Summer Updates

I'm way overdue for a new post.  We have just been soaking in our last wonderful weeks of the summer sunshine.  I can't believe we are already changing seasons.  It has been an awesome summer, and Jake and I have been spending as much time outdoors as possible. All I can say is, it's a good thing that the fall is packed with holidays, BYU football games, and multicolored leaves, because that's what it takes for me to say goodbye to the heat :)  But, I've lit my apple cider candles, and am preparing for the upcoming cool weather, already feeling those holiday jitters.  

As usual, I have a bunch of random pictures to post, and will try to give a good summary of our happenings along the way. I hope all of you have had a great summer!

First things first.  End of August I got to see Jess and her fam for a few days.  They were visiting Utah for their annual family reunion with Nate's side.  They stayed for 2 nights before going up to the Larsons, and after it was over, Jess and Sawyer stayed behind to hang with me and Jake for a bit before flying home to Nathan.  We had so much fun, and as usual, it went by way too fast. So fast, in fact, that we snapped maybe 5 pictures.  Woops. But here are a couple anyways. 

Going for a walk with my snazzy new stoller.  The jump seat in back actually comes off, so this was the maiden voyage for my stroller as a double.  It went very smoothly, and I'm excited for the day I can fill it with two little babes of my own!! 

Jake introducing Sawyer to the wonders of the exersaucer.  

 One night when Jerai and Phil were here, I was just going to give Jake a quick bedtime bath.  Jess and Jerai decided to get in on it too.  What these pictures don't show, are all the parents on the other side of the camera.  All 6 of us squeezed into the bathroom to watch our cute boys having their first group bath! 

Negative milestone--Jake figured out how to climb on all the furniture a few weeks ago, and I now have a master climber on my hands.  Wes caught him trying to climb up the entertainment center yesterday. holy moly, I am so scared of what I'm in for!

Jake loves to color.  Now if I could just get him to enjoy coloring in his book instead of all over himself...

Around mid-summer, Jake dropped his second nap.  Most days, things run pretty smoothly.  Occasionally his nap gets cut short, and then he tends to crash during dinner in his highchair. 

My cousin Jerai and I have been taking advantage of the hot summer by arranging play dates together with our boys.  Her little guy, Boyd, is just 5 months younger than Jake.  These pics are from her backyard. Thanks to a hose, a kiddy pool, and a dog, the kids were entertained and we were able to relax and work on our tans!

Poor kid. Jake thought it would be fun to water him. (and that water was FREEZING).  Luckily, Boyd is a lot tougher than Jake, (even though he's younger).  If roles were reversed, Jake would've cried like a baby, but Boyd took the bullying in stride.  

A couple weeks ago, we went shopping at the Gateway.  I brought along Jake's swim stuff and we let him play in the sprinkler playground as a reward for being such a good shopper :)

Unfortunately, Jake was afraid of the huge crowd of older kids splashing around.  Wesley took one for the team, and faced the fountains, getting drenched in the process.

We got Jake his very own chair at Ikea a few weeks ago.

He loves watching Cars, Bolt, and High School Musical 3 the most. 

Daddy and Jake eating chicken nuggets together.  One of the many reasons Jake prefers to hang out with dad.  Mom never lets him eat on the couch :) 

These are just a few pics I snapped of Jake at the park the other day.  It used to be a lot easier to take his picture, back in the day, before he could run away so quickly.  But I got a few cute ones anyway :)

As always, thanks for reading!

