18 Months Old!!

Happy 18 Months my boy!

You have changed so very much in this very quick year and a half. I am sometimes still in amazement that you are mine...You are truly a joy. Your daddy and I are truly blessed to that you have been bestowed upon us. You are a gift and we do our best each day to teach you and train you in the way of the Lord. 

Here are you current stats:

30 lbs. 3oz. (80th percentile)

31" tall (95th percentile)

and I don't remember your head measurement but it's in the 90th percentile!

You are tall that is for sure, everyone is always surprise to learn that you are only 18 months old. Usually after they have been talking to you for a few minutes and you have only replied with smiles and simple words. I think people expect you to start spewing complete sentences...soon...no rush!

You do know so many words. There are too many to list. My favorite things you say are, O-range, mah-mah (for monster truck), mo-mo (for motorcycle), airplane, choo-choo. As you can tell you love things that move and make noise!! You have started calling us Mommy and Daddy, only occasionally, when you are referring to us not actually calling us...funny.

You love to run and are getting the hang of jumping. You absolutely love to be tossed in the air and spun around. 

You have started sitting on the couch with the adults. You can climb up on your own and squeeze into whatever room is left on the couch. You watch minimal TV, Little Einstein's, the Good Night show on Sprout, Penguins of Madagascar, some Clone Wars with Daddy. All of these are occasional, you will watch as you please and then run off and play, come back and watch for a little while and then you are off again! 

You LOVE playing cars. You have a gigantic hot wheels collection, like 300 something cars that have been collected since before you were born. You love playing with them, by yourself or with people. You know the names of some of them too...Raptor, Land Rover, Jeep (of course) and if you don't know the specific name it's 'Car' or 'Truck' and you know the difference. Oh, and if it's a police car, ambulance and fire truck you make a siren sound for it...

You have begun learning to express yourself. Sometimes you get so frustrated, your face turns red and you yell. You are quick to calm down and apologize. Time out's work very well for you, as does talking it out. You are very smart and we treat you as such. We always explain what you did wrong and how you should respond the next time. You are a quick learner, I'm hoping you are getting your toddler stuff out early. You have always developed early no reason this should be an exception. It's tiring but I know that this is just a phase and if I deal with it well now you will grow up knowing how to behave. Which make life more pleasant for everyone. You are by no means horrible now, not even one time out a day. Somedays are worse than others. Your daddy just got back from a week long trip to Mexico and you were not happy that he was gone for so long. You made it quite clear a few times that you wanted him home...now!! But we made it through and now your daddy is back, reading you stories and playing cars...the world is right again!

You are not a picky eater. You eat what we eat usually. You aren't a huge fan of salmon but you like tuna. You like some sushi and love edamame, of course pizza, chicken (nuggets or grilled), mac and cheese is one of your favorites. You like peas, carrots and corn. You will eat anything if it has BBQ sauce on it...especially Grandma's sauce. You drink whole milk and water with the occasional chocolate milk or apple juice. You love oatmeal, yogurt, fruit snack and nutri-grain bars (fut-ba as you call them).

You like coloring and playing with play-doh. After you eat breakfast I keep you in your high chair and we color or squish play-doh. We sing songs and do some flash cards. 

You are learning your colors. You know the names of all the colors but not what they are. You know pink and purple really well. O-range and lellow (in Jakey speak) are some of your favorite colors. We are also working on counting and the alphabet.  You know one and two and can hold fingers up to count and you know if you have two of something. You also know what sounds certain letters make...M,P,S,L, D and B! See I told you, you were smart!

You are shy around complete strangers, you won't talk, just smile and sometimes wave. Sometimes you ignore people when you haven't seen them for a while. They say Hi and you turn your head away. I wonder if you are bitter or punishing someone for not being around more often. 

You are a great sleeper...11.5 to 12 hours every night and then a two hour nap everyday. I'll take it! 

You love to read, we always read before bed. I have to give you a cutoff number of books we will read or we would be reading books all night or through nap time. I have a shelf of cardboard books down at your level that you will pull out and read through out the day. Sometimes by yourself and sometimes you will bring the book to me to read to you! 

