Citygarden

Citygarden in is in downtown St. Louis. It is filled with beautiful plants, sculptures, and LOTS of water :) This was our first time taking Jacob. He LOVED it :)

Jacob's reaction when he saw all the water we were walking towards.

He just realized when the water hides in the hole it'll pop out when he least expects it to :)

It totally looks like he's jumping! (I won't tell you that he doesn't know how to jump yet :) )

Jacob caught eyes with the cutest 2yr old girl... As this picture was taken, she walked over and gave Jacob a hug! When she walked away, Jacob turned to me & looked confused. 

"Mommy, why did a stranger just walk up and hug me?"

Watchin' the big kids play!

LOVE this one.

Looks like Daddy & Jacob are having a heart to heart conversation :)

When did I get an 8 month old?

    You don't have to answer the question, I know how it works. I am just amazed daily at how fast Jacob is growing, changing, and discovering. I am so proud of all his little milestones!

•     Jacob can pull himself up to standing now! He pulls up on just about everything...the entertainment center, couches, chairs, boxes, his tool bench... And the cutest is when he wakes up and I go into his room and he is standing up in his crib smiling and wiggling with excitement for me to pick him up :)

•     He's learned to wave! Jacob and I were at the mall a couple weeks ago with my sister, Lisa, when someone walked by and looked at Jacob...and he waved! Since then he's been waving all the time. I think he's starting to connect waving with the reason behind...like waving when someone is coming or going. Sometimes he'll wave at James when he's leaving for work. And lately he's been waving at his toys :)

•     When Jacob eats all of his food I clap my hands and say, "Yay, Jacob!" Now when he finishes and I say it, he claps his hands! He also claps his hands when he's excited about something...like when there's fun music on, when James comes home from work, or when he gets a visit from Aunt Lisa :)

•     For about one month now, Jacob has been consistently sleeping through the night! When he would wake up I would go to him right away and pick him up (1st mistake). Then he would act like he was starving, so I would feed him (2nd mistake). After he finished eating I would rock him back to sleep and then...SPLAT! He would spit up everything. This went on for a couple of weeks. He had a well-check coming up, so I asked his wonderful pediatrician what could be going on. Doc said Jacob wasn't waking up because he was hungry; rather, he was waking up out of habit. He also said babies usually adapt to a new change/schedule in about 3-4 days. So he suggested that for a few nights in a row when Jacob wakes up I should just let him cry. THAT WAS THE BEST THING I HAVE EVER DONE! 3 nights did the trick. Jacob sleeps wonderfully through the night now. And mommy likes sleeping through the night, too :) I had forgotten how amazing it felt to wake up feeling well-rested.

    Recently, I was going through Jacob's box of newborn keep-sakes. I found his hat that he wore the day he was born. and his little white hospital robe that ties on the side. These things are tiny and definitely cute...but not as tiny as the newborn size diaper I saved! Until I saw that, I don't think it had really hit me how much my Baby had grown! I went to the living room and held it up for James to see. "Did Jacob ever fit in that?" He said, "It's so tiny!" Yes! He wore that size for one whole month! And then size 1 for a month. Followed by size 2 for a month, and then 3! How many sizes do they make anyway? :-)

    So my Baby's growing up. And ready or not, here he comes! He's not quite crawling yet, but he's mastered the army crawl. And when he's standing up against the couch or at a toy, he takes steps! Sometimes we wonder if he'll learn to walk before he learns to crawl :)

    One weird & exciting thing is getting used to seeing teeth in Jacob's smile! He has 3 teeth on the bottom and his top front 4 teeth look like they're going to come through at any time...maybe tomorrow!

 

Just Keep Swimming...

    Occasionally my husband has to travel for work. I usually go with him and we get to spend some extra time together. Then while he is working I'm on my own. But that wasn't the case this time! A few days ago James had a conference that he was going to be the "tech guy" for. So I packed our bags! This time, I would have Jacob for company while Daddy was working :-) 

    Jacob had a lot of firsts on this trip! It was his first time staying in a hotel & we stayed in a Holiday Inn. It was HUGE. Our room was great & they gave us a crib for Jacob that, well, wasn't so great. He didn't have much room to move around in it because it was barely bigger than he was. And when he would roll over, his legs would get stuck between the slats! (I should have snapped a photo, it was quite funny; but I was also worried!) I guess it was a good thing that our room had two beds, because at 2am Jacob was through with the crib & upgraded to a comfy bed. With me on one side of the bed and pillows on the other, he was safe & slept great the rest of the night! 

I love how he's wearing Nemo!

    When we arrived Wednesday, James had some equipment to set up & then was free until the next morning.   So we grabbed dinner at Krieger's, the restaurant attached to the hotel and talked about the day as people walked by smiling at Jacob :-) Afterwards, we got ready for the pool! I was so excited when I found out there was going to be a pool where we would be staying! So I went to the store and got Jacob some Little Swimmer's for the special occasion :-) In case you're not aware of what Little Swimmer's are...they're like waterproof diapers that don't swell up when they get wet. I wondered what Jacob was going to think of the pool. Was he going to think it was one big bath? Because he absolutely LOVES bath time! (and he always laughs when I wash behind his legs!) Or was he going to freak out & scream like I've seen other babies do before? Well, not much to my surprise, Jacob really enjoyed the pool! He was smiling a lot and kept staring at the water. We had so much fun with him! One time in the pool just wasn't enough, so we returned promptly the next morning :-)

                     

Seconds after Jacob was wrapped up all warm & cozy
he fell asleep :-)

First Bath!!

Once Jacob's cord fell off, we gave him his first bath! He had so many facial expressions when he felt the water. He was just staring at us the whole time as if to say, "What's going on?!" And he didn't cry at all!