Jacob's first words

Jacob is very vocal. He's been saying "pa" for several weeks because his daddy brainwashes him every day at day care during lunch by saying "pa-pa, Jacob, pa-pa, Jacob", over and over. Jacob can say "ma", but when I say "ma-ma, Jacob, ma-ma, Jacob", usually he says "pa". Jacob loves his toys and he really loves playing with balls. I was playing with him this past weekend with a new extra-large plastic ball, and I kept saying "ball". He started saying "ba". When the ball was in another room, he said "ba" so we could go get the ball for him. We have new fun experiences every day!

Jacob's latest interest at day care is touching the hair of his classmates. Sometimes Jacob pursues them around the room, and he sometimes selects his targets. Hopefully he won't be a bully like his daddy was as a child! Jacob is exhausted after a long day of playing:Jacob at 10.5 months old barely fits in his carrier. He's about 27 lbs.

Visita de primo Antonio en Mayo

At the beginning of May, Jacob turned 10 months. We welcomed his cousin Antonio, aunt Anna, and uncle Armando, for an extra long weekend.

We had lots of fun here at home. Antonio played video games with Jacob's cousins and he had fun playing in the back yard.

Isaac, Antonio and Jonas playing Mario Kart.

Armando, Manuel and Antonio

We had a nice meal at Rainforest Cafe and walked along the San Antonio Riverwalk.

The mothers enjoyed a sushi dinner to celebrate Anna's and Maria's birthdays.

We enjoyed a day at the zoo.

Pink eye, allergies and army craw

Today has been a very exciting day for the whole family. Last night I picked up my mom from the airport, and on the drive I decided to rub my eye. Touching my eyes in any way, shape or form, has been on the ‘DO NOT DO’ list for the past week since Manuel mysteriously contracted pink eye. It might have been at day care, where he sits on the floor to play with Jacob and is surrounded by 10 to 12 month old babies that are jumping, crawling, spitting, and coughing on him. He swears one of them drooled or spit in his eye, but none of the babies had any sign of pink eye until about a week later when we saw a sign on the door that one of them had pink eye. Anyhow, I swear that I felt the bacteria enter my eye. And about 6 hours later I woke up with some gunk in my eyes. It was disgusting.

I was unable to join Manuel for Jacob’s allergy doctor appointment this morning. So, lucky grandma Maria was there to hold Jacob down on his belly and hear him yelp as they poked his back four or five times for the allergy test. Jacob is allergic to something, but it’s not the Mountain Cedar or Oak pollen that affects almost everyone in San Antonio. Jacob is allergic to rice. Imagine that. We would have never known. He has constant congestion and we figured it was some type of environmental allergy, but little did we know it’s the ‘healthy’ brown rice that he eats several days out of the week. No more.

The past few days we’ve noticed that Jacob is really trying to move around. He’s been squirming and sliding around on his belly within a few feet of his location for a few months, but his movements have been mostly backwards or in circles to get to his precious toys. Yesterday, Manuel and I noticed that Jacob’s butt was moving higher up into the air and his legs were stretching and starting to push him forward. Apparently today at day care it all came together, and he was on the move all afternoon. He even crawled under the feeding table when it was time for his meal. It’s pretty much an army crawl, but he’s getting around and covering much more ground than before. He’s very chubby, but I’m assuming this new exercise will start to slim him down J

Happy Mother's Day

I enjoyed my first Mother's Day today with my baby, my husband, and my extended family.

We had a nice gathering at my Grandma Eva's house. We enjoyed food, shared stories, and took turns holding Jacob.

Jacob is 10th months old!

It's hard to believe my big baby is already 10 months. We looked at photos last night, and Jacob is definitely chubbier than his daddy was at this age! But he's so long too. He's wearing clothing sized 18 months to 24 months (and 2T fits too). Hopefully he slows down, but the pediatrician told me to keep feeding Jacob as much as he wants to eat so we continue to give him five 7oz bottles of milk and 4 servings of food: 6 tablespoons of cereal, 4 oz yogurt, 4 oz fruit or vegetable, then dinner is typically 8 oz of fruits and vegetables. He usually eats all the solids and drinks most of the milk : )

Jacob's 9th month

Jacob had a very exciting 9th month. He spent a long weekend in Houston over Easter and then he spent a week in Cancun. We completely stopped the breast milk by eliminating the morning and evening feedings, and he didn't seem to notice the difference. Other than the first morning when he lunged forward toward my chest and started to suck my shirt, but he tries to put everything in his mouth.
Jacob enjoying a nice day in the park during Easter weekend in Katy, Texas.

Jacob swimming in Cancun con los abuelos.

Jacob has fun at day care playing with the other kids. When he returned after his week in Cancun, Manuel said Jacob had a big smile on his face and he reached out for one of the day care ladies to carry him. The kids in his class are getting older, and now they scoot, crawl, and walk toward each other. Manuel visits Jacob almost every day at lunch, and he says that things are getting more exciting. The babies are grabbing things from each other, they are starting to hit each other, and there is one kid who continues to bite the others. It's funny to think that they all started as small immobile babies and now they have 'baby brawls' daily.
Jacob with his day care teacher Isabel.

Jacob weighed in at 25.5 lbs and was almost 30" long at the beginning of April. He's definitely grown since then, although he has occassional declines in appetite. First around the beginning of the trip to Cancun, and then lately we think he's teething again. He has two bottom teeth right now, but I'm sure more will be coming soon.

Jacob bien dormido con su abuela Lolita en Cancun.