Mr. Adaptable

Over the past month, Jacob has really been adapting to change that has been thrown his way. Starting a few weeks ago, I made the decision to alter his bedtime routine. Since day one, he has always had warm milk right before bed that knocks him out. Although he has been on whole milk for awhile now, we have continued to warm it and give it to him before bed. I knew that he has become too old for this, not to mention the harm of sugar sitting on his teeth all night. So a few weeks ago I gave him his usual bath and got him ready for bed and put him straight into his crib to sleep. He fought it for a short while but eventually fell asleep. He now goes right down after his bath. I'm so proud of him. I totally figured that he would have fought tooth and nail because he wanted his milk, but he is doing great!

Another change is that two weeks ago he started going to the toddler room instead of the nursery at church. Technically, you have to be 15-months, but he is just weeks away from that. He loved every minute of it, even being with new people and other kids he doesn't know either. He is currently transitioning to the toddler room at daycare as well and the director indicated to me that he may go earlier than planned because he does so well in there and has a great time. I have been feeling this for about a month now that he was ready to move up. There is such a development disparity in the infant room that I felt he was getting bored and missing out on learning things in the toddler room. Three new infants started this month and I am reminded at how much he has changed in such a short while.

One other thing that he is transitioning to is going from two naps a day to one right after lunch. The toddler room has them more on a schedule where the kids sleep right after lunch. In the infant room, he can nap whenever he is ready. I'd say that he is down to taking one nap about 60 percent of the time. This will be his biggest challenge in my opinion, but maybe having the opportunity to play with kids his own age will keep him from thinking about needing a nap. On Sunday he went down for a nap after lunch and slept for four hours!! I didn't know what to do with all of my unexpected free time!

My baby is definitely growing up. Let's just hope that his adaptability continues through the arrival of his sister here in two short months :)

Playroom

Over Christmas break, we completely cleared out the guest room, which will be Jacob's new room after the baby is born. I was a little concerned how everything would fit into our computer room (now guest room) and it worked out great! I also worked on the nursery closet and Jacob's new closet and put all of the newborn-like items in the nursery and put stuff that Jacob will need in his new room's closet. One benefit of having the two so close together is that everything is still assembled and has been recently cleaned so we are honestly fairly ready for the baby, with the exception of baby girl clothes. We are making very little change to the nursery since it was decorated in neutral colors. I also realized after Jacob was born that hardly anyone goes in there anyways, so why the fuss on how it looks?!

Now that Jacob's new room is cleared out, we put all of his toys that don't fit in our family room in there so he now has a playroom. This has worked out perfect because we can now put him in there for a few minutes by himself while we do some things upstairs and not have to worry about him at all. He also LOVES playing in there so it has become a retreat for him. Eventually we'll get the room painted and decorated with "big boy" things and get him furniture, but we don't feel the pressure yet. We're still going back-and-forth between getting him a toddler bed or twin bed. I have a feeling that he'll be sleeping in his crib for awhile even after the baby is born since she'll be in our room in the beginning. In the meantime, he is getting used to his new room which should help in his transition into sleeping in there on a permanent basis.

First ISU Basketball Game

We took Jacob to his first Illinois State basketball game this afternoon. We debated all the way to needing to leave for the game whether we should take him or not. He is not one to sit still very long. I decided that it was worth a try and that it is good to expose him to more than just the occasional trip shopping or to a restaurant. Pretty soon here our opportunities for going out as a family are going to get more challenging. I won't say that the two-hour game was easy for him, but overall he did better than I expected! I walked him around the arena a couple of times to offer him some time to stretch his legs, which he loved. I was surprised at how far he was able to walk at one time! He did a pretty good job sitting on Dan's lap during the rest of the game (with a little incentive of cheerios and juice). He definitely wore himself out though because he was passed out within a minute on the drive home. I love that he is getting older and able to do more things like this :)

Goodbye to the Mullet

Well, I finally gave in. For some time now poor Jacob has been getting teased by his Aunt Sharla that he has a mullet. I've been reluctant to cut it because I didn't want to cut my baby's hair, plus I love the curls in the back after he gets a bath. The past few days his hair has gotten a little unruly, particularly after a nap. There wasn't enough hair to constitute paying somebody to cut it, so we did it ourselves. Dan cut while I took pictures. It actually looks pretty good! He looks more like a little boy now. Here are some pics....

Before with curls

Before with his mullet

Haircut

After (back)

After (side)

Playing

I know that I keep saying that Jacob is getting more fun, but we are really enjoying the stage he is at now. He is constantly cracking us up with his actions and attempts at talking. He talks all the time now and some of it is actually recognizable. I mentioned this in a previous post but we are really having more successful communication with him. We are learning his signals for when he is hungry, thirsty, and tired. He also responds when we ask him such things as "are you sleepy?", "want some milk?", "ready for a bath?". Now if we can just get him to understand that when we say "no" we mean NO!! We are constantly redirecting him, but have started our version of time-out. There is no way he would stay put somewhere in time-out, but what we do is when he is doing something wrong repeatedly or getting into something that is a danger to him, we pick him up and make him sit calmly on our lap for 2-3 minutes. So far this has worked. Not only does it make him forget what he was doing to begin with, but it is teaching him how to sit still. He is a kid on the go and doesn't like to be restrained, so this is a lesson in behavior that he needs!! I'm hoping that our girl has a calmer demeanor, but if her kicks are any indication, she'll be even more active than Jacob! YIKES!!!

Jacob's favorite game right now is Peek-a-Boo. He simply says "Booooo". This has been a great activity when he starts to get fussy because it livens him right back up. Sometimes he initiates the game too. He doesn't play the hide-the-face version, but likes to hide around a corner and sneak up on you and vice-versa. Jacob's great-grandparents got him a book of Looney Toon characters that have flaps on the pages of the characters playing peek-a-boo with you. This is definitely his favorite book right now. He brings it to us to read to him ALL the time and says "Boooo" when he hands it to us. The other day, I was in the kitchen and I heard him saying "booo" over and over. He was reading the book himself on the couch. Too cute!!! I do have a video of him playing peek-a-boo with us, but it refuses to upload for some reason. Oh well. Here is another one though....

I finally shot a video of him dancing to his fridge toys. Since I shot this video, he has since added some dance moves to his routine. He has started rapidly stomping his left and right feet down in repetition like happy feet. So cute!!