16 Months Old

Look at my cozy coupe that Granddad worked so hard to put together for me!

As pitiful as this picture looks, it is actually of Jake singing! I think he get's his flare for the dramatics from Aunt Amy!


Seriously, could he juggle any more balls?

"Throw me the ball, Mommy! It's my turn to bat!"

Anxiously awaiting the trash men.

"When are the trash men gonna get here mom?"

"I see them!"

Heyhowyadoin?

Today our big boy turned 16 months old! Over these last few weeks, I've really seen a lot of change in him. Of course, his mind is a little sponge, and he totally soaks up everything we say. He is constantly learning new words, making connections, and just overall understanding so much more. Sometimes I catch myself talking to him like he's a big kid, but he gets it! I just love watching the person he's becoming; Tyson looked at me the other day and asked me if Jake was my best friend, and he totally is...other than Tyson of course! :) I just love this little boy!

Right now, Jake is still taking two naps a day for a total of about 3.5 hours and sleeps from 6:30 pm to 7 am. In addition to being a good sleeper, Jake is a hefty eater! He will eat anything I put in front of him, and he definitely loves his fruit! I am so blessed to have a good sleeper and a non-picky eater!

Jake has entered the climbing phase and is getting close to climbing out of his crib. The pediatrician recommended I move him over to a big boy bed because "he's showing signs he ready," but mama's not quite so ready for that! I think we can make it work a little while longer!

Jake LOVES to be outside!! He is all boy and loves any kind of bat, ball, car, truck, etc. As you can tell from the pictures, Jake either has a bat or ball in his hand at any given time. He's also obsessed with things that make loud noises, especially airplanes, which he calls "bee bees" for some reason, and loves trying to find them in the sky.

Jake is saying so many words that I can't keep count any more. If he doesn't know what the word is, he will point to the object, look at you, and ask, "this?" It is so cute!! He's really good at repeating them back and remembering what I said. He's a sponge! The other day we were outside and Jake heard a lawn mower; he thought it was a plane and started saying "bee bee" as he looked around for it. Tyson said, "No that's a lawn mower." Jake said, "lawn mower?" in the most articulate and grown-up way you have ever heard. Ever since then, as soon as Jake hears the sound, he says "lawn mower" and he's dead on everytime.

I'm starting to figure out Jake's personality, and I have no idea where he gets it from! He is definitely still very shy in public, but I think he's just gonna be one of those kids that I would call "an observer." When we're around other kids, Jake tends to stand back, watch the kids, and then slowly start to interact. He doesn't tend to say much when he's around other kids or people, and he doesn't have to be the center of attention. When he does talk, though, it is usually something very important and you listen. Because he's paid such close attention, the second something is out of place (like you lose your shoe, leave a cup somewhere, or drop a cracker), Jake is very quick to pick up on it and he goes on a mission to help you. He is very independent and seems to be very kind and generous for a child his age. I can't tell you the number of times I've seen him take snacks out of his "snack trap" and give them to other kids; this may not seem like a big deal, but it is. I'm awful at sharing food, plus, the way Jake eats, you'd think he wouldn't miss a bite! But Jake always likes to make sure other kids are taken care of. He is such a sweet boy! It will be interesting to see how he turns out!

As usual, I can't remember what else I wanted to say on this post. I'll try to remember next time! :) Oh, as for his aggressive behavior, he is really getting better. Tyson and I tried almost everything you could think of, and we have found that speaking calmly to Jake and explaining to him what he's done wrong works the best along with a lot of positive reinforcement. Crazy, huh? That's a little different from my childhood to say the least! :) Happy 16 month birthday, "Jake Jake!" We love you so much!

"The Candy Babies"

Carson, Kendall, and Kaden

My little stud

Jake pointed at everything and asked, "This?"

Jake trying to share his goldfish with Kaden.

These kids could put down some icecream! I don't know how Mollie gets a bite in!

