First Birthday part 2: I'm One!

Jacob has had quite a busy day so far, and it's only half over. He's sleeping off his busy morning right now. Here are some pictures of what he's done so far today:

12 months old

Big smile!

Playing with VCR tapes

Playing with some of his birthday toys

Lunch at Chuck E. Cheese, playing in the toddler area

Eating his birthday pizza (he also took a sip of Daddy's pop, but didn't seem to like it)

Riding way up high on a ride

JACOB IS ONE!

Happy first birthday Jacob!
More later, I just wanted to get this up. We're off to Chuck E. Cheese for lunch with Daddy, and then Jacob will get a couple of gifts tonight. Other than that, he's going to just play, play, play (and hopefully nap).

First Birthday part 1: The Party

Jacob has experienced his first birthday party. We think he had a great time. Lots of people came to celebrate with him, and he was in a pretty good mood all day--even without a nap. Here are some pictures from the party, and I will have to get a couple of video clips up too. We have some good ones. Thanks to everyone for coming! Jacob loved seeing you all, and he is enjoying his new toys. We played with them all day today.

The Birthday Cake

He doesn't like hats, so it's no surprise that he didn't like his party hat

"If you try to put this hat on me again, I'll snap the elastic at you!"

Posing with his cake

Enjoying his first taste of birthday cake

The Aftermath

Back to the Future

We're finally back in the year 2007. We just spent 3 1/2 days without electricity, and although many people have gone much longer without it before, I have to say I'm relieved to have things back to normal. There were some strong thunderstorms on Saturday morning, Saturday night, and Monday night. Lots of wind, thunder, and lightning. In total, we got 4 1/2 inchesof rain. Thankfully, no real damage was done in our neighborhood. We lost some good size tree branches and Jacob's pool was partially deflated after it flew across the yard and landed on the driveway. He considers this a major loss. Hopefully we can have it patched up for him soon.

Right now I'm beginning to get the house ready for Jacob's birthday party on Sunday. We're having it a week early due to other obligations on his birthday weekend, but who can believe he's going to be ONE? Oh my.

I don't have very many pictures right now, but definitely after his birthday party. Here is one of him last week playing on our air mattress.

Another First

I know, I need to get some more pictures up. But tonight, just a quick news note. Jacob stood up without assistance tonight! He seemed to be trying all day today, and just couldn't quite get up. Maybe he was waiting for Daddy to be home. He stood up in the middle of the room a couple of times tonight. The "firsts" are coming fast and furiously these days!

"Uh oh!"

That's what Jacob has started to say! We don't think he knows quite what it means yet, but he says it a lot, so sometimes he gets the context right. For instance, tonight he was throwing Cheerios off his tray, and he said "Uh oh." Close enough. Later, he was chewing on a toy and said "Uh oh." It's very cute to hear words (or in this case, an expression) coming out in his little voice. We would prefer to hear Mama or Dada, but "uh oh" it is!

In walking news, he is very good at it now! Yesterday, he just started taking off. We aren't even counting the steps anymore, but he will walk across a room. Actually, he'll walk from one room to another, and even turn corners! We got a new video tonight, so be sure to check that out. We're very proud of him!

Crawling is for suckers!

Jacob is walking more and more the past couple of days. He has taken several steps at a time, and will walk to something he wants, not just to people. He is very excited about his new talent, as are Mommy and Daddy! Sometimes he will stand and clap for himself. We think he is going to be ready to show off for everyone at his birthday party.

Walking Video

I have a video of Jacob walking. It's a 2 minute clip, and the walking is at the end. For the rest of it, he's playing and just being his funny self. If you have high-speed internet and can watch it, enjoy!

11 Months Old

I ask this all the time, but where has this year gone? In one month, Jacob will have celebrated his one year birthday! He is having a grand old time this summer. We go on a lot of outings, and he is learning more and more each week. He really impresses us with the things he can figure out for himself.

