The Weimer Chronicles

Separation Issue: Church Sunday School

2011-09-15T22:36:00.004-04:00

Jacob has always been a little shy around strangers and sometimes even around family. He had the "normal" stranger anxiety issues when he was a little over a year old. And then again when he was about 18 months old. I was hoping with the passage of time and him maturing, it would change, but unfortunately it has not and it has been both frustrating and heartbreaking.

I often blame myself for this issue since I have pretty much been with him 24/7 since the day he was born. The only people he has really stayed with for an extended period of time, other than myself or Keith, are my parents or my sister, Katie. He did stay with a high school girl who lived across the street a few times when he was less than a year old, but it was only for a few hours and it was before he really understood what was happening. I truly believe that staying home with him and not having him in daycare or being cared for by someone else is a good thing. However, I also wonder if we would be having these same problems if I had left him more often over the past two years.

The biggest issue we are dealing with right now is leaving him at the Sunday School class at church. This is one of those situations that I look back and really wish we had just dealt with two years ago. Keith and I were very involved in our church in Richmond, but when we moved to Charlottesville in 2007, we fell away from going to church regularly. Numerous times over the past four and a half years, we have attended a church with the intentions of making it a regular part of our week. Unfortunately, we never made it a high priority before we had Jacob (mostly because of laziness) and once he came along, getting up and going to church with a baby seemed like an impossible task. There were morning naps, breastfeeding, and diaper changes to deal with and it was just easier to stay home on Sunday mornings and spend time as a family. We did go a few times, but once he got to the age where he wasn't content to sit in his carrier, we didn't attempt to go anymore.

Then, earlier this year, Keith and I had a discussion about how we felt it was important to get involved in a church - both for ourselves and for Jacob. We really enjoyed being a part of our church in Richmond and we miss that fellowship and feeling of family. Here at home, we read bible stories, sing biblical songs and pray with Jacob, but we wanted something more for him too. So, we started attending a church close to our home in late May. We left Jacob in the nursery one time (and he cried most of the time!) and another time we tried to have him in the service with us (we left early that day since neither of us could really pay attention to what was going on due to a very feisty toddler!).

Then, due to vacations and busy summer weekends, we didn't get into a good routine of going every Sunday until late July. At this point, since Jacob was over two years old, he was not allowed in the nursery anymore; he needed to go to the two-year old Sunday School classroom. In this setting, he would color pictures, sing songs, listen to bible stories, eat a snack and sometimes go outside on the playground. We were really excited for Jacob to learn about Jesus and to enjoy being with other kids his age. Unfortunately, he was not so excited! I basically had to peel him of of me and leave him in the room crying out for me the first day we left him. And, about 20 minutes into the service, one of the teacher's helpers had to come get me because he wouldn't stop crying. From then until now (for about six weeks), we have tried numerous things - bringing him into the service with us, me staying in the classroom with him, and what we have done most is to just leave him (even though he is crying when we leave and crying when we come back to get him).

It breaks my heart to walk away from him when he is crying so hard and calling out for me, but I have been hoping that it was going to get better. One of the problems is that the Sunday School teacher is not the same every week. It is a volunteer position that rotates and, especially over the summer, there was not a predictable schedule of who was going to be there. There is one teacher, Miss Terry, who Jacob is more fond of and who I feel comfortable leaving him with (she always assures me that "he will be fine" and that we should go enjoy the service and not worry about him). The first time we left him with her, I admittedly was a little worried about her blase attitude and I cried walking from the classroom to the sanctuary and for the first ten minutes of the service! I wondered if we were doing the right thing or if we were leaving him with someone who wasn't going to take very good care of him. That day, when we returned to get him (even though he was still crying and so was I again), Miss Terry told me that she had a daughter with special needs and that she understood the need for parents to have time away and for kids to learn the hard lesson that their Mom and Dad will come back for them. From that day forward, I felt like Jacob and Miss Terry had a special bond. A few times after the service when we have gone to the classroom to get him, the teenage helpers have told us that he and Miss Terry are in a different place (out at the playground or in a different area of the building). She tries very hard to distract him while making him feel comfortable being away from us. He still cries and has to be peeled off of me when I leave him with her, but she tells me every week that she thinks he is getting better and isn't crying as much (read: just on and off instead of the whole hour! lol) I am VERY thankful for Miss Terry and I believe that she is truly helping Jacob overcome his separation anxiety fear (even though it is a very sloooooow process!). The only problem now is that I don't feel comfortable leaving him with anyone else. And, there are weeks that Miss Terry is not going to be there so we need to decide what to do.

Keith and I have had NUMEROUS discussions about this issue and have also fielded many suggestions from family and friends. It is a hard issue to deal with and, even though we sometimes second guess ourselves, we have come to the conclusion that forcing him to spend some time away from us is a good thing. And, we are hopeful that someday (hopefully SOON!!), it will not be such a struggle for all of us. The saga continues...

Happy Birthday to Me!

2011-08-28T22:57:00.001-04:00

Yesterday was my 36th (wow!!) birthday and it was a great day! Of course, there was the uninvited guest named (Hurricane) Irene that decided to arrive in Virginia yesterday and leave many of my friends and family members without power in Richmond! Thankfully, here in Charlottesville, we only got slight wind gusts and a lot of rain. No power outages or trees down and, for that, I am very thankful!

Yesterday morning, Keith got Jacob up and let me "sleep in". Of course, with a noisy two year old running around, I couldn't really sleep, but I was able to lay in bed for a little while and watch The Weather Channel (which I have been addicted to watching over the past few days!). Once I got up, Keith went to Dunkin Donuts and got me my favorite donuts. They were so fresh and yummy!

Mid-morning, we headed into "town", dropped off some books at the library and then went to The Hibachi Grill (which was my choice) for lunch. I was craving some Asian food and they have a big selection of Chinese, Japanese and American food. I also knew it would be a good place to find stuff that Keith and Jacob would like.

During lunch, as I was putting hot mustard on my Chinese Spring Roll, Jacob said he wanted some. And, even though I assured him many, many, many times that he would not like it and that it was really hot, he still wanted to taste it. And...me just giving him a little bit of it on my finger was not enough. He wanted to hold the packet himself. So...since I sometimes like him to learn through natural consequences, I let him do whatever he wanted.

At first, he was enjoying it....

and then he realized how HOT it was and wasn't very happy....

Don't worry, a little water and some bread and he was back to normal. Well, not exactly normal...he decided he wanted to eat some butter right out of the little tub. Sounds gross, huh?

Well he loved it! LOL

After lunch, we came back home for rest and relaxation. Jacob took a nap and I laid around watching The Weather Channel and checking email and Facebook. It was glorious! :)

At one point, I looked at Jacob's monitor because he had cried out and I thought he might be waking up. This is what I saw on the monitor....he was sitting up and then he put his head down straight in front of him without getting out of the sitting pose! It looks super uncomfortable, but he stayed like that for about 30 mins!

Once Jacob got up from his nap, we played together while Keith made dinner! It was a welcome change since I am the one who makes dinner every night. Here he is peeling potatoes:

Blackened salmon, mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts and garlic bread...YUM!!

Even though we didn't lose power, we had a candlelight dinner, just the three of us!

My beautiful plate...thanks honey!!

After dinner, Keith cleaned up the dishes and then we had ice cream cake (my favorite!). Jacob enjoyed singing Happy Birthday to Mommy. I wish we would have gotten it on video, he was so cute.

Thank you, Keith, for such a wonderful relaxing day. I didn't do dishes, laundry, cook, clean or anything else I didn't want to do all day! For any moms out there, you know that is an awesome day!

Whatchu talkin' bout, Jacob?

2011-07-15T23:45:00.001-04:00

Jacob's language skills continue to amaze me everyday. His words and ability to form sentences (that make sense) have completely taken off lately. In the past few months, he has gone from speaking in one or two word phrases to sentences that can be five to six words long. Strangers are often surprised to hear that he is only a little over two years old when they hear him speaking so well. I don't really have anything to compare it to, so I just think he is "normal" for his age. When we went for his two-year well visit last month, the pediatrician asked me how many words he was saying. When I paused to think, she said "At least 50?". I laughed and said, "Yeah, really more like hundreds". And when she heard him say a four word sentence "I get the ball", she smiled and said that she was definitely not worried about his speech!

Here are some examples of phrases and sentences that have come out of Jacob's little mouth recently:

"Have both of these" (when holding two items)

"Can Daddy do it?" (regarding getting something that Mommy was going to get)

"These are apart" (talking about two trains that were connected, but came apart)

"This is the beginning" (in regards to the opening on a DVD he was watching)

"Mommy play cars with Jacob" (when he wants me to play with him)

"Jacob wants...." and "He wants..." (when he wants me to give him something, such as a certain type of food)

"There's another...." (when he sees two of the same thing)

"It's all over" (referring to the end of a video or book)

"That's Mommy's [or Daddy's, Aunt Katie's, Jacob's, Papa's, etc]...." (referring to something belonging to someone. For example, cup, water, shirt, body parts, book, pretty much everything!!)

"What's he/she/Mommy/Daddy [or anyone, similar to above] doing?" (when he wants to know what someone is doing. It can be something interesting that he sees or just something simple like eating or driving a car or washing hands. He is very inquisitive!!)

"What book are we going to read?" (he asked this when he was picking out a book to read before bedtime)

"I don't like...." (he has started to show his dislike for things, even those things that he previously liked. He will most often use this phrase regarding food, but he will use it for other things too when he is trying to tell us that he doesn't want to do something)

"I don't want to watch X no more" (obviously when he is no longer interested in watching whatever DVD he was previously watching)

"I have to go get...." (he announces when he is going into another room to get something such as a toy, book or shoes)

"I'm looking for..." (when he is searching for something, whether a toy or an object in a book)

"Few more minutes" and "One more time" (he uses these phrases when he is trying to negotiate with us after we have told him it is time to stop playing or doing whatever thing he doesn't want to stop doing)

"What do you want to watch?" (he says this when he wants to watch a DVD - Barney is by far his favorite right now, with Bob the Builder and Thomas the Tank Engine running second and third.)

"Oh, you're right" (he said this to me yesterday and I laughed out loud! I can't remember what he was referring to, but it had something to do with me telling him to do something and then when he did it, he made this exclamation).

"You're such a big boy" (he also said this to me yesterday when he was hanging on the monkey bars at the playground. It was funny to hear him say this - obviously he was repeating what we have said to him many times before!)

"Where's the book, honey?" (he was looking for a specific book and couldn't find it so he asked me this question. Again, I laughed out loud because he was obviously repeating what he has heard!)

Songs - he loves to sing songs lately. He sings along to the CDs that we listen to in the car or in the house, he will sing along to songs that are on DVDs that he is watching, and he will sometimes sing along with me when I am singing to him before his nap or bedtime. Some of his favorites right now are the Bob the Builder theme song, "Baa Baa Black Sheep", "Hush little Baby", "Itsy Bitsy Spider" (with some hand motions), "Farmer in the Dell", "I've Got Peace Like a River", "Are You Sleeping?", and "The Grand Old Duke of York". He will often ask to repeat the same song on a CD in the car over and over and over again!!

Body parts - he is very good at pointing out various body parts (on himself or someone else). I am pretty sure this is age appropriate, but I wanted to document it for future reference. He can point to and name eyes, nose, mouth, tongue, teeth, ears, head, hair, eyebrows, mustache, beard, neck, shoulder, chin, arm, hand, fingers, fingernails, chest, stomach, belly button, penis (that is a fun one!), bottom, leg, knee, ankle, foot, toes, and toenails. Lately he has also been asking me what my breasts are (if I undress in front of him). I have told him and he will say "Those are Mommy's breasts", but he continues to ask every time. I guess they are just interesting to him. He will also say "Mommy's penis" so I am trying to explain to him the difference between girls and boys (in a way that a two-year old will understand!). I have not gotten into telling him the name for my private area yet, and am hoping to hold off on that for awhile! He already talks about his penis a lot, I don't need him to start talking about my parts too!

Letters - he can recognize a few letters (O,I,Q,L,G,B) most of the time, but he sometimes still gets them wrong. He loves to point out letters and tell me what he thinks they are (even though most of the time he is not correct). I love his apparent enthusiasm for wanting to learn! He also knows a lot of letter sounds (from his Leap Frog "Letter Factory" video). Sometimes, he will walk around randomly saying "The B says Bah, the B says Bah, every letter makes a sound, the B says Bah". I took this video of him doing it a few weeks ago (I aso added in some footage of him singing yesterday):

Basically, Jacob is at the stage now where he will repeat pretty much anything he hears! He has a mind like a steel trap and almost anything that goes in, stays in and often comes back out in one way or another. It is fun watching him process things and develop his own little language and ways to express himself. I am glad that he is able to communicate with us so much because it makes the tantrums and outburts happen a lot less. He is good at repeating himself too until we understand what he is saying. Sometimes it takes me a few tries to figure out what he is trying to say. He has trouble with the letter V and it comes out sounding like a B. Other than that, his words are often pretty recognizable, even by people who aren't around him that often.

I just love my little chatterbox! I think he is going to be a non-stop talker (sometimes he already is!) just like his Mama can be!

Summertime Fun

2011-07-03T23:54:00.001-04:00

We have certainly been enjoying the beautiful weather that Virginia has given us so far this summer. We are so blessed to live in a community that has a pool and several beaches to choose from whenever we want to go play! This summer has been so much fun so far - Jacob is at such a great age and he asks almost daily if we can "go play in sand and water" (aka go to the beach) or "go jump in the pool". He loves the water and I am sure that he is going to be a little fish once he gets a little bigger and learns to swim. This makes me very happy since I also love the water and even taught swimming lessons and lifeguarded in my younger years.

In early May, we had some beautiful weather so we went to the beach a few times. One day, Jacon and I were going for a walk (he was riding in the wagon and I was pulling him!) and I decided to walk to the nearest beach (it is about 1.2 miles from our house). Of course, we didn't have our swimsuits on or have any sand toys with us, but we did have fun wading in the water, looking at boats and walking in the sand.

A few days later, on a somewhat overcast day, we got our suits on, packed up our sand toys and headed for the beach. Because it was a little cool, I didn't let Jacob go in very far, just up to his ankles, but he was asking to go in further.

Due to our 10 days away from home (visiting family in NY and PA) in late May/early June, we had a few weeks where we missed spending any time near water. Thankfully once we got back into the swing of things, we more than made up for it. In fact, a few weeks ago, Jacob and I had our swimsuits on five days in a row - three trips to our neighborhood pool, one trip to the beach and one day at a friend's pool all in the same week! If you ask me, it was great (and I think Jacob enjoyed it too!). I am truly blessed to be able to do things like that!

Here are some pictures from that week:

Jacob enjoying his lunch at the Lake Monticello pool

(June 21)

Of course drinking Mommy's water bottle is so much more fun!

Reid and Jacob

Playing with trucks in the Lake

(June 22)

Eating lunch at Emily's pool (It was rainy and cool on this particular day. We did swim for a short bit, but mostly we hung out eating under the umbrellas)

(June 23)

Back at the LM pool - having fun in the baby pool

(June 24)

Keith went with us to the pool on Saturday. It is always fun to have Daddy there to do fun things like throw you up in the air!!