Caught red-handed

So Jake hit his 15 month mark last week.  With all the growing up he's been doing, I find myself constantly entertained.  It's so funny watching him slowly turn into a mischievous little devil.  I'm amazed at the trouble he can get into, and the stuff he does when he gets bored.  I have a few funny stories to record in my online journal, so hopefully you enjoy them almost as much as I did :)

First off, a couple weeks ago, Jake discovered my chocolate stash.  Its a lower drawer in the kitchen, and it's filled with all sorts of delicious German sweets.  One day I was cleaning the house, and noticed that it had gotten quiet--too quiet.  I went into the kitchen and found jake bent over the stash, about to put a shiny, tin foil wrapped, easter egg into his mouth.  I called him out and told him to drop it, which he reluctantly did.  That's when i noticed the steady stream of brown drool coming from his closed lips. I got down eye level with him, and realized that he had very large chipmunk cheeks.  I stuck my finger in, and pulled out two mashed up easter eggs, complete with foil.  so gross.  I explained to him about how he was not allowed into the sweets stash without mommy or daddy. 

Later that evening I caught him leaning over the drawer again.  I silently pointed him out to Wesley, so he could see what his sneaky little boy was up to.  Ok, so here's the funny thing.  Jake listens A LOT better to daddy, because as soon as Wes said "Jake?" he dropped his handful of chocolate, slammed the drawer shut, and looked up, innocent as could be.  very tricky. 

And now, for the third strike. A couple days later, I thought Jake had finally gotten over the drawer obsession.  He was playing on the kitchen floor while I cooked dinner.  All of a sudden I see this little body whiz past me, making a beeline out of the room.  I called after him, and he dropped a monstrous load of goodies and kept running. When I caught up to him, he clamped his mouth shut, and as I tried to coax him into opening it, he began to cry.  Let me tell you, watching jake throw a tantrum with a mouthful of chocolate, while trying to keep his mouth shut was one of the funniest things I have ever seen.  Eventually, I got his mouth open, and realized he had unwrapped an entire bar of chocolate, shoved it into his mouth, grabbed an armload of other stuff, and booked it out of the room.  We've kept a better watch on him and we haven't had any chocolate incidents since.  I love my little sneak thief.

(no, we didn't put him in jail, he climbed in there all by himself :) )

Another great story--

Ok, so obviously Jake has a sweet tooth, but the nice thing is, he is equally obsessed with brushing his teeth.  I generally will help him brush, and then let him run free with the toothbrush afterward so he can get his mouth nice and clean.  (I suspect it has more to do with eating the yummy toothpaste, and chewing on the fun brush than oral hygiene, but I'll take it!)

So anyway, I have been going through toothbrushes like crazy.  In fact, over the last week, Jake lost all his kid size ones, and I was letting him use our extra adult ones.  A couple days ago, I was getting something out of this trunk in my living room, and opened the lid to find this:

Apparently Jake was starting a small toothbrush horde, shoving them through the handle of the trunk.  Sooo sneaky!

Every day Jake is learning new things that make his and our world so much more exciting.  Although life can sometimes be harder with all the mischief, I wouldn't trade it for anything! It gives me so much joy being able to see him experience life, and really, we generally have a blast together.  I'm sure he will get even trickier as the months go by, and I'm happy/nervous to see what he comes up with in the future.  I have a few more pics with some of jake's weirder moments.  I hope you enjoy them :)

jake has recently become obsessed with trying on shoes.  any that he can get his hands on..

It's pretty funny watching him try to walk with my flip flops.

Last week we bought Jake a pair of those squeaky shoes from a boutique shop.  They have quickly become his favorite toy, and he will carry them around, nudging me in the legs until I help him put them on.  I can get on board with the obnoxious squeaking all day long (they keep him so entertained!) but maybe I shouldn't have chosen such a dressy looking pair... because he wears them with just about everything.. including his sleeper the other night. He is so wierd, but how could a mom deny that sweet little face?

Final story: Jake loves playing peek-a-boo, except he likes to be the one hiding and jumping out.  This morning, I heard him giggling and saying "bye-bye" from my bathroom.. I went in and found this..

He was cracking up, waiting for me to come in so he could scare me.  I ran and grabbed the camera, came back in, and began saying "where's jake?" "where's jake?"

and then, he jumped out to surprise his unsuspecting momma. 

Could I love him more???

Inevitable

**Disclaimer*** This post is very wordy, personal and probably to much information for some people.  But I'm writing it anyway. So read if you dare :) Also, there are no pictures (i know, a first for me!)

