Monday, September 28, 2009

Happy Belated Birthday!

Okay, so this post is a little late, but things have been so crazy! Last week, Robbie, his mom Judy & Jake all celebrated birthdays. Judy's birthday was Tuesday. We wished that we lived closer so that we could have celebrated with her in person, but we had to settle on celebrating that weekend at the Auburn game. We had a great time & I just can't say enough about what a great mother-in-law I have! She is one of the strongest, and sweetest women that I know and I have so much admiration for her. On Wednesday was Robbie's 31st birthday. Words could never describe how thankful I am for Robbie and for what a wonderful father & husband he is. Jake & I are so lucky. I feel like each year since Robbie & I met, something crazy goes on in my life. He is my rock and my best friend, and I couldn't imagine getting through something without him by my side. I also thank his parents, for raising such a sweet, strong, smart & amazing son! Thank you for giving me such an amazing gift! Lastly, on Thursday was Jake's 9 month birthday. Can you believe it?!? 9 Months! He is at the stage where every week he seems to discover something new. A few updates on him:
  • He is mobile!! He kind of crawls. He drags one leg and pushes off with the other. But he can get from one end of the room to the other, so it is close enough to crawling for me!
  • He is pulling up on everything. His favorite thing to pull up on is our coffee table, which is probably the most dangerous piece of furniture. It has iron legs which curl up at the end, and 2 layers of points at all 4 corners. Needless to say, it is impossible to baby proof it without it looking completely tacky. So now we are in the dilemma of what to do with it. We have 20 other things for him to pull up on, but of course that is what he goes for every time.
  • Speaking of which, he loves anything that is not a toy and anything that he is not supposed to have. We are going to have to use major reverse psychology on this kid. Example - he loves remotes. But only remotes that we use. We thought we were being smart & taking the batteries out of an old remote. Nope. He knows that we don't use that remote, and refuses to play with it. He wants the remote that we use. So now, Robbie & I have to pretend to use the fake remote. Then he wants to play with it. He also loves cell phones (again, not the old one we gave him, but mine or Robbie's), paper & envelopes.
  • When he doesn't get his way, he throws a fake fit. There are no tears and he stops half way to see if you are looking him. Then he goes back to the fake fit.
  • He is clapping, but only when you say "Yeaaaaaaaa". We were out for dinner one night, waiting on a table & he was clapping. The lady next to us, asked him if he was playing patty cake. She started singing it clapping. Jake looked at her like she was crazy. We had to tell her that he only claps for "Yea". She she started saying "Yeaaaaaa" and he started clapping. At first he would just move his hands in the motion of clapping & hit his fists together. Now he realizes that the palms of his hands make the clapping noise. He loves to hear it. Sometimes he does his golf clap which is very soft. They said at daycare sometimes he will be crying & then will start clapping like he is trying to cheer himself up.
  • He will play "Where's Jake?" with the burp cloth (or anything else he can use to cover his eyes). At first he was just doing the arm motions to mimic me, but now he realizes that it is a game. I tried to get video of it in the car, but he kept smiling at the camera like I was taking a picture. We are still working on catching it on video.
  • He has 7 teeth. 4 on top & 3 on bottom.
  • Therefore, I am no longer breast feeding. (Just kidding, that is really not the reason.) We have slowly phased out breast feeding and introduced formula. For the first 4 months, it was all BM. Months 5 & 6 were a combination. By month 6 I had had all I could take with lugging that breast pump to work. It was a huge challenge trying to work around meetings & conference calls. So starting in month 6, we went to formula during the day, but I was still breast feeding him first thing in the morning & last thing at night. We have now dropped that last feeding (I honestly don't even know if I was still producing milk) and I have recently started giving him a bottle when he wakes up. I have to say that the whole thing was a much better experience than I would have thought. I went into it thinking if it works, great, if not, all well. I was formula feed from day 1 & I'm one of the healthiest people I know! I certainly wasn't going to starve my child or make myself miserable just to say I breast fed. It just so happened that it all clicked. Even though it wasn't something that I thought I had to do, I'm so glad that it worked out. I needed it as much as Jake! Having to go back to work unexpectedly so soon after having him, and then being away from him so much during the week when I went back to the office, it was our chance to bond. I guess it kind of eased my guilt of being away from him so much. It was something that I knew that only I could give him.
  • He is saying ma ma ma ma ma & da da da da da. It is that age old question, is he saying mama & dada or just blabbering? I don't care. In book he is saying mama & dada. He says mo mo mo mo when he eats all of his puffs, so maybe he is saying more?
  • He has figured out that he can sit up in his crib & pull up to stand in his crib. It has made putting him to bed some nights a little challenging. He thinks if he is sitting up, then someone should be playing with him. I do love it in the mornings though when he is in his crib "talking" and we walk in there, and he is standing up waiting for us. Sometimes we'll catch in looking in the mirror in the armoire that is across from his crib. He waves at himself!

Well, enough rambling! I had to write enough updates though since this is now my baby book! Happy Happy Happy Birthday Judy, Robbie & Jake!! I love you guys so much!


Jake playing "where's Jake?". It was the best I could do!

Jake crawling (front)

Jake crawling (back)

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