You love your family and Ted the dog. You love to laugh and make other people laugh. You are so full of energy and life! You have done summersaults off of low lying pillows and taken a few spills off the couch. You are tough and get right up and keep on going. You have gotten more cuddly in the past few months. It totally when you want it, which is fine, I'll take what I can get. You will walk up and plop your head in my lap or snuggle up to me on the couch...best thing ever! You are learning to blow kisses and give eskimo kisses. Your hugs consist of you falling onto someones shoulder so they can hug you and your kisses are the presentation of your cheek so someone can grace it with a smooch!

These past 18 month have flown by and continue to leave me in awe of the God we serve. He has perfectly designed you. I have had little to do with your actually development. He is orchestrating your life and I am merely the first chair violinist...with daddy as first chair trumpet. Ok this analogy is getting weird. But I am here to help instill in you what the Lord has taught me. The rest is in his hands. I am so glad that we serve a gracious and masterful God and that He is in control. It is was all on me I would feel overwhelmed with responsibility. But I do my best each day knowing that the Lord will fill the gaps. 

Thank you Jake, for making being a mommy so great. Your daddy adores you and can't get enough of you. We are so glad that you are ours!

Happy 1 1/2 years!! 

Goodnight peek-a-boo

The other night we were heading home late from Modesto. We left Modesto around 9pm your regular bed time. We were hoping you would fall asleep because you were tired. Well, our hopes were dashed. You refused to sleep the whole way home. Daddy and I  turned around to tell you that you needed to sleep, then we said, "night-night Jake". You pulled your blanket over your head and cried. You didn't want to sleep you thought you would miss something. Every time I would turn around you would pull your blanket over your head. Every time Daddy would say goodnight you would pull your blanket over your head and cry. It was so funny. We had a hard time not laughing. You stayed awake the whole way home. Once we got home we put you in bed and you fell right asleep. Little stinker. I wish you were the kind of kid that could sleep anywhere and people have told me I have to train you but I have done my best. I don't blame you, I can't sleep anywhere. Not everyone can. You are too interested in what is going on to sleep. I will give you credit though. That same weekend we put your pillow on the floor of Daddy's office and told you to lay down and sleep. You cried for a little and then fell fast asleep. So, you are a good sleeper. Just not a sleep anywhere kind of kid, and that is fine with me. Hopefully someday you will be able to hear your baby cry and get up before your wife, unlike your sleep through anything father...haha!

Love, Mama/ wishes she could sleep anywhere and through anything!

Funny Funny

You are quite the funny boy. You did some pretty cute things this week! First, we have to warn nana, this story may make you cry. We were sitting eating breakfast one morning. You enjoy naming things as we eat breakfast, you point to the pictures on the wall and name the people. So, as we were eating you began naming and you pointed to your Great Grandpa Oakley's picture. You have never met him, but, we have talked about him and how he's in heaven with Jesus. I love that you know who he is! After you pointed you said "grey papa" for Great Grandpa and then I explained to you that he was in heaven and you nodded your little head like you knew he was in heaven. Too sweet! I love that you know who he is and that you will grow up hearing stories about what a great man he was!

Later that day I was cleaning out your closet, packing up clothes that don't fit anymore and I found a scarf that Ashley, one of our high school students made for you. You got really excited about it, so I wrapped it around your neck. You scrunched up your shoulders and smiled so big. You ran around with that scarf on all morning! When I took it off at lunch so you could eat, you scrunched up your shoulders and looked at me funny. I asked you if your neck was cold and you you nodded and answered "yep!". What a funny boy you are. You love accessories, hats, scarves, necklaces and sunglasses. It's the funniest thing, you stomping around all accessorized! Here you are in your spiffy scarf.

While you were running around in your scarf and I was cleaning, you grabbed your shoes. I didn't think much of it but, when I came out from the closet this is what I found....

What a funny boy you are. I'll hand it to you, you are creative, using shoes to transport cars...great idea!