(June 25)

At our first trip to the pool (on June 21), Jacob started jumping in the pool if I was holding his hands. He wanted to do it over and over again and wasn't even upset if water got in his face or he went under a bit. On this particular day, he started jumping in all by himself (without me holding on to his hands). I think it had something to do with him getting the noodle that we had been playing with. Either way, I was so proud of him! Thankfully, Keith was able to get it on video:

We had a bit of a lull the week after our 5-day water fun because the weather was a little crappy (rainy) and also we had some other things to do! This past week, we had a playdate with my mom's group at one of the local spray parks. I had never been to a spray park before so I had no idea what the expect. It definitely exceeded my expectations and the best part is that it was completely FREE!

One thing I did learn was that I should have worn my bathing suit - it was 90+ degrees and very humid and I was wishing that I could jump in the water with everyone else. Next time I will wear it for sure!! Here are some pictures I captured of Jacob (he was a little tentative at first, but after a litle while he started really having fun!):

I am looking forward to many more fun times at the beach and pool this summer. We leave for our fun family vacation to Corolla on Sunday, July 24th (just three weeks from today!) and I am really looking forward to it! I hope the rest of the summer is as fun as the first part as been!

Jacob's 2nd birthday

2011-06-15T23:48:00.001-04:00

It is unbelievable to me that my "baby" turned two years old last week. It seems like just yesterday, we were announcing his arrival! Now, he is talking and walking and has really grown into a little person. He is independent, loving, sweet, full of energy, cheerful, fiesty, determined and has a great sense of humor. I just love him more than words can ever express!!

His birthday this year was certainly a long celebration!! He got to eat lots of cake and he blew the candles out five different times. He got really used to receiving presents (and actually still asks to "open more presents" everyday). He was one spoiled little boy this year. I hope he doesn't remember all of this next year because I am pretty sure this won't ever be repeated!

Jacob's first celebration came on May 29th at my grandmother's 80th birthday party in Rochester, NY. "Nana" surprised us by having a cake for Jacob at her party. He enjoyed everyone singing to him and watching him blow out the candles. He also enjoyed eating the yummy cake!

The second celebration came on June 1st at my grandma's house near Rochester. We were still up there visiting my extended family and everyone came to her house for dinner. We had an inpromtu birthday party for Jacob with cake and presents courtesy of my grandma and my aunts. My aunt Julie brought a yummy ice cream cake for us all to enjoy. (Note: We did not write on this cake! This "beautiful"job was done by the woman who was working in the bakery at the grocery store. We all agreed she should NOT be decorating cakes! haha)

(Another note: my grandma did not have any birthday candles so we had to resort to using these multi-colored taper candles. Yes, they are quite large...but Jacob didn't mind a bit!)

The third celebration was on June 4th at Keith's aunt's house in PA. We left NY and traveled to PA to visit with his family for a few days. More of the same....cake and LOTS of presents!!

The fourth celebration was on Jacob's actual birthday - June 7th. We traveled back from PA that day so we were in the car for most of the day. By the time we got home, it was late evening and we hadn't really planned anything. Keith ran to the grocery store and came back with some cupcakes. We lit two candles and sang Happy Birthday to Jacob. Then, he opened up two presents from us.

The fifth celebration was this past Saturday, June 11th. We had a family birthday party with my immediate family at my parents' house in Richmond. I made a cake - nothing fancy, just confetti cake with chocolate frosting, but it was a hit! And, Jacob got spoiled more with lots of more great presents.

We were able to get the third, fourth and fifth celebratory "Happy Birthday" songs on video and I put them all together into this one:

Happy Birthday sweet boy! Mommy and Daddy love you very much!!

"The View from Here": April 11-17

2011-06-15T22:18:00.002-04:00

This is over two months behind, but I had already uploaded the pictures so I am going to go ahead and publish it.

Monday, April 11

Playing outside with chalk and tricycle

Tuesday, April 12

Playing basketball

Wednesday, April 13

Jacob had his yearly appointment at UVA Urology. This was follow-up to the Hydronephrosis that was detected when he was in utero. Thankfully, Jacob did really well. He had a great ultrasound technician who was fast and very friendly and Jacob didn't squirm that much. He also did great when the nurse took his temperature and his blood pressure.

Unfortunately, as it always seems to happen at the UVA Urology office, we had to wait a LONG time to see the doctor. The ultrasound took about 5 mins and then we waited over an hour to see the doctor!! Jacob got a little stirc-crazy sitting in the small exam room for that long, but overall he did really well. Here we are goofing around while waiting:

The good news was that his kidneys look fine and the doctor thinks that the issue is resolving itself with time. He still wants us to come back in a year, but hopefully that will be our last appointment!!

Thursday, April 14

Nothing like opening a box of Cheese-Its in the grocery store to keep a little boy quiet! Jacob LOVES "cheese crackers" and he would sit and eat half of the box if I let him!

I have started allowing Jacob to wash his hands in the bathroom sink. He uses the step stool/potty and is able to reach the faucet to turn on the water.

Friday, April 15

First of two birds' nests that appeared in my hanging plants. I guess our front porch is a good place to "raise a family". haha

Saturday, April 16

We went to Chuck E Cheese to celebrate my niece's 3rd birthday. Jacob had a blast riding the rides and playing the games. The grownups enjoyed it too!

Keith and Jacob playing skeeball

Riding the horsie

Up, Up, Up he goes!

Daddy and Jacob driving a car

The three oldest kiddos (Sierra, Jacob, and Pierce) got to pick out prizes using the tickets that everyone won.

The Stank grandkids

Pierce (4), Sierra (3), Jacob (22 months), Reid (18 months), Chyler (13 months)

"The View from Here": April 4-10

2011-05-06T23:17:00.001-04:00

Oh my goodness, I have been so busy lately - working every day during Jacob's nap and then again most nights after he is in bed. Add in three weekend trips to Richmond over the last six weeks and I have had NO time to blog! Obviously, I am WAY behind on posting these posts from April but I have had them in the "Edit Post" category for awhile so I am going to publish them. At the very least, it will give me something to look at years from now! Here is our "View from Here" for Week #8:

Monday, April 4

While we were visiting my parents' house, Jacob was enjoying playing hide and seek with their front door. He says "Where are you?" while he is hiding and then he'll say "There you are" as he appears. It is really cute!

Since we stayed in Richmond until Monday, I had an opportunity to meet up with my good friend Lisa. Jacob enjoyed playing with her two of her kiddos (her oldest was in school and the littlest one was napping). After we played outside for a bit, we went through the drive through at Chic-Fil-A and then had lunch at a local park/playground. It was a lot of fun catching up and having the kids play together.

Tuesday, April 5

Jacob likes pulling the suitcase around the house. In this instance, it had been emptied the night before from our trip to Richmond. He was helping me take it back to its storage space in the garage.

Wednesday, April 6

On this particular day, we made a trip to Walmart and I bought some burner covers and new drip pans. I was tired off stuff getting on the burners and the old dip pans looked awful! Before I replaced everything, I decided to give my stove & oven a really good cleaning. Not fun, but now it looks a million times better.

Looks shiny & new!

Thursday, April 7

Unfortunately we don't have a lot of grass in our back yard. But that is ok when you have a little boy because he is content with turning our beach sand toys into "dirt" toys. He loves to shovel up the rocks and dirt. I am hoping that he enjoys the sand this summer just as much.

We got our patio set late last summer so we weren't really able to use it that much before the weather got cool. This year, we have used it a ton! Most days when I tell Jacob that I am making dinner, he says "Deck...eat on deck". It is definitely more work to take everything out there and then bring it back in, but he loves sitting out there. We sort of live on a corner (the corner lot is not developed) so he is able to see lots of vehicles going by. We are also able to see plenty of birds and squirrels and sometimes even a deer!

Friday, April 8

On Friday, I hosted playgroup at my house. I also watched my friend, Kathy's son, Luke for a few hours in the morning. Luke and Jacob are very close in age (Luke is one week older) and I hope that they will grow up to be good buddies!

Doesn't Jacob looks so huge next to Luke? I often forget how big he is until he gets around other kids his age. I wonder if he will always be on the tall side - only time will tell.

Saturday, April 9

Jacob got a "Tickle Me Elmo" for Christmas from Uncle Mike & Aunt Blakely. And, even though he was loving Elmo around that time, he really wasn't too interested in it until recently. He now thinks it is hysterical when Elmo "laughs" and shakes and he will press on his stomach to see it happen over and over again!

Sunday, April 10

On this particular Sunday, we attempted to go to a new church in our area (the church isn't new, it is just one that we hadn't been to). Unfortunately, it didn't go well...AT ALL! Not long after arriving, Jacob expressed interest in going to the nursery to "play with the toys" (he had been in the nursery at a different church a few weeks before this and did fairly well). I was hesitant to put him in this nursery, just because I didn't know anyone there and I was certain that he wouldn't do well since he still has A LOT of stranger anxiety and doesn't like to be away from us.

Well, we decided to try it and see what happened. About 10 minutes after taking him down to the nursery, Keith returned to our seats saying that Jacob was not happy when he left. I told him that I probably wouldn't have left him if he was that upset, but we would just wait and see. About 5 minutes later, our "number" flashed up on the screen at the front of the church alerting us to come to the nursery. Within seconds of that happening, I could hear Jacob crying very loudly from the lobby of the church (I am pretty sure everyone in the service could hear him!!). Keith went down to get him and I followed about a minute later.

After getting him calmed down, we attempted to return to the balcony area of the church and went into the "crying room". Jacob did OK in their with us for about five minutes before he got really upset and started crying very loudly again. Since there were no speakers in that room (so we could not hear what was going on in the church) and it was clear that Jacob was not happy, we just decided to leave.

We ended up going to Lowe's (all dressed up in our nice church clothes) to get flowers and mulch for our front garden. After that, we went to our local Mexican restaurant for lunch. Jacob was much happier there and enjoyed eating his (not-so-Mexican) hot dog & french fries with lots of ketchup.

Condiments weren't really his thing until recently and now he can't get enough of them. Ketchup, mustard, salsa, and hummus are his favorites, although he loves anything he can "dip" into. I think he would eat them with every meal if he could. Today when I asked him what he wanted for breakfast, he said "Mustard". That kid is crazy!!

Bubbles & Contagious Laughter

2011-04-27T23:16:00.004-04:00

Tonight, while Keith was getting Jacob out of the bathtub, I heard Jacob start hysterically laughing. I wasn't sure what was going on. All I knew was Jacob was laughing and laughing. I grabbed the video camera and this is what I saw:

Please forgive the shaking that occurs in parts of the video - that is me trying to stifle my laughter. Apparently, this is a game that Jacob and Daddy play with the tub bubbles while Jake is in the tub. Tonight, Jacob asked him to do it after he got out and it was obviously a hit! Jacob thought it was especially funny when Daddy would have to wipe his face off on Jacob's towel!

Isn't his laughter contagious?! I love my boy!

"The View from Here": March 28-April 3

2011-04-21T23:08:00.001-04:00

Here is our "View From Here" for Week #7 (a few weeks behind!):

Monday, March 28

Jacob definitely loves to eat! And, like any little kid, the messier the better! On this day, he somehow got yogurt all over his face. Silly boy!

Tuesday, March 29

Remember, this post, where I showed you how Jacob was becoming very indecisive about what videos he wanted to watch? Here is a picture from a typical morning around here. He likes to look through all of the DVD cases and tell me what they are. Then he will tell me which video he wants to watch while he is eating breakfast. (Don't worry, I removed all of the DVDs from the cases so that they wouldn't get broken!)

A few weeks before Jacob was born, we were blessed with an awesome baby shower hosted by my mom, sisters and sister-in-law. The shower had a wagon theme and Blakely actually made the cake in a small wagon. That wagon was given to us and for a year and a half, it sat on a shelf in our garage collecting dust. Jacob saw it one day and asked to play with it. It is the perfect size for him to pull around. He likes to take lots of things for rides - mostly cars, trucks, and stuffed animals.

Wednesday, March 30

On Wednesday, my Mom's groups had a fun playdate at the Bounce-n-Play in Charlottesville. We have only been there once before and Jacob had a good time. He is still a little too small for some of the bigger slides (and Mommy gets really tired carrying him up the steep steps of the big slides!). He did however enjoy bouncing around and going down the smaller slide!

At the beginning of the year, a newly relocated family joined our Mom's group. The mom, Lauren, and I became good friends and I hope our little guys stay close throughout the years. They have a lot of similarities - both are named Jacob and both were due to be born on the same day (Jacob W. is just a week older than Jacob D.), and apparently they both love books too! Here they are checking out the selection at the Bounce-n-Play.

Saturday, April 2

On Friday, April 1st, Keith headed up to PA to spend some time with his mom while she was recuperating from her surgery. She had been staying with her sister and brother-in-law and he went up to help her move back to her apartment. Like we often do, Jake and I headed to Richmond to visit with my family while Keith was away.

Jacob has fallen in love with the book "The Missing Tooth" that is at Mimi & Papa's house. It is an old book (1988) and was most likely my brother's when he was a kid. It is a Step 3 book (one that is used to help kids read) and is fairly long, but Jacob loves it and wants it read over and over again. Here, he is "reading" it while he waits for me to prepare his lunch. I definitely think this kid is going to be an early reader!

Sunday, April 3

Jacob loves to take a bath in Mimi & Papa's big tub! There are times when he has to share it with some of his other cousins, so it is really fun when he gets it all to himself!

"The View from Here": March 21-27

2011-04-08T23:44:00.000-04:00

I'm behind again - two weeks this time! Oh well. I've been crazy busy with work, home, and everything else in between! Here is our "View From Here" Week #6:

Monday, March 21:

Jacob has moved from using snack traps to using bags for snacks. He would consistently take the top off of the snack traps and the food would go everywhere. At least with a bag, only the crumbs get tossed around sometimes as he tries to get every last morsel out. Here is a sampling of some "snack bags" that were sitting on the counter recently (and yes, three out of the four are cereal - mini wheats, lucky charms, and kix. Jake is on a cereal-loving kick lately!)

Tuesday, March 22:

On March 22, our Tuesday morning playgroup met at the Charlottesville Discovery Museum on the Downtown Mall. There were quite a few moms and kiddos there and we all had a great time. It was our first time there and Jacob enjoyed playing with all the neat things. Here he is playing with the train table:

They have this really cool contraption called "Amazing Airways". According to the website, "Puffs of air make balls and scarves fly through the Amazing Airways maze!" It was a really cool concept! The kids had fun putting the balls and scarves in the hole and watching them go through the maze and come back out!

Jacob and Reid "playing" Checkers

Jacob enjoyed playing with the wheels on the wall

Outside the Discovery Museum, there is a small carousel. It only seats seven and it is not mechanical, but it is FREE! and the kids loved it! Thankfully there weren't that many people on the Downtown Mall that day so our kids were able to play on it for a good while. Jacob would have probably stayed on it all day if I let him. I literally had to pry him off of the horse kicking and screaming!

I love this picture! He was having such a good time (as were Virginia & Wade who are in the background!)

Wednesday, March 23:

On Wednesday, I watched Reid for Katie while she and Pierce went to the dentist. We went to a friend's house in the morning for playgroup, but then the boys and I returned home for lunch and naps (for them, not me unfortunately!). Here are the two cuties enjoying their lunch (I love Reid's cheesy smile!):

These two are definitely "all boy" and they love to play with the cars!

Later that night, after his bath, Keith let Jacob run around naked. It was funny to see him doing "normal" things like reading books with no clothes on. He loved it though and wasn't too happy to get his clothes back on.

