Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas from the Weimer family!

We hope that you have a very blessed holiday that is filled with happiness, time with family and friends, and lots of love!

Objects in a book

Jacob loves reading books! So much so that I sometimes have to tell him to wait because he is constantly bringing them to me. I feel so bad turning him away when he looks up at me with those sweet eyes and says "Read book". But, I am usually doing something else that needs my immediate attention.

I try to read to him as often as I can and it is so awesome when he tries to climb up and sit on my lap while we read. I cherish those moments so much because I know that soon I will blink and he will be old enough to not want to sit on my lap anymore! Oh, that makes me so sad to think about!

Jacob's memory these days just amazes me!! He remembers things that I tell him one time. And he gets overjoyed when he knows that he is saying something or showing us something that we are really excited about.

He has a few books that are his favorites lately to point out objects in. One of them is the Slide and Find - Trucks that Aunt Katie gave him. He looks at that one so much that I have had to tape it back together. The other two are My Little Word Book & My Little Animal Book. I got them both second-hand for really cheap and I would highly recommend them to anyone with a toddler.

The other day we were looking at the Word Book and I got some cute video. It's kind of long (4 mins) but it makes me smile to watch him point out all of these things. The words and phrases that he is able to say and understand just seem to multiply every day. I just love this age!!

Thanksgiving 2010

Please forgive me...it is a week before Christmas and I am just getting around to posting about Thanksgiving. I looked back at my post from last Thanksgiving and I was also about three weeks behind. I guess not much has changed!!

This year - like last year - we decided to go to PA and visit with Keith's family for Thanksgiving. We had decided that we wanted to spend Christmas morning at our house this year (and start our own traditions with Jacob). This meant that we would be spending Christmas with my family (since they live so close) and thought it was only fair to spend Thanksgiving with Keith's.

We had traveled to and from PA quite a few times since Jacob was born and I would not describe any of them as "happy times" in the car (for Jake or us!). This time, we decided to do something a little different! We headed up early on Wednesday morning, leaving our house before 8am. We actually woke Jake up around 7:30am, got him dressed and got the last minute things in the car. Keith and I had packed the car on Tuesday night so there were just a few things - like Jake's monitor & the things he sleeps with - to get packed up. We stopped at Dunkin Donuts for coffee & donuts and then we were off!

Jacob ate "finger foods" (animal crackers, craisins & goldfish) in the car for breakfast and he spent most of the trip watching something (usually Elmo-related) on the portable DVD player we borrowed from my parents. That thing was awesome as it kept his attention for most of the trip!! We only made one stop on both the way up and the way back - at an outdoor playset at a Burger King in Winchester, VA (which is about halfway). Jacob really enjoyed getting to run around and play on the slide.

Once again, like we have been doing for most of trips to PA lately, we stayed with Keith's mom in her apartment. Jacob warmed up to my MIL very quickly and was calling her "Gama" almost from the time that we arrived. He would often add an "s" on the end (calling her "Gamas"), mostly because I was telling him for a week or so that we were going to Grandma's house. Still now he often says "Gamas" when we are talking about her or we are on the phone with her. It's quite cute!

It really made my MIL happy that he was so comfortable around her. He did, however, experience quite a lot of anxiety during most of the trip whenever Keith or I left the room, even just to go to the bathroom. He would cry for the one of us that was "gone" and he was not happy unless we were both in the room with him. This made the trip much more exhausting and I will be very happy when he is over all of this stranger anxiety (or whatever it is!).

We decided to have some different sleeping arrangements for this trip because anyone sleeping in the same room as Jacob usually doesn't make for good sleep. Jacob got to sleep in the pack and play in Marge's bedroom, Marge slept on the couch, I slept on an air mattress in the living room and Keith slept on a sleeping bag (on top of an egg crate for extra cushion!) in the foyer area. It's hard to "spread out" in a small one-bedroom apartment, but I think we did a good job of maximizing the floor space!

For the most part, sleeping wasn't really a problem (except that an air mattress & a sleeping bag can get uncomfortable after a few nights!) There was one night when Jacob woke up crying in the middle of the night and it seemed like nothing was going to soothe him. Keith and I both went in separately to try and settle him down, and around 2am, I even tried to get him to lay down with me and go to sleep in my MIL's bed. Unfortunately, he just wanted me to keep singing songs and didn't want to close his eyes and go to sleep! Eventually, I just had to leave the room and hope that he would stop crying and not wake up the people that live on my MIL's floor! Thankfully, after a short time, he did settle down and go back to sleep and he didn't have a problem the rest of the trip.

