14 month pictures

Instead of a fun swim in the back yard, we got soaked!  Where did that rain come from?

Grandma Elsa, Mommy Michelle and Jacob

Waiting for first University of Michigan game of the season

 Dad Ruben, congrats on your retirement!

Jacob having fun with his Grandpa Ruben and Grandma Maria



Jacob hanging on (for dear life) to his cousin Jonas

 

Happy in the morning

Valero Family Day at Six Flags Fiesta Texas

Family is ready for the UM game!

Jacob loves his second cousin Emilia and great aunt Rachel.  We love our big family!

Look at those teeth!  Jacob has four on top and four on the bottom.

Dinner time with daddy.  Jacob has a scratch on his cheek from playing with his friend at day care.

Jacob has a lot of hair!  It's time for a hair cut.

Out all night - Jacob 15 months

Jacob spent his first night away from mommy and daddy last night.  On his 15 month birthday, Jacob spent all night at grandma Elsa's house.  He had lots of fun playing with cousin Reyna and Ethan, and he played so much that he had no trouble sleeping all night in his baby tent!  Grandma Elsa actually woke him up in the morning.  Jacob was a very good boy.

Mommy and daddy had a great night out, starting with Sushi and then enjoying a great performance by Shakira.  Then we had a quick Mamma Margie's stop for some nachos and quesadillas.  Mommy slept in till 8 a.m. and then went to pick up Jacob, and he was having lots of fun with his Aunt Socorro and cousin Reyna.  She should have slept in longer!

14 months milestones

Jacob's 14th month was full of activity and new adventures.  Jacob has become an expert at standing and sitting back down.  He gets up quickly and he will get back down to a sitting position by either moving forward onto his knees or sitting back onto his bottom.  He easily maneuvers across couches and around tables, especially when he's trying to reach something.  Jacob spun a chess board around as he tried to reach some remote controls on the opposite side at Manuel's friend Jose's house - smart boy!

Jacob really likes to climb up onto sofas.  Mommy used to help him climb up and he's never fallen off yet, but daddy put his foot down and we don't put Jacob up on the sofa any more.  He will grunt and yell, but we don't give in.  Jacob tries to lift his legs to get up, but he's not quite tall enough yet.  Jacob is at least 32" tall, so it won't be long!

At the beginning of September, Jacob tapped heads with his new classmate, Madison.  She's a bit younger and petite, but maybe a future girlfriend?  When he's not being sweet and hugging and kissing, he might slap you in the face or pull your hair.  He thinks it's a game, so watch out because you won't know it's coming.  I've tried to tell Jacob it's "not nice and it hurts", but he just smiles and laughs.

Jacob has become a dancing machine.  Tejano, rock, pop, or a lullaby, it doesn't matter.  He will bang his head or move his body side to side.  We first noticed his talent at his Aunt Jennifer's birthday celebration with a Tejano DJ - Jacob couldn't contain himself!  And every time he's in the car listening to the radio he's dancing.  Jacob heard a Gypsy Kings song last week and he was shaking and clapping along with the song.

Jacob still LOVES his avocado, but we've discovered his passion for strawberries.  He'll devour either in minutes.  Jacob is still drinking his soy milk and yogurt, and it seems his congestion has been less severe the past few months - no ear infection.  So we'll keep with it for at least a while longer.  Jacob is down to one nightly bottle, but he wasn't happy the first morning when he got a sippie cup of milk.  There was a definite yell and grunt vocalization, but he'll eventually take a few drinks.  He has a big breakfast right when he arrives at day care, so we're not worried.

Jacob is not a baby anymore!  It's been so much fun to see him develop and grow.

Week of new experiences during Jacob's 13th month

This past week has been full of new experiences for Jacob.  He climbed all the way up the stairs at home four times.  On the way down, Jacob wants to go hands first, so I haven't let him make his way down.  At the day care group play room, Jacob had been practicing on a small two step up/down triangular stair, and he finally figured out how to get  up and down by himself a few weeks ago.

Jacob's favorite word again is 'da-da'.  And he knows exactly who da-da is!  Jacob calls Manuel from across the room and gets his attention with a loud and deep 'DAA-DAA.'  Jacob says 'ma-ma' sometimes too, but it's usually when he's upset about something or when I'm ignoring him and running around the house cleaning or organizing.

This past week, I saw Jacob pull himself up to standing four times.  Twice from sitting on the sofa, once from the floor he pulled himself onto the ottoman, and then once from the floor he lunged up over his toy box.  If I stand Jacob up, he'll hang out for a while, but the main problem is he's not confident with getting back down to the floor.  I try to show him how to fall softly onto his bottom, but he doesn't want to bend his legs.  We'll just have to keep trying.  We're also trying to put Jacob into a walker occasionally for a little bit of extra practice standing and moving .