You have quite the personality, full of spunk and life. You bring such joy to our lives Jake. There is never a dull moment with you. We love watching you explore and learn about the world we live in. Everything you do is an experiment, what happens when you squish fruit bar between your fingers, what happens when I ignore mama or dada? I love this stage you are in, it has brought different challenges but also different joys. We love you, our boy, with all our hearts!

Love, Mama/ more than just funny looking

So it Begins

Hey Jake,
We celebrated Memorial Day on Monday. This is a special day to remember the people who have given their lives for our freedom and those who are still fighting for it. Mama and Daddy's families got together for dinner. You had all of your uncles with you and your very loving Grandparents...you were quite spoiled that night! You had a great time running around, playing cars and being chased! While we were playing wit our new chalkboard coffee table you decided you would run around with the chalk and try to draw on everything. After two warnings, I took the chalk away, I had to pry it out of your hands. Usually you give up pretty easy, especially after being warned it was going to happen. So, prying the chalk from your hands was my first surprise. The next was you turning around shaking your fist in my face while you were red faced and screaming at me, "ba...ba...ba...ba...ba". You sure were angry. I set you on a footrest so we could talk about what was going on. As I was calmly talking to you, you threw a car past my face and tried to hit me. You have never purposely done that...I was in shock. My sweet boy was yelling and hitting and angry! I picked you up and took you in our bedroom, so we could be alone and talk and have a little timeout. I set you in the big leather chair and you yelled at me again. I firmly yet calmly told you, we never yell or hit when we are angry. You cried. I sat you in time out until you calmed down, which was just over a minute. You said sorry and hugged me, that is our normal routine after a timeout. This time I think you actually felt sorry. I saw emotions in you that I had never seen before. Since then you have yelled a few more times and have tried to it me again. Whoa buddy, I'm not sure that I am ready for this. It breaks my heart to see you so angry. I take it upon myself, am I doing something wrong? I know I need to deal with this every time it happens, I want to nip this short, as short as possible. I want to teach you how to deal with your emotions and feelings. How I do that, well trial and error...I feel like that's what parenting is, but it's scary because were dealing with your life. I have asked the Lord for grace and mercy. For myself and towards you. Grace and mercy don't mean I let you get away with things just that I will come from a place of understanding and patience and not take things too personally. Yesterday (Tuesday) was a little rough so, I was hoping for some night time cuddles. You were anxious to get in your crib and when I went to kiss you, you pushed me away. That made me cry, oh man, you made your mama cry! You growing up is hard, I'm not ready for you to not need me. Thank goodness this morning while we were playing cars you came and sat by me just to be close. That made my heart so full! This parenting stuff is no joke and I know it will only get more difficult or maybe just a different kind of difficult. I promise to do my best but, I am human. This journey of motherhood has been good for me. I have had to listen to myself and trust that the Lord will help me raise you. Other people have their opinions and criticisms but in the end it's all about what your daddy and I decide with the grace of God! See, mama is a people pleaser even to the point of being stepped on but being a mama has helped me learn to stand my ground and to not care if someone thinks I'm doing something wrong in their eyes. (I do listen to advice, it wold be foolish not to but wether or not I take it...well, that depends!) I have been praying for you, Anger is a difficult emotion to control and we need all the help we can get. Daddy and I are united in raising you and we will do everything to the best of our ability. Know that we love with all of our hearts and we love the Lord. We do everything because we love you and we desire for you be love the Lord as well. Wether this is a short phase or long. A copied behavior or just normal toddler frustration. Daddy and I love you so very very much. We are so grateful for the opportunity to raise you, we are so blessed to be your parents!

Love, Mama/ I'll love you even if my hair turns gray

P.S. I don't want to paint you in a negative light, you really are great. You are sweet, caring and very friendly. Usually you are a great listener and you follow instructions very well. These are just a few outbreaks you have had, infrequent but shocking because you are usually so sweet! Just wanted to clear up any confusion...

Play-doh!!

