New Favorite Toy

Jacob LOVES his Mr. Potato Head. I got him a Mr. Potato Head "silly suitcase" with a ton of different parts and he loves it. He mostly constructs a "toxic waste" Mr. Potato Head with 3 sets of eyes, but likes the hats too.

Here he is trying on the green hat. (He also finds it hysterical when I wear the hat or have him wear the hat.)


Trying on a nose ...

Trying a different hat ...

You put on the hat Mommy!

Ahh, forget it!

The Mr. Potato Head is pretty fun, but the parts seem to scatter everywhere. At least he's learned to help clean up and put them back in the suitcase for next time. Yay! Small steps!

Jacob's 2nd Haircut

At the end of September, Jacob got his 2nd haircut. It was even worse than his first haircut! He screamed! And was terrified.


Jason was actually kind of upset with me for taking photos, but I wanted to document the event. I did feel bad for poor Jacob though. :(




Poor guy. He was so sad! Not even the Thomas the Tank Engine on tv could distract him.



He sure did look cute afterwards though! And it went pretty quickly too!

Bath "Challenges"

I hesitate to call this a challenge because Jacob is pretty good in the bathtub, but he loves bubbles so much, that he eats them! Here he is below sampling the bubbles:



Having fun!

Here he is about to take a drink from the cup. Yuck!

He really likes it when I take his little tub squirters & squirt him with them. He always opens his mouth to try & catch the water in his mouth. He is so funny! I actually had to cut the bubble bath in the tub and had to start using just the regular bath gel (the bubbles disappear fairly quickly) so he wouldn't eat them anymore. He began to have some, *ahem* adverse reactions to eating soap ;)

Yogurt & Wiggles

Seems all Jacob wants to do these days is eat yogurt & watch "The Wiggles!" Seriously, he'd be content if we let him eat 4-6 cartons of yogurt per day, and have "The Wiggles" on continuous rotation. He doesn't watch it consistently, but if I turn it off (because he's walked away & is clearly not paying any attention) he flips out & demands that I turn it back on! He calls it "dancing" but it comes out "dan'ing" & he does a little dance move when he says it. He mostly likes to watch while he's eating breakfast and dinner, and sometimes in the middle of the day.


He's actually doing quite well with the spoon, but you have to watch him because he's not quite as skilled with getting the food on the utensil so he gets frustrated easily. Here's what happens when he's left alone:


Forget the spoon!

More yogurt please!

Here he is showing Dad how to do the "Monkey Dance" - his favorite. He also loves "Rock-a-Bye Your Bear" and claps along when prompted ("Everybody Clap ...") and loves to do the "Shh'ing" part when bear falls asleep. ("Shh, Shh, Shh")

Jacob's Surgery :(

So no pictures of this (it was too early & I was too sad) but the day after Labor Day, Jacob had tubes put in his ears. At first I really didn't like the idea at all, mostly because I didn't like the idea of him going under and having surgery. It was just too nerve wracking for me. But, Jacob's ear problems had just been getting worse & worse.

He got his first ear infection in October 2006, and proceeded to get an ear infection every single month after that, without fail. Every ear infection was accompanyed by a nasty runny nose & fever. Twice that runny nose got rubbed into his eyes which led to pink eye. YUCK! Then in July, he developed what his peditrician thought was an allergic reaction to the antibiotic he was taking for his infection. One morning he woke up & had huge welts on his arms and legs. I totally freaked out and thought it was spider bites or something. Anyway, after that, his ped said we had to get the tubes. I said ok, then he got another ear infection 12 days after finishing the last antibiotics! To treat that, he had to have antibiotic shots every day for 3 days in a row. Poor Jacob! He was so not happy.

So, flash forward to September 4th. Jacob has to be at the surgery center at 5:45am. UGH! But, everything went very quickly and Jacob did great. I stayed home with him that day, and while in the morning he was kind of hysterical from the anethesia, he recovered just fine. The only problem was, we were suffering from a horrible heat wave and it was well over 100 degrees all weekend long, including that Tuesday. I had to keep Jacob indoors all day so both of us were going kind of stir crazy.

But, he's doing great now, though he does not like having his ear plugs put in before his baths. But, he hasn't had an ear infection yet. Yay!

Swimming Lessons

I'm still playing catch-up with my posts - UGH.

