Jacob is a nut

Over the last month or so, I've been taking pictures of the strange things our son does.

He loves to put these Rubbermaid containers on his head and walk around. There is one that is too small to fit on his head, so if he picks that one up and it won't go over his big noggin, he starts crying.

He loves to push Colby's big container of dog food all around the kitchen.

We think he likes cake, but he has really only had cake at his birthday and then he got a cupcake leftover from a baby shower I helped throw. What a waste of a cupcake, Jacob.

Lately when we give him his bath, he likes to lay down on his tummy in the tub. It would be much better if he would lay back on his back and let us rinse the shampoo from his hair.

Back in May we moved the coffee table in the living room out from the center of the room to right under the front window make room for tables. Then we decided to just leave it so the room was more open. But when Jacob started doing this recently, Justin moved the table back to the center of the room.

We loaned Jacob's Bumbo to a friend and recently got it back. Ever since getting it back, Jacob loves to sit in it.

And this is when he realized I was taking his picture so he made a cheesy face for the camera.

Jacob has learned how to pull himself up on the piano bench and he loves to play the piano. Let's hope that continues and he doesn't fight too much when I want him to take lessons.

Jacob loves playing with wheels, so someone taught him that if you tip the stroller over, you can play with the wheels. I can pick the stroller up and about 10 minutes later, I hear it crashing back to the floor again.

Jacob is such a nut!

Bad hair day

Last week Jacob woke up with his hair sticking up every which way. After wetting it down and brushing it twice, I finally got it calmed down to this:

18 months old

A couple of weeks ago Jacob turned 18 months old!

Jacob was a little tired and grouchy in this picture. Sundays are rough and leave this little guy without his nap so sometimes this happens on the way home from church:

It took 3 months, but we finally had molar #4 break through about 2 - 3 weeks ago! Now he has started working on getting those canines or eye teeth in. Does anyone else's kids take forever to cut teeth? I hear people say they had a miserable weekend while their kid cut teeth. If Jacob only had a miserable weekend that would be fantastic - instead he has a miserable couple months. Then we only get a couple week break before the next round start coming through. Teething is definitely the pits!

I took Jacob in this morning for his 18-month well check and he weighed in at 22 pounds (7th%-tile), and was 31 inches tall (12th %-tile). There is a little concern over the fact that he doesn't say any words, but he has always been a little more behind on his language development. I'm going to guess that this means he will start talking in the next month or so. And when I say talking I mean say a word or two that we understand because that kid loves to talk his baby babble.

The best thing about Jacob being 18 months old is that he is now old enough to go to nursery at church! The last 6 months have been difficult trying to keep Jacob entertained during Sunday School and Justin used to take Jacob into Primary with him at the end of church so he could be there for their singing time. But he has been a handful because he doesn't usually like to sit still!

I think something alerted Jacob to the fact that he was almost 18 months old and had never had an ear infection. So at the beginning of the month after getting over a cold he started running a high fever and feeling pretty crummy. A trip to the urgent care (because it was a Saturday) let us know he had his first ear infection ever and he started taking antibiotics that night. The next day he still acted like he was feeling horrible, but by Monday his fever was gone. We assumed his ear was getting better but he started having the worst congestion ever - he was snoring so loud because he couldn't breathe well. Finally that Wednesday I took him in to his regular doctor to find out that his antibiotics must not have been doing anything for him at all. The poor kid had to get a shot of antibiotics at the doctor's office and start on a much stronger prescription the next day. Jacob figured if he was going to have an ear infection, he was going to make it a memorable one.

Jacob likes:

• playing outside
• books
• grilled cheese sandwiches, yogurt, french toast, pancakes and taco soup
  
• balls
• cars and trucks
• being in his stroller and going for walks (too bad it is so dang hot here!)
• playing the piano
• looking out the windows
• seeing dogs or playing with dogs
• Wheel of Fortune
• his bath
  

Jacob doesn't like:

• any type of fruit
• any type of vegetable
• juice
• being put in his car seat when we leave the gym
  
• having to come back inside
• for Mommy to leave him anywhere
  

An upgrade

Lately I haven't liked trying to take pictures. Our little camera used to be great, but over the past several months it has been so difficult to get pictures that turn out decently - they are either not totally clear or they look like it was super dark and the flash is just illuminating the subject of the picture. And anyone who was here for bunco in May can tell you how annoying it was when it took 5 minutes to find a setting for the camera where the pictures would turn out at all.

On Saturday when we were at Costco we saw a great deal on a really nice point and shoot camera. Check out the difference!