I figured you were about the right age to start playing with Play-doh...if you were the kind of kid to stick everything in your mouth we might have postponed but you are really good about only sticking food in your mouth. You love to joke about sticking non-food things in your mouth...mama doesn't always think it's as funny as you do (look Ma I'm going to eat this bug...haha...just kidding I know it's not food!)!! Well here you are playing with Play doh for the first time!

before we played with Play-Doh we had to play Scrabble Flash, Mama and Daddy love this game, so you do too! Someday it will be good for your spelling skills! 

Silly boy

Stacking 

Pulling

Squishing

Tasting...you licked your hand and decided Play-Doh was definitely not for eating!!

More Play Doh stacking

You really had a great time...I just realized your tongue is out in most of these pictures, your tongue is out most of the time recently. Funny funny boy. I'm excited to incorporate into our learning play time! We do some flash cards and some matching things through out the day in short bursts to keep things easy. Soon we will do finger paints and coloring...I love teaching you new things and I love watching you learn!! You bring me so much joy Jake, even on the hard days, you are a gift!! 

Love, Mama/excited to play with Play-Doh again!

Messy Messy Boy

You love berries, of any kind. Blackberries, blueberries, raspberries and strawberries. You love them. So much so, that we can't put them on the table during dinner or you won't want anything else to eat! Tonight I gave you the bowl of berries after you ate enough dinner. Normally I'll either feed you the berries or give you just a few on your tray but I have given in to your messiness and let you feed yourself tonight! Here is what you looked like after you ate your berries:

Messy! We went straight to the tub so you wouldn't stain purple and blue!



Here you are after your bath...all clean!



I love that you are experimenting with new things and learning to feed yourself. I am learning to be ok with the mess, mess making means you are learning!

Love, Mama/ most likely cleaning up after you

The Inevitable

Well, it has finally happened. You said no to me. It wasn't some huge thing it just happened. I asked you "can you give mama the car keys?" and you said, "mo". 'Mo' is how you say, No. It's too funny. Ted (our dog) will walk over to you and start licking your face and you will push him away and say, "mo, mo dog". I love it. I think I'm going to have to stop asking questions I don't want your answer to. You wanted to keep my keys and gave me your answer, no. It wasn't like you were trying to be defiant and totally rude, after all I was the one who asked you. You were just giving me your answer to my question. This whole Toddler thing is pretty crazy Jake. You are a lovely boy but you love to test your limits and I know that right now I need to draw a hard line, if not you will be a crazy two year old! Everyday brings new challenges and it's exhausting keeping up with you and constantly trying to redirect and correct you. Don't get me wrong, I love being your mama and I love the stage you are at, but I find my self more tired than I was when you were just days old! I know it might get more crazy before you settle down but that's ok with me. This is what I signed up for, a messy, crazy life with a wonderful boy!!

We are thinking about adding another kid to the mix, what do you think of that? I might be crazy to think of adding one now, but oh well. I want you guys to be close. Who knows how many we will end up having, sadly money plays a big part in our decision. We want you and your sibling(s) to have a fun life. Not spoiled but we want to be able to afford vacations and lessons and sports. But, we still want Mama to stay home with you. So, something has to give we can't have it all. We'll see what happens. And if you are the only child we end up having, that's ok too.  Life is great with you! I love our little family of three!

Love, Mama/ wondering what I got myself into!?

P.S. After I posted this a friend asked me how I responded. Well, we were walking to the car and you said "mo". Being slightly in shock and not wanting to make a big deal out of anything I said, "Jake, we don't say no to mama. I'm sorry I asked you a question I should have said, "Hand Mama the keys please." Then you started handing me the keys, we ended up trading keys for a Hot Wheel's truck. I figured if I made it a huge deal you would do it again for attention so, I kept calm and addressed what needed to be. It will probably happen again but, we will deal with it one step at a time!!

Monster Bus!!

And the weekend fun continued. After the zoo we met Grandma and Grandpa for Sushi (let me just take a second to say, I love that you love interesting food!) we drove past Lowe's and they had a Monster Bus in the parking lot. Well, of course we had to stop and see it. The bus is used as a fundraiser for The Oakland Children's Hospital and to help find a cure for childhood diabetes...so we paid to ride it and get you a souvenir bus, anything for a good cause. 

