Being Jake

switched over!

2010-08-23T17:04:00.001-04:00

So I have switched over to an all encompassing family blog where all posts from this blog are now located! Please go to Crayons to College for all future updates!

The inevitable!

2010-05-25T15:49:00.004-04:00

The inevitable!
(May 2010)

Well it was inevitable....I just can't seem to keep up with two blogs while trying to run after an almost 3 year old and a 9 month old. So I will be taking some time off from "Being Jake".

That being said if there is a monumental accomplishment or something that needs to be shared I will be updating the blog and will still try and update at least once a month for the time being. My goal when I started this blog was to have weekly updates (first year), and weekly/bi-weekly updates from then on out documenting Jacob and how he is growing and achieving his milestones!

My baby book was written in for the first 9 months or so and then had some updates sporadically through my first three years......Jacob now has detailed documentation of his first almost 3 years!!! So I have achieved my goals!

Andrews blog will be updated weekly for his first year (through August), and then I will be creating a "combo" blog for the two boys where I will update for each of them without having two separate blogs that I feel need updated all the time! I have already created this blog and will begin phasing my "family" blog into it starting in September after Andrews birthday! This blog will be called "Crayons to College" and will follow the boys and our family throughout the upcoming years as I start homeschooling and they start sports, playgroups, and vacations!

I hope some of you who enjoyed reading "Being Jake" will come back and find us at "Crayons to College"

Thank you!

Another week....another doctors visit!

2010-04-30T17:05:00.003-04:00

Another week....another doctors visit!
(April 30, 2010)

So what the heck is going on recently. Is there some sort of unspoken quota that needs to be met at doctors offices where every child must be seen a certain number of times before their 3rd birthdays?? I have gone from Jacob NEVER being sick EVER......to a rush into the ER last night with a very very swollen little boy.

So we knew that Jacob has bad seasonal allergies and we were starting to expect but couldn't confirm possible dog allergies. We don't have a dog and no one we know really has dogs either. Last night we were all over at the my brother-in-laws house just enjoying the nice weather. Jacob and his cousin Caity were playing in the yard and playing with their new dog (a beagle) everything seemed fine they played for awhile and then

WHAMO
Now the worst part of all of this is that the actual whites of his eye started swelling to the point where the iris was indented in the swollen white part. It was extremely scary and since neither Paul nor I had ever seen (or heard of ) someones whites of their eye swelling we immediately took him to the ER. Now before we left we gave him some benedryl, eye drops, washed his hands, face, and changed his clothes.....but BOY it must have been really uncomfortable because poor Jacob was really vocal with how much his eye was hurting him. Try keeping a 2.5 year old from rubbing his eyes...it isn't easy. The doctor did say that it could have been due to allergen overload since playing in cut grass with a dog could have overloaded him. He was also rubbing his eye after touching the dog which is key here, because he has been around this dog once or twice before with no problems.

We managed to get home by 11:30pm and got him to bed by midnight. By this morning the whites of his eye was back to normal but his outer eye was still swollen. We have him on some medicine and will continue to keep an eye out (no pun intended) on how he physically reacts to dogs. As I have said in a previous post....PLEASE NO MORE DOCTORS!!!!

The pink NIGHTMARE!!!

2010-04-21T15:49:00.003-04:00

The pink NIGHTMARE!!!
(April 2010)

Well poor Jacob has had a heck of a time the past few weeks. I am proud to say that my son is pretty darn healthy. He has had (up until the past few weeks) only 2 fevers which were very low grade, no ear infections, only 1 flu, and a few not that big of a deal runny noses. Overall the visits to the doctor have only been 4 times in his entire 32 months.

I have heard from many other parents that he is very healthy and I have to agree. So I couldn't tell you what has happened the past few weeks. I can't blame it on playgroups because I only have 2 playgroups and each playgroup only has 4 other kids and I am friends with the other moms and we keep a very close eye on the spreading of germs. He isn't in preschool, or day care, and other than shopping carts (which he rarely ever rides in) there isn't anything different we have done over the past 4 weeks that we haven't been doing his whole life. I am a creature of habit so tend to do the same things and visit the same places all the time.

So right before we went to Disney Jacob got a serious case of croup with a 103.5 fever and he had to be placed on breathing treatments and a steroid to help the labored breathing he was having. He got over the croup but then got a big dose of allergies when we came back from Disney. Last year he had allergies (his Dad and I have bad allergies) but we dealt with them with benedryl and claritin. This year however those medicines aren't helping at all. My poor guy looks like he has been beat up with his puffy red eyes and the tons of snot!

THEN as if he wasn't feeling bad enough we all get a cold....the cold wasn't the problem though. He kept having this very very very low grade fever (99.7) for about 5 days. I finally took him into the doctor only to hear that he had a minor ear infection in one ear. Well he had NEVER had an ear infection at all so I thought, OK, lets get these antibiotics going and get on with a healthy spring/summer!

I don't know how common this is, and I am sure that if Jacob was old enough to read he would be mortified by me putting this on his blog, buuuuutttttttt.....

This crazy pink stuff turned my boys insides into acid and by the 4th dose (two doses a day, so less than 48 hours after starting) he was having extreme diarrhea 3 times a day and his poor little bootie was raw!!! He was having stomach/intestine cramps and would just lay on the floor and cry!!! Needless to say I took him off immediately and started to try and feed him yogurt with probiotics. I called the doc and told him what happened and he wants to see him next week. He said that his infection was so minor that 4 doses might have cleared it up so we might not have to continue the course of medicine. I don't know, I just can't believe the reaction he had. I remember being on it as a kid and it didn't bother me. Paul's family have very sensitive guts and are allergic to a lot of stuff so this is probably just another allergy I can add to Jacob's list!!

So no more pink stuff for Jacob!!!

Easter festivities!

2010-04-13T12:37:00.004-04:00

Easter Festivities!
(April 2010)

I know that it has been over a week since Easter, but we seemed to have gotten a dose of allergies as our "Welcome to Spring" gift this year so my mind has been a little foggy!!!

This year was a pretty cool year for Easter, of course we got back from Disney World on Good Friday and then the weather was soooo phenomenal we FINALLY got to have an Easter egg hunt without having to bundle up in coats and hats! Since Jacob is 2.5 this year he was visited by the Easter bunny. With us being away though the week prior we didn't actually talk to him about the yearly visitor so the look of surprise when he came downstairs and saw his basket of goodies was priceless.
Dinner this year was great, and almost every plate/bowl was licked clean! Then the real party began with the Easter egg hunt. The way we work it in our family is that every child participating brings 5 eggs filled with money/candy/small toy and then the adults hide the eggs outside. Each child that brought eggs are allowed to hunt for eggs and they can each get 5....so essentially you are taking home the same amount that you brought.

We also got a great family picture this year under the blooming cherry trees!!

Disney World!!!

2010-04-03T17:26:00.000-04:00

Disney World!
(3/28/10 - 4/2/10)

Well we did it! We not only survived taking a 2.5 year old and a 7 month old to Disney World but we actually did it during Spring Break (aka the BUSIEST DANG TIME OF THE YEAR!!!). So for those of you wondering "Why on earth would you go to Disney during Spring Break?" the answer is quite simple....Paul had a business conference in Orlando for this week, and since everything revolving around him (hotel, food, and flight) was being paid for we figured that the savings in money would justify going during this busy season.

Wellllll....... it is true that it was a nice trip and I would go again if the opportunity presented itself, I would however do things a little different. We tried to go to parks most of the days and to give you an idea of how that went all I can say is that one day they actually closed down the park to new people at 11:30 in the morning! They reached capacity 2 1/2 hours after opening!!! AAAAAHHHHH

The park tickets are VERY expensive so we could have just done parks two days and done other things the other days, but we had already bought the tickets so felt like we needed to go and try and have fun. We did have fun, but only rode 5 rides and saw 4 shows in 4 days!!! YEP you read that right!! SIGH!!

But you know what, we tried to keep positive, and Jacob didn't seem to mind the crowds (too young to understand) so overall I still call the trip a success! We plan on going again in about 5 years, and during the off season!!!

I uploaded pics and there is a link up top on the left!!!

Getting prepared!

2010-03-24T20:14:00.000-04:00

Getting Prepared!
(March 2010)

Well we are heading out to Disney World in 4 days, and Jacob has started getting excited (at least as excited as you can get for not understanding much about what we are doing!). We have had to explain things to him in "Toddler Terms" which means that since he watches "Mickey Mouse's Clubhouse" on the Disney Channel, we have been telling him that we are going to go see Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Minnie, and Pluto at the Clubhouse! In fact we told him that we were going to go swimming at "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" and that we needed to try on last years swim gear and he was all for it, in fact he is sooooo for it that he has been wearing his swim suit for the past three days. The first day it was nice out so it was just like shorts and shirt, the second and third days however have been chilly, but no fear, we just put them on overtop of his clothes!

He wore that outfit to our playgroup, to Target, the grocery store, and of course the following day while we decorated Easter eggs! Gotta love those Toddlers! I wish I could throw fashion out the window and go out in public thinking that my bright orange and blue swim trunks were THE BOMB!!!

Wish us luck in Disney, we are heading out with a 2.5 year old and a 7 month old!! But hey if you can't find something for kids to do in Disney, you probably shouldn't have kids...right???

St. Patricks Day Crafts!!

2010-03-15T16:45:00.000-04:00

St. Patricks Day Crafts!!!
(March 2010)

This week I decided to still work on teaching Jacob his colors, but to try and incorporate some St. Patty's day crafts in the mix! Here is what we worked on!

We got this free printable from freekidscrafts.com and we used more of our fruit ring cereal to work on our colors and to make the rainbow at the pot of gold for St. Patricks Day. This craft had to be done over two days though, because the reality of the situation is that Jacob is only 2.5 and he has the attention span of a .....well.....2.5 year old!!! So he didn't want to finish it all in one sitting. It got done eventually and we talked about the colors as we glued them!

We got this idea from here, and this blog is great and has tons of ideas! Jacob loved doing the suncatchers for Valentines Day so this one was a no brainer for this week! I just found an image online of a cauldron and cut it to work for this suncatcher!!

Learning my colors is YUMMY!!!

2010-03-15T16:33:00.001-04:00

Learning my colors is YUMMY!!!
(March 2010)

We are still working on our colors this week, but I decided that learning can be YUMMY too!!! What better way to work on our colors and shapes then by using fruit ring cereal!!! Here are a few things that we worked on today!

I got this idea from KidsSoup.com it is a great website for ideas and crafts/lessons for teaching pre-school aged children. Jacob loved it because for every fruit ring he glued he got to eat two or three! We talked about each color as we glued it onto the butterfly!

This next craft we did was more about shapes than colors, but could be used for colors as well. I got an image and printed it twice, once in black and white and once in color. I then cut out the shapes from the colored one and Jacob got to find the shapes in the image and then glue them down. The only problem I had with this craft is that Jacob is very particular and if he couldn't get the shape glues EXACTLY where it needed to be he would throw a fit....oh well!! He will learn!

My favorite color is GREEEEENNNNN!!!

2010-03-11T13:39:00.000-05:00

My favorite color is GREEEEEENNNNN!!!
(March 2010)

Now that I have started focusing on Jacob's schooling/learning I have been finding some great blogs and websites that offer free or for a very cheap yearly price lesson plans, printables, songs, crafts, etc....

I have been working with Jacob on his colors and we are finding it a little difficult, probably because he is only 2.5 years old. He knows all of the words that are colors, but what usually happens is that when you ask him "What color is this??" he ALWAYS responds GREEEENNNN, when you say no then he says YEEELLLOOWW, then red, then blue, brown....etc.....

However if you ask him to "go get the red ball" he will get the red ball....hhhhmmmm...interesting...

Here are some of the lessons we are doing to help Jacob get his colors down.

Magformers Multi Colored Magnetic 3d Building Set 30 Pieces

These Magformers are pretty cool for a number of reasons, first they are magnetic and Jacob is going through a phase right now where he loves magnets. They are also triangles and squares and come in expander sets with other shapes too. So as we are working with our colors we are also talking about shapes. These magnetic shapes stack up small enough to take with you and we had a very nice sit down lunch in a restaurant the other day and kept a 2.5 year old entertained the WHOLE TIME! Which you know is a feat of itself! Some of the games I have been playing with these blocks are:
1) stack them up according to shape
2) stack them up according to color
3) As I am building something with them I ask Jacob to give me a specific shape/color.

This is a quick thing that I started doing after reading this post at Tired, Need Sleep. Now hers are obviously cooler than mine, but my guy is a little younger and I am still working at a basic level with color recognition. I would ask Jacob to show me where "yellow" is and if he did that correctly he would get the yellow sticky foam circle to put on the caterpillar. Again I worked with colors and shapes with this craft!

Lastly this week we worked on our fine motor skills as well as matching and colors. I got this idea online (can't remember where), but you take a simple $1.99 pack of 50 clothes pins and some markers and a paper plate and you make a color wheel. Jacob simple would match the clothes pin to the same color and if I was around when he did it I would reinforce what color it was when he did it. I also worked with him and asked him to give me a specific clothes pin and I would attach it to the plate.

I have more color projects/lessons that we will be doing this week and some of them even involve St. Patricks Day!

Oh the wonderful things you can make with......

2010-02-27T16:49:00.005-05:00

Oh the wonderful things you can make with......
(February 2010)

This week we continued our homemade crafts! I got the coolest video from our local library called "50 Greatest Kid Concoctions". If you haven't rented or seen this video and you have a toddler you need to really go out right now and get it! We picked some of the coolest crafts to make this week, and will be continuing the homemade concoctions in the weeks to come! These are a few of our favorites (and very easiest) crafts!

Oh the wonderful things you can make with.....

KOOL-AID!!!

As any parent of a toddler might know, they love lip balm....my little guy seems to think that his lips are always chapped and that to apply this savior of lip moisture he must take his finger and dig out the tasty treat and slather it all over his lips/mouth/face! This although cute, can become expensive! So why not homemade lip balm! Here is the recipe!

Drink Mix Lip Balm
2 TBS of vegetable shortening, melted
stir in one package of any flavor kool-aid!
Pour into a small container and allow to harden!

Awesome lip balm!!!

The next thing we made with kool-aid was fruity play dough.
My little guy loves play dough and although it isn't expensive and I don't really have to make it at home, I thought this would be a great change in our play routine, plus Jacob loves to help me in the kitchen! Here is the recipe!

Fruity Play Dough
2 1/4 cups flour
4 TBS cooking oil
2 TBS kool-aid (about 2 packets)
1 cup salt
1 cup water
(you will need some extra dusting flour to knead after mixing all ingredients, I also added a little food coloring to make my colors more vibrant)

the final project we made with kool-aid was scratch and sniff paints! This one is really great because it makes a paint that is the consistency of water colors, but when it drys it smells nice, Jacob loved this one! Here is the recipe!

Scratch and Sniff Paint
1 TBS warm water
1 TBS kool-aid (about one package)
mix together, and that is it!!! Pretty simple!!!

Next week we will be making...."Oh the wonderful things you can make with....."

GLUE!!!

Seriously, those are AWESOME....just wait and see!!!

Snow coma!

2010-02-20T10:04:00.005-05:00

Snow coma!!
(2/16/10)

Well we are two weeks since the two blizzards of 2010 and we are still digging out! Unfortunately we live in the boonies back a 2 mile DIRT road and we had a few days of strong winds that decided to blow 4 and 6 ft snow drifts over our road and yard. So what do you do when you have 6ft snow drifts you may ask???? Well you make a SNOW FORT!!!! Jacobs cousins came over and they even ate their lunch and drank hot cocoa out in the fort. It was too windy for a roof (we had a tarp but couldn't secure it good enough). The last picture is Jacob succumbing to the snow coma after getting some food and warm cocoa in his tummy! We had to wake him up and take him inside for a very loooonnnngggg nap!

We finally got out a few days ago and have been out every day since!!!! I can't stand anymore days at home so all of our crafts and projects have been put on hold until I can stand staying in my house again!!!

By the way, this is how we finally got out of our house!!!! We had to call in the big guns, the plow on the family tractor just couldn't make a dent in all the snow and the drifts! So luckily a neighbor farmer had a tractor with an 8ft snow blower on it!

In addition to this post, check to the right under blog archive and read all of the "Snow" posts. Titles "Enough Already", "Enough Already - AGAIN!", "SNOW-Mageddeon", "How to survive cabin fever with a toddler" and finally "How to survive cabin fever with a toddler - Part 2".

Cabin fever with a toddler - Part 2!

2010-02-12T09:06:00.005-05:00

Cabin Fever with a toddler - Part 2!!!
(2/12/10)

Well we have been stuck in the house for exactly 7 days now (one week) and I have to say that I am about to go insane. In one week we got 43" of snow....now to put that into perspective for everyone the average counter top height in a kitchen is 36" so go stand next to your counter and imagine the snow being 7" taller than that!!!!! Add to that the gusting winds and 6ft+ snow drifts and the fact that I live in the boonies down a 2 mile DIRT road that the state seems to always forget about I don't think I will be getting out into civilization until at least Sunday!

Luckily I stocked up on craft supplies before the snow, so Jacob and I have been able to make a few things. Some of the crafts are from the "The Toddler Busy Book" and some are from my head, and then of course some are from other blogs that I read. Here are a few of the successes that we have found!

The snow is waaaay too high for Jacob to play in so why not bring the snow indoors! He played for an hour and a half with this snow, and is currently playing with another batch of "sink snow" while I sit here and type this post!

Jacob just loved the contact paper craft we did a few days ago so thought of something new! I took a paper plate and cut a heart shape out of the middle of it. I then took a square of contact paper and stuck it to the underside of the plate so that the sticky part was facing up. Then Jacob took red/white colored sugar and red/white sprinkles and put them on the sticky contact paper. Once he was done, he colored the outside edges with his paint pens and then I put another square of contact paper over the exposed sprinkles so that they wouldn't fall off. It makes for a great suncatcher!!
This next idea is a combo of two or three different ideas that I have gotten from all over the place including the book mentioned above and from other blogs. This is Jacobs treasure box. I went to the local warehouse shopping center and bought a 10lb bag of rice, went to the dollar store and bought a bunch of small "treasures" and voila!! You have yourself a treasure box. Now please keep in mind if you do this to put this box on a sheet or something to catch the mess! I turned this into a learning game as well. We are working on our colors so the other day I made a piece of paper with the color purple on it and it was Jacob's goal to find all of the purple balls and put them on the paper! It worked pretty good, and I bought these balls in 5 different colors so will be able to do this color paper project many more times!