This morning, around 6, I heard the usual cry coming from Jake's room, and as usual, a few minutes later, Wesley brought my not-so-little bundle of joy into my bed so I could feed him a little breakfast.  And for the first time, I noticed that I had only the tiniest bit of milk to nurse him with.  And this got me to thinking.  Actually, it got me kind of sad.  

Let me give you a little background info.  Jake and I have had a wonderful experience with nursing over the past 14 months.  After his first 3 weeks of life, Jake refused bottles in every form, so I nursed exclusively until he was about 5 months old.  At that point, I began a long and frustrating road of new foods.  Until Jake was about 10 months old, he was extremely picky and I struggled to get him to eat regular foods.  The doctor was actually a bit concerned at that point, because for a baby who had pretty much lived in the 70th percentile for weight, dropping to the 8th was a big jump.  Apparently, breast milk isn't the most fattening diet for an active toddler :).  But we kept at it, and by the time he was a year old, I had Jake doing about 50% nursing.  

I consider myself very lucky for several reasons.  I didn't have any major issues with nursing, and neither did Jake.  I know a lot of people who have all sorts of problems, especially at the beginning, and some are just never successful in this endeavor.  And then there are just people who prefer not to do it.  So I'm grateful that I was both able, and excited for the experience.  It's always just been something we do well together.  However, over the last couple months, something changed.  Jake began pulling on my shirt constantly and whining for milk.  You wouldn't believe how many times his antics caused me to flash the unsuspecting public.  But I worked on it, and by the time he was 13 months, we were down to 3 feeds a day.  

Then, when I went home to Virginia, two things happened.  First of all, Jake kept seeing his 2 month old cousin nursing, and nearly every time Sawyer got to eat, Jake would pull on my shirt and fuss until he got his way.  For those who don't know.. 2 month old babies tend to eat about every 3 hours.. needless to say, it got a little frustrating, and embarrassing.  And the other thing that happened was more like an epiphany for me.  Watching my sister feed her tiny little runt made me notice just how enormous Jake was.  

Ok, so this was my situation 2.5 weeks ago.  I felt like it was finally time to wean. And really, they say the best thing for babies is to let them wean themselves.  But I know my son, and thats just not something he will do for himself, unless I want to nurse him 'til kindergarten. :)  So I set out to do a gradual weaning process, figuring it would take until the end of the summer.  I dropped one feed at a time, and although he was very frustrated at first, within 2 weeks I had him down to one feed a day.  

Ok, so back to my story about this morning.  I've been doing my one feed in the wee hours of the morning.  We've had this routine going where Jake gets up around 6, Wes brings him to me, and we have a good cuddle and feed for about 30 minutes.  Then I put him back to bed for a couple hours.  It's worked well for us, and I think it's safe to say that it's been the hardest feeding to give up.  So here's the thing: If you don't nurse at least 3 times a day, your milk supply goes down.  And with only one time a day, it's dwindled to almost nothing.  

And basically, I'm just sad.  I mean, I made the decision to stop nursing, but I kind of thought it would take a little longer and that I would have more time to get used to it.  I love the closeness it brings.  Jake isn't very cuddly and so it was my special time with him when he would hold still and just be with me.  So, yes, I'm happy in a lot of ways to be moving on, but I do have some mixed feelings.  And I wanted to write them down.  Thanks for reading, I feel a lot better just being able to get it on paper.  I never thought I would love nursing as much as I did, but there ya go.  

