Are my kids' ears going to grow long and floppy?

Carrots.

Katie loves 'em, Jacob seems to like them. What's going on here?

I'm not a carrot person but boy, give Katie a bag and she eats her way through. Jacob's just starting to eat baby food and his first official food was carrots.

He at the whole little container in two meals. And opened his mouth and held still for each bite! I gave him some on Tuesday and some last night (PARADE night!) and he ate and ate. And got messy. Katie didn't get as messy when she was a baby but I guess it's to be expected that after a very dainty baby girl, I'll end up with a hearty baby boy!

Already he's been pushing himself back in his walker and it took her awhile to even want to put her feet on the floor!

The differences are a little bewildering but I look forward to the other "firsts" that will be only Jacobs. Messy eating, "standing up",... what's next!?

Katie and Jacob at the PARADE

Last night was the city parade and everyone met at our place since we're so close we can smell the fumes coming from the floats! After some pizza (thanks Pizza Hut) and salad (thanks grandma!) we headed off to find our chairs everyone had used to reserve our spot earlier. Me and grampy stayed home and grampy held Jacob. Jake got to practice his standing up. I don't usually do that for too long because he is just a little heavy! But Grampy held Jake up till he got tired of using his little baby legs.

We left the house with the usual flurry of activity; potty breaks, water bottles filled, strollers packed and Katie pushed Baby Doll (that's her official name) in the smaller stroller, until gramma and grammy got her to ride so we could go faster!

We had a perfect spot - right behind a huge tree so we didn't have much sun till it found a couple of branches to sneak through. Dad brought an umbrella so I used that to block us a little.

The police car with a very loud siren led the parade and drove sloooowly past us. I looked over at Katie and she had her ears covered but was taking it all in. Mom covered Jakes ears and I guess he did fine, even though there were a few pouty lip moments!

Both kids seemed to like the parade. Jake watched everything... till he fell asleep... and Katie waved at the queens and princesses and we pointed out the twirly dresses. I think Katie will think that the reason for parades is to facilitate the dispensing of candy into her little bag! She waved at the people with candy and would usually get a few of whatever they had thrown into our area. She was a little quicker at getting it picked up than she was last year. A little pickier too! There were some that she didn't pick up and when mom or dad told her to get those too! she looked at them and told them that those candies were dirty with sand. So she wouldn't pick them up till everyone told her that grampa and grampy could clean them off.

Partway through the parade one group was giving out carrots. It was verrrry strange but cute! They had bunny ears on and I don't remember who they were, or what they were promoting, but I remember those ears and the carrots! Well, Katie had to eat her carrot right away. So dad cleaned it off and she ate almost the whole thing... till someone tossed her a sucker. Then the carrot went into the bag.

After the parade we headed home for ice cream and cake. Jake ate his baby carrots in his walker while we enjoyed our dessert.

Once dessert was over, at about 9:30, Grammy and Grampy left and mom and dad took Katie to the carnival. Oh, Baby Doll had to come too, even though she is about the size of a 2 month old baby! (I know this because she wears Jacob's clothes whenever Katie can get her into them.) They got home at around 10:45 or so and Katie was full of energy. :0(

I saw some cute pictures and will try to post them.