Happy Thanksgiving!

Jake says, "Happy Thanksgiving everybody!"

I am so thankful for my two boys!

"So how much longer until Santa Claus comes?"

Wow! We have so much to be thankful for this year! So much so, I could go on and on, but at the top of both mine and Tyson's list is definitely our healthy little boy, Jake. We are so blessed! We hope everyone has a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Seafood

"Guess what my favorite food is?..."

"SEAFOOD!"
"MMWWAAWW...right back at you babe!"

Hey Everybody!

It's me, Jake! Since I am such a big boy now, my Mommy said I could do the talking. Here are some new pictures of me, Pat-Pat, that you keep bugging my Mommy for. Mommy has been trying to take pictures of me for the last 2 days, but I won't sit still long enough for her to get a good shot; the only time she can take my picture these days is when I am strapped in my high chair. Did you know that I eat ALL BY MYSELF? My teacher at school today said I was a little pig and got on to my Mommy for not bringing me enough food, but I just ate the other kids' food instead. I can't wait until Thanksgiving! I am going to eat at the Heltons' house with some of the players and coaches...just wait until I show those offensive lineman who the BIG BOY really is! I sure do hope they got a big turkey!! Well, it's past my bedtime, so I have to go to sleep now. Good night everybody! I love you! Thanks for reading my blog!

Love, Jake

Baby Steps

Here are some videos that I have been promising of Jake taking some steps. Like I said in a previous post, he took his first steps about 3 weeks ago, but I have been unable to capture it on video by myself. Tonight, though, Tyson came home a little early, so I enlisted his help. You'll notice, too, that I enlisted the help of a sugar cookie. Hey, whatever works, right?

As always, please excuse my obnoxious "Mommy talk" and my fabulous attire. I wish I could say that I had been on a long run or hitting the gym really hard, but I can't...I have no excuse. After all, Jake doesn't mind if Mommy doesn't shower or brush her hair or wear anything but sweats, so who cares, right? Oh, and please excuse my hand grabbing the camera at then end in the next video; Daddy kept trying to be cute with the camera!

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the videos! I wish I could say that these baby steps mean he'll be walking soon, but I definitely think Jake prefers his speed crawling and will stick with that as long as he can. I don't blame him, he gets around SO FAST with his crawling...he practically runs (on all fours!!). Too funny...maybe I should video tape that. Have a great weekend!

Monkey See, Monkey Eat

My Little Monkey!

"Look at all of these leaves! It's so hard to choose just one!"

"I think I'll take this one..."


"Ahh yes. This one is perfect. Not too crispy but not too chewy."

"Ummm...delicious! This is the best leaf I've ever put in my mouth."

"Okay, mom. I'm just going to play with the leaves now FOR REAL..."

"Well...after one more bite!"

Jake loves organic food...in particular, leaves. I'm trying to embrace my role as "a boy's mama" and not stress so much dirt, bruises, matching clothes, ingesting of leaves, etc, but after watching our neighbor Ryan get REALLY sick after eating a leaf, I am trying to be a little more cautious. I couldn't miss this photo opportunity, though, of Jake enjoying the fall leaves, even if it meant cleaning his mouth out between snaps!

The Best Thing for a Sore Throat...Diet Pepsi

Jake loves "helping" me unload the groceries; as soon as I put something in the refrigerator, he takes it right back out. Well today, I turned my back for about 5 seconds to find Jake trying his hardest to drink an unopened can of Diet Pepsi. It was the funniest thing! He was so determined just to get a little drop out of it. He finally gave up and decided to roll the can around the kitchen until it got stuck. Oh well! Maybe this is a sign I need to drink more water or something.

By the way, Jake is feeling a little better today. He hasn't run fever in the last 24 hours, so that is definitely a good thing. He is starting to play a little bit, but he mostly just wants to be held, which is fine by me!!

He's Home!...with Strep Throat!

Thanks for everything, Mom! We love you!

Jake loves Pat-Pat so much that he wanted to give her a big kiss

before we left...and share his strep throat with her!

Yes, you read the title correctly, poor little Jake has strep throat! Mom called me Wednesday morning and said Jake was running a fever and had diarrhea, so I just thought he had caught the stomach virus. I knew my mom would take excellent care of Jake, so I went on to work that night. Jake was still running fevers and had diarrhea by Thursday, but again, I still thought it was probably the stomach bug that and I reassured my mom everything was going to be ok. Anyways, I got to Thomaston Thursday night right before Jake went to bed; I took one woof of Jake's breath and I knew immediately that it was strep! We took him to a doctor in Thomaston on Friday and they confirmed the diagnosis. What's so weird about this whole thing is that strep is VERY uncommon in Jake's age group; seriously, it like ALMOST NEVER happens in children under 2. Oh well, I guess one good thing that came out of this is that at least Jake didn't catch the stomach bug...yet. Thanks for taking such good care of Jake, Mom and Dad, while I was sick and while I worked. I'm sorry that y'all got sick, too, and had to take care of my sick baby on top of it all!