Home Sweet Home

Well, after just over 2 weeks in Virginia, I am back in Utah with a new truckload of memories, stories, and of course, pictures.  My summer trip to VA is always kind of bittersweet.  While it's wonderful to see my family, Wes almost never comes along for the summer visits.  (Only so much vacation time to spare!) But, luckily, I have a loving husband who knows how hard it is for me to be so far from my family, and so I did this visit just me and Jake.  As nervous as I was about flying with a toddler on my lap, we both survived and it was totally worth the stress of traveling.  Once again, I have a blog post full of photos because you know what they say: a picture is worth a thousand words!  I hope you enjoy! :)

The best thing about this particular trip was that I was FINALLY able to meet my little nephew Sawyer!!!! He is SO CUTE, and I had so much fun cuddling with him!  Jake was super jealous at first, but quickly got used to the little guy.  I just had to make sure he always felt included.  In fact, Jake is so active and never sits on my lap for more than 10 seconds at a time, but with his cousin around, Jake sensed some competition, and snuggled right up with us all the time.  It was so much fun!

Shopping at the Short Pump Mall with Syd.  Jake loved the fountains, and being outside! I love outdoor malls! :)

One night Syd stuck stickers all over Jake's face.  He could tell we all thought he was really funny looking, and now he is constantly bringing me stickers to put on him!  This (by the way) was how I survived the plane ride back home.. He was covered head to toe by the time we landed in Utah :) 

To keep Jake away from all the danger zones in the house (David, doggy, and stairs) we turned the living room into a giant playpen.  Thanks to the whole fam for dealing with that obstacle course for 2 weeks! Jake got a new garage while we were there, and just loved it.  In this pic he is pretending it's a car (you'll notice how he is riding the spiral slide thing on the side)

Possibly my second favorite thing about staying at Grandma's house: THE FOOD. so yummy, and i loved grilling and eating outside everyday! My mom has the best deck and yard, Jake and I spent a lot of time out there.  I felt like I was in the Secret Garden! SO awesome. 

To give me a little break my mom took Jake to "Picnic in the Park" downtown.  they have music and activities and stuff.  She said Jake had a great time, and loved his green balloon!!

Grandpa with his two grandsons

When Jake first met Sawyer, I explained to him about how we are very gentle with babies.  I showed him how we don't grab we just "pet" them.  Sawyer was crying, and Jake starting petting him, trying to help him feel better.  So cute!  

Some family pictures :)

Jake giving Sawyer "knuckles".  Wes taught him "high five" and "knuckles" and apparently he is too cool for "high five".  If you try to give him that, he'll take your hand and ball it into a fist first.  

Lake Anna! Jake was checkin out his cool new pool float.

He wasn't very interested in being in his own float. he preferred sharing my float most of the day :)

This is a good depiction of how the Lake Anna outing went: Mom took pictures, Jess tried to keep her newborn out of the sun, sand and lake water as much as she could, I plopped my lazy bum onto a float with Jake, and Syd held down the fort watching David and keeping my raft from floating away!

And another fabulous thing about Fredericksburg: Carl's Ice cream!!!! (Sorry you missed that one Wesley!)

...Although really, Jake missed it too.. He slept through the whole thing!

My last day in VA was the Fourth of July. We went to one of those sprinkler playgrounds and Jake had a blast!  Actually, we all had a blast :) 

All in all, the trip was a success!  It's always sad saying bye to my family, but we were happy to get back home and see daddy.  We had already missed Father's Day with him, and were back just in time for his birthday!  Now I'm just working on settling into our old routine, and enjoying the hot utah weather that has finally arrived.  Although this post is supposed to be all about my trip, I can't end it without just a few things about Jake's progress.  As of a few days ago, he cut his 11th tooth, and i can already see the 12th one starting to break through.  He is finally starting to get a little taller, and his shorts are starting to look more like shorts than high-water pants. (hooray!)  he is spitting out more new words each day than i can keep track of.  His most consistent one would have to be doggy, or "goggy" as he says it.  Although, to be fair, he thinks anything with four legs is a "goggy".  He also says, hi, hello, bye bye, night night, mum-mum (for more food), uh oh! (when he drops things), no, and don't pretty often.  Life is so exciting and I am thoroughly enjoying seeing my cute little guy learn all these new things.  With all the highs, there are plenty of lows too--As he is a full blown toddler, the toddler size tantrums have begun as well.  In fact, he is starting to throw one right now so i should probably wrap this up!  Gotta go give him a little TLC. I hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

Vegas, San Diego, and personal progress

As promised, here are some pictures from our trip to San Diego and Las Vegas! We had such a fun time, and were sad when the trip was over.  I'll tell you all about it between the pictures, and then if you keep reading to the end, I have some Jake "progress updates" for you. 

