Proud Moment for Papa

This morning Jacob was in the family room playing while the TV was on. Dan and I were in the kitchen getting ready for the day and all of sudden the channel on the TV changed. Jacob had gotten hold of the remote and changed the TV channel to ESPN. We just laughed hysterically because it was like he had enough of what was on TV and wanted to watch Sportscenter. He is ALL Dan's son!!

Jacob had his 9-month check-up yesterday. He is 20 lbs 9 oz (47th percentile) and 29 inches (74th percentile). This confirmed my suspicion that he has thinned out. His clothes fit more loosely these days. It's wild to think that he was in the 88th percentile of weight back in the beginning!

He also definitely suffers from allergies. The poor kid will probably have to suffer for awhile longer. At least now I don't need to worry about him passing germs onto other kids. My secret fear is that his allergy is to Rascal, but we'll see.

We also got the green light to start table foods. He has already had some, but now he's ready on a more consistent basis. This will be a dramatic shift in our eating habits. We typically eat around 8:00 and don't eat fully balanced meals. In the end, this will be a good change for all of us.

Hope everyone has a good Labor Day weekend :)

Rascal's Living up to his Name

Rascal has been fairly great with the whole baby situation thus far. He keeps his distance from Jacob, unless Jacob turns his back on him and then Rascal tries to "have his way" with him. One of my worries with bringing a new baby into the picture was finding a way to keep Rascal away from Jacob's toys. Well to our surprise, Rascal hasn't shown interest in them. The only thing he tries to steal is Jacob's pacifer and then he rips it to shreds. The other night I noticed Rascal in another room knawing on something. He got hold of Jacob's teether and tore that sucker apart! I think that I picked up nearly 100 pieces off of the floor, which is amazing because he had only gotten to about 1/3 of the toy.

Here is just a sample of the chewed-up teether

9 Months

Jacob turned nine months old last Sunday. I have been documenting his progress each month, which may bore you, but it is turning out to be a lifesaver for me. I have yet to put anything into his baby book and I am so grateful to this blog because I now can look to it to fill in all of his "firsts" during his first year of life. So here goes....

*Cruising along anything he can get his hands on - furniture, walls, people

*Walks well with his walker and holding our hands

*Trying to stand independently and I caught him doing this for a few seconds for the first time last Thursday

*Babbling a lot more and says "ba ba", "ma ma", "puh"

*Starting to get into trouble and gravitates to anything that he is not supposed to be in - Rascal's toys, toilet paper, trash cans, laptop, Rascal's food and water

*Finally drinking out of a sippy cup


Next month's post may have a walking milestone in it, which is exciting and scary at the same time!!

Chicago Trip

We took a trip up to Chicago to visit my sister this past weekend and to just get away for a few days. She recently bought a house in one of the suburbs and it was nice to finally see it. We were able to bring Rascal as well, which was nice. We really had a good time. On Saturday she took us to downtown Naperville which was such a neat place to go. It is block-after-block full of nice shops and parks. On Sunday, we went into the city and toured Millenium Park, walked through downtown and Michigan Avenue, and then walked to Lake Michigan to watch the air show. We did a lot of walking, but it was a great day for it. Jacob did so well in his stroller and loves to people-watch so he was good to go. We came home Monday afternoon after doing some shopping for Jacob at a Carter's outlet store for some fall/winter clothes for him. It was a great weekend and always nice to see Sharla. She loves helping out with Jacob so Dan and I got a bit of break with the extra hands. Jacob had such a good time during the day that it was hard to get him to go to sleep at night because he didn't want the fun to end!

Looking into mirror structure at Millenium Park


Walking in the water fountain at Millenium Park


Lunchtime in the city

Playing with Aunt Sharla while waiting for the air show to start

Trying to get a better view on Daddy's shoulders and play-spitting

Spike with what little hair he has

Blue Angels

Cleaning Aunt Sharla's floors with the Jacob swiffer

Trip to the Zoo

We took a trip to the St. Louis Zoo last Friday and had a good time. We have been holding out for a day with nice weather - it was sunny and 82 degrees, which is unheard of for St. Louis in August. Apparently we weren't the only ones with that idea because the place was packed. This was our first real road trip with Jacob other than going to visit family. He did so well in the car, but I don't think he could have handled a full day of driving. He definitely noticed the animals, but really didn't show much excitement. I'm guessing that he'll have more appreciation for them next year if we go back.

The St. Louis Zoo is a great zoo with an incredible variety of animals to view and it is well kept. It's also free which is a bonus too! My only complaint is that several of the animals were hidden from view because they were either hiding in the shade or were inside to escape the heat. Unfortunately, my favorite exhibit - the orangutans - was closed for the day for some reason. I remember going there as a kid and my mom and I would stay there forever watching the active and entertaining monkeys. I'll just have to look forward to seeing them next year :)

We didn't take many pictures, but here are a few of Jacob.

Beginnings of Walking

I have been searching the local stores for a nice walker for Jacob since he is getting closer to trying to walk. We finally found one we liked last weekend that also doubles as a ride-on when his legs are long enough to reach the ground. Just for fun, we placed him behind the toy to see how he would do. To our surprise, he immediately started walking behind it! I'm so glad that we got this for him. He also loves getting pushed while riding on it. Our first floor rooms run in a circle so it lends itself for fun laps!! Here are a couple of videos of Jacob enjoying his new toy.
Jacob using his walker

Jacob getting pushed