Mail Call

Jake was very excited when the mail came yesterday because he got a package from Grammy (my mom.) Grammy always likes to send us books at each holiday so I knew what was inside the envelope.

I put Jake down to play at his Sing-n-Stage while I went into the kitchen to get scissors to open the package...well, 20 seconds later when I came back to the living room...he already had his package and was trying to open it!

and he just happened to be wearing his "I love my Grandma" bib yesterday too!

how do I get in here???

Yay books!

this one tastes good mom

Jake also loves playing with any junk mail we get, especially the thicker, cardstock stuff.

All Over the Place!

No, Jake's not crawling or walking...but he is all over the place as much as is possible without officially being a crawler or walker! He has worn me out this week! I have found that leaving him in the living room just to switch over a quick load of laundry has turned into a new game called, "where will i find Jake when i get back?" Seriously! I can leave him sitting in one part of the living room and 30 seconds later he's 6 feet from where he started and on his stomach...especially if my cell phone is anywhere near by! He still only lunges forward on his knees, but he clears about 3 feet when he does it. He is also getting very brave with his cruising, letting go of objects and turning to grab my shoulder and try to 'walk' to me, which means I have to quickly grab his waist and help him balance. My absolute favorite new thing that he is doing is crawling into our laps! He will be sitting and playing with a toy, then turn himself around and lunge to place his hands on my legs and then crabwalk the rest of the way into my lap. It is the best feeling in the world to know that he wants a quick cuddle in the middle of his playing :)

Here he is concentrating really hard on cruising to his toy basket

Can you tell he is pretty proud of himself?

He has become a pro at scooting backwards and rocking when he can get himself up on his knees

But he stills prefer his crouching stance

or standing up and playing on the chair without its cushion

This week one of my cheerleaders, Kristie, also came out to see Jake and I. She was the first of my girls to meet Jake, but hadn't gotten to see him since he was just a month old. I miss my girls, but am so thankful I have kept in touch with all of them and that they take time out of their busy teenage lives to keep up with Jake and I.

Oh, and Jake has started waving! I am going to try to catch it on video as soon as I can. He starts off a little slow, just putting his arm up in the air and then he slowly starts waving his fingers. His favorite person to wave at....is Daisy :)

9 month check up

Jake and I got up this morning and headed to Dr. Sadler's office for his 9 month check up. Dr. Sadler said he is 'perfect,' which I already knew :) He now weighs 21 lbs 14 oz and is 30 3/4 in long. That puts him in the 75% for weight and he is totally off the charts for height. In Dr. Sadler's words, 'he is going to be a long and lean little boy." He only needed one shot and he didn't even cry, nurse Sylvia and I were very impressed! We can now start meats and she said it is fine for Jake to have any table food that he likes. We talked a little bit about Jake not crawling yet and she is not concerned at all. His legs are so long that she says they are basically getting in the way as he tries to lunge forward and get his knees under him. She thinks he will probably go straight to walking and says that is perfectly fine. We also talked about his recent sleeping habits (Jake has really been fighting his naps) and she thinks he is making the transition to just one nap a day. We set up a date for his next appt, which will be his 1 yr checkup, which is just crazy to me!

9 Months Old

Our little man is 9 months old today, time is going by way too fast! Stephen and I have started planning his 1st birthday party, which just seems crazy! Jake continues to be the best part of every day. He has become quite the cheeseball, wanting to make sure he has mommy and daddy's attention while he plays. Our reward, a big ol' cheesy smile that lights up his whole face!

this would be the 'mega chessy' smile

he has started doing this when we say 'yay'...sometimes he doesn't wait for us to say it, when he's proud of himself those arms go straight up and he smiles!

Jake and Daisy both want to be in Daddy's lap

He looks so old to me in this picture, not at all like a baby anymore

Jake has gotten 2 new teeth this month! His top two teeth on either side of the middle teeth are in. They have just broken through the gum over the past few days. This means the past 2 weeks have been a little rough at naps and nighttime and we spent lots of time chewing on teething biscuits....check out that messy face!



And speaking of messy faces, Jake continues to love finger and table foods. Last night he had some spaghetti and peas, it was EVERYWHERE!

(he looks like Zoolander here!)

'mommy this is good!'

We've let him try a good bit of table food over the past month, so far he has tried: broccoli, black beans, ranch style beans, green beans, corn, peas, mashed potatoes, spaghetti, cornbread, rolls, cooked carrots, banana, orange, apple, cheerios, and birthday cake at his friends' first birthday parties. he still eats a predominantly baby food, but I'm hoping at our 9 month check up tomorrow we get the clearance to move more into table foods and meats. We let Jake try a meat baby food meal...he ate it, but the look on his face was priceless, he was definitely not a fan!

One of Jake's favorite things is still to play in his basket of toys. Now he goes until every last toy is out of the basket. He plays with something for about 15 seconds and then it's on to the next toy. I love watching him do this because he is so serious about it, exploring each thing and then tossing it across the living room!

here he is in action

About a week ago, I was thinking ahead to writing this 9 month blog and thought, I won't have much new stuff to tell about. Of course, over the past few days Jake had to prove me wrong! Over the weekend, Jake started making huge lunges forward from a sitting position. His legs are so darn long though, that he can't quite figure out how to stay up on his knees once he gets there.

We've also been working on pulling up onto things. I stole an idea from friends and took the cushion out of our living room chair for Jake to reach and start learning to pull up. He has done it several times, but still needs help some times too.