The flamingos were acting crazy that day!! Maybe it's mating season or something?



In fact, all the animals were acting kinda strange.

Last week, Jake and I went to the zoo with one of my friends from the hospital, Mollie, and her triplets, "the candy babies." They were given that nickname by one of our co-workers' granddaughter because of their names- Carson, Kendall, and Kaden. Thus, they are "the candy babies," and the candy babies are as sweet their name!

This was my first time being with the triplets, so I had no idea what to expect, but they were really good babies! I'm so impressed. And Mollie made having triplets look easy...no joke. I tell her all the time that I don't know how she does it...she, too, is a football coaches' wife and works a crazy schedule like me, but she has 2 more kids than I do and I'm barely holding myself together with my 1! Well, maybe that's a bit of an exageration; either way, it was so fun to hang out with Mollie and the triplets...Jake was sooo intrigued by them! I can definitely see Kendall being a future girlfriend (if her brothers will allow it) and the boys being good buddies.

15 Month Check-up

Ponch and Jon

Apparently, the only requirement for this toy

is that your mouth must be wide open!

They might fight like cats and dogs, but these boys do love each other!

Mr. Big Time going down the slide by himself...face first!

Sneaky.

Busted

My sweet boy giving Mrs. Ashley and Ryan a pretty flower (also known as a weed)

Even though Jake is now almost 16 months old, we just went yesterday for our 15 month check-up. I have to admit, this round of shots wasn't nearly as bad as the others, thank goodness! The check-up went well. Jake weighs 26 lbs 5 oz (65%), which is down 2 oz from last week, and is 33.75 in tall (97%). Dr. Dudgeon likes giving me a hard time asking where Jake is getting this height from. I told him imagine how much taller Jake would be if his bow-legs would straighten out...that would give him at least another 2 inches! :) We did actually address the severity of Jake's "intoeing" as it's called; Tyson pointed out that Jake's right foot turns in so much that he's actually tripping on it. Unfortunately for Jake, he has not only 1 bone that is turned in (like most people), but he has 2! It's so bad that his right foot can be completely turned 180 degrees and face backwards. Anyways, one of the bones usually starts to improve from 18 months-2 years, and the other doesn't improve until age 5-7. So, we are just gonna watch his "intoeing" until age 2 and then reassess. I personally doesn't see anything wrong with a little bow-leggedness (is that a word?)...haha. Dr. Dudgeon also pointed out that Jake seems to have a lot of teeth coming in. Right now, he has his top front four, bottom front three, and one molar, so it wouldn't hurt to have a few more!

Sorry for the picture overload lately. The weather has just been so beautiful and the lighting has been perfect for pictures. Plus, my camera seems to be in love with a blonde haired, brown-eyed little boy! Enjoy the pictures!

Backyard Fun

"I'm not so sure about this kid driving my 4-wheeler!"

"Somebody get him off NOW before I drive this thing into a house!"

Tyson says, "It's not nice to ram your 4-wheeler into the side of the neighbor's house."Jake says, "He didn't say anything about ramming it into my house!"

I don't know if you can tell from the pictures, but the houses in our neighborhood are really close together. Minus the occasional baby screaming, dog barking, and spouse yelling (just kidding), I love being so close to our neighbors (well, except for the strange neighbors directly to our left that never come out of their house); it makes playtime in our backyard so much more enjoyable! It's like one big communal backyard!

Friday, before I left for work, Tyson, Jake, and I enjoyed a nice game of home-run derby in our backyard. It didn't take too long before Ginger and Brantley were outside joining us. Brantley drove Jake's 4-wheeler all by himself for the first time, and it was too cute! We thought it would be funny to let the boys ride it together, but Jake wasn't having it. Either he was being really stingy or it was too much of an invasion of his personal space..either way, it made for cute

pictures! We definitely missed Ashley and Ryan, but I don't think they missed us too much!...Ryan came down with Hand, Foot, and Mouth no thanks to my son! :( Sorry Ryan!

