Step by Step

I went with this blog title for two reasons:

#1...because my wife and her friends went to a New Kids on the Block concert on Saturday. 
and B...because J-Dub took his first "steps" today.  Sort of.  Well, he took a few short steps on his own this weekend, but I was the only one who saw them and we had no luck recreating the moment.  So today, he actually took three full steps on his own.  Of course, when we then grabbed the camera, he refused to cooperate.  We did get him to take a few steps a couple of times, but none were as good as the first ones.  We did manage to get a little video of him "walking".  His problem is that he won't even try if his "goal" (i.e. my drink, my protein bar, his mom) are too far away.  And when his goal is close enough for him to try, he takes two quick steps and then dives into whatever he is aiming for.  Nonetheless, it was exciting.  Couple that with him learning to clap this weekend, and it has been a whirlwind couple of days.  The party never stops around this house!

Here are the best videos we could get:

So, I don't know that we can officially call him a toddler, but I think we're getting close.

Last weekend, we went to Austin to meet Molly, and for Jacob to see his Aunt Laura, Uncle Scottie, and cousin Makinley.  Molly is a beautiful, precious, tiny little girl.  And I can tell Makinley is very excited to have a little sister.  Jacob had all kinds of fun with Makinley, not the least of which was Makinley challenging Jacob to a crawling race.  Not one to back down from a challenge, J-Dub bowed up like a man and accepted.  We managed to catch the race on video.  There is definitely a Tortoise and the Hare thing going on here, as Jacob lets Makinley get far out ahead of him, even temporarily stopping, and when she stops confidently just short of the finish line, he speeds past her to win the race.

We decided to make a little weekend of it, so we got a hotel room and took Jacob swimming, which he of course, loved.  On the way home, we passed some signs for the Capital of Texas Zoo.  Having never heard of it before, we googled it and decided to stop, since Jacob has never been to a zoo.  And he likes animals, or at least Shelby.  Sometimes.  Anyway, we decided to stop.  Now this is not a zoo like any you have ever been to.  No paved walkways.  Precious little between you and 1000 pound carnivores other than some chicken wire.  The entrance is a little shack with a kid working the desk that could not have been older than 11.  But we had fun.  They actually had some cool animals, like a bear, lion, tiger, zebra, lemur, peacocks, snakes, the whole nine yards...and you could get very close to most of them.  They also had a petting zoo where you could feed the animals.  The whole thing felt more like someone who has a bunch of exotic animals in their back yard, and they let you pay to go look at them.  It took less than an hour to walk through the whole thing, which was perfect.  Because Jacob has the attention span of a ten-month-old, it was 128 degrees, and we were ready to get home.

And just an update on the clinic break-in:  the Houston PD is hot on the case, and I am fully expecting to be called down to the precinct any day now to identify the perp in a lineup.  Can't wait to get those DNA results back.  Oh wait, I haven't heard a peep from the police since it happened.  And I probably never will.

A few pics:

Nancy and Molly

What the hell is that?

Me and Molly