Ahem. Anyway, now that Yom Kippur is over, our thoughts turn to Wednesday night, when my personal favorite Jewish holiday begins. Sukkot is a harvest festival, a time of one of the long-ago great pilgrimages to Israel, and to celebrate it we live* in a ramshackle hut for 8 days. The hut is called a sukkah, and is usually decorated festively in the harvest theme.

*”Live”, since we’re Jewish, means “eat”.

After our rather ghetto attempt at a build-it-yourself sukkah last year, this year we decided to order an aluminum kit with canvas walls. Jacob was, uh, a little excited when he realized we were FINALLY going to open those EXCITING BOXES.

(That’s him saying “oh ho ho HOOOOO” over and over again, by the way.)

The frame was disgustingly easy to put together, and while the shiny metal ensures our sukkah will have a little bling this year, it’ll be nowhere near last year’s debacle.

Tomorrow, walls and a roof! Wednesday, decorations!

…and, apropos nothing, in the “He’s totally going to kill me for posting this, if he finds it later on in life” category:

(Don’t worry, kiddo. Your folks aren’t morning people, either.)

Pfeiffer falls itself is beautiful and tranquil, even on a busy Sunday.

There are also some big trees there. I think Dad was most taken with the smell, which is wonderful and fresh.

After that hike, we were all getting pretty hungry so we had a great lunch with a view at Nepenthe, and then motored on home. Where, of course, there was more fun to be had. Pop-pop is the best at playing telephone.

And today, Dad firmly established himself as Jacob’s Hero by taking him to the local fire department to visit some engines.

Jacob was a little afraid of the loudspeaker announcing local incidents, but was extremely impressed by both the five fire engines at the station and the firefighter who showed him how everything works. I found it pretty interesting too, I must admit (and not just because the firefighter was thoroughly and completely hot himself). He spoke most lovingly about a very nifty flamethrower they use to clear out areas in brush fires. While I found the discussions of their gear and what it does the most interesting, Jacob only had eyes for things with wheels.

I bet we’ll be going back.

Friends are cool,

Trains are OMG FRICKIN AWESOME,

Challah is yummy,

And baths are sad.

*****

Also, we’ve now both finished reading the new Harry Potter book and expect that vaguely important things like eating and showering will resume shortly.

But then sometimes I’ll snap an otherwise crappy picture, look at it, and think to myself: “Huh. Maybe they’re right!”

Who the hell put Ron in my living room?!

*****

I’ve been using our Netflix subscription and our Tivo to try out various exercise videos and shows lately. This has been great, mostly because Jacob will gamely play along in the same room and sometimes join in while I do a video. (“Mama Ex Video? Mama Ex Video?”, says Jacob) So I’ve been getting real exercise almost daily.

Currently in the top slot is the “high energy yoga” program Inhale, on the Oxygen network. It’s completely 100% fabulous. I had totally forgotten how flexible I am, and it’s been great to rediscover. Sadly, my memory was completely accurate about my triceps strength. Oh, well. You can’t have everything. :)

Other winners: Turbo Jam: Punch, Kick, and Jam, by Beach Body. This is my favorite gym kickboxing class, on dvd. It’s high-energy, not too dancy, and lets me feel all “raar”. (Yoga makes me feel loose and jello-y and very happy, for contrast.) The New York City Ballet Workout also gets very high marks from me, but I’m not sure it’s for everyone. In particular, I worry about whether people who have never had ballet would enjoy the workout–they don’t really explain the terminology or how to do the ballet moves. It’s a great workout, easy on the eyes, and easy on the ears too. Classical music and ballet warm-ups, basically, done by some of the best dancers in the world. Just make sure you know how to plie first, I guess.

I haven’t enjoyed “The Goddess Workout” as much. I miss bellydancing a lot, but this dvd didn’t do it for me. She doesn’t explain technique very well, and I found her faux-sultry affect a little off-putting.

I have no idea why I just told you all of that, but I think I’m going to hit “post” anyway. Do any of you have favorite exercise videos to share?