What does he do all day, you ask? His favorite thing to do is walk. He walks along furniture, along walls, and most importantly, holding on to one or both of a grown up's hands. Even though he takes some steps on his own, he still prefers to hold on or crawl. When he does take a few steps though, he gets a huge smile on his face. He knows that he's doing something impressive! He also loves to play with his toys. It's fun to see him get more involved with his playing, instead of just chewing on them. What else...he LOVES his books. We read to him, but he recently learned how to turn pages, so he will often sit and just turn pages in his books for several minutes at a time. His favorite book is "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?"

Our biggest accomplishment in the past month is SLEEP! He finally takes naps in his crib, after 10 months of needing to be held. Not only that, but he suddenly takes predictable naps. I can expect when he will start to get tired. I don't know where he learned this from, because he seemed to enjoy keeping us on our toes. Night sleep is greatly improved, too. He still doesn't sleep all the way through, but he consistently gives me a 4-5 hour chunk during the night. I think we're making great strides toward sleeping all night. To put it in perspective, 6 weeks ago he was still waking up 5+ times per night. I suspect he still wakes up, but is getting better at putting himself back to sleep. He has been learning so many new things lately, and all the "experts" say that babies wake up more often when they're hitting milestones.

We are so proud of our big little boy. He makes us laugh, and he makes himself laugh. We love the little personality that he is starting to show...although we also know that he is going to test us with his tenacious ways. Start the countdown: 30 days until Jacob turns one!

Mmmm...I love my puppy!

Pictures and more pictures

I haven't added new pictures for awhile, so here are some recent ones:

Checking out Uncle Ty's new leaf blower

Checking out Aunt Jena's elephants

Using his walking toy...ramming into things

...He can also stand by his walker

Playing with his bouncy seat (it's more fun now that he's too big for it)

Playing "find Daddy"

See? He likes his shoes better than the last post. They're delicious.

Walking with Grandma

First Steps!

Big news!!!

Jacob took real steps tonight. He did it with both of us home, so we were able to see at the same time. He was standing up, and finally decided to go for it. He took about 4 steps all in a row. We were so excited! We immediately tried to get him to do it again, and he took some more steps. Then I ran to get the video camera and we tried it again. No luck. It was getting close to bedtime, so we didn't push him too much. Hopefully he'll be so excited to do it again, and then we can capture his great accomplishment on camera.

All that work he's been doing (and everyone else) of walking around holding onto fingers has really paid off! Is this really the beginning of his toddler years?

Way Behind Again

Sorry there haven't been any new posts for awhile again. It's very hard to find time, with all our outings, and Jacob constantly eating or snacking, and then wanting to be on the move all the time! I used to be able to surround him with toys (when he couldn't move), or at least let him crawl around the room and he would be content. Now, he wants to walk around holding onto my hands all day long. I'm not really complaining, just explaining why there are no exciting updates in the past 2 weeks. I promise, I'll find time this week for pictures.

Big news of the week: his 8th tooth FINALLY poked through today--we've been waiting on that for about 6 weeks. I also caught a glimpse of what appears to be a molar starting to grind its way in. It will be awhile, but it's definitely started to move--this also explains why he's been such a cranky pants lately. We figured it was something to do with teething, but he's never been a constant screecher like he is these days.

Big news of the week part 2: Jacob got his first pair of shoes! He's been spending so much time on his feet, we decided it was about time he get used to wearing shoes. He really looks like he has big feet when he has them on, and he seemed to find them very clunky at first, but he got used to them. We got him some fancy-pants Stride Rite shoes, since it's his very first pair. They're an early birthday present.

I think this picture is pretty funny. He really doesn't hate the shoes as much as it appears. It just wasn't the right time to be taking pictures.

10 Months Old!

Jacob turned 10 months old yesterday! He's having a busy few days. Grandma B. is visiting for a couple of days. Mommy is getting a lot done around the house! As for the fun stuff, we went to Crystal Beach yesterday, and Jacob met up with one of his little friends from our playgroup. It was a really nice day for the beach, but it started to get windy so we went home. Jacob fell asleep in the car on the way home, and Mommy woke up him up getting him out of the car. If it hadn't been so warm, he could have stayed in there. So, I messed up his nap and got overtired. We survived the day though, and he eventually did take a nice long nap with Grandma.

