JULY WEBPAGE SUMMARY:
July 2003, 10 months old. Here's what Jake is doing:
Jake loves to throw a ball back and forth with me. When he sees a ball, he gets excited and says "ba . . .ba . . "
When we push Jake's Sesame Street toy that plays music, he says "da . . . da" and starts bobbing up and down, dancing. Grandma Linda taught him this.
Jake's favorite game to play with mommy is "duck duck goose." I poke him and say "duck, duck, duck" and then poke his nose and say "goose!" He thinks this is hilarious. He says "du" for duck, and knows that the little yellow rubber duckies (of which we have 4, and daycare has about 15) are ducks.
I don't know why, but Jake loves to push furniture around. He pushes his "baby cage" that we have in a half circle around the couch until it opens up, and he likes to push chair across the floor. That said, he's getting REALLY good at cruising, but is chicken when it comes to walking unassisted. ;o)
AND, on July 14th, Jake learned to walk up stairs! He's really good at it, and really fast. (I don't let him do it unless I'm with him.) I finally put up the baby gate that's been sitting on my bedroom floor for a month (I didn't have time to figure it out, it was complicated.) ;o) Jake's frustrated because we've baby-proofed and he tries to open cabinets and can't figure out why he can't! But he finds something else to get into -- he likes to try to push the buttons on the DVD player!
July 14th, 2003
Jake figured out how to crawl up the stairs today -- it was totally out of the blue. I was putting away groceries and Jake was in the living room, and all of a sudden from the couch Lou says "is he supposed to be doing that?" Jake was up 3 stairs already. I went and stood behind him to see how many he could go up, and he went up 12 of our 14 steps! wow.
Jake is obsessed with balls. My dad bought him a bouncy ball with Pooh and Tigger on it, and it's perfect for his hands. He throws it back and forth with me, and he's really good at it! He says "ba . . .ba" for ball. He totally knows what it is.
His attachment issues are getting worse -- he just can't be left alone in a room. (I guess this is normal for this age.) Priscilla said that Friday when she watched him he kept whining and saying "mama! mama!"
Jake's bottom two teeth are all the way in, and ALL FOUR of the top ones have broken through and are coming down. He's learning so many things, so fast, it's unreal. His temper is growing, too, though -- he wants WHAT he wants, WHEN he wants it, and will pitch a fit when he doesn't get his way.
Jake has a new nickname -- Jacob Alex Tigger. Lou started it, and even Priscilla calls him that now. Oh! And he waved bye-bye for the first time last Sunday, which was the 6th.
Jake had an ear infection last week -- he was up to 22 pounds. We'd gone to our first birthday party (Ryan from church) and Jake was in an awful mood -- clingy, wouldn't let me put him down, whiny . . . That was the 6th. I took him to the doctor on the 9th and it was an ear infection. It's only his second, not too bad.
August 2, 2003
Dude, Jake can TOTALLY walk. It's so cool. This past week he's just really figured out walking. So I'm putting his learning to walk at 10.5 months -- pretty good! He's started shaking his head "no," too. It's hilarious. Those 4 top teeth are all the way in, and his smile is SO cute now.
What Jake really likes to do is take things apart. Or unload all the contents of something onto the floor. He does that with pots and pans, and with his toybox, and with any stacking toy.
Jake laughs exactly like me. When I'm slightly amused, I kind of "huh" and that's what he does.
AUGUST WEBPAGE SUMMARY:
August 2003
Jake is 11 months old! He's growing up so fast.
The 2nd weekend in August we took a trip to Indiana for my cousin Stephanie's wedding. Jake was so good for me on the car rides. (Ok, sometimes I had to bribe him with mini-muffins or apple juice
. . . and at one point I just let him play with Lou's cell phone -- shhhh.)
We had a great time visiting with my cousin Kim and her children Courtney and Isaiah.