For now, he gets himself in to this position really well, he just can't seem to figure out to get the other leg up

he's getting braver standing at the chair and letting go, his legs still help him balance against the chair, but he is getting so steady

And the biggest surprise of all came yesterday, Jake started 'cruising' from toy to toy and along the chair. He 'walked' from his music table, to his walker, then to his toy basket. I got the camera out as fast as I could, but only caught the very end on video. The whole thing took about 5 minutes, but still, he was stepping from object to object, very exciting!

holding on to both the table and walker

now both hands on the walker and a few steps taken to it

one hand on the walker, one on the toy basket...getting braver

and here is the end on video...and yes, at the end jake 'kind of' falls in the toy basket, he was fine and i'm not a bad mommy!



and here is my attempt to catch him cruising along the chair, it's not a great attempt b/c he was a little distracted by the camera..this one's mostly for the grandparents :)

One last video....on Jake's walker there is a spot to put a ball in and in falls into the bottom and plays music. We have been trying to teach Jake to put the ball in the hole and he finally did it this morning! Sorry the video is sideways!

So who knows what new adventures month 10 will bring, first crawls and steps seem to be in our future! Jake, mommy is so excited to watch you grow and learn. I love you more than anything!

Man Stuff!

Jake got to have some 'man time' with Daddy and Grandpa this week. Yesterday, Stephen took Jake to Grandpa's house and they went out to lunch, just the men! (and mommy got to get lots done around the house!) They had lots of fun and Jake even had a bite of a cracker for the first time...and I'm sure much man-talk was had :)

Jake was having lots of fun

This morning, Stephen was heading out to go golfing with a coaching buddy. I was upstairs in Jake's room straightening up, this was what I saw when I started coming downstairs...Jake's first golf lesson :)

Stephen said Jake was 'playing' with the lid to his box of golf balls, let's just hope he gets his golf skill from Stephen and not me!

Stephen explaining golf stuff to Jake...and Daisy decided to get in the picture too

Silly Boy, Time Change, and Spaghetti

Jake has a new, silly face that started showing up a few weeks ago. Now he makes it when he is excited, proud of himself, or just being silly. I finally got a good picture of it, but it still just doesn't do it justice. He also breathes in and out of his nose really loud while doing it and it cracks me up! We see this face all day long...when he is eating, when he pushes himself up to sitting, when he wants one of us to pick him up...I have no clue where he came up with it, but I love, love, love it!



This is what Daylight Savings Time does to Jake...we went for a walk and a few mintues away from home, Stephen and I noticed Jake had gotten really quiet, sure enough, he had fallen asleep. It was no where near his naptime, especially on the 'old time,' but he was out...and stayed that way in his stroller for 45 minutes in the living room. He looked so cute, I had to get a picture.

We are trying more and more table foods these days and yesterday, Jake got to try real spaghetti. He had eaten plain spaghetti before, but this time we let him try it with spaghetti saude. I make my own sauce, so we thought it was pretty safe for his tummy. Jake LOVED it and started slurping the noodles up, it got everywhere! (sorry, i just realized i had the camera turned the wrong way when i recorded!)

Michelle and Justin's Wedding

This weekend Stephen and I packed up and headed to Georgetown, Tx for my good friend, Michelle's, wedding. I was so excited, but a little nervous because it would be the first we ever left Jake overnight. I knew he would be just fine because he would be staying with Stephen's mom, but still...that is my baby and I have never been apart from him for more than a few hours in his life. I think we did pretty good...we only called 4 times to check on him in the 28 hours we were gone :)

Back to the fun wedding! Michelle and I have been friends going back to our single days at Lakepointe Church, she was part of the close group of girls that I met with for weekly bible studies and one of my best friends, we even went on a mission trip to Africa together. Three years ago she became a full time missionary and moved to Tanzania, Africa to teach for 2 years. So when she left, I wasn't even married to Stephen yet(I still listed her as a bridesmaid in my wedding program)...when she came back I was married and a mommy. She met Justin, while serving in Africa, where he was also a missionary. They have the sweetest story and a perfect match for each other!

Stephen and I...it was SO nice to get to dress up and go out for the night

my bff, Seana, and her hubby, Jason, were there too!

and so were our good friends, Leanne and Jon, it was also Jon's bday!


Michelle asked Leanne and I to help serve the cake. Neither of us felt very confident in our cake-cutting skills, but it all worked out okay. The cake was Auburn-themed because Justin is from Alabama

The Girls: me, Seana, Michelle, and Leanne

Michelle and I, she looked so beautiful!

All the husbands and wives :)

cotton eye joe!

Mr and Mrs Justin Drummons!

A Day at the Arboretum

Today our playgroup met at the Dallas Arboretum. We chose the day last week and couldn't have asked for better weather. It was a gorgeous day and the babies all had so much fun! Jake loved being outside and didn't fuss too much, especially when I had him posing for so many pictures all day :)

Here is Jake taste-testing some dirt, yumm

big ol' cheesy smile, even though his eyes are closed

mom, what are these things?


I had to tell him, we don't eat flowers!

he thought the grass was pretty cool too

jake, tyler, and carter all posing for pictures

mom, this grass is the coolest thing ever

we put the boys together for a group shot...jake thought tyler's hat was cool

but would look even cooler, sideways!

me and jake

jake in his new umbrella stroller

all the babies!

l-r: brinley, ava, tyler, jake, madison, kately, and carter

we were quite the entourage making our way through the arboretum :)

same order, different pose

close up on jake

Jake and I checking out the goats at the petting zoo

he liked them

hi little goats!

Jake and Brinley hanging out...he was cracking up at her

more flower pictures mom? i think the fountain is much more interesting

finally a good smiling picture!

jake and carter checking out the waterfalls

Jake with White Rock Lake behind him

Jake and Carter, love this picture

I took a TON of pictures, it was hard to pick the ones to put on the blog. Check out facebook for more pics sometime soon. We can't wait to go back to the Arboretum soon!