Thursday, March 24:

Thursday was a rough day for me. Remember, this post? I am still not sure why I was feeling so blah, but I know that I was definitely feeling better later that night! Four friends and I went to Ladies' Night Out at the Melting Pot and we had a fabulous time (we even closed the place down - we were talking and laughing so much that we didn't leave until after 10pm)!! I had a wonderful frozen strawberry margarita and we scarfed down yummy fondue foods! I am so blessed to have these awesome girls in my life and I cherish the fun times that we all have together.

Friday, March 25:

Fridays are usually lazy kinda days in our house as we normally don't have anything planned. We spend most of the morning in our pajamas just playing and hanging around. This particular day, Jacob kept taking his pajama pants off and walking around with them around his ankles. He was being overly goofy and finding it really funny! The more he laughed, the more I laughed - I wish I had gotten a video - it was one of those really fun silly moments.

Here is a not-so-funny moment that I did capture on video. Jacob's indecision lately is driving me crazy!

Saturday, March 26

I didn't take any pictures on Saturday. Probably because I was out running errands a lot of the day. Keith graciously took Jacob with him into town to the library while I did some local shopping at CVS and Food Lion (the only two stores that I can go to without driving at least 15 minutes). It seems like mundane shopping, but it was nice to be able to spend some time looking at greeting cards & shopping for deals instead of throwing stuff into the cart while trying to keep Jacob occupied! CVS had a great deal on the shampoo and conditioner that we use, so I stocked up for our Semester at Sea trip (4 months worth!). They also had Multigrain Cheerios (one of Keith's favs) on sale 2/$5 so I grabbed four boxes! CVS is one of those places where you wouldn't necessarily think to buy food, but they often have some really good deals if you time to look for them.

Sunday, March 27

We awoke on Sunday to a dusting of snow on the ground. Seriously?? Isn't it the end of March?? This year's weather has been so weird - in the 30s one week, 80 degrees the next and snow the next! I'm definitely ready for Spring and more consistently warmish temps (but not 80 just yet!)

This is a very random picture, but I was just amazed at the size of these boneless chicken breasts that we got from Sam's Club. No, they are not organic and yes, I realize that they were probably injected with something to make them this big!

"The View from Here": March 14-20

2011-03-27T23:30:00.002-04:00

Obviously I am still way behind on posting this, but at least I can say that I got two other blog posts done this week. These days, for me, that is quite an accomplishment! :)

Here is our "View From Here" Week #5:

Monday, March 14:

For some time now, we have listened to kids music every time we are in the car. We borrowed a few CDs from Katie back in the Fall and then Jacob got the Cedarmont Kids 100 Sing along Songs CDs for Christmas. Sometimes Jacob will ask for a certain song to be played (and yes, I have memorized the track numbers of his favorites). Other times, he is content to listen to whatever songs happen to play. Every now and then (not very often), I can get him to listen to my music (country). That usually only lasts a few minutes, but it is a welcome change from non-stop Nursery Rhymes!

Recently Jacob has asked to hold the CD holder while we are going somewhere. He doesn't really do anything with it, he just wants to hold it.

Tuesday, March 15:

One of Jacob's "favorite foods" right now is shredded cheese. As I mentioned in this post, he calls it "Daddy's cheese" and he probably asks for it at least once a day! For some reason, about a month or so ago, he started refusing to eat any cheese except for this kind. I don't necessarily mind since it's easy to just give him a handful when he asks for it. The problem is that it makes a HUGE mess!

The cheese ends up everywhere - inside the pocket of his bib, on his pants, in his highchair and most often on the floor! One day last week, we ran out of shredded cheese and thankfully he was willing to eat block cheese again. He still asks for "Daddy's cheese" and now that I have gotten more at the grocery store, I give it to him. But, it is nice to know that he will eat the other kind too if we run out again!

As I have said numerous times before, Jacob LOVES books. He has his favorites and is starting to be able to "read" (obviously from memorization) along with us. I got his really cute video of Keith and Jacob "reading" before bed:

Wednesday, March 16:

I belong to two Mom's groups and for one of them I have an official title: Event Coordinator. What this means is just what it sounds like - I coordinate events for the group. One of the things that I decided to do this year was to have holiday parties for every "popular" holiday. Of course, for March that means St. Patrick's Day.

Since we have a room reserved in the clubhouse of my neighborhood for playtime every third Wednesday, it worked out perfectly to have the party there! Here are some cute pictures from the event.

Our decorated table with some of the "green" snacks:

Jacob really enjoyed the chocolate-covered pretzels that someone brought to share:

Apparently Jacob was in the mood to wrestle. He loves being wherever Pierce is and will sometimes even tackle him!! Pierce is always a good sport and loves to play along.

Later that night, during dinner, Jacob was exhibiting his independence and wanted to open his yogurt himself. Unlike the video I posted a few days ago, this type of yogurt (the Gerber non-refrigerated kind) is not as easy to open. Even I have a hard time with it sometimes! But, no, Jacob wanted to do it himself. As you can see from this photo, he got the tiniest little opening in the top of it and then proceeded to stick his spoon in and start eating! He was content as could be since he got it open just enough to be able to get something out of it! Silly boy!

Thursday, March 17:

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, I decided to let Jacob have some Lucky Charms as a snack after breakfast. I had brought them to the party the day before and he saw some leftovers sitting in a plastic container on the counter. The problem with him eating them (aside from them having a ton of sugar!) is that he really only likes the marshmallows. So...what does he do? He picks all of the non-marshmallow pieces out and drops them on the floor. Seems like a good plan, huh?

See them all scattered on the floor? (Yes, I did require him to help me pick them up.)

Friday, March 18:

We had beautiful weather that Friday - it was near 80 degrees outside (actually a little too hot for March in my opinion). Jake and I met Katie, Pierce and Reid (and some other Moms and friends) at the playground and we had a great time.

Jacob wanted to take a book along to read on the way:

My brave little boy on top of the slide (he used to only go down on his stomach, but now he will go down on his bottom too - or try to walk down like he is doing here!)

Jacob got really hot and he takes after me with the flushed cheeks! This is one of my favorite pictures of him - he looks almost like a little model! :)

Saturday, March 19:

One day while I was looking for videos and pictures to put up on a blog post, Jacob saw them and now whenever I have the laptop out, he thinks it is time to look at them. He will say "Picture, picture, pictures" over and over again. He gets really upset when I tell him that he can't see them (mostly if I am trying to do something else or there aren't any new pictures or videos to show him). On this particular day, nothing much was going on in the late afternoon so I opened up the laptop and let him watch some videos of himself. He prefers videos with other people in them, but since most of the videos that we have are of him, he will watch them until he gets bored.

Sunday, March 20

Jacob has some really strange habits (like all little kids, I am sure). One of them is that he likes to dip certain foods in his yogurt. Sometimes it is crackers or block cheese (yuck!) or some such fruit or vegetable. On this occasion it was apple slices:

Looks yummy. But will it taste good?

Yep, it's good!

Jacob is sometimes the most fun right after he gets up from his nap. Almost every day he wakes up super happy and full of energy. He loves to jump around in his crib and play. His newest thing is to drop (or throw) everything out of his crib. He thinks it is just the most fun thing to do! I took this cute video of him that Sunday after his nap. I just love how he is role playing with Elmo too.

21-22 Months Old

2011-03-25T23:37:00.003-04:00

I've been meaning to do another monthly update post on Jacob for the past few months. I haven't done one since he turned 18 months old in December and he changes so much so quickly. I want to get as much as I can down on paper so that I can remember what this age was like.

Here's a glimpse into what Jacob is doing these days:

His language continues to just grow by leaps and bounds. He seems to be picking up new words and phrases daily. He will say three- and four-word sentences often these days. Some of the phrases we hear the most lately are "What the matter?", "What you doing?", "Who dat?", and "That one" (when he wants something). He still doesn't understand the "me" concept so he will call himself "you" (for example, he'll say "You do it" but he really means that he wants to do it.) It can be confusing sometimes, but it is also really cute!

He has some interesting names for foods based on what he relates them to. Two examples are: 1) he calls Frosted Mini-Wheats "Uncle Mike's cereal" because my brother, Mike, was eating them when we were last visiting with him. And (2) he calls shredded cheese "Daddy's cheese" because Keith was eating it on his salad one night and Jacob wanted some.

He is getting better and better at saying "please" when he asks for something, although I still have to remind him daily. He is also getting the concept of "thank you" a lot better and every now and then he will say it without me prompting him. He knows that he is supposed to say "excuse me" when he burps or toots, although I have never heard him initiate that (but he will say "scuse me" if I say "What do you say when you burp?"). He also doesn't understand the "I'm sorry" concept and he will say "I sorry" when I hurt him (if I accidentally bump into him or when I do something that causes him discomfort). He recently had a really bad diaper rash and every time I changed a poopy diaper and had to use a wipe to clean him up, he would wimper and say "I sorry, I sorry, I sorry". It broke my heart because I knew it didn't feel very good. I tried to be gentle, but I still had to wipe kind of hard sometimes to get him fully cleaned. He also says "All done, all done, all done" over and over again when you are doing something to him that he doesn't want you to (like getting the snot out of his nose or wiping his face after he eats).

His favorites things these days continue to be his matchbox cars, trucks and construction vehicles. He also still loves to read books and is getting better and better at repeating the words without us prompting. Keith thinks he is going to be an early reader, but I just think he has a really good memory! He did a really funny thing the other day when Keith was reading to him. He apparently got tired of the book that they were reading so he said "ok, the end" and shut the book. Funny boy! He continues to enjoy being outside - either swinging or going for walks in the wagon. Keith has been taking him for walks in the evenings and on the weekends and he loves it (it helps that the weather is getting warmer and it stays lighter later). Lately, whenever we are in the car and I drive past one of the roads that they walk on, he says "Daddy take a walk".

Jacob is definitely better with his stranger anxiety, but I would still consider him shy around most people (even family at first). A few weeks ago, he stayed with my parents while Keith was out of town and I was doing a Tastefully Simple party and he did really well. My mom said that he asked about me a lot, but he didn't cry or get upset at all. He doesn't fuss anymore when I leave him with Keith or vice versa and that is REALLY nice. Last night, I left to go out to dinner with some friends and I was able to kiss him goodbye and tell him I love him. He waved at me and say "Bye Mommy".

He still sleeps and eats really well. He is sleeping about 12 hours at night (8pm-8am) and most days he takes a 2-3 hour nap. For three days this week, he had some trouble falling asleep at naptime and was in his crib for almost two hours before he fell asleep. Thankfully, today he was back to normal and fell asleep not long after I put him in the crib. His eating habits seem to be the same as they have been. He continues to love fruits and vegetables and of course, bread (just like his Daddy!). Yogurt, cheese (especially "Daddy's cheese") and Cheese-Its ("Cheese crackers") are his favorites right now. And, breakfast is definitely his favorite meal. He will sit for a really long time and eat (usually a banana with either oatmeal, "Uncle Mike's cereal", or sugar/cinnamon toast). It helps that our routine is that he is able to watch a video while he is eating.

Sometimes he asks for "Elmo songs on TV" as soon as he gets up. I try to keep his TV watching to a minimum, but I admit that I am not a huge stickler about it and he will sometimes watch videos a lot in the morning (especially if we don't have anywhere to go). Lately he is very indecisive and seems to only watch a video for a short time before he wants to switch to something else. I know he is just trying to exert his control of the situation, but it is quite exhausting for Mommy!

Along with trying to control a situation, he is also starting to show his independence more and more. He wants to be able to do things himself and will get upset if I do something for him when he wanted to do it. I shot this video a few weeks ago and it is a perfect example of his need for independence!

As you can see, Mommy still wants to be able to help. I love seeing his little mind working and enjoy watching him learn. I am also glad that he is able to do more things for himself, but I am sad that my baby is growing up!

In a Funk

2011-03-24T10:21:00.008-04:00

I am kind of in a funk today and I find myself crying for no apparent reason. Maybe it's PMS or maybe it's stress. Or maybe it is just that I have been feeling very overwhelmed the past week or so. Feeling like there is so much to do and I cannot get it all done. And that I am not really giving 100% to anything and therefore failing at most everything. I also have not been eating very well during the day (or eating at all somedays) because I just don't take the time to make something. I am sure that has added to me feeling bad and not having a lot of energy.

Here are some other things that I think are also causing me to feel this way:

Jacob wants my attention and wants me to play with him. And, of course, I would love to be able to just sit and read to him all day. Or play cars and trucks. Or go outside and swing. Or take him for a walk in the wagon. But, then there is only so much time in the day and while I spend thirty minutes playing with him, I start to feel the pressure of everything else that needs to get done. And then, I feel really guilty because I should be enjoying these times with him because I know that he is only going to be little for a short period of time. It's a constant struggle to figure out how to balance all of the demands that are placed on me (or I have placed on myself!).

Jacob is also starting to exhibit some "terrible two" behavior. He is definitely exerting more need for control and independence. Along with that comes yelling outbursts, hitting, throwing things, telling us "NO NO NO NO NO" and sometimes throwing a fit when we tell him he needs to do something. This includes things that are necessary like putting his shoes on to go outside or sitting in his highchair to eat. It is can be very frustrating trying to explain to him that he HAS to do these things. It can also be exhausting! Something else that is new behavior is that he will change his mind on a dime. Most days after watching a video for about five minutes, he says NO and wants to watch something else. If I don't change the video, he sometimes freaks out. At that point, I turn the TV off all together, but I still have to deal with his tantrum. And, last night he said he wanted to take a bath (and we obliged even though it wasn't a "bath night") but once he got all undressed and the water and bubbles were filling up in the tub, he threw a huge fit and didn't want to sit down in the tub! I know that this is all normal behavior for his age, but it is exhausting to deal with sometimes!! I find myself trying not to get too angry and to discipline him with love, but that is not always easy. I feel like a really bad mom lately because I find myself running out of patience very quickly. I wonder if I am putting him in "timeout" too frequently or for things that aren't really "that" bad. But then again, I want to be sure that I am giving him clear signs of what is correct behavior and what is not. And, I have seen signs of change based on my discipline so I know that something I am doing is working! Some days, this parenting job is REALLY hard!!

My house seems like it constantly needs to be cleaned. A day after I washed the kitchen floor and swept the hardwoods, they are messy again. The bathrooms seem to be like that too. In fact I hate to admit it, but our master bathroom is disgusting! It really needs to be cleaned and I just keep putting it off because it's not high on the priority list! And, of course there is the never ending laundry that always seems to be piled up and the meals to cook and the grocery lists to make and then a trip to the grocery store with a toddler (which is not very fun sometimes due to the resistance of putting on shoes and sitting still in the grocery cart). The list of things to do around the house just never seems to end!!

My "part-time" job has also become much more demanding. I have several projects to complete and I am also working help desk shifts a few times a week! The past two weeks I have worked close to 30 hours each week and it has been draining! I have been working during Jacob's naps every day and often working in the evenings. I have decided that staying up until after midnight doing work is not good for me. I wake up tired and cranky in the morning and Keith and I are not spending much quality time together in the evenings. I really do enjoy the job and the money that I am making is definitely helping us, but I have found that working an "at home" job means that you really never leave work. There is always something that can/should be done when you have a free moment.

