Gone for a while

Sorry, I have slacked off a bit in posting on here. It has been almost 2 months since my last post. I will try to get the newest info up before too long, and pictures of everybody's favorite Fuller kid.

Incidentally, we go in on the 12th to find out what baby #2 will be. Stay tuned . . .

Walking in Dada's Shoes!

At long last . . .

As promised, here are new pictures of everyone's favorite little Fuller boy! Jacob has had quite the last month. After discovering his absolute fear of the dark, we have gone from a night light to keeping his closet light on, and we are finding he is sleeping better! Why didn't we discover this sooner? Well, Jacob is an interesting little boy. If he is really sad or scared and will start crying, you won't hear him. Chances are, if you can hear him, he is faking to get his way on something. Needless to say, he was not being loud about this fear. Things are much better now.

Leigh Ann and I had the opportunity to make our annual trip to Scali's Restaurant for our anniversay on Saturday. This has got to be the best Italian cuisine I have ever had. My favorite (actually, the only thing I have ever gotten there) is the Brasciole. You have to love steak, ham, and mozarella, but if you do, this is heaven on a plate. The Chicken Marsalla gets two thumbs up from Leigh Ann. Afterwards we went out and saw the very romantic movie, "I Am Legend." I thought it was a great movie, Leigh Ann liked it as well, but said it was kind of freaky and made her nervous! I would recommend it.

And Then There Were . . . 4!

Alright, we have been keeping pretty tight-lipped about it until now, but I guess it is time that we can make the announcement. We are expecting our second child! Leigh Ann just had her first appointment today, and the baby is just a hair (literally) under 3 cm long, putting us just shy of 10 weeks. The estimated due date is October 25. We must have a thing for October babies - Jacob was born October 6.

We've known for about a month now, but wanted to put off a widespread announcement until the first official doctor's visit. Jacob, our ever amusing and crazy 2-year old, does not seem that excited about the prospect of sharing the house with another child. Whenever we ask him if he wants a baby brother or sister, he promptly says no! Oh well, you can't blame him. He's had the run of the place for over 2 years now. That's a lot of power to have to give up!

Leigh Ann, of course, is waiting for the fun of the first trimester to end! We are celebrating our 4th anniversary this Saturday (technically it was the 26th, yesterday, but we both worked, and since she I work days and she works nights, it meant we had a total of maybe an hour together) - and she is hoping that she will be able to enjoy our favorite Italian restaurant here in Columbus - Scali's.

I know I have been a slacker about posting in the last little while - I'll try to keep more up to date, especially as the pregnancy rolls along!

Jake and Dada

Sometimes for fun, I can entertain Jake with the built in camera on my Mac laptop computer. With the Photo Booth program, he can see on the screen what the camera sees, and he enjoys watching things on the screen. I can usually get him to smile this way, since he doesn't really think of it as a camera. So I snapped some pictures the other night of him and I. We had been having a good old time, playing some Backyardigans games on the Nick Jr. website. Actually, I played the game, and he sat there enthralled, thinking it was an actual episode, and wanted another when the game was over. Leigh Ann also found a Blue's Clues game and played it with him the next night. It still amazes me how utterly he loves those shows, Blue's Clues especially. He constantly walks around the living room with his official notebook, looking for clues, then goes and sits in his thinking chair.
We are all doing well. I was supposed to take a trip down to Galveston, Texas, over a week ago for a conference, and from there go to Lafayette, Louisiana, for an experiment. But the experiment got canceled at the last minute, and I came home unexpectedly. The experiment has been re-scheduled for this coming Tuesday, the 12th, so I am heading back down that Monday. I know, you are all wondering what there is to do in Lafayette. Keep wondering. As far as I know, there is nothing to do, other than go down for my experiment. It is close to Avery Island, though, where Tabasco sauce is made.
Leigh Ann's parents were able to come up and stay with her and Jacob while I was gone, which was a big help for Leigh Ann.

I thought I would also show you Jacob's Santa pictures from last year. If you go back and look at those from last year, you will see that Jacob was definitely less excited about seeing Santa this year than he was last year.

End of the year Wrap-up

Alright, so I know I haven't posted in a while, and I apologize. Everything always seems to get turned on its head around the holidays, and we seem to just now be getting back into the normal rhythm.
In November my family came out for Thanksgiving. David flew here from Korea, Richard from Utah, and Mom and Clyde from California. We had a great Thanksgiving meal in our little home. We were surprised that our first Thanksgiving turkey went so well. We took David to see the Kirtland temple, because he arrived a full day before everybody else, and the others had already seen it. The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we all went to the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio, which was very impressive. Jacob did amazingly well!
This year for Christmas we decided Jacob was big enough to put the regular big tree up. The Sunday before Christmas, Leigh Ann snapped a picture of Jacob and I, already for church.
One of Jacob's new Christmas gifts was a new Crayola Color Wonder coloring book, with the "Cars" theme. Everybody who know Jacob that, at least at the time, he had two obsessions - Cars and Blue's Clues.
And to follow up, for Christmas, we found Jacob an inflatable Blue's Clues Thinking Chair. He had a lot of fun with it down in Chattanooga with Leigh Ann's parents (where we spent Christmas). Unfortunately, the chair could not withstand the requirements put upon it, and seems to have sprung a leak. I am trying to identify the leak and seal it up, because he loved the chair, as you can see in this picture and in the video below. All in all, it was a very busy holiday season, but we had a lot of fun visiting with family, and while we were down in Chattanooga, we took the opportunity to meet up with some of our Birmingham friends - Andy and Rheanna Stevens and Holly Woods - down in Gadsden at the Cracker Barrel. Jacob continues to amaze us with how well he handles the long drive to and from Tennessee.




With the new year comes new challenges. The latest, and biggest, is our quest to potty train Jacob. So far it is going slowly, as he is not that keen on the idea of having to go to the toilet to do his business, rather than just using a simple diaper. At the very least, he seems to be learning bladder control, as he will hold it in as long as he has underwear on, and then let it go the second we put him in his trainer pull-ups for nap time and at night for bed.
We hope you all have a great new year, and we'll continue to post the news and progress of our young family.

Love,
Mike, Leigh Ann, and Jacob

Aaah, young love!

I just took this one because I was experimenting with the B&W function on our digital camera, and you don't have to deal with red eye!
So I think I have mentioned before that Jacob has a girlfriend. Her name is Abby. They hang out together a couple of times a week, on average, when Abby comes to our house on Monday mornings and Jacob goes to her house on Friday afternoons. Jacob usually does not like other kids his age. He doesn't like them near him, and he certainly doesn't like them near his toys. But Abby is the exception. So far, she is the only other child that Jacob allows near him. Not only near him, they will give each other hugs and kisses. Here, you can see that Jacob is actually sharing cookies with her (unheard of). He also calls her by name. Just to give you some perspective, the only other names he knows are Mama, Dada, Pooh, Blue, Pablo, and Elmo (thanks to Abby). They are cute together. To give you some idea of the contrast, you can see there that Abby is very daintily holding her cookie with just her thumb and index finger, while Jacob has his whole hand clamped on his while cramming it into his mouth. In this picture, they are watching Fish Movie (aka Finding Nemo) together.