Problem solved

These

PLUS

this

EQUALS

this

and this

and this

Thankfully, the problem is now solved!

Which makes for a happy baby and a happy Mama!

Jacob's "funky" crawl & pulling up

These days, Jake definitely has the crawling thing down - and actually he moves pretty fast. Especially when he sees something he REALLY wants like the remote control, a cell phone or my laptop (as you can see, he is really into technology!).

He even started doing this "funky" crawl thing where he straightens out his right leg while keeping his left leg bent. He doesn't do it all the time, but it is funny to watch. I am surprised at how fast he moves, even though it looks very awkward to me. Here is a video of it:

He also started pulling up in the crib just a few weeks ago, and now he pulls up everywhere! He doesn't seem to be too interested in "walking" anywhere, just pulling up to see the world from a different view. Here is some video I shot on two separate occasions:

I still can't believe how big he is getting and how much he has changed just in the last few months. It's awesome to see him growing up!

Ten months old

Jacob turned 10 months old last week. I cannot believe that he is only two months away from being a year old. It is crazy to think that a whole year has almost gone by already. Geez...time needs to slow down just a bit!

I am REALLY enjoying Jacob at this age. Just when I think he can't get any cuter and he can't get any more fun, he does! I love that I am able to be with him pretty much 24/7 and even though the job of a stay at home mom is not easy, I wouldn't trade it for anything! I am VERY thankful to Keith for working hard to keep our little family afloat.

These days, the weather is getting nicer in our little neck of the woods so Jacob and I have been enjoying spending time on our front porch. He loves to hang out in the walker; sometimes he walks back and forth from one side of the porch to the other with much gusto. Often, he stops to watch the cars go by - the noiser they are (like motorcycles or trucks, the better they are to him!)...

...sometimes he stops to look at the windchimes that are playing beautiful music above...
...and sometimes he will stand at the end of the porch and watch the birds and the squirrels play in the wooded lot next to our house...

It is so awesome to watch him take in all the sights and sounds around him. My grandma says that he is a "thinker" and I would have to agree. He sometimes just sits and stares at something and I can almost see his brain working to comprehend what he is looking at. (I think he gets that from Keith as Keith is more of a "thinker" than I am. I am more of a "talk/act now, think later" kinda person!)

In the recent past, Jacob experienced a lot of firsts:

Taking a bath in the "big tub" (no more little baby tub!)

He did this for the first time at Grandma Marge's house

while we were visiting her for Easter

Going down the slide at the playground

This was also done in Somerset, PA while visiting Grandma Marge

His first Easter Egg Hunt

We celebrated Easter with Keith's family in Southwest PA

and his aunt does an Easter Egg Hunt for the adults and kids.

Jacob (with help!) found the two "golden eggs"

and took $15 home to his piggy bank!

No more pureed foods!!

Jacob really enjoys feeding himself (and it makes life easier for Mommy too!)

Right now, his meals pretty much look like this: Breakfast - cheerios, appelsauce, sometimes banana and sometimes yogurt; Lunch - cheese, raisins, bread, and cut up pieces of fruit (peaches, pears, mandarin oranges or mango); Dinner - whatever leftovers we might have that he can eat: chicken, hamburger or pasta, along with veggies such as mashed sweet or regular potatoes, steamed peas, carrots, or green beans, and a different kind of fruit. Also, if he didn't have the yogurt at breakfast, he'll have it at dinner.

He also still likes to eat the Gerber puffs (any flavor) and the Gerber Yogurt melts. I use those as a snack or a dessert. He LOVES goldfish crackers and would eat them at every meal! I buy the multrigrain ones and try to not give him too many throughout the day.

He is still an excellent eater and will pretty much try anything I give him. I am often amazed at the amount of food he can consume, but I guess his little body is storing it up so he can grow big and strong! The spitting up has completely stopped (THANK GOODNESS!!!) but his reflux is still hanging around. I tried to completely stop giving him the Zantac, but I have gone back to just giving him .5 ml once a day. He doesn't seem to be in as much discomfort anymore, but I can still see some stuff coming up into his throat when he doesn't take the Zantac.