Finally I got this idea from another blog (and for the life of me can't find the link for it, sorry!) but this was done using a pack of $.99 cent wooden beads and a $.99 heart ice cube tray from Target. Jacob uses a big spoon to scoop the balls from the bowl into each of the openings in the tray. It took him awhile to get the hang of it, but it is building his patience and fine motor skills!

Last but not least, does any toddler NOT love a box fort! Need I say more???

Snow-mageddon!

2010-02-10T12:18:00.003-05:00

Snow-mageddon
(2/10/10)

So we are in the middle of our third Nor'Easter since December 20th. We got 33.5" of snow last weekend, and woke up to Blizzard conditions and another 4-8 inches of snow with final total predictions of 8-14" inches of snow. There is another system that could possibly come and hit us on Monday...I will see you all in August!

How to survive cabin fever with a toddler!!!!

2010-02-08T12:26:00.006-05:00

Cabin Fever!!!
(2/8/10)

So we have officially been stuck in our house for 4 days now and although that doesn't seem that bad, add a 2 1/2 year old to the mix and WOW!!!

So I have been checking out all of the other blogs that I read for ideas and I have also been reading through a book that another blog mom suggested (The Toddlers Busy Book) and there are some great ideas of cheap and free things to do with a kid from 1.5-3 year old range. Here are a few things we have done to keep our sanity!

By the way....they are calling for 8-10 inches tomorrow night into Wednesday and we aren't plowed out from the last one yet!!! OH BROTHER!!!

So one of the things in the "Toddler Busy Book" was to "Paint the Snow"....Jacob just loved this. He ended up having Green, Red, and Blue colored water but Mommy was too cold to stay out with him, plus his little brother woke up from his nap so I only got this one pic of his coloring the snow green! This was just food coloring and water in a spray bottle...cheap and he LOVED IT!

Next we made a Valentines Day craft. A lot of the other Mom's blogs that I read (in the left column) have been making Valentine Sun Catchers. They are made by taking clear contact paper in which you cut out into the shape of a heart and then you get your toddler to rip up pieces of tissue paper. I taped the heart onto the window and Jacob stuck all of the pieces of tissue paper onto the sticky side of the contact paper. You then take another piece of contact paper cut into a heart and "sandwich" it together. I had to trim up the edges, and then you get the below picture!

Is there a toddler alive that doesn't love to play in the water? I think Jacob has played in the kitchen sink every single day that we have been snowed in, and it looks like we are going to get snowed in for a few more days! Luckily I have the "learning tower" that allows him to safely stand at the sink and not fall.

The final craft we did this weekend was to paint on the windows. I had bought some window chalk from the store last week, but the "Busy Toddler Book" gives directions on how to make your own window paint. I of course painted this little beauty as a way to remind myself that soon we will be able to go outside and not freeze to death! This evening I am going to wash this off and let Jacob continue to scribble all over the door with the paint!

Of course in addition to these things we have read a lot of books, watched cartoons, and played with toys!

Enough Already......AGAIN!

2010-02-06T08:21:00.007-05:00

Enough Already....AGAIN!
(2/6/10)

So I woke up this morning to 25 inches of snow and still about 8+ hours of the storm left to come through!!! HOLY MACKEREL! I think we are going to hit 30 inches of snow with this storm! Considering that Jacob is on 39.5 inches tall....if we would put him out in the snow it would come to his shoulders!!! CRAZY!!!!!!

***Update at 5pm, we are done with the snow and the unofficial total from my house is 33.5 inches of snow.......so I will revise my original post and say that it would now come up to Jacobs mouth if he went out and stood in the snow....and there are drifts that would completely cover him!!!!

Enough already!

2010-02-05T14:31:00.003-05:00

Enough Already!
(2/5/10)

Well we are just starting the SECOND blizzard in less than 2 months, and I have to say that although I LOVE LOVE LOVE snow, I think this just might be too much. We had 22 inches back right before Christmas, 3 inches last Saturday, and 5.5 inches on Tuesday. Now we are in the bulls eye for this next Nor'easter with between 20-30 inches of snow! I will keep you posted, I think Jacob is going to LOVE this! It is going to be a heavy wet snow which means AWESOME snowmen and snowball fights! Lets just hope the power stays on and we can keep warm. I battled everyone else yesterday at the stores stocking up on all of the necessities and "not so necessary" food items! Hmmmmm.....I think some chocolate is calling my name......I will report back soon!

Current shot at 2:30 pm EST:

When to start??

2010-01-30T15:39:00.006-05:00

When to start??
(January 2010)

So Paul and I have found ourselves with a little bit of a dilemma. My house is a haven for anything technology. I myself was a computer/networking and web design teacher for almost 10 years. My husband works in the technology industry as well. Some people will even call me a "gadget queen" so it isn't a surprise that Jacob has started to notice all of the technology in our home and wants to use it.

TV is a big part of my life, I am sorry to say that I love to watch TV. But other than a few months after Andrew was born, I try very hard to stick to a schedule with Jacob so that his TV watching is limited. So I am not really worried about TV. What I am worried about is computer games. I obviously blog and have email that I like to check, I also like to keep up to speed with things going on in the world. Recently Jacob has been interested in my laptop so I have tried to find a few "toddler friendly" websites out there to help him with his ABC's and 123's as well as colors and shapes. There is a website called "Zoodles" that is great. It goes out and searches the internet for you and finds games based on your childs age and compiles them in an easy to use and AD FREE environment. Jacob loves to play along with me and is doing great with the matching and colors/shape games.

My dilemma is that now that is ALL he wants to do. I know that this will be a phase, like most things with him. He tends to play the heck out of things for awhile and them will drop them like yesterdays news the next. So I am not really worried about this being a long term problem, I just worry that I shouldn't have introduced it so soon. When should you start learning games online?? Since he is only sitting behind a computer screen for educational purposes maybe 30-45 minutes a day is that OK?? I guess each parent will probably answer this differently...I am sure I could have some parents that are hardcore NO tv or computer , and some that are like me and think "everything in moderation"......

But like most parents of first borns you have trial and error, if it turns out that this was a HORRIBLE mistake, the spring is just around the corner and Jacob will be outside 80% of his day so I will slowly die off like everything else he obsesses over!

wishing it away....

2010-01-24T14:40:00.010-05:00

Wishing it away....

This week was a tough week for me. Paul was gone all week for training and I was left for the first time since Andrew was born with two kids for a whole week. But to make the situation worse both of my kids came down with a pretty nasty cold. One that is still, 9 days later, going strong. Most days were spent dealing with a very very cranky 2 1/2 year old who didn't want to play, eat, sleep, or even watch TV. All he wanted to do was complain and throw toys, make a mess, and be disagreeable. Then to top it off Andrew being only 5 months old gets the same cold. But unlike Jacob he can't blow his nose, consciously clear his throat/cough, or tell me what is wrong.

Since just after Jacob was born in 2007 the CDC has removed all medicine for any child under the age of 4 (it used to be 2) so any sort of medicinal help for the symptoms was not happening. Tylenol was used during the first stages of the cold when Jacob had a slight fever, and of course vicks, and vaporizers have been running nonstop for the past week and a half.

I found myself wishing away the week, and honestly wishing away their childhoods. I found myself alone unable to ask for help (for fear of infecting other people), and wishing for anything that Jacob was old enough to be given medicine, and that Andrew was old enough to be able to at least blow his nose or at least talk and tell me what is wrong and to understand what is happening to him when he can't breathe!

What I wouldn't give for them to be feeling better, and for this cold to be gone and for me to be able to get more than an hour of sleep at a time during the night without having to wrangle those God forsaken nose aspirators into my babies nose or find that the 3rd box of kleenex was gone because of how often Jacob needed to blow his nose. I had finally gotten to the end of my rope when I found myself with two sleeping children and a small amount of time to myself. I decided to start reading the other blogs I follow and I ran across a post that suddenly made my life a lot less crazy and frustrating.

MckMama is a great blog if you have never read it, she is very well written and has a lot of really great posts. When I was reading this particular post I realized that she is soooo right. I have been so wrapped up in my "misery" that I wasn't looking at the bigger picture. This week wasn't about just my boys feeling bad and being frustrating. As I took a step back and thought about my week I realized that it wasn't just about the tantrums, and the lack of sleep. But during this week I also gave my boys 500+ kisses (no joke), I rocked them to sleep, I kissed boo-boos, I sssshhh'ed them as they fell asleep, and I was there with hugs and a smile every time they woke up (even if it was for the 10th time that night). I was their "one and only", they were sick and they needed me. They needed me more than I needed sleep, or time alone, or another person to help.

I was wishing away the week and years, and for what?? For maybe a two week cold? I suddenly felt so foolish and realized that although the cold would be much easier to weather if they were older, by having them old I would miss so much more, and who knows how long they will "need me". There is nothing I love more than my kids and their kisses, hugs, "I love you's" and smiles. It seems like I have already blinked and found myself with a 2 1/2 year old and a 5 month old. What I wouldn't give to be able to keep them small and innocent. When they are older they won't need my kisses on their "boo boo's" or need rocked to sleep when they are 15 or 20 years old. They will be obnoxious teenagers who "know it all" and don't need me (or think they need me) anymore.

I realized right then that I can't keep focusing on the bad parts of my week and I needed to be thankful for the moments I do have with my children. And as MckMama said I will not wish away their young years, always hoping to get more sleep, movies watched, laundry done, house cleaned. "I will relish each kiss, hug and song. I will leave their childhood behind with no regrets, no "I love you" unsaid, no cheek unkissed, no request to "Cuddle wif' me!" turned down.

I am gonna miss this.....

(thank you MckMama for such as inspiring post, I hope you don't mind that I quoted you in my post!)

A new find!!! Go get it!

2010-01-16T09:47:00.006-05:00

A new find! Go get it!!!
(January 2010)

So I don't normally get all "ga-ga" over things, much less a toy but I found something for Jacob that I have to say should become a "MUST" for all parents out there. Jacob has always been very very very good at sorting whether it was shapes, colors, etc.... about the time he turned a year old he got into the "I Spy" books and hasn't looked back. He loves anything "I Spy" and I don't mean the kids "I SPY" books but even the adult ones. You might have to help him a little (very little) with the adult "I SPY" books but not much and the childrens versions you don't have to help at all.

So recently we have moved into the memory games for children. Most board games are for 3+ years old which I have to agree with not because they are too hard but because Jacob still doesn't have the greatest of attention spans being not quite 2 1/2 years old. We have purchased two memory card games, one in "Thomas the Tank Engine" and one in "Super Hero Squad" (his new favorite with Iron Man, Hulk, Wolverine, etc....). The only problem with these is that even though he knows how to play it, the lure of 10+ cards laying on the ground just screaming to be thrown around can sometimes be too much for a little guy! So most games of Memory aren't finished because they get scattered. Which inevitably leaves myself or his father crawling around trying to find all of the missing pieces.

I knew I needed to find an alternative to this while still being able to teach him "patience" and "matching". I went on a search of the internet and found some online "memory" games but they were a little boring and not nearly as interactive since I was the one having to move the mouse and click the buttons (problem of only having a laptop). But then one day while the kids were sleeping I started searching the internet again and found the most AWESOME thing!! "Melissa and Doug" have fabulous toys and they have created a toy that is not only extremely educational but it is almost 100% mess free!!!!

The game can be found here and at Amazon (and probably a lot of other places too). The best part about it is that it comes with a bunch of cards for numbers, colors, shapes, farm animals, zoo animals, vehicles, and fruit. We have been working on colors and this is an added game that I can use to help with colors without Jacob feeling like all I do is "teach". Basically what you do is choose the card you want to play (each card is double sided for twice the amount of games) and then you can open up the blue wooden "doors" and see what is behind them. The "doors" are attached with elastic band so that they don't come off. The only pieces that you can lose would be the big cards and those will be hard to lose! Plus I have already decided that I could easily get a piece of card stock and use stickers to create a new card with other items on it. Most packs of stickers come with at least two of every sticker and being able to create new cards would make this game never ending. For when Jacob gets a little older "Melissa and Doug" even have other games that will great for teaching sorting, sequence, and memory.

See ya later 2009, and thanks for all the......

2010-01-03T13:05:00.005-05:00

See ya later 2009, and thanks for all the...
(January 3, 2010)

When most people think back to 2009 they are going to think about the hard times that most of us had with finances, politics, and just the overall "stinky" impression that 2009 left. I however will remember what a great year 2009 was, and how all of the "thanks" that I have will forever overshadow any hard times that we went through.

Here is a list of my top 10 (although there are many more) things that didn't make 2009 stink!

10) We got to spend our first "family vacation" visiting Thomas the Tank Engine in Baltimore. Hopefully we will have many more vacations in the years to come.

9) Jacob learned to speak and communicate with us about what he did or didn't want. And even started saying Please, Thank you, and Excuse me on his own.

8) We made it through 2009 with only 2 minor colds. Even though we did have a fractured leg, but we were still extremely healthy for the year!

7) We found out that Jacob was going to be a big brother, and he has not only done well but clearly loves his brother. (which is evident with the 50+ kisses he gives him daily)

6) Jacob became much more independent so didn't mind being left with a babysitter. This allowed Paul and I to go out on a few "date nights" without having to worry about getting home within a 2 hour time limit!

5) We joined a playgroup and met other kids and mothers that we get to spend time with weekly.

4) Having a husband that is able to work from home and can spend lunches and some extra time with Jacob, Andrew, and I throughout the day!

3) Grandpa after suffering a stroke Thanksgiving 2008, went through a lot of therapy in 2009 and is able to spend time with Jacob and Andrew almost every day!

2) Jacob learned to say "I Love You" and will (on his own) tell us those three wonderful words randomly throughout the day.

1) I was able to stay home another year with my children. I know that some people aren't able to do this or choose not to, but I will never be thankful enough for the fortune that I have in being able to spend everyday with my kids from the moment they wake up to the time they go to bed. I have truly been blessed!

Christmas and the 2 year old blog!

2009-12-29T16:19:00.004-05:00

Christmas and the 2 year old blog!
(December 29, 2009)

This year Christmas was great, this was our first Christmas where Santa visited our house. Jacob was very excited when he woke up Christmas morning and as his Daddy carried him downstairs he caught a glimpse of what Santa left him! This year Jacob must have been on the "Very Nice" list (that or Santa doesn't count "terrible two" tantrums as worthy of the "Naughty List").

Jacob got a new train table and a full array of Thomas Trains and buildings. Santa was even nice enough to set up a whole town with winding track and buildings for Jacob to immediately start playing with.

For any of you that have followed this blog from the beginning this blog has been going on now for 2 years. The first blog entry happened December 24th 2007, check out how much Jacob has grown up! He was only 18 weeks old (same age Andrew is now). I have a tradition to take a picture of Jacob in his Santa hat every year, so lets compare:

2009

2008

2007

Blizzard of 2009!

2009-12-20T12:52:00.003-05:00

Blizzard of 2009!
(December 19, 2009)

Well it is official we got 20 inches of snow dumped on us and we are now having strong winds that have made a few 3-4 foot snow drifts for the kids to play in! Needless to say Christmas presents might not get purchased in time! Living on a farm makes for wonderful pictures and sledding but it isn't too good for getting the state to come back the 3 mile DIRT road and plow us out. We are always left for the end of the plowing! Hopefully we can get out by Wednesday, and Thank God Santa doesn't need the road plowed to get here! So his presents will surely make it under the tree for Jacob and Andrew.

Christmas Spirit!

2009-12-16T15:32:00.005-05:00

Christmas Spirit!
(December 2009)

These past two weeks have been CrAzY with our schedules, mainly my fault since I double booked almost everyday! But darn it I LOVE CHRISTMAS TIME!!! I love going to see Santa, and making cookies, and decorating the house, and watching Christmas movies, etc...etc...etc....

So I am starting early in my evil plan to corrupt Jacob into loving the same things, although if my memory serves me from my childhood I don't think it is too hard to get a kid excited about Christmas. Jacob has been a big help this year and unlike last year hasn't ripped off any ornaments, or broken any holiday decorations.

We headed over to Grandmas house last week and helped her and some cousins decorate Christmas cookies. Jacob did a great job and made it a little harder than necessary but not too bad!

We then headed out for the first annual "holiday pictures" with him and his brother and if I do say so myself they turned out GREAT!!!!!

And lastly we got some snow the other week and Paul and Jacob headed out and made a terrific snowman. Jacob is such a little man this year and he understands more and more each day. I was soooo worried that like last year he would be ripping apart my tree but he isn't and he has even started to sing Christmas songs with his new found vocabulary! Of course he doesn't really sing them correctly but hey what could be cuter than a 28 month old walking around the house singing "Frotty Noman! Frotty Noman! Frotty Noman!" or "Jingle Bell Jingle Bell Jingle Bell DA WAAAAAYYYY!!!!"

A Year Without Santa Claus!

2009-12-05T15:05:00.003-05:00

A Year Without Santa Claus!
(December 2009)

This is my favorite time of year, and I was hoping that since Jacob was a little older that he too would start getting into the Christmas spirit. I started playing Rudolf, Frosty, and Santa movies a few weeks ago and Jacob has even started singing Jingle Bells as he walks around the house. So when the time came to go visit Santa I was in high hopes that this year would turn out better than last year. If you don't remember what happened last year here is a quick reminder:

So we made it to the mall and Jacob and Andrew had their matching Christmas outfits on. We were getting a lot of smiles from passing patrons and as we made it closer to Santa Jacob actually got excited. I thought for sure I would be getting a great keepsake this year! I parked the stroller and with Andrew in one arm and Jacob holding my other hand we walked up the ramp to see Santa. Well as soon as we got within 10 feet of Santa Jacob ripped his hand out of mine and started running. I had "Santa's helpers" watch the stroller and I went running after him. By the time I got to him he was crying and saying "CARED MOMMA CARED! (cared=scared)

I talked him down from his hysterics and we made our way back to Santa, Andrew still in one arm, and now Jacob being carried with the other arm (I need to go to the gym, I have two HEAVY boys!). When we got back to Santa Jacob started to freak out again so I got Andrew into Santas arms for the picture and I consoled Jacob 10 feet away! Oh well, it looks like this will be a year without Santa. Next year probably will be too since Andrew will probably freak out next year and Jacob will probably still have a phobia!!!