On Thanksgiving Day, we traveled to Keith's cousin, Suzie's house to celebrate with their family. At first, Jake was acting shy around everyone, but he soon warmed up and was having a great time! Since he is the only child there, he gets LOTS of attention! (There are actually four other "kids" but the youngest is 17!)

He instantly made friends with Molly, the family puppy. Molly loved Jacob and would follow him around. Especially when Jake had food! More than once, Molly stole pretzels right out of Jacob's hand! I think he was a little confused because he isn't used to being around a dog like that, but he didn't react negatively, he just asked for more pretzels!!

I told him that if he was going to eat, he needed to sit (instead of walking around). Of course, he didn't like that, but he obliged. Here he is eating his pretzels while sitting with "Gamas".

Three Generations of Weimers...

Jacob was napping when we ate an early Thanksgiving dinner, so he ate his by himself later in the evening. He wasn't a huge fan of turkey, but he loved the mashed potatoes and the bread.

After he ate, we all went outside for the "Grand Illumination" of Suzie & Tad's Christmas lights. Just like last year, Jacob got to "flip the switch" and turn on all of the beautiful lights.

Last year he was too little to really know what was going on, but this year he liked being outside and looking at the lights. It was a cold and rainy evening, but we stayed outside for a bit and enjoyed the glow of the lights and the "start" of the Christmas season.

We spent Friday just hanging out in Marge's apartment since it was really cold & snowy outside. On Saturday, Keith, Jake and I drove to have lunch with one of Keith's friends from college. It's always nice to see Liz and she even brought Jacob some great presents! Unfortunately, Jake wasn't super excited about sitting still in the restaurant so the visit wasn't as enjoyable as we were hoping for. Anyone with little kids knows how hard it can be to take a toddler to a restaurant. Thankfully, Liz has four (grown) kids so she just goes with the flow and totally understands what we are going through!!

On Sunday, we drove over to Keith's aunt Kay & uncle Barry's house to visit more with his family. We didn't know they were going to be there, but Keith's cousin Dave and his family came also. It was really nice to see everyone and spend more time together. We also had a great time watching the Steelers-Bills game (they are all Steelers fans and I was the lone Bills fan!). Even though the Bills lost in OT, it was fun bantering back and forth while all of us tried to figure out who was actually going to win the game!

Kay had all of her decorations up, including their Christmas tree and I was a bit worried about how Jacob would act around it. I didn't know if he would try to touch it or pull off the ornaments. Thankfully, he didn't really pay any attention to it! He was much happier playing with his matchbox cars on the floor! Aunt Kay even got down on the floor to play with him!

We tried to get a good picture of Jake in front of tree, but he didn't really want to sit still. And, since I was trying to get the lights of the tree, he ended up showing up really dark. Oh well, you can kind of make out his smiley face!

On Monday morning, we left early again (around 8am) and Jake did remarkably well in the car. More Elmo videos and a stop at the BK again for some running around and he was good to go. I'll leave you with this video that Keith took with his iPhone while we were at the BK on our way back home. As you can see, Jake was super excited to be able to stretch his legs and and he loved the crown that the BK worker gave him!



I hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Bring on Christmas....

18 months old

It is hard to believe that my "baby" is 18 months old today! He certainly is not a baby anymore and is growing up literally before my eyes. And, every time I think he can't get any cuter or do something more fun, he does it. He is so adorable (most of the time) and he is picking up new and exciting things all the time! This age is so awesome!!

In the interest of keeping this post somewhat organized, I am going to break it up into catergories: Likes, Dislikes, Eating, Sleeping, and Communication. I am so behind (as always) with documenting what's going on with Jake, but I want to get this all down for future reference. Forgive me if this post seems long and wordy. Here goes...

Update: Jacob had his18 month checkup on Jan 19th (he was actually 19 1/2 months old). His stats were: Weight: 28.44 lbs (77th percentile), Height: 35 inches (97th percentile), Head: 19.37 inches (82nd percentile).