He's getting the hang of using the sippy cup on his own

He'll grab the cup correctly and put it up to his mouth.

I just need to help him tip it up so that he can get the water out.

He drinks really well from it and loves to drink water!

Jacob is definitely ON THE MOVE these days! His awake time is pretty much spent crawling around the house...

or pulling up and getting into anything he can. He especially likes to pull things off of shelves, as seen in this picture. If it is something that is not going to hurt him and something he isn't going to destroy, I pretty much let him do whatever he wants to do. I figure the mess can always be cleaned up and I get so much joy out of watching him explore and have fun doing it!

One of his favorite places to play these days is in our laundry/mud room. It is a small room that is between the garage and the kitchen. In addition to housing the washer & dryer, it is also where we keep a lot of our shoes and we have a shelving unit where we keep our overstock of food that won't fit in the kitchen cabinets (we don't have a pantry). I made sure to move all of the glass bottles and containers to higher shelving so he could play in there without me having to worry about something coming crashing down. He loves playing with the boxed food and plastic bottles. He also loves playing with shoes too. It's a weird obsession in my opinion, but hey, whatever makes him happy!

He is pretty good about not touching the things that he shouldn't, although he really likes to touch the VCR and the DVR box. I have to tell him no and pull him away from them at least once a day. He also really enjoys pulling Daddy's books off of the book shelf in the living room.

Right now, we haven't started spanking Jacob or even slapping his hand. It isn't because we are averse to discipling in that way (we do believe in spanking and will do it when necessary), but Keith and I both feel that it isn't necessary at this time. When Jacob touches something he shouldn't, we firmly tell him NO and move his hand away. He often tries to touch it again and then we hold his hand back so he can't get to it. This usually annoys him and he gets angry and starts yelling, but usually it deters him from touching it again (at least at that specific time.)

I do belive that he knows what he should and shouldn't touch. He definitely pushes limits on certain things (like the VCR) but with other things, he'll crawl over to whatever it is and then he'll look up at me before he tries to touch it. If I say No and shake my head, nine times out of ten, he will not touch it.

Speaking of shaking his head, he started doing that about a month ago. It's really funny to watch him do it and to try to understand why he is doing it at that certain time. Sometimes he'll shake his head in response to me trying to give him more food or something like that, but a lot of times he does it spontaneously or for no reason that I can come up with. Here is a video that I shot one afternoon when he was shaking his head in response to my singing. Or maybe it was the bananas. I'm still not quite sure.

As you can see from the pictures and the video, Jacob still looks A LOT like Keith. Almost every day someone says to me, "Wow, he looks exactly like his Daddy. I don't see you in him at all" and I say, "That's ok. He might look like his Daddy, but he knows who his Mama is!" :) I love him more than words can ever express and I am so blessed to be his Mama!

Standing

Jacob's standing ability has increased exponentially in the past few days. Just last week, he wasn't really interested in standing on his own and today he looked like this...

He was so proud to be standing up on his own playing with the Leap Frog learning table that we borrowed from the Arnolds. Don't you love how he's on his tiptoes?

Then this afternoon, when I put him in the crib for his nap, I looked at the video monitor and I could not believe what I saw...

I have seen him try to pull-up in the crib - and I even took the bumper out for one day last week because I thought he was using it to stand up. Well, now he just pulls himself up and peers over the side of the crib like a big boy.

And, even though it wasn't appropriate, in addition to grabbing the camera when I saw him standing up, I also shot this video. [Sorry it is so dark but I didn't want to turn the light on since he was supposed to be sleeping! Hopefully you can see what he is doing.]

Thankfully, after about 30 minutes of trying to stand up, he tired himself out and slept for almost 3 hours!! Oh my gosh!! My baby boy is growing up! It's exciting and scary all at the same time.

Jacob & Grass...

...apparently don't mix! This was his first time touching grass and, as you can see, he didn't like it at all. After I took this video, I sat with him for awhile, but he kept crying and lifting his feet up. I guess it felt really funny to him. I am hopeful that he will learn to love it soon enough. Now that the weather is nicer, we'll be spending a lot more time outside. YAY!