18 Months

I'm a little late posting this. I am still trying to wrap my head around the fact that Jacob is 18 months old. Now that Bailey is here, I think (in my eyes) it has aged him so he seems older. He is soooo much fun these days, although the "terrible twos" are definitely coming to the surface. He can throw a temper-tantrum with the best of them! He is still big for his age. He is 34 inches long (88th percentile) and over 27 pounds (69th percentile). He still has a big noggin, but it is finally full of white-blonde hair!

His talking has come a long ways recently. He picks up new words each day and will surprise us with what he says. It is great to communicate with him now because he can tell us what he wants and we can ask him questions and he'll indicate an answer to us. We're having to spell some things out now, like "outside" because the minute he hears this word there is no going back! He surprised me a few days ago after pointing to Bailey and saying her name and then saying mine, that he pointed to himself and said "acob". That is the first time I've heard him say his own name. So cool!! He can point to and say all of his body parts and say the names of and make animal sounds. We're working on colors right now.

Jacob loves being outside. He has learned to climb our playground structure and go down the slide all by himself. I didn't expect this until next year. He has this one toy that he likes to pull/push around the yard that has a rolling chimes in it. He has also taken a liking to bubbles and chalk. We have little chalk lines all over now! We broke out the sand/water table (garage sale find) this weekend and filled it with water for him to play with. He loved it! I take the kids and Rascal on a walk just about every night and he likes to point to things and say what they are. He also "helps" by holding onto Rascal's leash which is pretty cute.

Jacob has now been sleeping in his new room for over a month now and is doing lots better about staying on his mattress, although we do still find him asleep in various parts of his room. His teacher at daycare said that he has a tendency to roll off his cot there and sleep walk and then curl up on the floor. We'll have to really watch him for this as he gets older and can get out of his room! I painted his room on Memorial Day and we hope to make the finishing touches on his room sometime in the next few weeks. I'll post pictures once it is done!

A lot of people ask how he is with Bailey. He is sweet and rough at the same time. He gives her kisses which is cute. We do have to watch him though because he is unintentionally rough with her. He does pat her too hard and if she is on the floor, she gets bumped with things, so we really have to watch him with her. The other day he took my sling and put it arond his neck like I do and then he literally tried to scoop her up and put her in it, although I stopped him quickly! I don't think that he is jealous of her, which is such a relief.

We attempted to take 18-month pictures of him, but wow, it was near impossible to get him to stay put and look at the camera, let alone get a smile. Here is a slideshow of Jacob pics at 18 months!

Jacob - 18 Months

Sling

Having two children is definitely more challenging than just one. We discovered this the minute Bailey came home from the hospital. It's all about man-on-man defense, but when you're a man down, it's not so easy! Jacob needs constant monitoring because he gets into anything and everything and is very ornery! "No" is a constant word used in our house, by both Dan and I AND Jacob. He is a blast to play with, but can also be so frustrating to deal with at times. On the otherhand, Bailey really likes to be held, especially at night which poses a problem with Jacob around.

In the early weeks of Bailey being home, I went out and purchased a sling to hold Bailey in. This has been worth every penny!! I'm able to "hold" her and keep her content all the while having my two hands back to handle Jacob and get things done around the house. I've used the sling a lot and highly, highly recoomend it to any mom. I've even used it out in public while going to garage sales so I don't have to haul a stroller and can look with two hands and have taken Jacob outside to play. I quickly learned that I couldn't pick him up and put him in the swing while holding Bailey. It also keeps her warm and out of the wind and sun. Dan has used it too when he's got the two kids by himself. It's also allowed me to eat meals in peace when she needs to be held. The sling has made my life SOOOO much easier that I just had to give my unsolicited sales pitch on it!!

Garage Sale Time Again!

We had our garage sale this past weekend. It was a lot of work, but not as bad as it could have been. I went through the house and cleaned things out right after we found out we were pregnant with Bailey, so I already had my pile in the basement of garage sale stuff. I priced everything in an afternoon last week and organized it all on Thursday. Over the two-day sale, we were pleased to have sold most of the larger items and didn't have an overwhelming amount left over. We made over $400!!! We threw out the worthless junk, sent some stuff to Goodwill, and kept the things we thought could go into a future garage sale and boxed them up for the basement. The good thing is that these items are already priced for next time! I figure that our next sale will include lots of baby items, so it should be a big draw for people. I had so much fun with it. My dream is to own my own small business one day, so this was a way for me to live that out on a small scale for a few days :)

