Two and A Half!

Man, I can't believe another half year is behind us and our little man is 2 1/2 (or was on June 19th, I fell behind on blogging due to a very long 6 day trip to Michigan for work).  Jacob seems to have hit a maturity stride, for the most part, he's communicating better, potty training is going decent (he pretty much has pee down, still working on #2!) and he seems much more outgoing and friendly.  I take him next week to get him evaluated for his speech delay, though his pediatrician and the psychiatrist both don't seem to think he'll qualify for treatment, I would rather get him evaluated now and know that we're not missing valuable time.  Jacob has taken a huge interest in playing with the neighborhood kids and when I told him the other day how well he played with two neighborhood kids, he said "I no bite momma, I all done biting."  He continues to be a sweet, lover boy, he is still quite the momma's boy but he's starting to want more to do with other people.  My little man is growing up too fast!!!

All In A Days Work

What a day!  I can't believe our Jake-Os is 2!  That's just crazy but he was oh so fun today.  We had breakfast at home and then Riley wanted to take him to Build A Bear Workshop to make him a bear for his birthday present.  She wanted to use her own money and all, it was incredibly sweet so we headed to the mall at 9 and got there when they opened and before the Christmas shopping crowd arrived.  We picked out our bear, put him together and he and Jacob have been inseparable ever since.

We started the 2s out in our birthday suit and by dumping his rice krispies on the ground followed by a temper tantrum.  Seems about right!

Ri helping Jacob make his new friend

Then we dropped Ri off at school, came home, baked some cupcakes for Jacob's birthday and also their teachers, napped and then headed to Jacob's 2 Year well-check.  Everything checked out great and he weighed in at 28lbs 9oz (60th percentile, Ri only weighed 22lbs 4oz at 2) and was 34 1/2" (62nd percentile).  I swear he weighs more than that!  All Jacob cared about was getting his lollipop.  And I think he cried harder because he had to take his clothes off than from his shot.

After the Dr we headed to Jacob's school for his winter performance.

After the performance we celebrated with dinner (Red Robin for one of Jacob's favorites - hamburgers), presents, and singing!  Jacob blows out the candles every time someone sings to him.

A Verbal Explosion

I can't believe my baby is so big now!  In just a short month he's going to be 2 YEARS OLD!  How on earth!  He has hit such a verbal explosion in the last week it's unbelievable.  My new favorite is "I love you" which comes out "I wuv ooo."  So adorable.  He's also putting more and more words together including "Ahpane on my bah" which is another favorite.  He also finally calls Riley, "RaRa" which is a step up from screaming at her.  He's pretty much saying anything and everything now and among his favorites are: No, Yesh, outside, up, down, walk, bag. 

He was home sick last Friday and I heard giggles coming from the kitchen and I went in and he was going through my diaper bag and had my sunglasses out and was wearing them giggling hysterically.  So he's got a bit of stinker in him as well. 

Right now Jacob is OBSESSED with The Wiggles, I have a love hate relationship with them.  They have help tremendously with his breathing treatments but now he wants to watch them on his DVD all the time and walks around singing "Aye Aye" from the Monkey Man song.  And I now have it stuck in my head!

T-2 Months

I can't believe Jacob will be 2 in 2 short months, how this is true, I have no idea.  He is a TON of fun right now, I know I say that every month but this month he has started to care about his friends and it's adorable.  The past few days when we've left school he's walked around and hugged each of his friends good-bye.  I few of his favorite friends are Emma, Nathan and Xander.  He also hugs his old teacher Miss Michelle (who often babysits for us) when he sees her in Riley's room.  His speech has picked up significantly and his new favorite word is "airplane" but he has also started to piece two to three words together and in Indiana said "No more buebewwys" when we were out of blueberries and then when we were on the plane he said "No mo ice."  He's still obsessed with ice.  I think he's saying a lot more words and we just don't understand him but is biting has definitely subsided (knock on wood) except for the bite he gave Riley on Saturday (and she deserved it because she was taking all of his toys away).  He can now climb into his booster seat, which is a scary proposition for me but it makes him feel like a big boy and he loves the toddler bed which I am not ready for him to be in!  And the biggest development of the month...HE PEE-PEED ON THE POTTY!  Yes, you read that right, I'm sure it's a fluke but he's been wanting to sit on the potty lately so I've been having him sit on it before his bath each night and the other night he took his little seat out, sat down and actually peed.  I need to read up on potty training boys because most of it landed on the floor but he went on the potty and I've noticed his diaper has been dry after naps so he may be ready.  My baby boy is growing up SO fast!  Too fast, where's that machine that freezes time???