Today, I did some more work around the house, and Jacob has played, and played, and played. I think Grandma might be wearing him out! They're both having fun though. Tomorrow, Grandpa B. is joining us, and we're going over to Daddy's work to have lunch.

Jacob is starting to recover from his cold. He still has a runny nose, but I think the end is in sight. He is still really enjoying cruising around the house. He will climb up on anything, and he will even hold on with just one hand, or even let go. He can stand by himself for a few seconds before he loses his balance! He will now walk around holding onto our hands, and is pretty good at it. Sometimes it seems like he is barely holding on. I think he's very determined to learn to walk. He's still eating really well, too. New foods lately have been cottage cheese, veggie chicken nuggets, and zucchini. He likes them all. He wasn't crazy about cottage cheese, but he likes it mixed with applesauce.

Time to go! Mommy and Daddy are going out to eat tonight, so I better be ready when he gets home.

Poor Jacob

I don't have any new pictures right now, but I haven't updated for awhile so I wanted to do that. For the past week, I've been dealing with a snotty-nosed baby. Literally--poor Jacob got his first cold. He started off sneezing a lot and rubbing his nose, and then it started to run like a faucet. Sometimes I couldn't tell whether he had drool or boogers running off his chin. Yuck. He barely lets me near him with a Kleenex, much less the nose-sucker thing, so I couldn't help him out very much. Now, after almost a week, his nose is less runny but I think it's starting to stuff up. He's battling this cold pretty well, and hasn't seemed too miserable. I would probably be more broken up over "my baby's first cold" if he hadn't had all those tummy issues when he was 1-2 months old. I think that was way worse than this.

We spent Saturday over at Uncle Mike and (soon-to-be) Aunt Katie's house. They had a pool party, and it was a nice hot day for it. Grandpa and Grandma Schoenbauer brought a little pool for the kids to play in. Jacob took a few dips in it, and even went in the big pool with Daddy for a little bit. He also liked sitting at the edge of the pool and kicking the water. He took one nice, long nap in the afternoon, and when he woke up he watched the "big kids" (adults) play with a ball in the pool and make lots of big splashes. He thought that was pretty funny. For supper, in addition to his yummy banana, he ate some of Mommy's cheeseburger and bun. He had his eye on my pop can the whole time, just in case I felt like sharing.

We have a busy week planned, so hopefully I can pop in later with some new pictures and fun stories!

New Slideshow!

Hot off the presses! Check it out (under the Photo Slideshows heading at the left).

Jacob's Pool Party

We had a busy weekend. On Saturday, Jacob and I went to my friend Mandy's baby shower. She is due in early August, and Jacob is very excited to meet his future new friend, who will be named Ethan. He was a very good boy at the shower, of course. When we got home, Tom had gotten a lot of yard work done, so we all relaxed outside for the rest of the day. We went to Fuddrucker's for dinner and ate outside. Jacob ate a few small bites of my cheeseburger and fries (the slippery slope has started).

On Sunday, it was really warm again and Jacob got to try out his new pool! We spent the entire day outside. Jacob would have liked to crawl around on the grass, but the ground is so hard that it seemed to hurt his knees. We ate lunch and dinner outside on the patio. By late afternoon, Jacob was all tuckered out and fell asleep in my arms.

I'll have to be sure to take these pictures down before he runs for public office, so there isn't a nudity scandal. He has little swim trunks, but we figured it's his pool and our backyard, so why not let him get some fresh air on his bottom? He gave us a good laugh by crawling around the pool in circles. His little bare butt was so cute.

I think that's it for our big weekend. Oh, here's a random item: we ate pancakes one night last week, and Jacob loved them. I guess I'll have to make those a lot! Also, I added 4 new videos!!!

