Better Late than Never

Finally getting around to blogging about J-Dub's birthday party.  I've been semi out of commission for a few days with a case of the funk, or strep throat, or something.  So far Jacob and Nancy have thankfully been able to avoid it.

Since most of you who read this blog (what, 2 or 3 of you?  who knows...no one ever leaves comments, which makes me cry myself to sleep every night) were probably there, I won't do a play-by-play, as exciting as that would be.  Despite a house full of people and crazy cousins and other assorted munchkins running around everywhere, Jacob had a great time and was a perfect angel.  We're very lucky and blessed that he is pretty happy most of the time, no matter the situation.  Unless you are eating and you don't give him some.

Thanks to everyone who made the trip (in some cases LONG trips) to help JKW celebrate, and for the far-too-generous gifts that were showered upon him.  The kid has so many toys that I seriously thought we were going to have to move.  Immediately.  Or rent a warehouse.

So because of the aforementioned plethora of toys, the first order of business after the party was to move our dining room table upstairs to the spare bedroom and turn our dining room into a one-year old's version of a man-cave.  Nancy bought some really cool foam flooring that fits together like a puzzle, and she spent a good long while putting it all together.  Then we moved all his toys into the new playroom and turned him loose.  All those toys... and the first thing he does is start pulling apart the floor Nancy worked so hard on.  So he can carry around the foam pieces, chew on them, and beat furniture, people and/or sleeping pets with them.  We shoulda thought that one through a little more.

He also had his 1 year doctor visit Monday, which did require a few vaccines, which apparently did not go too well.  I hear he put up a good fight.  He weighed in at 28 lbs 7 ounces, good for the 97th percentile, and he measured at 33 inches tall, which is in the 99th percentile.  Luckily, his body has caught up to his gargantuan noggin a little, because it only measured in the 91st percentile.

On Sunday, we were eating lunch at a local restaurant and my phone rang.  It said "Wife" and had Nancy's picture on it.  Since she was sitting 3 feet in front of me, I declined the call and informed my wife that she was butt-dialing me.  As she fidgeted around trying to figure out how she managed to do that, she soon realized she didn't even have her phone with her.  Well, that's curious.  It is not unlike her to accidentally leave her phone in the car, so my next thought was that some crackhead, probably the same one that broke into my clinic, had stolen her car and was now calling me to taunt us as he drove away to Mexico.  Just before I was about to go out in the parking lot and commandeer a vehicle, triangulate her cell phone signal, and chase down Nancy's car before it could make it to the border, she informed me that she had not had it in the car either.  Well, that's curious-er.

Then who was calling?  My crackhead theory was out the window (also because I looked out the window of the restaurant and could see her car out there, right where we had parked it).  About that time, I heard a little ding that tells me I have a voicemail.  Putting the pieces together, I shrewdly deduced that the voicemail may hold a clue as to where her phone might be.  The message, apparently left by Larry the Cable Guy's even more redneck brother, said, "My son found this phone on the trash can in Silver Ranch (our neighborhood), so I called the emergency contact number.  Call me if you get this message."

By this time, Nancy had pieced together the events of thirty minutes earlier enough to figure out what happened.  Sort of:  [Flashback] As we were leaving to go to lunch, she opened the door to the garage and left it open as she went to put Jacob's bag in the car and get his car seat ready.  Jacob, seeing the door wide open, went running from the kitchen to go out to his mama in the garage.  Since there is a big step from the kitchen to the garage, Nancy was afraid he would fall and crack his noggin on the concrete, so she ran back in to stop him from coming out.  She had her phone in her hand as she went running after him, so she set the phone down on the hood of her car.

With Jacob safe and his noggin still intact, I came in from outside in the backyard with Shelby, set the alarm, we strapped Jacob in, and off we went.  With her phone still on the hood of the car.  I didn't notice it when I walked by to get in the car, and she didn't see it because the inspection and registration sticker were in the way.  Somewhere shortly after leaving the house, it must have slid right off, into the street.  What we still don't know is how it got from the spot where it fell off, to the top of a trashcan in the neighborhood park.  Which is where voicemail guy's son supposedly found it.  Which is a good 400 yards from the nearest point on the route we drove to go to lunch.  When we stopped to pick it up at the guy's house, Nancy came back to the car pretty upset that her beloved iPhone was in ruins.  As you can see from the picture, we are lucky it still was able to make calls, or we may never have found it.  Then we would have unfairly blamed the crackheads.

That's all I got.  Here be some pictures:

JacobLand

Aerial view

Loves him some Cozy Coupe

Nancy and Molly



Nancy and her Mom did great on decorations



Speaking of...

Jacob and M

Amanda and Morgan

Pa and M with Jacob, trying to get him to sit still long enough to take a picture

Channeling his inner preacher

Grandma, mid-chew.  Pretty sure she will not be glad I posted this photo.  I had to, because somehow this is the only picture I have of Brooke from the party.

Interesting, they look so civilized in this picture

Laura and Carrie

Brandl and Grandpa (mid-bite also)

He LOVES the Happy Birthday song

Jacob's awesome cake

Kelsey, Debra, and Doris

Craig and Alexis (and Brynna)

Makinley and her baby

all the crazy kids

Tyler, Danielle and Brandl

Sarah and John

The Ocampo clan with Molly

all the cousins on my side

Carrie loves this picture and asked me to post it

eating ice cream, still looking deceptively calm