"The View from Here": March 7-13

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

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

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

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!!