Snowed in!

Way too long since the last post. We currently have about 9 inches of snow on the ground and it's scheduled to keep coming down like this for another 20 hours or so. Essentially snowed in until it stops and the plows come around, a sword fight broke out!

Happy 1 1/2 Birthday Jacob!

Tiger says "growl"

Fun With Dad

25 things you may not have known about Jacob

At roughly 16.5 months, Jacob is doing lots of new things:

1. He answers questions, although the answer to everything is "no". Example, "Jacob are you hungry?" "No", "Jacob, do you want to go get ice cream?" "No", "Jacob, are you tired?" "No". It's good that he knows that you are asking a question and that "No" is a response to a question, but he has no idea what you or he is saying. It's kind of entertaining, actually.
2. His vocabulary is expanding, including: mama, dada, no, nose, uh oh, oooooo (elephant noise), ooo ooo ooo (monkey noise), growl (tiger or lion or polar bear noise), dog, go, hi, ball (sounds like "gall"), and a few others.
3. His sign language has really come together. While not very extensive, he's a signing fool when it comes to "more" (usually in reference to food, but also for things that he wants: toys mostly), "up" (to be picked up), and "all done" (he's done eating and wants to get out of his high chair to go cause terror).
4. He understands some commands, such as "Go hug Porter." So he knows things like hug, kiss, Porter & Tootsie (our dogs), shoes, "be nice" and a few others.
5. He definitely knows his name.
6. He can help clean up his toys. He's taken to walking around the house with a Swiffer floor cleaning thing on a long pole. He is fascinated by all the wonderful things in the dish washer.
7. He can locate his nose and other people's noses. He also knows where is belly and toes are.
8. He loves playing games like peak-a-boo and hide-and-seek.
9. He gives high fives (though he's done this for awhile, he's gotten much better)
10. His walking has advanced to a slight run/jog.
11. He's a climber. He climbs fences. He's recently advanced enough to climb up onto the couch.
12. He's beginning to figure out doors, so we had to child proof those, which has also made it difficult for the rest of us to get around the house...sadly.
13. He LOVES to be read to. He made me read/sing him an "Old McDonald" book 4 times in about 30 minutes the other night. Every night before bed we always read a story. Last night, he was running around the house before bedtime and grabbed a book and climbed up on the rocking chair that we always read in, as if to say that he was ready for his story now. He seems to enjoy books nearly as much as toys.
14. He's great with the dogs for the most part. The dogs are even better with him. They take a lot of abuse from him sometimes as he's learning what's acceptable. We try to stay on top of things. Everyone is getting along great so far though.
15. On the unfortunate side of things, he seems to like to eat dog food. It's a battle to try to feed the dogs and keep him away from it. He's also taken to sticking his entire face in their water bowl, which is probably beyond unsanitary. Proof #947 that really likes water.
16. We've had some problems with him biting other kids at daycare, which is not good and somewhat embarassing for us. He's also been on the bitten end a few times. This seems to be occuring slightly less frequently, but it's happening way more than anyone would like. We're told this is something he'll grow out of, but we're trying to make some efforts to make sure that happens ASAP.
17. He likes to say "hi" and wave to strangers. Sometimes he waves "bye" to kids at daycare as he leaves.
18. He holds up cell phones, phones, remote controls, etc up to the side of his head (as if he were on the phone) and says "hi". He's been doing this for months, but he doesn't seem to get tired of it.
19. He LOVES to laugh. I'm pretty sure he spends his whole day either laughing, sleeping, crying and/or eating. Most of the time he is very happy. You can get him to crack up endlessly by making a new noise he hasn't heard yet or an old noise that he finds hilarious. "Poop" seems to be a classic. His new noise is "Ow". As in, when dad hits his head on something and says "Ow"...endless laughter and he repeats: "Ow, ow, ow, ow..."
20. He copies EVERYTHING. Kids are quite the little sponges. Who would have thought? The other day we are driving in the car and he starts to get upset. I'm sitting in front of him in the passager seat. To entertain him, I put his cup on my head. He thinks this is hilarious, and proceeds to take the cup and put it on his head. There's probably 20 times a day (on the days where I get to see him a lot...weekends) where I don't even realize he's paying attention to me, only to do something and then hear him repeating it or mimicing my actions. Luckily, no swearing yet, but you really need to watch yourself around him.
21. He blows his nose. This started a few weeks ago. We'd wipe his face off with something and he'd blow raspberries into it. He didn't understand how to blow his nose, but knew that you put this tissue over your face and then made a similar noise. In just the past few days, he's started to actually figure out blowing.
22. He plays a recorder.
23. He's extremely ticklish.
24. He loves vegetables, fruits (especially berries), pretty much any kind of junk food and lots of other stuff, but oddly seems to not be a huge fan of meat. Given the choice of many things in front of him, he'll usually pick around the meat. If it's just meat (or hot dogs) he'll usually eat it, but not always. We hope he outgrows this.
25. He's the best thing ever.

Mike

Dancing

It's been way too long since we've posted anything. We've been up to so much since our last post.

Courtney had her first real Mother's Day with Jacob (she was in the hospital last year). We made our second trip with Jacob to upstate NY over Memorial Day to see my parents. I have set a goal to run one race per month while the weather is warm enough and so far I've done 5k's in April and May and a 3.5 mile run in June. I've got my July race this weekend and I'm really looking forward to it. We went up to NYC for my summer office party in June. It was our third time up to NYC with Jacob and it was a great weekend. Counting spring training, we're up to 10 baseball games this year (9 with Jacob).

