Shades and Scoots

One of Jake's favorite toys right now is a pair of Stephen's sunglasses. I've been looking for a pair of baby sunglasses for Jake and found a pair that are supposed to be 'unbreakable.' Jake loves them, he wears them for about 30 seconds before he takes them off, but he looks so darn cute while he is wearing them!

And here is a video of Jake showing off his scooting skills. He sticks his bottom so far up in the air right now to get where he wants to go. He has to really want what he is after so far. His best scoots are happening in his crib at night when he is going after paci :)

Grammy Visits

This past weekend my mom came into town to help out while we got ready for a consignment sale this weekend. We always look forward to Grammy's visits because she lives so far away and we don't get to see her very often. Jake had a great time with her and of course she spoiled Jake while she was here. She came with a suitcase full of clothes for Jake and we went shopping several times while she was here. My living room is official a babies r us franchise :)

Mommy, Jake, and Grammy

this one cracked me up just because of the face Jake is making

Grammy and Jake playing with cups...he still loves to look through the bottoms of them


Grammy and Jake with Jake waving at the camera :)

Curious Jake

Over the past couple of weeks, it seems that Jake is curious about many things...the foods mommy and daddy are eating, his toys, and any noise captures his attention right away. I can only imagine his internal monologue is sounding something like this, "what is that? what are you doing? what was that noise? why does it do that? can i do that?"

I would say the thing he is most curious about right now is table food. He wants whatever is on mine or Stephen's plate. Since he has done so well with his baby finger foods, we are letting him try more and more of 'people food.'

Here he is trying spaghetti

He ate it, but didn't seem overly impressed...it was totally plain pasta, so I really can't blame him

Since he loves apple wedges, I bought him some orange cuties, the really tiny oranges, to see what he thought about them. I cut a few wedges into little pieces, but he wanted the whole orange.

Not really biting, just sucking the juice...

...not really sure about this Mom

but, he didn't want me to take it away

still not too sure

he 'ate' the orange for about 5 minutes, but really all he accomplished was getting orange juice all over his bib, jeans, and socks

He has also tried green beans, ranch style beans, black beans, and refried beans...black beans seem to be a big hit!

Next up for Curious Jake, the ever exciting, water bottle! Here he is showing all the different ways you can hold a water bottle.

Jake's latest fascination, his toy baskets in our living room. He loves to sit or lay next to them and pull them over so he can toss every single toy out of them onto our floor.

One of his favorite toys is of course, Elmo! This is the face he makes whenever he sees his Elmo!

Lately, Curious Jake has been very interested in the bottom side of all his toys. It can have all the bells and whistles on the front, but within 30 seconds, he has it flipped over and studies the bottom very intently.

This picture I took today, and it cracks me up...Jake was sitting next to his basket emptying it of toys, when he decided to lay down. He is half buried with toys and having the best time ever.

And since you took the time to read a longer blog, I'll save the most exciting news for last...tonight Jake started army crawling :) He's only made it about 6 inches, but he's definitely a man on the move.

I love my boys

A few days ago, Jake just didn't want to go down for his afternoon nap. I put him down around 3:00, his usual afternoon naptime...and he played and fussed and played and fussed in his crib until 3:45. I tried all my usual tricks to get him to sleep, but nothing worked. He was clearly tired, very fussy, but wanted nothing to do with a nap. I brought him back downstairs and he was still fussy there. Thankfully, Stephen got home at 4:00 and took him upstairs. I had the monitor on downstairs and after about 5 minutes, everything was quiet, way to go Daddy! About 15 minutes later, Stephen still hadn't come downstairs...another 15 minutes, still no Stephen. I quitely made my way upstairs, and this is what I saw, it melted my heart!



I went downstairs and got my camera of course. I love my boys so much and they clearly love each other just as much!

Our Latest Playdate

Last Friday we had our most recent playdate with our favorite mommies and babies. We have made some new friends in our Tiny Tots class so our playgroup has grown a little bit. It's really fun having friends get together with so frequently. And even more fun...the beginning of the first birthday parties starts next week! Last week we went to our friends, Heather and Tyler's, house.

