Crawling on all fours at 11 months

Jacob is almost one year old, and he finally started to crawl forward on all fours this past week.  He was able to get up and move backwards into a sitting position, but now he can also move forward.  Although he hasn't completely given up on the army crawl, he now seems to be much more inclined to crawl forward on all fours.

I never thought I'd say this, but Jacob is getting picky in his food selections.  He's not too excited about the purees anymore - he wants chunks of food and variety.  But poor thing still only has two bottom teeth, so we can't give him things that require too much chewing.  Jacob loves avocado.  He also loves his corn snacks, one of the only finger foods I have been able to find that don't have rice.

Jacob has grown and developed so much over the past 11 months.  It's hard to believe that he will be one year old on Friday, 7/2.  We've had so much fun with our little one, and we look forward to many more years of joy.

We enjoyed a relaxing family weekend at home and we visited the neighborhood park and pool.

25 year celebration for Friar (Uncle) Art

Jacob (11 months) having fun with his great Uncle Art, visiting from Indianapolis in June:

On June 12th, we had a great celebration for my Uncle and his friend.  Friars Gilberto and Arturo celebrated 25 years as priests.  Jacob watch the celebration patiently, but we had to put a pacifier in his mouth because he wanted to talk.  Jacob sitting with his cousins Destiny, Anita, Emilia and Marisa:

We had a nice mass, although a broken AC in 90 degree heat was a bit uncomfortable.  But we had a great feast afterwards with the parish, and we enjoyed a delicious seafood paella prepared by my family.  My Uncle Art's favorite dish to cook for big family gatherings.

Father's Day

We enjoyed a relaxing family weekend, and we celebrated Manuel's first Father's Day.  Jacob enjoyed his weekend nap with daddy on their favorite recliner:

Jacob continues to bring us much joy.  He's always smiling and moving.  Jacob is very affectionate and gives hugs and kisses to mom and dad every day.  Last week just before bed Jacob took his pacifier out of his mouth, gave mommy an open mouth kiss, and then put the pacifier back into his mouth.  It was sweet!

Our little Michelin Man under the coffee table:

We can't believe he's almost 1 year old!

Poop Explosion

Since last week, my poor baby hasn't been feeling so well.  It started at the local Mexican restaurant last Wednesday evening - Jacob puked all his dinner.  I thought the puke was in part due to the chunky #3 baby food.  Afterwards Jacob was exhausted and he fell asleep.  He didn't nap much during the day, so we attributed his tiredness to lack of sleep.  The next morning Jacob had a fever.  I changed his clothes and fed him, and then he didn't feel too hot.  His ear and under-arm thermometers were reading between 97 and 98 degrees, so he went off to day care.  Jacob saw the nurse and she measured 99 degrees, so back home he went to be with mom for the day.  After lunch, Jacob puked again so we went to see the pediatrician and found out he had his first ear infection.  His medicine causes loose stool, so poor baby had fever, some vomiting and now diarrhea.  There were several nights of sporadic sleep for the entire household.  Instead of waking just once during the night for a diaper change, Jacob was waking every three to four hours.  It was a combination of the ear infection with fever and sore gums.  We survived the weekend and then had a caregiver spend the day with him at home on Monday.  When I got home, the first thing I heard was there was a recent "poop explosion" and then a puke.  Apparently the poop was very loud and she heard it coming out, but then Jacob got so mad about being set on the floor for a minute while the care giver, Ashley, washed her hands, that he made himself puke.  Our baby is sweet, but he has a temper if he doesn't get what he wants!

Two weekends ago we helped Jacob's cousin Patrick celebrate his high school graduation.

 

Despite feeling under the weather, this past weekend we enjoyed visiting with Uncle Art to help him celebrate 25 years as a priest.

Jacob, 11 months, can stand up (holding on to the coffee table :)
 

Memorial Day visitors from MI

We had a very nice long weekend over Memorial Day. Jacob was almost 11 months, and his friend, Anna, came to visit from Michigan. Finally, a friend his size to play with!

Jim and Terri are expecting a little brother for Anna in October.

Jacob can kneel!

Not only is Jacob now very proficient at the army crawl, but for the past few weeks he’s been pushing himself back onto all fours and then into a sitting position. He was so excited when he learned this new trick that he did it over and over again. Today, Jacob kneeled at the table during afternoon snack at day care. Most likely he wanted to eat snacks the kids in his class were eating, but there was definitely some motivation to reach up.

I’m also happy to report that Jacob loves the word ‘ma’ now. He says it very frequently. I don’t think he associates it with me, but he uses it all the time and it’s nice to hear. Although sometimes it’s a very serious and deep ‘MAA’ when he’s not too happy about the situation at hand.

May 22nd, at 10.5 months, Jacob enjoyed his first 'real' haircut. He was very cooperative.