I'm also beginning to hit garage sales again this year looking for toys for the kids. I have so much fun going to sales and it is such a rush finding good deals!! I had so much success at this last year, I'm hoping to repeat this year. It's amazing how cheap you can get toys at garage sales and with some clean-up, they are almost like new again. I've already gotten Jacob a few toys and books and they are a hit already!! I've gotten him an Etch-n-Sketch, Sesame Street doctor's kit, musical push toy for outside, puzzle, and books. I have a list of things I'm looking for.... outdoor toys for Jacob, toddler picnic table, toddler indoor table/chairs, boy toys for Jacob, and girl toys for Bailey. I plan on going to lots of sales here in the next couple of weeks while I am still off work. Wish me luck :)

Mother's Day

Mother's Day this year was fairly quiet. I went to church for the first time in almost two months and Bailey made it through the service great! We were stuck in the front row because we were a few minutes late, but all went well. We ran a couple of errands on the way home and both kids did fine. It was our first trip out to a store with the two of them and it was interesting having both kids in the cart at once. I'm not sure how we'll manage once Bailey is old enough to sit in the front, but we'll deal with that when the time comes.

It had been a few hours since Bailey had a diaper change and eaten, so by the time we got home, she was pretty fussy. Here comes the sweetest part of my day.... While I was washing my hands getting ready to take care of her, Jacob decided to play the big brother helper and grabbed her pacifier and put it in her mouth for her. After it fell out again, he put it back in for her. So sweet!!! This is a HUGE moment for me because Jacob still very much loves his pacifier and I've been worried about him taking hers for himself, but he apparently understands the difference. I'm also very proud of him for trying to be a big brother to her and do something to make her feel better. Such a proud moment for momma!!!

The rest of the day was fairly quiet. Dan stained the outdoor playground sets while Jacob napped. My grandparents stopped by for a little while in the afternoon and brought me a potted rose plant. It's gorgeous. Just a reminder to me that I need to soon get my flowers in before I go back to work. All-in-all it was a nice day!!

Jacob's message for me

Outtake

Dad's Wedding

My Dad got married this weekend!!! It was a beautiful ceremony and reception. My sister and I stood up with my Dad and Debbie's daughter was the matron of honor. It was mostly family and a few friends at the ceremony which I think is the way to do it.... very intimate. All of my Dad's sisters were there and we always have a good time visiting with them. Time is always too short and I wish I got to spend more time with them hanging out.

I took Jacob and Bailey down with me on Friday for the rehearsal and dinner and stayed the night along with my sister. Thank goodness she was there because, wow, it's exhausting managing two little ones by yourself. I think that Sharla did more to help with them than I did! Getting through the rehearsal was crazy. Sharla ended up taking Jacob out of it because he was too distracting and I had Bailey. Bailey had one of her nights where she was fussy and didn't want to go to sleep. To add to the stress, my Dad's pack-n-play wouldn't set up properly so Sharla slept with Jacob on an air mattress, bless her heart!!! I don't think any of us got much sleep that night.

I was really worried how the kids would do the day of the ceremony, but thanks to help from everyone we survived. We had some time to kill between pictures and the wedding, so we hung out with my Dad in the church's gym. It was a great way for Jacob (and Dan) to get out some energy. Dan fed Jacob lunch before the ceremony which helped keep him somewhat happy during the ceremony, although Dan did have to take him out halfway through. My Aunt Kathy was in charge of Bailey and did great!! She's the easy one of the two :) Pictures afterwards were a bit challenging because Jacob was VERY ready for a nap, so there are pictures with him holding his juice and pacifier. Oh well, what are you gonna do?!! Jacob fell asleep on the way to the reception and Dan successfully was able to get him out of the car and not wake him up. You'll see in one of the pictures Jacob and Bailey sleeping on the floor next to our table at the restaurant. I'm sure people were whispering about it, but we were able to enjoy the reception in peace!!

All-in-all, it was a beautiful, fun, yet exhausting weekend. It's great to see my Dad so happy and after all he has been through, he deserves it. I wish them all the best!!!

Here are some snapshots of the big day....

Dad's Wedding

Big Boy Jacob

Jacob seems so grown up all of a sudden now that Bailey is here. He has officially moved into his new room! The past couple of weekends we have tested him out in his new bed during naps and he did great. He started out on just the mattress, then we added the box springs last weekend. It will be awhile before we add the bed frame because he needs to be able to climb in and out on his own and the frame would make the bed too tall for him to do so. We've added padding around the bed in case of a rollout and have the bed rails to add still. The problem with the bed rails is that we're afraid that if he gets out he won't be able to get back in his bed. Also that's further for him to fall if he decides to climb over them.

