November 16, 2011

Jacob turned 1 on a Wednesday this year. Ethan and I were excited to greet him first thing in the morning with the first of many rounds of happy birthday! Unfortunately Steve was in Wisconsin for work on the big day but we had a party planned for the weekend.

It's simply amazing how much growth occurs in the first year of life.  We knew from his first days with us that he was a determined, independent little man.  He's been hitting all of his developmental milestones on the early side and in a few short weeks is now walking like a pro! 

November 16, 2010

November 16, 2011



Since he sleeps face down into his mattress or hands, his face is always puffy when he first wakes up! 





I can't tell you the last time the big boy was in the crib.  Maybe at 2.5 when we switched him to a big boy bed. 



Ethan wanted them to be dressed alike.

Since it was a Wednesday, I had to go to work and Jacob got to spend his day with his buddies in toddler 1.  I had planned to bake for them but the reality of single-mommyhood crept in and instead I picked up munchkins on our way to school for him to share with his friends.

I really hated the idea of spending his birthday "alone" so Linda and Paul joined us for dinner!  I made chicken parm that he was eating at the time (he, like his brother, has turned against chicken lately) and picked up some store baked cupcakes so that there was a little festivity for the little guy.



His face lit up at the sight of the birthday candle!  It was very sweet except that he wanted to touch it.

Showing off his cupcake to Uncle Paul.

His teachers made him a birthday crown!  It was quickly covered in chocolate and icing.

Birthday kisses

A nice picture of Jacob and I with a giant head in-between.

Ethan picked out a Little People race track that goes with the cars from Grandma Suzanne and Pop-Pop.  He wanted to give his gift to Jacob on his birthday.  You know, so Jacob could play with it...



For reference:  Ethan on January 8, 2008

We had his 1 year appointment on Friday the 18th and he weighed in at almost 26 pounds!  That is just about 4 pounds heavier than Ethan was at that age and it put him in the 96th percentile.  He's also on the taller side at 30.5 inches (60th percentile).  That's 2 inches taller than Ethan was, but Ethan started out on the shorter side of the scale.  You'd never know that now though!  Ethan is taller than a lot of his friends these days, but still wins in the weight department. 

Jacob is walking, running, and climbing these days.  He likes to climb onto the dishwasher door when you're trying to load/unload it so we try to do that when he's already in bed.  His sleeping continues to be sporadic but we do get some great nights every now and then!  His little body is just constantly moving so it's hard for him to sleep I guess.  He has 6 teeth, 2 on the bottom and 4 on top.  He's getting used to the top ones now that their pretty much in and has a funny new smile sometimes.  He points and grunts at things now to get you to bring him to them or hand something to him.  He shakes his head no a lot and is working on nodding a bit.  He really understands us and can follow simple directions.  "Where are you blocks?" "Bring this to daddy" kind of stuff but it's pretty cool.  He will answer us in the affirmative with a sort of stage whisper "yeah".  I have to try to get it on video because it's really funny.  Steve and I are constantly going "did you see that?"  "did you know he could do that?" because he's changing and growing so quickly!

Jacob is called Menace as often as he's called his name.  He loves our laptop and we've had to unplug our receiver for fear he would burn it out.  He's lost several of our remotes recently so he's not really allowed to play with them anymore.  We often find items from around the house in the Tupperware cabinet because he's put them in there.  We have gates all over the house and he's really good about closing them for us.  He will sometimes escape and it's pretty funny when he does.  He knows he's not supposed to be in the hallway by the stairs or in the dining room so he'll get out there, stop, laugh or make some other kind of noise, wait until you see him or acknowledge him in some way and then he'll go for it!  He did this at a play date recently too.  He loves the toilet so he's often closed out of the bathroom or at least out of the toilet itself.  The door was open and the seat up at our friends house so he stood in the doorway smiling a menacing smile at me until I started walking towards him and then he bee-lined for the potty!  At least he gives us some warning.

Ethan is really a great big brother.  He helps us keep an eye on the menace and we'll get a play by play of his menacing from the living room if we're in the kitchen.  He has great patience for him and is good at corralling him when we're in public.  He's still the one that can get Jacob to laugh the hardest and he likes to push him around on his Lightning McQueen ride on toy that I'll show you in my next post.

We are a very, very busy family, but we recognize that we are very, very blessed with our happy, healthy little boys!