Jacob and Santa meet again

This should have been the first year that Jacob met Santa. But with his early arrival he was able to meet Santa last year.

This year, he was a lot more alert and therefore a bit more freaked out about meeting Santa.

I was a little bummed about the pictures that the lady took. She took 2 pictures that look almost identical, one is just zoomed in a little more (very little).

Then she took one with Santa facing the camera and smiling.

But then when Jacob turned and gave a half smile, she didn't snap a picture. And she didn't take the picture of him crying on Santa's lap. Isn't everyone supposed to have a picture of their child crying on Santa's lap?

Jacob's stats and his party

First, I have to preface this by saying that I get nothing done lately. Jacob has some type of radar that tells him that he needs to crawl to wherever I am and whine until I pick him. Of course, this radar only goes off when I am trying to do something (blog, clean, cook, etc.). If I am not doing anything, Jacob doesn't need me.

Anyway....

On Thursday, Jacob went in for his 12 month well-check. We weren't surprised at all to find out that he is still our little boy (based on percentiles):
Weight: 18 pounds, 13 ounces (5th percentile)
Height: 28 inches (5th percentile)
Head circumference: 44 centimeters (5th percentile)

And just like before they asked me some developmental questions. Can Jacob clap or bang two small toys together? No, he can't.

What did he do as soon as we got home? Did he bang two small balls together from his Busy Ball Choo Choo Train? I tell you - that kid.

Anyway...

We had Jacob's birthday party the Saturday before his birthday and in an attempt to keep it small, we invited only family. But considering that we have tons of family here in Texas we still had about 20 people here to wish Jacob a happy birthday.

When we sent out invitations for his party, Jacob was taking 2 naps a day. But he decided just in the week or so before his party that he was done with 2 naps and only wanted one longer nap. So Jacob's party started at noon, but he slept until 1.

We tried to keep things moving and keep Jacob happy throughout his little party. We started with opening presents, meaning I opened presents and Jacob sat close by. I was pretty impressed that he seemed interested in his gifts as they were opened since I have been to a few parties for 1 and 2 year olds where they didn't care about their gifts at all. Jacob has great family who gave him some terrific toys and new clothes.

After the gifts were opened and Jacob had done a little playing it was time for cake. I spent way too much time on Jacob's cake. Don't be expecting a cake like this every year, Jacob.

At first Jacob seemed pretty confused. Afterall, we are still having lots of problems with Jacob and solid food. When we do give him food, it is usually tiny pieces of something. And here we put a whole piece of cake in front of him.

After a little while he really got into it and even though he started gagging a little at one point, he handled it much better than I thought he would (in other words, much better than the pieces of roll we gave him at dinner time that night).

I think it goes without saying that Jacob went straight from the high chair to the bath.

We hope you had a happy birthday, Jacob!!!

Jacob is 1 year old!!!

It is hard to believe, but our miracle baby turned 1 on Monday! And I as I had anticipated, it was very difficult to take a picture of him next to his elephant.Care to see the outtakes from this photo shoot?

I haven't decided if at some point in the future I will take more pictures of him next to his elephant, but it will definitely no longer be a monthly thing. Can't you see Jacob as a 15 year old next to his blue elephant? :)

Jacob's well-check visit isn't until tomorrow so we don't have stats yet.

At 1 year old Jacob can:

• Crawl way too fast
• Cruise all over the place (which he prefers to crawling)
• Pull himself up and let go, balancing on his own for a few seconds
• Crawl halfway through the doggy door, getting himself stuck
• Climb up the stairs (he has been able to do this for a couple months, but wasn't all that interested until last week)

Jacob loves:

• Colby (our dog, in case you didn't know)
• Playing with Colby's food
  
• Taking a bath
• Watching Here Come the ABC's, Here Come the 123's and Here Comes Science (we are teaching him early how great They Might Be Giants are)
• Playing with Daddy
• Trying to play with electronics (just like Daddy)
• Looking out the window
  

Jacob doesn't like:

• Baby food, including oatmeal and rice cereal that he used to eat
• Getting dressed, especially putting socks and shoes on
• Being in a rear facing car seat (we have our fingers crossed that we find out tomorrow he is big enough to turn around in his brand new front-facing seat)
• Staying still during church
• When we move Colby's food so Jacob can't reach it
• When we raise the blinds so he can't pull on them as he looks out the window
  

Things I thought Jacob would be able to do when he was 1 since every other kid I see can:

• Eat food without gagging and choking
• Drink from a sippy cup on his own (he hasn't clued in on the fact that you have to tilt it up to get anything besides air)
  
• Makes the sounds Mama and Dada (even if he doesn't know that is who we are)

It is hard to believe that only a year ago Jacob joined our family!

Family Pictures

We had family pictures taken a few weeks ago but have been too busy to order any of the prints we want, put the pictures on our blog, etc.

At 6:15 am, I am avoiding cleaning, so here are just a few of my favorite pictures taken by Gilgen Photography.

11 months old!!!

I am a little behind in making the post about Jacob turning 11 months old. Sorry!

Our little guy is very energetic. He doesn't like to stay still for very long, he always wants to be crawling somewhere, pulling up on something, getting into something, etc. One of his favorite things to do lately it to push the chairs to the kitchen table around the breakfast room and kitchen.

Jacob is still having some problems when it comes to eating. It is a source of great frustration for me. It seems like whenever we see some progression, we later see him take some steps backward. It is most frustrating to me because of how expensive formula is and because he doesn't eat 3 meals a day, we will have to keep him on formula (rather than move him to milk) when he is a year old.

