Jacob's New Talents

Jacob has been working really hard lately on drinking from a cup. He's learning, but he needs to remember that if you tip it up too fast, the milk goes everywhere. He has also discovered recently that brushing his teeth is REALLY fun. We can't get him to stop once he starts. He gets really mad when it's time to put his toothbrush away.

One other thing he has picked up that we're less proud of, but is still pretty funny, is after he takes a big drink he will go, "Breeeeeh." We're pretty sure that this is a fake burp. *Insert big sigh from Mommy and Daddy here*

Drinking out of his big boy cup, and doing a really good job!

Jacob playing on his climbing toy with his little friend, Scarlett (his girlfriend!)

Temping fate by standing on the edge of his slide. He loves to do this, and when I tell him to sit down, he just gets a big smile on his face. So far, he hasn't fallen off, but I'm sure it will happen eventually.

Snuggled into a corner reading "The Very Hungry Caterpillar."

Happy New Year!

Hooray, it's the first post of 2008. And it only took me 9 days into the year to get to it. I just realized that I never went back and put in captions for the Christmas pictures, so I'm going to do that. I also never finished putting up Christmas pictures. Oops.

It's been a year since I created this website. I'm hoping to be able to update a little more often this year, but it all depends on how much time Jacob gives me to do it! A year ago, he wanted to be held all the time, and I thought once he got a little more independent I would have more time. Now that he's a little more independent, I'm likely to find him on top of the entertainment center if I give him too much time. So, naptime and evenings are probably my best bet.

We had a good New Year's Eve. For the first time in 2 years, I was awake at midnight! Yay, me! We were invited out to dinner with my friend from playgroup and her husband. The kids came along too. So, yes, Jacob had a date with his little girlfriend on New Year's Eve. We went to a restaurant called "Enjoy!" and as its name requested, we did enjoy ourselves. The food was good, and there was live music so that when Jacob and Scarlett made noise (mostly Jacob), none of the other diners noticed.

Have a great 2008 everyone!

Merry Christmas!

Updated with sparking captions for the pictures.

Our Christmas tree with lovely presents underneath

Jacob sweeping the floor at Grandpa & Grandma Boyum's house

Jacob's first taste of bubble bread. It's a Christmas morning tradition! This is a funny face, but he really liked it.

Jacob and his cousins Abby and Libby at Grandpa & Grandma Schoenbauer's house. This is Jacob's standard "sitting on someone's lap" pose.

Jacob with his presents on Christmas morning. He's sitting in his awesome new sled!

Checking out his stocking--"You gave me socks? That's not a good present!"

Opening a present, which turned out to be a little ride-on toy. It's like a tricycle without pedals.

It was such a nice day on Christmas, Jacob had to get outside and try out his sled. It works really well when Daddy pulls him while running around the yard.

The best part about being outside is running down the driveway. We thought maybe the snow would distract him from the street, but he still knew where it was!

Jacob doing some minor repairs to his new vacuum. Don't worry, it works just fine!

After vacuuming the whole upstairs, Jacob decided that the carpet needed some trimming. He ran his mower around the house several times.

This is the snow we got right after Christmas. It stuck to all the trees and looked very pretty!

We're Still Here

Oops, it's been a month since I updated. We have been so busy lately, and I just realized that I don't have any new pictures. Bad Mommy. It's not that I haven't tried, but whenever the camera comes out, he stops what he's doing and runs to grab it.

So, Jacob is almost 16 months old. He's still really into running and climbing, and now he's trying to jump too. He's been able to climb the stairs for several months, but now he can go down the stairs by himself (supervised, of course). His preferred method is sliding down on his bottom one step at a time. He is very helpful around the house. He helps to dress himself--he knows that the shirt goes over his head and his arms go in the sleeves, and he also knows that his pants go on his legs. He offers his feet when you ask where his socks go. After a diaper change, he likes to put the wet diaper in the trash, and then we wash our hands together.