Picture taken this morning with our old camera (this is actually a really good picture):

Picture taken this morning with our new camera:

Wow - you can tell that we don't live in a cave!

Jacob's new pool

Jacob loves to play outside. I do not love the hot Houston summers though. So I decided to get Jacob a little pool he could play in and I could stick my feet in. I think he likes it.

Justin and Julie trivia

In honor of our 6th anniversary, I decided to write up some Justin and Julie trivia. Some may read this and say - yeah I knew all that, but hey - this is all for posterity, right?

• Justin and I are the same age and graduated from high school the same year. Technically though I am 3 months and 13 days older than him. I guess he goes for older women.
• I finished my bachelor's degree 3 years before Justin finished his (thanks to his 2 year LDS mission in Samao). Justin finished his master's degree 1 semester before I finished mine.
• Justin and I went on our first date August 28, 2002. Our second date was 6 months later on February 28, 2003. (Why 6 months between first and second date? Another blog post. Maybe.)
• We decided we were definitely dating just after Spring Break in March 2003. Within a week I had accepted a summer internship in Kansas City and he had accepted a full-time job starting January 2004 in Tampa.
• Everyone told me I was crazy for going to KC for the summer and that I would miss Justin too much. I told them all they were crazy because we had just started dating.
  
• Justin drove out to Kansas City with me in May 2003 and we discussed the possibility of getting married.
• Within a few days of being alone in KC I bought a plane ticket to fly back to see Justin in Tallahassee for the first weekend in June (because I missed him too much).
• Justin came to Kansas City for the 4th of July weekend.
• We were engaged in the Nauvoo Grove in front of the Nauvoo LDS temple on the 4th of July in 2003.
• Our engagement lasted 49 weeks (forever for Mormons!!!) because we wanted to make sure I finished my degree but we didn't want to get married and live in different cities.
• For the first 8 or 9 weeks that we were married Justin was out of town for work and we only saw each other on the weekends. We were basically living in different cities just like we did that last semester I was in school.
  
• I grew up in Texas (from the age of 6 until leaving for BYU when I was 18, then I was back in Texas for 3 years before going to FSU), but Justin had never lived in Texas before August of 2006. Even though that makes it seem like Justin had no ties to Texas his dad and step-mom live about 20 minutes from my parents in the Dallas/Ft Worth area, and most of his dad's family live in Texas (especially around the Houston area).
• We were married in Houston on Friday, June 11th and had a reception in Houston that night. The next day we had an open house in the Dallas area and 2 weeks later we had an open house in Tallahassee - I got a lot of use out of my wedding dress.
• On our first date, we sang Guster songs together in the car. (Don't know who Guster is? That's not surprising since they aren't well-known, which is why it was interesting that we were both familiar with them.)
• For our first anniversary we decided to go to Destin, Florida and enjoy the beautiful beaches there. The first tropical storm of the season also decided to go to Destin and we didn't get to go to the beach at all.
• For our second anniversary we decided to go to Orlando and visit theme parks before we moved out of state. The first tropical storm of the season also decided to go to Orlando the same weekend so we only got to go to 1 park and it rained half the time we were there.
  

Urgent Care

This week has not been the best week here. Amid car problems and a fussy kid (seriously, the molars started coming in 2 months ago and we still only have 1 all the way through) I tried to put us back on our normal routine and headed to the gym on Wednesday morning.

I have been trying to become a jogger again (I have never been a runner, but I have jogged a half marathon before) so I am starting my cardio on the treadmill everyday. I would love to be jogging a 5K everyday, but so far I have only made my way up to 2.5 miles. But on Wednesday I was feeling pretty well and was certain I was going to get my 5K in, when at 2.25 miles I saw the lady come out of the Kids' Klub make eye contact with me and motion for me to come down.

Urgh!!!

I just knew that Jacob's fussiness he had at home must have followed us to the gym and he was done. That and the people working there must have been done with him. I felt really bad when I walked in and saw that Jacob's forehead was bleeding. It seems that Jacob had something that another kid wanted so the kid came up behind Jacob and pushed him. He fell face-forward into the corner of the wall. Poor kid.

We ended up at Urgent Care where they were able to put Jacob back together with liquid stitches.

In the process we learned that for some strange reason the urgent care places closest to where we live don't open until noon Monday - Friday. Justin found one online for me that opened at 9, but when I got there the lady acted like I was crazy for walking in and informed me that although they opened at 9 the doctor wouldn't be in until 2:30 and they couldn't see any patients. Yeah, I'm still not understanding why they were open if they couldn't see patients.