Excuse me? What did you say?

2009-11-23T15:13:00.003-05:00

Excuse me? What did you say?
(November 2009)

When Jacob first said his first word at 9 months old (other than Mama or Dada) I was all excited and started watching and listening for all the new words that would be exploding out of his mouth. Little did I know that new words would be added but no real explosion would happen for almost 20 months! Jacob has always followed the "speaking" milestones right on cue. If the milestone says "by *this month* your child should know 20+words" Jacob knew/spoke about 20+ words. When at 2 years old it said that "Most 2 year olds should be able to say 110 words and say 2-3 word sentences" Jacob had about that many and spoke in 2-3 word sentences.

I just assumed that Jacob was never going to have his "explosion" of words like I had been told by NUMEROUS mothers/parents that all kids have. So I was very excited when over the past three weeks Jacobs speech has gone from 100+ words to literally 250+ words! Now about 90% of these words I feel any Joe Schmo could walk off the street and understand what Jacob is saying but then about 10% even I have to get Jacob to repeat sometimes before I even know what he is saying.

Jacob is still having problems with certain letters like S,V, Z and F. He also will replace letters sometimes in words where I know he doesn't need to. Like he can say "CAT" with the K sound but then if something is broke he will say "UH OH MAMA IT BROTE" and then he can tell me the sound of a snake is "SSSSSSSSSSSSSS" but will tell me that a spider is a "Rider". I have been working with him and modeling certain speech problems that I know he has, but those conversations usually go something like this!

Me: Jacob what is that?

Jacob: RIDER

Me: That's right, it's a SSSSSSpider

Jacob: RIDER

Me: Jacob, look at my mouth, SSSSSSSSSpider

Jacob: SSSSSSSSSSSS (loooooong pause) RIDER!

Me: (feeling defeated) GOOD JOB!

What a champ!!!

2009-11-12T16:00:00.003-05:00

What a champ!
(November 2009)

This week Jacob was a real champ for a couple of reasons. First Jacob caught a minor cold that ended up with a pretty nasty runny nose for a few days and then today we went and got our H1N1 shot. I am NOT a vaccine person, as most people know, Jacob has yet to even get his 12 month vaccines, but with a 2 1/2 month old I just felt that this year we would have to bite the bullet and get the vaccine. So we did and I got mine and Jacob got his 1st of two doses. Paul unfortunately goes to a different doctor and they don't have any vaccine so he is still susceptible to getting sick. But hopefully we won't have to worry about that.

A few weeks ago Jacob had another cold and it was miserable, as most people with a two year old know that snotty noses don't exactly get blown away with a 2 year they get wiped away.... wiped all over arms, faces, couches, beds, and even my leg!!! So Paul and I decided that when Jacob got his next runny nose that we were going to try and teach him how to blow his nose. According to my "babycenter" emails most kids don't learn to blow their nose until closer to 3 years old, but emails be damned we were going to try. Plus according to my mother, a kindergarten teacher, knowing how to blow their nose is a huge thing for going to school....my mother wishes more kids did!! hehehehehe

So when this cold started we started working with him, and I can happily say that my little guy is a CHAMPION nose blower and he can keep up with the best of adults with his nose blowing! This cold wasn't nearly as bad as the last one because the boogies were kept under control!!

Creepy Bag of bones!

2009-10-31T13:47:00.005-04:00

Creepy bag of bones!
(October 31, 2009)

This year was the first year that we have really been able to get into the Halloween spirit with Jacob. Although we didn't got Trick-or-Treating we did get Jacob a costume (2 costumes, he didn't like the first one) . The cutest part of it was that for three days straight he wore his costume all over the place, to Target, the pet store, grocery store, and to relatives houses. We got tons of "oh how cutes" and Jacob just thought he was the "bees knees" in his costume. Of course unlike most 2 year olds who would have chosen a firefighter, Superman, Batman, or Spiderman my nontraditional little guy decided he wanted to be a skeleton. There was a good reason for this, as a few days before Halloween his favorite show "Imagination Movers" had their Halloween special and one of the characters "Smitty" dressed up as a skeleton......so Jacob wanted to be a skeleton. Luckily his grandmother had bought him some skeleton PJ's to wear underneath and of course we found some skull and crossbone socks to wear too so we were all decked out!

Halloween night we went to a parade where Jacob got to get some candy that was thrown from the floats and we got to see policemen, firemen, tons of marching bands, and floats. He really enjoyed it and we got to still get him some candy without him having to go up to peoples houses. He tends to be VERY VERY shy around people he doesn't know and Paul and I decided that actual "trick or treating" would probably have been a disaster so we avoided it.

We also painted our 2nd annual hay bale as a spider since Jacob just LOOOOVVVEEES bugs! The one thing that Jacob could have cared less about was the pumpkin carving so Paul did that alone this year, hopefully Jacob will be more into that next year!

Every Last Drop!

2009-10-24T09:09:00.003-04:00

Every Last Drop!
(October 18-24, 2009)

This week we had some AWESOME weather! It was sunny, bright, and highs in the upper 70's and even one day made it into the 80's!! So I decided that we needed to enjoy every last drop of sunshine as this will probably be the last of the almost 80 degree weather until the spring!!

We went to the park for a few days and spent most of our evenings taking walks and enjoying the weather! It's funny because when I was younger and even when I was an adult if you would ask me what my favorite season was I would immediately say "WINTER"! But it is funny how when your lifestyle changes (like having children) it can change your view on things. Now I can't stand winter as it means trying to keep a 2 year old just as happy indoors as he is outdoors and that usually never works! But then again he is older this year, starting to come into his own and playing by himself better so hopefully this winter won't be as nerve racking......oh but wait....I have another baby that will make it nerve racking......(SIGH) it never ends! hehehehehehehehehe

Juggling Act!

2009-10-18T12:57:00.003-04:00

Juggling Act!
(October 2009)

Well we are two months into going from a family of three to a family of four and I have to say that it has been a juggling act! Paul and I have fumbled quite a few times but we are learning to multitask better and Jacob is usually pretty good with giving Paul and I the space and time to figure things out. However this past week Jacob has decided that he was tired of giving us space and he wanted some of his old habits to come back into play. He gets a bottle in the morning and evening and he used to get it in the rocking recliner with either myself or Paul. Since Andrew has been born we have switched to either Jacob feeding himself his bottle on the couch or occasionally when Andrew happens to be sleeping or in the swing one of us will feed him his bottle. The other day Jacob decided that he was going to have none of the couch and decided that he didn't care if Andrew was asleep or not he wanted a bottle and he wanted it in the recliner.......hence the picture above. The scene above has been played out NUMEROUS times this week by either myself or Paul and although it hasn't always been smooth....sometimes Andrew does not want to be rocked with his brother or vice versa.......we have managed to not have any meltdowns (on Jacob's or our parts...hehehehehe) oh well what can you do!

This juggling act that we have started is only going to get more and more complex as the months go by. I can only imagine what it's going to be like when Andrew decides to crawl or sit and play on the floor while I am trying to play with Jacob or cook , or clean, or whatever....seriously how do people do it with TONS of kids?!?!?!

I just have to thank God that Jacob is such a loving and well behaved little boy!

Dirty Imagination!

2009-10-11T15:23:00.006-04:00

Dirty Imagination!
(October 2009)

I have learned this week that my son has a dirty imagination. Now I know what you are thinking and it isn't what you think! Jacob being an only child (until recently) to a stay at home mom. Has always had a playmate to play with. If it isn't me it's his father, and if it isn't him then it is any number of cousins that live within feet of our house. But for the past couple of weeks Jacob has really started "growing up" and started to use his imagination. I was told by a lot of people that this would inevitably happen since I wouldn't be at his beck and call anymore with having to take care of Andrew.

I have to admit that it is nice to see Jacob playing with his toys by himself and seeing him playing with them in a way that you can tell he is creating a "scene" or "world" for these toys to live in. But it seems that the only way he plays for any length of time is if he is getting dirty! I guess that is the boy in him.

The other day Paul was outside and Jacob was with him keeping himself busy when all of a sudden Paul comes inside with a grin on his face asking me if I wanted to see what Jacob had been doing to keep himself busy........

You see it seems that Jacob being the observant one that he is saw Paul and I trimming the flowers and shrubs back the other day and thought that he too could help us out! Needless to say only a few flowers managed to live through the massacre!

Then the other day I was home alone with a very cranky 8 week old and needed something for Jacob to do by himself to allow me time to deal with Andrew.....I knew from a few months ago that Jacob loved this concoction of corn starch and water that I created for him. I played with it as a kid and I have never met a child yet who doesn't love to play with it. If you haven't ever made it you should.....basically you add just enough water to make a box of cornstarch get just wet. You know when it is just right when it looks like liquid when left alone but becomes solid when you try and stir it or pick it up! Jacob just loved to put his toy people and animals in it and watch them sink into the mixture and then try and pull them out! It is a pretty neat and extremely cheap play thing for a 2 year old! So on the day in question he sat at the table and played by himself with this cornstarch mixture for an HOUR AND A HALF!!! It was awesome! He was laughing and carrying on it was great.....but DIRTY!!!!!

Hap Bir-Day!

2009-10-05T16:28:00.003-04:00

Hap Bir-Day!
(10/3/09)

This week we got to celebrate Paul's Birthday! Or as Jacob says "Hap Bir-Day Daddy!"
As you can see by the picture and the chocolate smeared face Jacob got to partake in the birthday confections before we sang!!

Happy Birthday Daddy! We Love You!

Extreme Hide-n-Seek

2009-09-26T14:22:00.003-04:00

Extreme Hide-n-Seek
(September 26, 2009)

Now while most 2 year olds are learning their numbers, letters, colors, and other things my 2 year old is learning how to play EXTREME sports! There is a reason for this, a pretty obvious one....with Jacob being the 32nd grandchild in the family and there being A LOT of cousins that live within 500 yards of our house the playmates tend to be on the older side. The main cousins that play with Jacob are between 8-12 years old. So when they come over to play although they will play "2 year old games" with Jacob like puzzles (his new favorite game) and coloring, playdoh, cars, etc.... more often than not those seemingly innocent games tend to go EXTREME!

You can't blame these kids they love Jacob to death and love spending time with him but even I understand that games and toys that are too young can get boring fast! So this week I noticed a trend in Hide-N-seek. Usually this game is spent pretending not to see Jacob as he hides in plain sight and comes out and makes noises as soon as he sees you pass even remotely near him. Underneath the dining room table is a favorite hiding place in my house!

But the tide has been changing and since we don't live in a gigantic house the places to hide are limited (at least for a 2 year old). So the last couple of times that cousins have been over the hiding spots have been getting more and more extreme! I swear the below pictures were not staged Jacob HONESTLY layed there for over 5 minutes and didn't say a word or move until I found him! He thought it was great!!!

Other EXTREME hiding places have been under a pile of pillows from the couch, under blankets, under a pile of stuffed animals in his tent, and even under the play rug in the toy room!!! Only my son!!!! I guess the new "Hide-N-Seek" motto is "GO BIG OR GO HOME!"

Back to my roots!

2009-09-21T09:27:00.003-04:00

Back to my roots!
(9/21/09)

This week hasn't been too exciting, just more and more of the same old things.....you know.....errands, errands, and oh yeah taking care of a newborn! But starting this week Jacob will be taking some toddler art, music, and play courses through out Parks and Rec centers here where we live so we will have much much more to post about in the upcoming weeks.

This week was spent with Jacob "getting back to his roots". I broke out the play yard toy for Andrew and when not in use by his little brother Jacob likes to get into it and play with the toys. The ironic part about it is that when he was a little baby he didn't play with this toy very often!

Ahh! Hoppa!!

2009-09-08T20:47:00.004-04:00

Ahh! Hoppa!
(9/8/09)

Jacob is ALL BOY and if anyone would need confirmation of this just simply look at the bruises on his legs, his impressive collection of dinosaurs, balls, and water guns, and of course the fact that I can't keep him from searching for and picking up bugs! Yes bugs! Even dead ones!

The other day he was out searching for Hoppa's (grasshoppers) and he found a few dead ones in the corner of the garage! He of course picked one up and brought it over to me and as most girls do I "shrieked" and told him to put it down because it was dead. Next thing I know Jacob was on a mission to find all of the "Hoppa Die" in the whole garage and make sure he told me that they were "die" as he found them!

Paul and him go "bug hunting" daily and plastic containers with holes punched in the tops are becoming a decoration in my house (much to my dismay). But I can see that Jacob loves it and I would never discourage him from finding and searching out "buh's and bee's" that is what he calls bugs...they are either buh's or bee's regardless of what species they are or of course hoppa's for grasshoppers.

Today Paul was gone for awhile at meetings so it was up to me to go searching for bugs, I was surprised that my 2 year old had no problem picking up grasshoppers and had the reflexes to be fast enough to actually catch them, I didn't know the process of getting the bugs so the only thing I could find in the house ( quickly) was a 2 quart pitcher. Jacob didn't know what to do at first since this is not what he is used to using to catch bugs with his daddy, but he quickly adapted and caught a praying mantis! Which he reluctantly let go in the bushes near the house!

Mommy's helper!

2009-08-25T16:45:00.003-04:00

Mommy's helper!

When I first found out that I was pregnant 8 months ago the first thing that popped into my head was "Oh no how is Jacob going to handle this?". As most parents of one child probably do they fear that introducing a new baby into the house will throw off the balance of the universe and "hell" will ultimately let loose! Will Jacob hate his brother, will he throw unlimited tantrums, will he revert back to "baby ways" and suddenly want to nurse again or want to be held constantly....

So this week was Jacob's first week as a BIG BROTHER and of all the scenarios that Paul and I juggled with what ended up actually happening was one scenario that we only thought about once but with all of the stories that we had heard from people with more than one kid we quickly dismissed it as "a dream" and went back to thinking of all of the bad scenarios and how we would deal with them and help Jacob through this traumatizing time in his life.

Jacob has been great this week, he has been a very loving, helpful, trusting, patient, and flexible little guy! Jacob has always been very loving and although the "terrible twos" do rear their head occasionally Paul and I are very happy with how our little man is turning out. To say we were surprised by how Jacob took to his brother would be an understatement. Jacob wants to constantly hold Andrew and will give him a pacifier when he needs one (although Jacob calls it a "ring pop" because recently Jacob was given a "ring pop" sucker and I guess has decided that pacifiers look like ring pops). He comes and tells Paul and I when Andrew is crying or whining, or even making tiny little squeaky noises. He even will get the boppy for me when I need to feed Andrew and has decided that it is OK for Andrew to nurse (which was my biggest fear with Jacob's jealousy).

Overall we haven't had too many problems, we did miss naptime one day and he wasn't as pleasant as he had been, but that is to be expected. So now the only question is: Will he stay like this or will he end up being jealous later on once Andrew doesn't sleep 22 hours a day? Or what about when Andrew starts crawling and getting into Jacob's toys? Or should we just count our blessings and consider ourselves lucky?

Either way I feel very lucky to have such two beautiful little boys and Paul and I will deal with any problems as them come (or if they come) but right now we will relish in the ease of transition that we have been given this week!

I'm a BIG Brother!

2009-08-18T09:05:00.003-04:00

I'm a BIG Brother!
(August 15, 2009)

Jacob became a big brother on Saturday! His baby brother Andrew was born at 1:13pm and weighed 7 pounds 7 ounces and was 20 1/4 inches long!

You can learn more about Andrew at his blog Being Andrew!

Jacob loves his brother and is always kissing him and helping his mommy and daddy with the new addition!

Happy Birthday (early)

2009-07-30T11:23:00.008-04:00

Happy Birthday (Early!)
July 25, 2009

This year Jacob's birthday was handled a little differently than it was last year. As my due date and his birthday are both within days of each other Paul and I decided that although a birthday party almost a month early would usually be silly, in our situation we felt that being able to give Jacob a nice party vs. me going into labor or not being able to have a party at all warranted an early party!

It wasn't hard to think of a theme for the party since the Imagination Movers is the "end all and be all" in Jacob's world right now! Unfortunately Disney hasn't released any "party supplies" that are Imagination Movers themed so it was up to me to use my "imagination" to figure out how to have a themed party without having anything pre-made. The main colors for the show are the primary colors of red, blue, and yellow. So those were the colors for the party, I ended up making Jacob a t-shirt and shorts that have the yellow name tag and Imagination Movers logo on the back, and then I rounded off the party with a homemade gear/sprocket cake since that is the logo for the Movers. Luckily I took a few Wilton cake classes and used some of my tools and skills to make what I think is a pretty awesome birthday cake!

Most gifts given this year were educational gifts and alot of paper, crayons, paints, playdoh which is what I asked for. Jacob is at that age where he is sitting for longer periods of time and "playing" or "coloring". And since Christmas is only a few months away I didn't want tons of toys and then more toys a few months from now. Paul and I got him a parakeet rightly named "weet weet" (Jacob can't say tweet tweet for a bird). He loves the bird and says hello to him every day and we are slowly getting the bird used to us so that Jacob can hold him.

Overall the party was a HUGE success and Jacob loved all of the kids that were there and loved blowing out his candles and eating a HUGE piece of cake! And I loved the party because I was able to focus on it and not worry about being 9 months pregnant and going into labor during the party! ((GRIN))

Free at last!

2009-07-18T12:50:00.007-04:00

Free at last!!
(July 17, 2009)

I still can't believe that it has been a month since Jacob fractured his leg and got a cast on. At times it seemed like time was my enemy and the days would drag by. But in the end it went really fast and although I wouldn't wish being pregnant with a 23 month old in a cast on my worst enemy Paul and I managed to get through it. We had lots of help from family and Caitlyn, Therese, and Erika (cousins) all chipped in by coming over at least once or twice a week and playing with Jacob to keep him busy. It also helped that he FINALLY started walking on his cast the last week and a half that it was on.

So the cast removal process was pretty bad to say the least, I would be shocked if ANY CHILD five years old and younger (maybe even six years old) wouldn't be scared of getting a cast removed. It didn't help that yesterday Jacob decided that a 40 minute nap was more than enough for him either. He was in pretty good spirits when we got to the doctors office and he waved and said hello to people. His new favorite thing to say these days is "HI PEOPLE" or "BYE PEOPLE" because we can't seem to enter or leave anywhere without him having to say one of those two phrases. Hopefully he stays this polite his whole life......