Not happy about the proposition of doing his picture

So I tried to bribe him with an M&M, not interested

We finally settled on a marshmallow, I had to settle with a scowl

Hello growth spurt!

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!

T-4 Months

Until my little man is 2!!!  How!?!  Jacob is 20 months today, not sure how that happened but it's true.  I guess I better start thinking about his 2nd birthday party!

He is a TON of fun, his little personality cracks us up daily and he charms everyone at school.  His vocabulary has picked up a ton in the past month, he loves to say:

 "Ah bumpers"
 "Ah boop"
"baseball" (Marc's personal favorite)
"buh-bye" (which is followed by air kisses)
"balloon"
"bowl"
"book"
and he says a ton of his friends names. 

One of the little boys' mom in his class stopped me and told me that he and her son, Xander, are little buddies and give each other high fives every day.  How cute is that!?!  He is also buddies with a little boy Nathan, Isaac and a little girl Emma.  He points to their clipboards every morning when I drop him off and tells me their names.  Jacob also knows all of his body parts, complete with opening his mouth as wide as it will go and sticking out his tongue as far as it will go when asked about his mouth, tongue and teeth.  It's quite a sight!  He won't say them but if you ask him he will point to them on himself and then you.  He also knows the color blue and will say it when he sees it in a book.  He continues to love books and he recently discovered nacho cheese Doritos at a birthday party and is OBSESSED!  He went around the party gathering all of the leftover bags and eating them.  I can't blame the kid, they are delicious!  

He also has a bit of a temper and has gotten sent home with several incident reports for biting in the past month.  He comes unglued when his favorite teacher Miss Ahman, isn't at school or isn't in his class.  A couple of weeks ago she was in Riley's class and both Riley's class and Jacob's class were out at the playground at the same time.  Their playgrounds are separated by a chain link fence and Jacob was standing at the fence screaming so Miss Ahman thought he wanted to see Riley so she sent her over to say hi, he kept screaming so she finally went over and said hi to him and picked him up and he stopped screaming so she had to spend playground duty holding Jacob.  She also draws hearts on his hands that he is SO proud of! 

He now is a little man, it's so sad my baby is growing up so fast, no matter how much fun he is right now, I want to freeze time and slow down both of them growing up! 

19 Months

Man, this month went fast, I feel like Jacob just turned 18 months and here we are, another month later and he's another month older and less and less of my itty baby!  Jacob's vocabulary has exploded this month, he still grunts and points a lot but he does have a lot of new words, including his teachers' names and "bubbahs!"  I turned around while driving him to day care yesterday morning and he looked like a little boy, the baby is pretty much gone.  Sigh, I guess I better embrace that fact that he's full blown toddler (he has the tantrums to prove it) and his second birthday is right around the corner!  It goes way too fast!

18 Months and Growing!

I can't believe it but my Jacob-pants is already 18 months old.  I have no idea where the last year and a half went but my little man is 1 1/2!  He continues to be super fun!  He's developing quite the personality and just loves to make us laugh. 

He hasn't been talking as much as I would think he should be at this age but he says: ball, baoon (balloon), momma, dadda, buh-bye, mine (this is a new one as of Wednesday and yeah, not so excited about this one!), hot (his favorite word by far.  He'll say it and then blow, it cracks me up), bubah (bubbles).  I guess I am comparing him to Riley who was fully talking at 18 months.  And let's face it, he may not get a word in until Riley leaves for college!

He still enjoys eating and pretty much needs to be double fisting it when eating.  Jacob now has all of his teeth (minus the 2 year molars, I would very much enjoy a break before those come in).

He likes to shake his finger in a "no no no" motion when he sees someone doing something that they're not supposed to do, the other day I picked him up and one of his friends climbed on the bookcase and was sitting on it and he ran up and shook his finger at her.  He screams when he sees trucks or motorcycles, they're pretty much the best thing since sliced bread.  He also shakes his head no when he doesn't want something.  And one of his newest things and one of my favorites, when he wants you to play with him he will pat the ground next to him to come sit down.  I don't care how important what you're doing is, when an adorable 18 month old pats the ground you go and sit down and play with him! 

His favorite toy right now is his Fisher-Price pirate ship that he got for Hanukkah.  He can play with it for hours!!!  Or until his sister snatches it away! :)

He had his 18 month appointment today and here are the stats:

Height: 32.5" (37th percentile)
Weight: 25lbs (60th percentile)
Head Circumference: 49cm (87th percentile!)

