Maybe just this one time! Really.....Just once!

Maybe just this one time! Really.....Just once!

(8/24/08 - 8/30/08)


I have done something that I swore I would never do. The idea that I have given in on this one solid determined rule of mine tells me that I am completely and utterly at the mercy of a 26 pound little cutie pie. What did I do you ask? Well I let my son ride in one of those germ infested, dirty, one wheel wobbly childrens shopping carts. Now to my defense Paul and I went to the grand opening of the new Circuit City in our town and there had probably never been a kid in the cart in question so in turn NO GERMYS! But as with all things with Jacob, if you give an inch he will take approximately 80 miles! It is funny that when you aren't a parent you have these illusions of grandeur about how perfect of a parent you are going to be, I mean hell how hard can it really be? Right??

But then 9 months later (or years later...if it took you awhile to have a kid like Paul and I) you come face to face with this adorable little creation and when he sticks his little finger excitedly into the air and screams with delight at this red car with he HUGE "COME TO ME, PLAY WITH ME" cartoon eyes you find that you are rendered helpless in the situation. And you then realize that you have forgotten all of your "how hard can it be" rules and have but one vocabulary word left in your mind. So you look at your son and say YES! YES YOU CAN RIDE IN THAT CART, and yes I know I am starting a horrible habit that you will want to continue at the supermarket where the carts are greasy, dirty, and muck covered!

Deep Sigh! But I swear that I will not falter on my other rule that I have.....and that rule is that Jake will NEVER play at the community playground at the Mall.....nope......no siree......don't care how much he bats his eyelashes, or gives me a pouty face, or squeals in delight!! Seriously....I swear....Why do I feel that I can hear your thoughts and you are mocking me!!!

There are going to be some changes!

There are going to be some changes!

(8/17/08 - 8/23/08)

Now that Jacob is a year old there are going to be things that change around here! For starters I am no longer going to post each blog entry with a "week". Now that Jake is a year old there really isn't a point in listing his age as weeks. I will however still occasionally throw a "months" out there for anyone who loses track of how old Jake is. The next thing that changed was his car seat! HOLY COW did he L-O-V-E having his car seat switched to forward facing. It was like the world had suddenly appeared to him and it was BEAUTIFUL! The look on his face and the grin from ear to ear was so cute that Paul and I laughed about it for a couple of hours. He honestly looks like he is proud of himself or something when you put him in his car seat now!

The next thing that is going to change is his eating. I am going to reluctantly start weaning him from breastmilk. I am very very sad about that because I truly love breastfeeding and feel that it is the best thing for my son. However it has started to cause problems and Paul and I feel that it is best for me if we start to wean him. I got in 12 solid months of breastfeeding and it will probably take me another month or so to fully wean so all in all I am very proud of myself. My weight is extremely low, I feel lathargic all the time, and honestly I can't keep up with his appetite anymore. And trying to keep up has taken its toll on me, he wakes up at night because he isn't full when he goes to bed and then all of my nutrients are going to him so I look like I am beat up all the time. Since he has been a 100% breastfed baby his bottle/sippy/cup skills leave much to the imagination, hell his food choices are even worse. Basically carbs, carbs, carbs, and oh yeah, carbs! My son loves Ritz crackers, cheerios, grahmn crackers, and these Gerber Graduates thingys that I can't remember their name. He recently became obsessed with hot dogs, but those aren't nutritious AT ALL. So the goal is to start broadening his food choices while lessening his breastmilk. He did drink a couple of ounces of cows milk this week so that is promising. If anyone has ever tried to wean when the baby wasn't the one initiating please give me pointers, I have a feeling he is going to HATE IT! But Jake was given a mother that isn't going to be physically able to continue long into the second year, so hopefully we will both come out of this without too many scrapes and scratches!

Happy Birthday!

Exactly 1 year ago (at 1:35 pm) our little Tator Bug (AKA Jacob Paul Corcoran) was born! He has been a wonderful addition to our family and we have cherished every day with him so far and can't wait to see what he is going to do next!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACOB!

Week 52 - What is this thing you call...CAKE????

Week 52 - What is this thing you call....CAKE???

(8/10/08 - 8/16/08)

This week had Jacob's first birthday party! I have to say that it turned out really well. Almost all of the family and friends that I invited got to come, and Jacob was surrounded (literally) by all of his girl cousins who just can't quite seem to get enough of him.

I made cupcakes for the guests, and Jake had his own cake that he could tear into! Well....maybe POKE into! Paul and I were pleasantly surprised at how he handled the cake at his party. Since Jake's "people food" consists of pears, peaches, and CARBS CARBS CARBS (cheerios, goldfish, mini ritz, grahmn crackers) we didn't think he would tear into the cake at all. He just isn't a "food" baby yet. But once he got that first taste of the homemade buttercream icing, all bets were off! He still didn't tear into it and poked it to death, but ALOT of the icing and minimal cake made it into his mouth. So much so he spit up a few times later that day, which of course made me feel really bad!


