Whatchu talkin' bout, Jacob?

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!

Counting 1-10....sort of

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

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

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

My fearless little monkey

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!)

Walking and Talking

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.

Baby steps

Jacob has been taking small steps here and there over the past few weeks. These steps have mostly been when he is standing right in front of something, like the couch or a cupboard door, but he can't quite reach it. He would take one step forward and then kinda just fall into whatever it was he was trying to get to.

Over the weekend, we saw him looking more and more like he was going to be taking some "real" independent steps. Today, when he started to walk towards me (because he wanted the phone I was holding!), I grabbed the video camera. I'm so proud of him!!

Jacob "walking" for the first time

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

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

Standing Tall

Our little guy did something really awesome today!

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

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

and standing up, almost hands free:

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

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

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

Jacob's "funky" crawl & pulling up

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

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

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

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

Standing

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let the fun begin...

Jacob has been doing some pretty exciting things lately.

We borrowed this walker from Sierra a few months ago but I just got it out of the garage last week. Jacob learned how to maneuver pretty quickly and was moving around the kitchen on the first day. Yesteday I took this video:

This past week, I started building "towers" with Jacob's blocks and he enjoys knocking them down. This morning while we were playing, I decided to place the tower just a little further away from him so he had to reach to get it. Much to my surprise, he didn't just reach, but he crawled to get it. Of course, I was so excited that I jumped up and got the video camera and shot this video (along with some other footage later in the day):

I'm assuming our days will never be the same now that he is "on the move". And even though I am nervous and a bit anxious that he is able to move around now, I am excited to see him physically progressing. Let the fun begin...

Two becomes three...

....teeth! One of Jacob's top teeth "popped" through recently (and the other one is not far behind). And, although he hasn't been a drooly baby for the most part, that has now totally changed! The tooth is just barely showing (but is already sharp!). He doesn't seem to be too bothered by it which is good. He is still a happy little boy, albeit a wet one! I am not a huge fan of babies wearing bibs all of the time, but it's better that the bib get wet instead of his shirt. I know I am behind on writing his Eight Month Old post but I am hoping to do that tonight or tomorrow. Until then, enjoy these pictures of our smiley little boy.

On the move soon?

Yesterday afternoon Jacob didn't want to take a nap. He wasn't fussy in his crib - he just talked and laughed and made various noises until I decided to get him up after an hour of him being in his crib.

While we were playing in the living room a few minutes later, this is what happened.....

Should I be excited or scared that he is almost crawling??

(Note: I included another minute or so of video after the "hands & knees" episode just so you could get a glimpse of Jacob's cuteness right now. I just love being with him everyday!)

A day at the playground

Last Monday, I met my sister, Katie, and her kiddos at one of the playgrounds in my neighborhood. It was a beautiful sunny day and was even a bit warm when you were standing directly in the sun.

Katie & I enjoyed catching up and we even chatted with a few moms and their kiddos who were also visiting the playground. Pierce really enjoyed playing with another little boy who was about his age. I wish I had gotten a picture of them sitting together on the playground talking about the plane that had just flown over us. It was so cute!

We have visited the playground a few other times with Katie & Pierce, but I have never put Jacob on the swingset before since he wasn't really able to sit up very well until recently. This time, I put him in the swing and when I pushed him a little, he smiled. I think he really liked it.

Here are some fun pictures from our adventure:

Pierce & Jacob on the swing while another little boy looks on.

Reid was fast asleep in the front carrier.

Weeeeee....Jacob is happy on the swing

Katie doing "triple duty" - pushing Pierce on the swing

while wearing Reid in the carrier AND talking to another mom

He looks so grown up! :(

He's thinking, "Mom, stop taking pictures so you can keep pushing me!"

Starting Solids

We started feeding Jacob solids last week per the advice of our doctor. The hope is that the solid food will help his GERD and also will keep him from spitting up as much. So far, as a whole, I haven't really seen a difference in the spitting up, but I am hopeful that it will get better as his tummy adjusts to this new addition.

Like most babies, Jacob is eating rice cereal to start. I was hesitant to start him on solids knowing how messy and time consuming it can be (compared to breastfeeding). Also, I have heard and read many mom's opinions about not starting solids too soon. Most say you should wait until 6 months and Jacob is not even 5 months old right now. I certainly don't want to do anything that is not good for him!

Now, after a week of feeding him cereal once per day, I think I made the right decision. He is doing really good and seems to really enjoy eating! [Note: this does not suprise me since he is my son and I love to eat!] He eats really well from the spoon and he seems to like the cereal when it is thicker rather than runny. (The first few days, I mixed a lot of breastmilk in so that it was more liquidy. Now it is a more of a thick consistency and he is able to eat it a lot easier.)

I feed him the cereal during his late-afternoon feeding, usually around 3pm. Up until today, I was giving him the cereal first (about a tablespoon mixed with breastmilk) and then breastfeeding him. Today, I decided to do it the other way around and I think it worked better. He didn't spit up as much after eating and I think the heaviness of the cereal really did help to keep everything down, as the doctor said it would.

I haven't really decided what I am going to do about introducing other things - like fruits and veggies - into Jacob's diet. I am leaning towards waiting another month or so and just increasing his cereal to two or three times per day. I am not sure if that is a good idea or not (I have never done this before and really am just wingin' it!!) so we shall see.

For now, here is a little clip of Jacob's cereal eating from yesterday. (Please excuse the loud banging noise from me putting the bowl back on the table repeatedly. I didn't realize how loud it really was!)

Enjoy!