Challah. Jacob and I make it together every week. I get all teary whenever I think about how his childhood will be anchored and woven through with the smell of baking bread, the feel of flour and dough on his hands.

Asparagus-morel-gruyere bread pudding. Made with fresh, local ingredients.

Of course, life has a way of reminding me of my true place. Tonight, while reading books with Jacob, we had gotten halfway through “Where the Wild Things Are” when he started whimpering. He gave me what I can only call a dirty look, grabbed the book, climbed down out of the chair, and scampered over to where Jon was web surfing. He pulled on Jon’s pant-leg and whimpered “Dada! Dadaaa…” in the most pitiful little voice. You’d think I’d killed all four of the Teletubbies and the Baby Einstein turtle to boot.

As it turns out, I don’t roar my terrible roars, gnash my terrible teeth, roll my terrible eyes, or show my terrible claws quite as well as Daddy can. In fact, I wasn’t allowed to read him any book after that.

The little stinker.

So what’s been happening? Well, a steady stream of visitors, which I guess shouldn’t surprise me since we live in one of the most beautiful places on earth. Not that I’m gloating or anything! (That’s Jon’s job.) Our friend Gayle snapped the above picture while spending a weekend here with us.

Jacob would like you to know that I still take far, far too many pictures of him.

On the Wednesday following Gayle’s visit, my wonderful Aunt Dina, her really cool son Ryan and his equally cool friend Jamie arrived for an extended weekend visit. We showed them all of the beautiful scenery the Central Coast has to offer, despite less-than-perfect weather. PCH 1 is pictured above…

…Big Sur…

…some trees…

…but I think their favorite was the PGA course tour of Pebble Beach. Turns out, there are three PGA courses within a mile of the house. I think Ryan was a little scandalized that I had no idea. We had an absolute blast with them, and were very sad to see them leave. Jacob was especially grateful, since they prompted me to get off my butt and drive the long haul up to San Francisco for a day. Jacob LOVED San Francisco. You wouldn’t believe the number of buses and trucks in that town! Not to mention the boat ride we took.

It was his first, to Alcatraz Island, and he and I had a lot of fun exploring while Dina and the boys took the audio tour. He is still talking about the boat. The night that Dina and the boys left, our friend Carl from college showed up and stayed most of a week with us. That was also a lot of fun, though I have far fewer pictures.

Carl, the saint, even watched Jacob one afternoon so that Jon and I could escape for an hour alone. Man, we needed that. This weekend we were supposed to head down to LA for our ten-year college reunion, but Jon’s mother and Bev show up on Friday, and I’ve taken on some contract work for MITRE, and I think someone is going to send in the troops to deal with the laundry/dishes situation soon… yeah. Suffice it to say, we needed a weekend wherein we do absolutely nothing but catch up.

So, hi! Sorry I’ve been away. Greetings from a very busy household–what have you all been up to? (Credit for the last photo goes to our friend Carl Coryell-Martin, by the way–he took the camera and tripod out while we put Jacob to bed one night. Thanks, Carl!)

I’m sorry I haven’t posted much recently, we’re just having too much fun I guess. Here’s a general baby-update: Jacob is more of a little boy every day, and the first year is slinking into hazy sleep-deprived long-term memory. He feeds himself with spoons and forks, can drink from an adult glass under supervision, and loves to draw. The other day, he drew a few little squiggles and pointed at one of them, and said “Da da”. So I asked what the other one was, and he pointed at me! And then he informed me that the little one (I kid you not) was “Yaycuh”. I almost died.

He’s still kind of half-and-half with actually saying “Ma ma”, although he clearly knows who I am (and where my eyes, ears, nose, hair, etc. are). We’ve been waiting for him to talk for ages, it seems. But it looks like he’s going to follow the path that our friend Stacy followed, and simply wait until he can speak in complete sentences. The other day, out of the blue, as he was going down the stairs he beamed up at me, and said “Jacob go down!”.

On nice days, which we’re having a lot of lately, we like to go to this awesome playground with a fenced-in toddler area.

There are lots of places to climb, and music chimes to ring.