Then there were the presents! OH MY! The presents!! He got A LOT of presents. Many Many Many Many presents! So much so, that I have almost his whole wardrobe for the winter months (including 3 pairs of shoes) and toys for him to play with for a long time! He got a few "ride on" things which he LOVES and got two pianos to play with. One is a xylophone type of piano and the other is a light up one. He just loves music toys!

We also got our first professional family photos last week. I have uploaded all of them to the photo album (at the top right of this blog) and they turned out GREAT!!! He didn't really smile, but he loved the red car soooo much that when we tried to take him off of it he cried!

Well I have 2 days, 15 hours, and 4 minutes until I have a one year old!!!

Week 51 - Gettin' Ready for the BIG Day!

Week 51 - Gettin' Ready for the BIG Day!

(8/3/08 - 8/9/08)

This week has been spent getting ready for the BIG 1st Birthday Party!!!! Of course I know that Jake won't remember anything other than what he can see in pictures years from now, and because I understand that I have not gone overboard for the party. I only got a few decorations: balloons, Winnie the Pooh plates and table decoration, and then a banner that says "Someone is turning one". I am making cupcakes and a few finger foods for the party and only immediate family are invited. Trust me even if that sounds like a lot to you, his 2nd birthday party will be HUGE cause I do love to throw a Parrrrrrtttaaaaaaayyyyy!!!

Paul and I are going today to get Jacob's pictures taken at an actual professional photographers. Every single picture that has been taken of my little tater-bug has been by my own hand. He is very photogenic so it has been easy (and cheap) this first year. He has started doing something when he gets his picture taken (don't ask me where he learned it from) but he will squint his eyes when he gets a picture taken. I guess he feels that he either needs to shield his eyes from the flash or he thinks that squinty eyes means he is smiling harder.....who know what goes through his head! I kinda hope he does it for the pictures today, I know that it would be nice to get one with his HUGE brown eyes, but these pics are for capturing a moment in time and right now his moment is squinting at the camera! (I will post some next week)

Jake also learned a new word this week (we are up to 8 words), he is notorious for eating anything and I mean ANYTHING that is on the floor. I am now vacuuming up to 3 times a day to make sure I get all of the minuscule fuzzies off of the carpet and hardwood floor. Usually when he does this I say UCKY! Well he started telling on himself this week, when he finds something on the floor he will now pick it up, show it to me, say Uh-Kee and then proceed to put it in his mouth........he is such a little goober!!

He also found the steps this week, he can pull himself up on the first step but hasn't figured out how to climb yet. We bought gates and will install them next week when we get this party over with!

Week 50 - There's no place like home!.

Week 50 - There's no place like home!

(7/27/08 - 8/2/08)


This week started on a very good note, but ended up a very bad note that had me constantly repeating the words "There's No Place Like Home".

Before I was Jacob's mommy I was a High School teacher at a Technical High School where I had Juniors and Seniors and taught them Computer Repair, Computer Cisco Networking, and Web Design. I absolutely loved my job and can honestly say that I enjoyed work and would have done it for free (I of course wouldn't really, but I was definitely not at my job for the money because school teachers make nothing for the skills they know/teach).

Back in January I was approached by the IT director at the local Community College about teaching a week long web design class (Hence the photoshopped image of Jake) to 8th - 10th graders. Of course at the time I thought.......hhhhhmmmmm that will be 2 weeks before Jake turns one I can't IMAGINE why I wouldn't be able to leave him for 5 hours a day to teach this class.......

HUH!!!! FAMOUS LAST WORDS!!! I started this week very excited to get back into the classroom and to also be teaching webdesign (which is my favorite thing to teach). The week was all set with my mother-in-law watching Jake Monday and Tuesday, Jake's godmother watching him Wednesday and then Paul was taking two vacation days and watching Jake on Thursday and Friday. I went off on Monday with everything setup and ready to go, feeling very good that even though Jake was still breastfed that his new found straw drinking abilities and the fact that "if he was hungry enough he would drink out of a bottle" would ward off any bad things that could possibly happen while I was away for those short 5 hours a day.

When I got home the first day, I was met by my mother-in-law and told that other than cheerious, a few pears, and 2 ounces of milk he wouldn't eat for her at all. Not a big deal I thought, I immediately went in the other room and fed him and we didn't skip a beat the rest of the day. Let's fast forward to Wednesday.....the food has now dwindled to only a few cheerios, NO pears, and two tiny sips of milk.....I am now REALLY WORRIED! I have a baby now that is barely having two pee-pee diapers a day and because I am gone for 5 hours, my milk supply is starting to dwindle....

THIS WAS A HORRIBLE IDEA!!!

Now came Friday! Again, a few cheerios, one cube of a peach, and 1 ounce of milk.....HOLY CRAP WHAT HAVE I DONE!!! Needless to say by the end of the week, I wanted to be home with my son and never leave him again until he is weaned!! Then this morning, he woke up with a 102 degree fever and was projectile vomiting....which means what little liquids I had recouped in his tiny little tummy are now all over my shirt!!!! Yep you read that right...I was in the line of fire and got puked on!!! But we have his fever under control and he hasn't puked this this morning so hopefully we can get this horrible week behind us, and I can figure out a way to get my son to drink more than 1 ounce of milk/juice/water out of something OTHER than me!!