New Videos

I'm having trouble getting the links to work under the heading at the left, so for now I'll just post a couple new videos we have right here. The first one is Jacob naming family members in some pictures. I "caught" him the first time, and of course once I got the camera out he was being more shy and so the audio is really quiet. The people in the pictures are: Jeff, Daddy, Mike, Chris; and then Troy, Katy, doggy (Paige); and Mommy, Katie, Kati. Then he shows off his silly voice as the pictures go all over the place.



The second video is from early January, before he had moved into his new room. Jacob found some party hats from his 1st birthday and proceeded to climb into his crib and throw a party for his stuffed animals. He did this all on his own. All I did was grab the camera to catch as much of it as I could.

Big, big news!

We are pretty sure that Jacob peed in the potty last night! The reason we aren't completely sure is that he was on the big potty and it was just a tiny little trickle. We didn't see it, but I'm almost certain I heard it. He also said "yes" when I asked him if he went potty. He never says yes to anything. So for now, we are counting it as Jacob's first pee on the potty.

Even though we're not formally working on potty training, we've been letting Jacob try it whenever he wants. Not surprisingly, he's a lot more interested in the big potty than the little one. The seat from his little chair fits onto the big one, and we can tell that he feels really proud when he's sitting there. He usually won't sit longer than about 30 seconds, but last night that was long enough to get that little trickle out. It's a start! Yay Jacob!

Making us laugh

Jacob has been doing a lot of things that make us laugh lately, or we just think it's really cute. We've been wanting to jot some of these things down, so I might as well do it here.

• He finally started talking about his baby sister. We think he's understood for quite awhile and was holding out on us. He doesn't say much, but he kisses Mommy's belly a lot and has been saying "baby sister" when he sees baby things.


• He's trying to sing songs. One is about the letter T (long story) and he just sings, "Oooooh, letter T" over and over. Another one is the theme song to "Bob the Builder," a show he does not watch but he learned the song from a toy he got for Christmas. My favorite is the song they sing when they clean up at his class. The last part of it goes, "Clean up, clean up, everybody do your share." Jacob sings it, "Clean up, clean up, everybody share." It comes out "kweem up," which I love.


• Making Daddy proud, Jacob is attempting to learn the Minnesota Rouser (at least the cheer part at the end). He will say a sequence of letters, such as "E, G, H, Q, W" and then "yaaaaaaaay Gophers! Rah!" Someday we'll teach him how to spell Minnesota.


• He's been using tools when a problem presents itself. The other day he wanted to get into the bathroom while Daddy was in the shower, but we have a cover on the door knob that he thankfully hasn't figured out yet. He went and got a toy wrench to work on it. Today he wanted to open the door from the house to the garage, which we keep locked. He found his set of toy keys and was trying to unlock the door.


• One of his favorite things to say lately: "Hi Mommy, what are you doing Mommy?" This also works well with Daddy.


• We've been letting him sit at the computer and type letters on a blank page. He seems to have already memorized the layout of the keyboard. He likes when we ask him to find a letter, and after he types it he points at the screen and says the letter.


• He loves telling us (especially Daddy) to write letters. Lately, he has been saying "please" after each letter. We are certain he learned this from watching Wheel of Fortune.

That's all I can think of right now. Unrelated to this list, here is a picture I took of him a couple of weeks ago. He had just had his nap and wasn't quite awake yet. I think he was watching a segment of Sesame Street with letters. We do that a lot after his nap, because for some reason he finds letters to be very soothing.

Jacob's New Room

Jacob moved into his new room on Saturday night. He's been pretty excited about it. Once it was painted, we started letting him explore and play in there, and started talking to him about how it was going to be his room. Once the bed was assembled, he was really excited. One of the first things he did was jump on it. On Saturday, he helped put up his Curious George wall stickers, and then he was really excited about his room. We decided to try having him sleep in there that night.