The stress level in our house has also been affected by the medical issues that Keith's mom has been going through for the past month. First, she had surgery on March 3rd to remove a cancerous tumor in her liver. They ended up taking out half of her liver, but thankfully that organ will regenerate on its own! While Keith was up in PA for her surgery, he ended up staying for an additional two days. First, because Marge was put in ICU for breathing troubles. And, then because he had to gather documents for a social worker to see if she qualified for Medicaid (for which she has since been denied for bringing in too much money each month...seriously??! Apparently the max is $900 a month and she brings in just over $1000 between SS and her small pension check). Then, she was released from the hospital a week later and sent to a skilled nursing facility for rehab. She seemed to be doing really well with rehab until last Friday, when we received a phone call at 10:30pm saying that she had been taken to the hospital in respiratory distress. She was diagnosed with a Pulminary Embolism (a blood clot in her lung) and she was in the Critical Care Unit. She stayed in the CCU until Monday and now she is currently in a step-down unit. She was diagnosed with pneumonia, although that seems to have cleared up now. She is most likely going to be released either today or tomorrow and she will go stay with her sister (which is another stressor since they don't get along very well). Keith has been in constant communication with his aunt, the social workers, doctors, nurses, and anyone else involved in her care. It's been a lot for him and it makes it even harder to help when he is 200 miles away! We have talked about the possibility of bringing her down here to stay with us for while she recuperates, but that brings up a whole nother level of stress! Right now, we are going to wait and see how her follow-up appt with the surgeon goes on April 4th.

I also love to blog and it has certainly been put on the back burner recently. Most importantly, I use this blog as a journal so that I can remember what our life is like during a particular time. I also like writing and find it therapeutic at times (this post for example) and I miss the ability to do that. I put stress on myself to get certain posts done (like montly posts about Jacob - which I am like 5 months behind on!) and then I feel like a failure when I don't get them done.

Part of my guilty feelings also surround the fact that I know that I have a GREAT life. I am SO blessed to have this life and I feel like I should be happy and appreciative all the time instead of feeling so stressed. I know that these feelings will soon pass and that everything that needs to get done will get done. I just need to refocus and remember what is important in life. And know that I am doing the best that I can.

"The View from Here": March 7-13

2011-03-19T18:17:00.008-04:00

Another super busy week and I am behind again. Oh well, better late than never! Here it is...our "View From Here" for Week #4:

Monday, March 7:

Jacob and I stayed in Richmond on Monday since Keith was not coming home from PA until Tuesday (which then actually turned into Wednesday). I was excited that Jake and I were able to meet my good friend, Trish, at Cracker Barrel for lunch. It was really great to see her and catch up. And, as you can see from the photo, while we were there Jacob found a new love for jelly! He was having fun peeling the tops off of the butter and jelly and then he asked me for a spoon and decided to start eating it. Strange and not so healthy, but it kept him occupied so Trish and I could actually talk a little without getting interrupted!

Tuesday, March 8:

After being in Richmond for almost a week, it was good to be back home. I shot this video of Jacob right before breakfast. He was singing his ABCs (which he can do from start to finish - and has been doing for about 2 months now), but as soon as I turned on the video camera, he refused to do it. This is a normal occurrence these days as whenever I get the video camera out he stops whatever "video-worthy" thing he was doing and will not do it no matter how much I ask (or bribe!) him. You will also notice the sort of "growl" that he does at the very beginning of the video - that is his new way of showing his anger or frustration. Oh, terrible twos...I feel that they aren't far away!!

Wednesday, March 9:

As I said last week, Jacob has had this thing where he wants to stay in his crib for awhile after I go in to get him in the morning. His request now is to have "Milk in bed" (as he says). So, instead of him drinking his milk cup on the changing table while I change his diaper, he wants me give it to him in his crib and he lays back down to drink it. Sometimes he even says "Mommy Come Back", which in Jacob language means he wants me to leave and come back a little later. Silly boy!

Thursday, March 10:

Thursday was a rainy, yucky day. We stayed in our pjs for most of the day and spent a lot of time looking out the window at the rain.

At one point in the afternoon, it was raining so hard that a small stream formed in our front yard. There was also a small lake in our backyard. Everything was overflowing!

Jacob spent a lot of time watching videos on TV that day too. This is one of his favorite things to do these days but most days I try to limit it to twice a day - while he is eating breakfast and after he gets up from his nap. His favorite videos right now are pretty much anything with Elmo or Sesame street characters and Baby Genius Sing-A-Long Songs. I have tried to get him to watch Curious George (just for some variety) but it doesn't usually keep his attention. I recently bought a few videos about trucks & constructions vehicles and he is asking to watch those now too.

Friday, March 11:

Keith decided to take the day off on Friday since he had been away and dealing with all of his Mom's stuff. He needed some "down time" and also wanted to spend time with Jake and me. Jacob LOVES when Keith is here (and so do I!) so we had a really fun day. We didn't really even do anything that exciting but I would still say it was a great day!

Jacob loves to wrestle and roughhouse with Keith so they enjoyed a litlte bit of that in the morning:

Jacob is becoming more interested in puzzles these days. My aunt gave us a bunch of really cool ones last year, but he is just now enjoying playing with them. Basically, he just likes to take all the pieces off and play with them, but I am also teaching him how they go back in and fit together.

Jacob's balance amazes me sometimes! He often likes to stand on this giraffe while he is watching TV. He is really good at standing on the little seat with his feet really close together. And, he rarely ever falls off! Maybe some balance beam gymnastics are in his future?!

Saturday, March 12:

Saturday was a good, but busy day. My sister, Katie, hosted a Tastefully Simple party at her house and we had a great time taste testing all the yummy food. Keith and Jacob spent a lot of time together - playing outside, taking a walk (with Jacob in the wagon) and just having fun - while I got ready for the party and was gone for most of the afternoon.

I did take this one picture in the morning - ripped books courtesy of my little book-ripper! As I have said before, Jacob LOVES books and we read often throughout most days so I do not understand why he wants to rip them!

He doesn't necessarily rip pages (although he has done that a few times), but he mostly rips parts of books with pop-ups, lift the flap or moving parts. The funny thing is that the ones that he rips are often his favorites - like Matthew Van Fleet's "Tails" and "Cats". Right now two of his other favorites are "If You Give a Cat a Cupcake" and "If You Give a Pig a Party" by Laura Numeroff, and thankfully he hasn't ripped those!

Sunday, March 13:

We decided to go into Charlottesville on Sunday morning and grab some breakfast at one of our favorite breakfast places - The Tavern. It is a small restaurant near the UVA campus and they are known for their great food (their Biscuits & Gravy are awesome!) and their very fast service (we got our food less than 5 minutes after we ordered it!). Breakfast is my favorite meal to go out for and we don't really have a breakfast restaurant close to us (other than iHop). Because of the time change, we didn't end up getting out of the house before until 10am, so it was really more like brunch!

Since it was such a nice day (upper 60s), we decided to go over to the grounds at UVA and walk around. We had a great time walking up the stairs next to Alderman Library (where Keith works) and just running around the Rotunda & the Lawn.

We took the opportunity to take a few family pics. Unfortunately, there wasn't anyone nearby to take a picture of all three of us, so separate Mommy and Daddy pics with Jacob will have to do!

Here is a video I put together of our outing. It was great being outside, enjoying the beautiful weather and spending time as a family!

"The View from Here": February 28-March 6

2011-03-13T17:05:00.000-04:00

Here I am, almost a week behind in posting last week's "View From Here". Like most weeks, I am not really sure where the time went. Although this week seemed particularly busy and the days just flew by!

Since I have been such a slacker blogger, I really want to commit to posting these weekly summaries. Even if they are WAY behind. I know that I will appreciate the effort years from now when I can look back and get a glimpse into what our life was like.

So, here goes...our "View From Here" for Week #3:

Monday, February 28:

Sometimes Jacob refuses to put clothes on when I try to get him dressed. On this particular day, I decided not to fight with him and instead let him walk around for awhile in just a diaper and socks. Oh, and he added one my flip-flops to make the "outfit" complete!

"Where is your sippy cup?" - that question is one that comes out of my mouth quite often because Jacob will take his cup and walk around with it and then drop it somewhere in the house. On this particular day, I could not find it anywhere! I searched every room in the house and looked under and around toys, but didn't see it. Then, once I got him another cup, the first cup magically appeared and he decided he was going to use both! I wonder if he had it hidden in a special hiding place that Mommy doesn't know about?!

Tuesday, March 1:

Recently, Jacob hasn't wanted to get out of his crib after his nap (or sometimes in the morning). When I go in to get him up, he says "Stay in Bed" and starts jumping around. If I try to take him out of his crib, he puts up a fight. So...instead of fighting him, I just let him stay in there! He will jump around and play with his toys (or throw them all out!). And sometimes he asks for a book. One of his favorite books these days is "Love You Forever", a book that will make any mother tear up while reading it. On this particular day, he sat in his crib and flipped through the pages for a good ten minutes! I love my little book-loving kiddo!

Wednesday, March 2:

On Wednesday morning, Keith left for PA to be with his mom who was having surgery on Thursday. She ended up having half of her liver removed to rid her body of the cancerous tumor that was growing there. Since he was going to be away for several days, I took the opportunity to take Jacob to visit my family in Richmond.

On Wednesday (and Thursday) afternoon, after Jacob woke up from his nap, my brother, his dog Rhea, Jacob and I all ventured over to an elementary school playground that is not far from my parents' house. Jacob and Rhea both had a great time running around!

We were the only ones there so Rhea was able to pretty much go wherever she wanted. At one point, she followed Jacob up the steps of the jungle gym!

Since it is an elementary school playground, there aren't any baby swings. Jacob LOVES to swing and he kept asking about it, so I put him on one of the regular swings.

He didn't do too bad at first, but he was having trouble keeping his balance while sitting on the seat. He kept either falling forward or backwards while I was pushing him. And, I was getting nervous that he was going to fall off.

At one point, he thought it would be really fun to purposely lean back and fall backwards off the swing! Good thing Mommy was there to catch him!

Thursday, March 3:

I didn't take any pictures on Thursday, but I did get this cute video of Jacob and my brother, Mike. Even though Jacob still has a little anxiety around people (even family members), he really enjoyed spending time with my brother and sister-in-law (who recently moved to Richmond and are currently living with my parents). It was really great to see them since they have been in NC for the past few years. I'm really glad that they are living so much closer now!!

On Thursday evening, we got a really great surprise when my grandma, aunt and cousin knocked on my parents' front door! They live in Rochester, NY and they had driven nine hours to surprise us with a visit for the weekend! It was really great to see them!!

Friday, March 4:

We were blessed with beautiful weather for the weekend so we tried to spend as much time outside as possible. Jacob is really enjoying riding his tricycle right now even though he isn't able to really pedal it himself. It has a handle which works well so that someone is able to push him.

Four generations: my mom, Jacob, my grandma and me

On Friday afternoon, my sister Karen and her family arrived and we decided to take a Sierra and Jacob for a walk to the playground in my parents' neighborhood. It is nice to have a playground that is within walking distance (it's about a 1/2 mile walk) and the kids love to go for a ride in the wagon.

My aunt Julie graciously pulled the wagon

My cousin, Rachel, pushed the kids on the swings

Jacob found a basketball and had fun playing with it

Saturday, March 5:

On Saturday, my sister had a party at my parents' house for my niece, Chyler's 1st birthday. Since everyone was going to be there, Mimi and Papa got out the awesome Bounce House that they recently purchased for the grandkids to play in. It is huge and so much fun! I wish I weighed 150 lbs less so I could play in it too! :)

Jacob absolutely loved playing in the ball pit! He really enjoyed throwing the balls and jumping around.

A shot of most of the family enjoying lunch at the birthday party

The beautiful birthday girl!

Later that day, Jacob asked Papa to read him a story ("Just Me and My Mom", which is one of his favorites these days!) and Pierce joined in too!

One of the really cool gifts that Chyler received was the Gazillion Bubble Machine. It really does make a gazillion bubbles and the kids had a blast playing with it.

Sunday, March 6:

Sunday was another day that I didn't take any pictures. It was a pretty run-of-the mill day hanging out at my parents' house. I did have my first Tastefully Simple party with my friends, Dee and Lisa. I had a blast! It was fun to talk about their great products and to set up the taste-testing. I am very grateful to my parents who took wonderful care of Jacob while I was gone.

I had planned on us returning home on Sunday evening since Keith was supposed to be coming home too. But, he got delayed because his mom ended up in ICU with some breathing troubles. Since he was not coming home, I decided to stay and visit with family for a little while longer!

"The View From Here": February 21-27

2011-03-01T20:44:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was a super busy and somewhat crazy day....I had to do a presentation at a meeting in the morning for my online job. I made and delivered a meal for a woman in my Moms group who recently had a baby. I worked (at the online job) for three hours in the afternoon while Jacob napped. Then, Jacob woke up from a long 3.5 hour nap with massive diarrhea that resulted in me having to change his cribsheet & his changing pad cover and throw him in the bathtub. Thankfully he has been pretty happy while having a bit of this stomach bug that is going around so he played in the tub while I made dinner. Then, not long after Keith got home, I had to rush out and get to a Moms group meeting that started at 7pm. I didn't get home until after 10pm and then realized that I wanted to get this blog post out every Monday. After staying up til almost 1am, it still didn't get done! Oh well, better late than never I guess.

Here is our "View From Here" for Week #2:

Monday, February 21:

I honestly cannot even remember what we did last Monday! Apparently it was quite a busy day though because I have no pictures or videos! I know one thing that I did - I accepted a new job with Mobile Insight, the company that I have been working for from home for almost a year.

The new job is Project Coordinator and I am still in the process of figuring out what that means, but for the most part, I will be assisting one of the Project Managers in getting new clients onboarded with the company. It is an ever-growing company and I am excited to start doing new and interesting things. The downside, if there is one, is that it will require me to work Monday-Friday for 3+ hours each day (versus the two or three days a week I was working before). The majority of my work will be done when Jacob is napping, but there might be some projects that require evening or weekend hours. Of course, more work means more money and who couldn't use that? But, also more work means more stress and less time to get other things done. I am hoping that I can get into a good groove and accomplish everything I need to get done.

Tuesday, February 22:

One of Jacob's daily activities is to climb up and sit on the activity table while he plays. He also like to "pose" for the camera sometimes now. Notice how his head is thrown back and he is saying "Cheese"! (Also notice that he is Bib-less....I forgot to mention it last week, but we have been without bibs for almost a month now! Hallelujah!! His drooling has finally subsided enough that it does not require him to walk around wearing a bib all day!!)

A view of my "office" on a typical day.

Working from home is great!

Poor Pierce had the stomach flu for almost a week last week. Tuesday afternoon, they were in the neighborhood and Pierce had to use the potty so they stopped at my house. He and Jacob watched an Elmo video while Katie and I visited for a little while. Jacob climbed up and sat right next to Pierce!! I love how much these two adore each other and I am excited to see how that evolves as they grow older!

Wednesday, February 23:

On Wednesday morning, I woke up to find my recently delivered Valentine's Day present waiting for me on the counter. Keith had told me that something was "on its way" but I didn't know what it was. I was overjoyed to see that he had made a travel mug for me with pictures of Jacob and me on it! It took him a lot of time to pick out the pictures and create the photo montage and I love what he wrote on it!

A few times now, Jacob has woken up from his nap and had part of his clothing removed. One time a few weeks ago, he almost completely undressed at my parents' house while he was supposed to be napping. On this day, he just got one arm out. I'm guessing this is a glimpse at what is to come in the future since he thinks it is really funny!