Back in August, Jacob started swimming lessons! I hesitate to call them lessons because it was really just an exercise to get him used to the water. His first lesson did NOT go well. He was being a real mama's boy even before we left, so he wasn't having much fun with Jason in the pool. He just screamed & cried the whole time. He kept asking to get out of the pool, so finally after about 15 minutes, we relented. Once he got out of the pool and into my arms, he was ok. But he immediately went behind a tree & pooped (he likes his privacy!), so maybe part of the problem was that?

Anyway, the next week, even though I didn't want to (I'm not much of a swimmer/water person) I did the lesson with Jacob. He did much better, but fussed a little. He didn't like going under water, but liked the floating.


Here he is going down the water "slide".


This was an exercise to try to get him to stretch his body out and kick his legs behind him, but he really didn't want to.

Here we are trying to get him to hang on to the side of the pool to blow bubbles but that really didn't go over well either.

Throwing the ball at dad was the most fun!

So next summer hopefully we'll have better success with the swimming lessons! He is interested in the pool and likes the water, so that's promising.

17-18 month vocab explosion

My little sweet face has learned to say SO many new words in the last month it's hard to keep up. And the most fun thing is, he's trying to mimic us if we ask him to say something. So, I know he has it in him, he's just waiting to impress us. So cute!

Vocab List:
* dad - (dah)
* mama
* bubbles - (buba) ...... all water is now bubbles including pictures of the ocean ;)
* cheese - (chee)
* ball - (no longer says it twice like he used to)
* book - (buh)
* duck - (duh)
* bird - (bur)
* go - (dough)
* shoes - (toos)
* dog - (dooog)
* baby
* me ......... uses this for "mine" or when he wants to do something himself
* no - (says "no no" more often than just no)
* dancing - (dan in) ... says while dancing, otherwise we wouldn't know what he meant ... and
and what he means is, he wants to watch "The Wiggles"
* bye bye
* peek - (pee) ... as in peek-a-boo
* thank you - (tank, but kind of sounds like tang)
* keys - (key)

Although he can't say it, when he needs a diaper change, he lifts up his shirt and tugs on the top of his diaper. It's pretty funny.

Outside ... or in Jacob speak, "Go!"

August 2006

Jacob is all about going outside. That's all he wants to do. He asks to "go" (it comes out sounding like "dough" or when he really wants to go and we're not letting him "doooooough") all the time! And he's more than happy to do nothing in particular once we get outside. He motors around the neighborhood looking at leaves, grass, cars, etc. He loves it when neighbors walk by with their dogs, or when other babies are out on walks. He says dog, and sometimes waves, but it's usually after the people have already passed by.

Here he is outside enjoying the fresh air ...

He LOVES our mailboxes. He'll circle them numerous times, ask for my keys & try to put them in a lock, open the door where the packages are held, etc. For whatever reason, he gets a big kick out it.




He still loves the park and is getting more brave each day. He can walk up and (sometimes) down the stairs of the structure unassisted.




He can also slide unassisted & loves it!

New Obsession

Sweeping! He followed me out on the balcony one afternoon to watch me sweep and insisted on doing it too. Now he sweeps at least 3 times every week. He loves it! I only wish he actually swept instead of pushing dirt around or managing to cover himself in it.

Here he is trying to get me to sweep too.

He also likes to bring his corn popper out on the balcony to push around also. Sometimes he tries to push both at the same time with mixed results.

Catching Up!

So it's been TWO MONTHS (!!) since I've posted and I've got a lot of catching up to do. So, I'll do my best to remember and share what Jacob has been up to these past couple of months. (And do a better job about posting daily. When does this become habit?!)


July 22, 2007 - Our first trip to the County Fair! I thought Jacob would enjoy seeing the animals since he has been showing an interest & he loves his "Touch & Feel Farm Animals" book, but he was pretty nervous inside the petting "zoo." Actually, maybe that was my fault. The animals kind of freaked me out, especially this huge, fat pig that was getting a little too close for my comfort. I had to call Jason to come in there with us because I was starting to have an anxiety attack. (I guess it's the city girl in me.)




Jason encouraged Jacob to pet this goat, but he really wasn't having any of it. I wish I had taken a picture of this llama because it kept bonking into us, specifically bonking it's butt on Jason's face. LOL!


