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.

Blogging

Okay this might sound like a stupid question, but I have no idea how to do this through blogger. Does anyone know how to highlight a word and have it link to a webiste? How about a website address that will automatically connect you once you click on it? Help???

Cute Backgrounds

For all you bloggers out there I found some really good sites that have some really cute backgrounds for your blogs. They are super easy to install and some of them come with blinkie buttons and glitter flashies and more. Check 'em out. simplychicblogs thecutestsiteontheblock

9 Months

I can't believe how big my boy is getting. Everyday he amazes me with all the things he is learning and doing all by himself. He is already starting to stand without any help from anyone. He usually can do this for about 20-30 seconds and then of course plops on his bottom and giggles. He is really getting into the rythmn of cruising with the coffee table and sofa. We will sit down on one end and he will move all the way to us in a matter of seconds. Vince and I think he is going to start walking before he turns 10 months. I don't know, but we will see. He loves food and will pretty much eat anything we give him. He has eaten strawberries, bananas, peaches, pears, potatoes, green beans, carrotts, whole milk, yogurt, cheese, baby crackers, vienna sausages (the baby kind), and anything else he can get his hands on. He already has 6 teeth that have come through. These last two have been a bit of a downer because they have been the most bothersome of all. Normally he had no problems before, but for some reason these are keeping him up at night and a little bit more cranky. He is also excelling in the verbal department. He is learning to communicate much better with Vince and I. He has learned to play a few games and can recognize a few commands and words. He is already starting to say "dada" and "mama" a bit. He recognizes the words for a few toys, the dogs, his bottle, both Vince and I, bath time, and few other things. This first year is flying by and before I know he will be moving out of the house and onto college. Everyday I try to remember how special and awesome he is to be mine my little boy. He is the most precious thing I could have ever asked for. I love you little guy, you mean the world to your daddy and me.

Playing around in the Study

So Jacob wanted to have a little fun in the office today while I checked my email and a few blogs. I know what you're thinking, "is his hand in the paper shredder?" And yes it is, but it's turned off and unplugged basically because of him.

Another One Completed

Another project completed today. I had an old magazine box that usually was filled with Jacob's toys. So I figured I would dress it up a little to go with the whole toy theme that we have going on in the living room. I think I did a pretty good job. Someone else also likes it too!!! Got it! That's what I have been looking for this whole time!

Project Complete

It's finally finished. I have been working on the drapes for Vince's office for months now. I started the leather cornice right after Jacob was born and installed it about two months later. I then started on the drape panels and completed one whole drape about 3 months after that. So today I finally finished the whole darn thing. I took Jacob over to Nana's house because there was no way I was going to get anything accomplished with him around house. I got to sewing around 12 noon and was done by 4:00pm. I can't believe it. This project has taken way too long, but at least I finally have my dining room back to normal. It's no longer the craft project room. So here are the pictures, what do you think? I was going for a gentleman's hunting theme.

These are the drapes that I actually sewed all by myself. I am so proud. I will never do it again! This is the leather cornice that took three people to hang. It was a doozy to get up on the wall.

Popsicle

Okay my son is going to kill me when he gets older because of this video, but who cares that's a long ways off. So today I headed over to my parents' house after speech therapy to give them a chance to hang out with Jacob for awhile. Mom hasn't really had a chance to be around him much since she just got out of the hospital not too long ago. She is finally feeling better and was able to really enjoy being with him and playing. It was such a nice day outside that we decided to hang out on their back porch and get a little sun and shade in with a nice breeze. Dad figured it was a good thing to go ahead and give the dogs a bath because they kind of smelled a little funny after being in the kennel for a week. Afterwards, we all had popsicles to cool us off. Jacob loves popsicles, but hasn't quit mastered the art of how to eat them. They are kind of cold on his teeth and I think they give him brain freeze, but still he shoves them in his mouth. We striped him down to his diaper and straped him in the highchair and let he go at it. Once he was finally done, he was an absolute mess of stickiness, but still adorable. Mom suggested that I give him a full bath, but I just wasn't in the mood to do that at 2:30pm in the afternoon. So I got the brillant idea from my dad that we should just hose him off in the backyard. The water wasn't too hot or too cold, but just perfect. He loved it. I practically had to pry him of the iron bars to get him dry. It was so cute that we had to get it on video tape. Enjoy!!!