Thursday, February 24:

My friend Lauren recently turned me on to the Pioneer Woman's Salsa recipe. I have made it three times now and it is so easy and so tasty! Here are some pictures from my recent salsa-making adventure (I used the blender this time because my food processor leaked the other two times and it worked great!!)

Friday, February 25:

We had really nice weather on Friday (mid-60s) and of course, Jacob loved it because we could play outside. That kid would swing for hours! When I told him that we had to go in for lunch, he completely lost it. I had to bring him inside kicking and screaming! :( Of course, this picture was taken when he was having lots of fun!

After Jacob went down for his nap, I went into the playroom to clean up and saw that he had lined his cars up on the windowsill while the window was open. It made me smile!

That day, even though the weather was really nice, it was super windy. We are talking 50-60 mph gusts! It was scary at times and around 3pm, while Jacob was napping and I was working, the power went out (Thankfully it came back on around 6pm before it got too dark!). Jacob's usual routine is to watch an Elmo video in the afternoon after his nap so we had to get the portable DVD player out. He loved it! He even asked to watch it on the DVD player the next day! :)

Saturday, February 26:

Keith had to work his once-a-semester Saturday shift so Jacob and I were home by ourselves all day. We had some fun playing with his cars and he showed off his knowledge of the many different cars that he has!

Sunday, February 27:

Back in the beginning of January, I took Jacob to my friend Jeanne's house to get some of his curls cut off. It was just getting too long for me! Thankfully Jeanne is a professional hair stylist so she has experience with cutting kids' hair. Unfortunately, it was not a very enjoyable experience for anyone - Jacob screamed and cried and kicked! I was hoping to do a blog post about it, but it is probably better not to re-live the whole thing!

Recently, I have been thinking about cutting Jacob's hair myself. I have been cutting Keith's hair with clippers for many years now, so I figured how different could it be? I had no idea what guard number to use with the clippers and unfortunately I didn't do any research beforehand. We decided to do it on Sunday morning and as you can see from the pictures, I cut it VERY short! A lot shorter than I had wanted it. But...oh well, I guess it will grow back!

Here are some BEFORE pictures:

And the AFTER pictures:

Keith took a video while I was doing it (don't mind that I am in my pjs!). As you can see, Jacob really didn't fuss much except when the hair got in his mouth. I feel bad that I was hurting him because the hair was pulling, but he did so well! I am very proud of him!! It is amazing what an Elmo video does to keep his attention!!

After I cut Jacob's hair, I cut Keith's hair.

Here is a picture of my two boys with their freshly cut hair!

"The View From Here": February 14-20

2011-02-21T23:18:00.005-05:00

Life has gotten in the way of my blogging lately so I thought I would start a new weekly post entitled "The View From Here". I have read a few blogs recently where the writers are taking daily or weekly pictures and posting them on their blogs. Clare calls it Project 365 and Laura calls it Fighting the February Doldrums. I decided to steal this idea and make it my own.

Lately I feel like the days and months are on super fast forward speed! I am loving life and really enjoying Jacob at this age, but I don't feel like I am getting enough of our everyday comings and goings down on paper or in pictures. I fear that five, ten or eighteen years down the road, I am going to look back and really wish that I had written more down and taken more pictures & videos.

In "The View From Here", I am going to do a weekly post of pictures and videos from the previous week. Hopefully this will force me to take more pictures and also to do more regular blog posts! Here goes for Week #1:

February 14:

One of Jacob's newest talents

February 15:

Jacob loves to line up his cars.

I think it's cute, but do you think he could have a little OCD? :)

February 17:

It was a beautiful day so I ate lunch &

worked on the back deck while Jake napped.

And, yes...I ate chips and homemade salsa for lunch!

February 17:

It is amazing how quickly Jacob picks things up.

A month or so ago when we were at Katie's house, Pierce was swinging

a ball around and saying "a one, a two, a three..." and then throwing

it up in the air. Jacob started doing the same thing not long

after that and now it is one of his favorite things to do!

February 19:

Jacob has always been very affectionate with me.

Lately he loves to give me "kisses" where

he grabs my face and gives me open mouth kisses.

It is really cute, but really sloppy!

Happy Mommy & Jacob

It is kind of hard to see, but Jacob got a fat upper lip when we

were at the park on Saturday. He tripped going into one of the tunnels

and his lip started bleeding. He didn't cry but for a second and then went

on playing. He is my tough little boy!!

February 20:

Our playroom is finally complete!

Changing our spare bedroom into a playroom has been a

looooong projectbut it is finally done.

Now all of Jacob's toys can be contained in one room,

instead of all over the house!!

Tastefully Simple

2011-01-27T16:57:00.004-05:00

Since I don't have enough going on in my life (ya know...Stay At Home Mom, part time Help Desk Engineer, Events Coordinator for my Moms Group, preparing for our trip around the world in less than a year...), I thought I would become an Independent Consultant for Tastefully Simple. This idea came to me when I recently had a Tastefully Simple party and learned that Consultants make 30% from the sales they receive. These sales can be through taste-testing parties, catalog parties, or online orders. I LOVE Tastefully Simple food, so why not make a little money while promoting a fabulous product.

I also know quite a few people who are Tastefully Simple fans so I figured finding people to host parties would not be a problem. Thankfully, so far, I was right! Right now, I have four people who have expressed an interest in having a party. And, why wouldn't they - all they have to do is open their house to a few friends and make a few Tastefully Simple dishes with samples that are provided by me. It's kinda like having a bunch of friends over for a party, but the good thing is that Tastefully Simple supplies the food! And, as an added bonus, the host gets free product based on the sales amount of their party. I received $97.50 worth of free product from the party I hosted last weekend!

I am excited about this new business venture! I am sure that I am not going to be able to become a millionaire by doing it, but I will be able to "party" with friends and get paid while doing it.

2010 Video Year in Review

2011-01-22T23:00:00.004-05:00

I read a lot of blogs and over the past few weeks, a lot of people did some sort of Year in Review highlighting what 2010 meant to them. I wanted to join in the fun, but I decided to do it a little differently. I have taken so many videos over the last year (mostly of Jacob, of course!). And, I had all intentions of sharing them, but then life got crazy busy and before I knew it, the videos were just sitting on my computer and no one but Keith and I got to see them. So, in celebration of 2010 coming to an end, I decided to do a "Video Year in Review". Here goes...

January 2010 - We rang in 2010 in PA visiting Keith's family, Jacob turned 7 months old, and life with a little one started to get really fun!

February 2010 - We endured our third snowstorm of the season, Jacob turned 8 months old, he went on a nursing strike and he started crawling!

March 2010 - Jacob turned 9 months old & had his first real bad sickness - coughing, wheezing & an ear infection . My niece, Chyler, was born and there was some concern that my MIL's cancer was back.

April 2010 - We visited Keith's family in PA for Easter, Jacob turned 10 months old & started pulling up to stand, and we spent some family time in Richmond for my niece, Sierra's 2nd birthday party.

May 2010 - Jacob turned 11 months old and started standing on his own & walking with a push toy. I celebrated my first Mother's Day and started working a part-time job from home. Jacob & I made the long trek to Rochester with Katie & Reid for my cousin's baby shower.

June 2010 - Jacob turned one year old and started walking! We traveled to PA to celebrate his birthday along with my MIL's birthday & Keith's cousin's high school graduation. We also had a party for Jacob at our house & to beat the heat, trips to the pool with Katie and the boys became a weekly ritual.

July 2010 - Keith and I painted our front porch over July 4th weekend, Jacob turned 13 months old and started to demand more independence, and we went on our annual vacation to Corolla, NC with my family.

August 2010 - Jacob turned 14 months old, Keith & I took at trip to Norfolk to tour the MV Explorer (the ship we will live on from January-April 2012), and my MIL came to visit for a week.

September 2010 - The weather FINALLY cooled off a bit and we spent a lot of time outside, Jacob turned 15 months old and he started climbing on everything!

October 2010 - Jacob turned 16 months old, we went apple picking, to the Bounce & Play and the Children's Museum (all for the first time), we spent time with my family for my nephew Reid's birthday & then again over Halloween weekend, and Jacob dressed up in his first costume!

November 2010 - We enjoyed lots of time outside in the beautiful Fall weather, our driveway got paved & we had a bunch of trees taken down around our house. We spent a week with Keith's family in PA for Thanksgiving. Jacob turned 17 months old.

December 2010 - Jacob turned 18 months old, we spent a lot of time getting ready for Christmas & then enjoying Christmas with my family in Richmond, and we said Goodbye to 2010!

Cousins

2011-01-20T23:17:00.002-05:00

Family is the most important thing to me - it always has been and always will be! I grew up with my extended family - my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins - all living relatively close to us . We all got together often for family events, holidays & just to visit and be together. I have such wonderful memories of large family gatherings and fun stories from the "kids table".

As the oldest child in my family, I am so blessed to have two sisters and a brother that I love so much! Growing up, we always had each other - even if it was just to bug one another! And, now that we are adults, we are closer than ever. It is so nice when we all get together and we can reminsce about our childhood, share stories about our current lives and discuss marriage, parenting and life in general.

I am hopeful that someday Jacob will have a sibling - or two - but for now, he is an only child. These days, between playgroups and spending time with his cousins, he gets plenty of interaction with other kids. We are so very blessed to live close to my sister Katie and her family. We only live about 10 minutes apart and we see each other at least once a week, sometimes two or three times. I love seeing the relationships that are forming between my sweet nephews and my son. Jacob adores both of those boys and is already starting to mimic things he learns from Pierce. I know that their love for one another will only grow over time and I am truly thankful that Jacob has them to learn from and to play with.

It is always a joyful - and sometimes chaotic - time when all of these kiddos get together. And when we are able to add my beautiful nieces into the mix, the joy and laughter is doubled! Unfortunately, my sister Karen lives 2.5 hours from us so the times that we are all together are few and far between. I am hopeful that someday we will all live closer to each other and all of the cousins can grow up together!

In honor of family bonds, the love of cousins and the immense joy that I feel to have all of these beautiful kiddos in my life, I thought I would do a picture timeline. Whenever we are all together, we try to get a picture of all of them, which isn't always an easy thing to do! I think it's awesome to see how much our family has grown as another sweet baby is added. I look forward to the next addition (although as far as I know, we have no babies on the way at this time!)

November 22, 2007 ~ Happy Thanksgiving!

Pierce - 11 months old

September 3, 2008 ~ Duck, NC

Pierce - 20 months old

Sierra - 5 months old

June 12, 2009 ~ Welcome Baby Jacob!

Pierce - 2 years, 5 months old

Sierra - 14 months old

Jacob - 5 days old

July 15, 2009 ~ Corolla, NC

Pierce - 2.5 years old

Sierra - 15 months old

Jacob - 1 month old

October 17, 2009 ~ Apple Picking

Pierce - 2 years, 9 months old

Sierra - 18 months old

Jacob - 4 months old

December 28, 2009 ~ Happy Holidays!

Pierce - 3 years old

Sierra - 20 months old

Jacob - 6 months old

Reid - 2 months old

March 10, 2010 ~ Welcome Baby Chyler!

Pierce - 3 years, 2 months old

Sierra - 23 months old

Jacob - 9 months old

Reid - 5 months old

Chyler - 6 days old

July 30, 2010 ~ Corolla, NC

Pierce - 3 years, 7 months old

Sierra - 2 years, 3 months old

Jacob - 13 months old

Reid - 9 months old

Chyler - 4 months old

January 8, 2011 ~ Pierce's Birthday Party

Pierce - 4 years old

Sierra - 2 years, 8 months old

Jacob - 19 months old

Reid - 15 months old

Chyler - 10 months old

Christmas 2010

2011-01-15T23:01:00.000-05:00

Christmas is my by far my favorite holiday. I love the decorations, the yummy goodies I get to bake (and, of course, consume), the giving and receiving, the laughter, happiness and time spent with family! I also love that Jacob was old enough this year to start to learn about the REAL reason for the season. Of course, I know that he probably doesn't really "get it", but in my opinion it is never too early to start talking about the birth of Jesus!

As I spoke about in this post, he loves playing with the Little People Nativity Set & Inn at Bethlehem and he really got into reading the story of Jesus's Birth in his children's bible. He also loved when we would light the advent candles every night (and even asked to light them at breakfast & lunch too! "Candles...Candles").

This year, we decided to start a tradition and spend Christmas morning at home. We want Jacob to be able to wake up on Christmas morning at his own house and open his presents before we go to visit with family. We also may have started a new tradition on Christmas Eve this year as we had the Arnold family come over for dinner. Christmas Eve is also my nephew, Pierce's birthday so it was nice to all be together to celebrate!

On Christmas morning, Jacob woke up to see lots of presents under the tree. Santa had made a visit and we had also set out gifts that Keith's mom, aunt & uncle and cousins had sent. So many gifts for one little boy!!

Jacob also got some fun treats in his stocking - matchbox cars & a little stuffed Elmo. It was really cute watching him pull out all the cars once he realized what was in there!

Opening presents with Jacob this year was definitely different than last year, but it was still a loooooong process. It is hard to explain to an 18 month old that he needs to put that fun toy that he just opened aside because he has five other presents to open. After awhile, Jake finally finished upwrapping (with help from Daddy) and he took a break playing with his new toys to watch "Elmo's World Happy Holidays" while I made blueberry waffles for brunch. [Note: "Happy Holidays" became an instant favorite for Jake and even now, on January 15th - he still wants to watch it.]

After eating and more playtime, Jacob took a nap and Keith and I packed the car for our trip to Richmond. When Jake woke up, we headed to my parents' house. Originally, we were supposed to be celebrating Christmas with my entire family on the 26th, but because of the potential snowstorm that was to arrive on that day, everyone actually arrived at my parents' on the evening of Christmas Day. My grandparents flew in from Rochester and my siblings, their spouses and all the kiddos were there - 17 of us in all. We had dinner and then we let the kiddos open a few presents before bedtime. It was a bit chaotic, but it's fun to all be together. Here is a picture I took (while standing on a kitchen chair) of the "fun". Everyone except my niece Chyler (who was already sleeping) is in the picture.

Once the kiddos were all in bed, we did the adult present opening. It is a much more organized process and we go from oldest to youngest, each opening a gift one at a time. It usually seems to take forever, but this year it didn't seem to take as long. We were TRULY blessed to receive wonderful gifts and I really enjoyed watching my family members open up the presents that we bought. Sometimes I think giving is so much more fun than receiving!

Once again, it was great to have my grandparents with us on Christmas Day! They have been flying here from Rochester for the past few years and it is wonderful to get to spend time with them. I loved watching Jacob interact with them and was glad that he warmed up to them so quickly.

Jacob and "Nana"

Jacob and "Papa G"

The day after Christmas, my sister Katie and her family went back home, but the rest of us hung around. Some of us got all bundled up and went out to play in the snow that had fallen on Christmas Day & the day after. It was Jacob's first time walking around and playing in the snow and he seemed to enjoy it. It was fun to see him in the snow, but I am REALLY glad that we don't live in an area where it snows a lot. It takes a lot of effort to get a little kid all bundled up for just a few minutes of outside play time!!