We also met our new cousin Cole, who was born on August 3rd, 14 weeks premature. He is a fighter, though, and he is going to be fine and rough-housing with the other cousins in no time! (We are praying for you, Cole.)
Jake has been walking for two weeks and he's pretty good at it! He can steady himself and even pivot while he's walking around. He waves bye-bye and I swear, sometimes he says "love you." His favorite toy is still a ball, and he's throwing everything he gets his hands on. I guess he wants to be an athlete. ;o)
He likes to play in the cupboards, and he loves to explore. When we're at home he stays close to me, but once we're out and about he's so curious about everything. At church he barely pays attention to me because of all the different toys to play with. He's still such a sweetheart, I can't believe he's almost 1.
August 17, 2003
I got Jake's picture taken at Sears -- they turned out SO cute. The picture session went great -- we had fun, and everyone kept saying what a great baby Jake is. He almost had a fall, though -- when we went in the studio, I told the girl that we had to be careful, Jake's not scared to fall and that he'll crawl anywhere -- well when we were trying to get him to sit with his back to the camera and turn around and look over his shoulder, he decided to crawl toward the teddy bear screen -- he climbed off the 3.5 foot high box and I caught him by his ankle before he hit the ground. The Sears girl freaked out, but I thought it was funny. I've come to expect anything out of this child, and very seldom does he surprize me.
August 24, 2003
Jake is being VERY clingy and whiny lately. He's telling me "no" constantly, too (probably because I'm always having to tell him no -- he wants to play with the trash, bang the cupboards, push the DVD player buttons . . . I swear sometimes he just looks around to ways to get in trouble.
He's getting his 3rd bottom tooth through. He's able to eat more chunky foods, too -- still doesn't really know how to chew, but is making progress -- he tasted string cheese today, and he loved it.
Oh, and he's just started putting the phone to his eat and acting like he's talking. And he loves the "Pat the Bunny" book. He knows what to do on every page, it's awesome. He sits still and pays attention while I read it to him.
September 2, 2003
Jake can drink from the sippy cup now, but he still prefers a bottle. He's getting some sippy cups for his birthday.
Jake runs around all over the place, but when I tell him "come here" and hold my arms out, he'll run over to me and throw himself at me (like an 80's movie.) cute cute.
Yesterday he wore an 18 month shirt and it fit him pretty well. His legs are too short for the 18 month pants, but he's really outgrowing all the 12 month shirts. ugh.
Jake's really getting into books. He does great with cardboard books -- sits and plays with them and will look at them for the longest time -- but when he finds regular paper, he tries to eat it. Speaking of paper, he likes to shred toilet paper. He'll spin the roll and then tear off a bunch and shred it. If I take it away from him, he SCREAMS. He gets tso mad when he doesn't get his way. I usually just ignore his tantrems, though -- there's no sense in rewarding that behavior.
SEPTEMBER WEBPAGE SUMMARY
My baby is a year old! He's learning to feed himself (crackers and small pieces of food),
is halfway between a bottle and sippy cup, and has moved on to whole milk! He runs around
all over the place, tries to climb on the piano, knocks over the trash can, pretty much gets into everything.
But he's so sweet and fun and I love who he is becoming!!! At his 1 year check-up he was 22 pounds
(50th percentile) and 32 inches (90th percentile.) He's tall and skinny, like Grandpa Strange!
October 2003
Ok, well I (Jenny) spent 4 days in the hospital in early October with meningitis. YUCK! That was not fun.
I was out of work for 2 and a half weeks. First Jake got sick, then I got sick; then Jake got better and I kept getting sicker. But I'm feeling better now, still tired and dizzy, but getting there.
The good news in all of this, is my mom decided to move here early to help me out, while my dad stays
in Montana and tries to sell the house. Jake has stopped going to daycare, and his nana takes care of him now.
He loves it! She spoils him and they have so much fun together.