We walked around the fair a bit, but Jacob was too young to go on any rides. We were joined by another couple and their baby (a friend of Jason's from work) and Jacob & Kylie played in the giant sandbox, but that was about it. We made short time of the fair and headed home. It was kind of creepy overall. We weren't super excited to return.

So again it's been a couple of weeks since I've posted anything. And I let the 4th of July and one of Jason's birthday parties pass without even getting out the camera. UGH. I am so bad about that! I did however take a few photos on Jason's actual b-day. These were taken at our neighborhood park (Jacob's favorite spot!). Jacob can now go down the slide unassisted and as you can see, he loves it.

He likes to explore around on the equipment and likes to climb, but he can't yet climb down stairs, so I'm still a total nervous nelly with him at the park.

Here is Jacob enjoying a birthday cupcake. He is a HUGE cupcake fan. If he even sees one he points and grunts until he gets it. Needless to say, I won't be making any more until Halloween. He had trouble eating every meal of the day when he saw the cupcakes sitting there because that's all he wanted. Very annoying.

Other tidbits:

He's become proficient with the sippy cup. He uses ones with a straw and he does really well with those. The ones with the spout he does ok, but hasn't quite mastered that he needs to tilt it at an angle to get the milk out so I have to help him. The only annoying thing about that is he's all to happy to just let me hold the cup for him, so we've been sticking to the ones with the straws that he can hold himself.

He's walking very well now and is almost running. He trips occassionally, but will usually jump up. He likes to push around his Fisher Price corn popper.

He's still getting into the cupboards everyday. Grr. He likes to get out treats, especially crackers. Lately he's been getting out the Ritz crackers.

We went to the peditrician last week for his 15 month well-baby check-up. (Although he was almost 16 months old.) It was pretty routine although he did test low for iron so we have him on iron supplements. She said his picky eating was normal and his development and growth was healthy and normal too. Yay!

Rough Night

I'm not sure what was up with Jacob last night, but it was anything but pleasant. He started tossing & turning about 10:45pm, and by 11:00pm he was awake and crying. It was all downhill from there. Usually I can calm him and get him to go back to sleep, but he was totally inconsolable. He didnt' want to be held and kept running out into the living room and standing in the dark. He ran into our bedroom & stared at Jason for a minute. Jason tried to get him to go back to bed, but that didn't work either. This cycle of crying lasted an hour! I gave up first, so Jason kept trying because he didn't want to listen to Jacob cry. I knew he was just overtired & need to just cry it out, but it is hard to listen to. Finally it had been way to long so I got out of bed & went to get Jacob from Jason to put him into bed & just close the door. Poor Jason was so desperate to figure out what was wrong with Jacob (he was over tired!!) he just followed him around looking for clues. When I found them he was putting Jacob into him highchair in the dark! I tried to explain that Jacob wasn't hungry & what could he possibly want to eat at 11:30pm, and sure enough, as soon as Jason offered the crackers, Jacob came unglued, and it didn't stop from there.

Finally I just put him in bed & let him cry it out. It wasn't fun and I had to lie on the floor next to his bed, but he finally fell asleep. He did check to see if I was still there a few times, but finally fell asleep. After midnight, mind you, but finally. Ahhhhh - hopefully we won't have a repeat tonight!

Jacob Sticks Up for Himself!

So Jacob got his first "Behavior Report" at school yesterday. :( But, his teachers had me sign it on a technicality really. Yesterday another baby in Jacob's class was harrassing him and pulling his hair. His teachers separated the boys but the other baby kept going after Jacob and kept pulling his hair. So I guess finally Jacob just had it and chomped down on his arm!

When I picked him up yesterday I got the full report and one of his teachers said to me, "I was so proud of Jacob for sticking up for himself!" Ha! They weren't too upset that Jacob bit someone else. Apparently he had it coming! No one was more proud than Jason though.

Funny Tidbits

I've been trying to remember all of the funny things that Jacob has been saying/doing lately so I can look back & smile. (Well, ok, I think they're cute and funny. I'm his mom though!!)

He is obsessed with dogs! He "talks" about them all the time. This morning when he woke up, he was rolling around in his crib stretching & waking up, then said "dog" twice. (It still sounds like "dough.") It was also the last thing he said before he fell asleep on the way to San Diego this weekend. He was just about to nod off, his eyes were closed and everything, but first he said, "dog." It's so funny!