We decided not to try and drive straight through to San Diego, and stopped in Vegas for a night on our way down.  We got there in the late evening, and decided to go for a walk on the strip before bed.  We assumed that Jake would probably fall asleep on the walk, so we bathed him and put him in his jammies beforehand. 

It didn't occur to me that Jake would be so dazzled by all the spectacular Vegas lights and sights.  No sleeping whatsoever happened.  You can tell from his expression that it's well passed his bed time though :)

We spent just over 2 days in San Diego.  Wesley's cousin Victor had gotten married recently and we came for the reception.  It was so nice to spend time with family! It was our first trip down with Jake, and it seemed he was also a huge fan of the perfect Cali weather.  We went shopping at an outdoor mall before the reception, so the next few pictures are from there. 

Having a taste of daddy's watermelon slushy.  A little sour and sugary for his little tastebuds!!

So happy to run free after being cooped up in the car for 2 days :)

We took these in the park behind the reception.  This is his adorable cousin Caitlin.  It was really fun watching all the little cousins play together!!

Wes and his sister Melanie, and Scott, Jake's closest buddy and cousin.  I can already see them plotting all kinds of mischief and adventures together in the months to come ;)

All the cousins.  The newlyweds are in the middle!

Once again, we cut the trip home in half by stopping in Vegas.  We took Jake to FAO Schwartz while we were there, and he had such a blast! For those of you who don't know, it's the biggest and coolest toy store ever! The whole front end of the store is stuffed animals. And Jake spent about 30 minutes going from animal to animal giving them hugs. 

And now its back to life as usual.  Jake is running around the house full speed ahead, and is even starting to say words! He can say "doggy" "woof woof" "sammie (his giant stuffed dog...notice a pattern here?)" "and most recently "bye-bye" and "book".  Its so funny because he comes running toward me several times a day with one of his board books saying "book" over and over until I pick him up and read it to him.  I'm even attempting to teach him sign language.  He has mastered "more" and I think he is getting the hang of "all done".  Those are some very helpful signs during mealtimes! He is so smart!!! 

Jake is also starting to do more strange things.  For instance.. he is obsessed with wearing things around his shoulders like a shawl --blankets, belts, toilet paper, strings of floss.. you name it.. its really weird, and I catch him walking around like a little old lady all the time. :)  Also, he has become obsessed with trying to wipe off my eyeliner when he is on my lap.  He isn't a girly boy though, don't worry. Because his other wierd/favorite thing to do is make everything into a car.  As in, not only does he push his actual toy cars around the house, but he'll do it with shoes and books too, all the while making a Vroom Vroom noise.  He is such a crack up.. The other day I caught him in our closet trying to ride one of Wesley's sunday shoes. Its funny how I am constantly thinking "NOW Jake is old enough to really have some personality!" and then a few weeks later, I'm thinking "actually, he was a little dull then, at least compared to how he is now!" It's incredible how fast he is developing and just really coming into his own identity.  

Each new milestone just makes me more excited for what the future will bring.  What new words will Jake know a month from now?  Also, the house is rapidly becoming a much more dangerous place.  Jake learned how to climb onto the couch a couple days ago, and I'm realizing that I will have to watch him much more closely so he doesn't try to dive-bomb off the back of it. yikes!  Well that's it for now as far as progress updates.  In less than 2 weeks I'll be going on yet another trip.  This time I'll be traveling to the motherland.  And no I don't mean Germany (I wish!) Jake and I will be going to Virginia for a visit.  A slightly stressful thing, as I'll be flying all alone with a child made of pure energy.  as always, thanks for reading and stay tuned!!