Hello, it's me

Hi Everyone,
I have be absent from the blogging world for some time now.  I started school again at the end of August and whatever free moments I had enjoyed, are now "enjoyed" with my nose in a text book.  (How could I have forgotten that reading a text book causes one to slip into a coma?)

Finding a balance has been particularly difficult.  I am afraid that I will just have to be a bad friend for the next two years.  Does anyone want to go for coffee in 2013?

This blog, however, is not about me, but the sweet little boy in our home.  Jacob is doing swimmingly!  He now says that he has homework, too, and will sit on my lap as I type my papers.  His dolls now also use the potty according to him.  (Luckily, we are not finding evidence of that.)  He is great at brushing his teeth.  He can sing the alphabet song and count to 10.  We are in awe of his accomplishments and his joy.  His favorite game right now is when he chases me around the house and I unexpectedly turn around and chase after him.  He loves it- so do I.  I never knew how much fun it was to run around the house in circles.

Here is a perfect Jacob story:
We have a new nephew in our family, Jackson Patrick.  We went to his baptism in Rochester a few weekends ago.  The travel has the tendency to make Jacob a little constipated.  This is an important detail that will resurface later.  We got to the church a little before the ceremony, and the very engaging priest came out to say hello and take a moment to speak with the children.  He started with, "Who knows why we are here today?" to which Jacob piped up right away, "To put the money in the basket!".  The priest handled it all in stride.  "Isn't it funny what kids come away with?"  We all kind of chuckled.  Then the priest pointed to the stained glass windows and said, "Do you know who is up there?" and pointed to a picture of the Jesus and Mary.  Without missing a beat, Jacob said, "Mama".  (It is worth noting that while I am frequently mistaken for the Virgin Mary, this particular image did not really look like me.)  Once again, the priest recovered beautifully and said, "That's right, Mama Mary!"  Luckily, at this point, the actual ceremony started.
Unfortunately, the priest called all of the kids up to the altar.  While all of the nieces and nephews went up, only Jacob actually stood under the altar saying, "It's a tunnel!".  He started to get quite chatty at that point during the ceremony, so JF brought Jacob to the back of the church.  He wouldn't stop yelling for Mama, so JF and I quickly switched custody.  This is the point where the constipation comes in.  Jacob starts saying very loudly, "Mama, my bum hurts!  My bum!  I need a bandaid! Mama, my bum!"  Luckily, just after this the baptism was over, Jackson was one with God, and JF and I could get home to change our sweat-drenched clothes.