And stairs to climb down ALL BY HIMSELF, THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

And yesterday, when he decided he’d had enough, and wanted to run around on the soccer field, he figured out that he could squeeze himself right through the grates in the fence.

God help us.

Last weekend we attended a holiday party and cookie exchange. Jacob had a lot of fun tearing around with the other babies, and he even decorated his first cookie!

He enjoyed eating it even more than decorating it.

Last night we started the holiday off well with some presents. Jonathan and I got one another a video camera (finally!), so expect little movie clips as soon as I learn how to make them. Jacob got a little plastic 3-car garage, complete with cars and keys. Tonight, before hopping on the plane we’re spending dinner time with friends. Mmm. Latkes.

Oh, and administrivia: I’ve put Jacob’s November pictures online, finally.

See you later!

Jacob is 15 months old.

(!!!)

When the hell did that happen? Seriously, isn’t he still a newborn? I mean, I remember kissing those pudgy, ill-controlled little feet like it was yesterday. And yet, probably thanks to the severe sleep-deprivation at the time, when I try to remember individual things I almost always fail. When exactly did his teeth break through? How old was he when he started waving bye-bye? Clapping? Trying to tickle me? Who knows? Not me, that’s for sure.

(Can you tell I was trying to fill out his baby book yesterday? Do you think he’ll be heartbroken if he finds out later that I mostly wrote down educated guesses?)

So here’s a snapshot of Things Jacob Does and Likes as of December 2006.

Jacob still puts almost everything he comes into contact with in his mouth. No amount of pleading, distracting, or threatening on my part can stop this.

He also likes to draw, though. He produces mass quantities of scribble in many eye-rending colors.

Being naked still tops the “fun” list, but he also enjoys pushing his little bus around making vroom-vroom noises. OH MY GOD THE CUTE.

When he’s happy about something, which is really quite a lot of the time, he does this cute little stompy-foot wavy-arm dance.

He understands that this whole tickle game is supposed to involve some running, but not that he’s supposed to run away from whoever is tickling him.

He likes sitting in big-person chairs.

Favorite toys include: The bus pictured above, his ball (“MBUHL! MBUHL! MBUHL!” says Jacob), Legos, a singing piggy bank (don’t ask), his big plastic dinosaur and roll-a-balls, his shape sorter, his xylophone and bells. He loves music and dancing, and is starting to try and hum/sing. He has 10 teeth, and we’re still waiting for the canines to appear so that we can stop getting visited by the demon-evil-twin-Jacob.

He walks, runs, kicks his ball, feeds himself moderately well, loves the outdoors, and is shy around new people. He’s very affectionate and LOVES books–both to “read” to himself and to be read to. He still signs most of the time–he seems to understand it’s more effective–but is also trying to talk a lot more these days. (Can I write this? Will I be jinxed forever if I write this?) He seems to be sleeping through the night with us. (Glory glory all praise sleeping toddlers.) He still hates to nap.

And boy oh boy, do we love him.

That special time of year when a boy’s mind turns to one thing: puppies.

Just kidding. One of my favorite things about Jacob as a toddler is that he has such a wide range of expression with us, now. When he was very little, it was basically crying. Then crying and smiling/laughing. Now, it’s a whole different world.

He signs bye-bye, more, food, milk/nursing, nap, diaper change, all done, pain, tickle, up, down, and he even made up a sign for music. He claps his hands, and points at what he wants, and is starting to try out verbal language. (The ever-popular “no”, bye-bye, what’s that?, mine, and his name/tickle/maybe both.) His ability to communicate goes a long way toward heading off the frustration I’ve read about other parents experiencing at this stage.

(Which is not to say there’s no frustration, of course. It’s just more rare than I’ve read about.)

*****

Jacob’s canine teeth are on the move. These are by far (by far) the worst yet. We’ve been getting a ton of the “pain” sign, and a few days ago he actually got a bamboo crochet hook out of my knitting bag and started attacking his gums with it. All you seasoned parents out there, this is it until the two year molars, right? Right?