As soon as we got out of the car you were so excited about this thing! You love cars and trucks, really anything that moves. But, this was super cool!! You just kept pointing and saying "mo-mo" for monster. Too cute! 

You weren't too sure about sitting on the tire but...

As soon as you got the toy bus in your hands everything was good!

Like I said you really like cars and trucks!! You point them out was we drive..."Car" or "Truck!" you yell and point, then smile because you are so proud that you know the names of things and can tell us what you see!

Sitting in a rim...

You are little, but a rim you can fit inside of is a big rim. 

Just so you can get some perspective, I am 5'10" so this tire is about 5' 7"...WOW!!

We have seen our fair share of monster trucks in action but this was a first for mama and daddy too!!

Ready to ride...don't worry we were bucked up before we moved!!

still pretty excited about your toy bus

Showing daddy your cool toy!!

You had a great time. I just can't get enough of experiencing life with you! It's such a gift to see the world through your eyes. Everything is new, everything is exciting. Thank you for sharing your enthusiasm for life with us. Sometimes I think you have to do something big to have a great day but simple things are sometimes just as great! 

Love, Mama /loves life with you!!

Zoo Day!!

We had a whole Saturday free this weekend...so we went to the zoo. Growing up we went to the zoo a lot, we had memberships but, we always went to the San Francisco Zoo, this time we tried the Oakland zoo. We had a great time!! You are getting to the age where you enjoy things like this, until it's way past nap time and you sit in your stroller like a zombie...you refuse to sleep with all that action going on but you don't have enough energy to fully be yourself. 

Fair warning: I didn't take many pictures of the animals, we have plenty of those, I made sure to get your reactions to the animals. So, there are lots of pictures of you in this post!! 

I loved watching your daddy show you the animals and share interesting facts with you

Daddy pointing out a monkey to you!!

You saw the monkey and turned around to tell me how awesome it was!! Ahhh you are so cute!!

Watching the monkey...that thing swings from trees...I think you were trying to figure out how you could swing like him!

Daddy showing you the sun bears, they like berry's just like you!!

Look a bear!

Oh, you saw the bear on top of his house!

Silly boy, playing with your belly button "buh-buh"

I love watching you with your dad. You love and admire him so much. It warms my heart to see my two favorite people together and having a great time!! Not that I would think you wouldn't be having a great time...it's just...I bonded with you the instant I knew you were in my tummy and it takes daddy a little time to get to know you. I'm so glad that the two of you have formed a tight bond and you enjoy being together so much. My two loves, loving each other brings me such joy!!

Every time you saw a bear you would say, "roar, roar, roar!"

I love the look of wonder and awe in you eyes. This was one of the coolest experience of my life, watching you see new things and learn...it's truly amazing!!

I'm not sure what you saw in this picture...maybe giraffes...whatever it was you sure thought it was cool!!

You were really good about getting out of your stroller to look at animals and then getting back in to move to the next exhibit, your good attitude made the day so easy!

This is the first time I saw a giraffe drink, in real life that is. You thought it was pretty funny!

"look elephants!!"

You were making an elephant noise and waving your arms like trunks...you make me one proud mama that you know animal sounds...you are so stinkin smart!!

Telling us what animals you want to see...the elephants and monkeys were some of your favorites!!

Mama, I want your camera..."caa-ma"

looking

and more looking

Ohh

Giant lizard!!

My loves!!

Hey look, it's you and mama!!

Wow we look alike

we were looking at pigs and oinking!!

You are really cute...I am amazed at how much you know, seriously, you are so smart!

Helping daddy, that stroller gets heavy ; )

Really big alligator

You thought it was pretty cool

Petting a goat...you weren't quite sure about it...I told you it was just like a funny dog, but you knew better!! 

We had a great day! You are such a joy to do things with Jake. We are so blessed to have an awesome boy! We are looking forward to many more zoo trips with you!!

Love, Mama/ takes you to the pet store for a mini zoo trip once a week!!