How my morning routine has changed in 8 months

Before we had Jacob we knew , from family , friends, and the glaring obvious , that our lives would never be the same. With that said I just never knew I would be sitting at my desk on a Friday afternoon humming the theme to "Shaun the Sheep"! Don't get me wrong I am a fan of the show. Jacob and I usually get an hour in the morning together before Rebecca gets out of bed and we have a fairly consistent routine now. We drink our milk for 10-15 minutes in what seems is the only time of the day he will sit still for a period of time, then we are off to the races. First we empty the toy bin in the living room that mommy and daddy just got through organzing, once we have spread every toy out in the living room (which takes no longer than 5-10 minutes itself) , we then move on for daddy's attention and wrestles the sports page out daddy's hands with one hand and grabs for his cup of coffee from the coffee table with the other hand. Once we have shredded daddy's newspaper to a unreadable crumbled mess we move to the TV stand and start banging on the DVD Player, Daddy's Playstation, the VCR and grab for any wires within our grasp. At this point in time I usally tell Jake "No" and he will then proceed to cry for 5 seconds before becoming distracted by the DVD/VCR Tape Rack . He then moves for that at lighting quick speed and pulls every "Field of Dreams" "Full Metal Jacket" and Pilates exercise DVD/Tape off the rack and throws it on the floor. Once the living room is completely wrecked he will move on to terriozing the dogs. Brodie and Seven could not be any better with the way they behave around Jacob but to their credit they have learned to stay out of his way. Jacob usally spots a dog lounging on the floor from across the room and if he is interested will pounce on them like a cheetah hunting a gazelle. If quick enough he will pull their tail or grab a handfull of their coat and laugh as the dogs just look back at me with a "How long are you going to let this kid stay in our house?" gaze. The dogs now have caught on and when they see the cheetah coming they leave the room for the saftey of the grassland praires (our closet). By this time its usally 6:45am or 6:50am , this is the time for the "Hot Dog Song" on Disney's Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Jacob loves this song and it's worthy of it's own post in due time. So we sit there for a minute or two that the hot dog song is rocking out and Jacob stares with amazement. Once the song is over it's back to toys, dogs, and living room demolishment. At this time I am out of breath and begging to get into the office to take on something less physical like dealing with an IRS Auditor and working up a Statement of Grounds on a Sales Tax Redetemination for my clients. However before I get that that I usally catch the 5 minute interlude between cartoons on the Disney Channel which features "Shaun the Sheep"at this time. Dont get me wrong, I would not trade this new morning routine for anything on earth but it is exhausting chasing after an 8 month old with a mission. I absolutly adore, respect, and cherish Rebecca for her ablity to handle him for 10-12 hours a day , 7 days a week as it is no easy task. And when Jake gives us that great big smile and laugh it makes our day. For those of you that have not had the opportunity to hum the theme to "Shaun the Sheep" at your desk, enjoy:

Mom's Surgery

Hey everyone if you want to get an update on my mom's surgery and recovery check out her blog at www.the-jacob-house.blogspot.com You can also find the link to the right side of my blog. I will keep updating it daily.

First Mother's Day

It was my first official Mother's Day this year. I was about 5 months pregnant last year anxiously awaiting to meet our new bundle of joy. And boy is he. It was such an awesome day. Vince let me sleep in a little while he took care of Jacob in the morning. It is such a treat to always get a few hours of extra rest. Once we all got up and going, we headed over to pick up Nana Rita for lunch. We had a wonderful lunch outside and took some pictures. Jacob really enjoyed himself and behaved very well the entire time. He kept looking at the table next to us and talking out loud. I guess he figured everyone needed to know what he had to say. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful little boy. I couldn't imagine my life without him or what my life would be like if he was never around. He is the most precious gift I could have ever received and I thank my lucky stars that I have him. He is the cutest and most adorable little thing I have ever witnessed. He cracks me up all the time and always keeps me on my toes. I love you Boo Bear!!!