Nothing

This pretty picture of the tree in our backyard is all I have to show for this week; I have no cute pictures of my child, no sweet videos of him saying "Da Da", and no evidence of him walking to post on here from this week. Why you might ask? My precious baby boy has been on "vacation from Mommy" since last Thursday! You see, a certain neighbor and her darling child shared a stomach virus with me last week. I survived the first day with the help of Tyson, but by day 2, it was too much for me, so I called in "reinforcement"...aka my mom. My mom was here for a couple of hours when she realized she needed to rescue Jake from the virus, so she took off with Jake and headed back to Thomaston as I stood in the driveway and cried like a baby. To add insult to injury, mom was supposed to keep Jake for me this week so I could work, so she just chose to stay in Thomaston...with my baby...for the rest of the week. So sad. And to make matters worse, I shared the virus with Tyson, who gave it back to me, and now my sweet mama has come down with it. Poor mom...poor Jake...poor me.

No Shoes, No Shorts, No Problems!

"But Mommy, I look good in onesie! I don't want to wear pants!"

"Don't you see how hot my legs are? Why would you ever cover them up?"

Silly boys!

Twins?

"I love this kid!"

"Where is Ryan?"

"There he is!"

"Don't leave us Mommy!"

As much as I love fall weather, I am REALLY loving this warm weather we've had lately! Jake just loves playing outside, and it's been so nice going out and not worrying about bundling up and runny noses! The best part of playing outside in the warm weather, though, is getting to see our friend Ryan. The boys are so cute together! I just can't get enough of them!

Happy (belated on the blog) Birthday, Grandmama!

This past Sunday was Tyson's mom's birthday, and I completely forgot to wish her a "blog birthday"! No, I didn't forget her birthday, but just forgot to post it. Anyways, Happy Birthday Grandmama! We wish we could have been there to celebrate it with you! We love you!

10 Months Old!

"Can't a guy just bang the remote on his play table

without being harassed by the paparazzi, Mom?"

"It's hardwork to stay so beautiful...and to maintain my mullet."

Jake will be 10 months old tomorrow! I can't believe he is almost a year old! Where has the time gone? Anyways, we have had an exciting last few days...Jake took his first steps! He's been standing a good bit on his own these last few weeks and has taken a few steps here and there, but on Saturday, Jake took 4 steps from my mom to me! I was shocked...I had no idea it was coming. Sunday morning when Tyson was home, Jake showed his daddy his new skills, too, and took another 3-4 steps! Of course today, though, I've tried video-taping him walking, but the "subject" wouldn't cooperate. I'll be sure to get it on video once I have someone else around to video tape!

What else are we doing? Jake is not adapting well to day-light savings yet. Will someone please tell my child to turn his clock back an hour? Mommy doesn't play so well at 6 a.m.! Jake is adapting pretty well, though, to eating table food. He doesn't seem be too picky about what he eats, but he definitely prefers a waffle or a ham sandwich versus a fancy meal! He is quite stubborn, though, during meal times. I am starting to realize my child despises anything that requires a spoon; he is definitely a finger-foods kind of guy!

Jake loves to play! Whether it's a game of chase, peek-a-boo, hide and seek, it doesn't matter! His new thing that he loves to do is to pull up on my back, let me "look" for him a couple of times, and then pop his head out so I can find him. He thinks this is so funny! We do it about 20-30 times a day. He is also fascinated with opening and closing doors and has been for a while; well, now he likes to close doors, hide, and then he knocks for me to open it and find him. He is such a mess!

Now on to the video...I tried capturing him taking some steps, but as I said in the beginning, he is being rather uncooperative. I thought this video was cute either way because he is holding my cell phone saying "Da Da Da." (We talk to Da Da a good bit on the phone during the day if you can't tell!). Also, you will hear some gibberish after Da Da that is kind of hard to make out, but it is Jake saying "Buh Buh." What does that mean you might ask? "Buh" is what Jake calls Mommy these days! I don't know where he got it from, especially since he can say "ma ma," but whatever. It's still cute! Happy 10 month Birthday, Jake!