He signs "more" and "all done"

If we leave the gate at the top of the stairs open, he rushes over to close it.

He loves doing art at school. His teacher told me they have art time right after nap time and he rushes over to the art area right after he wakes up. And if he's not the first one over at the table where they do art, he cries.

The other day he disappeared on me in the house & when I went looking for him, I found him in our bedroom trying to massage his own back with our plastic massager from Bath & Body Works. It was so cute! He was starting to get frustrated though because his little arms were too short. His memory is amazing! I only massaged his back one other time. He did like it though. I think it tickled because he wiggled & laughed like a hyena.

He sings "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" but it sounds like this ... "ooo, ooo, ooo, aahh!" and he throws his arms up in the air. His school sings the last line " ... if you see a crocodile don't forget to scream!" He throws is arms up in the air for that part. So cute!

He has discovered the yumminess of cupcakes. I thought I could trick him into eating more vegetables by making zuchinni cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. That didn't work out so well. He ate off most of the frosting & threw the cupcake on the floor :(

Jacob's First Haircut!

Ugh! I've been so terrible about updating this blog! My whole point about starting it was so I could jot down fun things Jacob is doing before I forget, and then he's grown, and all the cute memories are long gone :(. I'll try to be better from here on out!
So earlier this month Jacob got his first haircut! His hair was starting to grow over his ears and was clearly bothering him and was looking a bit shaggy in the back. So we took him to a kids haircut place with our fingers crossed. He did pretty good considering the circumstances!

Here he is pre-haircut:


During the haircut ... he was doing ok until he heard the snipping by his ears!

He was still a little scarred after it was all over.

But once we got home, he was back to his normal self :)

long weekend!

Ok, so it wasn't a 3-day weekend, but the 2 days home with Jacob felt like 3! Jason was working all weekend, so it was just me & Jacob hanging out. Saturday was actually ok. I didn't have a problem getting him to eat or nap which is always a plus. After his morning nap I took him to the mall for lunch. I so wish I had brought my camera!!! I got him a hotdog on a stick and cut up about 1/3 of it, and he sat so sweetly in the booth holding his little paper boat of hotdog & cornbread pieces on his lap, eating contently. Until ... he saw me eating mine right off the stick. Then he wanted to try too. So, I handed him the other half of his hotdog still on the stick & he ate it just fine! I was so impressed. Then he started yelling & motioning for my hotdog too. Since I'd rather have him eat than me, I handed him mine too, and he was double-fisting the corndogs. He looked hysterical! But sooo cute. He just sat there, alternating bites between the 2 dogs until he was finished. I was thrilled! (And a little hungry :( )

Later on Saturday, Jason set up a playdate for Jacob. One of Jason's co-workers brought his 15 month-old daughter over to our house. She was pretty interested in Jacob's toys, but not too interested in Jacob. They sort of parallel played for a while, ate dinner (Jacob ate his mac n cheese, she refused hers - go Jacob!!), then the guys took them to the park. By the time they got home it was time for bed. Jason was a little concerened that Jacob didn't have fun at the park. He said he wasn't really smiling & seemed to be "tolerating" it. Maybe he was confused by his friend?

Sunday was another story. UGH is all I have to say. Jason was gone all day & Jacob was totally uncooperative. He didn't want to nap, eat, have his diaper changed, drink water or milk, go outside, come inside, play with his toys, etc. I swear. If I didn't know better, I'd say he had PMS. He was so moody! He also got into everything that he knows is off-limits. He tried playing with the phone, in the pantry, with the DVD player. I was so exhausted when he finally went to bed. (I put him in his new Angels pj's. He looked so dang cute, it almost made up for the day.) He also knocked over one of our speakers which totally crushed 2 candles & votive holders that were on top of it. I did hold firm on his dinner though & it worked. Yes!! I fed him dinner at his normal time, and tried something new - beef with broccoli. He didn't seem to care for it & refused to eat it. So, we were done. About an hour later when he let me know he was hungry, I whipped out the beef with broccoli again & he ate almost the whole bowl. Yay!

This morning he was up to his old tricks again. Refused to drink his milk, tried to refuse to have his diaper changed, was difficult to dress, and was just generally whiny. I was all too happy to wave goodbye to him this morning! Here's hoping this week is better!

