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.