Still short and fat!  The Dr said to watch his vocabulary, if he's still not talking in 3 months or I'm still concerned she will put in a referral to have him evaluated but right now she doesn't think he will qualify for speech therapy because he's saying about 9 works and they look for 10 at this age so we're not far off from the target.  Other than that he looked great, he was not happy about the exam or the shots.  But the lollipop after the appointment, that was awesome!

 

 

17 Months

Sunday marked Jacob's 17 month birthday, can't believe my boy is almost 1 1/2!  We spent the day celebrating his buddy Alex's 2nd birthday!  I really can't believe that Alex is 2, time surely flies these days.

Jacob continues to be a big huge love, he loves to hug and kiss and he will just randomly stop what he is doing and come give you hugs and kisses.  He's going through a bit of a separation thing with me which makes day care drop offs a bit harder, especially now that his best buds Sophia and Alex are 2 and are having breakfast with the preschoolers, Jacob desperately wants to be a big boy!  Jacob is also definitely more reserved than Riley, it takes him some time to warm up in social situations whereas Riley just runs off and joins the party, he sticks close for a while and wants to be held, when he gets more comfortable, he'll get down but still wants to hold your hand and then when he's almost there he'll let go but expect you to stick close. 

He's still a tank, when I brought him to the Dr he weighed in at 24lbs 11oz, which was the 63rd percentile.  Both the Dr and nurse commented on what a big boy he was.  He's hit a major growth spurt, I just washed and transitioned all of his 18 months clothes about a month ago and they are already snug.  A few days ago I had to try 3 pairs of pants on him before I could find a pair that fit him!

He's talking more and has said Elmo, Ouch, Hot, bubbles, and bowl as new words in the past month.  He has all but one of his teeth in (minus his 2 year molars of course), Riley still had 0 teeth at this age!  Crazy!

Now we just need to get him to give up his "ba" (pacifier)!

Almost time for a new chair for this guy!!!

Pretty girl trying to help me get him to sit in his chair for his picture!

11 Month Chair Picture

My PhotoShop was broken this week and I just got a chance to fix this and put this together.  Can't believe how my big man is growing!

Big Man is 11 Months!

How on earth has almost a year past!?!  I feel like I just had Jacob but yesterday he turned 11 months!  He's now up to 7 teeth (with at least 3 more coming up, including molars), loves to throw stuff, loves to tear up paper, and is pretty much into EVERYTHING!  I originally thought he would be an early walker but I take that back, he's cruising whenever he can but I don't see him standing independently as much as he had been, I think the ear infections are throwing him off.  That's ok, I don't need to be chasing after 2 kids!!!

Since he'd rather be on the move and into everything, this month's chair picture was a bit of a challenge. 

We had a lot of this...

And this...

Before we got this!

I can't believe next month we'll be celebrating his first birthday!  Where does the time go?

10 Months, how did that happen?

Yesterday was little man's 10 month birthday, I can't believe how fast this year has gone by.  Poor guy did not celebrate another month in style.  I picked him up Thursday from day care and he was wheezing really bad, the Associate Director and then another mom that I am friends with both thought I should take him in so I called his Dr who of course was closed for the day because it was 5:30.  The Dr wanted me to take him down to Urgent Care in Fremont, at 5:30 in rush horror traffic, with the flow of traffic, with his sister, alone.  Yeah they got a big fat no on that one.  When I got home I was really woried, his breathing was very heavy and his wheezing super loud.  I decided to take him to the Urgent Care near our house (the one in Fremont has a peditrician on call there) but I figured any Urgent Care was better than no Urgent Care at this point.  I took him in and they were able to see me right away, Riley was super good, they Dr checked him out and determined he had an Upper Respiratory Infection, most likely viral so he sent us home to do the nebulizer to clear up his lungs and motrin or tylenol for his fever.  Apparently, if there are red dots on an infants tongue or in their mouth it means they have a fever, which Jacob did.  So we did the breathing treatment that night and it really cleared up his lungs, I gave him motrin and he slept through the night. 

Friday, his 10 month birthday he stayed home with me, let's just say I didn't get much done all day with a super active, into everything 10 month old but I did get some good Jacob time which I've been craving.  We went to his Dr and she checked him out again, turns out he developed an ear infection as well, his first, so that meant his first antibiotic as well, not exactly the firsts I had in mind on his 10 month birthday but he was a good sport.  We go back Tuesday to check his lungs to make sure they are going the the right direction, which the are, his wheezing is already better, and also to check his ear to make sure that it is clearing up.