Memorial Day Weekend

Summer is upon us! We had a pretty fun weekend too. Saturday was spent just at home and Jacob seemed to really have fun. Although he refused his morning nap and spent at least 30 minutes screaming in his crib. That wasn't fun! Finally it's 11:30am which is his lunch time, so I free him from his crib and sit him down for lunch. He literally was nodding off in his highchair while Jason was trying to feed him! Then, as soon as Jason went to remove the highchair tray to put him back in bed (since he was clearly tired) he would jolt awake and start yelling & pointing at his food. This cycle continued until I fed him & kept him awake. He did take a nice afternoon nap though. However ... not before he got into our trash & I found him gnawing on a piece of thrown out steak from the previous night's dinner! Gross!!

On Sunday we went to visit Jason's dad in Pasadena. Jacob did ok, but refused to nap and really didn't eat much while we were there. And definitely didn't want any milk, which seemed to be theme all weekend. This transition from bottle to sippy isn't going well :( . Anyway, he did enjoy "playing" with his Aunt Heather's dog who was visiting. He kept saying, "do" while accentuating the "ooo" part so it sounded like "doe". He was just leaving off the "ga." He was more fussy than normal and very clingy. He had to be on me or Jason the whole time. When it was time to leave, I gathered him up and said, "Ok, let's go home, Say bye bye." And Jacob started clapping & waving like crazy and even blew some kisses! I guess he was really ready to go home!

Monday was another lazy day. Jason had to work, so Jacob and I took a long walk around the neighborhood and we stopped at the park and Jacob just motored around. We went to the smaller park by our house that doesn't have swings, so he went down the slide a few times, and he walked & crawled around. I held his hand going down the slide because he's still a little wobbly. He can't stay sitting up straight while going down the slide. There were a couple of older boys at the park too, and Jacob had fun watching them play. That night, Jason's brother and his wife came over for dinner. Jacob really wanted to hang out with them because he REFUSED to go to bed. It was terrible! He cried for over an hour until I finally releted, and let him sit with us. As soon as they went home, he went right down, but I'm sure he was tired. It was 2 hours after his bedtime!

This morning I got him to drink out of this makeshift sippy cup. Its one of those Avent training cups that come with a bottle nipple and a cup spout. Since he wasn't drinking any milk from any other cup we have (and we have many different kinds!) I tried the cup with the bottle nipple. The first time I tried it, he refused. Yesterday he took it, but when HE wanted it, which was after I read him a couple of books. This morning he flung himself backwards a few times and cried, but once I stuck it in his mouth, he drank it. I really hope this cup thing works out. I don't know what else to do. He's not getting enough milk every day and I know that he must be hungry when he wakes up. I don't want to feed him a regular breakfast because he has breakfast at school around 8:30, but that's 2 hours later. UGH! I really hope this situation improves soon!

walking & biting

I never thought of these two things together, but Jacob has taken up both recently. He's been on the verge of walking for a couple of weeks now. Over the weekend, he had his record of 14 steps in a row! This week it's back down to just a few steps before crashing. He's so funny - he gets so excited when he's walking towards us that he sort of flings himself at you to catch him, so you have to constantly be ready. I've been trying to get pictures of him taking some steps, but whenever I get the camera out, he starts crawling towards me and grabs the camera. He does that just about every time I get out the camera. UGH!

He also started biting which has upset Jason more than it has me. I understand that biting is a normal childhood behavior, but I wish he wouldn't do it! He's bitten me a couple of times, but apparently he's begun biting his friends at school. Ahh, another fun phase. Not quite as fun as the "I'm frustrated!" phase he's already in. He is constantly exploring (and naturally has lost interest in most of his toys) and gets frustrated when he can't get to something, or is not allowed to get into something. If he's ever told "no" he flings himself backwards and starts fake-crying. Talk about annoying! I hope that phase goes quickly.

Other tidbits .... his current favorite book seems to be Barnyard Dance. He laughs hysterically when I read it, and it's one of very few books that he'll actually let me read all the way through with out demanding we read a different book. No favorite toys that I can think of since he's seemed to ditch them all in preference for rummaging through our pantry or pulling things off the bookshelf!