My favorite thing to do

We have all heard the famous quote, "Never wake a sleeping baby!" But lately it has become one of my favorite things to do with Jacob. I usually start getting ready for bed around 9 or 9:30 at night. I brush my teeth, wash my face and change my clothes, if I am not already in my pj's. Then I will sneek into Jacob's room and pick him up out of his crib. He will usually wake up for a minute or two, but will then fall back asleep in my arms. We sit in the rocker and listen to music while I hold him and cuddle. If any of you know my child he doesn't sit for very long and is off to the next big adventure. So this is my time to be close to him and let him know how much I love him. He so sweet when he is sleeping and I swear I can actually tell what he is dreaming about. Sometimes he will make whimpering sounds, like he is chasing after mommy, daddy and the dogs. When he is awake he is always trying to attach us. This is such a precious time in his life that I always want to remember, so I try to take the time when I can because it is always so crazy around here that I don't want to miss a moment. I want to look back on our time together and know that I spent every chance I could to be with him, awake and sleeping.

Get that hearing aid out of your mouth!!

When Jacob first got fitted for hearing aids we read accounts from other parents and heard from our Doctors that the children will put their hearing aids in their mouth or take them off all together all of the time. For his first 3 or so months of wearing the aids this was not a problem at all , lately however is a different story. This son of ours constantly has the hearing aids in his mouth sucking on them. We have bought one of the hearing aids and the other is a loaner from Cooks as we are still not sure if he will need aids long term or if we might go down another path for his hearing. It is to the point now where we leave the room for 2 minutes and come back and he has one or both in his mouth slobbering all over this $1500 piece of equipment. We had to send the loaner aid back to Cooks for some repairs as he gunked up the aid so bad. Fortunately we have not lost an aid or he has not damaged them to the point of no return. However the constant struggle with this child to keep on this gets tiresome. Therefore we are to the point of covering the aids in a "Nail No Bite" type product that tastes terrible and might deter him for sucking on these. Our other option would be to have him fitted for a football helmet so he can't get to his ears.

Photo shoot

Today we took Jacob over to Picture People to get some cute photos of him. He did such a good job. Sometimes he smiled and other times he had really thoughtful look on his face. We got so many good shots of him and the family. Here are a couple of our favorites.

Easter 2009

Vince and I started the day off at church at St. Patrick's Cathedral downtown in Fort Worth. We got there extra early because you never know how many people are going to show up for mass. It never fails that the two holidays people always attend church service for is Christmas and Easter. We ended up getting a whole pew to ourselves so we were able to keep Jacob pretty much entertained the whole time. He really does well during mass, but usually by the end he has had enough and is ready to either eat a meal or take a nap. Afterwards we headed over to my parents' home for Easter lunch. My mom had taken the time to put out the huge Easter eggs for Jacob to play with. These things are enormous. They are literally about 12 inches each egg. Oh and there were of course Easter carrots too!!! We had a great lunch with all of the family and even Jacob participated. Mom and I kept feeding him table scraps like potatoes and bread. I had even made some Easter cupcakes and we thought it would be funny to watch Jacob demolish one. Take a look at the second photo and see for yourself what became of the cupcake. He had it everywhere. And of course we got a full bath afterward. He had all between his fingers, his hair, up his nose and even some in his ears. He was a complete mess. Gotta love that kid. After we all had lunch and had cleaned up the Jacob mess, we played a little with all the gifts the Easter Bunny had brought. It was such an awesome day. Hopefully next year it won't run interference with the dreaded "TAX DEADLINE"!!! And maybe Daddy will be able to relax a little more and not have to run back home to finish tax returns.

Isn't he just the cutest little bunny you have ever seen? I know I'm a little biased.

Look at the messy face!

After bath time. He is such a hill billy baby. All he had on was a bib and a diaper. We had to wash and dry his clothes while he took a nap.