Another Milestone Checked off the List !

We have been waiting a while to get little mans hair cut. We finally broke down today and checked his first haircut off that milestone list. He was getting the early signs of a full on Billy Ray Cyrus mullet going on in the back so we needed to get it trimmed. So here are the pictures from our trip to Cool Cuts 4 Kids in Keller today.

Photographer Needed!!!

Okay everyone I need your help. Jacob's first birthday is just around the corner and I am getting all the preparations out of the way. So expect to see your invitations in the mail next week and keep your calendar open for Sept. 5th @ 5pm open for cake and a party. What I need help on is a photographer. I really want pictures of his first birthday party and everyone that came along to join the fun, but I am a horrible photographer. I also didn't want to worry about taking pictures the entire time because I think I will have my hands full enough with a 1 year old running around and entire house filled with about 50 peopple. So if any of you have photography experience and a good camera or know of someone that I could hire for a really cheap price I would really appreciate it. Hey I will throw in some cake as a bribe! Just send me an email with their contact information.

11 Months

I can't believe it Jacob is already 11 months old. He has changed so much in just the few months that we have known him. Trying to get a chair picture is harder than ever now that he is completely on the move and there is no stopping him anymore.

Music

So I was playing around on the computer tonight and I figured that I really needed to add some music to my blog. I found a couple of my favorites songs, old and new. Tell me what you think? Half of them make me tear up thinking of my little boy and how much I love them. And a few are just because I love the melody and music. So for any of you readers out there are there any new or old songs that any of you really love, let me know. I would love to add some to my list. I always look at music as an escape or a way to capture a feeling that I just can't quit describe in words myself. I always use music as way to remember a time or moment in my life and it seems to help me get back to that feeling.

Daycare

Okay I am a little stressed right now because it is finally going to happen on Monday. I am going to be dropping Jacob off for his first day of school. I am so happy to be going back to work, but also have the stomach pains about leaving my child all day with someone else. I know they are going to be great with him and he will do really well. I am just so use to being around him all day long, just the two of us. No matter what kind of day we would both have and how often I thought to myself I just want to back to work and be a human again and not have to listen to you whine and cry. I would always sneek into his room and cradle him at night. I really do love him so much and I am going to miss all the time we have been able to spend with each other. He is now 11 months old and I wouldn't change a thing about him. It has been a hard 11 months, but I wouldn't have traded it for anything. It was actually a blessing in disguise that I got laid-off at the time and looking back on it, it was the best thing that could have happened. Now I just need to get the courage to actually drop him on Monday morning and not pack him away in my work gear to bring him to the office. I don't think my new boss would appreciate me bringing my child to work on my first day. Or maybe she would? Just look at that face, how dare I go back to work?

Sneek Preview

Here is a sneak preview of Jacob's new big boy room!!! I have been working on it for the past couple of weeks and I am almost complete.

Hurricane Season is Upon Us

It's been a while since we have updated our blog so thought I would grace you with a post. We have started to affectionately refer to Jacob as "Hurricane Jake" as he can transform any room from organized to chaos in a matter of seconds. Dictionary.com defines Hurricane as anything suggesting a violent storm. I think anyone who has had the opportunity to watch after Jake now that he is upright and walking would attest to the fact that the nickname is appropriate in a good way (we love and thank you Nana, Mimi & Big Daddy). Just last night we spent the evening at our good friends house for an adult birthday party. These days adult birthday parties are few and far between but they are a much needed break. All of the adults there had kids of there own , I guess the point is that anyone out there with a child could nickname their child "Hurricane" as no clean room is safe with an infant/toddler on the loose. To offer up some photographic evidence I give you the before picture of our living room or the calm before the storm back when Jacob was merely a newborn:

Fast Foward 11 months and take a look at the living room:

This is only one of his play areas as the majority of the house seems to mimic this look. Our friends parents were at the bday party and offered up some good advice for those of us who are now parents ourselves. They said that we need to take advantage of all the fads/craze/in things that your kid is involved with and cherish all the moments we have because when you look back on it , it will have gone by so fast. This is so very true as a year ago our lives were so very different that I can hardly remember a time without Jake. So I guess I will try not to fret over the living room or house being a complete disaster after a "Category 5 Hurricane Jake" play session sweeps through because soon enough he will be able to pick up after himself. Until then we are going to have to batten down the hatches and board up the windows and doors because this Hurricane does not appear to be letting up anytime soon.

