Jake's crib goes bye-bye

Today we converted Jake's trusty crib into a big-boy bed, ending an era that spanned over two whole years.

Why?

As means of explanation, we offer these photographs.









(Bear in mind, Jake was in no danger at any point of this maneuver ... he became an expert quite quickly and at no time seemed the slightest bit nervous about performing for us. Indeed, the smile in the third photo, I think, sums it up nicely.)

As a final tribute to what's been (and, in a metamorphosed form, continues to be) a trusty steed for the lad, here's Jake and his crib in happier times:



Happy trails, crib ... er, cribbie ... whatever.

(By the way, I also assembled a new crib today for the soon-to-arrive little brother. It's the exact same model ... We'll see how long it'll take him to figure out how to escape. The heat is on ...)

World Cup Fever

One of the best things about Jake at this age is the way he runs around and -- no matter how mundane the task he's doing -- he trumpets it out at the top of his lungs, triumpantly.

Such as "SWIMMIN'!" or "I'm RUNNIN' or, as he was announcing while these photos were taken, "I'm PLAYIN' SOCCER!"




I might try this at work, to make the days pass more easily. "I'm making COPIES!" or "I'm having a LATE MORNIN' SNACK!" and so forth ...

Seems to work for him.

It was a rough night ...

If rock stars partied with milk in their sippie cups, hung out with stuffed monkeys instead of groupies and had a hard-to-explain tendency to put their sunglasses on upside down, this sort of photo would be cliché in the pages of "Rolling Stone":

Who doesn't love Cheerios?

First time at the wheel

Before we went to the fireworks show (see post below), Jake met up at his buddy Andrew's place. Andrew, recently turned 3, showed off his new toy, a motorized Jeep.

For some reason, they let Jake -- now a driving expert after taking in his first-ever movie, "Cars," that very morning -- take a turn at the wheel.




What I love most about these photos is the complete dichotomy of these two: Jake couldn't be happier and Andrew -- who actually was working the gas pedal in some sort of "driving by committee" disastrous setup -- looks like he realizes that maybe, perhaps, this whole thing wasn't the best idea ever.

Final tally: One tree hit, a couple near misses but, thankfully, no injuries.

"Boom Boom"

Jake's first brush with fireworks had the effect we probably should've seen coming ... they scared the hell out of him.

Here's a shot of Jake taking in the fun, alongside his slightly-older buddy Andrew:



Jake did relax a bit as the fireworks went on ... and his post-game analysis consisted of two words ... "Boom Boom."

Here are some other shots from before the explosions began:

Joe Cool

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