Here is a video that I took of Jacob and my niece, Sierra playing in the snow:

On Monday the 27th, Keith came back home since he had to work December 28th-30th. Jake and I stayed at my parents' house and enjoyed time with my parents & grandparents. My brother & sister-in-law also recently moved in with my parents for a short while, so we were able to visit with them also. It was great to get to spend so much time together although it was bit rough at times since Jacob is going through a "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy" phase (as in, Mommy must be able to be seen or heard at all times or he completely loses it - even with people he knows like my parents!). This meant that even though I had people around who could help me do things like bath or bedtime, he wouldn't allow it. Even so, it was still like a mini-vacation for me because I didn't need to worry about cleaning the house, doing laundry or cooking meals. I always feel a bit spoiled when I am at my parents' house and this time was no different!

Here is Jacob watching a video (probably "Elmo") with my mom on his new portable DVD player while my dad and grandpa watched an old western movie on TV.

Jacob enjoyed his daily "talks" to Daddy while we were away. He learned to say "Miss you" and "Love you" in addition to his other two favorites "Hi" and "Bye-Bye".

On New Year's Eve day, Keith came back to Richmond. I had to work my part-time job online that day, but that night, we went to my friend Trish's house for a New Years Eve party while Jake stayed with my parents. It had been a long time since I had been out on New Year's Eve and it was really fun catching up with old friends. We didn't get back to my parents' house til 2am so the next day was a bit rough, but it was worth it!

Because of our desire to be home on Christmas Day and us having to work (and Keith went to NYC for a workshop the first week in January), we decided not to make a trip to PA during the holidays. I know that Keith was disappointed that he didn't get to be with his family, but I think it was the best decision for us. We are hoping to make a trip up to visit them in February.

I am a little sad that Christmas is over. This year was definitely one of my favorites!! It seemed to get here so quickly and then it was gone in a flash. And just like last year, 2011 is already flying by - January is half over!! I am trying to enjoy every moment and take it all in because I know that before I know it, we'll be preparing for Christmas again!

Merry Christmas!!

2010-12-24T07:00:00.001-05:00

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

2010-12-19T16:47:00.000-05:00

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

2010-12-18T23:16:00.006-05:00

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

2010-12-07T22:43:00.013-05:00

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

2010-11-11T23:55:00.004-05:00

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

2010-11-06T23:43:00.000-04:00

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

2010-10-13T21:58:00.003-04:00

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!!

My fearless little monkey

2010-10-08T22:43:00.002-04:00

Jacob amazes me every day with the new things he can say and do. He is becoming more and more of a little boy and it seems like he is picking up new skills and abilities all the time!! He is probably just doing exactly what other 16 month olds are doing, but to me, it is amazing! :)

It didn't take him long (just a few days) to figure out how to climb up on his new playset. He was a little unsteady at first, but now he can go up both the steps and the ropes. He loves to climb on everything - I call him "my little monkey".

As you can see from this video, Jacob is also pretty fearless. Just when I thought he had the concept of depth perception figured out, he decides to just step off the ledge. I think he just wants to do whatever gets a rise out of Mommy! Ahhh...toddlerhood!

I taught him to go down the slide on his tummy (because he doesn't understand how to sit and slide yet!). He had done it a few times before I got the video camera out, but of course, once I start shooting video, he wants to just "walk" down the slide. Silly boy! As you can see, he thinks it is hysterical!!

(Sorry about the chiming noise that you hear at one point in the video. It is my cell phone - which was in my pocket - receiving a text message from my Mom!)

15 (1/2) months old

2010-09-25T22:55:00.004-04:00

Jacob turned 15 months old on the 7th of this month. Wow, where has the time gone? Everyday I see more "little boy" in him and less "baby". He is such a joy to be around and we have so much fun everyday!

We went to the doctor for his 15 month checkup on Friday. He weighed in at 25 lbs, 4 oz (60th percentile), his height is 31 3/4 inches (70th percentile) and his head circumference is 18.8 inches (70th percentile). All in all, the doctor thought that he looked great. She did still bring up the issue of him seeming to cock his head to the right more than to the left and that his face doesn't seem to be entirely symmetric (sometimes his right eye doesn't open as wide as his left). She talked about the possibility of getting a CT scan done so that we could be sure that there was nothing wrong with Jake's head, but in the end, we decided against it. I am 100% confident that there is nothing wrong with him, but I understand that the doctor is just trying to cover all of the bases. She said herself that he appears to be right on track (or even ahead on some things) regarding gross & fine motor skills. And, when she said that at his age he should be saying 2-3 words and I told her that he has 20-30 words that he can say, she agreed that he is doing just fine!! She did give him an antibiotic (amoxicillin) for a sinus/ear infection that he has been battling for a few weeks now. (We have all been sick and I was just waiting to see her for his well baby visit instead of scheduling a separate appointment).

Developmentally, Jacob is doing awesome. He is literally running all over the place and he LOVES to be outside. He would swing all day if I let him and he really enjoys playing in the dirt or with the stones in our driveway.

He is also pretty fearless and loves to climb on pretty much anything! Just the other day, I watched him climb up onto the chair in our living room (I tried to get video of it, but of course he didn't do it again once I had the camera on). He can jump, clap, dance, turn around in circles (and make himself dizzy!), play "chase", go up (but not down!) stairs by himself, do a "sort of" wave bye-bye, and get on and off some of his ride-on toys. He also loves music and will try and "sing" along sometimes. He is also now proficient at buckling the top buckle of his carseat (and he insists on doing it himself - like a lot of things these days!!) He is very independent! And, he will play very well independently too. Sometimes he will sit in the living room and play with his toys or look at books for a good 15-20 minutes. I love watching him play by himself. In those moments, I can just see his imagination flourishing!!

Speaking of books, Jacob LOVES to read! It is the first thing he wants to do when he gets up in the morning - he goes straight for the bookcase and starts pulling books off the shelf! He will pretty much listen to any book, although his attention span is not really that long so the shorter books are better. I sometimes think his favorite part is turning the pages to see what is coming next. He will pick out a book, hand it to me and then climb into my lap to listen to me read it. Then when it is done, he'll either put it back on the shelf or drop it on the floor and go pick out another one. Those are some of my favorite parts of our day!! He is such a cuddle-bug and is super affectionate when he wants to be!

Jacob is also very good at listening to direction and doing what I tell him such as "Go get X and bring it to me", "Sit down", "Stand up", "Drink some water", "Let's go into your room" or "Give Mommy a kiss". He also understands some questions such as "Do you want to eat?" (he'll go to his highchair), "Are you ready for night-night (or a bath)" (he'll go into this room), or "Where is the [insert toy name here such as ball, car, etc]?" (he goes and gets the toy that you are referring to). It amazes me every day to see the things that he understands and knows that I am saying. His mind is such a little sponge right now and he is taking it all in!!

Jacob's sleeping habits haven't changed much and they are still great. He did drop his morning nap in early August (right after we came back from our beach trip). It was a hard transition at first (he wouldn't sleep in the mornings if I put him in the crib, but then he was super fussy around 11am). It took about 2 weeks to get to a point where he could stay awake (and not be really fussy) long enough to eat lunch before his nap. For awhile, I was feeding him lunch around 11:30am and then he was in the crib by noon, but now he is on a much better schedule. His daily schedule looks like this: wake up between 7:30 & 8am, eat breakfast and then play/go to playgroup/run errands, eat lunch between noon & 12:30pm, go down for a nap around 1pm and (most days) sleep until 3:30pm, play & eat snack after nap, eat dinner between 6pm & 6:30pm, bath (every other night), brush teeth, read stories and in bed between 7:30pm & 8pm.

Jake is still eating great too and it helps that he now has 11 teeth! He has the eight in front (four on top and four on the bottom) and three in the back. He is definitely a drooler and therefore he has to wear a bib everyday so his shirt doesn't get soaked (sometimes we go through two bibs in one day!). I will be VERY happy when all of his teeth come in this drooling stops!

As you can see, Jake is getting much better at feeding himself with a spoon and fork. He's still not perfect at it and it makes quite a mess sometimes, but he loves doing it by himself (and it makes it a lot easier for me too!)

And sometimes he insists on using a "big" fork instead of a little one.

He is pretty much eating anything and everything that we eat. He has his standards that he eats every day for breakfast and lunch, but at dinner he usually eats a little bit of what we are having. These days his breakfast consists of every other day either oatmeal (the flavored instant kind) or toast. He also always has some sort of fruit with those things. For lunch, he generally has cheese, meat (either deli turkey or cut up pieces of chicken), raisins or figs, some sort of cracker (ritz, animal crackers, or goldfish) and fruit. For dinner, in addition to eating some of what we are eating, he usually has yogurt and/or avocado. He loves carby things like mac n cheese, bread & crackers, but he'll also eat things like spinach that you wouldn't think a 15 month old would eat! I haven't given him anything to drink other than water or milk. He gets a cup of milk when he wakes up (in the mornings and after his nap). Sometimes he drinks all of it right away and sometimes he only takes a few sips. It just depends on the day. If he doesn't drink much, I give it to him either for breakfast or dinner so that he can finish it.

The most amazing thing to me about Jacob right now is his vocabulary. He is talking, talking, talking!! Of course, some of it is gibberish that I do not understand, but he is also saying a lot of words. In the past month or so I have heard him say the following: dada, mama, outshide (for outside), toes, shoes, no, yes, uh-oh, night-night, car, truck, down, hot, cold, bye-bye, cheese, sharp, shout, cacker (for cracker), fishy, snack, teeth, eyes, nose, shirt, stick, milk, t-t (for tv), splash, a-n (for amen), itch, duck, quack, dog, stuck, toast, kitty, tiger, nice, hat, bath, eat. I would say that some of the words are things that only Keith and I would understand since we are around him so much, but he also says some very clearly (and correctly in context).

And, it amazes me at the number of words he will try to repeat if I say "Can you say X"? He will usually try to say whatever I said and a lot of them come out correctly. Like on Friday when he repeated "doctor" while we were in the waiting area - I was pleasantly shocked! We are working on animals and their sounds, but the only one he will really do right now is duck & quack, that is his favorite (and apparently the only animal living on Old McDonalds Farm in Jacob's world!!). He will also pant like a dog if you ask him what a dog says (and he loves dogs and has no fear whenever he sees them!!) I am also trying to get him to say peoples' names, but he doesn't seem to want to do as well with those.

In the behavior department, he has gotten better with some things and worse with others. He still sometimes tries to push the limits with touching things he isn't supposed to or doing exactly what he tell him not to do. His favorite "defiant" behavior these days is throwing his food or cup off of his tray when he is finished eating. He will hold a piece of food over the side of this tray and when I say "Don't drop that!", he looks right at me and drops it (and then says "uh-oh" all innocently!) He does it a lot and it is very annoying!!! But, he has also gotten better about not throwing a tantrum every time I tell him no (for awhile he would throw down whatever he was holding or slap at me or Keith if we told him no). He doesn't get as upset now when we tell him no and he often just stops whatever he is doing and walks away.

We have started using the "time out" method of discipline and it seems to be working somewhat well. I am more of a proponent of spanking, but Keith wanted to try this first. I am not 100% sure that Jake understands what time-out is or why he has to sit there, but we are working on that. Whenever Jake is defiant, we sit him down, tell him why he is sitting in time out and count to 30. At first, he would try to get up or cry when he sat him down. But, now he will actually sit there and wait until we tell him to get up. I will even walk away from him or do something else while I am counting and he is good about not getting up most of the time. There are still some times when we have to lightly force him to stay seated, but these are few and far between now. We are working our way up to making him sit for a minute (things we have read say that you should make a child sit in timeout for one minute times their age. For example, a one year old sits for one minute, a two year old sits for two minutes and so on.) Like I said, I am not sold on the "timeout" method of discipline, so we'll see how this goes. All in all, Jacob is a really good child (and I am not just saying that because he is my kid!). He definitely has his moments, but for the most part he is a good listener and he does what we tell him to do.

I am sure that I am forgetting something about Jacob that I really wanted to get down on paper! I have been such a slacker lately at posting these monthly updates but I don't want to forget all that he is doing at this age. His personality and abilities change so quickly that I want to be sure to capture everything so I can go back and re-live these moments in my mind. This is such a fun age and although I would love to stop time, I am really excited about seeing the future and watching Jacob change and grow into more of a little boy. I've said it before and I'll say it a million times more....I am SO blessed to be Jacob's mom and I truly cannot remember my life before he was a part of it. Life is definitely different now, but I wouldn't change a thing!

Good Deals & Free Finds

2010-09-20T22:38:00.001-04:00

Now that we are living on only one income, I usually try to only buy things when they are on sale or if we really need them. In the last week, I have been able to score some pretty nice things for either really cheap or FREE! I get really excited when I can find great deals!!

My most favorite find of all is this awesome playset. It is a Little Tikes Clubhouse Swingset and it retails for $350-500! Guess how much we paid for it?! NOTHING...it was absolutely free!!

There is a family in our neighborhood who was moving and they were giving away a bunch of stuff that they didn't want to take with them to Arizona. I just happened to respond to the email that the woman sent out (I don't know them personally) and luckily, I was the first to respond about this awesome playset! The only stipulation was that we needed to move it ourselves. So, yesterday, Shaun & Keith moved it from their yard to ours in just a matter of a few hours. (Thanks for helping us Shaun!!) Jacob had a blast playing on it today!! [Note: the red swing came with the playset along with two other "regular" swings. The blue swing was a birthday present that Jacob received from Keith's aunt.]

While I was at their house on Friday to look at the playset, the husband asked me if there was anything else that I wanted that they were trying to get rid of. He offered me a little table with an umbrella and three kid-sized folding chairs. I'm not quite sure what I am going to do with them, but Jacob enjoyed climbing on one of the chairs today while we were outside.

The man also offered me a "bounce thingy" (that is what he called it). He said that once it was blown up, the kids could jump in it. I wasn't quite sure what it was going to look like, but I said "Sure" and threw it in my car with the other things. Today, I was going to try to inflate it while we were outside, but Jacob got really scared when I turned on the electric pump. So instead, I just pulled it apart a little to try and envision what it was going to look like once it was inflated. I saw that it said "One Step Ahead" on it and anyone that has kids is familiar with their products.

Later, once Jacob was down for his nap, I looked on the One Step Ahead website to see if I could find this particular "bounce thingy". When I saw that it was the Bounce-A-Round Bouncer, I got really excited. According to their website, it retails for $100! And I got it for FREE!! I am really excited to get it blown up so Jacob can play in it (even though the website says it is for 2 years & up, I think he'll still have fun in it as long as I watch him closely!)

Last Friday evening, Katie & I had a "Girls Night Out" of sorts. First, we went to an awesome local Children's Consignment Sale (a friend of Katie's gave us pre-sale tickets so we got to shop before the public!). Then, we went out to dinner and to the Sugarland concert. It was a very enjoyable night!! In addition to spending some good "quiet" (meaning: no kids!!) time with my sister, we both got some great deals at the Consignment Shop. Here are a few of my great buys:

I have been looking to get a gate for our front porch stairs for awhile now. Jacob loves to be outside, but being out on the front porch is always stressful because he wants to go up and down the stairs. I didn't want to pay a lot for a gate nor did I want anything fancy. I was able to find this Evenflo Position & Lock gate for $8.

Something else that I have been looking for are snow boots & pants for Jacob. Realizing that we live in Virginia and there is no guarantee that we are even going to get snow this winter, I certainly didn't want to pay a lot of money for them!! I was able to find these snow boots for Jacob for $8 and I got a pair of snowpants for $6 (I bought them both a size bigger than he is now so that he can hopefully use them for the next two winters!)