We got a weight on him since we were at the Dr, he's up to 19lbs 12oz which puts him at the 40th percentile (up from 32nd at 9 months).  He now has 6 teeth (the dr on Friday even made a comment that he was a hot mess with being sick and teething)!  He still loves to eat, thus the jump in percentiles.  :)  His favorite song is Itsy Bitsy Spider and that's how I can get him to sit through his breathing treatments.  As of today he has started signing when he's all done eating.  And he has started cruising more. 

Here's my big man, as happy as can be even though he's sick.

Jacob is 9 Months

Whew, another month is behind us and Jacob is growing strong.  We had our 9 month check-up this afternoon and here are his stats:

Weight:  18.62lbs (19.3 percentile up from 17.3 percentile at 6 months)
Height: 27.5" (24.6 percentile up from 17.2 percentile at 6 months)
Head Circumference: 17.9" (56.2 percentile DOWN from 56.6 at 6 months)

I have no idea how he is in a higher percentile in height than in weight, he's a little Hercules. Here's Riley's 9 month check-up, she was only 15lbs!

We're a little late on our post this month because I had meetings all week including a dinner the night he was 9 months.  :(  So sad to think that just 9 months ago I was in John Muir cradling him in my arms, snuggling him to my chest, and getting to know him and here I was this week at a business dinner, time goes too fast! 

What else has happened in the past month?  Jacob grew another tooth, he's now up to 3 and I think the 4th is close as he's been cranky and very moist lately, he's a crawling fool, he loves table food and feeding himself.  He actually shovels food into his mouth and hums "mmmmm, mmmm, mmmm" as it is going in and he's chewing.  It's pretty funny.  He is eating more table food, particularly because he felt like meal times at day care was a buffet and he would crawl by each kid's seat and take food off of their tray and eat it himself so they started giving him table food and we've started doing so at home as well.  We've caught him cruising a few times along the coffee table.  He also started feeding himself his bottle, one night he grabbed his bottle from my hand and fed himself, this made me particularly sad as I love my night time bottle/cuddle time.  Marc even told me he understood why I love giving him his nighttime bottle after he put Jacob to bed the night I was at my dinner.  He just becomes this ultra cuddly bear and presses right into you and you can feel him just melt and relax.  I absolutely love the quiet time I get with him.  He's also become a little bit of a  trouble maker.  Apparently there is a rattle at school (we took it home one night because he wouldn't give it up) that he is obsessed with, he's been banging it on the bookcase for a while but this week he discovered he could bang it on other kids and it was fun, there is also a little girl that always has her hair in a ponytail on the top of her head and he's discovered that it is fun to pull.  Hmmm, maybe he's not my mellow, easy kid after all.  And of course he still adores his sister and LOVES being able to follow her around!

Official 9 month photo

My happy guy

Not so into the sibling picture this month

Not quite sure what sister is doing to him

Mr Beautiful Blue Eyes!

Riley's turn!

My big boy through the months!

8 Months Old

I know that I say this every month, but I seriously can't believe how fast time is flying with Jacob!  I truly can not believe that he is 8 months old already.  The biggest development this month: CRAWLING!  Yep, little man is a full blown crawler as of about a week and a half ago.  He has even gotten confident enough to make his way into the kitchen, yep, life as we know it is officially over as we now have 2 mobile kids.  Agh!!!  Poor Jacob was the lucky recipient of Hand-Foot-Mouth Disease on his 8 month birthday so he was a hot mess all weekend.  It started Friday night with the onset of the fever.  Feverish all day Saturday with lots of drool followed by not being able to eat on Sunday (his 8 month birthday) and lots of discomfort.  I selfishly enjoyed all of the cuddles but not seeing my baby boy so miserable.  Hopefully we're on the upswing!  Now that Jacob can crawl, he loves going after his sister's toys, his sisters food, and anything that he can get his hands on.  He's ll boy and is going to be lots of trouble!  We finally got the bed out of his room (his sister scored that-more on her real big girl room later) and now need to work on putting the gate back up but Jacob is loving being able to move around his room!

Uncle, Aunt Lauren and Cousin Daniel also came to visit on Jacob's 8 month birthday, I got some cute photos of the kids together that I will post once the adoption is complete and I'm allowed to.  I'm busting to share because not only is my nephew adorable but he and Riley love playing together and get along great!  He'll be 3 in November so he's just under a year younger than Riley and they get along perfectly, it's so much fun!  Jacob chilled and watched the older kids playing, no doubt he'll be in on the action soon enough!

I love that I get montly picture of the 2 of them together

Official 8 month photo

Such my happy boy

Mr Blue Eyes, notice the drool, that's courtesy of Hand-Foot-Mouth Disease

Man where has my little man gone?  He's a big boy now!