We had to replace our air conditioner in May (at no small expense), but the new one is SO much nicer and we've always known that the last one was on its last legs.

Everything seems to be going well with our jobs, thankfully. Hopefully that continues. We know way too many people out of work and are keenly aware of how tough things are out there.

Although it's been a long time since we've updated the blog, we have been fairly good about keeping up the website, so there are tons of pictures there and more details on the past couple months.

Hope everyone has a Happy 4th! Go out and celebrate the birth of your nation by blowing up a small part of it (with fireworks). USA! USA! USA!

Mike

PS- What prompted me to finally post was that we've been taking some good video of Jacob as he becomes such a funny, happy little boy. The video shown here was Jacob dancing...at least his version. He's better than he shows here, but this was the best we could get on video. I still think it's pretty funny.

Walking!

Jacob walks 11 steps!

Belated Easter post

Sorry for the delay in getting this up. Here's a short video of Jacob on his first Easter egg hunt a couple of weeks ago (4/12/09....Easter, obviously).

5 years

Five years ago yesterday, Courtney and I went to a baseball game (Cubs @ Pirates) with her friend, Amanda. It wasn't exactly a date at the time, but it sparked an interest that led to dating in the following days. I consider it to be our first date. The rest is history.

To celebrate, Courtney and I got a rare night out alone. Of course, we headed to a baseball game (Braves @ Nationals). The weather was cold and wet. The game was delayed an hour and we only stayed for about 5 innings. We needed to head home. It was, after all, a work night. Apparently we got really old over the past 5 years.

-Mike

Mike Turns 30!!!!

For Mike's 30th birthday we went down to Florida to watch Spring Training Baseball! Click here for all the details.

Jacob had a grand ole time on the beach:

What I've been doing

This post is dedicated to Sara, one of our dedicated readers who I know would appreciate an update : )

Jacob has been a busy man. Hence the lack of blogging I suppose (or I could be looking for excuses). I do feel like now that he is getting more and more mobile, that I am in constant "Mommy Mode", either running behind him to catch him when he falls or running behind him to clean up whatever mess he has somehow gotten himself into. So, as his one year birthday approaches, here is a list of what he can do:

-He climbs stairs at a super human rate of speed it seems

-He can hold his own bottle and has mastered the sippy cup (thanks Emmy for the Take-n-toss suggestion; they worked wonders)!

-He plays with a purpose and is recognizing cause and effect i.e. he can fit some shapes into his shape bucket thingy. You know what I am talking about, we all had one growing up I think

-He cruises like a champ all around the room and has taken one tiny step forward only to fall right on his face. No worries, he bounces right back with only a dazed look on his face like he doesn't understand what just happened.

-He has just started to go to bed without a bottle, hurray!

-He has 12 teeth and likes to actually have them brushed

-He tries to repeated what you say. For example, when I say, "uh oh", he'll either repeat the "uh" or the "oh" but not together. He also seems to repeat "all done" but it sounds more like "ah duh".

-He can wave bye-bye if he is in the mood

-He can do the "touchdown" sign although we haven't had much reason to practice this one lately

-He likes to feed himself cheerios but doesn't really like to touch anything else like bananas or pasta as I don't think he likes the texture of them

-He is definitely a "hit and run" cuddler. He'll come to you for cuddles and just as soon as he wanted them, he'll want down again to go and play

-He gives kisses however they are often off-target and are a slobbery mess

-He'll follow you all around the house as if he was saying, "What are you doing, what are you doing"?

-He lets his displeasure be known. He has seemed to catch on to minor temper tantrums and whining when he doesn't get what he wants. We are working on this by telling him no, and trying to distract him with something else.

-On the "no" note, when we say "no" to him he then shakes his head back and forth as if to say "no" himself. Rebelling this early doesn't seem to be a good sign.

-He loves the dogs and will "pet" them by hitting them lightly on the head instead of gently stroking. We're working on teaching him "Nice" as well.

I am sure there is MUCH more that I am missing as it seems he does something new everyday. I'll try to keep it updated and maybe add a running list in the margin to the left of the blog.

Stairs!

For the past few weeks, Jacob has been starting to discover stairs.

In our basement, we have 2 stairs up, then a landing, then 10 more stairs up, another landing, and then one more step onto the first floor. He's been doing the first couple steps up to the first landing and then starting to get up on the third step, before either losing interest or deciding it was too difficult.

Yesterday, we had our friends Clay and Heather over whose little girl, Ella, is about 8 months older than Jacob and seemingly way more advanced (as I suppose babies tend to be given the steep learning curve). Ella was all over the house, including up and down the stairs.

Apparently Jacob was watching. Tonight, Courtney left to go to the gym and Jacob was playing downstairs. When Courtney left to go upstairs, Jacob watched her walk away and wanted to follow. So that he did. Up to the first landing, before turning around and smiling at me to make sure I saw his accomplishment (he's always so proud of himself). Then he remembered his mission, Mission: Follow Mommy, who was now well out of sight. So up he went, and I got up and followed closely behind to guard against any mistakes, but never touching him. When he got his entire body up on the 4th stair (a new record) I called Courtney, who poked her head around the corner and provided all the encouragement he needed. 5 stairs, 6, 7, and so on all the way to the top!

His first 5k can't be far off.

Mike