LIKES

Jacob has MANY likes these days. The biggest one would have to be his matchbox cars! Most of these cars were actually Keith's when he was small (except for the few that Jacob has gotten recently) and it has been really fun watching Jacob interacting with them. One of the first things he says when he wakes up (in the morning and from his nap) is cars. He runs to the living room to play with them and he will sometimes play independently with them for a good 30-45 minutes. He can even name a few of them: Tank (which he calls "Kate”), Jeep, Volvo (“Bolbo”), Train, Car, Dump Truck, Van (“Ban”), and Tractor.

He also pretty much likes anything that has wheels - Bulldozers, Tractors, Fire Trucks, Dump Trucks, Buses, etc. He has many of these items and he is most often playing with them when he is not playing with the cars.

One of the newer toys that he has acquired that he really loves is the Fisher Price Little People Nativity Set and Inn at Bethlehem. Mimi (my mom) gave him these and he loves them! He can even name most of the people and will bring them to you if you ask him to. He knows: Baby Jesus (sounds like "Gezee"), Shepard, Joseph, Mary, Angel, King, Donkey, Sheep, Cow, Stable and Inn. A really cool thing that happened the other night was that he started saying Bible and wanted Keith to read him stories from his children's bible! I think having the Nativity Set and the Inn have really gotten him interested in the people and stories of the bible. Thanks Mimi!

Other things on his list of favorite things....

Books!! He is still a HUGE fan of books and enjoys reading them throughout the day. He doesn't really have any real favorites these days - he likes whatever one he can flip through or we'll read to him!

Elmo!! Yes, that cute furry little red thing has made his presence known in the Weimer household. Jake LOVES Elmo! He has a few Elmo DVDs that we borrowed from Katie and a few that he got recently from his Grandma (he pretty much only likes watching two of them, but I am trying to widen his array of options!). He would watch those things over and over and over again! And, although I definitely don't want to be a parent who uses the tv as a babysitter, it's nice that he will sit and be quiet for 30-45 mins while I need to get something done, like make dinner!

Shoes!! He loves to wear our shoes around the house - often on the wrong feet! He's really good at getting them on himself and it's too funny to see him come walking along with our shoes on!

Being outside! This kid LOVES to be outside, even when it's cold out. Mommy would prefer to stay inside where it is nice and warm, but not Jake! Here he is helping Daddy rake some leaves:

and pulling the wagon in the driveway:

He also really likes this tricycle that I got used from someone in my neighborhood. He does well with putting his feet on the pedals, but has a hard time staying on the seat. Sometimes he slides right off! Here he is with Daddy helping him:

Last, but not least, Jake LOVES his Daddy! The first word out of his mouth most mornings is Daddy. He asks about him a lot during the day and always thinks it is him when the phone rings. It is so awesome to see the two of them interact. These days they tend to do a lot of "rough & tumble" stuff and Jacob loves it. He says, "Again, Again!" Here is a cute video of them from this past weekend. I just crack up everytime I hear Jacob laughing!

DISLIKES

There aren't too many things that Jacob doesn't like, but one that comes to mind easily is the vacuum cleaner! He is deathly afraid of that thing, although he will sometimes go near it when it is not on. If I even move it or turn it on, he freaks out! I am not sure if it is the noise that it makes or what, but needless to say, I cannot do any vacuuming when he is awake!

He is also somewhat afraid of the dust buster too, although much less so than the vacuum. He calls it the "Duster" and anytime I turn it on, even for just a few seconds, he comes running. He doesn't cry when I have it on, but he will watch me carefully and then say "Duster, Duster" over and over again until I put it away.

Jake is also having some separation anxiety issues. Unfortunately, my parents can attest to this from a few weekends ago when they watched him for us. Apparently saying goodbye to him and walking out the door (versus "sneaking" out) sent him into a complete meltdown and he cried for almost 45 minutes! We've also had this happen when we tried to leave him in the nursery at a church we were visiting. I know that we need to help him get past this by leaving him more, but it just seems so cruel! So, for now, we're sticking close by and hoping that he gets over all of this soon!!