Close-ups with Jake

My beautiful little boy!

Trying to drive his 4-wheeler up the hill!
A Man on a Mission!

Two posts in one day...seriously, what am I doing with my time? Taking pictures, of course, of my precious child and just wanting to share! I realized yesterday that I don't many recent close-ups of Jake, so I put my zoom lens on today and snapped away. I couldn't get him to crack a smile (he's so serious!), though; today was "Mother's Day Out" and Jake always gets cranky on school days due to his "schedule" being off. :)

Here are some other funny things to share:

• Jake has started saying 2 word phrases. His first was "bye bye da da." He now says "bye bye anything he knows the word to."
• Today, Jake put his finger on my mouth and said, "AAAHHHH" while opening his mouth as wide as he could. Can you tell the kid has been to the doctor a little too much lately?
• Whenever Jake falls, trips, smashes his finger, etc. he always "spanks" the blamed object and says, "bad!" and makes the meanest face at it! Actually, he sounds more like he is saying "baaaa" (like a sheep), but I know what he means. :) Oh, and I swear I don't do spank my child and tell him he's bad...he saw me do it one time to a door that he ran smack dab into to distract him from a huge meltdown and he caught on immediately!
• This isn't funny, but this weekend when Jake was really struggling with the mouth sores from the Hand, Foot, Mouth, Jake couldn't eat anything but yogurt. I tried to feed him his favorite food, grapes, but he would put one up to his mouth and say, "Ouuuwwww." Pitiful but cute!

Happy Weekend!

Videos as Requested by Daddy

I can tell Tyson is really missing Jake being on the road so much with recruiting, so I thought I'd shoot some videos for him. I wasn't going to post them, though, because I didn't think they were good quality, but Tyson begged me to. My new camera can't record videos and I can't figure out to transfer over the videos from the actual video camera, so, I pulled out my old camera and this is what I got. Sorry if the film is kinda "Blair Witch"-ish; that camera has definitely seen better days. Anyways, it's nothing too exciting. Jake has become obsessed with "my chair" and climbing up and down on it. He thinks he is soooo cool when he actually gets up there!

Jake is really a show-off when the camera comes out...I think he gets this from his Daddy! ;) At least you get to hear him talk some (in between a lot of show-off gibberish) and say "bat" or "bat bat" and "ball." I really wish I could video tape more of him talking, but he just acts so silly when I try that all that comes out is baby talk! I'm gonna keep trying though!

This video is very short, but cute. One of my favorite words Jake says is "more." It actually looks and sounds more like he is saying "moo," but he definitely means "more!" In fact, he is pretty smart with how he uses "more"...not only does it mean "more food", but it also means "more take me outside," "more pick me up," "more time in the bath tub," etc. It is just so nice for him to verbally communicate "more" of his needs these days!

And in this last video, Jake was trying to get in the chair last night before bedtime. As you can tell, he was a little tired and couldn't quite get it together! Please note a few things: 1) his flexibility!, 2) his temper tantrum at the end followed by 3) thumb in mouth and going to sleep on the floor. Please excuse the fussiness...it was bedtime!

Back to "Normal"

"The girls love me...even with my "hoof-n-mouth."

I think it is safe to say that Jake is now back to normal after his bout with Hand, Foot, and Mouth. Last night's sleep wasn't the best, but it was a lot better than the previous 4 nights, thank goodness! Either way, Jake was his normal self on the playground today-snatching other kids' toys, beating up on the older kids, poking kids' eyes out, etc. Just kidding, he was actually pretty tame today...lucky for the other kids!