Jacob is starting to talk a lot more. We think now that he's kind of mastered the area of running and climbing, he's more interested in words. He started babbling a lot around his birthday, and now he'll "talk" as though we are supposed to understand everything he says. I'll make a really fun list of the things he can say:

• uh-oh (his first "word" and still his favorite)
• uh-oh Spaghetti O's (he learned this from another kid, and he doesn't really say Spaghetti O's--it comes out kind of like "tha tha tha"--but we know that's what he's doing)
• oh no (this is soooo cute, because he says it as though he is scandalized)
• no no (hmmm...not sure where he picked this one up, ha ha)
• bubbles
• puppy (still comes out pa pa sometimes, but we know what he means)
• cookie (this has variations that keep us on our toes: coo coo, kee-ko)
• ma ma (he rarely says it, but we know he knows what it means)
• da da (this he says more often, because he is becoming Daddy's boy)
• hi
• all done (well, he says aaaaalllllll and spreads his arms apart)

There may be something that has slipped my mind, but this seems like a long enough list. You get it. Jacob is a genius. In addition to the things he says, he really likes to play peek-a-boo and will often cover his eyes until we notice and ask, "Where's Jacob?" He has learned to fake sneeze, but hasn't done it lately. He will say, "aaaaahhhhh choooooo."

OK, moving on to food. He's very good at feeding himself. It's still pretty messy, but he has very good control of his toddler spoon and fork. He's getting better at handling a cup without a lid, but he tends to tip it up too quickly, spilling milk all over. His new favorite food is mandarin oranges. I never thought he would like them, but he would probably eat them all day if I let him.

We just finished up our first session of Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE). Jacob was in a class with one-year-olds, and he was the youngest. I think he learned a lot from the kids who are 4-5 months older than he is. We are signed up for the winter session, which will have some of the same kids. Our new class is for 16-23 months, so Jacob will likely be one of the youngest again. I can't wait to see how many new things he learns in the next few months.

I'll be back with more pictures after all of our Christmas gatherings. We've already gone to one, and weather permitting, we have 5 more--plus our own Christmas at home.

A Visit to the Children's Museum

The Children's Museum has become one of our favorite places to visit. Here are some pictures from the last time we were there.

Let's play "Where's Jacob?" He's in the pond area of the Habitot.

Exiting a cave. Maybe he was doing some spelunking.

Here he is ice fishing. I wish we knew someone who actually does this--they would be so proud!

Crossing the bridge that takes you to the really fun, really steep, really fast slide (really).

Checking out the "creatures" in the water. He found some tadpoles and a lobster.

Playing with the water in the discovery center. This is even better than the bathtub!

Isn't the smock just the cutest thing? By the way, that's not a bagel he's holding. It's a ring made of cork. He's checking to see if it floats in the water.

Testing out the produce in the grocery store. This is in the "Our World" area of the museum.

I guess I need to teach him that to check the produce, you don't taste it.

Jacob's grocery cart. It's a bit blurry because he was trying to run into me with it.

Picking out some ingredients for his delicious dinner in the restaurant.

Our Monkey

Jacob likes to climb on everything. We've known this for a long time. Until recently, he wasn't able to actually climb because he wasn't tall enough. Our feelings of security were shattered one day a couple of weeks ago. Jacob was playing in our mostly-childproofed basement, and I went upstairs to refill his water cup. This task took approximately 30 seconds. When I came back downstairs, I was greeted with this image: Jacob standing in the middle of our coffee table. When he saw me, he got the biggest "look what I can do!" smile on his face. I did my best to remind myself that he was only about 18 inches off the ground, and it was not likely that he would fall to his death. I calmly walked across the room (wanting to run, it felt like slow motion) and moved him back to the floor. He immediately tried to climb back up. We decided it was time to get Jacob a toy that he could climb on. So far, it has diverted his attention from the things we don't want him to climb on. Hopefully it will last.

Here it is! Jacob loves the ball pit. He also goes down the slide by himself, and climbs through the structure. He is really good at it after only a week. He's such a little monkey.

A sad excuse

Jacob and I got flu shots yesterday. He seems fine, but my arm is pretty sore today. Too sore to do much typing, so pictures will have to do for now. Hey, I said it was a sad excuse!

Don't call child protective services. He really wanted to go in there!

Jacob playing in his toy from last Christmas. Yes, he is way too big for it. This lasted all of 5 minutes.

Standing on a pot. He figured this out all by himself. Climbing is a big thing these days.

Playing in his laundry basket. Notice a trend over the next few pictures...

Sitting in a Culver's bag. Note that the bag says "Good to Go." As is Jacob.


Sitting in a diaper box

Reading the Sunday paper. I think he was kind of annoyed that I interrupted him.


Slouching in his booster seat. He likes to do this, even though it looks horribly uncomfortable.

A dragon! Jacob at the MOMS Club Halloween party


The back of Jacob's dragon costume

Yes, I let him eat some Doritos for lunch. As you can see from his chin, he really enjoyed them.