For a couple days Jacob will eat rice cereal pretty well twice a day. We try to add something to his rice cereal, but if we add much he can taste it and won't eat. Typically we try to add about a teaspoon of some type of fruit or vegetable to about 3 tablespoons of rice cereal. If we try to add more than that he will cry, shake his head and refuse to open his mouth. Usually he eats well for a couple days, and then a couple days where he won't eat much at all.

Jacob is very interested in our food and always wants what we are eating. But, of course, we have to be careful with what we give him. He is just finally learning how to gum things up to soften them up enough to swallow them. His gag reflex is still pretty strong though, so if we don't give him pieces that are super small, he gags and then throws up. He starts to get tired of the little tiny pieces of our food that we give him and he becomes bored with eating long before he may be full.

Jacob is still a pretty good sleeper at night, although he really hasn't adjusted to the time change very well. He used to wake up for the day between 6:30 and 7 am, but now he wakes up between 5:30 and 6am. It makes for a tired mommy throughout the day.

Jacob has lately become quite intrigued by Colby's doggy door. He hasn't tried to crawl out of it yet, but he really likes to look outside and play with the door.

Just 3 weeks until Jacob turns 1 year old!!!

Moving On

We have hit a milestone in our lives. After almost 6 years of employment with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Justin is moving on to (we hope) greener pastures.

What we have loved about PWC and will miss:

• 3 weeks of paid paternity leave within the first year after we have a baby


• 22 weeks of short-term disability paid at 100% of base pay (and over the course of 9 months we used about 15 of those weeks when Justin was so sick and going through all his surgeries)


• 4 weeks of vacation a year


• Medical insurance that covered infertility treatments including IVF

What we are happy to be saying goodbye to:

• Lots of traveling for Justin - in fact he was gone for 7 out of 9 weeks from late July until early September which is what ignited the job search


• Busy season - at PWC about 2/3rds of the year is busy season where Justin has been expected to work 50-60 hours a week, add in commute time and that leaves us with


• Hardly ever getting to see Justin during the week

It will be hard to say goodbye to all the great benefits that Justin has had while working for PWC, but we are really excited for this next chapter in our lives.

What we are excited about:

• Being able to eat dinner at home as a family at a decent hour on a regular basis

• Half-days on Fridays


• Greater possibility of an annual bonus


• Higher base pay

Justin's last day with PWC will be the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and starting on Monday, November 30th Justin will be an employee of Plains All American Pipeline.

Update on "Worked Up"

Yay!!!

I must have pled my case well for the dean. I will be reimbursed the difference between what they payed my sub last fall and how much they were docking my paycheck.

Good thing too - we need to start some Christmas shopping.

Today

Today, Jacob:
woke up at 5:40am and decided he was up for the day;
was super fussy all day and acted like he is cutting some more teeth;
cried that he was hungry but would only eat 2-3 bites of rice cereal (for both lunch and dinner) and wouldn't drink much formula either;
wanted me to hold him, but as soon as I would pick him up he wanted to get away from me.

Colby:
kept nudging Jacob when I would set Jacob down on the floor, causing Jacob to cry;
wouldn't stop licking Jacob's face even when I would swat at him to get him to stop;
went digging outside in the mud and then came and tracked it into my house.

I:
washed 2 loads of laundry but didn't fold it;
found a line of ants coming from a spot where the carpet and tile meet - intent on Colby's food;
decided to make cookies instead of cleaning my house and accidentally used baking powder instead of baking soda causing the cookies to not be as good as they should be;
missed Justin all day and even now at 9:40pm am wondering when he will be coming home from work.

At least the cookies look good:

Fall Fest

This past Saturday evening was the Fall Fest at church. Justin and I didn't dress up, but Jacob did.

The only picture of Jacob smiling for the evening.

Saturday was a busy day for us. Justin took Jacob with him to the allergist and Costco while I worked in the front yard. (Yep - I do the majority of the yard work at our house. It isn't that I like doing it, but at the same time I don't exactly dislike doing it. But usually with everything going on I am the one that does it.)

We then took a trip to Babies R Us to use a 20% off a single item coupon that was good for only one day and bought Jacob's front-facing car seat that he will need in less than 2 months. That's right - LESS THAN 2 MONTHS!!! We then swung by the at&t wireless store to try out some phones so I could pick which one I wanted to order online (never buy a new cell phone anywhere but online - my new phone and Justin's new Windows Mobile phone cost us $50 ordering online. In the store we would have paid over $250 for new phones and activation).

By the time we got home it was far past time for Jacob to nap and I needed to get to work on my "dish with pumpkin" for the potluck. I found a recipe for pumpkin stew online that got good reviews so I decided to give it a try.

Jacob wouldn't nap even though he was super tired and the stew was a pain to make and although not bad, nothing to rant and rave about once it was made. We headed out for the church and who decided it was the perfect time to sleep, but the only one dressing up for the party. He slept for about the first half hour we were there and we when he woke up he was a bit of a grouch.

Then Jacob's grouchiness became contagious and I got grouchy. Seriously, if I had known that most people's main dishes for the potluck would not be made with pumpkin, I would have made something else. Do you know that I am a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to cooking for others? I HATED taking something that was only ok.

At least it was true what they said online about the stew - it IS even better as leftovers once the flavors have mingled more. But still, not something I plan to make again.

Here are our professional pics taken at the Fall Fest. Thanks Kelli!