EATING

Jake continues to be a really good eater for the most part. There are some days when he won't eat as much and then other days when I think he won't ever stop eating!! Some of his favorite foods right now are yogurt, cheese, fruit (any kind), pretzels, crackers (almost any kind, but especially the cheese peanut butter sandwich ones), raisins/craisins, and any kind of bread. He also started eating cereal with milk out of a bowl about a month ago. He does really well with it and asks for it most mornings. Here he is using a "big" spoon (which he sometimes likes to use if he sees me using one):

SLEEPING

Jake continues to be an awesome sleeper!! He is still taking one nap in the afternoon (around 1pm) and will sleep anywhere from 2-3 hours. Lately when I say that it's time to go "night-night" after lunch, he goes right to his room. If we are in his room reading books and he is ready to go to bed, he will put his fingers in his mouth (clear sign of tiredness!) and go to the side of his crib like this:

Here he is getting ready to take a nap. He has a funny habit these days of pulling at the crib sheet and bunching it up in his hand or pulling on it with his fingers while he is falling asleep. I just think he is too cute!

His night-time sleep continues to go well too, except for the few times recently when he has woken up crying in the middle of the night and been inconsolable. I am not sure why that happened, although I usually blame it on teething (he currently has 12 teeth and 2 more are poking through on the right side). His usual bedtime is between 7:30 & 8pm and he usually wakes up around 8am.

COMMUNICATION

Jacob's communication skills blow me away almost every day. It seems like he is picking up new words and phrases daily and the things that he understands amaze me! I tried to put a list together of all of the words that he is saying right now and I am currently up to over 100 words! He can point out numerous things in books (especially animals and vehicles). He knows most body parts and can point to them if you ask him (on himself and other people). He can say (and ask for) lots of different foods - I have even started giving him a choice of what he wants to eat for breakfast (his answer is usually toast or cereal).

He has also started saying some phrases like “I get it” (when he wants to be able to get something himself), “I see you”, “Kiss it” (when he has a boo-boo), “Get ‘em” (when he and Daddy are playing chase in the house). He also says "Um", "OK" and "Alright" (in the correct context!), which just cracks me up!

He also knows people's names and can point them out in pictures. He knows Mimi & Papa (my parents), all of my siblings and their spouses and all of his cousins (Pierce is his favorite, probably becasue we see him the most). He knows "Ga'mas" (what he calls Keith's mom) and Keith's aunt Kay & uncle Barry. He even started saying his own name and being able to identify himself in a picture:

The other great thing that Jake started doing is being able to understand and say possessive nouns. He'll say "Daddy's coat" or "Mommy's shoe" and sometimes he'll just point at something and say "Mommy's" (like my cell phone or my computer or a cup that I am using). It is so awesome to see his little mind working and she how he comes up with all of these things!

95% of the time, Jacob is a joy to be around. I look forward to spending every day with him and seeing what fun and exciting things he is going to say or do! Like all children though, he does have some issues that require discipline and right now we are mostly using Time-out. It works 99% of the time and when it doesn't, we (mostly I) have to revert to spanking. Both get his attention enough that he usually doesn't (soon) repeat what he had done. He is definitely getting better at listening and often does what I ask him to do without a huge struggle.

Like I said, everyday is fun and exciting and I can't wait to see what happens next!!

Counting 1-10....sort of

I have plans to do a post about Jacob turning 17 months old, but alas, like a lot of things I have "planned" to do lately, I haven't gotten to it yet. I did want to post this cute video that I took today!

It all started when we were on our way home from playgroup this morning. Jacob was "talking" away in the back seat when all of a sudden I heard him say what sounded like "six....seven...eight...ten". I was a little shocked as I had not heard him count before, and to be honest, that is not something we have really been working on. I asked him to repeat what he said and he said the exact same thing again. I asked him if he was counting and I said, "Let's count from the beginning...one..." and he said "two, three....mumble, mumble....six, seven, eight, ten!" Oh my gosh...my baby boy is counting!!! I was so excited.

Of course, when we got home, I had to try and get it on video!! After about eight attempts, I did get him to do it pretty well while the camera was rolling. Take a look. As you can see he tends to skip 1, 4, 5 & 9, but isn't he just so smart? :)

Lots of Fall Fun

We have been keeping very busy lately (hence, my lack in blogging!). The days and months just continue to fly by! I know that I should do shorter blog posts more often instead of these really looooong ones, but I just haven't been making it a priority. Maybe this can be a New Year's resolution for me (since with our busy schedules the next few months, I am sure I am not going to do much better in the blogging department!)