Anyway we get there and get back to the room for cast removal. He walks around and finds some toys to play with. Then enters the man who we will call "THE SAW"......he warned Paul and I that the saw they use is very very loud and that it cuts through vibration and that there isn't any risk to Jacob's leg. He started it up to let us know the noise and that is when the "you know what" hit the fan!!! To say it was loud would be an understatement, then to top things off he had to make one full path from the toes to the upper thigh on both sides of the cast. It took a little more than 5 minutes and NUMEROUS tissues to get the cast off. Jacob was snotty, crying, screaming, and well generally unhappy after it was over. Afterward when Jacob calmed down he did get back into a good mood fairly quickly when he realized that his cast was off and said "Bye bye boo boo" a few times then wiggled his ankle, toes, and bent and straightened his knee a few times to try things out.

Paul then had to take him to get another xray to make sure the leg was healed, which it was and we were out the door! Jacob didn't walk much last night without someone holding his hands but woke up this morning raring to go on his new found freedom! He still walks like he has a cast on and the doctor said it will take him a few days to figure it out again and for his joints to loosen up, but the fact that he is walking at all is great!!! I am glad that this little footnote in his life is over and hope to not have to repeat it any time soon!

All smiles, little did he know what was getting ready to happen!

The longest 5+ minutes of mine and Paul's life!! Poor guy!

Hmmmm....this isn't too bad!

Finally I coaxed a "cheese" out of him! We are glad that is over with!

Overly optimistic!

2009-07-09T20:28:00.010-04:00

Overly Optimistic!

When I started planning my summer about 2 months ago I decided that I would stay as busy as possible for as long as possible. I remember the summer I was pregnant with Jacob was pretty easy. Other than the AC going out in our house and the heat wave I didn't have too hard of a time being 8-9 months pregnant in July and August.

So I signed up for a few craft classes, play dates, and of course "duckling" swim lessons. I decided that I wouldn't sign up for any classes after the 3rd week of July since I could go into labor any time after 36 weeks (I had Jacob at 37 weeks exactly).

So the "kink" in my plans started with the fracturing of Jacobs leg, and the cast. Jacob is 35 pounds and add an awkward cast into the mix it makes him hard to carry with a huge preggo belly! So I started my "overly optimistic" month of July this week with swimming lessons. I should have realized that a summer of pregnancy with a 2 year old can not in the slightest be compared to a summer being pregnant with no children and the luxury of sleeping and relaxing WHENEVER you want!! DUH!!! ( I am sure that any mother of 2+ children are snickering at that statement right now)

The swim class was ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY MISERABLE!!! The water was -30 degrees below zero (I swear it was like they put ice cubes in it before we got there), and then the swim class was in the 3foot section where I was forced to hold Jacob and try and get him to kick and blow bubbles. So imagine an 8 month pregnant woman having to bend forward while holding a 35 pound child with a cast who is crying because of the freeeeeeezing cold water!!!! UGH!!!! At one point I even felt like I pulled a muscle in my stomach and had to put him on the side of the pool and relax for a few minutes.

We got a few good pictures to prove to Jacob that I did try and involve him in extracurricular activities when he was young, but I have to say that I am not going back and have now wasted the $50 bucks that the class cost.....oh well!!!! I will just be extra frugal the next few weeks to make up for it!

The craft classes are going great and Jacob has started walking on his cast so the 90% carrying has now drastically been reduced to about 40% carrying now that he can walk for decent distances by himself. He gets his cast off in exactly one week and I can't wait to get my crazy 23 month old back!! And of course I can't wait to have this new baby and get back to not having to carrying around an extra 30 pounds of pregnancy weight!!!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

2009-06-29T20:45:00.006-04:00

Happy Birthday Grandpa!
(June 26, 2009)

We had a birthday party for Grandpa this week, he celebrated his 78th birthday this year! If you remember back at Thanksgiving Grandpa had a bad stroke and we were all living at the hospital for two weeks, it is amazing what seven months can do. Grandpa is still in therapy but is still gaining more and more mobility. He can now walk short distances by himself and longer ones with a cane/assistance. He is able to move his right arm better and his speech has improved. We are blessed to have him with us, and hope to have many many more birthdays to celebrate!

Jacob was great at the party and even helped Grandpa blow out his candles, I am afraid that the "pyro" genes from Paul haven't fallen too far from the tree as Jacob is obsessed with fire! Check out the picture really close, everyone else is laughing and looking around but Jacob is steadfast in his view of the candles.......

We have also been swimming a lot this past week, and Jacob loves the pool even with his cast on! Although I am still counting the days until the cast is off and I can have my little rambunctious 22 month old back!

Happy Fathers Day!

2009-06-21T20:47:00.004-04:00

Happy Fathers Day!
June 21, 2009

Just wanted to send a quick HAPPY FATHERS DAY! To the best dad in the world! To celebrate the event Jacob even wore a brand new pair of PJ's that said "MY DAD ROCKS" which was Paul's present from Jacob this year! Just think next year he will be the dad of TWO boys!!!

CAUTION: Slippery when wet!

2009-06-19T18:37:00.005-04:00

CAUTION: Slippery When Wet!
(June 19, 2009)

Well it isn't hard for me to decide what to write about this week as the events of the last few days pretty much wrote themselves and BEGGED to be put on the blog! We have a tradition in our house, as I am sure many of you have. I even feel safe to say that there are many people out there who have allowed their young one to do the exact same thing that Paul and I let Jacob do. Of course with different results (or maybe the same) as what we had.

So it was a typical evening and since I was home alone (Daddy was out of town) I decided to let Jacob stay a little extra longer in the tub and play around with the bubbles and toys! He was in a great mood despite the lack of a proper nap that day. The "tradition" part of bathtime comes in when the bath is all done. Usually one of two things happen. Either 1) Jacob is allowed to run around naked while we clean up the tub and toys, or 2) He gets a diaper on and is allowed to run around with just a diaper on while we clean up the tub and toys. Either way Jacob LOVES it and thinks it is just great to "BE FREE" and run around!

Usually the evening ends a little while later when we go back downstairs and get our PJ's on and get a bottle for bedtime.

This week however ended a little different. Since I was all alone and Jacob was in an extra happy mood I decided that since he was being so good that I would forego the diaper and allow the nakedness to ensue while I cleaned up. I was almost done cleaning up when Jacob walks back into the bathroom and proceeds to pee on the floor.....oh come on....you know you have had a kid pee on the floor!!!! Anyway I immediately wiped it up using one of the wet towels that I had already used to help wipe up the water from the splashing during his bath. Well I either missed a spot or because I used a wet/damp towel the floor must not have been as dry as it should have been. Then all hell broke loose, Jacob came walking over to me and slipped on the floor and when that happend his left leg twisted and he landed on it in a really awkward position. He instantly screamed and started crying....this is the result...

Now at this point I knew that Jacob had hurt his leg, however since he could move his knee and his ankle I assumed that he has just twisted his knee or ankle or sprained something. And since I was home alone I didn't really have an option of taking him in for an x-ray. Paul wasn't due home for another day so we spent the next day watching movies and trying to keep Jacob calm. I still at this point just assumed a sprain and figured that within a day Jacob would be trying to walk to have gotten so stir crazy that he would forget about the leg and get back to normal. So by Thursday night Paul was home and we decided that by Friday morning if Jacob was still not bearing weight on the leg that we would take him into the Emergency Room.

So we got up early this morning and tried to get Jacob to walk, which of course was met with more tears. We still at this point would have bet the farm on nothing more than a sprain. So after an hour at the ER and an x-ray we got the news!! Jacob had fractured his tibia!!!! AAAAAAHHHHH!

The ER put a temporary cast on his leg and we made an appointment with a pediatric orthopedic doctor for the permanent cast. The cast will need to stay on for 4 weeks and the worst part about it is that it is above the knee. About mid thigh to of course his toes. We let Jacob pick the color and he of course picked HULK GREEN! We also had the option of paying extra for a waterproof cast which will allow us to take baths and allow Jacob to swim and play in his baby pool. The cast can be walked on so in a few days he should be comfortable enough with it to try and give it a test run.

The whole day although long and tiring went really well. Jacob was completely happy throughout the whole day and said hello to people and bye. He would also point to his leg and say either "OW" or "boo boo" when he would tell people about his leg. He allowed the x-ray to happen in one shot and even laughed as they put the cast on as he thought the green material was just too cool!

I guess the summer is going to be a little different now and being 7 months pregnant is going to make it harder, but at least he didn't fall and hit his head or injure anything more severe. The fracture will heal perfectly and he should have no side effects from the break!

The best vacation!

2009-06-13T19:18:00.005-04:00

The best vacation!

As the summer approached Paul and I threw ideas out as to what we wanted to do for vacation. There are a few things that keep us from being able to throw caution to the wind and just go crazy for our vacation this year. First Paul has a job that doesn't really allow for a long multiple week vacations so his time off is usually spent having multiple smaller vacations throughout the summer, secondly I am 7 months pregnant so my "fun time" is limited to what I can do comfortably, and thirdly because we are so close to having the second baby Paul has to save some of his vacation time to extend his "paternity leave" to stay home for a few weeks after the baby is born.

So we racked our brains and decided that since it is hard to do some things with Jacob because of his age that there was really no purpose in spending hundreds of dollars on a beach trip or even a vacation where a hotel was involved. We researched the area around our house and luckily since we live to close to D.C. and Baltimore we have a lot of options.

We ended up going to a toddler waterpark (sorry I forgot my camera...DUH!!!) but Jacob LOVED spending a few hours there. We took a few of the cousins and spent time in the lazy river, toddler water slides, and fountains and spill buckets! It was great for me because I could just sit in 1-2 feet of water and play with Jacob and even relax on a tube and float along the lazy river! Jacob of course started really having fun right when we needed to leave so he threw a small tantrum but was pretty tired so eventually was coaxed back to the car.

The next day we went to the petting zoo and Jacob got his first ride on a pony/horse! He was of course hesitant at first but as you can see ended up having fun and spent the whole ride saying "YEE HAW" which got a few chuckles from the other parents waiting in line!

The last two days of Paul's four day weekend was spent just hanging around the house and relaxing. Paul's vacation is almost over but another short one is being planned for the end of July so in a few weeks we will have another relaxing few days before the days of sleepless nights and little newborns return!

Gosh I love summer!

2009-06-03T20:05:00.005-04:00

Gosh I love summer!

This post is a pretty fun post, because well gosh darn it WE LOVE SUMMER!!!

Why do we love summer? Well when else can you give your son a popsicle and not care (even encourage) him to get so sticky that there is nowhere on him (or anywhere he touches) that doesn't get all ucky!!

When else but when you are a little kid could you spend HOURS running up and down the same bridge, tunnel, fire engine, and swing and wear yourself out that you sleep 3 hours for your afternoon nap!!!

The summer is going great, and now that the pools are open and the parks are freshly mulched Jacob and I are going to be spending a lot of time swinging, sliding, and running around. Jacob has even been adding new words to his vocabulary left and right. Some of his words are "Jacob speak" like if he wants to slide or swing he says "Mama Weeeee!" which lets me know that he wants to have fun and say WEEEEE! as he is swinging or sliding. But new words like Turtle, boppy (we use a boppy pillow), money, up, beep-beep (for a car), bird, pool, hole, water, and everyones favorite COME IN!!! (which he says now in the morning when he wants us to come get him out of bed!).

He is now only 3 months away from being 2 and the changes in him are blowing me away!!!

Summer fun and Minivans!!!

2009-05-23T13:08:00.005-04:00

Summer Fun and Minivans!
May 22, 2009

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted, but if you read my other blog you will know why. I have been preoccupied and doing a lot of research on things and I haven't had 2 seconds to stop and sit down to post.

With the arrival of the new baby (which we ALMOST have a name for) about 12 weeks away we are starting to get working on getting the house ready. I have to get Jacob's baby clothes out and washed/sorted, we need to purchase a new crib, a new sit-n-stand stroller, and of course......drum roll please........the MINIVAN!!!

We have been researching minivans for the past few months because we knew that we wanted (or needed) something bigger. My 17 year old nephew lives with us too and right now with Jacobs toddler car seat and him in the back of the car there is little to no room for an infant car seat as well. Which left two options, leave my nephew home and not let him go anywhere with us after the baby is born, or get a larger car.....obviously the later is the best option.

We looked at 7 seater SUVs but with two car seats in the 2nd row it would be almost impossible for my nephew to get to the third row. So the only logical choice was a minivan. I have never seen myself as a minivan person but honestly now that I am soon to be a mother to 2 children I have realized that sometimes you have to change your outlook on certain things. And if the ease of use of a minivan saves me time and energy then I guess I am becoming a "soccer mom" with a minivan!

We are now finally in the full swing of summer weather and having fun outside! Paul and I have learned that as long as water is somehow involved Jacob is as happy as a clam! He would probably play with the water hose for 5+ hours if you let him and I am sure he might have already done that on a few days.

We have a new video on the right of the page, check it out!

Happy Anniversary!

2009-05-12T14:22:00.006-04:00

Happy 8th Anniversary! I Love You!
May 12, 2009

Wedding Day - May 12, 2001

Easter 2009 -
Eight Years later, and one Big Happy Family!

Happy Mother's Day 2009

2009-05-10T13:57:00.003-04:00

Jacob three days old!

Jacob and Mommy at 20 months old!

Just a quick Happy Mother's Day shout out to all of the mothers, grandmothers, and soon to be mothers out there! I can't believe that Jacob is almost 21 months old and that this time next year I will be the Mommy of TWO little boys!!! Mommy loves you Jacob!!!

Day Out With Thomas!

2009-05-02T15:23:00.005-04:00

Day Out With Thomas!
(May 2, 2009)

We had a wonderful day today! Paul and I had been planning this for about 2 months but first learned about "Day Out With Thomas" when my mother got Jacob the 10 years of Thomas DVD set for Christmas and there was a "Day Out With Thomas" portion on one of the DVD's. I have to say that this life sized Thomas the Tank Engine is pretty cool and it travels across the whole country so I encourage anyone who has a kid that likes Thomas or who even just likes trains AT ALL to see if it is coming to a train station near you. Here is a link to see where Thomas will be next "Day Out With Thomas".

For $18.00 a person (over 2) you get access to a 25 minute train ride on the life size Thomas, then can have access to balloon animals, face painting, temp tattoos, lego land, imagination stations, etc...etc.... You do have to pay for the picture with Thomas and Sir Toppham Hat but they are surprisingly cheap. They also have a gift shop with TONS of Thomas stuff that is also surprisingly the SAME PRICE as what I have found in Target and other stores. You know how some things like this can be and want to charge you $30.00 for a toddlers T-shirt, but here it was only $12.00 which is the same price as what I paid for the shirt I got Jacob for his "Day Out With Thomas" wardrobe!

When we first got there we walked around and got to go through the B&O Railway museum. They had many old steam and coal engines that were open to the public and you could actually get inside and walk around. Then we headed over to the Imagination stations where they had about 7 train tables setup with Thomas wooden railways for kids to play with. Of course with swine flu going around the antiseptic hand gel was applied about 20 times, but overall Paul and I didn't see ANY kids with coughs or sniffles. We did see about 50+ other parents with hand gel and wipes though so everyone was thinking the same thing.

It was finally our turn to ride on the train so we boarded and waited for it to leave. Overall the train ride itself was pretty boring but I guess that portion of the trip was more for Jacob than us.

As you leave the train after your train ride you have the option of getting your "official picture" taken in front of Thomas. For $15.00 you get 2 5x7's and 1 keychain. As I said before that is pretty good, I am sure all of us have been to amusement parks or other places that try and charge you upwards of $20.00 for a single 4x6 so we didn't really feel that cheated. Overall Jacob had a great time and was soooooo exhausted by the time we left that he fell asleep in the car on the ride home within the first 5 minutes of leaving the parking lot!!! We will definately go again even with a 10 month old next year!

Check out the ENTIRE "Day Out With Thomas" album. Just click on the below picture to be taken to it!

Day Out With Thomas

Swimming and......BUMPS???

2009-04-27T08:00:00.008-04:00

Swimming and.....BUMPS???

Well the past few days have been great and terrifying! Great in terms of having temps in the upper 80's and lower 90's, but terrifying because Jacob came down with about 150 red bumps all over his face,arms, and legs. With about 2-4 on his trunk (stomach and back). Being 5 months pregnant I of course freaked out (still am a little if I am being honest) and took Jacob IMMEDIATELY to the doctors. These strange bumps don't itch, aren't inflamed, and Jacob doesn't have a fever and isn't irritable. Honestly if you didn't see them with your own eyes you wouldn't think there is anything wrong with him. He honestly doesn't even know they are there and hasn't touched them in the 4 days he has had them.

The doctor quickly dismissed measles (DUH!) and the Chicken Pox and basically I got to pay a $20 co-pay for her to tell me that it was nothing and probably an allergic reaction. She said that most viral bumps/rashes, and of course measles and chicken pox will usually start on the trunk of the body and then move to the extremities and they will almost ALWAYS be associated with fever and DEFINITELY itching! All the things that Jacob DOESN'T have.

It is honestly the weirdest thing I have EVER seen. We are four days into it now and no new spots came up and they are now starting to fade into light pink and some are even disappearing. I still want to know what happened. The one thing that I am leaning towards is an allergic reaction to sunscreen. The reason I am leaning towards this is because 90% of the bumps are below the elbow, below the knees, on his neck and face....EXACTLY where I put sunscreen. The even stop at his sock line and don't go below onto his lower ankles/feet. There are a few stragglers but that is to be expected if it was on his hands. So since these bumps didn't cause any itching or problems I might have to do a "patch test" when all is healed to test this theory. I need to know if he is this allergic to something so that Paul and I can avoid it in the future.

So now that we went to the doctor and I knew that his bumps didn't look like anything contagious we went about enjoying the nice weather. I bought some organic all natural sunscreen that seems to agree with him (even though I don't know if the original sunscreen was the culprit) and we started playing outside in his new blowup pool. Jacob just LOVES the outside and is such a great kid when we can be outside. he would be outside from the second he wakes up to the second he goes to bed. As a matter of fact twice this week he has taken 3 1/2 hour naps during the day out of shear exhaustion which is great for a preggo mommy!!! I have been lounging and watching food network and other shows that I just don't normally get the chance to watch during the day! YEA SUMMER!!! BRING IT ON!!!! Just don't bring on more of those crazy red non itchy bumps!

