Slacker Mom

Wow!

I made a goal to post once a week! And WHOLE month has slid by.
Let's back up and just cover Turkey day.

Jake had a wonderful Thanksgiving - we drove down to Albany, OR to see my brother Jared his wife Jessie and kids Ella, 2 and Jonas 5 months.

He really enjoyed chasing Ella. (Ella really enjoyed being chased) Thanksgiving dinner marked the first meal where Jake ate all solids. No baby food.
The key - cut everything into really small peices. He also enjoyed mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes and stuffing. Ella introduced Jake to peas. He even ate turkey.

By the end of the weekend Jake was saying Ella. "Eewa" and "Eeya"
Ella also introduced Jake to jumping on the couch and how to empty the coffee table and hide onself inside. (All valuable toddler & early development skills - especially for future mom evasive manuevers.)

Mom and Jessie were busy Thanksgiving cooking dinner - so I volunteered as chief kid wrangler. And let me tell you those bronchos and palmino put in a full day. I don't know how Jessie manages TWO babies. I can just manage one.

Poor Jonas - seemed to want to join in the cavorting. But he was always good for a smile.
Next year - Jake & Jonas will be walking. I can only imagine the mischief intensifying.

Below are pictures of Ella showing how to hide in the coffee table and sharing her peas with Jacob.

Jake TURNS ONE

It was a fun weekend as we celebrated Jake's first birthday.

He turned one on Thursday - I brought a giant mylar balloon shaped as the number 1.
The balloon is as tall as Jake (30 inches) Jake enjoyed slobbering and rolling over the balloon.

Later that evening we celebrated by opening two presents.
And having a little ice cream after dinner.
On Saturday we went to Great-Grandma Fereday's (or GG as she likes to be called) and had spagehtti dinner with chocolate cake for desert.

We sang Jake, "Happy Birthday" and had him (grandma mortensen) blow out a candle.
He liked the cake - but didn't dive in face first. He only ate it if we gave it to him and he seemed not to like having his hands dirty.

Jake continues to keep us in stitches and surprise us. He has a great sense of humor. He's very patient - he let the pediatrician look at his ears and eye with minimal fuss. The doc was suprised he was so complient.

Jake l0ves to rough house, and crawl up behind grandma or I and grab onto us. He will throw a tantrum if he doesn't get something he wants but he is easily distracted. He is learning out to give kisses and he hates bed time.

He calls all animals kitty. He has said car and hand but I think he was mimicking me and I haven't seen any solid word association. I have made a goal to read 3 books to him a night to help boost his vocabulary. I haven't been diligent about reading to him in the past.

Halloween

This year - I took Jake to a work Halloween party a few days before Halloween. I dressed him up as a penguin. The costume came with a penguin pajama costume, feet, a hood and a top hat. Jake hated the hood so we never got as far as the top hat on his head... But he was adorable!

At the party he was engaged for about an hour watching the noise and all the other kids in costume. He even tried fresh pineapple (a new favorite) then he was ready to head home.

On the big day we played it low key and Jake dressed up as a penguin and handed out candy to the neighborhood trick or treaters. The girls in particular seemed to notice his costume and one time when a group of girls was cooing about how cute he was... he started to trill. Almost as if to say, "I'm not just a pretty face - look what else I can do." He's almost a year old and already he knows how to flirt.

Boys, Cars & the Pumpkin Patch

I bought Jake a new toy from someone at work who has 3 boys and was cleaning out some unused toys. This car Jake can either ride or we can convert to a walker. I happened to be working late the night of the purchase and I was so excited to show Jake that I showed him the new toy just before bedtime. BIG MISTAKE! He loved the new toy SO much there was great lamentation when he had to part with it just to go to bed!
I even had to put the toy out of sight in order for him to take his nightly bottle.

The next morning it seemed to me like he was looking for this new toy right away. Now that we've had the car a week - it's lost a little of it's novelty. It's still a favorite toy - just parting from it is not as dramatic as the first night.

I have never seen Jake so attached to a toy before that night last week. Usually common items we allow him to have around the house are just as engaging as his toys. He loves mom's rollers, her pick, lids off propel water bottles, his nose squeegie, pill bottles with child proof lids and his ultimate favorite - the caps off the bolts on the toilet. You know the ones near the floor. Also repeatedly flushing the toilet is a favorite passtime.

And I have found myself cleaning niches and crevices - I never paid detailed attention to before. Just in case my curious explorer happens to end up in that location.

I also took Jake to the pumpkin patch last Saturday. He hated it. It was incredibly cold, windy & rainy. I thought I had bundled Jake in enough layers but his little hands were freezing. He didn't like the pumpkins and every time I set him down to snap a photo he cried. After surviving an entire hour (he did stop crying long enough to pet the sheep and the kittens on the pumpkin patch farm) I packed it in and he took a nap in the warm cozy car.

cousin Jack visits Oct 8-14

This was a fabulous week! Cousins Jack 8 months and Jacob 11 months had the WHOLE week to hang out and become re-acquainted since Jack's blessing in New York 61/2 months ago in April. Jack was 10 weeks old and Jake was 20 weeks old last April.

During their visit, Jake demonstrated the finer arts of being mobile - standing and crawling. While Jack showed the subtlety of being congenial, very smiley and even tempered. Both boys LOVE the bath. Jack loves to splash and Jake likes to stand and throw all toys within arms distance into the bath. Which seems to delight Jack - when he's taking a breather from splashing.

They both have the be coaxed to eat at mealtimes. Jack is more comfortable with solid grown up foods. (Which we noticed and Jake was willing to try eggplant rigatonni cut into very small pieces.) They both have very similar boyish grunting sounds of approval or disapproval. (Hard to tell which at this age.) When I was feeding Jack this morning as Jaime got ready to pack - I almost recognized that, "will ya hurry up?" sigh coming from Jack as I get from Jake when he is close to being done in the high chair.

Both boys also enjoyed digging into the toy chest and enjoyed the same toys. Only twice did Jake take a toy away from Jack. Who was surprised but didn't protest. In the name of chivalry - I gave the toy BACK to Jack. (I worry because Jake is an only child this may be an issue with future cousin visits.)

The highlight of the week was when both boys were playing on the bed (under our supervision) and Jake (who was a little wired after a shortened afternoon nap) kept doing acrobatics that would delight Jack and make him laugh out loud. This kept us all entertained and in stitches for at least 45 minutes. At one point Jack put his hand on Jake's should almost as if he was saying,
"good one, cuz."

A few times when Jake was down for his nap Jack would look around for his compadre.
Even though they are a few months apart they are the same height - 29 inches. Jake is 2 pounds heavier than Jack. Jacob seems heavy around the middle and a little stocky - while Jack seems wirey and leaner. Will be interesting to see of Jacob can keep up with Jack's height?

By the end of the visit Jack enjoyed standing with a little support - I think he saw the advantages of being mobile. Once or twice I saw Jacob motion to Jack as if to say, "C'mon, Jack there's trouble to be had over here." Jack would smile and kick his feet enthusiastically and Jake would turn and set out to find mischief on his own.

I noticed that between the two - Jacob is a little more hyper. I have either a daredevil or showoff on my hands. I love the spirit in the boy - but in the words of Maria Bamford, I am trying to channel his super powers for good.

However, we had a fabulous visit and we don't want to let too much time pass before we get the boys together again.