April 18, 2014

Things We Love about Jacob

Jacob is an incredibly sweet, smart, funny, good natured 18 month old. There are so many things we love about him, but I want to make sure and capture some of them right now.

- He rests his head on my shoulder and pats my back when I pick him up from his crib in the morning or after his nap.
- Whenever I pick him up, he reaches around to twirl his fingers in my hair. It's like a comfort/security thing.
- His receptive language skills are off the charts. He understands practically everything we say to him or ask him.
- He has developed clear opinions about things he likes and wants to do. When we ask if he wants a certain thing, he responds with a strong "huh-huh!" and what can only be described as a full-body head nod yes. Cutest thing ever!
- He LOVES trucks! Oh my goodness, he makes the most loud, excited noises when we drive around now as he sees trucks of all kind everywhere! It goes something like this: "Dahhhhhh!!!!!" (pointing excitedly) then when we get close enough for the truck to "see" him, he starts waving frantically at it.
- He is in major vocabulary absorption mode. Many times throughout the day, he just points from one thing to another, saying "uh!?" and wanting us to name it for him. There are several books that he likes to do this with, and it's cute because there are a few pages he will stay on for minutes at a time, just going from one object to another "uh?" Ladybug. "uh?" Llama. "uh?" Kangaroo. "uh?" Koala. "uh?" School Bus. "uh?" Green Truck. "uh?" Red Truck. "uh?" School Bus. "uh?" Red Truck. and on and on ...
- He loves playing with Daddy and Benjamin. He has spent most of his first 18 months observing his Daddy and big brother play, run, roll around and laugh with each other, and now he is getting in on the action.
- He gets a huge smile and squeals with happiness when he sees Mommy and Daddy hug or kiss.
- When we say "OK Jacob, it's time for bath!" he stops what he is doing and scurries right to the bathroom. He tries to take his own clothes off, and sometimes sits happily on the potty for us (sometimes not so happily ;-) )
- In just the last couple weeks, he has started playing with toy animals the way they move, like crawling on the floor or up onto furniture. He sometimes makes little noises to go along with it. He zooms cars and trucks along the floor too.
- He says mama, dada, more, this, that, no ... and last week combined 3 words to say "no more mama" when he was done with his meal.
- He just started riding front-facing in the car and is having a blast with his new view :)






April 17, 2014

For the birds

Here are the boys working together to fill the new bird feeder today. 

At the park today ...

3/20/14

"Mommy look at me! I'm doing something DANGEROUS!"

Jake was a little independent climber, going up the play sets and down the slides all by himself. Everytime an airplane flew over he shrieked with excitement and pointed up to the sky, squinting but not letting the sun get in the way of his pure joy at looking up to the sky. Anytime he heard the sound of a truck go by, he turned and waved in its direction. (In the past week, he has even started waving at toy trucks at home. Soooo cute!)

Of course there was some brotherly love going on because Benjamin is always full of love and hugs and kisses for his brother. After this picture was taken, he took both of Jacob's hands and kisses them and told him he loved him. 

After we got done playing, Benjamin went in for his Musikgarten class, and I fed Jake a clementine. This is him signing "thank you".