Our first steps

We took our first steps today, what a milestone!!

A Little Motivation

For the past few days Vince and I have been trying to get Jacob to start walking on his own. He has been doing really well cruising around the house and crawling all over, but just hasn't had the motivation to walk yet. I know that some of you are saying to prolong it as long as possible because once they start walking it's all over for us, the parents. My main reason for him to start walking is because of his poor knees. It's summer time and he has the roughest knees because I don't put him in pants. He mainly wears shorts but they just don't help cover his knees enough. The other reason is because his hands and knees are always so dirty. I've decided that if he has dirty knees after two days then it's time to mop the floor. He's my personal dirt monitor. So after many attempts of trying to get him moving to objects that maybe he was interested in to walk towards he would usually give up and just crawl over. But I think I have finally found something that just might entice him a little more than a toy. FOOD!!! And not just any food, MARSHMELLOWS!!! He loves them. So I bought a large bag of the tiny bite sized marshmellows and I always keep them handy in the living room just in case. I think it's a great invention. I always knew my kid loved food, just look at the size of him.

Lets do some dishes

For those of you that keep up with Rebecca via FaceBook you have no doubt heard the stories of what the little man is up to lately. Today while Rebecca was in the bathroom Jake managed to find his way to the kitchen trash can and take a half eaten porkchop out of the trash and proceed to start chewing, sucking, and gnawing at it. This is not the only kitchen exploit of late, he has discovered that the dishwasher is the perfect height to climb on and has lots of not yet seen toys and gadgets:

He is under the impression that if he shoots you this smile that we will disregard the fact that he is doing something he is not suppose to be doing:

You might also notice his new hat. Its not that we are big fans of Charles Lindbergh and feel the need to outfit Jake in aviator hats from the 30's but rather this keeps him from pulling off his hearing aids. If you recall our April 21st entry Get That Hearing Aid out of your Mouth then you will know how hard this has been to keep him from pulling off his aids. For the time being the hat seems to work! I am not sure what we are going to do about the dishwasher and trash though!

Our Last Can!!!

We are almost finished with our last can of baby formula. We are so excited. About 4 weeks ago we started Jacob on whole milk and formula together. I knew he would do great on the milk because he never had any trouble with cheese or yogurt. I think he actually prefers the milk over the formula. I would because it smells a whole lot better and probably tastes better, even though I never actually took a sip of formula. I just have had enough spit in my face from laughing. I am so thankful to not have to buy anymore expensive cans of this stuff, Jacob would go through a large can in about 4-5 days, that's about $50 dollars a week in formula alone. I swear I think all the baby formula companies have a monopoly on the market because they know families have to have it. Stupid companies trying to take advantage of families. Well at least it's over for now until the next is born and that is a long ways away!!!

Little Swimmer

Vince took the day off to watch Jacob for me today while I worked this morning. When I got home it was such a beautiful day that we decided to head over to the community pool. We got everything together and Jacob looked so cute in his swim trunks. The pool was really busy with all kinds of kids and parents. We first headed over to the kiddie pool to make sure that Jacob was comfortable being in the water. He loves bath time so much we didn't think he would have too much trouble. We put him in his swimming tube and he took off. He was a little hesitant at first because it took some getting use to the cold water, but once he got over the shock we was fine. The kiddie pool wasn't too much fun for mommy and daddy so we decided to head over to the grown-up pool. Again Jacob was in heaven. He was a little unsure about floating in the water because his feet didn't touch the ground, byt he really enjoyed himself. After a few minutes he decided that he didn't want to be in the floaty tube and wanted daddy to hold him. He swam around awhile with daddy, but did not like being held out far away from daddy. He wanted both arms holding him the entire time. He did however like standing on the pool steps and hanging off of the stair rail. He kept reaching for the blue tiles and trying to pick them up. No such luck. Vince and I thought that maybe we could get him use to swimming if daddy and Jacob both went under water together. This is where it started to go down hill. He cried the entire time. He usually doesn't like to be held too much, but after that if we let go of him for just a moment he would scream. Poor baby!!! We soon packed up and decided that it was getting late and close to his nap time. We didn't want to ruin the pool for him and make it a bad experience because he was getting cranky. Overall I think he really enjoyed himself. We are definitely going to take advantage of the pool this summer. Maybe next year we will put him in swim lessons when he is a little older. Sorry we don't have any good pictures, we forgot the camera, but Vince was able to get one on his phone. I promise you he isn't crying. This is his new thing where he snorts and growls at us in excitment.