Here are Tyler and Jake...the youngest babies, and the two left to learn to crawl...so they hang out together a lot

Here is Jake and Brinley, a very cute picture of the two of them

Here are the latest pictures of our group...Ava and her mom, Kristen, weren't able to come so they are missing.

from left to right: Tyler, Madison, Brinley, Jake, and Carter

8 Months Old!

This post is a long one :) I'm catching up on pics from the past week and blogging about our 8 month milestones :)

It is hard to believe that our little boy is already 8 months old! I feel like each month is going by faster and faster as we are getting closer to his first birthday. Jake's personality is growing day by day and each day it seems he is doing something new, and wanting to do more and more on his own. We celebrated his 8 month birthday with Jake catching his first cold :( Last night Jake was extremely restless in his sleep. I took his temp around 1:30 am and it was 102! We gave him tylenol and got him back to sleep and got him in to the doctor first thing this morning. He has a cold, but has not had a fever at all today, which is good. He is playing and eating like normal and except for the occasional cough and sneeze, you probably couldn't tell he is sick.

Here he is playing today, still smiling :)

it's hard to tell from this angle, but he is pulling his toy basket over to find a new toy

he loves to smush his face up on his inflatable ball

Here are some of Jake's big accomplishments from this past month:

*he has become very good at feeding himself finger foods. he loves puffs, veggie sticks, yogurt melts, and apple wedges. he started off the month by raking the food into his hands, but now uses the pincher grip to grasp his food. he contstantly wants what mommy and daddy are eating, but we aren't quite ready for table food yet.

*he says mama and dada and associates the word with stephen and I. you can ask him "where's mama/dada/or daisy?" and he will find the person in the room you ask him about. his other favorite things to say are 'nanana, bababa, yayaya, and what often sounds like "hey"

*he reaches for us when he wants to be held and it is the best feeling in the world!

*he gives big ol' sloppy kisses and I love them! he loves kissing the 'baby' in the mirror on his sing-and-stage'

*just today he started clapping...he loves to clap objects together and hold my hands and make them clap, but today he finally realized he could clap his own hands together. we are also working on waving "hi" and "bye" he waved at the manager at olive garden last week when we were eating there, but I didn't see it! he loves to raise his arms up in a "yay!" pose and most of them time holds things in his hands while he does it :)

*he rolls all the time in his crib and while playing, finally rolling from tummy to back on a regular basis.

*over the past few days we have started working on Jake putting himself to sleep in his crib as opposed to us rocking him. the transition has been surprisingly easy so far. and even though he isn't feeling well today, he set a personal best time of being asleep in 8 minutes for his afternoon nap today! I was dreading this transition and am thankful it has been going well to this point.

*and of course our most frequently asked question, no, still not crawling...and I am enjoying these days before Jake starts running me all over the hosue :) he can hold himself up in all-fours position if we get him there, but he doesn't initiate the position yet. he also will spin himself in circles playing with toys and does so by using big push-ups and dragging himself to the toy he wants. he can scoot backwards, but no forward progress yet. I really think Jake won't be an army crawl kind of guy...he is going to just take off on us one day!

*he loves his scooter that grandpa and granna got him for Christmas, but he can only go in reverse :) and he loves to sit on it and play on his activity table. it also gets him closer to Daisy, which he loves.

Jacob, Mommy and Daddy love you so much! It is so hard to believe that you are growing up so quickly on us. We love playing with you every day and seeing what new trick you will surprise us with. We can't wait to see what new milestones month 9 will bring.

Jake's First Carousel Ride

Yesterday, our friends Heather and Tyler called us to see if we wanted to get out of the house. I said "YES!" right away because it was a game day and it was just me and Jake all day long. After some brainstorming by the mommies we decided to head up to Stonebriar Mall and see what adventures we could find there. I quickly threw some make-up on my face and got Jake ready to go. This was Jake's first official trip to the mall! I haven't been to a mall since Jake was born, and it really made me miss shopping :) We met up with Heather and Tyler at the mall and set off. Then we remembered they have a carousel at the mall and we decided to give it a try. I thought Jake would either absolutely love it or I was about to be that mom at the mall with the crying baby.

Jake and Tyler waiting patiently while the mommies decided whether or not to attempt to ride the carousel.

we decided to be brave!

I had nothing to worry about, Jake LOVED it! He isn't smiling in this picture, but he was all smiles during the ride.


Heather and Tyler had fun too!