At this point it was 11:30 so we decided to head back to the first urgent care place we went to and be the first ones there instead of heading to the ER where the wait would have likely been much longer. That and we only have a $20 co-pay for urgent care, but the ER would have cost Jacob's $300 deductible + 10% of the charges over $300.

And I was very happy that the blood stain came out of his little shorts!

Bread

Last year I learned how to really bake bread. I had baked bread before, but I learned how to make the most amazing 100% whole wheat bread that can be as light and fluffy as white bread - no dough enhancers - just time, patience and A LOT of kneading.

I ordered a wheat grinder and got it a year ago, but then let it sit in the box for about a month before I finally got it out and started using it. I am proud to say that I haven't purchased a loaf of bread at the store since sometime last June! Now there have been times when we ran out of bread and we were breadless for a couple days before I baked again, but we have loved eating healthy homemade bread.

Some things I have learned over the last year - you can make whole wheat bread with red wheat, but it isn't nearly as good as it is with white wheat. I have also learned that bread turns out best when it is made on a less humid day which is hard to come by down here in the Houston area.

Even though I keep saying I am going to try another recipe from the lady that taught me how to make bread, this Buttermilk Whole Wheat is the only one I have made so far. One reason I love it is that it only has 7 simple ingredients - whole wheat flour, water, buttermilk, salt, yeast, brown sugar and butter.

When I was taught, we kneaded the dough by hand and it was a lot of kneading. The first time I made it at home by myself I also kneaded by hand and after a bit I gave up and the bread didn't turn out as light and fluffy as it should have been. Then I borrowed my mom's old mixer that is awesome!!! I hope she never wants it back!

And yes - that is my KitchenAid behind the older mixer. The lady that taught us to bake bread told us that the motor in a KitchenAid isn't strong enough to knead the bread and I have seen a few other recipes online for whole wheat bread that say the same thing. I use my KitchenAid for everything else though.

Baking this bread is quite the process - it starts at least a day in advance. Then it involves lots of kneading (even with a mixer), autolysing, lots more kneading, rising again, rolling out and shaping, rising again and then finally baking (I can only make bread when I know I will be at home for a large chunk of the day). But the final result is amazing!

The Splash Pad

Last summer I didn't do much but hang out at home with Jacob. It was a killer hot summer last year and it hardly rained so it was best to just stay in the air conditioning. Plus, Jacob was so little that he didn't do anything if we went out anyway.

This year I want to get out and do things with him more often, especially since he likes to play so much. I took him to the spash pad for the first time ever just over a week ago and I think over time he will really like it. If you are wondering, a splash pad is an concreted area with all different kinds of fountains that the kids play in. It scares me a little to take Jacob to the pool by myself, but I don't have to worry about him falling into the water at a splash pad.

While we had family in town, we went to a splash pad on Friday and this time I was determined to get some good pictures of Jacob playing in the water (I forgot my camera the first time I took him). He saw the water grate and walked over to it and sat down to start playing with it and I got the camera out to take a picture.

What neither Justin nor I noticed was that right above the water grate was a bucket that, once full, turns and dumps all its water out. I thought I got the picture right before Jacob was clobbered by the water, but because of the delay our camera has it looks like I stood back and took a picture of my son practically drowning.

Also what you don't see is that Justin was just out of the shot and ran up and grabbed Jacob right after he was so brutally knocked over. This was the only picture I took on Friday because we spent the next little while trying to console our screaming child. Luckily, after a little while he seemed to have mostly forgotten the incident.

33 already?

Last week I celebrated my 33rd birthday. I don't really mind getting older, because so many people always tell me that I don't look that old. :)

We had some of Justin's family in town, so Justin took the day off work (and the next day too) and we celebrated all day. We went to breakfast at IHOP and then headed down to the Kemah boardwalk for a few hours. We took Jacob on the train there and due to a problem with the first train we got on, we got to take him on the ferris wheel for free. He loved both of them!

Justin, Jacob, Julie and Justin's mom, JanJacob loving his train rideThanks Eric for being our photographer while we rode the train!

After spending a few hours in Kemah it was time to head back home so I could get everything ready for Bunco. I agreed to host Bunco this month way back in October last year. At first I was a little bummed to be hosting and in charge on my birthday, but then I was pretty excited to be able to throw myself a big birthday party. Another one of my friends has the exact same birthday, although she is quite a bit younger, so I made each of us a giant cupcake as a birthday cake for our dessert that night.

My cake is red velvet with cream cheese frosting, Kaytryn's is a dark chocolate cake with a fluffy frosting that I made chocolate on the bottom and left vanilla for the top (but colored it pink).

I was completely overwhelmed with birthday wishes on facebook this year and couldn't respond to everyone. But it really was a great birthday!