The boots on the left are my new snow boots (my old pair were WAY too small thanks to my feet growing a whole size bigger when I was pregnant!). I scored these not-so-stylish, but very practical boots from Shoebuy.com and I only paid $11.45 for them! I used both Groupon.com and Ebates.com to save $30!!

While we were at the Consignment Sale, I grabbed these two awesome toys for $10 each. We have put them away so that they will be Christmas presents for Jacob.

This is the Mega Bloks Firetruck:
And this is a Keyboard & Stool (The one I got is not exactly like this one, but it's pretty close). It's really cool because it plays many different instrument and drum sounds & the keyboard comes off of the legs if you want to just use it on the floor:

On Saturday night, Keith's coworker, Carla, hosted a game night at her house. Unfortunately, Keith was sick so he didn't go, but Jacob and I went for a little while. While we were there, Carla's husband got out this little toy for Jacob to play with and he loved it. When we were getting ready to leave, they put the toy in a bag for us and told me to take it home. Their kids are eight and eleven now so they are too old to play with it. It's a really fun toy and a learning tool also. As you can see, some of the pieces are missing because Jacob was playing with it and they were in his room where he was sleeping when I took the picture. Thanks Carla & Hector!!

Last, but certainly not least, is something that we have been trying to replace for some time now - the area rug in our living room - but we haven't been able to find the right rug for the right amount of money. As you can see from the picture, our loveseat has multiple colors and it has been hard to find something that would match well. Also, it's hard to find a good quality rug that isn't pricey (we were hoping to pay less than $100). Luckily, when I went to Walmart on Saturday, I found this green rug on clearance for $35. It was one of the only rugs that was marked down 70%. I am not sure why it was marked down, but I am certainly not complaining.

All in all, it was a week of "Great Deals and Free Finds" for the Weimers! I love when we can get nice things for a reduced price (or free!). It makes up for those things that are worth paying full price for!

These are a few of my favorite things...

2010-09-12T00:22:00.009-04:00

Jacob is at such a fun age right now. He is walking/running all over the place and he definitely has a strong personality. Like most toddlers, he knows what he wants when he wants it. And we are constantly working on him not having a tantrum when he doesn't get what he wants.

He has a lot of "favorite things" that he enjoys playing with or doing throughout the day. It really makes for fun and interesting days!

Here is a photo montage of some of his favorite things...

Pots & pans (and really anything in the kitchen cupboards!)

Helping Mommy with household chores like...

Using the dustbuster

Sweeping

Folding laundry

And, sometimes just playing in the clothes basket

(with or without clothes in it!)

Watching Baby Genius' Favorite Sing-a-Long Songs

We watch it at least once everyday.

We are working on him not standing too close to the TV

I much prefer him sitting on his Giraffe (backwards!)

Looking at pictures and pointing out who is who

(he points, we say who is who)

Playing with cars, trucks, bulldozers...

really anything that has wheels

Wearing Mommy & Daddy's shoes.

He's so proud of himself when he can get them on and walk around!

Reading books!! This boy LOVES books.

Must be taking after his Daddy!!

Remote controls...

He loves playing with them (and hiding them sometimes!)

Being outside!

Jacob would be outside all day every day if he could.

He especially likes taking walks, picking up sticks,

playing in the dirt and being in the wagon.

The bathtub!

He loves the water, really enjoys playing with his toys

& is especially fond of splashing!

I cannot believe that it is my job to play all day with this fun little boy. Every day is such a joy and I love watching him grow and learn. It's awesome to see life through the eyes of my child!

Playground Fun

2010-09-06T22:24:00.004-04:00

This past weekend we made a trip to Richmond. Our main reason for the visit was so Keith and I could go out to celebrate my birthday. We spent most of Saturday together - shopping, having an awesome dinner at my favorite Vietnamese restaurant, and just spending time together. My parents watched Jake for us and it was really nice to get away and have some time together.

On Sunday, Keith, Jacob and I took a walk to the playground in my parents' neighborhood. Jake had also visited the playground on Saturday afternoon with Mimi & Papa (my parents), but since he LOVES going for rides in the wagon, he certainly wasn't protesting visiting it again. It's so nice to have a playground that is within walking distance (it's about 1/2 mile away). And, the weather was really nice so we didn't get all sweaty just standing still.

Daddy pulled Jacob in the wagon so Mommy could take some pictures

Jacob goes straight to the swings.

He would swing all day if we let him!!

Happily being pushed on the swings by Daddy

Jacob loves to climb stairs these days

(and he's pretty good at it even though

we don't have any at our house!)

He loves to try to figure out how things work

so he loved this part of the playground

Walking through the tunnel -

he kept hitting his head because he was just a little too tall.

But he made it all the way through!

Enjoying the bounce of the suspension bridge

Having fun on the slide!

Jacob is kind of a "bruiser" and really isn't afraid of many things. He will try anything and go anywhere. I am both happy and a little scared about this. I am hoping that as he grows older he will learn when to be fearless and when to be cautious. For now, his personality makes for a lot of fun at the playground!!

A boy and his shoes

2010-09-01T22:25:00.007-04:00

For as long as Jacob has been able to move, he has always sought out shoes to play with. It's a fascinating, yet slightly odd, obsession!

Our bedroom closet has always been one of his favorite places to play because there are so many shoes!!He also really enjoys playing in our entryway from the garage where we keep a lot of our shoes on a shoe rack. He will pull all the shoes off of the rack and look at them, throw them, or just take them to other areas of the house. (You don't know how many times I have had to search the house for the match to a pair that I was planning to wear!)

Whenever he sees someone while we are out, whether it is at the grocery store or the playground, he always looks down at their shoes! It can be kind of embarrassing but cute. I usually have to explain to people when they ask what he is looking at. "He is just looking at your shoes. He is sort of fascinated with them." And then, that usually leads to the stranger saying something like "Oh, do you like my sparkly sandles?" or "Nothing fancy here - I just have my boring sneakers on today." It's kind of comical and creepy all at the same time! He also seeks out shoes at other people's houses. He obviously isn't picky when it comes to the quality, color or smell of the shoe. He likes all kinds!!

Over the past month or so, he has really started to understand that putting shoes on means we are going outside or in the car. Since he LOVES to be outside these days (even in 90 degree heat!!), he is constantly bringing Keith or me our shoes. That is a sign that he wants to go outside. This often happens first thing in the morning and numerous times during the day. When Keith is home, he is really good about taking Jacob outside to play in the yard, take rides up and down the driveway in the wagon (which he could do all day!), or to go for a walk. I, on the other hand, will go outside but I don't like to stay out in the heat very long. I am definitely looking forward to cooler weather so we can enjoy more outside time!

Whenever we are going to go somewhere lately - outside or in the car - I have been telling Jacob to go get his shoes. He is really good about going to the shoe rack, getting them, and bringing them to me. And in the last few weeks, he has started sitting down so that I can put them on. (In all honesty, just me saying the word "outside" makes him run from whatever he is doing and grab his shoes. The whole time he is saying "shoes, shoes, out-shide, out-shide". It's too cute!!)

Well yesterday I was doing something in the kitchen and he was in the entryway being very quiet (always a sign that he is either concentrating really hard on something or is into something he shouldn't be). When I went to see what he was doing, this is what I saw:

Aww, my baby boy is growing up so fast!!! I was so excited and proud to see him trying to put his shoes on. Clearly he still has a long way to go before he can really do it himself, but this is a start! And, the fact that he thought to do it all by himself without me prompting him makes me happy (and sad!) that he is gaining so much independence. As you can see from the video, whenever he gets frustrated, he throws whatever he has in his hands. But, it was good to see that he didn't give up and he continued trying even though he was having trouble. I am so proud of you little man!!

If that wasn't enough, today he decided he was not only going to put his shoes on, but Mommy's too. What a silly little boy!

I have joked that maybe Jacob will be a shoe salesman or a shoe designer when he grows up. Someone else said maybe a podiatrist. I think that whatever he grows up to be, he will always know a good pair of shoes!!

Beach Vacation - 2010

2010-08-24T16:05:00.000-04:00

I cannot believe that it has been over a month since we went on our summer vacation to Corolla, NC. This is our annual trip with my family and I look forward to it all year long. It is sad to know that it is over, but we have already booked the same house again for next year! We just love this particular house and the location so we couldn't pass up reserving it for next year! (Click HERE to see the house where we stay).

This year, there were 17 of us in one house - 12 adults and five kids. This includes my parents, my three siblings, their spouses, their kids and my grandparents. It was quite the happening (and sometimes crazy!) house when all of the kids were awake (which actually didn't happen all that often), but we had a great time nonetheless. Here is a picture of all of us on the beach on our last night:

And, here is my little family:

When we went to the beach last year, Jacob was only five weeks old so obviously he did very little other than sleep. I was excited to take him this year because I figured he would really enjoy playing in the sand, swimming in the pool and just being outside. Unfortunately, it didn't really work out the way I had hoped.

As you can see from this picture, he wasn't really too sure of what this "sand" stuff was all about.

And, since he was in the midst of transitioning from two naps to one, most mornings (which is when we would all go to the beach) he was fussy and a bit clingy. He did go into the water a few times with Daddy. Mostly Keith would carry him in and they would watch the waves. A few times he would laugh as the water would splash up onto his feet, but mostly he wasn't very enthused. He did stand in the ocean one time - he doesn't look too upset by it in this picture, but I can tell you that he didn't stay in for long (I must admit it was a bit cold at first).

He did enjoy digging in the sand once or twice with Pierce, Sierra and Reid. And one day he had fun chasing a seagull down the beach (I wish I would have gotten it on video - it was so funny watching him walk after this bird!)

I think the thing that Jacob enjoyed the most during the vacation was the time he got to spend with his Daddy. Jacob just adores Keith and loves to be around him whenever he can. Keith is always so good with him and he spent a lot of time with him on this vacation. He even told me on the way home that he purposely went out of his way to take care of Jacob a lot because he wanted to be sure that I felt like I had gotten a break and enjoyed my vacation with my family. Awww, what a sweet husband I have!!

Here they are outside on the deck one morning enjoying the view

Every morning after breakfast, Keith would take Jacob for a walk. Jake loves to be outside and LOVES to go for a walk and Keith wanted to get some exercise while we were on vacation (better him than me, although I need it more than he does!!). Jacob would get so excited that one day he even went over to the stroller and showed it to Keith. It was really great bonding time for them and it was nice for me to get some time to get dressed, help clean up the breakfast dishes or just do whatever I wanted to do without a little one to worry about.

Jacob didn't really like being in the "big" pool that we had at the house, but he sure did enjoy the baby pool. Thankfully my sister brought this pool along because Jacob was in it A LOT! I think he liked it so much because he could walk around and didn't have to be carried or in a float like in the regular pool. He really enjoyed playing with his toys and splish splashing around. As you can see, it was fun for Daddy (and sometimes Mommy) to get in with him!

Even though Jake wasn't too fond of the pool, one afternoon, I put Pierce's swim vest on him to see what he would do. Of course, he doesn't know how to swim, so basically he just fell forward and wasn't too happy! I tried to get him to kick his feet, but he wasn't having it. Hopefully next summer, I'll be able to teach him to swim a little and he'll enjoy it more than he did this year.

Thankfully, he did stay in the pool long enough for us to get a family photo, although I think he was fussing to get back into the baby pool not long after this picture was taken!

All in all, even though this year's vacation was definitely more work than last year, we still had a great time. If you have children you know that vacation with your kids is not really a "vacation". But I am very blessed to have a wonderful husband who helped out A LOT so I was able to relax a little. It is always so much fun to get all of my family members together to play games, talk, laugh, eat great food and just be together. With our busy schedules and not living near each other, we don't all get together nearly as often as I would like. The memories I have from this vacation is something that I will cherish for the rest of my life.

One Year Old (a few months later...)

2010-08-24T14:16:00.001-04:00

So, as of today, Jacob is almost 15 months old, but I found this old "One Year Old" post where I had uploaded pictures back in June. Just for documentation purposes, I thought I would post it - two months later!!

Jacob went for his 12-month checkup at the doctor on June 16th and she said that he was looking great! His weight was 22 lbs, 6 oz (45th percentile) and his height was 30 inches (50th percentile). His head circumference was in the 75th percentile so she was not concerned anymore about the shape or growth of his head. He got five shots, two in one leg and three in the other and he did great. Of course, he cried but he was quick to stop once I picked him up and cuddled him. We talked a bit about what he was eating and drinking and the doctor said that we could start him on whole milk (which I had already done about a month earlier). She thought his movements and language development was right on track and she even got to witness a bit of his temper (he hit me in the face when I told him he couldn't have something). She said that all of what he was doing was normal and that we were now entering into the "fun" stage of toddlerhood! His next checkup (15 months) is in September.

Jake loves the water! He moves around in his float really well and he even tries to walk in the water without it. He doesn't really mind getting water in his face and if he falls down and goes under, he comes back up and doesn't cry. I think he is going to be a fish in the water as he gets older.

I took this picture when we were in Pennsylvania visiting Keith's family. It was the weekend of Jacob's first birthday and Keith's cousin's son graduated from high school. We were at the restaurant for Ryan's graduation party and Jacob was having fun climbing up and under the table in the booths.

Right around Jake's first birthday, we started to brush his teeth. At that point, he had eight teeth and I felt bad that I hadn't started brushing them sooner. We are only brushing once a day, at night, although I realize that I should probably start doing it twice a day now. He really hasn't ever seemed to mind the brushing and actually does very well with it. Of course, we don't let him do the brushing, but I thought this picture of him holding the toothbrush was cute!

I have other pictures (and some video) from his two birthday parties (one in PA and one at our house), but I am going to do those in a separate post.

Fun with Grandma

2010-08-23T21:37:00.001-04:00

Two weeks ago, Keith's mom came to visit. She lives in Southwest PA and since she doesn't drive, this is first time she has come to visit us since Jacob has been born. It took some planning to figure out how she was going to get here, but in the end, Keith met up with his aunt & uncle in Winchester (which is pretty much halfway between her house and ours). He left work on Tuesday around 3pm and met them at a restaurant for dinner. Then, he and his mom drove back and got back to our house around 10pm.

Originally, that plan was going to be repeated the following Monday (with Jake and me in the car also), but plans changed and Keith's cousin's wife ended up stopping at our house on her way from AL to PA. She arrived last Wednesday evening and spent the night. Then, she and Marge left on Thursday morning and she drove Marge home. That meant that Marge stayed three days longer than she was originally supposed to, but it ended up working out fine because we didn't have to make the four plus hour drive to and from Winchester with Jake.

Jacob really enjoyed having his grandma visit us. He was a little shy at first, but after just a day or so, he really warmed up to her. Unfortunately, due to her health, she is not able to move around as quickly as Jake would want her to or to keep up with him. She read to him, helped feed him, and played with him the best she could. He really enjoyed spending time with her.

Here they are sitting on the couch reading together

She helped feed him mashed potatoes for dinner one night

Marge LOVES to take pictures and she was constantly trying to get Jacob to stand still (not an easy task!) so she could take his picture. On this day, we were playing outside and I was giving him rides up and down the driveway in the wagon. I thought it would be fun to take a picture of Marge taking a picture!

Jacob is just now starting to learn how to get on and off of things like this fun ride-on toy that he got for his birthday. He got on it one day and Marge got the idea of pushing him around. I was worried that she was going to overdo it, but she and he both had a ball! She pushed him all over the house and he laughed and laughed! I wish I had gotten it on video!!