Great Weekend

Vince, Jacob and I had a very much needed relaxing weekend together. Friday night we basically just lounged around the house cleaning up and watching T.V. It was fabulous. Jacob went to bed at his usual time and I think Vince and I both fell asleep before 10pm. That usually doesn't happen with me very much because unfortunately I am a night owl. I think I was worn out from the week and from the Friday ordeal. Earlier that morning I got a call from my dad saying that my mom wasn't doing too good and needed to go to the hospital. He rushed her over to the ER and they went ahead and admitted her because of her heart and breathing problems. She basically has been retaining fluid in her body and lungs and hasn't been able to get rid of it. The doctors all say this is typical after having heart surgery and that we shouldn't be concerned. Everything has checked out good and her heart is in great condition, actually better than before. So it's a good thing. They have kept her there until hopefully Monday or Tuesday and then she will get released. Yeah!!! On Saturday, Vince and I cleaned up around the house some more and did some yard work. The grass really needed to be mowed because of all the rain we got during the week. And now it looks picture perfect. Sorry honey I didn't actually take a photo. I promise I will next time. Then the three us headed to the grocery store to buy food for the family cook-out that night. We invited over some of our dear friends', the Carriers and the Wylies. Both families have a 3-year old and they get along great. It was perfect because they entertained each other while the grown-ups got to chit chat and catch up with each other. It was so much fun. It was also really funny to see the boys playing and running around with each other because it gave Vince and I insight to what to expect when Jacob is closer to that age. We can't wait! After dinner we all hung out and watch baseball, college and professional. Too bad the Rangers didn't win. Jill made a dessert, peanut butter pie. She found the receipe on the Pioneer Woman's website and it was so good. Unfortunately I only had one slice, but it's okay I think if I had anymore I would have gained about 10 lbs. It was a great evening. Thanks to the Wylies and Carriers for coming over and hanging out with us. We really did enjoy it. Sunday, again Vince, Jacob and I just hung around the house. Earlier I had bought Jacob two new toys, a basketball hoop and a baseball toy. He absolutely loves both of them. He immediately got the hang of the basketball hoop. I promise I will work on getting it on video real soon. It's super cute. He still has a little trouble with the baseball and the bat. He prefers to chew on each piece individually. But daddy is working on hitting with the left hand. I still don't understand why it's such a big deal to be left handend in the Major Leagues. If he sucks left handed it doesn't matter anyways, does it? Is there some special rule that if you are left handed and play baseball you are automatically drafted? If so, sign my kid up!!! Later that day we went to visit Mimi and Big Daddy at the hospital. She has been missing her little man and she desperately needed a fix. We stayed for about an hour before Jacob became too restless and needed his afternoon nap. It was nice to visit with them. Hopefully Mimi won't be in the hospital too long and we can come visit her at home. All in all it was a great weekend. Too bad the week has to begin.

Prayer Requests

Okay I normally don't do this, but I am desperate. Things have been really stressful for me lately. I haven't been able to find a job in this economy and it is wearing me down to the point that I am becoming a little pissy and cynical. I hate to say it, but I am. The other thing that is bothering me is that Brodie seems to be having a few too many seizures. This stresses me out because it means that his condition is either getting worse or that we have to plan on him having more seizures more often. And lastly, today Jacob's latency test came back with abnormal responses. They aren't sure if his auditory nerve has hit a plateau or not. This means that we have to have more tests in the near future. So as you can tell I am pretty much at my wits end. I am asking everyone to please keep us in your prayers and thoughts. We really do appreciate it. This such a difficult time for us and we really do need it.

Latency Test

Tomorrow Jacob will go with his Dad to Dallas to UTD Hearing and Speech Center for his Latency Hearing Test. This is his 3 month check-up to make sure that he is still on track with his hearing. There is a specific range that children his age should follow within that determines how quickly their ears and brain responds to sounds at different decibels and frequency. The first time Jacob took this test he fell within in that range. When we spoke to the doctor he said that it is very unlikely that once a child is within that range that they will fall out of it. I hope this is true for Jacob. I am asking everyone to say a prayer that things go great for Jacob and that his hearing only gets better.