Jacob still loves his pacifier.  Typically he wants the pacifier when it's almost time to fall sleep, and he's really good at quickly spinning it around to get it into his mouth just right.  Our main focus for the past seven weeks has been the transition off formula, which happened in just a few weeks, and then drinking milk from a sippy cup during the day.  Jacob still has a bottle as his first and last meal of the day, but all day it's solid food and milk or water in a sippy cup.  We have been trying soy milk this past week because Jacob has fluid in his ears and his doctor wants to try a few things to see if we can avoid tubes.  Jacob LOVES that soy milk - he actually drinks more from his two daily bottles now compared to whole milk.  I suppose I should get the unsweetened soy milk, but I have just been giving him the regular kind.  And he likes the soy yogurt too.

Last Saturday, I got all dressed up for a girl's night out to celebrate my very good friend Danae's birthday.  But I guess I was looking forward to the weekend so much that I didn't realize I was a week early!  All dressed up and no where to go, so we ended up going out for a family dinner.  As we were waiting for a table Jacob said hello to the kids with smiles and looks.  After his dinner, Jacob ate animal crackers and danced to the upbeat music.  Then he was so excited when he realized a table of kids that he had already met were just behind him.  He turn around and started babbling - I guess he was trying to start a conversation.  It was a little bit of a late night, with Jacob going to bed after 9 instead of by 8:30, but Jacob had napped for about 5 hours that day so he had to get out some energy and our dinner outing was the perfect solution!

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Manuel and Jacob, eating animal crackers and dancing at dinner
8/21/10

On Monday, Manuel had a guy's evening out to watch some pre-season football.  Mommy stayed home with Jacob, and took care of the evening routine.  First a short nap (because Jacob hasn't been sleeping enough at day care....he just wants to play!), then dinner, next a bath, and finally a 7 or 8 oz bottle of soy milk and about an hour of a baby TV show called Sprout.  Jacob's dinner was fairly normal, and I knew that Jacob liked watermelon, but I had never seen him devour watermelon.  It reminded me of royal feasts back in the day, perhaps like King Henry XII, where food was grabbed by the fist full and shoved into mouths with nothing polite about it.  I was trying so hard not to laugh, but when Jacob turned and looked at me with those cheeks full of food I just couldn't control myself and I just burst out laughing.  It was hilarious!

Manuel & Jacob snacking at the pool - 8/15/10

This week at day care Jacob has slowly been transitioning from the room he's been in for 10 months into a new class with 'babies' who still don't walk.  He has a few friends from his old room moving with him, but there are five new kids and all new care givers.  I heard he was very serious at the beginning of his first two hour visit, but by the end he was dancing to the festive music.  He's so much fun to play with and watch!

Jacob's water play fun in the back yard - 8/22/10

Jeremy is back from Japan!

My cousin Jeremy came back from being stationed in Japan for two years.  We had a nice family breakfast and visit two weeks ago.  Jeremy will be stationed in Washington State for his next four years in the Navy.

Manuel, Jeremy, Michelle &
Jacob (13.5 months) - 8/14/10

Grandma Elsa feeding Jacob beans and avocado
with Great Grandma Eva

Jacob climbed on top of the table

Today Jacob's day care report had a smile as his general mood, as usual, but the daily comment reflected a new event: "Jacob climbed on top of the table today.  Ms. Andrea had to help him down...".  Apparently Jacob figured out how to get up onto the meal table, but he was not yet prepared for the downward descent. 

Jacob has been practicing his standing lately at day care and at home.  When we stand him up at a table he'll hang out for a little while but then he gets tired and starts whining because he wants to get down to the floor, so I'm trying to teach him to fall on his butt.  I've tried to let him climb up stairs, but he's not really interested in much more than making noise with the baby gate by banging it back and forth.

Jacob is very ticklish - neck, underarms, upper thighs, belly, you name it!  He will bend his head backwards so I can kiss and blow into his neck to make noise.  It's funny.  He laughs and laughs!

Jacob loves to sleep like mommy and daddy.  He usually sleeps from 8:30 p.m. till 7 a.m.  Occasionally he'll wake up around 4 a.m., but that's typically only when he is having trouble breathing due to nasal stuffiness.  During the week, he doesn't nap much more than an hour because he wants to be involved in all the action at day care.  But on weekends, he usually takes two 2-hour naps!  Mommy and daddy take turns napping on weekends too, so we all try to get some extra relaxation time.

Go Navy

Jacob hasn't met his uncle Armando yet because he's been working (and drinking) hard in Japan and the surrounding waters for over a year.  But Jacob can't wait to meet his uncle Mando, hopefully this fall.

Go Navy!

August family fun at the pool
Reyna, Jacob, Manuel, Isaac, Sonia, and Jonas