Mother's Day 2007

Happy Mother's Day! Above is a picture of Jacob & me on our first Mother's Day last year. He has grown so much since then! He no longer makes that stunned face. Ha! I tried to recreate the pose for this year (below) but as you can see, Jacob was having none of that! I think he thought we were going to go outside and he got upset when we were just posing for pictures on the stairs. Usually he doesn't get that mad at me just for kissing him :)

I got a ton of really nice gifts too. That was my favorite part, naturally! That and being able to sleep in. Jason woke up with Jacob, bathed him and took him to church while I slept in and relaxed. It was soo nice! My parents came over and we ordered food from one of my favorite restaurants, Houston's, and Jason got me a dozen cupcakes from Sprinkles. They were super yummy, but a bit much frosting for my taste. I had a stomach ache after eating the red velvet one. They sure did look good though. Jason/Jacob got me some new clothes and candy too. All of my favorite things. It was wonderful!! I got 2 shirts & a tank from American Eagle, some new capris from J Crew, and a new outfit (top & skirt) from White House Black Market. My parents brought me 2 bottles of Groth Savignon Blanc which I love, but have been having trouble finding. They also gave me 2 cartons of Ben & Jerry's "Americone Dream" which for whatever reason has been selling like hotcakes. I hadn't been able to find it anywhere! Luckily my mom scored some for me. She also got me a book, "The Time Traveller's Wife". I'm going to start reading it as soon as I'm done with "Tales From the Crib." My dad & his wife sent me a gorgeous bracelet & gift card from Nordstrom. Hope to use that soon! And my friend Cyndi sent me a Pez book & dvd. I felt so loved! Mother's Day is almost (almost) worth all the work for the rest of the year. LOL!

The only bummer was I didn't get enough pictures of Jacob in his cute Mom tattoo shirt. He looked adorable, but wasn't into having his picture taken.

One of these days I'll figure out the formatting on Blogger. I wanted to have the cupcake picture higher. Acutally, I'd like to move all the picutres around. Ahhh, new things to learn .......

busy, busy, busy

That's Jacob! He's constantly into anything & everything. Randy built him his own bookcase (which he LOVES) but it's almost created a monster. He likes to be able to select his own books to read, as witnessed here. But ... it's shortlived! He usually gets bored with the book 3 pages in and is trying to stand up and get another book. He's definitely going to break that bookcase in the near future and I'm not going to be happy about it! This morning I read 5 different books before I finally put an end to it. argh!

The weather has been great here so Jacob & I have been spending more time outdoors in the evening after dinner. First he totally trashed our house, threw half of his dinner on the floor, and dismantled our pantry. It was at that point I decided to go outside. He's so content out there! He loves looking at the trees, and the cars/people/dogs that go by. He can say tree and dog, and gets so excited every time our neighbor's beagle comes out on his balcony. He points and says, "dah!" but I know he's saying "dog". Last night we brought his bubble maker outside too, but there were so many other things to look at, he didn't care too much for the bubbles. He still won't touch the grass though. He'll only sit on the blanket.

I'm looking forward to a relaxing Mother's Day weekend!

Jacob is a creature of habit. He LOVES his schedule and gets a bit crabby when his schedule is thrown off. Both Jason & I try as hard as possible, but sometimes it's inevitable. Last night was one of those nights. :( I was working late and Jason picked Jacob up from school. Typically I feed Jacob dinner around 5:30pm, get him ready for bed by 7:00pm and he's in bed by 7:30pm. When I got home from work last night at 7:00pm, imagine my surprise to find him in his highchair, happily snacking on a tamale! That happiness was shortlived though, as the meltdown was not far behind. He also woke up at 3:30am (which he never does) hungry for a bottle, since he didn't take his nightly bottle. That was a bummer for me! Jason, on the other hand, never even stirred. Had no clue Jacob was awake!

As you can see above, Jacob LOVES books. Here we are last night (pre meltdown) reading his current favorite, "Touch & Feel Farm". His favorite is the dog. He likes to pull the dog's hair. Good thing we don't have a real dog around! I guess if we did, he'd learn quickly that most dogs aren't big fans of having their fur pulled.

first post

Life goes by so quickly! Jacob is already a year old and so much has happened. It seems like every day he's doing something new or funny. So, in an attempt to not let the "mundane" and everyday things go by ... I've started this blog.

Here's Jacob a couple of weeks ago at our neighborhood park. He LOVES the swings. He's not as big a fan of the slide, but will go down it every once in a while.