Happy Birthday Nana!

Today (May 11) is my mom's (Jake's Nana) birthday. Happy birthday mom! You are such an amazing women who I've learned so much from. You are such a special & wonderful gift. We all love you so much!!

Jake had a special message for Nana. (Sorry for the abrupt ending, the battery died!)

Mother's Day

On Friday, we headed down to Prattville to see my family. Unfortunately, I think that the AL pollen gets to Jake more than the TN pollen. Poor little guy, all weekend he was wheezy, his eyes watered & he kept sneezing. That in return made him more clingy than normal, but he still had fun! It was such a great weekend!

The kids playing outside with bubbles. (Please note what Maddox & Jake are wearing. The kids just HAD to stick their feet in the pool for just a few minutes. Needless to say, that is impossible for them to do without getting soaked! (except Marrell!) Maddox had to change into play clothes & Jake free bird it.Playing outside trying to fit all 3 in an old stroller

Jake helping Gran push Maddox in the giant inflatable ball. (Dad told me that I don't dress Jake in play clothes that he can get dirty, so he had my mom pick up real play clothes.)

Back in the stroller. This time they lost Maddox, but gained Sadie (my brother's dog). Marrell playing in the sandbox with Lucy (my sister's dog)

With Gran (I could kick myself for not getting a photo of Jake with Nana!) They have strict instructions to take lots of pictures of him with them, when he goes to stay with them in 2 weeks.

Marrell hugging Jake

On Saturday afternoon, we headed to Birmingham to see the Bush's.

Playing at the park in Homewood. Testing out one of his new pair of shoes.

Playing in the rocking chair that was his daddy's when he was a little boy.

Our family

Quit taking pictures mom! I'm trying to take a phone call!!

My 1st Mother's Day (2009) My 2nd Mother's Day (2010)

Kisses for mama

For mother's day, Jake's teachers made each mom a book of pictures they took throughout the year.

All of the pages were great, but the 2 below are my favorite. The first one is the time Jake feel asleep sitting up!

I love in this one he is showing his belly button (or "but but" as he calls it)

Rob gave me this picture for mother's day. It is the date that I became a mom.

My sweet little baby's hand

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day. I truly believe that you do not have to give birth or adopt to be a mom. To me, a mom is a wonderful woman who has had a positive influence in your life & has help guide you to make wise decisions & who has been there as a great role model in your life. My life has been touched by so many women, who have filled that role. And Jake already has so many special women "moms" in his life. I pray that God will continually place sweet wise Christian women in his life to help guide & teach him.

I do have to say though, that mine & Robbie's moms are 2 amazing moms. We love them so much & owe them everything. Their prayers, sacrifices, love & support over the last 31 years for us could never be thanked in words. They are great Christian women who have been such a positive & powerful influence in our lives. And Jake is very lucky to have them as his Nana & Mimi. We love you so much!

And speaking of my own munchkin, what a special mother's day he made it. Becoming a mother changed my life in more ways than I could ever imagine. A mother's love for her child is unreal. I love my family, my husband, my friends. But the love for your child is such a different love & a love I had never experienced. I love my child so much it hurts. I want so bad to protect him from everything bad in this world. From hurt, from sadness, from pain. I know that is impossible, but as a mom, I can't help but feel it. It's constantly worrying about the decisions I make. Will it scar him that I work long office hours? Will he feel like I wasn't there enough? Am I missing out on too many of the little things during the day? It's terrifying, but it is only because I love him so much. But then I drive home to that sweet little face looking out the window waiting on me. That white crazy hair & those big blue eyes greet me with a hug as I walk in the door. And then he curls up in my lap as I rock him to sleep playing with my hair. With his face laying against my chest, I have peace. I have to remind myself that the worry, guilt & stress are just part of being a mom. But so are the hugs, I love yous, kisses & laughs. And what an amazing feeling that is.

Happy Mother's Day!!

Little of this, Little of that

I was trying to get a picture of Jake in his shirt we brought him back from Savannah. He was having a moment & was not happy that I was taking the picture of him instead of letting him hold the camera. So this is what I got. Go figure, his shirt says "Sometimes crabby, but always cute." That certainly describes Jake!