Weeeeeeee!

2009-04-19T11:27:00.006-04:00

Weeeeeeeee!
(April 18th, 2009)

First let me say that I am the proud mommy of a 20 month old...HOLY COW!

This weekend Paul and I put up a new swing for Jacob. The past few months we have been tossing around the idea of purchasing a nice playset for Jacob and of course the new baby (when he gets a lot older). But in the end we decided that when we did purchase a playset we wanted to get a really nice wooden one with different options to play with. When I grew up we just had one of those metal "A" frame swingsets that rusted and was usually wobbely because they weren't installed correctly into cement.....yeah you know the ones!! We thought about getting one of those but then decided that we wouldn't be happy with it in the long run so we are going to save up for a really nice wooden one instead. Then of course came the "Do we get it this year or next year?" questions.....

As the weather started getting warmer I have taken Jacob to the park a few times and I noticed a trend in his playing habits. Of course most of these habits are because he is in only 30 inches tall and hasn't quite gotten the hang of walking up steps without someone there to help (although he is getting pretty good at doing 2-5 steps on his own but more than that and he needs some help getting down. Climbing steps is fine but more than 4-5 steps and he crawls up instead of using the railing like I have been teaching him. Unfortunately we don't have a lot of steps that we have to navigate and the baby gates keep him from a lot of practice in the house.....anyway I digress.....

Since the climbing is still in the early stages the main thing he wants to do at the park is swing, and go down the slide. Since that is pretty much it and since he won't be 2 years old until August 19th we decided that investing in an expensive playset was just silly for this year. So next summer when he is climbing up the walls, running like a pro, and more independent we will get a playset. So in the meantime we decided to get him a swing and a sandbox. The swing was installed on the underside of our deck which will eventually face a patio that we will put in (when we win the lottery! hehehehehe). Our house is on a slop so the one side of the deck is about 9-10 feet tall from the ground which is the perfect spot for a swing! As you can see from the picture above Jacob LOVED his new swing and was saying WEEEEEEEEEEEE! As Paul and I pushed him. The new sandbox has been purchased too and will also go under the deck. We have a nice level area under there which even allows me to stand up (and I am pretty much 6ft tall with shoes). This will keep the sand from getting 110 degrees in our nasty summer heat and allow Jacob to play in the sand most hours of the day without being burnt to a crisp. We haven't purchased the sand to fill it up yet but I am sure that is on our shopping list for the next week or two!

I love the nice warm weather, Jacob just loves being outside and he is eating better now too, I think he is finally running around so much that he is STARVING so he isn't being as picky with his food choices! YEA!!!!

Funny pic!

2009-04-13T13:31:00.001-04:00

This is just a funny picture I got of Jacob. I bought him some new rain boots the other week and he now loves to wear them. He also got a laser gun and likes to shoot things with it. Add in a hat, jacket, and the boots and you get this!!!!

What an eye!

2009-04-08T12:42:00.007-04:00

What an eye!
April 8, 2009

This week Jacob got ahold of my camera, and I have to say that I am glad that I live in 2009 and not back in the 70's when I grew up. I remember taking my moms camera and snapping MANY pictures. Back then my mom (not knowing what was on those old rolls of film) would go pay money to get pictures of my feet, the sky, blurry people/places/things. I knew Jacob had the camera and earlier in the day Paul had taken a picture of me to document my ever expanding belly and Jacob wanted to help. So Paul and I taught Jacob which button to push to take a picture. It would have worked out great if Jacob's hands were a little bigger and he didn't have to position himself in such a way to get his thumb or finger on the "trigger" button.

He was having soooo much fun and since I knew that he wasn't putting the camera in any danger I let him shoot away. Here are some of his more brilliant photo captures:

(WOW! Is that what the top of my head looks like?)

(Excellent photo of the ceiling! What a lovely fan!)

(Hmmm....almost has an abstract quality to it!)

(This is me finally saying enough!)

All in all, Jacob took over 80 pictures in just under 5 minutes. It was like his finger was having a spasm over the button. Luckily since we live in the age of digital photography I was able to delete all of them minus a few that were used for this blog. Looks like a childs cheap camera could make it onto the 2nd birthday wish list.....we will see how his new budding career pans out! Between this and the harmonica it should be interesting!

Play it again Jake....

2009-03-27T08:13:00.008-04:00

Play it again Jake...
(March 27, 2009)

The progression of most young babies when they finally get the hang of their hands and grabbing things is to start banging on things. Shake whatever they get their hands on, hit anything that they can reach and the goal of all of this shaking and banging it to see what noise they can get out of it. Hence the very popular rattle companies! Jacob has always liked the toys that were musical instruments, there is a link to a very very old video of Jacob banging away on a toy drum to the right in my links section, I think he was around 7 months old and still getting the hang of sitting without support. Then of course his favorite toy for months and months were his piano and xylophone that he got for his 1st birthday.

But I was curious at what point do the toys stop being just instruments of "noise" and more instruments of "music"? Has Jacob always gravitated towards musical toys because he liked the "music" or was it just the internal instinct of small children to like the noise aspect of it.

I noticed the other week that Jacob was starting to get excited about dancing and trying to sing and move along to songs. The favorite action songs being "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Patty Cake" he has started actually moving along with the motions with me and although they aren't perfect they are good enough to bring a smile to anyone who sees him trying to move along. And of course you haven't lived until you have seen Jacob do a mean air guitar! (HILARIOUS) I decided to see if this musical kid of mine was ready to take it to the next level and leave the old "bang on" instruments behind for something a little more child sophisticated! The result was the following toe tapping hoe down!!

The funniest part about this is that I have Jacob enrolled in numorous craft/activity classes through our counties Parks and Recrecation department and we had a craft class the other day with about 7 other youngins' and after he was done his painting he got his harmonica out of my purse and started walking around playing it. I wish I would have had my camera because the other kids followed him around like little two year old groupies! He loved the attention!! I was tempted to put a hat down on the floor and gather donations, you never know with this economy!

It is almost spring....

2009-03-18T10:12:00.003-04:00

It is almost spring.....

How can I tell that it is almost spring? Here is how.....

BUBBLES!!!!

Cross your fingers and hope it works!

2009-03-14T08:43:00.004-04:00

Cross your fingers and hope it works!
(March 13, 2009)

This is probably starting to sound like a broken record to some people who read this blog, but Paul and I are still having a MAJOR problem with Jacob eating. Quite frankly.....HE DOESN'T!!!!

He will eat fruit of all kinds, shapes, colors, and flavors. It could be fresh, dried, or in a can. He of course will still eat crackers of all kinds and at least I have been able to incorporate some "whole grain" versions into the mix. But what the real problem is would be EVERYTHING ELSE that doesn't fall into the fruit/cracker category.

There was a week where cereal was a big hit. I could get him to eat a bowl of cheerios, chex, rice krispies. But now that isn't even an option it ends up being the soggy mess that is half stuck to the bowl within a few hours and since it doesn't have a long shelf life once milk is added I have decided that it isn't very practical since some mornings it will take Jacob over an hour to take little bird nibbles and finish his breakfast. I have tried numorous things like not offering him milk until after he has eaten, that usually just ends in him not eating OR drinking for most of the morning. He was gung ho about waffles, mini pancakes, and french toast sticks but as with adults sometimes you can have too much of a good thing and those too are starting to be less and less appealing to my picky little toddler.

Let's not even talk about meat products. My son gets whatever protein I can shove into him, but if you really measured it, it wouldn't be much. He will eat hot dogs (YUK!) and any sort of processed chicken product (i.e. nuggets, popcorn chicken, and dino shaped chicken). He REFUSES to even try ham cubes, turkey cubes, hamburger, meatballs, and chicken breast.

My mom gave me a good idea about giving him different "dips" for things. I thought this was a great idea so I started offereing different kinds of salad dressings, honey, ketchup, etc..... I thought it was a success but Jacob just liked the act of dipping but then hated the actual eating part.

SIGH!!!!!

I did have what I hope was a breakthrough yesterday. My neices Therese and Caitlyn came to babysit and for some reason Jacob would eat the whole house for Therese (he has always done that) so I tried something new with him. I decided to make cheese pizza for Lent (no meat) and I had read that sometimes when you let a kid help make the food he will want to eat it.

Needless to say he ate half a slice with me, and ate another WHOLE slice with Therese and Caitlyn. This is a kid who wouldn't even try Ketchup, pasta sauce, cheese, or anything else for that matter other than what I listed above.....who knows it could be a fluke or we could be on to something. But I sure am awaiting the day where I can stop blogging about the horrible eating habits of my son and start talking about how he eats me out of house and home! Wish us luck!

The ever expanding Jacob Dictionary!

2009-03-05T20:40:00.004-05:00

The ever expanding Jacob Dictionary!
(March 4, 2009)

Everyone kept telling me that once Jacob hits 18 months that he will start talking more. As of a few weeks ago we were limited to about 5-7 words and honestly a few of those he had been saying since he was around 11 months. Heck he had been saying BALL since he was 10 months old.

I am one of those parents that don't count "baby talk" as words. For example Jacob gets a bottle before bed and he calls it a "Ba-Ba" partially because I started calling it a "Ba-Ba" and the word just stuck, but since that isn't a real word I am not counting that as one of the words that Jacob says. Some parents count anything that they understand and that is fine but for the sake of this post I will only be counting words that Jacob says 100% clear and that anyone who would walk off the street and hear him talking would understand. But know that as with all babies he has a few "Jacob-speak" words that only his Mama and Dada would understand......one that is still stumping us is "Dat-un"....hhhhmmmmmm....maybe "That one"??

In the past two to three weeks Jacob has started adding words left and right. The most recent was today when he looked at a picture of himself and said "Baby"......I have been trying to get him to say baby for MONTHS!!! He also has decided that "Bubble", "Bye-Bye", "Ball", "Hot", "Uh-Oh", "Mama", "Dada", "That", "Bug", "Yum", "Book", "More" and last of all "G' Day" (we watch the Wiggles) are words that he can now pronounce.

I know that there are kids out there that may have a vocabulary of 20-30 words by 18 months, but he is very observant and knows many many many things so I am sure that if he keeps up the new words like he has been the past few weeks you will be reading a post from me talking about how he won't be quiet soon enough!

One thing that is very exciting is that Jacob FINALLY calls Paul "Dada" now you might think...HUH??......18 months and doesn't call his father Dada.....but what Jacob started doing is calling ANYONE Mama, He could say Dada, but if you were taking care of him at any point in time you were "Mama". If you asked him to point to Dada he would, or Grandma, or Grandpa, or some of my nieces and nephews he knew who everyone was, but in terms of calling them they were all MAMA!!!!! He is now calling Paul Dada which is one of those FINALLY moments we have been waiting for and something he could have done MONTHS ago!!!

As with crawling and walking, Jacob is yet again proving to me that milestones be damned he is going to do everything in his good old time! But as with his crawling and walking I am not stressing over the talking as much because I stressed over the crawling and walking and he did those fine so I have learned my lesson that Jacob is his own person and that he is going to talk circles around me soon enough! But it is nice to be able to have him talk to me more and let me know things!

That HAS to be a record!!

2009-03-03T17:49:00.003-05:00

First let me say that I apologize if the above picture grosses anyone out or offends them, but I got to thinking this week as I was constantly wiping the snot from my sons nose that I as a person and most parents I know change quite a bit when they have children.

Think long and hard back to before you were a parent and if faced with a similar situation above yet the child was replaced with an adult how many of us would think this was cute and run and go get the camera while they heard their child say BUBBLE BUBBLE BUBBLE? If the situation were poo or puke how come although still disgusting it doesn't make the usual parent's gag reflex go screaming. (I have however had a little too much of Jacob puking once).

I know that we as parents have to help these young people because at the beginning they can't move, grab, or have the overall coordination to help themselves. But I think it even goes past that. I have talked to parents of 10 and 12 year olds that still say that the "bodily fluids" of their children don't gross them out, but if their spouse, a stranger, or heck sometimes even themselves have boogies EEEEWWWWW GRRROOOSSSSS!!!!!

Anyway after the much too serious post last week I thought I would get back into the swing of things and let you know that Jacob was EXTREMELY proud of his snot bubble and actually smiled, pointed and tried to blow another one the rest of the day. The cold is gone now but I will always have the memory of the famous SNOT BUBBLE!!!

Childfreedom?

2009-02-28T20:25:00.003-05:00

Childfreedom!
February 28, 2009

I ran across a website yesterday while reading one of my blogs that I frequent and I have to say that this is a new thing for me. I don't exactly live under a rock, but I have to honestly say that I had never heard about this new underground group of people who are angry, fed up, and downright inconvenienced by people who have children and the children themselves.

I of course am not going to lose much sleep over the rantings of these particular blogs/websites but one post in particular actually made me laugh. This person is so upset over what she considers the "choice" of pregnancy. And she isn't talking about choice as in "pro-choice/abortion" but simply as "Yes! Paul and I chose to have children together, we CHOSE to have a family".

Here are the three articles that I picked out, but believe me there are many MANY articles on the one blog that delve deeper and deeper into her disgust of people who have or are having children. Childfreedom Blog , Parenthood doesn't lead to joy- Article. There is then an actually funny post on the same blog Uphappy Mothers which really made me laugh!

I will be the first to admit that I haven't slept well since I gave birth a year and a half ago, I will also tell you that I have days where I just wish that I could have 5 minutes to myself, and now that I am pregnant I can get very cranky. But I have NEVER regretted for one minute becoming a mother and if I did, do you think I would be pregnant again??? I don't think so.

I probably tell Jacob that I love him 100+ times a day, and give him even more kisses. What I miss the most about being a parent actually doesn't have ANYTHING to do with my decision to be a mother, it is the social aspect of being a full-time worker to now being a stay home mom who occasionally has no one over the age of 1 1/2 to talk to. But am I unhappy, HELL NO!

I guess the question is this? Do you have to have a smile plastered to your face 24/7 to be considered a happy mom? Do you have to never ever voice your frustration in order to be considered a happy mom? If this lady can complain about people who have children and she has the right to be "angry" or "discontent" with parents, aren't we as parents allowed to complain when we have had a bad day at home? Just because I chose to have children doesn't mean that my right to have a "bad day" has been taken away from me! But she seems to think that any discontent AT ALL instantly means that you as a mother have regretted your decision to be a parent.

I am a stay-at-home mom so THAT is my job. I know many many people who have bad days on the job and they tell me about it. I don't start a blog complaining about people who complain about their jobs.......how then do you categorize ALL MOMS as being unhappy. Does that mean I am allowed to categorize all people with jobs as unhappy people and that maybe they should choose to live a job-free life and that will fix their problems? She thinks that all mothers are unhappy and that they would be happy if they chose to live her life of being child-free...hhhmmmmm interesting.

I guess since I just went on a rant that makes me an unhappy mother.....I probably shouldn't have had kids! **just kidding** I think I am going to go look in on my sleeping son who I love more than life iteself! Good night everyone!!!

When animals attack!

2009-02-23T15:40:00.003-05:00

When animals attack!

February 21, 2009

This week Jacob was maliciously mauled by an small innocent looking puppy and a wide eyed froggy. The attack was completely unprovoked and happened after Jacob helped the puppy after it fell down. I am just glad that I was there so that Jacob was not seriously injured in the chaos!

Jacob has never been very interested in his "pull" or "push" toys so it is funny that this week he has spent little time doing anything BUT playing with them. He has a few but not much since the interest was never shown. He has been helping me vacuum a lot this week with his small toy vacuum and has been keeping his pet puppy and froggy close by. He has even started saying "ribbet" in his own 18 month old way. I can't quite explain how he says it but it is just different enough from "ribbet" to be really cute but completely understandable.

We have had a jam packed week this week. Paul's sisters and their kids were out from California and between the crankiness and missed naps we have now come down with a cold. It isn't that surprising considering he was probably kissed 18,000 times over the course of the week. Of course the cold wouldn't be that bad if you could teach an 18 month old how to blow his nose so since that isn't happening anytime soon and since Jacob runs and screams everytime he sees the nasal aspirator we will have a few sleepless nights while Jacob's nose clears up! A few people have had this cold and it doesn't last long and isn't too dibilitating which is nice. He has a slight fever though which no one else had but hopefully that too will turn out to be nothing, it hasn't seemed to slow him down yet.

Do these make me look smarter?

2009-02-10T20:02:00.003-05:00

February 10, 2009

Somewhere there is a Mr. Potato Head that is blind and stumbling around looking for his glasses!

Jacob walked around for over a 1/2 hour with these glasses on the other day. He was determined to wear them and thought it was soooo funny when he would bump into stuff because he couldn't see.......only my son!

Ladies Man!

2009-02-07T07:53:00.006-05:00

Ladies Man!
(February 6-7, 2009)

Well it was inevitable, Paul and I have been trying to fight it for months now, but our son is a CHICK MAGNET!!!!

Jacob is the 32nd grandchild on Paul's side and 20 of those grandkids live within 50 yards of us. Paul's family moved out to Virginia from California in the early 90's and purchased a large chunk of land that was split between the family members that moved out. So all we have to do is walk outside and it is like we have a family housing development. Because of this babysitters come very easy and playmates for Jacob are never more than a phone call or yell across the yard away!

Last night I decided to have a sleep over with the younger girls in the family. They love to come over and the last time I had them over was when I was pregnant with Jacob. I realized that I need to get in a few sleep overs between now and August because if anyone even utters the word "sleep over" to me once the new baby is here I would probably cry!

Jacob has always loved the ladies!! There is a joke among the family that if you are under the age of 14 and a girl that you could pick Jacob up and take him away forever and he wouldn't even bat an eye. He honestly gravitates towards them. So I figured that having a sleep over with 5 little girls would be a great break for me because he would be so enamored with them he would be entertained for HOURS!! Well it didn't exactly start out that way.......

At first he was a little scared, the girls were VERY excited to be here so they were dancing and jumping and laughing which scared Jacob a little bit. He cried once or twice and lived attached to my one leg for about an hour or more. But then, well then the Don Juan in him came out the result is the following picture.......

