one more week

I can't believe that in less than a week, Gracelyn will be a year old! I mean, I know that everyone says it goes by so fast, but you don't actually realize just how fast it goes until it's your own little one. It really does feel like it was maybe a couple of weeks ago that we drove her home from Good Sam and maybe a couple of days ago that she started eating solid foods and maybe just yesterday that she started babbling and crawling! We've certainly been having fun this past year, and you know what they say about "fun" and what it does to "time"!

a's got lucky

Last Sunday, Judd, Gracelyn, Billy and I headed up to McAfee Coliseum to take in Gracelyn's first Yankee game. We tailgated for about an hour consuming a combination of beer and baby food. The weather was supposed to be shit, but it in our section it was perfect. Billy's friend Chante joined us a little later. It was cool seeing many of the ball players show their appreciation for Jackie Robinson by wearing number 42. (Check out Jeter grabbing his ass!) Gracelyn was well behaved, considering she missed her nap. She made a lot of friends in our section and even convinced an old lady to share her compressed Evian mister with her (and the rest of us). The Yankees had everything wrapped up until the bottom of the 9th with 2 outs. Mariano, the sandman, couldn't put these west coast sissies to bed. The A's hit a walk-off homer and what sucked most was that it would have basically landed in our section if it weren't for the foul poll. Sorry Gracelyn. We'll try again when the Yanks visit the Giants in June.

first playdate

Gracelyn had her first away-from-home playdate two days ago, on Wednesday! She had so much fun! Oma (my mom...for those of you who don't know any Dutch, "Oma" means "Grandma") was sick with the same cold that Gracelyn and I had the previous week, so I asked Heather if she would be able to take Gracelyn over to her house while I went to teach. From all accounts, the playdate was a success. Maxwell and Molly (Heather's nine-month-old twins), Kelyn and Will (Heather's older kids) were wonderful hosts! Max and Gracelyn played chase round and round in circles downstairs while Molly cheered them on. And Gracelyn even got to meet their kittens, Izzy and Penelope! Thank you, Cooper-Allen family for making Gracelyn's first playdate so much fun!

happy passover and happy easter

Judd, Gracelyn and I celebrated our first Passover together as a family this past Monday night. I usually have school on Monday nights, but I emailed the professor of my second class to tell her that I would be absent due to Passover (her response: "Wishing you a wonderful Passover meal with your family. Traditions and beliefs are as important to us as they are to the English Language Learners we encounter in our classrooms." Thank God for the multicultural, constructivist approach that the education industry has taken these days, huh?). We broke out the china and stemware that we got from our wedding (our first time using it!), and I prepared a delicious Passover meal, complete with charoses, barley & pignoli nuts, and matzo ball soup. Our seder plate that Auntie B gave us was full of everything that a seder plate should be full of; the only thing missing was the shank bone, but I remedied that situation by cutting one out of brown construction paper! :-)

Today is Easter Sunday (Happy Easter, everyone!), and we've already given Gracelyn her first Easter basket! Of course, she was more interested in the grassy filler in the basket than she was in the toys we gave her! The plan for today is to go up Mt. Hamilton to my grandparents' house for some eating, drinking, and visiting.

The Jacobs Family (and, coincidentally, the staff at jucoja.com) wish you all a Happy belated Passover and a Happy Easter!