We haven't declared him sleeping in his bed a complete success yet because he seems to prefer the floor over the bed about 50 percent of the time. He'll go down in his bed, but when we check on him later, he is asleep on the floor in random places. Who knew that the floor would be more comfortable than a mattress?!! Hopefully he figures it all out and learns that the bed is the place for sleep!

I still have to paint the walls in his room (maybe next week) and then find things to decorate his walls with. I plan on having this done before I go back to work. It's been fun setting up his room and making the nursery all Bailey's. My dad gave me my doll bed and rocking chair from when I was a little girl and I plan on adding those to the nursery to make it more girl-friendly for her. I also bought a pink tub to put all the infant toys in for her. It seems like I just put those away after Jacob was done with them.... actually I did!!

Jacob got his first professional haircut this week. His hair has gotten a lot longer and beyond the scope of our ability to trim up. His hair looks SOOO much better!! I took him to Cookie Cutters and he sat for the girl like a champ. She put in an Elmo movie for him, but he was much more interested in the DVD cover. He threw a temper tantrum on the way out because he didn't want to give it back. This is his new thing. When this happens he refuses to walk and throws himself on the floor kicking and screaming. I had him in one arm and Bailey in the other. It's so exhausting at times with the two of them together. I'm trying not to avoid going places with the two of them, but it's definitely a challenge at times!!

Jacob's language is really developing. Communicating with him is getting easier and easier. It seems that he picks up a new word every day. He has mastered the "k" sound and now says words like "milk", "walk" and "thank you" so much better. We've been going for walks when the weather is nice and it is so neat to see him point to things and tell me what they are. He gets so excited when he sees birds or dogs. We can also ask him his likes and dislikes now and he responds with a "yes" (more like a nod yes and an "uh") or "no". We hear "no" A LOT!! We work with him a lot here at home, but I also give daycare a lot of credit for teaching him things.

Updates

I don't have anything major to talk about this week, so I thought I would post updates on how we're all doing.

Bailey is still doing great. I thought Jacob was an easy baby, but Bailey is even better! She is very passive and sleeps most days. She is often alert during the evening hours and the only time she fusses is when we're ready to put her to bed for the night. It usually requires an extra feeding and some rocking, but once she goes to sleep, our night is pretty simple. She does get up once or twice to eat, but that is usually a quick process. Last night she slept for 6 1/2 straight hours!! At her check-up this week she weighed in at 7 lbs 4 oz, almost a pound weight gain in one week! She is doing great, so I'm not going to worry if she has a long stretch of sleep at night without eating. Her umbilical cord stump came off the other night, so I plan on doing her first real bath here soon. I think that she'll actually like it.... Jacob HATED baths for the first couple of months.

Jacob is Jacob. He came home Thursday night with a fever and kept us up most of the night trying to hydrate him. His fever broke around 10:00, but then his temperature got all the way down to 94 degrees!! I talked to the 24-hour nurse several times that night trying to figure out what to do. His temperature was probably low because he was pretty dehydrated. He was literally about an hour away from an ER visit, but Dan used a syringe to get fluids down his throat since he was refusing to drink all night. Talk about tough love!! He ended up with a wet diaper, thank goodness, but we spent all day Friday trying to get his hydration level back to normal. At least he acted fine. Who knows what was wrong with him.

I'm doing okay. A bacterial infection developed in my incision earlier this week. I've been to the doctor a couple of times now due to this and the second visit resulted in more medication for me to take since the first set isn't doing the trick. The infection has set my recovery back a bit, which is frustrating. I guess only a small percentage of people get these, so I'm one of the lucky few! There are worse things, but I am just ready to feel good again. I long for the days of running around with Jacob and being able to do more active things. Patience, patience!!!

Dan is coaching our church softball team again this year and had his first practice this past week. The first game is on Tuesday and I'll have both kids home by myself for the first time! Dan's cousin, Rachel, and her fiancee helped me out with Jacob while Dan was at his practice last week. I'm still sore and lifting Jacob is challenging. I've been lifting him a little more today trying to test what I can do. I swear the kid gained a lot of weight in the last few weeks!! Dan has class on Saturday, so I'll get the kids to myself that day as well! I've been lucky so far not having to juggle the two of them much beyond an hour or so in the evenings while Dan works out. I think that once I'm healed, it won't seem that daunting of a task :)

Well, hope everyone has a good week!!