We met up with some of our friends from the coaching staff and had fun at the park. The girls just love all over Jake, and the boys have nothing to do with him. Typical. It was nice, though, to have the older kids there to entertain Jake and "baby sit" him for me. :) I was told, though, by my good friend, Merritt, (in a good way) that I was being too over-protective and I might "retard Jake's growth." Woops. Jake is in his climbing phase, but I just get so nervous with him on the playground equipment. Anyways, once we got home, I just let him have at it. And sure enough, Jake can actually get up and down off the furniture pretty well...kind of. I actually video-taped some of it, so I will have to post that some other time. As for now, "overprotective" mom is just glad her baby boy is back to being his crazy self! :)

**And just to clarify, we are NOT Auburn fans...I just think the shirt is cute! :)

"Hoof-n-Mouth"

What a long week! Thursday, our four month old laptop crashed thanks to a virus sent to me from my preacher. Friday, my mom came to town to keep Jake while I worked and while Tyson went to Presbyterian College for an alumni Football game. That's when things started going downhill.

I got home from work Saturday morning to find my poor mama worn out! Don't get me wrong, by that point, I had been awake for 24 hours, so I was pretty exhausted, too. I could tell immediately something was wrong with Jake. He had been awake since 4:30 am and was fussy and irritable; not to mention, he had a fever. All the signs pointed towards ear infection, so I called his pediatrician as soon as they opened and took him in. It wasn't an ear infection like I thought...it was hand, foot, and mouth disease! (If you don't know what that is, you don't want to know...it is disgusting!) Jake had a really bad case; ulcers completely covered the back of his throat.

We got home from the pediatrician's office and I tried to lay down for a couple of hours (now going on 28 hours with no sleep) while Mom watched Jake. Sadly, though, I could hear Jake through my ear plugs just crying in pain. He was pitiful; he was inconsolable, wouldn't eat or drink, and couldn't sleep. And things have been that way ever since...no joke. Saturday night, he was up every hour crying, and Sunday and Monday night he was up every two hours crying. I am exhausted. My mom left Sunday and so did Tyson (and our BFF neighbors), so I have been all by myself....sleep deprived, with a sick baby, and no internet.

Jake did start playing today and has started to act like his normal self. He still isn't eating but he has finally started drinking. I don't know why his sleep is still affected as badly as it is; this is the worst I have ever seen Jake in pain...even more so than after his surgery! I feel so bad for my poor little fellow. This "hoof-n-mouth" (as my mom refers to it:) is really wearing him down...and me too. :( Maybe we're on the up-swing now, though.

My Blue Shirt

"This is my favorite blue shirt because it's the color of the PC Blue Hose!"

"Don't I wear it well?"

"What happened to the other shirt I had on earlier?"

"Oh yeah. Gross...how could I forget?"

"Oh well! Party on!"

We don't have too much going on around here this week (thank goodness) to post about, so I thought I'd post these cute pictures I took last week after Jake got home from school. I don't think I'll ever forget these pictures or why Jake was wearing this blue shirt.

On my way to pick up Jake from school that day, I realized I hadn't packed him a change of clothes for that day. I didn't sweat it too much because up until now, Jake has never needed a change of clothes for school. Low and behold, I get to school to find my lil' redneck baby in nothing but a diaper and his pants. His teacher immediately explained "it" had just happened and she was so sorry; I was half paying attention to what she was saying because I could think about was "how redneck am I gonna look carrying out a half dressed baby?" And not to mention, Jake's surgery scar is still so noticeable that all people do when they see his stomach is just stare at it...I felt awful for my poor child. I grabbed his stuff and cut out of there as quickly as possible. Once we were in the car, I settled down and looked in his bag to make sure I had everything, and then I saw it...the shirt. What was that all over it? I grabbed his sheet of paper from school and saw: "Sorry about his shirt. Jake did a little hand-dive during a dirty diaper." Gross. Apparently, he stuck his hand right in "it" and then wiped it on his shirt...ALL OVER his shirt! Gross.

Oh, how exciting is my life that I've resorted to posting about this? I love it and wouldn't have it any other way, though...well, minus the "hand-dive" during a dirty diaper part!