Happy 1/2 Birthday!

to my Riley-Roo!  I can't believe it, I can't believe my Riley is 3 1/2!  It's seriously crazy talk!  And what a difference 6 months has made.  For the most part Riley has improved leaps in bounds in just the last month, just like day care told me she would.  She's listening better, making better choices and overall is back to being an absolute joy to be around.  Don't get me wrong, she has her moments where I want to ring her neck but for the most part she is back to her sweet self.  She's also become very attached to me and it's so hard to leave her at day care.  In the past week they said she's cried for me a few times when she's tired and Friday night when Marc and I went out the baby sitter said she started crying that she missed me and she wanted her mommy.  :(  I have a business trip scheduled for Aug 1-2 so I'm a little worried, I'll miss bedtime on the 2nd too (yes, I am very bitter about having to travel, in addition to being worried about Riley, I am so not ready to leave Jacob and am going to miss him terribly) so it will be 2 nights not seeing me.  Hopefully she can hold it together.  Riley's rationalize skills just have me in awe.  When I told her I had to go away for work she said "No, don't leave us mommy."  I told her I was sad and I didn't want to go and she said "Oh, it's ok mommy, don't be said, we can talk on the phone."  Love this girl so much, she is so sweet.  Thursday was her half birthday and since I was up at the office I decided to walk to downtown Walnut Creek to get us some Kara's Cupcakes to celebrate.  I got her a Smore cupcake, seriously yum!

I forgot to get a picture before she devoured her cupcake so I just got the remains

So between her cupcake and the fact that it was water play day at day care and her princess bathing suit was clean, the girl had a pretty darn good day!  She's also been working SUPER hard at staying dry at night, she's woken up like 5 days in a row now completely dry.  So she's pacifier free and on her way to saying bye bye to pull-ups (I can't wait to throw away her diaper pail!).  Every morning she runs in with her dry pull-up in her hands and shows me that it's dry.  She is hell bent on graduating from pull-ups and gets up at night to go potty without calling for us.  Such a big girl!  I love that when she puts her mind to something that she can accomplish it piece of cake.  I'm so proud of her!

This is how we smile these days

Modeling her new big girl chair

My 4lbs of Fury has come a long way in 3 1/2 years!

We also saw Dr H on Friday for her clubfoot checkup.  He moved out of Children's Hospital Oakland and is now with Lucille Packard Children's Hospital through Stanford (ironic since we liked Stanford the least when picking doctors for her) but he's still in Walnut Creek.  He's actually back in the same building that he was in when we interviewed him and we got the diagnosis in that office building as well (the perinatologist was down the hall). What a difference 4 years makes, it brought back a ton of memories of that horribly scary time.  Of course Beverly followed him (I actually asked when I called to get Riley's files transfered to his new office) and of course she spoiled Riley rotten as usual.  They haven't gotten any of their supplies yet so Beverly gave Riley her first piece of gum, Riley actually did really well with it.  It was an absolute no-brainer to follow him over to Stanford, I wouldn't trust anyone else with her feet.  I was super nervous for this check-up, her left foot twitches in when she runs ever so slightly but it does it on virtually all of her steps so I thought for sure he was going to tell us that she needed an ATT surgery.  He checked her out and she's good!  He felt that if her foot stays the way it is for the rest of her life and it turns in as slightly as it does right now that she will be in very good shape and he will be extremely happy with her results.  So bottom line, she is NOT a candidate for surgery!!!  I am so relieved.  We have now been brace free for over 6 months and her left foot has rotated slightly but only noticeable to me and Dr H, no one else sees it.  I am so releived, I kind of felt like if she needed surgery it was my fault.  I know I did everything I could have and I followed Dr instructions but her feet were my "project."  Marc was never involved in the early days of treatment, of course he helped with the brace and supported my decisions but her feet were my thing and I felt like if she needed surgery that I would have failed her.  I had a ton of "what ifs" going through my mind.  What if I hadn't listened to her and made her wear her brace longer?  What if I did stretches all along?  What if this, what if that...But so far we are good and we don't go back for 6 months!!!  Yippee!  That's the longest we've ever gone between appointments and we don't go back until the day before her 4th birthday!  That's crazy talk!!!  We scored another point against clubfeet!

On a side note, he was explaining the ATT surgery to Marc and used my feet as an example, I was mortified since I am beyond needing a pedicure!  I even told him that I was sorry and I really needed a pedicure!  So if Riley can make good decisions and take her nap we will be making a girl's trip to get our nails done! :)