Jacob is steadily adding to his vocabulary now, which is always amusing to me. The latest additions are intended to be "milk" and "grape," though they're emerging as "gock" and "grapp," respectively. I keep thinking that maybe an "mmm" would help out with the whole "mmmmmilk" thing, but he doesn't seem to care. Okay, bub, whatever makes you happy.

We had one of those days yesterday that was just sweet and perfect - the type of thing that I'll remember and hold onto so that the next time they are driving me so insane that I can't enunciate, I let them live. Both kids played happily and cooperatively in the morning, ate well for both breakfast and lunch, and went down for naps at the expected times. Jacob woke up after only 45 minutes, which could have been a bad omen for the rest of the day - 45 minutes is just enough time for him to think he's done sleeping but not enough to actually leave him rested and cheerful. But he came out and snuggled with me on the couch, and took another hour-long nap on me. Which never happens. Both my kids are bed/crib-sleepers, and it's very rare for them to fall asleep, or stay asleep, on me. And it was my express duty, then, to nap with him, of course. Not like I had a choice - YOU try to stay awake while holding a sleeping baby.

After he woke up, he was perky and sweet, and we all piled into the car and went out for dinner. Which, again, initially looked sketchy, while we waited 10 minutes for our waitress to find us (apparently we should stop wearing camoflague in public). But it all turned out beautifully, the service was good and the food was good and the children were good, and rainbows and sunshine and bluebirds abounded.

So, that was a nice kick-off to the school semester. Willem's first day back was today, and he's all revved for it to be busy and hard and scary and all that. Which fails to worry me too much - the guy's got brains to spare, he'll cope.

I may not be able to continue going to the prison this semester, because of the way schedules are shaping out. That is, I could go, if we could find a place to take Jacob for two hours a week, between when I left and Willem got home. But the only place we've found so far that will take him for such a small amount of time has no security whatsoever. I'm not expecting daycares to have voice-recognition software and retina-tattoo technology, but a lock on the door to prevent people from wandering in off the street, that would be reasonable to me. When I suggested it to them, the response I got was, "Oh. Well. We've never had a problem with it." Fantastic. Please, allow me to sign up my son to be your test case for a kidnapping scenario!

So, I'll keep searching. And muttering. And looking for grapps.