Birthday gifts

Here is a YouTube link to the video of us singing Happy Birthday and Jacob "blowing" out the candle.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gNbYrvGsb0&feature=youtu.be

And here is a video of him (well, Micah) opening his gift from Grammy and Pop Pop!

First Birthday!

May 26 was Jacob's first birthday! Jacob's birthday was on Saturday so we chose to celebrate on Monday after I had returned from Vermont. We spent the morning at the park.  Our friends and their 2-yr-old came over to celebrate with us. I made a mini yellow cake and cupcakes, with cool whip for frosting, and sprinkles.We grilled some chicken and had dinner, then sang Happy Birthday and put down the mini cake in front of Jacob. He wasted no time getting both hands in it! But it did take him a little bit to figure out he could eat it. Once he did, though, he demolished it! He was in good spirits even though he had a runny nose and was laughing and enjoying himself the whole time. After cake Micah helped him open gifts and then it was right in the tub to scrub off all those crumbs! Micah and David ran around playing while Jacob tried his best to imitate whatever they were doing. He had a bit of a hard time going to sleep that night, but who can blame him? I think he really enjoyed the day! I'll post some more in the next entry.

Vermont

                                         Beth and me

                                        Helen and Beth

                                        The three sisters

                                        The "homestead"

This weekend was a big one. It was my first time away from Jacob overnight. Dan was home with the boys while I flew to Vermont for Grampy's memorial service and burial. It was sad to say goodbye to him and to those memories I have at the house, which will probably be put on the market soon. But there were lots of happy memories, too, and that's what I try to dwell on. Due to the nature of the visit, I didn't take a whole lot of  "people" photos, but I did take lots of the house and property and a few of family members. It was kind of like a reunion and I enjoyed getting to see people I hadn't seen in a long time, even if it was only for a day. It was nice to have that time to be quiet and reflect, a luxury. And of course, I had to make the pilgrimage to the Mountainview creamie stand! I was glad to get home to the guys and see that they made out just fine (pizza and chocolate chip cookies seemed to help). Jacob's got a cold, but what's new ?  :-)

First Word

Jacob loves this page in his farm animal book because the piggy makes the funniest sound!

I'm pretty sure that Jacob has a new word, other than Mama and Dada. It's "book"! Since he was just a few months old, I've been reading him a book before bed each night so he's familiar with the idea. I think his favorite is Goodnight Moon since he almost always picks that one out of a group of books. A couple of weeks ago we were looking at books in his room and he picked one up and said "book". I figured he was just putting sounds together until I realized that he was doing it repeatedly whenever we would go to the pile of books or when he would pick one up off the floor in the living room. We knew that he likes reading since he often chooses to leaf through, or chew on, a book when given a variety of toys to choose from. He also likes to turn the pages of board books himself when we read to him. So I guess I'm willing to call it at this point! I hope he continues to have a love for reading, just like his parents and big brother do.

Jacob's Dedication/Mother's Day

Those who would like to see Jacob's dedication at church last Sunday, click here. Micah also sings in the preschool choir in this video. The kids sing, there's a video shown and then the dedication is around 15 minutes in, so you might want to fast-forward to there after you hear Micah sing. Also, for some reason, I had to load this video several times before the sounds would work, so you might have to, too. The dedication was our way of recognizing our desire to encourage Jacob to serve the Lord with his life. Ultimately, that will be his decision, but we pray that as he grows up and explores what it means to have faith, he will seek out Christ, the one who loves and teaches us what love is.

I had a wonderful Mother's Day. Micah gave me two sprouting flowers in little cups that he had made at school! This is special to me, since the first Mother's Day gift I got from him was a styrofoam cup with Happy Mother's Day written on it and a flower inside :-) From Jacob, I got a little laminated bookmark with his picture and his footprint :-) And Dan surprised me with a Kindle Fire e-reader, which this bookworm has been wanting! We went out to eat and even though it ended up being one of those times when you just have to get your food, and then get a to-go box and get the heck outta there, it was still special. It gave me a chance to reflect on how grateful I am for my family. Really, this holiday is about Dan and the boys too, since I wouldn't "qualify" without them! And, of course, we are thankful for our mothers who raised us in loving families and showed us how we ought to love each other.

Put 'em in, spit 'em out, Rawhiiiii-de!

Jacob's new trick is putting rice puffs or other food in his mouth and then spitting it out again. This makes for a very messy meal, but it's a lot of fun for him. I have a cute video of him doing this on YouTube:
http://youtu.be/B2lFh1Htcow

This morning both he and daddy fell asleep in the chair before school. Micah and I were the only ones still awake when it was time to leave. Since Jacob wakes up so early, he's usually ready for naptime by 7:30 or 8. We are trying to put him to bed a little later and move toward a bedtime around 7, but so far it hasn't affected his wake time (5:15-5:30).

The foot bone's connected to the....