I took this picture on the last full day that she was here. Jake was eating a snack and watching one of his Baby Genius DVDs. Marge was sitting on the couch and he walked over to her and put his hands up like he wanted to get up on her lap. It was really sweet to see him do that and I know that Marge was really happy!

One thing that was particularly amusing to me while Marge was here was that she was constantly picking up Jacob's toys! She didn't like that they were scattered all over the house and she was always trying to "tidy up". I, on the other hand, just let the toys lay all over the house until Jacob goes to bed at night and then I pick them up. I tried to tell her that he was just going to make a mess again, but she insisted that things not lay on the floor.

Even though having an overnight guest for over a week always adds more stress, it was nice that Marge was able to come visit. Coordinating travel plans for her to get here can be tricky, but it's definitely easier for us to be here than to go stay with her. She only has a one bedroom apartment so as Jacob grows, the space seems to get smaller and smaller. And, this way, we don't have to pack up all of his things (high chair, pack and play, toys, etc) and make the five hour trip up there.

It was definitely great to see her and Jacob interact and I know that she really enjoyed spending time with him (and us! lol). She mentioned to me that she hopes she is able to come back again soon, so maybe we'll coordinate another trip in the Fall.

A super busy summer!

2010-08-07T15:08:00.002-04:00

Wow! I just looked at my blog for the first time in a LONG time and I realized that I only made two posts in the month of July AND it's been almost a month since I posted! Really? Where did the time go?

We have been super busy and obviously this blog has taken a back seat. I am disappointed in myself because in addition to having a blog where people can see what's going on with us, I also like to use it as a journal of sorts. But, if I don't blog, obviously I won't be able to remember what happened.

So, here's a quick run-down of what's been happening with us in the past few months (in no particular order)....

1. I started a part-time job in May. I work from home about 8-12 hours a week as a Help Desk Engineer for a company called Mobile Insight. The work itself is not hard. The hard part is trying to juggle my SAHM job with my job that actually pays money. I don't really want to work, but since we need the extra money, it is a necessity right now. It is just extremely hard some days because I feel bad that Jacob isn't getting my full attention or I feel bad that I am not working more and making even more money or I feel bad because the kitchen floor didn't get washed or the laundry didn't get done. I am hoping to be able to find a better balance with all of this soon. Or maybe I'll just win the lottery and then life will be so much easier, right?! :)

2. I had a huge fiasco with my laptop over the past few weeks. The long story short is: my screen broke and Apple wanted $610 to fix it! So, I tried to do the less expensive route and order one online and install it myself (along with help from my brother-in-law, Brian). The first screen they sent me arrived cracked; the second screen arrived at my house while I was in Corolla so my mail carrier (who has become a friend of mine) overnighted it to me at the beach only for us to find out that it wasn't the right screen for my laptop! Oh and did I mention that I paid $30 both times for the company to overnight it to me? Yeah, and they are refusing to reimburse me for that shipping charge! Lovely!! Anyways, I finally decided to just send it off to iresq.com, which is the company that the Apple technician recommended to me in the first place. A week later of sending it in the mail to them and paying $400, now thankfully it has been fixed and I have it back. (Now I need a new battery, but that's definitely an easier - and less expensive - fix!!)

3. Jacob and I stay really busy during the week. We try to get out as much as possible to enjoy the nice weather (when it's not 100 degrees!) and visit with friends. We usually see Katie, Pierce & Reid at least once a week (and sometimes more). We have visited the pool every week, mostly one day per week, but sometimes two. Now that he is walking, he really likes to be outside so we play in the driveway or in the front yard. I am looking forward to cooler temperatures and Fall-like weather so we can spend even more time outside.

4. We went on our annual week-long summer vacation to Corolla, NC with the entire Stank family. My grandparents also went this year so there were 17 of us (12 adults and 5 kids) in one house. We had a blast! I really want to do an entire post about our trip, but with my recent track record, I won't make any promises!

5. Keith and I painted our front porch over July 4th weekend. He took a few extra days off of work and we got it done in three days (this included having to "fix" the mess I made while trying to power wash the porch rails before we painted them). Again, I am hoping to do a separate post about this because I have a ton of pictures I want to share (plus I want to document all the "fun" we had!). Hopefully that will happen before we need to paint it again!

Wow, it doesn't really sound like we have been that busy, but the days (and weeks and months!!) sure do fly by! I am very much enjoying life right now, but I just wish it would slow down!

Walking and Talking

2010-07-08T23:32:00.001-04:00

Another day has gone by and, yet again, I haven't done a post about Jacob turning 13 months old. Oh wait, I never did a one year post either. Whoa....I am WAY behind!

Well, what I have been doing lately is trying to take video of Jake and his latest accompliments. So, for your viewing pleasure, here is our boy WALKING & TALKING!

WALKING

He is walking all over the place these days. As you can see from this video, he rarely crawl anymore. He has really perfected this just in the past week or so. He's also good at bending over, stooping and holding onto things while he walks. He still does fall sometimes, but he is quick to get back up and try again. Scary thing is, I think he may be running soon!

TALKING

His vocabulary has also increased exponentially in the past few weeks. He will often try to repeat what we say, like if I say "Can you say...?" The words that I hear him say most often are: mama, dada, shoes, ishies (for goldfish), no, uh-oh, night-night, this is/that (when he points to things as in "what's this?" or "what's that?"), bye-bye (although it sounds like a "d" sound instead of a "b"), tash (for trash, as in anything he picks up that needs to go in the garbage) and today he started saying what sounds like Sierra (his cousin) when we looked at her picture. He does a lot of babble and grunting & pointing to get my attention or if he wants something. He refuses to do any signs, even though I have been signing Milk everyday of his life! Oh well! I am really trying to work with him lately on please and thank you.

If you ask him, he will tell you that a horse says "nay" and he used to tell us that a bear says "grrr" (but he hasn't done it for a few weeks now). He will make truck and tractor sounds ("vroom") when he plays with his toys or when he sees them in a book. He also mimicks a grunting noise he hears Keith do when he is irritated (it's really funny!).

In this video, I was trying to just get a sampling of his babble, but it quickly turned to him getting upset because he wanted to touch the video camera. I still think you get the idea.

Playing in the pool

2010-07-07T21:46:00.003-04:00

Since it has been so hot here for the past month or so, Katie and I have tried to get to the pool with the kiddos at least once a week. We are fortunate that my neighborhood has a pool, but it isn't free so it can be costly ($4 per person) to go too much. Katie and I shared a 20-pass booklet that she bought in the beginning of June and I had to buy another one this past Monday. It doesn't seem like we have gone that much, but I guess we have. It is a lot of work packing up the kiddos and all of our stuff (and packing lunch), but it is really nice to be outside in the refreshing water on these hot days.

I took this video a month ago and since then, Jake has become much more comfortable in the water. When we were in the baby pool this past Monday, he was jetting around in his float. He is able to move around the pool on his own and he doesn't really "need" me to help him out. He even wanted to walk around in the pool without his float, although he soon learned that it wasn't as easy as he thought it was going to be! (Don't worry, I didn't let him go under!)

I am really glad that he likes the water so much and he doesn't seem to be afraid of it. He doesn't mind if his face gets wet and he really likes to splash! Hopefully I will be able to get more video in the weeks to come so I can document his progress. He is such a joy to be around and I am so thankful that I get to spend everyday with him doing such fun things.

Let's open some doors

2010-06-25T13:28:00.002-04:00

Jacob is changing and learning new things every day. I still need to do a post about him turning one and list all of the things he is doing these days. It seems like he does something new every day!

His newest talent for today: OPENING DOORS!

He has been reaching up for the door knob for some time now, but up until today, he hasn't been able to actually open the door. I have been trying to get a picture of him reaching up and just a few minutes ago, when I pulled out the camera, he not only reached up, but actually opened the door to the laundry room.

Reach up...

Pull down the handle...

Open the door...

Voila! Who knew it would be that easy!? And, right after he got into the laundry room, he went over to the door to the garage and tried to open that! Needless to say, doors are going to be staying locked around here. I don't need my little escape artist to get outside, that's for sure!

Jacob's Birth Story - Part III

2010-06-17T23:40:00.016-04:00

Here is Part III of Jacob's Birth Story. To view Part I & Part II, click HERE and HERE.

Around 2:30am, Dr. Montgomery came in to do another internal exam. I remember hoping and praying that I had miraculously gotten to 7 or 8 cm. Unfortunately, I was not even close! I was 5 cm and Dr. Montgomery told me that I really should be progressing faster than that by now. He said that pitocin does make a woman’s body dilate slower, but not usually this slow!! He was also concerned because Jacob wasn’t really moving down into the birth canal like he should be. At this point, he was still pretty high up (I think he was at -1 station for a long time!).

Dr. Montgomery said that he would come back in one hour and see if I was progressing. Well, at 3:30am, I was still at 5cm! I remember feeling a bit frustrated that I wasn't dilating more and wondering what was going to happen. Dr. Montgomery told me that he could feel Jacob’s head and that he was worried about him becoming too “coneish”. This would happen if the contractions continued to push him down into the birth canal but my cervix wasn’t open wide enough for him to come out. We talked about our options and Dr. Montgomery said that a c-section was an option that we could pursue. We talked about the pros and cons and even though he had an opinion, he never once pushed me to do anything that I wasn’t comfortable doing. We agreed that we would give my body one more hour and then we would make a decision.

At 4:30 am, Dr. Montgomery came back in and checked me again – still 5 cm!! It seems as though my body just stalled!! At this point, I didn’t care what happened to me, I was just concerned about Jacob and I wanted to be sure that he was going to be OK. Dr. Montgomery said that since my water had been broken for somewhere around 36 hours and the fact that Jacob was being pushed into a space that wasn’t really “ready” for him, he felt that a c-section would be the best option at that point. I must admit I was a bit scared and I didn’t really want a c-section, but I was excited to finally get to meet our baby and at that point, I was so tired, I was glad that it was almost over!

Before they took me down to the operating room, I had to sign some paperwork and I got a nice little shave from Liz (let me tell you, once you have a baby all modesty is out the window!!). Keith was given scrubs, shoe booties, a hair net and a mask to put on. They told him to wait in the room and they would come get him once they had me all set in the OR.

Here I am...all ready to go!

I remember thinking that the OR was a lot smaller than I had pictured it. Thankfully, though, I had paid attention in my childbirth class when our wonderful instructor talked about c-sections. I remember her saying “No one goes into labor thinking they are going to have a c-section. But, you never know. So, there are a few things you should be prepared for.” (I actually thanked her in the hospital – she was working there the day after Jake was born. I told her that having a c-section wasn’t super scary because of all of the information she had given me. I felt like I was really prepared!)

When they wheeled me into the operating room, Dr. Montgomery was standing there waiting. He said to me, “So, are you ready?” And I said, “I think so. Are you?” He laughed and I said, “You have done this before, haven’t you?” He laughed again and said, “No, but I've read a lot of books about it and I stayed in a Holiday Inn Express last night!” I laughed so hard and was glad that he was being comical because I knew that we were all really tired (he was on call all weekend and I think Jacob was like the third or fourth baby he had delivered in 24 hours!) The nurses were really nice too and they were chatting with me to whole time I was being prepped.

Once I was on the table and completely naked (again….no modesty!!), they put the blue sheet up that separates my head from the rest of my body. Dr. Weaver (the anesthesiologist) was above my head giving me a play-by-play of what they were going to do. He told me to look up and there was a big shiny metal circle surrounding one of the lights on the ceiling. I remember him saying, “If you want to be able to see what they are doing during the procedure, you can just look at the shiny metal because it kind of works like a mirror.” I quickly said, “No thanks” and he moved the blue sheet up a little bit so I couldn’t see the light anymore. Keith was brought it and Dr. Montgomery said that they were going to begin.

I remember being really scared at that point and worried that I was going to be able to feel them cutting me. I think I even said, “Ouch, I can feel that” when really all I could feel was a little tugging. Dr. Weaver was awesome throughout the entire procedure and he, Dr. Montgomery and the nurses talked me through everything they were doing. They kept me calm and not anxious and in no time, Jacob Michael Weimer was born! He was born at exactly 5:30am. Keith stood up just in time to see him being moved from my belly to the bassinet where they were going to clean him up. I wanted him to go over and make sure he was OK and he took some great pictures of his first few minutes of life.

After they checked him out and cleaned him up a bit Keith got to cut the cord (they left a good amount hanging on so Keith could get an opportunity to cut it).

Then they wrapped him up and brought him to me. I remember being so happy at that very moment. Keith and I were both crying and we were so overjoyed to finally get to meet our little boy!

I didn’t get to spend a lot of time with him, but while they sewed and cleaned me up, Keith was able to go to the nursery with him. He got to see them weigh and measure him (7 lbs, 4 oz and 20 inches long) and they did his foot prints. I remember wishing that I was able to be there while they did all of that stuff, but I was glad that Keith was able to stay with him.

They moved me out of the OR and into the recovery room. It was a small room that really only had room for one or two beds. I remember feeling shaky and cold but I wasn't in any pain because the anesthesia hadn't worn off yet. And, I was very itchy on my face and neck, which Liz told me is a side effect of the epidural. Thankfully, she was still with me and she said that we would be in recovery for about an hour. After about 30 minutes, while she was doing all the post-surgical stuff (like making me cough…which REALLY hurt!) the phone in the recovery room rang. Apparently, there was another woman who was having a c-section right after me and they were wondering if I was going to be out of the recovery room soon! Liz said I was doing so well that she felt like I was OK enough to be “let out”. Unfortunately, there was “no room at the inn” and I had to go back to my labor and delivery room for a little while until a room on the post-partum unit opened up.

Originally, they were going to bring Jacob to the recovery room so that I could try to nurse him, but since I didn’t spend very much time in there, I was able to see him in the L&D room. I remember the moment they wheeled his bassinet up next to my bed. I was in love!! I wanted to try to nurse him soon since I had read a lot about the bonding that happens between a baby and a mother in those first few hours. I really had no idea what I was doing, but the nurses were great and they tried to help me. I am not sure there was much success with latching on the first try, but over time it got better!

I had quite a lot of visitors that day, both in the L&D room and once I was taken down to the post-partum room. Unfortunately, I was not able to get up and walk around and was still catheterized. I also had to have these awful compression leg massager things on both of my legs. They were similar to blood pressure cuffs (except much larger) and they would blow up and then deflate every minute or so. I understood that I needed to keep them on so I didn’t develop blood clots in my legs, but boy were they hot and uncomfortable! It was very frustrating not being able to get up and move around and the next morning, I was VERY thankful to be able to get up and take a shower!!

My recovery from the c-section was a lot better than I had expected it to be. I was able to get up and move around pretty well in the days after Jacob’s birth. It was really nice to have Keith there pretty much the entire time! We were very fortunate because the post-partum rooms at the hospital have two beds in them (in case they have to double up when they are really busy). When they aren’t busy, they allow the husband (or whoever you want to stay with you) to use the other bed. Therefore, Keith was able to spend the night with me and pretty much be at the hospital the entire time I was there. We really took advantage of the bonding time with Jacob and we tried to learn as much as we could from the nurses. This whole parenting thing was new to us and we needed all the help we could get!!

Here is Jacob - only two days old - sleeping on my hospital bed
(from day one, he liked sleeping on his side or his tummy!)

On Wednesday, three days after he was born, we brought Jacob home with us. It was so awesome to have our little family all together in our house and since then we have been thanking God every day for bringing such a wonderful blessing into our lives!