Jacob's First Stroller Walk

Today made it into the low 50's so we had to have plans outside. We met Bridget and Owen at Panera for lunch and then walked on the bike path by her house. This was Jacob's first time in a stroller! We have been out walking every time the weather permits, but I've had him in the Bjorn or Ergo until today. He did great! He didn't make a peep and slept for a little of our hour long walk. Of course he only slept a little...that's about all he sleeps! He seemed to be very excited about Owen when we were at their house before the walk. I think he likes all other little people since he's so entertained by his big brother.

He really held on to his toys and was really chewing on the lady bug at one point.

Good Morning Jacob

Jacob continues to keep us on our toes with his non-existent sleep schedule. Let's just say that last night was not our best night for sleeping, but it didn't seem to phase him! He started out in his gym on his back in the other direction. He wiggled himself around 180 degrees and then rolled over happy as can be. His toys are starting to make as much of a mess around here as Ethan's! I need more bins.

Star of the Week

Ethan was the Star of the Week in Preschool last week. We brought in a picture of him for the classroom poster and he was allowed to bring home the class "pet", Jellybean, over the weekend. His classroom mascot is the skunk and at the beginning of the school year, they held a lottery to pick the pet skunks name. Each kid got to submit a name and Ethan's won! That's right, he chose "Jellybean" for it's name. Is this my kid or what!?

Before we brought Jellybean back to school, I asked Ethan if I could take a picture of them together. He said that he wanted a picture with Jacob instead so Jellybean got the shaft and is just on the floor.

He had to draw a picture of something he did with Jellybean for the class folder. He is getting pretty good with shapes and lines! Steve drew the faces and I think part of Jellybean, but Ethan did most of the drawing on his own. He still only writes part of his name with confidence. This is all of us going for a walk, but it's just pretend. We didn't actually do anything with Jellybean to be honest!

Happy St Patrick's Day!

We are not even a little bit Irish, but we do look good in green...

That's R2Q2 on Jacob's head. Before you look it up...I did and he's real. You can check him out in the wookieepedia...yes...there is such a thing.

February Part 2

We are definitely getting out and about a bit more these days. We've had many fun visits with friends and family in the last month. Jacob and I met my friends Diane and Susan for lunch one day.



We met the Barnes Family at the Stone Zoo one afternoon to let the kids run around. It's been hard to play outside because of all the darn snow.

This is where Jacob is while I'm getting dinner ready most nights. I entertain him with chopping, singing, dancing and whatever else I can do to keep him quiet!

Although it does sometimes bore him to sleep.

One afternoon we met the Krangle Family at the Acton Discovery Museum.

On the 19th, we snuck down to Grandma Jan's for a night.

Emma came to play and I'm always able to get her to nap! I can't put her down, but I'm a very comfy auntie.

I just checked and this picture is from Feb 23rd so he's just over 3 months in this one. He's such a big boy!! He cannot get those hands out of his mouth. He's drooling up a storm too but I'm hesitant to say that he's teething just yet after how long we waited for Ethan's teeth.

On the 24th we went to walk along Lynnshore Drive with Linda. Technically this was Jacob's first trip to the beach, but we aren't counting it since he didn't touch sand or water. Imagine my baby's first beach trip being anywhere other than Cape Cod!? I think not. Ethan on the other hand had fun with silly Auntie Linda looking for shells and showing off his backward running skills.

This was Jacob's first day hanging in the Bumbo. He won't stay for too long but it helps keep him occupied.

Um, yeah, Ethan's got a few matchbox cars. Most of them are thanks to our neighbor Bob, but Uncle Jared contributed quite a few when we were in Atlanta last year!

I am always trying to get the boys to take a good picture for me. I can't believe how hard it is to get both of them to smile at the same time! Ethan is doing better at looking, but that smile is more like a grimace. They both look oh so happy in this one.

I do like this one, but it's a bit fuzzy. I'm so particular.

Being silly...

...on daddy. It's a good thing Steve was only pretending to rest. It's almost impossible to do in our house these days.