So now that Jacob's taking bottles at home too, I had to snag one of these iconic photos :-) Micah was so proud. The video is of him giving a brief explanation of the human excretory system, a.k.a., what happens to the milk after you drink it, in case you were wondering! Soon little man will be drinking from a "big boy" cup so I figured I'd better snap away now in case I don't have another opportunity. I know I've said it before but, it's just amazing how fast these two are growing up. It's like one minute I was cradling Micah like I do Jacob and now he is explaining to me the importance of driving the speed limit in our car ("and if you have a truck or a monster truck..." lest we get a speeding ticket (which is like a "time-out" for adults). He may not always play by the rules, but he likes to know what they are :-)

Boys Will Be Boys

Things are looking up...it's Monday and no one needs to go to the doctor! No, but really, after the few months we've had this is something to be happy about. Jacob seems to be feeling much better. We aren't sure which of the recent changes has helped, but he has been sleeping for 11 hrs straight for the past several days! I can't say how wonderful this is. I don't want to jinx anything, but even just knowing that it's possible at this point is great. I love the extra sleep and I love that he is growing up well and reaching these milestones. But I have to admit that it's hard to know that he doesn't really *need* Mama in the middle of the night anymore (even if he still might want me there sometimes). Now if we could only move his wake-up time forward an hour from 5:30 a.m., we would be set! As you can see from the photo above he was a happy boy this weekend. Micah is showing off his acrobatic skills on the couch next to an empty bowl that once contained his favorite snack--apples with peanut butter! Next weekend Jacob will be dedicated at church so we took a trip to Hot Springs to buy a nicer outfit for him to wear and we also visited Sam's Club, which Micah now calls the "big, big" store. We managed to make it out of there without purchasing a giant container of fluorescent orange cheese puffs! When you live in a small town and have little children, it's a big deal just to go somewhere else for the afternoon so we all enjoyed that.

Go Reddies!

So the university I work for has been working on a big video project called a LipDub. It's a continuous shot video (no edits) that showcases the facilities on campus, student groups, majors and school spirit. It features students lip-syncing to a popular song or two and generally doing crazy stuff. Other schools have posted these on YouTube as an informal recruiting tool and Henderson decided to put one together. We are the first university in Arkansas to do so! If you want to see ours click on this link:
LipDub

Go Henderson Reddies!

Never Let It Get You Down

 "My eyes might look a little scary, but I'm feeling better now!"

The title of this blog could be Jacob's (and Micah's, for that matter) life theme. Even when he's not feeling well he knows how to put on a smile and keep going. As you can see from the first picture, his eyes were looking pretty rough and all last week he had green junk in them. So Monday we took him to the Dr. again and discovered that he has another double ear infection. Plus we were treating him for a diaper rash and a few other things having to do with "diaperland" which will remain nameless for those with weak stomachs. We are in the process of switching him over to formula (I am weaning him, and it's a little too early for cow's milk.) so we weren't sure if that was affecting him  negatively. Anyway, here we are in the middle of next week. His rash is much better, tummy troubles  are resolved, and Jacob slept all night last night so I think the ears are feeling better too! We may have to consider tubes for him if he keeps getting these infections, but for now we're just keeping an eye on it. We are down to just one nursing session before bed, so he is doing very well on the weaning front. I think it is harder on me than on him! This morning Jacob had lots of energy and was "walking" across the room just holding onto one of my fingers in each hand. I included a video of him "traveling" a bit. As part of his morning routine he crawls over to the windows on either side of the front door and pulls back the curtain to look out. I guess he just likes to see what kind of day is facing him. His favorite book is Goodnight Moon, and we've been reading that before bed each night. This morning he went over to the book and began pointing to the different pictures on the back cover saying "boo", "boo".  Now some people might say this was a random noise, but I'm inclined to count it as his first word, especially since we have been talking about reading a lot with him. He really seems to enjoy it and likes to turn the pages of his board books and point to the pictures like I do when I read to him.

Micah has been doing very well at school lately. It is exciting to see the new skills he is learning. He draws pictures at school, which his teachers label with whatever he tells them they are. Yesterday he drew a "statue monster" with teeth and gills that he said he'd seen at the library. He also informed me that insects have three parts: the head, the thorax and the "abbomin" and that they have 6 legs, but spiders have 12 (oh wait, 8). He also told me that while carrots and potatoes grow in the ground, apples grow on trees, so I wouldn't be tempted to go out in the yard and try to dig one of those up :-) He does very well at adding and can add any two numbers that add up to 10 or less (so he can count them on his fingers). It seems like yesterday we were gushing over Micah's first word (which was "mo" for "more") and now he is preparing to read!

Dan and I have both been busy at work, he with wrapping up the semester and preparing for finals and me with special projects and preparing for both a new university president and a new boss (mine will be retiring on June 30). It will be a time of change for me professionally, but I hope it will be for the better. Hope you all are enjoying your spring!