getting ready for trick or treating. Myrt lasted 1.5 seconds in the wagon. I loved Jacob's facial expression as much as Myrt's

Good buddies. Jacob and Lila.

Jacob's first "trick-or-treat." He was more interested in riding in his wagon so we went up to two houses all night!

Along for the ride

David and Lila

Jacob and Mommy as a fun night winds down