The Adventures of a 1 year old

Well, Jake has been 1 year old for a whole week and we have lots of turning 1 year 'milestones' to report.

Jake went for his 1 yr checkup on Monday, his 1 year stats: 32.5 inches, 23 lbs 4 oz. And he got 4 shots :( He cried the most he has cried yet while getting shots and it was very hard on Mommy! Dr. Sadler gave us the go ahead to flip Jake's car seat around and today we did. I am a little nervous about it, but I must admit it is much easier getting him in his carseat now. It was quite the chore to get those long legs scrunched in facing backwards.

Jake seems to really enjoy facing forward and now all I hear is 'dat' 'dat' (that) while I'm driving.

We have also made the transition over to whole milk. I was really anticipating a tough transition, but Jake acts like he has been drinking milk his whole life. His diapers have been rather interesting, however. Mostly because he was on a soy based formula, so this much dairy is taking a few days for his stomach to adjust. Jake is also now 100% a sippy man. I can finally pack up the last of the bottles! He's really only been taking a bottle at night time for over a month now, but I wanted to wait until we were on milk to phase it out and Jake barely noticed that he had a sippy at bedtime yesterday.

Of course, the biggest 1 year milestone is walking and no, Jake is not walking. He seems to be getting more and more interested in it each day. He can stand unassisted, walk holding on with just one hand, and over the past few days has started taking about 2-4 'steps' unassisted from object to object or from an object to daddy/mommy. I'm posting a few videos of this, but please know it's not overly impressive...just the start of the whole 'learning to walk' process :)

Jake and Daddy

Another of Jake's favorite things to do is play a combination of hide and seek/tag with Stephen and I. I carry Jake and we run and 'hide' from Stephen and then it kind of turns into tag. Jake is a horrible hider because he laughs loudly the whole time.

Here are two videos of Jake and Stephen playing their game. Yesterday Jake started hiding from Stephen on his own...he'd crawl into the kitchen and make sure Stephen was watching...then start laughing, wanting Daddy to chase after him. He was having too much fun playing his game!

Play Ball!

Jake's absolute favorite toy right now are balls...any shape or size. He loves to chase after them!
We call the tile entryway in our house the 'ballyard' because he keeps all of his balls there for playing with. We went shopping on Sunday with some of Jake's birthday money and knew he needed a ball pit! We bought a giant bag of balls at Target and filled up his baby pool with them. He LOVES it! He climbs in and out over and over again, tossing balls all over. It's so fun to watch him having so much fun!

of course I had to take a little video too :)

Birthday Party!!!

Alright y'all, buckle up for a long birthday party blog! :)



I was so excited for Jake's party and couldn't wait to decorate! My mom was a big help coming up with ideas...we had many phone calls back and forth from the isles of Hobby Lobby!

month by month pictures of Jake and what I have done so far of his scrapbook

party favors for the grown ups- rice krispies with licorice to look like hay bales

and for the kiddos: cowboy horses in buckets

food table, in mid-prep...none of the refrigerated food was out yet

CUPCAKES!

I really wanted to take some pictures of Jake before the party all decked out in his party shirt and cowboy hat....but Jake wouldn't keep his hat on his head! Instead, he thought it was a fun toy to play peekaboo with.

Grammy with Jake

Jake got a musical Elmo card for his birthday...and he wanted to play it over and over again

me and my birthday boy, almost ready for party time! we didn't get a family picture in before everyone started coming :(

Jake eating his birthday dinner

Birthday zerberts from Uncle Dave-o

Jake playing train with Grandpa Perkowski

I didn't get a single shot of the boys where you could see there faces! But here are Carter, Tyler, and Jake

Jake and Tyler playing cars

I got the jumparoo out for cute little Jacob Clark...

...and Jake and Tyler made a bee line straight for it! Their long lost buddy, the jumparoo. Poor Jacob!

All the kids playing: Carter, Madi, Jake, Tyler, and Brinley

Jake and Carter playing with the house...

...and Leanne was back there too! :)

Then it was time for the cake! I lit a candle and Jake tried to grab it right away, we'll have to go for that whole blowing out the candle thing next year. But we did sing 'Happy Birthday' I don't think Jake was sure what to make of a big audience watching him or what to do with a big cake on his tray. Here's video of Jake's first 'Happy Birthday'

not sure what to do with this mom

starting to get the hang of it

messy man!

family picture: notice stephen and I leaning as far away from Jake as possible :)

is anyone going to clean me up?

I mean it, clean me up!

So Stephen and I took the birthday boy upstairs for a quick washing and came back to open up some presents! I thought he would be into it, but not so much. He was having too much fun playing with his friends.

present drive by :)

oh wait, is that elmo???

and then he was off again

Jake was very lucky to have so many friends and family come to wish him a happy birthday! Thank you so much to everyone who came to be with our family on this special day!

Uncle Jason, Auntie Seana, and Chad

Jake's Great Grandpa and Great Grandma

Granna, Aunt Paige, Deuce, Jessica, and Madi

Uncle Dave and cousin Mia....love that cowboys cheerleader outfit!

Towards the end of the party Mia was playing with Jake and he was hysterically laughing! I have never seen him laugh so hard, it was adorable!

Jake and Daddy with Jacob and Daddy's buddy Coach Clark...we hope the two Jacobs will be good buddies too :)

Grandpa and Jake

the gang: Heather, Jason, Seana, Chad, Leanne, Jon, Carter, Tyler, Patty, and Tom
Grandpa and Grandma Perkowski

Jake with mommy and her bestie, Auntie Seana

Jake had so much fun playing with all his friends and getting loved on by all his family. He is such a lucky little boy to be blessed with such amazing friends and family and we are very thankful for you all!

Happy 1st birthday Jacob, we love you so much!