A day of firsts...

 Jory and Daddy had a very exciting day together! First, we rode the Caltrain from Menlo Park to Mountain View, sitting up on the second level of the double decker. Then, we turned around and rode back. Thank goodness for Daddy's Caltrain pass!

Then we went next door to collect some eggs, and like always Jory got sidetracked by all the balls to play with. Even though Daddy would much rather he worked on dribbling a basketball, Jory did show that he has some soccer skills...

Finally, after his nap we decided to go for a hike up to the dish. Much to Daddy's chagrin, when we arrived at the dish after an hour's hike, we realized that Jory was missing a shoe! We diligently retraced our steps looking for it, but it was nowhere to be found... because it was in the car all along!

Superfluous noise

I loathe superfluous noise. Unfortunately Jory is enraptured by it.

Jory has decided that he's really into cooking (more on this terrifying development later), so I thought it'd be safer for him to fool around with empty crockery:

And here we are in the local toy store. Although this store is chock full of toys that could theoretically be good for a child's developing brain, here's the one Jory picked out:

Don't even think of "taking pity" on Jory and buying him a yapping dog toy. I guarantee that he'll be on your doorstep - with the yapping dog toy - within hours.

Jory the Stroller

The little man is now big enough to take a stroll around the neighborhood. Here he is strutting his stuff with Mommy:

They made their way to the park, where he has now learned to love the slides:

You don't get one of these every day

Jory's godmother Jessa sent a postcard from her new gig at McMurdo base in Antarctica!

I know this is a repeat photo from a previous post, but I noticed two things looking back at this picture from last year's NYE:

 - Jory looks so much older!

 - we miss Jessa!

Jory the Dunker

Apparently all that time spent watching Daddy play basketball have paid off: there's one thing Jory likes to do when we go next door to steal eggs from Jeremy's chicken coop - shoot hoops.

He's not so into sharing the ball either, he just wants to dunk the ball like MJ!

Incidentally, a further source of enjoyment comes in watching Mommy dodge the vicious chickens...

What kind of organism is Jory?

As some of you may know, California was voting on whether to enforce labeling of GMOs. We decided to try it out at home:

However, Jory voted against it; he thought he looked cuter without...

Swedish influence

I think Jory is the only kid on the block with a non-Christmas-related reindeer soft toy - courtesy of Auntie Pip and Uncle Mats, straight from Sweden!

Jory seems to be enjoying reading the Svenska text on the tag!

Fortunate Son

This morning Jory discovered an abandoned fortune cookie on the kitchen counter. Lucky for him, this time his standard jam-it-in-my-mouth-to-determine-its-properties strategy worked out ok.

And here's his fortune:

I don't think he's getting short-changed in the sweets department. I picked him up early from daycare last week and he had chocolate smeared all over his face; the local grilled cheese shop gave him a 'smore on Halloween; and he came home from daycare the other day smelling like maple syrup.

Like I've said, I just live here.

Walking!

Jory's been flirting with walking for the past few weeks, but he's finally come to the point where he walks about 40% of the time, and with pretty good success.

Here he is going Godzilla on his train set:

This is what happens when he takes his eye off the prize (and Daddy leaves his shoes lying around):

Watch out kitties and household breakables!

Our child is spoiled

This is his afternoon snack: a mini soufflee with spinach and feta that Tiffany made for him. I'm pretty sure I wasn't getting any souffles as a kid (and I just may have looked longingly at this one before feeding it to him).

Jory has skipped books...

He's moved straight to Mama's kindle... which means he is reading "50 Shades of Grey" (and very appropriately wearing a shirt from Melinda and Lee of Google House fame!)

Straw Man

I have no idea where Jory learned to use a straw (maybe daycare?), but he sure does love it! Here he is at In N Out, enjoying one of KC's "lemonades." His little hand postures are very cute:

And yes, we had our son in a fast food restaurant - it's right next to the medical center where he gets his shots. And yes, we "let" him eat animal-style french fries. When we moved him to the high chair, away from the french fries, he went completely berserk and the other patrons started shouting at us "Give him a french fry! Let him have it!"

It was very embarrassing.