Anyways, there are quite a few things that we have done lately that I wanted to share (and document!):

1. One of the Mom's groups that I am a part of took a field trip to Carter Mountain Orchard on October 22nd and we had a blast. It was a frigid & windy day, but the sun was shining and the apples were ripe for picking. We paid $6.50 per person (under 2 were free) and we got to pick a bagful of apples, go on a hayride and have a little instructional session about apples. It was a lot of fun. Unfortunately my camera battery died not long after we got there, but I did get a few shots before it went kaput!

Our little group arriving at our "spot" to pick apples

Jacob got the hang of apple picking pretty quickly.

He kept saying "Apple, Apple, Apple."

I wish I had the video camera with me at the time.

Katie & her family were at the Orchard the same time we were

(although they were not part of our group).

We ran into them right before we took our hayride so Pierce joined us.

He and Jacob really enjoyed the ride!

Shaun took this picture of Jake and me near the pumpkins

Our plan was to return to the orchard the next day with Keith so that we could do some fun stuff together as a family. Since we were returning, I didn't bother getting any of their yummy apple donuts or the raspberry jam that we really like. I was also hoping to get more pictures of Jake with the pumpkins. Unfortunately, we didn't end up returning because...

2. I got an awful allergic reaction rash later that night and suffered all throughout the weekend. I will spare you all the gory details, but suffice to say my whole entire body was itchy (even places you don't want to think about having to itch). I did end up getting two prescriptions (prednisone on Saturday and an anti-itching medicine on Monday), but I was pretty miserable for three straight days.

This is how my face looked - blotchy with swollen eyes & lips

The rash on my chest and neck

and on my leg

Thankfully, I felt much better by Wednesday, although I was still taking the anti-itch medicine just in case.

3. I had previously planned to get together in C'ville with my sisters and their kiddos on Wednesday so I was glad to be feeling better. Karen was staying in Richmond for the week while Brian was out of town. So, she met Katie and I at the Bounce & Play and the kids had a great time. I didn't get a lot of pictures, but Katie did capture this fun video of Jacob & I going down one of the slides:

Let me tell you, it is hard work walking up those steep slide steps! Jake and I probably did it five times (and he would have done it a lot more if I had been willing). There was one other one that was even steeper that we climbed up. All in all, I think Jake had a really good time and we are looking forward to returning again soon.

4. Two days later, on Friday, Katie and I and the boys drove to Richmond to meet up with my Mom, Karen and her girls at the Children's Museum of Richmond. We started out going to the new location in Short Pump, but we didn't stay long since it was kind of small and the older kids were getting bored. Thankfully, with paid admission to the Short Pump location, you can get into the Downtown Richmond location for free. We spent about an hour and half there and the kids had so much fun! We could have stayed much longer, but it was getting to be lunch time and we had to get home for naps.

They had a real-sized ambulance that the kids could play in.

Jake LOVED playing in it and sitting in the driver's seat!

Jake loves anything associated with cars and trucks

so he was in his glory in this area.

We attempted to get a picture of us three sisters and our kids,

but as you can see, the kids were starting to melt down and

weren't really interested in looking at the camera!

4. On Saturday morning, Keith, Jacob and I went up to Ruther Glen in Caroline County for their Fall Festival and parade. Shaun grew up in that town and his parents still live there. We had fun spending time outside on a beautiful crisp Fall morning and Jacob enjoyed watching the parade. We even got some yummy Brunswick Stew homemade by the Fire Department volunteers.

Jake enjoying time with Daddy

Pierce and Jake watching the parade go by

5. Later that day, Keith carved a pumpkin with Jacob. As you can see from the picture, Jake wasn't super excited about it and he ended up getting down from the table after a short time. I think he is just a little too young to enjoy pumpkin carving. Maybe next year!

Keith continued even after Jacob gave up! :) He did a great job!

6. On Halloween Sunday, before we returned home, we did a dress rehearsal of Jacob in his costume for everyone to see. I didn't bother really planning a costume for him, but instead used a Scooby Doo costume that Katie had that my grandma gave to Pierce a few years ago. Jacob has no idea who Scooby Doo is, but he donned the costume as cute as he can be.

Later that evening, after Jacob took a nap, we went to one of Keith's co-worker's house for a party. We decided that he really didn't need the candy so we didn't bother trick or treating. As you can see from this video, he had fun just walking around in front of their house.

7. Last, but not least, Jacob and I exercised our priviledge as Americans and voted on Election Day. Of course, Jake didn't really have a clue as to what we were doing, but he did have fun with the sticker that they gave him. At one point, he decided it looked best on his head (and it stayed there for quite a while). :)

Unfortunately, the candidate that I voted for didn't win, but the constitutional amendments that I voted "Yes" for all passed.

