This Looks Oddly Familiar

That was my pose as a little girl.  I would put my hands on my grandpa's guitar strings while he played.  I love to hear him.  Those are some of my fondest childhood memories.  My grandparents took such good care of me!

Maybe I Am Too Proud

I know I am not very consistent in my blogging.  In fact I go a month or two then sit down and bombard everyone with posts.  That is how my life is though.  There is always so much going on.  I wanted to take a minute to take note of J's accomplishments.  I will make lists to the best of my memory of what has taken place in the last few months.

Signs He Can Sign:
More
Bath
Help (with prompting)
All Done (with prompting)
(Shakes His Head No)

Signs He Understands:
Cookie

Words:

1. Jacob
2. Da-da
3. Ma-ma (*He knows this word yet chooses to say "da-da" when he sees me.  We think he uses this as a greeting rather than as a name.  He will call for me if I am not in the room.)
4. Dog (Though he would rather bark.)
5. Cat
6. Milk
7. More
8. Cookie
9. Pops
10. (They tell me he says Granddaddy though I haven't heard it myself.)
11. Outside
12. Bath
13. Hello
14. Hey (He did say "hey there" the other day when shaking hands at church.)
15. School
16. No
17. Go
18. Hot
19. Duck
20. Cup
21. Nana (banana)
22. Door
23. Yes
24. Belly
25. Amen
26. This
27. Touchdown
28. Car
29. Truck
30. Church
31. Up
32. Sit

He must be prompted to say these words.

J also tries to mimic many other words.  He has learned how to sing just in the last few days.  He may not know the words, but he does "sing." I can ask him to point to certain things in his book or to body parts and he will do so. Now, I will say some of these words are probably not at all recognizable by others but, because we are his parents, M and I can decipher what he is saying pretty well.

Animal Sounds:
Horse
Cow
Duck
Dog
He can also roar so we are working on putting that sound with the lion.
We are working on "meow" for cat.

J's motor skills are coming along as well.  He is learning how to put on hats, take off clothes, twist, hug (oh his hugs are the best hugs in the whole wide world.  I don't know what I will do if he ever stops wanting to hug me.), kiss, he can clap, point, wave, stomp, spin, patty cake, clasp his hands to say prayers, raise his hands, bounce, dance, walk backwards, sit up in a chair, and climb (stairs are his favorite of course be he climbs other objects as well). He recognizes people and songs.  One of my favorite things that J does is at church.  When we walk in the door he wants down so he can go and shake everyone's hand.  They all say he will be a preacher or politician but I am holding out for something else.  I think he is just overly friendly.

I have got to gain some balance.  I am way to crazy about this little boy.  I don't understand how there are people in this world that don't love or want their children.  My life is so much fuller since I have had this wonderful little boy.  I am sure I will mention my love and adoration for him about 852 billion more times before my life has ended (at least).

Everyone Has Fries But Me, What's The Deal?

We have found that if we give J all of his food choices on his plate at one time he will typically only eat one of the items.  He prefers vegetables over meat in most cases, and anything fried over anything not.  French fries would have to be in his top 10 favorite foods. We have started trying to give him the "good" stuff first.  For example, tonight I only put his green beans on his plate rather than filling his plate.  He ate every single green bean and asked for more.  Sunday after church we went to Five Guys.  I gave him a portion of my hamburger which he ate like a champ.  We made it a point to keep all of the french fries hidden away in the bag until he was finished eating.  That worked up until a guy at a nearby table poured a huge pile of fries out of his brown paper bag.  J promptly put down his hamburger, pointed at our brown paper bag, and grunted.  We both knew exactly what he wanted.  He is too smart...

And this is how it turned out...

Best Friends

Do All Babies Do This?

Years and years ago I purchased an Anne Geddes photo book and the above picture was one of my favorites of the book.  I dreamed of the day when I would have my very own little one in order to recreate this photo.  Now, I didn't go all out with it as you can tell below.  We went for a simple version.  J loves to look at his belly.  He pulls it up as much as possible in hopes of sneaking a peek at his belly button.

Useful Things Like Rakes and Mittens

When Pops bought this rake (I'm pretty sure he bought it while I was in the hospital right after having J. I could be wrong, but if it wasn't then it was definitely before J could even sit up) I thought he was crazy.  Well Pops, thanks for the rake.  J loves it.  I'm hoping one day very soon to put him to work in the backyard with that rake.  If you have seen our yard (ever) you know we need all the help we can get. 

J has become increasingly aware of his belly (as you will see in a later post) and his clothes as well as other people's bellies and their clothes.  He will point to his belly and say his version of the word.  He is also learning how to take off his clothes.  I can say it will only be a matter of time before I have to find a way to keep the boy from running around naked.

I absolutely love this picture because it captures one of his real expressions.  He is facing the backyard where the dogs (we are dog sitting Gracie hence dogs plural).  Ever since J figured out that dogs bark he makes it a point to bark back at them.  This is what he is doing in the above picture...barking.  

After being outside for well over an hour, J's little hands became cold.  Lucky for me I had just purchased some new mittens for him.  Of course we couldn't have traditional stripped or solid color mittens, rather we needed the ones with skull and cross bones.  He was quite proud of them if you cannot tell.

 (Don't worry, we put a hat on him too.)

Favorite Things

When I was a little girl my mom would make my sister and I cheesecake.  Now, these were not elaborate cheesecakes.  In fact they were Jello No-Bake cheesecakes.  I prefered this type to "homemade" or store bought cheesecakes up until a few years ago.  Even now, I guess I really do prefer the no-bake kind.  Well the other day for Thanksgiving, my mom made me and my sister yet again a cheesecake because she knew we didn't like other traditional Thanksgiving desserts (Thanks Mom!).  Well, I didn't get my fill so I purchased a mix to make at home.  One of my favorite parts of the cheesecake making process was licking the bowl, spoon, and mixers.  I passed that on to J and I can say he is a child after my own heart...

In fact, I think I'll have a piece, or two now.

The Pumpkin Patch

Documentation

Yesterday Jacob rolled his eyes for the first time and I laughed.















I just wanted to remember that.  I am sure one day he will roll his eyes at me and laughing will not be my immediate response. 

Our good friends Melissa and Nathan were over for dinner last night.  After dinner J decided to explore as he usually does.  He began to look through Melissa's bag.  I explained to him that looking through Mrs. Melissa's bag was probably not something he should be doing.  He put his little hands down to his side, looked up at me, rolled his eyes, and huffed.  I couldn't help but laugh!  Upon doing so he tried to roll his eyes again and again.  Each time Melissa and I rewarded him with laughter.  I doubt he even knew what he was doing, but he does know that I find it humorous.  If only I can remember to keep a sense of humor about me, I do believe parenting will be much easier.