Last but not least, someone spilled water at the party and Jacob helpfully sat in it to soak it up.

New Video (no sound)

There is a new video at the left. There is no sound, because it's mostly Mommy and Daddy cheering him on and it's a bit distracting. Jacob has figured out that spoons and forks (thankfully) are for more than just playing. He started feeding himself yesterday. Now he wants to do it all the time, especially using the fork. My new challenge is finding a good assortment of foods for him to practice on. So far, the easiest food is meat cut into cubes. Ravioli works well, too. I'm going to try banana tomorrow. He's been not as crazy about fruits and veggies lately if they aren't complete mush (like applesauce), so it could be a challenge. Maybe using a fork will make him excited about eating diced fruits and veggies.

Also, for those of you on the edge of your seat, I have been working on his 1 year photo slideshow. As with all things, it has been hard to find time to work on it lately. I was also very behind in loading the pictures, so I had 3 months worth to sort through. I've also figured out how to add in video clips, so of course I had to take advantage of that. The result: I may be finished with it by the time he graduates from high school.

Jacob Appleseed

Jacob went to the apple orchard today. It was a lot of fun. We rode on a hay wagon and picked some apples. Well, Jacob ran around in the tall grass and played in the mud while I picked apples. We had a lot of rain yesterday, so the mud was just perfect this morning. Jacob and his jeans approved. His taste buds approved too. This is one thing I would like explained to me: why does Jacob throw Goldfish crackers on the floor, but dip his hands in mud and then lick them off?

Anyway, after the apple picking, we walked through the pumpkin patch. Wait, I should correct that statement. I tried to get Jacob to walk through the pumpkin patch, but he was more interested in walking away from the pumpkins and trying to find more mud.

Walking in the tall grass at the apple orchard

Jacob's version of picking apples: off the ground

Another way to pick apples: out of the bag after Mommy puts them in

Checking out a pine tree--maybe getting ready to help pick out a Christmas tree?

Running out of the pumpkin patch

Standing near the pumpkins, but not TOO close

Pumpkins are too heavy to lift

Pictures

Happy birthday to Mommy!

Jacob, the expert birthday cake tester, eating Mommy's cake

Jacob, the not-so-expert purse stealer (busted!)

He did make off with my car keys, so I guess he is a slick one after all!

Safe to come out

I admit it, I've been in hiding. The "molar monster" visited our house a couple of weeks ago, and I've been afraid to come out from under the covers. I stuck a toe out this morning, and nothing bit it, so I decided it was safe.

Seriously, the molars haven't been fun. The first one actually popped through the day before his birthday, and he was OK until the day after his birthday. He had a low grade fever for 2 days, and was irritable, tired, and just not himself. I was a little worried about him, but everything I read said that this was normal, and just watch the fever. He had a really tough week, but seemed to be feeling better by Saturday. Grandpa and Grandma B. were visiting, and we decided to go to the state fair since Jacob seemed up for it. WRONG. He was miserable. He wouldn't ride in the stroller or the carrier. He wanted to be carried in Mommy's arms, which I did--but I'll never let him forget how hot and sticky it was that day (and I'm sure when he's older, the story will be that it was 150 degrees and he weighed 40 lbs.). We still found time to try lots of good, greasy fair food. Jacob took some tastes too. He had a mini donut, potatoes with cheese, and ice cream. He loooooves ice cream. Shocking. Anyway, his 2nd molar came in on September 3rd, and I'm on the lookout for the next two. They are definitely on the way. I can't wait.

In more exciting news, Jacob had his 12 month check up and is doing great. He was 31.25 inches tall and weighed 21 lbs. 4 oz. He is low on the curve for his weight, but he has been on the go for 4 months now, and we just can't seem to keep the fat on him! He seems to be taking after his daddy. I can tell that his appetite has increased, and now that he is drinking whole milk, I wouldn't be surprised if his body starts to fill out again. That's the other big news: he is drinking milk! I planned on trying the toddler formula, but he wanted nothing to do with it, even when I mixed it with other things. On a whim, I bought some strawberry milk one day, and we tried that. He liked it. Now, he LOVES it. I haven't tried non-flavored milk with him yet, but for now I'm happy that he's drinking it. Don't tell him, but I have been mixing the formula with his oatmeal. He can tell something is up, but he still eats it. Oh, and just this morning, he had his first bowl of real cereal--Cheerios with milk. He's officially a kid!