As you can see we have been busy, busy, busy! Now that it is November and there are less than three weeks until Thanksgiving, I am sure our busy schedule is not going to slow down. We already have almost all of our weekends for the next two months booked! Like I say every year, maybe things will slow down after the New Year. But, I am guessing probably not!

A Day in the Life

My blogging friend, Laura at Navigating the Mothership invited me to join her in doing "A Day in the Life" blog post. Basically what that means is that you take pictures (and I did video also!) and type a looooooong post to chronicle what you did for an entire day. I decided to do this on Monday. It was really fun and I am glad that I did it. I think it will be great to look back on in a few years to reminisce how much fun life with a toddler was!! Here goes...

7:30am: I wake up, like most days, when Keith is getting ready to leave for work. I realize that I am a slacker and should actually get up much earlier, but I am such a night owl that I love being able to sleep later in the mornings. After I say goodbye to Keith, I shower, dress, throw a load of laundry in and do my hair & makeup (all while keeping an eye - and an ear - on the video monitor to see when Jacob is starting to stir).

8:22am: Jacob is still asleep!! He has been sleeping in later lately and I can't say that I am unhappy about that (except when we have somewhere to go). I get myself some coffee (Keith was nice enough to make a pot before he left for work), check email and facebook.

8:43am: Jacob is STILL sleeping!!!

I move the laundry to the dryer, put in a new load, enjoy the quiet, and wonder if he is ever going to get up!

8:55am: Jacob gets up. I heat up his milk (he drinks a sippy cup of warm milk when he wakes up) and go in to get him. I am greeted by this lovely little boy:

He drinks his milk while I am changing his diaper. I have come to realize that Jacob is starting to outgrow his changing table (hence the feet hanging over the side!) :( Where has my baby gone??
The first thing Jacob usually wants to do after he gets up is read books! I love this about him!

9:15am: My part time job (that I work from home Tues-Fri) requires me to be a part of a weekly online staff meeting on Monday mornings. On this day, because Jacob got up so late, I move between listening to/participating in the meeting and feeding him breakfast. His breakfast on this day consisted of a banana & some Life cereal, along with more milk in the sippy cup. I also gobble down the breakfast of champions (coffee & a Pop-tart) in between my other tasks.

Once Jacob is done eating, he kindly plays independently in the living room. He also watches his favorite video - Baby Genius's Favorite Nursery Rhymes (which we have had on loan from the library for a long time) until I finish my meeting.

10:20am: My meeting ends, I get Jacob dressed and we leave to go to the playground. My playgroup is supposed to be meeting there and Jacob and I are both excited to get out of the house!

10:30am: For some reason, no one else is at the playground today. I think Monday mornings are hard for some people and others have kiddos that go to preschool that day. Nonetheless, Jacob and I enjoy the outside time and he enjoys swinging and going down the slide. I forgot to take my camera with me, but I did have my Flip video camera in my purse.

11:15am: Jacob starts getting bored at the playground (and I am getting hot!). 85 degrees in October?!

so we leave, stop by CVS and then the grocery store. I only have a few things that I need to get so I let Jacob sit/stand in the cart part instead of sitting in the child seat. Yes, I do realize that this can be dangerous (and judging from the looks I got, so do many other people!), but I don't push the cart too fast and I also hold on to him while we are moving so that he doesn't fall. He is happier this way and that usually makes our trips a little more pleasant!

12:30pm: We have been at the grocery store now for about 45 mins. and the few things that I was going to buy have turned into half a cart full. (I just couldn't pass up some of the sales they were having!!) I am in line and there are three people with pretty full carts ahead of me. Jacob is now hungry and getting tired and has decided that he doesn't want to be in the cart or in the child seat or to be held. He wants to get down and walk around. I put him down for a split second and he runs down one of the aisles. I grab him and he proceeds to scream and cry and flail this arms. You would have thought he was being tortured!! I get a lot of stares and I try to remain calm all while sweating my behind off (remember, it is 85 degrees outside!!)

Thankfully, after probably only a minute or so of this (which felt much longer!), a very nice manager comes over and tells me that she has opened a new line for me. She pushes my cart over to the lane, unloads all of my groceries onto the conveyor belt, helps the cashier bag them and puts them all back into my cart. She also distracts Jacob just long enough so I can swipe my card and pay and we are out of there!

