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.