Now please don't confuse his lack of a smile as him not having fun, he tends not to smile for pictures. But trust me, after the first hour he was smiling, laughing, and all around showing off. I have a feeling we have a little Casanova on our hands. I hope the teenage years are kind to us!

Snow day!

2009-01-30T20:55:00.003-05:00

Snow day!
(1/25/09 - 1/31/09)

This week we finally got a snow day! Last year we got one or two but with Jacob only being 5-8 months old last winter I wasn't exactly going to cart him outside in the cold. This year however I bundled him all up in two pairs of pants, two shirts, snow pants, coat, hat, gloves, and snow boots before heading outside for a snow day! I of course pulled a rookie mom move and bought him snow boots in his size only to realize that if you are going to double up on socks then the boots wouldn't fit. I will make sure I don't make that mistake again next year.

Jacob reminded me of that kid from "A Christmas Story" who is so bundled up with clothes that he can't walk without having his arms straight out to the side. When we got outside Jacob did not know what to do in the snow. He HATED walking in it, and hated touching it even more. He did however LOVE LOVE LOVE being pulled around the yard on the sled and very much enjoyed watching other people sled down the hill in our yard.

A few cousins came over to enjoy in Jacob's first sledding experience and after a little while Jacob even let me pull him down the hill and would ride on the laps of different people as they went down. The next day we took Jacob out again and this time walking and touching was not so taboo and he had a lot of fun!

Too bad we for some reason haven't gotten a lot of snow the past few years, I remember when I was younger we would have a bunch of snow days a year and now the kids are lucky to have one the whole year. So I hope that we get some more snow, but if this is the only one this year then I feel comfortable that we made the most of what we got.

Thirsty much?

2009-01-28T19:41:00.003-05:00

Thirsty Much?
January 28, 2009

What can I say my son looooovvvveeeessss him some smoothies!

(just thought this was cute and wanted to share!)

Call me Jacob Picaso!

2009-01-24T08:48:00.005-05:00

Call me Jacob Picaso!
January 24, 2009

First let me say that I am the proud mommy of a 17 month old!

My budding little artist has decided that his medium of choice is going to be paint. I have tried many things over the past month or so to keep myself and Jacob happy. Even though we are not getting any snow or bad winter weather it has been very cold and we are unable to get outside much (which Jacob loves to do). I have been very tired with the pregnancy so we have been cycling through our DVD collections, playing with balls, cars, trains, etc.

I finally wanted to pull my hair out when I decided to pull out the paper, coloring books, and crayons. I tried this a month or two ago and would get a single scribble before Jacob would lose interest and go somewhere else. Which is not a surprise considering his age. So when I brought it all out again I got a little better result. I will show the progression of how my son colors in his "Thomas and Friends" coloring book.....

First Jacob needs to take all of his coloring pages and spread them out all over the floor in his playroom, then for some reason he has decided that he can tap into his artistic ability better if he gets down onto his stomach to color.......and then VOILA!!!! A masterpiece if I have ever seen one!

However this week we went to a craft class for little kids and he was given paint and a very very big paint brush. I had never thought about paint for Jacob because honestly the thought of a head to toe covered boy running from me as I chase him with a washcloth and he touches all of my walls and furniture on his escape route just didn't appeal to me. But I have to say that HE LOVED painting. He spent 15 minutes painting (which is hours in baby time) and was much more controlled and focused on painting than any other kid in the craft class. He was also the youngest one there and the 2+ year old kids were more focused on painting with their fingers or not at all. I will definitely have to rethink my position on painting and try to find really good washable ones. But as with anything I risk the chance of Jacob loving painting in a classroom and despising it in the house. I have a few toys that were like that.....played and played in the store or at his gym class and could care less once I got them home.

Just so you know his paintings and Thomas crayon drawings will be sold at auction to the highest bidder! I have a college fund to think about!

What did you call me??

2009-01-17T09:34:00.004-05:00

What did you call me??
(January 17, 2009)

I was thinking the other day that it is really amazing that Jacob has ever learned his name. I am famous for "nicknames" so when I was pregnant I of course knew that Jacob was going to be called Jake.......UH.....YEAH.....NOT!!! I swear the one name that I told EVERYONE Jacob was going to be called was Jake and what ONE NAME does he never get called....JAKE!

But he has many many many other names that he is called, as a matter of fact I think he is called these names more than his given name.

Tater
Sweet Potato
Tater Bug (this is my favorite most used)
Sweetie Pa-teetie
Munchkinater (ala terminator)
Big Man
Love Lump (for some reason I use this a lot too)
Pumpkin-iddles
Silly Silly Pumpkin-illy

I don't know where the H*ll I have gotten half of those names, but I like them!

I never really had a nickname other than Mandy for my given name Amanda but Paul was called a couple things and one has even stuck with his brothers and sisters and that is Poodle.

What are some of the crazy silly names you call your kids?

Big Brother 101! Sign me up!

2009-01-13T20:17:00.004-05:00

Big Brother 101! Sign me up!
(January 13, 2009)

This is one of the most unique posts that I have made since I started this blog over a year ago, but we just found out (actually a few weeks ago) that Jacob is going to be a BIG BROTHER!!!! Two years ago if you would have asked me if I saw myself as a mother of two I would have said "I WISH!!!!" Paul and I struggled to have children for 6 years with multiple miscarriages and when we finally found out that I suffered from a few problems that kept us from successfully having children but that there was medicine that I could take to help we were excited that there was hope. The next pregnancy we had obviously was successful and to think that we could be adding another boy or girl in 7 months is very exciting!

Of course now I have a lot of questions flowing through my head, as a full time mommy to Jacob the first thing that I worry about is "Will he feel left out?" and "How will Jacob adjust to not being #1?". I am sure I am not the first person to have a second child and worry about those exact things so if any of you are out there reading this let me know!

I have created another blog for my "pregnancy updates" because frankly this is "BEING JAKE" not "BEING JAKE AND A BABY" I am using this blog as a baby book for Jacob. Not that the typical baby book with pages to write things down in aren't great, but how many of you keep a 100% detailed baby book, plus honestly this blog has been "A day in the life" not just a snippet. So I would like to keep this solely Jacobs blog and hope you all will head over to "Being All Of Us" to keep up to date on the pregnancy and other family updates. I will try very hard to still update this blog every week and will be updating the other blog probably every 2 weeks or so. Since I am considered high risk I get TONS of ultrasounds and will posting them and talking about this pregnancy as it progresses!

I hope to create a blog for the new baby after he or she is born so that they too can have a detailed blog printed out for their first year or more of their life as well.

Happy reading!!! Keep us in your prayers for a safe and healthy pregnancy!

Tag I'm it!

2009-01-09T08:39:00.005-05:00

Tag I'm it!

I have been tagged by "Luke I am Your Father" to participate in a sort of blog chain letter of sorts. Here are the rules:

Go to your documents
Go to your 6th file.
Go to your 6th picture.
Blog about it.
Tag 6 friends to do the same. (unfortunately I don't know if I have 6 "blog friends". I know I have readers, but no one leaves comments so I don't have blog people to list....how sad! )

This picture as you can tell is pretty old. Jake was only 2 1/2 days old and we were visiting him in the NICU. He was there due to some minor complications with his birth. He was born with a fever, circulation problems, and bad jaundice. He was able to go home after 5 days and has never had any complications from his birth. Paul was feeding him for the first time after Jake didn't have the patience to try and nurse with me. He obviously got over that problem very quickly and was attached to me for his meal time for the next 14 months. It is so funny when I think about this picture because the nurse said that Jake couldn't go home until he could eat 40CC's of milk from a bottle......40CC's!!!!! I just got done feeding him a 12 ounce bottle! 40CC's wouldn't even wet his whistle now-a-days!!!

Here is who I am tagging!

The Feisty Five
The Corcoran Clan

*** I just found out that the reason I don't have any "blogger friends" is because my comment section of my site hasn't been working (thanks nonna!). I don't know why it wasn't but all should be fixed now so hopefully next time I get tagged I will have 6 people to tag back! ((fingers crossed))

Is it over yet??

2009-01-03T17:10:00.008-05:00

Is it over yet??

(12/28/08 - 1/3/09)

I am sooooo glad that the "Holidays" are almost over. Starting Monday everyone gets back to the grind of work and maybe just maybe my house can get back to normal. Christmas was great, but then came the visiting. Monday was spent hanging out with Jacob's godmother. We had a great lunch and it was a good lunch hangout session. Tuesday was spent visiting Jacob's Grandmother, which was also a good trip. Wednesday was spent trying to get Jacob to take as late a nap as we could so that we could squeeze every last second out of him New Years Eve. We only managed to squeeze out 9:00 but hey that is better than his normal 7:30-8:00 bedtime. With some embarasment I have to admit that I was asleep by 10:30 and for the first time in many many years I actually missed the ball drop to ring in 2009! But I got a heck of a nights sleep so that made it all worth it!

After Wednesday night we FINALLY started to wind down and the next few days were spent playing with Jacob's new toys that he got for Christmas. Paul and I are in the process of changing our "formal living room" which was never ever ever been used into Jacobs playroom. We noticed that by having the play area in the main family room that the TV was starting to be watched waaaayyyy too much. I am a self proclaimed TV-aholic and I also love to have noise in my house, a quiet house drives me nuts so usually the iPod or the TV is always on providing that noise for me. Jacob for the most part would ignore the TV except for when his two favorite shows "Imagination Movers" and "Thomas and Friends" would come on (it used to be Backyardigans and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse"). So by moving all of his toys into a room that doesn't have a TV in it he has started caring less about the TV again and will spend 80% of his day playing on his new train table and using his new found imagination.

When the new playroom is done I will post a picture of it, it is still in the process and a few more things need to be purchased and organized but it has been really nice not having EVERYTHING in my family room and being able to contain the chaos a little better!

Merry Christmas! Choo Choo!

2008-12-26T20:15:00.007-05:00

Merry Christmas! Choo Choo!

(December 26, 2008)

We had a great Christmas at the Corcoran house this year. Last year we had a 4 month old who couldn't sit up, couldn't stay awake more than 2 hours, and could have cared less about the tree, presents, Christmas music or Santa......My what a year can do!

Fast forward a year and you have a little boy who is walking/running around, fascinated with the ornaments on the tree (NO was said in my house a lot this year), LOVED LOVED LOVED ripping the paper off of the presents, danced to the Christmas music and well.....Santa.....let's not talk about Santa!

Jacob made out pretty good this year with presents, if you read my post from November titled One small step for man....and Choo-Choo Trains you know that Jacob loves trains, mostly Thomas trains, but he isn't that picky. So Santa focused most of his gifts around this typical boy obsession. The main gift was a new "train table" so that Jacob would have somewhere to set his train tracks up, then of course he got a few motorized Thomas and Friends trains, an awesome Thomas book, and of course what child isn't complete without his very own Thomas toothbrush, spoon/fork, and cup!

Jacob loves his new toys and his imagination has really bloomed since the new table has been set up....he loves loves loves playing on a child sized/height table and will use the new table for his trains, cars, and for coloring with crayons! Santa got this table at Target so it was very reasonably priced, cause they can be very expensive!!!

So until next year when we will have an almost 2 1/2 year old!! HOLY COW!!!

Happy Anniversary! Being Jake!

2008-12-24T21:24:00.002-05:00

Happy Anniversary! Being Jake!

It is hard to believe, but one year ago today I posted a picture of 4 month old Jacob in his Santa hat and started "Being Jake". I have managed to post a minimum of one post a week for the entire year and I want to thank everyone who reads it regularly! Stay Tuned, I am sure year number two will be even more interesting!

Death of the fuzzy mullet!

2008-12-20T20:33:00.004-05:00

Death of the fuzzy mullet!

First let me say that I am the proud mommy of a 16 month old! This week was an interesting week, we got to kill something in the Corcoran house. The death was quick and painless and we were all better because of it.

Jacob was born with absolutely no hair other than this reddish blondish brownish peach fuzz and then a few longer pieces on the back of his neck. As the months have passed his hair has started to come in slowly but surely. He still is no where near a full head of hair and for 16 months old I am really starting to get anxious about being able to give him a cute little haircut. Unfortunately Paul and I both were born with thin hair and didn't get our full heads of hair until after two years old. So Jacob is going to be hair deficient for another half a year or so.

But now comes the problem, that hair that was longer on his neck when he was born has continued to grow.....and grow.....and grow. I have been letting it grow because I wanted to see if it was going to grow into cute little curls. Well the only thing it grew into was a fuzzy mullet! So we had to make an executive decision and give him a mini-haircut! My sister is a beautician so I called her up and she killed the mullet! Jacob instantly looked older and with the fuzziness gone it made him look like his hair was thicker! I LOVE IT!

So Rest In Peace fuzzy mullet! I won't miss you!

Dear Santa.....

2008-12-11T20:41:00.010-05:00

Dear Santa,

I would like to apologize for my behavior today. I hope your temporary hearing loss has returned after my loud high pitched screams and of course I am very very sorry for almost kicking you. If you will allow me to explain I am sure we can come to an agreement and I hope that you will not forget about me Christmas night as you are making your rounds.

Since I am only 16 months old I am slowly learning about things around me, but still have a fear of strangers. I was not given enough time to figure out if you were friend or foe as my mother haphazardly dropped me off on your lap only to quickly cower behind the lady in the funny hat who was trying to get me to smile by shaking annoying bells in my face and asking me to "look over here".

I am sure you are a very nice man, I mean hey you bring children toys, but you should really rethink the wardrobe as the all over red, funny hat, and ALL THAT HAIR tend to scare little people like me. I do come by my fear of you honestly as you will see in "exhibit A" my father once screamed and almost kicked you when he was a little older than me, I guess it runs in the family.....oops!

Exhibit A: Paul 2 years old 1968

In case you do end up forgiving me for our little encounter today I would like to ask you for the "Elmo Live" doll, it just cracks me up and I love how it gives me kisses when I see it in the store, and of course anything "Thomas the Tank Engine" would be awesome! You know how I love trains! I promise to be good for the rest of the year and not give my parents too much trouble. Until we meet again next year!

Sincerely,
Jacob

Grandpa is doing great!

2008-12-06T17:29:00.007-05:00

Grandpa is doing great! (December 6, 2008)

We headed down to spend some time with Grandpa and Grandma at Mt. Vernon today and we got to see Grandpa in his Physical Therapy. He is doing really well and has gained a lot of strength in his legs and is working on his arm strength as well. Check him out!!!

Grandpa can move his leg up and down all by himself! GO GRANDPA!

First time Grandpa tries to walk with a walker, he does pretty good!

The next time he walks he does even better, watch his foot/leg move
without the help of the Physical Therapist!
(Don't ask me why the camera turns half way through, just tilt your head! GRIN)

Just like my Daddy!

2008-12-05T12:09:00.004-05:00

Just like my Daddy!
(December 5, 2008)

These past two weeks have been pretty stressful, but that's why we have little children in our lives! Leave it up to Jake to make us all smile! He decided that he wanted to be just like his Daddy and while Paul was on the phone he got our other phone and walked around for over 10 minutes following Paul around the house "pretending" to talk on the phone. He would even stop every few minutes and push some buttons just to make the effect that much more real!!!

A Hospital Thanksgiving!

2008-11-28T21:28:00.004-05:00

A Hospital Thanksgiving!

(November 27th, 2008)

As I mentioned in the previous post the Corcoran Clan has taken over the hospital Telemetry floor. There are Grandma and Grandpa's 9 children (Ed, Sean, Kate, Deirdre, Amy, Jim, Paul, Aggie, and Lucy), 5 spouses, and 20 of the 32 grandchildren all running around the 2nd floor of the hospital. The staff think it is great and say that they have never seen such a loving and supportive family. Grandpa is doing a little better and has started intense physical therapy and will soon be going to a rehabilitation center for an even more intense 3 week therapy session. He will need to learn to walk, talk, read, and write again but we are all hopeful and the doctors have said that he should gain a good bit of his mobility back.

Thanksgiving day turned out to be a very happy, but somber day at the hospital. The hospital staff were gracious enough to allow the family to use one of the conference rooms near Grandpa to setup 10 tables and a buffet of food. Grandpa even got to come down and say prayers with us and even ate some turkey and mashed potatoes!

(Front Row: Paul, Ed, Grandpa, Grandma, Aggie(lap), Sean, Lucy(lap), Jim.
Second Row: Amy, Deirdre, Kate.) 1970's

(Front row: Ed, Grandpa, Jim
Second row: Aggie, Paul, Grandma, Kate, Lucy, Amy, Sean, Deirdre)

ME GRANDPA! You baby Jacob!

2008-11-27T21:50:00.005-05:00

ME GRANDPA! You baby Jacob!

This week has been a crazy week! Paul, Jacob, Dustin, and I all went away on Sunday for a much needed mini-vacation when we got the call early Monday morning that Paul's father "Grandpa" had suffered a stroke. We all immediately packed up and headed to the hospital. Paul's father is a one of a kind man who can make anyone feel at ease and doesn't have an enemy in the world. The father of 9, grandfather of 32, and great grandfather of 2 is so loved that the entire Corcoran clan have taken over the hospital this week. Four of Paul's sisters (Amy, Kate, and the Twins Aggie and Lucy) all came out from California and of course the rest of the family is already here. Jake has had a lot of "little mommies" to help him during the long hours in a hospital. As you can imagine having a 15 month old in a hospital for 5 days straight 5-7 hours a day can be quite nerve racking, but luckily God has given us a very relaxed little boy and other than the occasional melt down when he is hungry or sleepy he has been great. Paul and I have been able to spend time with Grandpa and have been able to check out mentally for a little while without Jacob needing or wanting us too much.

I do think that Jacob understands that something is wrong and has been very concerned when seeing Grandpa and will even gently touch Grandpas hand or foot and ALWAYS waves to Grandpa when he sees him. Jacob has spent a lot of time with Paul's parents during his short 15 month life. There is one thing that Grandpa does with Jacob that never fails to make Jacob smile or laugh. Grandpa will point to himself and in a very low voice and say "ME GRANDPA!" then in a high pitched voice point to Jacob and say "You baby Jacob!"........Jacob just loves this and we have been doing this when we see Grandpa this week. We have also been going to the mall with Grandma and Grandpa about once a week for the past few months and can't wait to be able to go again when Grandpa gets better.

