Vocabulary Explosion

I can't believe my little buddy was 21 months on Thursday.  He has hit a major vocabulary explosion this past week saying about 8 new works in the matter of 3 days!  chicken, water, Elmo, poppy, pop (like when my bubble popped), thank you, hot dog, hello (which is so cute because he says "ahlo!").  He is even communicating with words.  The other night he and Riley were drinking out of my cup, taking turns nicely for once, and he offered Riley another drink by holding the cup in front of her and saying "More?"  Huge steps for this guy...AND he hasn't bitten anyone all week!  Hopefully our frustration days are coming to an end soon!

He's still such a little love, he'll just run up to you and give you hugs and kisses which I adore.  My dad had a business meeting in the area this week so he extended his trip and came to visit for a couple of days and Jacob was beyond excited to see his poppy, he kept stomping around yelling "Poppy, Poppy" and giving him hugs.  He desperately wants to be a big boy and just within the last week he's wanted to be more independent, walking out of day care and to the car by himself and climbing up and down the stairs on his own.

I don't have a weight on him but he's definitely gotten bigger this month and is wearing some of his 2T clothes already!

All The Things She Can Do

Last week we took a random Monday night walk to the park.  It was super nice out, Marc left work early and got the kids so we packed up the tee ball stuff and some balls and headed down to the park to play for a bit.  Riley wanted to ride her bike, she of course was wearing her AFO.  She's now accustomed to it and wears it with virtually no argument and knows if we are out and about that it needs to be worn.  So she took off down the street on her bike.  I remembered back to my ultrasound when I was 21 weeks pregnant with her and I remember the Dr still so vividly telling us about her birth defect, telling us that she should lead a fairly normal life but there were many things she probably wouldn't do.  Well looking at her riding down the street on her bike like any other 4 year old except for the plastic on her foot, I think the Dr got it all wrong.  He should have said "She will do all of these things in spite of her clubfeet and you will be amazed."  So I started looking through my pictures on my phone and here are just a few of the things Riley does with her AFO on - tee ball, gymnastics, riding her scooter, riding her bike.  Not to mention running, jumping, and dancing like any 4 year old would.  I notice people staring at her foot when we are out and about and it jabs me in the heart like a dagger but this is my Riley, she has clubfeet, she wears an AFO and she does everything in spite of her obstacles and I couldn't be more proud or more inspired by her.  Yeah she gives me a run for my money and I have many more grey hairs since she's decided to have an opinion on EVERYTHING and is essentially a 16 year old trapped in the body of a 4 year old but don't feel sorry for her because of her AFO, we don't feel sorry for her, and she doesn't feel sorry for herself.  For all the moms and dads out there reading this and just starting the process of clubfeet, don't listen to the can'ts and won'ts think of all of the things your baby will do despite this obstacle given to them.

Much Needed Day Off

I took a much needed day off on Friday to spend the day with the kids.  They have definitely been getting the short end of the stick with my new job and Marc's crazy work schedule so I wanted to spend some quality time with them.  We walked to Peet's for breakfast then headed down to Morgan Hill to go to Marc's hotel to do some swimming.  After swimming we headed to lunch at Red Robin and then home for naps.  After naps we had gymnastics and then we did some food shopping.  It was such a fun time, I miss time with the kids.  Wish I could be around all the time!

Mommy/Jacob Time

Marc took Riley to a Giant's game two weeks ago and I stayed behind with Jacob so we had a fun day.  We walk to the grocery store, went to the park before it got to hot and then I made him my favorite all time lunch - grilled cheese and tomato soup.  He LOVED it, he had 3 bowls of tomato soup!

After his nap, I wanted to take him swimming at the Dublin pool but I learned online that they close on Sept 2 for the season, which is ridiculous because September is generally our hottest month.  My friend Elisabeth graciously invited us up to go swimming at their clubhouse since she was planning on taking her son so Jacob and I took her up on the offer, it was a SUPER hot weekend!  He wasn't so sure about the pool and didn't like any of the floatation devices but he loved me towing him around the pool.

Super fun day with my little man!

Back to the Zoo

My friend moved to Omaha and had a family pass to the Oakland Zoo that she gave to us so we decided to use it a couple of weeks ago.  It was one of those super hot weekends here but the zoo, while still hot, was very enjoyable.  The kids absolutely love the zoo, Riley is partial to the rides but Jacob LOVES all of the animals!

Breaking Up the Routine

Every Thursday night Marc has been staying in Morgan Hill to cut down on his commute time, I try to do something fun with the kids to keep things interesting and keep their minds off of Marc being gone.  Last Thursday my friend Jessica's husband was gone also so she invited us over for dinner.  Riley hasn't seen Joey since he left for kindergarten.  I told her I had a surprise for her after school but didn't tell her what so when I picked her up I surprised her with the news that she was going to see Joey.  To say that she was excited was an understatement.  On the way there she kept saying how much she loves Joey and how she's going to marry him.  WHere do they get this stuff!?!  When we got there Joey and Alex opened the door and they both greeted Riley with a huge hug!  Tons of fun with great friends!

Joey asked Riley to marry him

Cutie Alex in my shoes

Four silly monkeys!

Batter Up

So I'm going to be playing catch up on blogging this week, I was having issues getting on here with my laptop but it seems to be fixed now so time to catch up.  Lot's going on the past 2 weeks around here!

Riley started another season of tee ball and she's loving it.  She is on the Giants this year and Marc is very excited about that.  She's doing so well this year.  She needs very little instruction and takes it pretty seriously.  She has been hitting well, probably second farthest on the team and yes, she's probably still one of the smallest.  We bought her a pink bat for her birthday last year so she loves using that.  She's gotten pretty good at fielding and fielded a few balls in her last practice.  I think I'm going to sign her up for softball in the spring because she will be old enough.  Fun times!  Jacob of course wants to be out there with big sister but he can't play for 2 more years.  :(  Poor little man!

Not Much to Write Home About

We didn't do much over Labor Day weekend.  Jacob had a fever last Thursday night so he was home with me on Friday, he must not have felt well because all he wanted to do was cuddle which made working very difficult as he also has wandering hands that kept making their way to the keyboard.  But we had some good Mommy/Jacob time, just what the Dr ordered!  He was much better after a nearly 4 hour nap so we got Ri and went to gymnastics and then some errands.  Love my Friday afternoons with them.

Love his cuddles

Nothing better than a big, slobbery toddler kiss!

My baby looks so grown up here! :(

Saturday we went to a friend's BBQ at their house.  It was all fun and games until Jacob found their wine bar and started emptying it, as I dove to stop him a bottle of wine, red of course, hit another bottle and shattered all over their very white carpet.  Of course they were so nice and just wanted to make sure Jacob was ok, refusing my many offers to hire someone to have it cleaned for them.  They do have a wet vac which sucked up most of the wine before it soaked in fully and then their own steam carpet cleaner that did take out a lot of the stain but it's still there and I am still mortified as they refuse to let me help clean it! 

Sunday we attempted the zoo and drove all the way there listening to Riley hack and cough before we turned around and went home, I could not afford any sick days this week.  Monday she was borderline having a fever so we just hung out.  We got out to the outlet mall and then grocery shopping and to lunch.  But other than that our weekend wasn't much to write home about!

This is what happens when we stay in the house too long

 

He's obsessed with the fan

Sibling love, excuse the chunk of bread in Riley's mouth

Riley wrote my food shopping list this week, I should note that I had to spell everything!  But she wrote it on her own and then I made her sound out each word at the store while we were shopping.  It made for a long shopping trip but she loved being involved and felt super smart and old :)