no bottle

I've been wanting for awhile to wean Jake of his bedtime bottle. For two reasons. The first and most important reason is that he acted like he was ready. He would drink the entire bottle but he would also be quite content on my lap with his pacifier before I would give him the bottle so I didn't think he really needed it. Plus he finally drinks enough milk during the day. And the second, more selfish reason, is that I wanted him weaned from it for awhile before the baby comes so it is easier to put them both to bed and so it's not still fresh in his mind that maybe he wants a bottle before bed again too. (Of course baby will be getting a boob and not a bottle, but you know...)

So last night I finally remembered to not make his bottle and I just put him to bed with a little snuggle and a pacifier. He took awhile to fall asleep but never once fussed at all. AND he slept all night!!!! I am sooo proud of my big boy!!!! The transition was a LOT smoother than I imagined it to be. I thought I would be up with him all night putting him back to sleep. Or at least to get him to sleep in the first place. He did great! Hopefully he will continue to do great! Then I can pack up all the bottles until Baby needs them

I just wanted to document his new achievement

Halfway

So today marks 20 weeks in this pregnancy, or halfway. It's hard to believe. It seemed week by week had gone so slow and now here we are and it seems like the whole thing has gone so quickly. I am sure that doesn't make any sense.

My current total weight gain is 9-10 lbs. Not too bad! Considering that at this point in my pregnancy with Jake, I was 19 lbs heavier than I am right now, I am pretty happy about this :-)

A week from today we'll have our ultrasound and find out if we're growing a boy or a girl baby. Don't forget to guess in the baby game. The link is on the right hand side of this page.

If you aren't watching

If you aren't watching your 1 year old for 5 minutes and he is quiet, he is probably climbing his bookshelf to get his crayons and then coloring on his windowsill....

Welcome

Welcome to the new blog! This is a place where we will keep updates about our family life in one place.

I will be posting the highlights from Jacob's blog over here eventually and deleting that one. So be sure to update your address to this one.

17 Month Update & Changes

Jacob turned 17 months old last Wednesday, May 5th. He weighed 29 lbs even. I don't have a length on him but I will measure him when he wakes up from his nap today.

Mid-april Jacob got to meet his great-grandpa Hartley. They got along really well. It was during this time that we discovered Jacob's most favorite thing to do at Lolo & Papa's house is throw golf balls in the backyard and watch all the golfers go by.

He also got his first big boo-boo. He was climbing the kitchen chair that we keep in the living room in order to block him from the end table. He does this all the time to get himself up on the couch. So he was climbing up on there and fell off. He was rubbing his head and tried to stand up but his foot was caught in the bar so he went face first into the bottom of our TV stand. He had a nice deep cut on his forehead that was gushing blood. A few steri-strips took care of it and it is healing nicely. They fell off after about a week. Don't let this paragraph fool you -- Jacob and I were BOTH freaking out when it happened! But I can look back and {somewhat} laugh about the whole thing now.

This past month Jacob has pretty much mastered using a spoon to eat. He still makes a mess but not nearly as bad as he used to. And I don't have to constantly remind him to scoop or put it in his mouth anymore. He can also use a fork with some help.

He also managed to escape out to our back deck one day when I got home from work. We believe the screen door wasn't latched because he couldn't open it again. Stinker! He looked very proud of himself standing on the deck when I ran over to find him.

He also sent his very first text message. It read "tja" and was sent to one of Matt's coworkers named Robert. :-) Growing up so fast!

I don't think there is really anything else new this month. After turning 17 months he has had his first golf lesson with Papa though. And we also celebrated Mother's Day 2010.

CHANGES:

I am going to be making some changes to this blog whenever I find the motivation and time to do so. I want to turn this into a family blog instead of just about Jacob. This way I can update on Matt, myself, and the new baby as well. I am not sure if I will re-do this one or just make a new one but I am thinking making a new one will be way easier. We will see. So in light of that, here is a link to play in our online guessing game for the new baby:

And, as always, here are some pictures from the last month...