(Jacob and his "Little Mommies" at the Hospital)

It is all a waiting game now, but we are praying everyday and know that this will be a long hard road that we will all, especially Grandpa will have to travel. Please keep him in your prayers! You can never have too many prayers!!!

I can do it by myself!

2008-11-22T11:09:00.004-05:00

I can do it by myself!

11/16/08 - 11/22/08)

First let me say that I am the proud mommy of a 15 month old!!!

I don't have much to write about this week. Unfortunately Jake, Paul, our nephew Dustin (who lives with us) and myself all got a nasty nasty nasty stomach virus this week which pretty much had us laying around on the couch for 3-4 days. Jake got it the worse and was sick for three straight days which of course meant that we were home with him trying to keep him comfortable. Then Tuesday night the rest of the house got sick but we were all better within 24 hours (Thank God!). But as you can imagine the whole week was shot before we knew it.

During our time being sick Jake was forced to play by himself a lot more than normal. Being a stay home mom means that I am here to play with Jake a lot during the day. In a way that is great, but I obviously realize that it can also be bad when Jake wants you with him 24/7. Luckily Jake realized we weren't feeling well (reinforced by him giving a lot of hugs and kisses during our sick day), so he started playing by himself.

He did pretty good, but it is funny to see the baby that you swear isn't old enough to do anything on his own to suddenly not need you. He walked around the house, got his toys out himself, even at one point got me the remote that was just too far out of my reach. The best part of the whole day was when he got out his favorite toy but couldn't find all of the balls that fit in it so he decided that a ball was a ball! He obviously got frustrated when the balls that he tried to use with the toy didn't "bang through"!! We all laughed for awhile and then helped our little guy find the right balls for the toy!

We are all feeling much better now, and are getting ready to head out for a little mini-vacation before Thanksgiving!

What does a picky eater eat??

2008-11-14T21:08:00.014-05:00

What does a picky eater eat??

(11/9/08 - 11/15/08)

I have had a heck of a time getting Jacob to eat “real” food. This has been going on (for those of you who don’t follow this blog) for a few months now. At first I wasn’t worried about it because I was still nursing which was giving him his majority of nutrients that are needed throughout the day. Now that I am down to nursing only in the morning and at night we are being faced with the “picky eater syndrome” that I am sure most parents deal with at some point. I have found a few tricks that seem to be working for Jacob, some I have thought of or found on my own and others I have gotten from awesome blogs like this one or from this website.

Now please keep in mind as you read about the following foods that even though it might look like “WOW Jake eats a lot!” some days that could be the case and then others days or even multiple days in a row he could go all day on half a chicken nugget a raisin and a few oyster crackers! YUK!!

Beverages:
PediaSmart Vanilla
Lactose Free Organic Formula
Mots for Tots Fruit Punch or Apple Juice (one small juice box)

Food:
Silver Dollar Cinnamon Carrot Pancakes Organic (recipe below)
Sweet Potato Waffle (organic freezer section at Super Target)
Plain Eggo
Piece of Whole Wheat Toast with butter
Tyson’s All Natural Chicken Nuggets (2)
Cheese Quesadilla
Mini Corn Dog
All Natural Hot Dog
Broccoli Cheese Chicken Nuggets (organic freezer section at Super Target)
Fries dipped in waaaayyyy too much ketchup
All types of crackers (saltine, oyster, graham, Ritz)
Banana
Fig Newtons
Yogurt covered Craisins (dried cranberries)
Any kind of dried fruit (cherries, blueberries, raspberries, raisins)
Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Stage 3 Gerber Organic baby food

More crackers are eaten then anything above, but we are slowly starting to move away from ONLY crackers and he is getting so he doesn't only expect crackers when he is sitting at the table. The PediaSmart drink has also been a lifesaver. A single serving has twice the protein and vitamins than the same amount of regular formula. Although I have to admit that I don't mix it according to the package directions or I would soon find myself broke as they call for 1/2 cup of mix per 6 ounces of water. I just act like it is regular formula and add about 5-6 formula scoops per 10 ounces of water. It is still thick, creamy, and tastes like a watered down vanilla milkshake

I know that I have a lot of people who read this blog (I can track visitors) but I don't seem to have very many comments left on this blog (except Mr. LIAYF who is a very loyal reader/commenter - THANKS) but if you are reading this blog and know of any good AND NUTRITOUS things that I could try to get Jake to eat please let me know. And please don't say things like green beans, peas, or broccoli cause I have been there and tried that!!! Jake also is in the "I can do it myself" mode so if it requires good use of fork/spoon technique we might have to wait on it, but good "finger food" ideas are great!!!

Now here is a recipe that I created myself and I have to say that it tastes GREAT!! Everyone in my house likes them and they honestly taste like french toast pancakes. But of course have some veggies snuck in!

Cinnamon Carrot Pancakes

1 Cup of Organic Pancake Mix (or any pancake mix that requires only water)
2/3 Cup Water
1 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil
1/2 Cup Organic Applesauce
1 Medium Organic Carrot shredded
1/2 - 1 tsp. of Cinnamon (season to your taste)
1/2 -1 tsp of Sugar (this is optional I thought they were good without but Jake likes it sweeter)

**The first three ingredients are according to the package directions, your water and oil measurements could be different depending on the brand of pancake mix you purchase**

I use a TBSP. measuring spoon and make a bunch of silver dollar pancakes. I then put them onto a baking sheet and put them in the freezer (I have a large freezer in my garage) if you only have your kitchen refrigerator freezer you can put wax paper or aluminum foil in between layers on a plate or in a bag and freeze. Once frozen I put them in a freezer bag and when I need them I can just microwave one or two for about 25 seconds. If you want serve them "as is" or with butter and some syrup for dipping! I hope you all try them out and like them as much as we do!

We're Moving Now!

2008-11-13T09:38:00.003-05:00

We're Moving Now!

Well Jacob has gone from walking two feet to walking for upwards of 40 minutes at a time around the house!! Now if he could just grasp the art of standing without pulling himself up on some sort of furniture we will be set!! He is sooo cute when he walks around, he is soooo serious! HILLARIOUS!

One small step for man......and Choo-Choo Trains???

2008-11-08T11:35:00.008-05:00

One small step for man.....and Choo-Choo Trains???

(11/2/08 - 11/08/08)

This week Jacob has been focused on two things, and two things ONLY!!! Choo-Choo trains and walking! As a 14 1/2 month old Jacob is starting to show his parents that he is definitely 100% ALL BOY!!!! Of course if the fact that his first real word was BALL didn't give it away his now OCD type quality over Trains has definately shown his father and I that we are going to have the typical Ball, Trucks, Dirt, Bugs, Super Hero loving tough and tumble boy!

The whole "Choo-Choo" obsession actually came about from desperation on my part this week. His Aunt Lucy got him a Thomas and Friends wooden railway set for his birthday back in August. Knowing that he wouldn't be ready for something like this for awhile I packed it away with the understanding that we would bring it out when Jacob got older. Now I know that 3 months later isn't exactly "older" but remember....I was DESPERATE! Jacob was in a little bit of a cranky mood, the typical Backyardigans, Imagination Movers, books, toys, etc....were just not cutting it. Usually if Jacob gets like this I will bundle him up and take him for a walk. Unfortunately the day in question was cold and rainy so that was out! I thought a change of scenery would be good so we headed upstairs to roam around and check out the new scenery.

While in Jacobs room, he found the train box and started trying to drag it out, I thought "what the H*ll!" and started to help him unpack the box......

**6 days later**

We now play with the train set EVERYDAY, we are now taping Thomas and Friends on the TV (Backyardigans and Imagination Movers are sooooooo last week), Jacob now is OBSESSED with trains and very quickly learned how to pump his arm up and down while making his own version of a "WOO WOO" sound. And as you can see up top, we have also had to start riding the train at the local Mall! If you click on the tippy top picture you can actually see that his arm is up and he was "woo woo'ing" for about 3-4 minutes until the train took off! But hey, who cares, it make my little boy happy and that makes me happy! I am sure this will soon pass as with everything else in Jacobs short blinders induced vision of fun life!

Jacob has started to get the nerve up to do what Paul and I know he has been ready to do for WEEKS!!! He has started to let go and slowly start to walk on his own. The video above doesn't really do his walking justice. He has walked 15-20 feet to get to places this week but of course I can't walk around with a video camera every second of every day so this is the best one I have been able to capture! He is on his way!! YEAH!!!

FEAR!!! What is it??

2008-10-31T15:45:00.010-04:00

FEAR!!! What is it??

(10/26/08 - 11/1/08)

Growing up I was a kid that was always afraid, I grew up in a very rural (OK the boonies) town where there weren't a lot of houses near mine and my house was in the middles of the woods. You would always get weird noises of animals coming from the darkness, the branches of the trees would cast eerie shadows on my bedroom walls, and the old house would creek and moan with the changing of the weather and temperature.

Was I afraid of these things because they were different? Was I afraid because as humans we are genetically programed to fear them? Or maybe it was because I watched scary movies, or saw my mother or sisters afraid so I LEARNED to be afraid......the truth is I don't really know.

This week with Halloween fast approaching the stores were in full display with there aisles of candy, masks, decorations, and costumes. As parents Paul and I have NEVER EVER scared Jacob. We have honestly sheltered him from anything that would scare him, and have never exposed him to any sort of masks, goblins, spiders, or weird creepy music. So when we were walking through different stores this week the pure fear that went through Jacob shocked Paul and I. It wasn't just a whimper or a quiet MAMA coming from the stroller it was an all out FEAR PANICKED SCREAM with Jacob physically shuttering and then trying to crawl and scratch his way out of the stroller and into my arms!

This happened a few times this week because you can't even go to the grocery store without some sort of Halloween decorations being up. First it was the big furry spider that had blinky red eyes, then it was the skull mask that was haphazardly askew on the under stuffed pillowcase body, then multiple times it was simply masks, or animated candy dishes that would shriek or cackle as you walked by them and set off their motion sensors.

No matter how you sliced it this week has shown me that fear MUST be somehow genetically ingrained in us. How did Jacob know to be scared of these things? Is he the only 14 month old that behaves this way?? Have I been blessed with a scare-dy cat for a child?? I would love to know if anyone else has had this problem? I am just glad that Halloween is over now so that all of these evil creatures can be packed away.......OH NO!!! NOW WE HAVE HUGE SANTA FIGURES TO SEE!!! Say your prayers people!!!!

Last year Jake was only 2 months old for Halloween so I didn't dress him up, I put on his BOO PJ's that his godmother got him and took a picture and Photoshopped him to look like a mouse! This year I have done the same thing because honestly he isn't walking yet, he doesn't eat candy (except for the occasional bite of some chocolate that I have) and he isn't really into anything. He loves the Backyardigan's and the Imagination Movers, but is obviously not asking for them nor will he understand that he would be dressing up as them. So I got him a "Pirate" shirt with the good 'ole "Jolly Roger" skull and crossbones on it and Photoshopped him to look like a Pirate!!!

As the Backyardigans say:

What do you do with a Scurvy pirate?
Load the cannon up and fire it!
What do you do with a Scurvy Pirate?
MAKE HIM WALK THE PLANK!!!

ARGH!! Happy Halloween Me Hearties!!!

Jake's Favorite Things!!

2008-10-25T10:39:00.005-04:00

Jake's Favorite Things!

(10/19/08 - 10/25/08)

Jake has always been a very vocal and social little baby. He may not giggle constantly or let every stranger pick him up, but in terms of his "learning" he is ALWAYS watching. You can look at him and see that everything he sees or hears he is storing away for later use. Now that he is getting older (14 months old) and his body is physically able to allow him to form more words and get to where he wants to go or do what he wants to do the whole world is opening up to him.

Here are a few of his favorite things as a little boy growing up in the country:

1) Waving HI! and Bye-Bye! to people or as he likes to say (DIE and DIE-DIE), yes my little boy with all of the excitement he can muster tells you in the nicest way to DIE every time you enter or leave a room! He of course combines this with the ever popular backward baby wave!

2) Making animal noises! He has now up'ed his repertoire of animal noises from just a dog (baaf-baaf) to now ROOOAARRR for a lion, MOW (add an M in front of OW (ow as in a boo-boo)) and you have his version of MEOW for any type of cat!

3) Bringing his mother books to read and then only letting me read approximately 1-3 pages before he rips it out of my hands and gives me another book....this can sometimes happen 20+ times!!! My favorite time of day....NOT!!!

4) Playing with is Daddy, this is always his best time! Paul has the best imagination and can keep even the crankiest of Jacob's happy for a long time!

5) Going on walks outside in his new wagon! (You know the wagon that I was looking at when he got his first boo-boo).......

6) Saying MAMA MAMA MAMA MAMA upwards of 1500+ times a day!!! Please kid....go back to saying DADA like you used to!!! AAAAHHHHHHHHH

Those are just some of the things that take up my day, sometimes it can get very monotonous but now that Jake is older he can also play by himself. He has also started to understand the world around him more. Now that he has gotten older he has been able to connect the things around him. We have a fireplace that we have been lighting (gas fireplace, you flip a switch...how convenient) in the mornings when we get up and he has a book that also has a picture of a fireplace. He has been pointing to it and then pointing to our fireplace. He also the other day went and got his "This Little Piggy" animated stuffed animal when I was playing the game on his PIGS before bed.

He still isn't walking but has taken upwards of 4-5 steps by himself and when you are walking him while he holds onto your finger he isn't even using you as support. He is 100% walking by himself, but take your hand away and he falls flat it looks like he is doing the same thing with walking that he did with crawling. He didn't crawl until 11 months but could have weeks earlier and that is what is going on with walking too. It doesn't bother me in the slightest though because I know that he is physically able to walk and that it is all in his head!!! My little scare-dy cat!!

OW! That hurt!

2008-10-18T10:45:00.006-04:00

OW! That hurt!!

(10/12/08 - 10/18/08)

It was bound to happen eventually, you plug all of the outlets so that your child doesn't get hurt. You put annoying drawer/door stops on all of the cabinets so that your child can't pull a pot down on their head, you rearrange and de-decorate your whole house and put up gates to quarantine off certain areas all in the hopes that you can keep your child from hurting themselves.

But the one thing you don't "baby proof" is yourself and of course what ends up hurting your child turns out to be something that YOU yourself accidentally do. This week Jake got his first official "Boo Boo" and it was all because of my lack of good judgment. We were taking a walk one day and I parked him on what I thought was a perfectly flat piece of real estate to go look at a tiny tykes wagon that my sister-in-law said that we could use for Jake when all of a sudden I hear a THUD and then WAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!

I of course rush right over and pick him (and the stroller up) and see that he has a scrape on his upper cheek! HOLY COW!! It scared the "you know what" out of me! Trust me the yard wasn't sloped hardly at all but I guess those three wheeled outdoor strollers aren't very stable especially when you have a 14 month old in it who is very nosy and is trying to turn and look at what his mother is doing! Regardless I feel/felt so bad after it happened! How could this happen on my watch?

Since this happend I have been told by many many many parents that this is only the start of the "boo boo's" and that you especially have to watch out for boys cause they tend to be more into daredevil tactics then their female counterparts. OH BOY! I can hardly wait!!

This incident reminded me of when I was little, I was in kindergarten, and my sister and I were playing on our old rusty metal swing set outside. We of course were playing by ourselves and my sister got the idea that she was going to do flips over the side bar of the swing set so she needed me to hold this HUGE metal two person swingy thing that was on the swing set. I was doing a pretty darn good job when my hands started getting slippery and I let go of the swing. Luckily it missed my sister but instead of moving away myself I just ducked and bent over just in time for one of the rusty screws to hit me in the head. This is one of the earliest memories I have, of course I remember it in a really cool way, cause lets face it what's more cool then going to school and showing off a head full of stitches to your teacher and school mates!!!! But the other thing that I clearly remember is that right after it happened there was a lot of blood and my mom of course trying her best to find where I was hurt and trying to clean me up. She handled the whole situation very well at home, once we got to the hospital all bets were off though and again I CLEARLY remember the nurses having to get her to sit down because she was light headed! Up until the other day this has always been a little inside joke with my mother and I! I used to joke with her about almost passing out because of course I have good memories of this accident I remember the blood but not the pain!

Well Mom! I am very sorry about joking with you about that because my heart was pounding a mile a minute when Jake got hurt and he only got a shiner for his accident. I can honestly say that if he would have had his head split open and blood all over the place they would probably have to make me sit to keep from passing out too! I could never imagine the fear that goes through you when you think your child is hurt, it is a crazy ride!!

Jake of course is fine and his first black eye is healing nicely and is hardly noticable! Hopefully I won't be writing anytime soon about his next "Boo Boo"!

The Joys of Fall!

2008-10-11T11:22:00.008-04:00

The Joys of Fall!

(10/5/08 - 10/11/08)

Oh the "Joys of Fall", we have the cooler nights, the milder days, the leaves changing, Fall Festivals, Halloween.........COLDS!!! UGH! Jake has his first cold of the season, and while it isn't a horrible one when it comes to colds/flu Jake is very very wimpy (probably not unlike most babies and some adults I know)! If all of the planets aren't perfectly aligned, if there isn't peace in the world and if Mommy doesn't fix things IMMEDIATELY! There is hell to pay!

You know Paul and I are seriously starting to think that there is a conspiracy against us. I read other blogs of parents who have children right around Jakes age and of course I talk to other parents of children, and it seems that Paul and I just can't catch a break! We FINALLY got Jake sleeping well at night, starting to eat real food again, drinking out of a cup (and not just nursing) and now we have a baby with a boogie nose that wants to wake up every 2-3 hours!!! AAAAHHHHHH!!!! Please Please Please someone tell me that eventually all babies sleep???

But the ironic part to all of this is that Paul and I are talking about when a good time for Jake to get a sibling is, but with the way my luck is going I won't get Jake sleeping through the night until I am 9 months pregnant and then BAM!!! I will have another newborn.....

Are dark circles and puffy bags under the eyes in fashion yet??? Cause if they are I could surely be the poster child for them! I know that there is the flu shot out there for the little ones, but I have a real problem injecting anything into my child that isn't really necessary. Is it wrong for me to think things like "We didn't have the flu shot and we all survived"???? This is my new dilema....you go to your doctors and the first thing out of their mouth is "When do you want to get Jake his flu shot"....not "Would you LIKE to get Jake the flu shot" or "Have you thought about getting Jake the flu shot" but WHEN!!! They just assume that you are going to do it, and I for one unless Jake is getting the flu every other week am going to choose to just keep my child out of the cold, limit his exposure to germs, and hope that he survives the Fall and the upcoming Winter!

