Ever since we got Alison Jay’s ABC book, Jake gets really excited about balloons. So last weekend we enjoyed Fathers’ Day Quechee Balloon Festival in Vermont, staying at the beautiful Quechee Inn. The balloons were really breathtaking - nearly twenty balloons took off at six each morning and evening (neither D or I took a ride - maybe next time). We also visited the nearby town of Woodstock, the Quechee Gorge, Amherst MA (which happened to be having a food festival) and Hampshire College (since Amherst was on the way home and D had never seen my alma mater).

Click the image to see lots of pictures from the weekend.
At some point soon, I’ll be posting images from the past 3 months.

In the last post, I mentioned Jake’s generic word for mechanical vehicles, locopati (which does not include: cars, which are auto or, with proper Boston accent, caah; buses which are autobus or schoolbus; backhoe, which is koparka; and only just recently, airplane). Hear the boy speak his word of mystery.

Jake says helicopter

Jake says samolot (Polish for airplane)

Jake says locomotive  

Spring is here (and it’s almost hockey playoff time)!

Every day Jake is more boy and less baby. He’s really got the hang of walking and moving on to throwing, running, jumping, and climbing (still no major spills yet but I’m sure they’re coming). He’s also very chatty. It’s a bit of a Polish/English mix - some of his favorites: lampa (Polish for lamp), locopati (mechanical things like trains, airplanes and helicopters), lapu (laptop - he already has his dad’s technojoy), acobaco (a disjointed version of avocado), up (though he thinks that up means up and up also means down), ball (he also understands the Polish, piłka), apple, ahbeeseh (ABC as a Polish and English mish-mash), autobus and schoolbus (complete with the hissing noise NYC buses make when they open their doors), koparka (backhoe - a favorite in picture books and he’s very good at finding them on the street). We also seem to be quite the disciplinarians in his eyes because he’ll launch into little conversations with himself - blah blah blah no blah no blah blah blah no blah blah no.

Jolly Jake is a year-and-a-half.

So, we had a little winter break. But now that spring is here, how about a return to monthly posts, yeah?

To catch up, a recap of missed months (click each photo to see the whole set)

December (month 15) had a trip to Philadelphia to see their Children’s Museum and visit my friend Gordon. My parents and brother came to visit during the holidays. January (month 16) had a trip to the Museum of Natural History. February (month 17) was full of play.

Back to Boston (you’re my home) for Thanksgiving.

A trip to their Children’s Museum, some walking around the city (the North End and Chinatown), a Bruins game, the Museum of Fine Arts, and a ridiculous 6hr drive home in nasty rain and post-holiday traffic (for what is ordinarily a 3½hr ride).

Click the picture for more.

We began Jake’s 14th month with another hike in Harriman State Park (this time starting, after a lengthy, and ultimately fruitless search for the Suffern-Bear Mountain trailhead, from Kakiat County Park and walking to Grandma & Grandpa Rocks).

On the November 1st, we watched the NYC Marathon from our favorite spot just past mile 20, where the runners come back into Manhattan over the Madison Ave Bridge.

On November 4th, we celebrated America’s return to sanity.

Later in November, Jake’s aunt came to town and she and Dorota took Jake to the Children’s Museum.

Click the picture for more photos.

Click the picture for more from Jakob’s Halloween. First, a party with friends. Next, the neighborhood Halloween parade — there must’ve been a thousand people in the parade, families with children (most under 4yrs old, I’d guess – a real baby boom here in NYC).

Once again, laziness got the better of me and it’s been a while since I posted. So in rapid succession, you’ll be getting Jake’s 13th & 14th months, along with pictures from Halloween & Thanksgiving.

Here he’s modeling a lovely candy corn hat knitted by Dorota.

During month 13, Jake: went from 0-to-60 when it comes to walking — toddling from furniture to furniture and along walls quickly became toddling-and-falling in open ground which quickly became zooming around anywhere he could get to; went to the Medieval Festival in Fort Tryon Park; climbed the High Bridge Tower and Little Red Lighthouse during Open House New York; visited the Revolutionary War encampment in Palisades Park; and went pumpkin and apple picking upstate.

Click the picture to see more of month 13.

Woke at 6am to vote. Got on the line at 6:20 - it was all the way down the block (from about 188th to 190th). Overheard a few longtime neighborhood folks saying that they’d never seen a line like this to vote. By 7, I was inside the school and by 7:20 I had cast my vote. The pictures of the line are from 8:30 as I walked to the subway. It was half as long by then.

Happy Birthday Jake!

We had his party on Sunday but this minute is when he came into the world a year ago.

As to his twelfth month: we took our first walk across the George Washington Bridge; he now has 6 teeth; he’s getting the hang of walking (still holding onto furniture and people but toddles on his own with the help of his pushcart).

Click the picture for more from Jake’s 12th month.