Jacob and his great grandpa 04.12.10

he loves to play in the yard with this big stick

first boo-boo

first boo-boo

playing at the library

sitting in his mega blocks wagon

climbing the fence at the duck pond

passed out in the car on the way home

drinking out of Matt's water bottle

happy boy

he loves grapes

so serious

16 month update & Family pictures

Not much of an update this month since I just posted a few weeks ago. But Jacob has learned a couple of new things that I wanted to document. He now knows where his nose is. He also will stick out his tongue if asked where his tongue is. We are working on eyes now. He learned how to say "papa" and "wow" and he knows what a sheep says. In fact he loves to yell "BAAAAA! BAAAAA!" It's sooo funny!! He also mastered drinking through a straw. I tried to play a trick on him by putting pop in the cup after he learned but the joke is on me. He loves it! It's a good way to get me to stop drinking pop though - since I don't want him to drink it and I can't drink it in his presence anymore with him throwing a fit!

He is still just as naughty as ever too! Climbing on everything and getting into everything in sight. His favorite is emptying the dog's food bowl and playing in the water bowl.

He is working on tooth #13. It is right below the surface so it should pop through any day now.

This past weekend we had some pictures of Jacob and some family pictures taken by a girl that Matt went to high school with. Here are a few below.

15 month update

Okay, okay, I need to update this. I am getting really bad at remembering to do it. So now that we're almost 16 months, it's time for the 15 month update.

Doctor Appt: Jake went to the doctor for his 15 month check up on Wednesday, March 17th. He weighed 27 lbs 10 oz and was 31 inches long. His head circumference was I think 47.5 cm. He checked out perfectly healthy and normal and received 3 shots (HIB, DTaP, H1N1) He doesn't go back to the doctor until he is 2 years old.

Activity: He is walking up a storm and even running now. He enjoys climbing on everything. In fact, just today he climbed up on a kitchen chair and then up on the kitchen table!!! He's sure a troublemaker!!! We bought him a climber with a slide and he loves it. He still falls a lot, especially when he's running, but it's quite entertaining to just let him go and watch what he does.

Food: He's been completely off of baby food for awhile now which we realize now how much we miss! It was much more convenient! He eats pretty much anything now. His very favorite foods are bananas, yogurt, and cheese sticks. He also really enjoys frozen peas, graham crackers, and apples. He's been fussy lately with food and refuses some of his favorites sometimes. It's frustrating, but totally normal behavior.

Body Parts: We started working on naming body parts a few months ago (starting with nose, which is STILL can't get haha) He can point to the following body parts: head, ears, mouth, belly, feet.

Animal Sounds: We've also been working on animal sounds and he can say the following animal sounds, in his own version of course: dog, cat, cow, lion, sheep, duck.

Talking: He's really not talking yet but he babbles constantly. He does say "yeah" almost any time you ask him a question (so agreeable!) He also says "Mom" "Dada" and "Daddy" but not really in context. He can point to a picture of Matt and label it as "Dada" but he's clueless about who Mom is :-) He mostly makes "tt" and "ch" sounds and points to everything. He is absolutely in love with his dog and his cat. We think that's where the "ch" sound came from, in reference to Charlie.

Toys: His favorite toys right now are phones (we gave him Matt's old working but no longer activated cell phone to play with), blocks (mega blocks), books (though he can't usually sit still long enough to listen to a full story), and containers (tupperware, etc) He also loves listening to music and dancing. And of course loves it when we, on rare occasion, turn on the TV or Wii. He's also been real into his old teething toys lately -- the big thick rings, the bracelets he gets from his doctor's visits, and his two little teething fish. We've been enjoying trips to the park lately too now that the weather is getting nicer. He loves the swings and climbing up and going down the slides.

Bath: Jacob loves taking baths now. His eyes light up every night when we say "do you want to take a bath?" and you've never seen a kid run so fast as he does to get in there. He plays with his fish and ducks and stacking cups in the tub and I think he'd be content in there until his whole body was a prune. He never wants to get out.

Sleep: We went through a long phase where sleeping suddenly became a problem and we made some mistakes during this time to perpetuate the problem (brining him into bed with us, sleeping on the floor of his nursery with him, etc) He is finally back to sleeping all night most nights and going to bed without a problem. We are so thankful for that!

Teeth: As of 15 months, Jake has 12 teeth. He has his four top, four bottom, and four molars. He appears to be teething again but it seems too soon for any others to come in so who knows.

Haircut: Jacob had his first haircut in February. He went from looking like a baby to looking like a toddler. I guess it's official now!

Well I suppose that's all the update we have this time. I will post a few of my favorite pictures from his birthday until now below.

Naughty boy climbing up on the coffee table!

Dr. Jake in his scrubs, so cute!

This is when he was just figuring out how to use this.

First haircut

Right after his first haircut

precious boy all snuggled up to his lovies

at the park

at the park