Hand in Hand!

2008-10-07T15:58:00.002-04:00

We went to a wedding this weekend, and I just loved this picture that was taken of Jacob and his Daddy!

Assuming can be hazardous to your health!

2008-10-04T09:04:00.013-04:00

Assuming can be hazardous to your health!

(9/28/08 - 10/4/08)

First let me say that yesterday was Daddy's birthday!!! Happy Birthday Daddy!

Growing up I was always told that you should never assume……you know what they say about assuming…..don’t you??? But as a parent isn’t it our job to assume? I mean hey, these little bundles of joy don’t come with instruction manuals, and they sure as heck don’t get born talking to tell us what’s wrong. We assume they are hungry, tired, or bored, we assume that each cry means something different and we try to help them accordingly. My life for the past 13 ½ months has been about nothing but assuming! And for the most part I think I have done a darn good job of assuming correctly.

For instance Jake inherited something from his father that is definitely a family trait. He has gotten A LOT of teeth in a very very short amount of time. He was our toothless wonder until he was 8 months old. Then between 8 and 10 months (8 weeks of teething) he got eight teeth! Trust me when I tell you that it was absolutely horrible and our once sleeping through the night munchkin started NOT sleeping through the night. But who can blame him, I mean I don’t have personal memories of teething but it can’t feel good and I am sure it hurts a good bit!

We got through that torture and were able to get some good nights sleep for about a month or so before teething hell part two started. To cut the story short Jake is now working on his 15^th tooth!!! Yep that’s right…..13 ½ months old and has 15 teeth!!! But the worst part is that he just started getting this second round about 5-6 weeks ago….so if you do the math…..OUCH!!! Especially since it has been all molars and eye teeth, supposedly the worst ones!! But my motherly assuming kicked in and the homeopathic teething tablets, Motrin, teething gel, and Tylenol were always at arms length and seemed to be doing the trick……SO I ASSUMED!!!!

Well I am about to tell you how the age old adage of “You should never assume, because it makes a *you know what* out of U and ME” is absolutely true….at least in my case!

**SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING**

In addition to teething I am trying to wean Jake so when he turned a year old I started mixing a little bit of whole milk into his formula bottle and hoping that he would at least cut out one feeding a day. He seemed to take to milk very well and even seemed to enjoy it and would on occasion drink upwards of 6+ ounces a day (trust me that is good for him). But for the past few weeks his night wakings have been coming more frequently and it had really started to take its toll on me. But ASSUMING that he was getting 6+ teeth and that they must really hurt, I just ASSUMED that it was wakings due to pain. However one night last week I was just baffled…..he was waking up every hour to two hours and was screaming (colic like screams). I had just given him a dose of Motrin about 2 hours before so it shouldn’t be teething pain….right???

Then it all hit me like a tons of bricks…….his bad night wakings, his poo diapers (sorry to get graphic), his eating habits……they all started changing since he has been a year old, and that is when I started to introduce milk!!! That day I rushed out and got some rice milk to just do a day or two test and VOILA!!!!! He slept 10 ½ hours the FIRST NIGHT!!! And since has only been getting up once a night for the past week. We are working on getting it down to no times a night, but hey when you go from 4-5 times and get it down to once you thank the Lord and don’t get picky!!

So the whole time I ASSUMED it was pain from teeth, which to my defense it could have been some of it, but it was also that the poor guy was having tummy pains too!!!!

I have added a new video to the top right!!!

If the shoe fits!

2008-09-27T14:00:00.003-04:00

If the Shoe fits!

(9/21/08 - 9/27/08)

This week Jake got his first two pairs of shoes....now many of you might be wondering why a 13 month old would just now be getting his first pair of shoes? The answer to that is that although I have no problem spending money on toys, clothes, etc..... I just never got into putting shoes on my little one. He has grown sooooo much since he was born that even a cheap pair of shoes ($10) would have only lasted him for maybe a month. He is only 13 months and is already in a size 5 1/2 childrens shoe!! So we lived with socks only last fall and winter, and of course all spring and summer we have gone barefoot.

My sister got him three pair of shoes for his birthday but he wanted NOTHING to do with them. They were hard soled "real shoes" because lets face it most children by the time they are wearing a 5 1/2 are already walking and need the extra protection while walking outside. But Jake wouldn't even put his feet down on the ground while in these shoes. So I took them back and exchanged them for a size or two larger (cause dang it they were adorable and I want Jake to wear them eventually). Then I went on a mission to find Jake shoes that would protect his feet but also not feel like shoes.

There are these things called Robeez, but honestly I just don't like the look of them and they don't stay on his feet well.....for those of you who don't know what they are they are basically leather socks for a lack of a better description. So while at Nordstrom one day I found these shoes called Pedipeds. They are super flexible, have a padded leather sole, and a normal leather "shoe part". I went home and ordered him two pair online, one "sneaker" shoe and one "church/dressy" shoe. Jake LOVES them! He knows these are his shoes and when you tell him that it is time to go bye-bye and that we need to get this shoes on he will sit down next to you and stick one foot up in the air to give you access to his foot!

Even though Jake isn't walking yet, he is on his way to having shoes to help protect those little piggies of his. He is pretty darn close to walking and has forgotten he is standing up a few times and will play with something with both hands and actually balance for a few seconds before either falling or catching himself against whatever he is standing at. I walked at 14 months and I honestly think he is on his way to following in his mothers footsteps (pun totally intended)!!

Me and my imagination!

2008-09-20T08:48:00.005-04:00

Me and my imagination!

(9/14/08 - 9/20/08)

First let me say that I am the proud mommy of a 13 month old!!! So much has changed since our little one turned a year old. It is almost like a switch was flipped and all of a sudden all of the things that we had been trying to teach him and all of the times when you thought that he just wasn't listening have all decided to show themselves!

Our little guy has quite the imagination, I didn't really think that a one year old would be able to start "imaginative playing" most of the books I have read said that imaginative play doesn't start until around 16 months, but trust me.....JAKE DOES IT NOW!

It is actually pretty darn cute! He does a few things, while in the tub he takes these two fish we have and bounces them (as if they are walking) and pretends like they are making noise/talking to each other. He'll move one and go "da da da da" and then move the other as if in response and go "da da da da"....

We also bought him a tent......yes that's right....a tent! And of course it is right smack dab in my living room, you know the living room that used to be so perfectly awesomely decorated. The one that I used to pride myself on for being so perfectly color coordinated.....

SIGH....oh well.....once you get one peek of him inside the tent hugging all of his stuffed animals and "camping" out with them it makes the new "kid chic" decorating style that I have adopted all worth it! There is also a tunnel that goes with the tent and Jake likes to pull it over top of himself and hang out in there.....he will start talking to himself and occasionaly pop his head out and say "ba" (for boo).

I just love this new stage, it is soooo awesome to see him starting to play with toys the way they are intended and to bring certain toys to me because he wants to play with them. I used to have to guess what he wanted to do and usually it would take me many different toys to finally find something that would make him happy. Now he just tells me "nah" or will bring it to me himself!

Scene Stealer!

2008-09-13T10:36:00.003-04:00

Scene Stealer!

(9/7/08 - 9/13/08)

When you first bring a baby home from the hospital and even the first few months they are all that anyone can talk about! You walk into a room and BAM you hear "Oh look at the baby", or "He is SOOOO adorable" or even "I just want to kiss those chubby cheeks"! But what happens when the "newness" of your baby wears off? What happens if the attention the baby gets isn't as intense as it used to be??

Well if you are Jacob, you MAKE YOUR PRESENCE KNOWN IMMEDIATELY!!!! Paul and I have noticed that Jake is really becoming sooooooo independent over the past 3-4 weeks, so much so that sometimes he searches things (or people) out on his own. He especially searches out his ATTENTION!

I will give you an example. Unfortunately this week my second cousin passed away and we all had to go to a funeral with a small gathering afterwards. Of course everyone was very sad and the mood expressed that. But Jake not understanding these things decided that he needed to be the life of the party. I would say that this was all coincidence but on multiple occasions he would look at me (with almost a "hey is this OK Mom?" or "watch me!") expression on his face and he would proceed to ham it up! He pulled out all the stops! He waved at people, gave them his flirty eyes (he double blinks at people), crawled around, bee-bopped to imaginary music, and even gave kisses to his grandmother and hugs to people. Needless to say that the mood was instantly lightened and Jake got what he had been seeking! ATTENTION!

I would think that this was all a one time thing, or that it wasn't a conscience effort on his part, but a few days later we were shopping with his other grandmother and were in a childrens clothing store when he started flirting (honest to God) with another little girl in the store. After talking to the girls mother we learned that her name was Katie and she was 18 months old. Jake was in his stroller and Katie was walking around the store. Jake and her would wave to each other from across the store, she would even occasionally come over and her and Jake would do the customary "poke each other" kid stuff. Eventually they must have realized that they were each OK and started "kid speaking" he again pulled out all the stops, he went through his repertoire of noises/spit bubbles, barked like a dog, said bye-bye (di-di), and then he did something that shocked his grandmother and I. In the MOST GENTLE of moves he held his arms out, tilted his head to the side and gently brought Katie to him for a hug! There was even a pat on the back! All I can say is "MY SON IS A SCENE STEALER"!!!

Watch out girls! My son is going to be a heart breaker!!!

Vroom Vroom Cruisin' the Dunes

2008-09-06T10:29:00.007-04:00

Vroom Vroom Cruisin' the Dunes

(8/31/08 - 9/6/08)

Have you ever listened to a song and instantly thought that the singer must know exactly what your life is like? Each and every verse and chorus matches your life so perfectly that you will end up playing it over and over and over until you have absolutely worn out its lyrics and become so sick of it that you never want to hear it again?

Well, Jake has now officially gotten his first official "that's my life" song, and Paul and I are in the stages of the playing it over and over and over and over again! The song is from the every popular (and completely awesome) Backyardigans. If you aren't familiar with this show it is on Nick Jr. and it is about 5 kids who play in their familes backyards and use their imagination to create a new adventure for themselves each week. You of course have Pablo the Penguin, Tyrone the Moose, Unique the ???? (crazy alien don't know what she is), Tasha the Hippo, and Austin the Kangaroo.

Over the past few weeks Jake has gotten very independant and has gone from not crawling, to now crawling and "Cruising" all of the furniture. He cruises so much that now that is all he does ALL DAY LONG! It is actually quite nice. I have found that I can now empty the dishwasher, vacuum, and do other chores without having to have him with me or without him being under my feet and getting into somewhere that is dangerous. Just steer him towards the couch, or coffee table and he will run laps around that thing for hours!

I have the DVR system through DirectTV and for those of you who don't have a "TIVO" type device the only thing that I have to say is....unless you want to be addicted, DON'T get one! It has allowed me to tape shows, rewind shows, and basically do anything I want with television. It is AWESOME! I wouldn't know how to go back to not having one now that we have had one for a few years now. So I have the Backyadigans series being taped. So anytime the backyardigans is on the box automatically tapes it. The reason why I tape it is that the Backyardigans is the only show that Jake watches, and we use it as part of our "wind down" routine in the evenings.

The other day an episode called "Surfs Up" came on and it has some of the best songs of any episode that I have seen to date. One of the songs is called "Cruisin' the Dunes" and it matches Jake to a "T" (except it doesn't sound right replacing Dunes with "coffee table"). Here are just a few of the lyrics:

Vroom Vroom Cruisin' the Dunes
Look once I'm hear, Look twice I'm Gone
Vroom Vroom Cruisin' the Dunes
Vroom Vroom Cruisin' the Dunes
Morning, and Evenings, and Afternoons
Vroom Vroom Cruisin' the Dunes

Here is a link to the song, but beware, listening to this song could mean that you will have it stuck in your head and be singing it for the rest of the day!!!

Backyardigans - Cruisin The Dunes

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

2008-08-30T10:35:00.005-04:00

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!

2008-08-23T18:30:00.006-04:00

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!

2008-08-19T13:36:00.006-04:00

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????

2008-08-16T08:43:00.005-04:00

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!

2008-08-09T08:11:00.008-04:00

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!.

2008-08-02T16:43:00.005-04:00

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!!

Week 49 - Can you say NUM??

2008-07-26T07:34:00.005-04:00

Week 49 - Can you say NUM??

(7/20/08 - 7/26/08)

Well it is official, all of the comments that people told me over the past few months while I was worried about Jake not crawling were true. He went from taking two wobbly steps a little over a week ago to down right "booking it" within 4 days (which everyone told me would happen). So he is now all over the house, trying to climb the steps and is officially frustrating because now he doesn't want to sit at home, in the stroller, or shopping cart AT ALL!!! He wants to try out his new found skills of crawling even if in the middle of the grocery store!!! As a matter of fact he crawled all of the the local Staples last night because we finally realized that his crying was more disturbing to the other customers than him crawling around the store would be. Don't worry it was an extremely clean floor!

The one cool thing he is doing right now is letting me know when he is hungry. The past few months whenever Paul or I would feed him finger foods we would say "YUM". Jake has now decided that he is going to say YUM too, although his comes out as NUMMMM! So now if he wants some cheerios he will point to the container of cheerios and say NUUUUMMMMM really really loudly! It is really cute, he even the other day said NUM while pulling on my shirt to be fed....that one I find hillarious, cause I can picture it now being in the middle of church or something and Jake pulling on my shirt wanting to breastfeed and having everyone in the church look at me while he says NUM NUM NUM NUM!! Sometimes when he is really hungry he repeats it until you feed him which could be 20+ times if you have to walk any distance to get the NUMs!

Paul took a few days off this week so we researched local attractions that we could take Jake too, we found that there is a petting zoo about 40 minutes from our house (which is alot closer than the hour and 10 minutes the D.C. National Zoo would be. We went and Jake had a great time!! He got to see sheep, deer, zebras, camels, monkeys, parrots, horses, many many many more animals. We got to feed the camels and the sheep. Jake just absolutely LOVES animals (as I am sure most children do) so it was a great family outing!!! We will definintly go back every summer while Jake is growing up!

We are thinking about getting Jake a dog for his birthday (Ok Ok Paul and I would like a dog too, and are using his birthday as an excuse) but seriously Jake LOVES dogs, and even barks when he sees a dog since he can't say doggy yet!!! I just don't know what kind to get, we want something that is small but not too small, doesn't shed, and is good around kids........any suggestions???

Week 48 - We are mobile! Slow but mobile!!!

2008-07-19T08:22:00.005-04:00

Week 48 - We are mobile! Slow but mobile!

(7/13/08 - 7/19/08)

First let me say that Jake is 11 months old today! Yeah! According to Super Hero Birthday Boy we are 30 Days, 14 Hours, and 56 Minutes away from his First Birthday!!!

So this week came with A LOT of new things that Jake decided to do. I guess he wanted to cram as many things as he could in before he was 11 months. Obviously from the video he is crawling now. Don't get me wrong though, he isn't going to win any races, and he is still semi crawling. He will crawl about 4-5 feet then stop, then crawl another couple feet then stop. And he still occasionally straightens his legs and falls down to his belly, but he is pretty good at getting back into a crawling position now so I give it another week and he will be racing all over the house. It took him a little over a month to go from the "rocking onto his knees" phase to actually crawling, but he got there eventually just like I thought and everyone had been telling me.

The same day he started crawling we had another big surprise. Jake started getting up again in the middle of the night (only once though) which is better than I was getting, but not as good as a few all night sleepers that he had last week. This particular night in question he woke up around 11pm and when I went in to get him he was sitting straight up in bed. He hasn't been able to get himself into a sitting position from lying down before (he would get close but not quite) and he hasn't done it since, but I have a feeling our lives are about to change dramatically!

Jacob also started drinking out of a straw this week. Being a 100% breastfed baby Jake has never had to learn how to drink out of a bottle or sippy or anything else for that matter. I of course have tried to get him to drink out of all of those, but it always ended up with him chewing on the bottle/sippy or playing with them. I am teaching a class in a week and I realized that I had to have some sort of liquid nourishment for Jake while I was gone 5 hours a day for a week. So I thought I would try a straw cup from the store (kinda like a sippy but a straw instead). Well he loves it, and immediately started drinking out of it. So now I feel a little better being away......it is going to be my first time away from him for any significant amount of time so I am scared!!

Well I am off to get Jake, he is pulling on a lamp cord!! OH GREAT!!! I am totally NOT going to love the whole crawling thing!!! (hehehehehehehe)

Week 47 - Finally .......ZZZZZZZZZZ....... Sleep

2008-07-12T10:24:00.003-04:00

Week 47 - Finally.......ZZZZZZZZZZZZ....... Sleep!

(7/6/08 - 7/12/08)

This week has been pretty good, we don't have Jake back on the perfect sleep schedule yet, but it is better then it has been for the past two months. As anyone who reads this blog knows, Jake started getting teeth 2 1/2 months ago and now has 8 teeth. So pretty much once a week for about 2 months he got a new tooth. These past two weeks have been pretty good with no new teeth popping out in the near future (Can anyone say JINX!).

Back before Jake started teething we had him on a great schedule, he was asleep by 8:00-8:30PM and wouldn't wake up all night until he would get up to start the day around 7:00AM. When the teething started it could range from a bedtime at 7:00, 8:00, 8:30, who knows!!! Then the nightly feedings and/or crying could range from once a night to 5-6 times a night. My worst night these past 2 1/2 months being a few weeks ago when he woke up every two hours like a newborn.

He isn't on a great schedule right now, but it will do. He has been staying up until around 9:00-9:30, and then sleeping through the night until around 7:00-7:30AM.

I think the late bedtime is stemming from the fact that he used to take two 1-1 1/2 hour naps during the day and for the past week he has stretched his first nap of the day to between 2 - 2 1/2 hours. Then his second nap has been coming later in the day inevitably pushing back his bedtime at night.

I don't want to complain, at least I am getting a full nights sleep again, but darn I hope he either learns to skip the second nap or starts going to bed sooner. The hubby and I don't have any time to just hang out and chill before we have to go to bed, I would love at least an hour where I can veg in front of the TV or computer without having to worry about staying up to late, or whether I am going to get enough sleep.

Oh well, I will take what I can get, and right now I am getting 7-8 hours of sleep again!!!