Being Jake

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Happy Birthday (early)

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))

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Free at last!

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!