He did great! We were nervous that he might be afraid of a new room, and being out of the crib that he's slept in for 2 years, but he acted like we were making a big deal out of nothing. He loves sleeping in his new bed. We're expecting a few bumps along the way, but it seems like he was ready to make this move and is enjoying his new living space. So far, night sleep has not changed. He goes to sleep just as easily as he did in his crib. I've noticed that he likes to sleep by the rails, probably because they remind him of his crib. Naps have been pretty good too. Yesterday it took him 90 minutes to settle down and I wasn't sure he was even going to sleep, but eventually he did. I guess sometimes you just have to jump on the bed and run around your room before you can fall asleep.

Here are a few pictures of his room. The wall color is pretty true to life. We were going for a dark blue that wasn't too dark, and has a touch of gray to it. I'll have more later. The Curious George ones didn't turn out because of lighting issues.

Jacob's new bed, with a quilt that he got when he was born

Close up of his new sheet with cars and trucks--very exciting for him!

Some of his room accessories: plastic drawers (his new dresser that can't crush him), floor mat puzzle, and toy bins. He loves to put things away and then dump them out again. We also took the closet doors off so he can't pinch his fingers.


This is his new lamp. It looks really cool in his room (he even said so). I hope to get a good picture of it one of these days.

Christmas 2008 Picture Extravaganza

First, a few pictures from before Christmas:

Helping Daddy eat some "burger and fry" from his favorite fast food restaurant



Reading his favorite piece of literature--the trash and recycling collection schedule



Doing some coloring and showing us his "Where is it?" pose. I don't remember which color he was looking for.

December 23 - Our Christmas

Sharing some juice with Puppy at breakfast


At the Children's Museum: waving to all the people and cars below



Showing Daddy how to ride the bus (this was Daddy's first visit to the Children's Museum, so Jacob had to show him the ropes)



Doing a little grocery shopping...


...before cooking Christmas dinner


Jacob the science kid, discovering that water will weigh down a shovel and make it tip over


More water fun



Checking out his stocking - yay, new crayons!



Showing off all his trains (he got 3 new ones). He also got some new Curious George books and some slippers from us. His big present is a big boy bed, not pictured because it is not put together yet. We'll have pictures of his new room soon!

December 24 - Schoenbauer Christmas

Grandpa, Uncle Mike, and Jacob playing a rousing game of "Scene It?"



Jacob attacking his cousin Libby with a giant bear



The big present of the day: a big truck with cars inside!

December 25 - Boyum Christmas at Aunt Jena and Uncle Ty's house

Playing with his cars at our house. Jacob was very lucky that Uncle Mike and Aunt Katie dropped the truck off at our house. It was somehow left behind at Grandpa & Grandma Schoenbauer's.


Jacob helping to make muffins. He loves to stir the batter. He also loves to taste it. Strangely, he doesn't love eating the finished muffins quite so much.



OK, now we're at Jena and Ty's house. Jacob got some help opening his presents from Claire and Gracie.



Opening his big present - an oven! Yay, now he can cook for us. I need to get a picture of him with his other very large present, a Coca Cola bear that is bigger than he is. He loves to wrestle with it.

December 27 - Christmas in Iowa

We spent over an hour putting the oven together once we got home, so that Jacob could play with it the next morning. Here he is checking it out.



Aunt Jena & Uncle Ty gave him some pots and pans to cook in.


Turning up the burner



Christmas at Great-Grandpa & Grandma Kuehn's house, sitting with Mommy's cousin Tony and waiting patiently for presents. Jacob had a lot of fun playing with the "big kids" and was very upset when it was time to go home.


Checking out his new toy, fridge phonics. The letters are all magnets and there is a base to put them in, which tells you the sounds each letter makes. Jacob loves this!


He also got more magnets, letters and numbers. Everyone seems to know how much he likes learning these days!

Progress on Jacob's new room

I don't have pictures right now, due to battery issues with our camera (I have new ones charging right now), but two coats of paint have been applied to the walls of Jacob's new room. We have a few spots to touch up with brushes and the heat register hasn't been done yet, but it feels really good to have the biggest job behind us. All that is left now is to get new shades that actually go up and down, put the bed together, and find some sheets.