12:45pm: We get home and I unload the car while Jake finishes a snack of craisins in his car seat. I then get him inside and feed him lunch. He eats half a pb&j sandwich, some cheese and pieces of fig.

While he is eating, I put away the perishable groceries (and decide to clean one of the refrigerator shelves that really needs cleaning!). Once Jacob is done, he hands me his cup to say "Done mama!"

1pm: Jacob sees some books on the counter that were never put back on his book shelf after our weekend trip. We take them into his room and read a few before he goes down for his nap.

1:15pm: Jacob is in his crib. I make myself lunch - pb&j and chocolate milk. I am being so healthy today!!

I sit down at the kitchen table and while I am eating my sandwich, I....check email, facebook, chat with a co-worker on IM, balance the checkbook, look up recipes that I want to try and stare blankly out the window and think about all the things that I should be doing.

2pm: The home phone rings (just a solicitor) and it reminds me that I should get up and do something productive while Jacob is asleep. I clean up the lunch stuff, put away the rest of the groceries and switch the laundry (and remember to be thankful that my laundry room is next to the kitchen which is next to the bedroom. No stairs and just a few steps to take between all of these places! Sometimes having a small house is a good thing!). I fold the laundry while I watch Reality TV shows that I have DVRed. I, again, think about the things I should be doing but decide to continue watching TV until Jacob wakes up.

3:30pm: Jacob is awake. I heat up his milk and go in to his room to get him. He starts acting really goofy in his crib so I go grab the video camera. This goes on for about 10 mins. I love when he is in a good mood after his nap!

3:45pm: Jacob plays independently while I switch/fold laundry (we were away for the weekend and I swear my laundry piles doubled while I was gone!!!). I contemplate going for a walk, but it is still so hot outside so I decide against it.

4:45pm: I ask Jacob if he wants to go outside and play. He runs to the laundry room to get his shoes and he also brings me mine. I guess his answer is yes!

We go outside and Jacob swings...
And goes down the slide on his stomach (laughing the whole way down!)...
I try to get a pic of the two of us...
He plays with a rain gauge that we had in our front yard...
And his favorite thing to do while we are outside - watch cars go by!
5:55pm: Keith gets home from work (I meant to take a picture of him, but I forgot. Oops!). He takes Jacob out on the back deck with him while he grills the steaks we are having for dinner (one of the things I found on sale at Food Lion!). I stay inside and manage the other dinner items (mashed sweet potatoes, sauteed mushrooms & peas).

6:30pm: Dinner is served and we decide to eat at the patio table on the back deck. The temperature has gone down and it is a really beautiful night! Unfortunately, we need to eat fast because it starts getting dark by 7pm.

7pm: I clean up the dinner dishes while Keith gives Jacob a bath.

I always give Keith a choice of what he wants to do and he usually chooses bath over clean-up. This is fine with me since I have been with Jacob all day. And, I think it's nice for them to have some Daddy-Son time!

7:30pm: I clean up the bathroom after Jacob's bath & pick up his toys that have somehow gotten strewn all over the house! Keith reads stories, brushes Jacob's teeth and puts him to bed.

8pm: Cleanup is done and Jacob is asleep. Keith and I decide to put up our outdoor Halloween decorations (lights on the front porch and lighted pumpkins around the front door). We have fun decorating and thankfully only break two bulbs in the process. Oops!

I also set up some indoor Halloween decorations that my grandma sent me. These were all hers that she doesn't use anymore, so she passed them on to me. She knows how much Keith and I love decorations!!

When I opened up the bin that she sent them in, the smell of her attic took me back 25 years! I have such wonderful memories of her house, but since she lives 500 miles away, I don't get to spend a lot of time there anymore!

9pm: We finish decorating. I check email and facebook and upload pictures & video from the weekend.

10pm: Keith goes into the bedroom to watch Hawaii 5-0 since I am watching my DVRed Reality shows (I am hooked on a bunch of them and I never feel like I have time to watch them!!)

10:45pm: Keith comes out from the bedroom to tell me Goodnight since he keeps falling asleep watching TV. I tell him that I will be right in to join him in bed, but it is

11:30pm before I actually make my way to the bedroom. At least I was able to catch up on a few of my shows!!