Back by popular demand

As my friend Kelly so kindly pointed out, I haven't posted in awhile. We've been busy with playgroup and all the fun outings that go along with it (and not sleeping, thanks to tooth #8). I still haven't had a chance to finish his slideshow, either. Can I get a nanny? Or, at the very least, a housekeeper?

Kneeling, one of his newest moves

"Look at all my teeth!"

Playing at an indoor playground

Getting buried in the ball pit

Oh no, there are two of him! Or maybe he just found himself in the mirror.

9 months old

Doesn't that sound so old? 9 months is 3/4 of a year, and he's now spent as much time in the outside world as he did in Mommy's belly. This is a pretty big milestone, as far as I'm concerned. Jacob could probably not care less. He is a boy on the go, and will hardly sit still long enough to get a diaper change anymore. Any time he's on the floor, he wants to crawl. More specifically, he wants to crawl to the most dangerous spot in the room. If there is an uncovered electrical socket, he makes a beeline for it. If we don't have the gate up at the bottom of the stairs, he climbs them immediately. (He is actually getting very good at climbing stairs, when he is well supervised by an adult.) He loves to stand, and is really good at pulling himself up. He can walk along furniture, and has also figured out how to safely get back down on the floor from standing up. We think it's only a matter of time before he gets brave enough to try walking. He seems very determined.

He visited the doctor last week for his 9 month check-up, and all went well. He weighed in at just under 20 lbs., which was a bit of a surprise. We think he must be burning a lot of extra calories with all of his moving around, so he hasn't gained as much weight as he did in the past.

The good news is that he can eat many different foods, so we can bulk up his diet a bit and maybe get in a couple of snacks. He is still tall for his age, and according to the standardized skill chart that the doctor has, he is developmentally and socially at a 10+ month level. Those charts obviously don't take sleep into consideration! He has been going backwards with sleep again lately, waking up 5 or more times in 10 hours. On the positive side, he seems to have settled into a regular bedtime of around 10pm, and a regular waking time of around 8am. Just a few months ago, I was having troubles getting him to bed before midnight, so we're making some progress! They say that babies wake a lot when they are learning new skills. Maybe that's part of it, and teething is probably contributing as well. He has 6 teeth now (3 on top and bottom), and 2 more are getting close. I've been watching them for a couple of weeks, but they are taking their time coming in. I think Jacob would like a break from new teeth for a little while.

I'm currently working on his 6-9 month slideshow. Hopefully I can get the pictures uploaded soon and get it looking the way I want. Keep an eye on the slideshow section at the left, as there will be a new addition soon! I'm also going to keep trying to add more video clips. He's doing so many cute things these days!

Happy Mother's Day!

It's been a busy weekend. On Saturday, Jacob and I went to Rochester to visit while Daddy did some yard work. We thought we were going to see Grandpa and Grandma Boyum and Aunt Jena, but when we got there, Great-Grandpa and Great-Grandma Kuehn were there too! They were excited to see how big Jacob has gotten, and he showed off his crawling, climbing, and singing skills. We stayed there all day, and went out for dinner before heading home. When we got home, some roses in different colors had magically appeared. I was confused, because Jacob was with me all day. When did he have time to buy those?

This morning we got up bright and early to take part in the Race for the Cure at the Mall of America. We did the 5K walk, which is just over 3 miles. The course took us on the streets all around the mall. We got some nice weather for the walk, even if it was a bit windy. Tom's company had a tent that we were able to visit afterward to get some nice food. We had worked up quite an appetite. Jacob did really well on the walk. He looked around at all the people, and even snoozed for a little bit. He really seemed to like his cool new blue stroller. We had a great time, and plan on making this a yearly family event.

Tom and Jacob crossing the Start Line

The Finish Line! We made it!

New Website Feature

I figured out how to put a list of Jacob's videos and slideshows on the left side of the webpage. In the future, instead of putting video in a post, I'll just add them to the list on the left. This way they are easy to find and won't get moved to the next page. It will take awhile to get more video put up, but I'm going to work on it!