Christmas Tree part 2

As I hoped, once Jacob saw our tree with lights on it, he was much more excited. He really likes the "pretty lights" and the "twinkle star." He has proclaimed that it "smells good." I showed him how to turn the lights on and off, and he has taken that job for himself. We're working on not doing his job more than a few times a day. He also watched me put water in it once, and now he tells me several times a day that the tree is "thirsty."

We started to put ornaments on the tree today. It's about half done. Jacob got bored before I finished, and rather than let him destroy all the boxes, I decided that for one year I can do the decorating in two parts.

Jacob was in charge of putting candy canes on the tree. This was a good task until he realized that they are candy, and kept trying to open them.

Jacob decided to arrange the Nativity scene. This was also a good task at first. Then he figured out that the fake grass can be scraped off.

Showing his "Baby's First Christmas" shoes to the camera. I missed getting a picture of the best part. He was trying to put the shoes on his own feet.

More pictures later, after the tree is finished!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Or so I thought. I put away the few fall-themed decorations that I have, and pulled out my snowmen and other winter-themed decorations. We have snow outside that should actually stick around, and last weekend we finally bought our tree. Last night, we brought it inside after Jacob went to bed. I was excited to see what his reaction would be, because he loves seeing the decorated trees at all the stores. The keyword there is decorated.

His reaction? He pointed at it and started talking about trash, and the truck will come to take it away. I was confused at first, but then realized that he thought the tree was yard waste. He was a great help this summer and fall in the yard, helping Daddy pick up sticks and leaves. To him, we had brought yard waste into the house. Why would we do that?

Now we'll have to see how he reacts once we get some lights up. We're going to try to let him help decorate this year. He'll be in charge of hanging some candy canes on the tree. I know it's been awhile since I've put up new pictures, so I'll be sure to get some action shots of his handy work.

Gather 'round, and he will tell you a tale

In the last week or so, Jacob has become quite the little storyteller. Sometimes it makes sense, and sometimes it's a bunch of random sentences all strung together, but it's always entertaining. It started with him repeating a bunch of warnings we've given him when he's standing on something that he shouldn't. "Be careful...don't fall...you'll get hurt...then you cry." He will climb up somewhere just so he can say this. We figure at least he's hearing us and it's sinking in, even if he doesn't actually listen.

From there, he started narrating familiar routines. If I said we were getting ready to go to class, he would talk about going to the gym, and playing with cars, and washing hands, and having snack. He has told us the things he does to get ready for bedtime, or what he's going to do when he goes upstairs.

We got a dusting of snow on Saturday. Jacob was looking out the window, admiring the snow. He noted that it was on the grass and at the park. On Sunday, most of it had melted and he was asking where the snow went. He saw puddles outside and said something about how there was snow at the park but now it was all gone.

We're hoping he'll do some of his storytelling while we're visiting all the family this week. It's just so cute that we want everyone to hear it!

Back to His Roots

Jacob got a new haircut today. This is the shortest it's been since we've been getting it cut. It's easier to see this in person, but this new haircut looks very similar to his early days hairstyle. I like Spike 2.0.

We had pictures taken 2 weeks ago for our Christmas cards. If you were inside my pregnant brain, it would make perfect sense to you that I scheduled pictures before the haircut.

I like this one, as if he's showing us how pretty he is.

Now I Know My ABCs

I'm playing catch-up. I didn't realize that it's been almost a month since the last post.

The biggest news from the past month is that Jacob knows his letters! It started off with just a couple (O and Y), and then he added a few more. Suddenly, in what seemed to be overnight, he knew almost all of them. He has an alphabet puzzle that he really likes to use in showing off his new knowledge. He loves to tell us which letters to draw on his doodle toys (Aqua and Magna). When we go shopping, he reads the letters on the building. The one thing he doesn't know yet is the alphabet song, but I'm sure that will come someday. He still confuses some of the letters that look similar, but he's figuring them out quickly. For awhile, he would tilt his head and call a Z an N, but now he calls it a 2. I'm not sure if that's a step in the right direction, but it's pretty funny. We are very, very proud of his letter accomplishment.

