Jacob "walking" for the first time

Jacob's development amazes me! It seems like just yesterday he was learning to crawl and now he is taking his first steps (with assistance). Knowing that he is changing so much everyday, I keep the camera and the video camera at an arm's length at all times. Lucky for me, today was a good day to have the video camera rolling!

I know that I am going to be eating my words soon when I keep saying that I can't wait until Jake can walk on his own. I witnessed this today at the playground when my friend Amy was literally running after her 18 month old son! Still, I am so proud of what my little man is doing. These days, life around here is never boring!

Our little tornado

When we first bought our house, I wasn't sure that I was going to like living in a ranch-style home (since I had only lived in houses with two levels before). But, now that we have Jacob, I am glad that there are no stairs to maneuver and he can crawl around and explore without me having to watch his every move. He doesn't usually wander too far away from me these days, but when he does, I know that he isn't going too far.

He is full of energy and he loves to crawl around the house and get into everything! It's so much fun to watch him try to figure things out or to find joy in the simplest things. I am happy to let him explore pretty much whatever he wants, with a few exceptions of course. If it's something that he could break or that could hurt him, it is off limits (and he has quickly learned what those things are and does a good job of not going near them). But, pretty much everything else he is free to look at, touch or play with.

Some days, he seems to make a mess in every room he enters. Unfortunately, he is a little too young to understand how to "clean up" so Mommy ends up having to do it all (although I have started to sing the "Clean Up" song in the past few days and have tried to get him to help). Most of the time, I just leave the mess until he is in bed for the night so that I don't have to do it ten times a day.

These are some pictures that I took one night last week after I put him to bed. As you can tell, he is like a little tornado wherever he goes!

He loves to open drawers and see what he can find!

(As you can see, I've emptied some drawers that are easily accessible!)

He goes into his room daily and pulls all the books he can reach

off of the book shelf. I am trying to break him of this

habit, but so far, I haven't had much luck!

When he is in the living room, he seems to pull out every toy he can find. The "fun" part is when all of the musical ones start making noise at the same time.

His favorite place to play these days is our "mudroom". He'll play in there for 30 minutes at a time! He loves to play with the shoes on the shoe rack and with the food on the shelves. And now that he is pulling up, I have had to move all of the glass items up to higher shelving.

When he is in the kitchen, this is his favorite cupboard to play in.

It houses our cereal and all of my baking items.

The other day, I watched him figure out how to

"open" the box of Cheerios.

And, enjoy a little snack. What a smart little devil he is!

Even though the clean up can get tedious and annoying sometimes, I love to see the joy he gets when he is playing with all of these different things. I try to remember that the days of him being small and wanting to play "under foot" and with simple things like shoes or boxes of food are going to be gone all too soon. For now, I'll continue to clean up after him and allow him to have fun with whatever his little heart desires!

Standing Tall

Our little guy did something really awesome today!

It started a month or so ago when he started pulling up while holding on to something:

Then, just a few weeks ago, he started getting into a "semi standing" position in the middle of the floor (without holding on to anything):

and standing up, almost hands free:

Sometimes, in recent days, he would even try to let go, but he didn't have the balance and he would fall back onto his bottom. Then, today.....

While he was in the kitchen eating a snack (see the empty bowl and the puffs all over the floor?!), he saw his snack cup in the diaper bag so he leaned down to get it and then started to stand up. I saw him and thought "Oh my gosh...he is going to stand up without holding on to anything!" I grabbed the camera (I keep it pretty close to me these days for exactly this reason!) and I was super excited to get a picture of him standing up straight and tall without holding on!!! When I called his name, he turned and looked at me and knew that he was doing something really cool!

Way to go, Jacob! Mommy & Daddy are SO proud of you!! I'm sure more exciting times like this are sure to come soon!

Celebrating my first Mother's Day

Anyone that knows me well knows that I have longed for many years to be a Mom. It has been one of my life-long goals for as long as I can remember. And, I have always hoped to be able to stay home with my child(ren) as my Mom did when we were growing up. She was (and still is!) such a wonderful example to me and I can never thank her enough for all the time, energy & love she has given me over the years. I always wanted to be able to be a great Mom just like she is!

Over the last ten years or so, whenever I was interviewing for a job, I would always have to stop for a moment when the interviewer would ask the popular question, "Where do you see yourself in five years?" Obviously the answer he or she was looking for goes something like this: "I am a hard worker and I will use my determination and skills to better myself and this company every day. I can see myself working for this company for many, many years in whatever capacity it needs me to."

In my head, I knew that was the "correct" answer, but it my heart I would always want to say: "Frankly I am just working in this job until the day that I am blessed to find a wonderful man to marry. Then we'll have a child and I will quit this job so that I can be a Stay At Home Mom and have the job I have dreamed about my entire life." Of course, I never said that since back then I needed a paying job!

But then, one day back in October 2004, I did meet a wonderful man. In November 2006, we got married. And, almost a year ago, on June 7th, 2009, we welcomed Jacob into this world and I became a Mom! And these days, I am thoroughly enjoying my job as a SAHM! I am very fortunate to have a husband who sees the value in me not working outside the home and we have been blessed with a beautiful & healthy little boy.

Celebrating my first Mother's Day this past weekend was great! I was able to spend quality time with Keith and Jacob the entire weekend and also had some time to myself for a few hours. On Saturday, I went to the Sycamore Day Spa and had a one-hour full body massage and a spa pedicure. It was awesome - so relaxing and rejuvenating!

I also received these beautiful flowers that were delivered on Friday

and enjoyed a yummy frozen strawberry margarita with dinner at the local Mexican restaurant last night.

After our dinner, the three of us took a walk around the neighborhood. The weather was beautiful and it was nice to enjoy the outdoors with my favorite little guy.

Then, this morning when I woke up, there were two envelopes waiting for me on Jacob's high chair. Inside were a card from him & a gift certificate to the nail salon for me to get two predicures in the coming months! (He must like it when Mommy has pretty toenails!)

I also got a beautiful card from Keith hidden in a box of my favorite Dunkin Donuts.

Wow, was I spoiled this year or what?! I'd have to say that I am one lucky girl and my first Mother's Day was definitely a day that I will never forget!