Jake weighs 24.5 pounds and says "this" all the time. (As in "I want to eat this.") He says "book" a lot, too, and "mom" (progression from "mama.") He likes to play with his Fisher Price barn, and also likes to play in a cardboard box we brought in from the garage. He doesn't really like baby food anymore, he's eating table food almost exclusively (he asks for bananas all the time -- stands by the counter where we keep them and says "nana! nana!")
GOOD NEWS: Our cousin Cole, who was born 14 weeks premature August 3rd, is home from
the hospital! He's up to 4 pounds, 14 ounces (he was 2 pounds, 4 ounces at birth!)
We're so excited to hear about his progress!!!
November 2003
Jake is 14 months old!
Jake is just developing in leaps and bounds since my mom (Nana) is taking care of him. His latest obsession is Big Bird, and a Big Bird video that he and Nana watch about 8 times a day. He loves to dance to the music (and boy can this kid dance! He's hilarious.) He doesn't like baby food anymore, he wants to eat what we are eating! He especially likes mooching Diet Pepsi from my mom and crunching on ice (those 1 year molars are coming in!)
Jake's Fisher Price barn is still his favorite toy, and he says "baaaa" for the sheep and "booo" for the cow. He always wants to go outside to run around or just to go "bye-bye."
Cousin Cole is up past 7 pounds -- hard to believe he's made so much progress! We're so proud of him. He's home and doing great -- this month is when he was supposed to be born.
December 2003
Well MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone! Wow, it's almost Christmas!!!
Last year I took Jake to several Christmas concerts and we had such a good time -- I put him in the Snuggli and he just sat and listened. Of course, he was only 3 months old and he didn't have many other options. Sadly, this year we are not going to be able to do many things because he is just so active! We did have two photo sessions at the Picture People -- one with Nana Linda, one with Daddy. He visited Santa and got a picture, but he wasn't too sure about the big guy. Mommy's 3 piano students had a Christmas recital the 14th and it was wonderful! Jake stayed in the nursery with Aunt Kathy, who is here for a month visiting on break from her last year in college. The 19th we're going to Aunt Julie's mom's Christmas open house. "Grandma" Beverly decorates her house from top to bottom and it's the most beautiful Christmas decorating I've ever seen. Hopefully Jake won't be too destructive!
Jake's obsession with Elmo and all things Sesame Street just keeps growing and growing -- but of all the characters in the world to obsess about, I'm glad it's Sesame Street! Jake wants to "da! da!" dance with Hokey Pokey Elmo every minute of the day, or watch his Big Bird video (he's taken to stealing the remotes or pushing the buttons in the TV to try to get the video to come on.)
Jake is getting better about saying Thank you (although it sounds like "da da" -- yes, similiar to "dance" and "daddy," but we can tell what he means.) He goes to the pantry and demands crackers with a hard C sound that I can't type out. He's expanded his "this this this!" demands to "that!" also. He goes around all day pointing at things -- mostly animals or Ernie in his books (he can totally find Ernie on a crowded page!). He's learned how to stack blocks to make towers, and he's so precise about it (and then demands applause.) He also has learned to put together puzzles! (Thank you, Nana and Kathy.) Jake loves sink baths and going outside to run around. He's walking up the stairs now instead of crawling, and he's finally understanding how to step down them. And he still won't let me play the piano -- he pulls on my arm and fusses until I put him in my lap, and then he plays and plays and gets mad when I turn the piano off. He definitely has his own ideas and opinions, and he lets us know! But all in all he is a complete sweetheart, very lovable, and charming.
CONGRATS to our cousin Kimmy who just had her third child. Aaron was born on November 20th, 2003 and weighed 9 pounds, 5 ounces. I don't have pictures yet but you know they will be posted once I do!!! We're leaving the 20th for a 3 day visit with them -- I can't wait!!! I am buying a digital camera so you know the amount of pictures I bring back (and subsequentially make pages with) will be absurd. ;o)
