Jacob has a new trick. It is amazing, astounding, mind-boggling. We're considering getting him an agent to properly showcase this talent. Wanna know what it is? He holds his hand in front of his face, opens it wide, then makes a fist, repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat. Not fast like waving - more like he's stoned out of his gourd and can't figure out whose hand that is, but it sure is neat. If you do the same thing to him, he'll laugh out loud. This whole motor control thing is apparently high-concept humor in babyland. Such a silly creature.

He is also blown away by running water of any sort. If I set him up in the tub with the faucet running, full-blast or bladder-clenching trickle, he's happy for hours. We went to a park yesterday with a little waterfall, he nearly gave himself whiplash trying to keep an eye on that sucker.

In other matters, we are still on the Do Not Call list, as far as my mother-in-law is concerned. I'm sure she thinks she's punishing us, but it actually has been a really nice, quiet couple of months. She did call the other night, to remind my husband that he should call his brother on his birthday (it is going to be such a SHOCK to this woman when she realizes that her kids aren't 4 anymore... they're 29 and 27, and she still buys gifts for them and signs their brother's name to it - like that's going to be the magical solution that suddenly makes the family get along). During her phone call, she whined for a while about how tired she is of the nice weather in Florida, how bored she's getting just going to the beach and swimming and riding her horse every day, and how she thinks she might decide to go back to work one day a week after her 4-month vacation is over so that she'll have some more human companionship. First of all, I think I deserve a pat on the back for not inviting her to BITE ME. ANd secondly, she works as a recovery room nurse, so most of her patients are unconscious or drugged to the gills... not exactly stimulating conversationalists. I know, I've been a patient in a recovery room, when I'm on that stretcher the LAST thing I care about is whether I'm fulfilling my nurse's social needs. And, I know too that she has coworkers, but I'm not trying to be fair here, okay?

I think it's inevitable that she'll come out for Emily's birthday party next month. Fine. It's time for me to rack up a few new horror stories, anyway.

There goes Jacob, my fat, kissable little alarm clock. Must go wave slowly at him...