Jacob had a very busy Halloween. He wore his costume several times, yet we had trouble getting a picture of him wearing it. Either he wouldn't wear the hat, or he wouldn't stand still. We attended 3 Halloween parties, plus took him trick-or-treating for the first time. He caught on very quickly that when he rang the doorbell, someone would come to give him candy. After a few stops, he started pointing out things he could see in people's houses--like stairs, a dog, or a TV. It was pretty cute. We only went to about 10 houses on our block, but he came home with a bucket full of treats.

Jacob at the MOMS Club Halloween party, not cheating at the bean bag toss game

Sitting with his friend, Scarlett the fairy princess

Oh, so that's what his costume is! He's Curious George!

Curious George with his bucket, ready to trick-or-treat

Jacob's first-ever trick-or-treat stop, the neighbors across the street

Counting his loot at the end of the night. He may have sampled some, too.

Apple Orchard

Nothing says Fall like a visit to the apple orchard. Especially when said visit takes place on a lovely Saturday morning in mid-October, when it is almost 70 degrees. We very much overdressed for this outing, but we had no idea it was going to feel so warm in the sun after all our nights of running the heat.

We were going to pick our own apples, but it was easier to just let Jacob wander the paths and then buy a bag of apples in the shop. He had a lot of fun picking apples off the ground, just like last year. The difference now is that he can throw them really far. There was also a big pile of hay to play on. We all brought home a little sampling of it in our clothes. Jacob's favorite part of the orchard was the maze. We spent quite awhile going around and around. In the middle were a bunch of animal statues, and he kept petting them. We realized that we need to get him to a farm sometime, because he kept calling the pig a "doggy."

We came home with a bag of Honeycrisp apples (my favorite), 2 slices of apple pie, and some strawberry preserves. Jacob and I were at the orchard earlier this summer helping to pick some strawberries, and it really made me want the preserves. I've only eaten half the jar in 4 days. Well, the baby and I have been eating them, so splitting it between 2 people isn't so bad, right?

This would have been a nice picture of Jacob and Mommy, but he decided to look away. Then he decided no more pictures.

Jacob pretending to eat an apple off the ground, just before throwing it.

Daddy needed to taste an apple off the ground too.


Daddy and Jacob in the maze

Sliding off the haystack, which was really fun and did not result in bringing home a bunch of hay in somebody's diaper

Fall is here!

The first part of September was nice and warm. Then it got cooler, and I realized it was time to dig out the warmer clothes I had set aside for Jacob. Then I realized that most of the pants were too big, so we raided the consignment shop. The third week had him back in shorts. Laundry has been interesting lately. His closet and dresser are bursting with a 2-season wardrobe, but I think the days of shorts and t-shirts are finally behind us and I will be able to put the summer clothes away.

Last night was the first night he wore his fleece PJs, and we also had to turn the heat on. At least it was October for most of the time that the heat was running, that makes us feel a little better.

Today Jacob and I went to a park in Lakeville called Ritter Farm Park with some friends. We've never been there before, and it was a great place. There are lots of trails to walk on, ponds to look at, and an apple orchard. While we were walking, we saw a deer running off into the trees. Jacob thought that was pretty cool. I think we'll be back there again soon. No bugs + fall colors = a good time.

He likes to say "cheese," but never looks at the camera. Notice the winter coat and hat, which are always fun to pull out on the first day of October. It was sunny, but not quite 50 degrees when we were at the park. In March, we would be wearing t-shirts!

I call this one "Kid who thinks he's big stuff standing on a rock"

Running up a hill, actually coming to me when I called him!

Running again, and no--he didn't end up in the water!

Taking a stroll with his friend Scarlett. She kept trying to hold his arm, but he wouldn't let her. We need to work on his gentleman skills.