This was February 27th and the last picture of the month. Ethan's first attempt to give Jacob a bottle on his own went really well! He didn't make it too long, but he thought it was really cool.

Ethan's first sport

We signed Ethan up for basketball at our local YMCA in January. The first class was January 8 so he is truly the youngest in the class. We had no idea what to expect, but he was eager to try out his skills. Turns out, he didn't really have any skills, but it's been fun week after week to watch him improve! He loves his jersey and it's even cooler that it's reversible. He likes to show us and anybody else around that it's green on one side and white on the other.

Taking a little break before push ups. Ethan's are more like butt-ups, but he's working on it.

Ethan is second from the far end right next to his buddy Henry.

The kids each get a colored wristband and that's their group for the day. Often Henry and Ethan are sitting next to each other when their being distributed and end up in different groups. Today we realized that it is a good thing because those 2 are just too silly together to pay attention!

But man are they cute. Henry is moving to Maine next month and will be missed!

This was one of his first weeks. He's "dribbling" on the far side of the court. He does well when he's standing still, but has some work to do in the walking/dribble department.

Here's the little guy taking a shot. I love the deep squat wind up! It's an improvement over the underhanded shots he was taking in the beginning.

And here he is attempting a bounce pass. These have improved since this video too.

We are in a new session now and we take swimming lessons after basketball for a very full Saturday morning! He's doing really well in both and is really enjoying it.

Jacob is Rolling Over!

Jacob has been working at getting himself from his back to his front for a while now. We've watched him progress from getting up on his side (always his left), to getting his hips over to finally figuring out how to get that pesky arm out from under him. He finally got it all together this morning while we were in the office after a tour of a Kindercare around the corner of all places. I was so excited for him! Now, whenever I put him down to play on his back, he rolls right over. Of course then he gets frustrated because he doesn't know how to get back and he only likes to be on his tummy for so long.

He's already most of the way over in this video because he goes so quickly now that I didn't get the camera rolling in time to get the full effect.

Yay Jacob!

Ethan vs. The Kitchen Drawer

So here's the deal with the eye. It was a Thursday night and Steve had just gotten home from the dentist where they had pulled one of his teeth. Long story short, it turned out he cracked his last molar on the upper right and it got infected and had to be pulled! So he came home not feeling too hot and the pain really started to set in. He was resting on the couch while E, J and I had dinner and then he asked Ethan to get him an ice pack (Ethan loves to take care of us when we're not feeling well) and I asked him to wrap it in a dish towel. The towels are in one of our kitchen drawers and somehow while I wasn't looking ( I was trying to eat my dinner while feeding Jacob a bottle) he slipped and fell into the drawer and onto the floor screaming. He slammed himself right under his eye and it instantly started to swell. There was also a cut so it was bleeding a bit too. The poor kid! Thank god Jacob's chair was right next to the table because I was able to get him into that and to Ethan very quickly. So Ethan trumped Steve for the ice pack. Jacob was so stunned by the whole thing he didn't even cry that I'd taken the bottle away! He was quite upset about it and we kept him up a little late to make sure he didn't have any neurological symptoms. He was fine but the next morning I had to wake him up at almost 10 and at that time he wasn't hungry and wouldn't sit up to take some Advil for his pain. So that freaked me out and I called the Dr who sent us to the emergency room for a CT scan. Well wouldn't you know that he snapped out of it while we were there and the ER Dr said he didn't need a CT scan and gave him a very routine exam and sent us on our way. $150 later. The worst part was that he kept saying "I shouldn't have left the drawer open" "I'm sorry Daddy". He really blamed himself for it but we were worried he would say that to someone and people would think we yelled at him for getting hurt!



His rotten luck continued on Saturday at Vincent's birthday when he sat down for pizza and cake but forgot he was sitting on a bench and fell straight off onto his back. Then on Monday he woke up with a fever and had to stay home from school for 2 days. I'm happy to report that he's been doing well since this disaster week!