Another morning on a happier note (before the morning hair wet down)
At our weekly dinner at Lupi's with his girlfriend Addie

Jake's new favorite song is "If You Are Happy & You Know It". He really won't clap or stomp on his own, but he will point to his cheeks during the part "...then your face will surely show it." It is SO HARD to get video of him though. The 2 videos below are not the greatest, but the best I could get of him. Please ignore my singing!

He usually comes out of his shell more while in the bathtub, so I thought maybe he would do better on camera then. He was unfortunately side-tracked with his male parts though, so the video had to end!

Okay, I know that it is a FARRRRRRRRRRRRR stretch, but he almost sounds like he is counting. He will usually point to his toes & "count". Too funny.

Anytime Robbie says "oh no", but puts his hands to his face like Home Alone. I almost missed it, but caught the tail end!

Jake is very into copying anything mom or dad does. That also includes helping us. He especially loves to help me unload the dishwasher. Anytime he hands you anything he says "budda budda budda". We have no idea what that is or what he is trying to say. He just says it anytime he hands anything to you. We finally got him to say night night tonight. It came out "ni ni". So sweet! We are definitely still dealing with the mood swings. They come out of no where. He'll be happily playing & you can barely move something & he will throw a fit. It usually happens in the evenings when he is getting tired. We are trying the ignore technique! He is such a sweet boy though & loves to give mama hugs & kisses.

Projects

This week was teacher appreciation week at Jake's school. Jake gave each of his teachers a jar of Honey Cinnamon Butter. This is a super easy & very affordable gift! (Jake has a total of 4 teachers throughout the week, so buying something for each would get expensive!) The little jars were $1.50 at Hobby Lobby & all of the ingredients we already had. (2 sticks of butter, 1 cup of honey, 1 cup of powered sugar & 2 teaspoons of cinnamon) I made the tags on Microsoft Word Art & then glued them to some printed paper. Quick, cheap, easy & yummy. Doesn't get better than that!!

A few weeks ago, Jake had a teacher that was retiring. We made her a frame for a going away gift.

I made my mom a magnetic picture frame board for her birthday.

Shoe Update

Yes, I know that it is pathetic that this is my 2nd post dedicated to a 1.5-year-old boy's shoe search. I need to get a life!


After last week's post, Rob sent me an email the next morning. (Not unusual. He usually emails me the morning after a post to let me know all the grammatical mistakes I need to fix!) This was not a proof reading email though, but an email to tell me that not only was $ an object, but he didn't even really like the sandals anyway. He felt like Jake needed something "sportier". So now, not only did I have to find shoes to fit Fred Flintstone's feet, but mom & dad must agree on them. YIKES!!


We were spending Saturday evening in Birmingham with the Bush's. I somehow convinced Rob that since he missed his tee time, could we PLEASE go shoe shopping for Jake. I guess since it was Mother's Day weekend, he agreed. (He probably didn't trust me buying something without him there the defend Jake's manhood!) So we hurried to downtown Homewood to try to make it to Sikes Children's Shoes before they closed. Not that I ever visited a child's shoe store when I lived in Bham, but I knew if anyone would have shoes to fit Fred's feet, Sikes was THE place to go. We made it with 5 minutes to spare. (The store workers were very gracious about it, which made me love them even more!)


I told them my dilemma of Saltwater Sandals not being wide enough. They said that they had never seen a child whose foot was too wide for those sandals. They measured his foot, brought out a pair & sure enough, they did fit! Yahoo!! (Lesson learned: go to an actual children's shoe store to buy shoes & not a clothing boutique!) I was overjoyed, but I could tell Robbie was not amused. So I asked him what shoes did he like. He picked these.

(Men obviously do not understand the importance of a play date/church versatile sandal!)

We were deadlocked. That is when sweet Mimi (Rob's mom) stepped up & said that she loved the sandal that I liked, so she would like to buy those for Jake. So we all left the store happy! (Including the workers who could finally go home!)

Thanks to everyone for the comments & emailed suggestions! Just in case others are looking for wide shoes: The Saltwater Surfer Sandal is adjustable enough to fit around kankles. (Just make sure you are not trying the "Wee". I think that is where we went wrong the first time.) Robbie's shoe that he picked out is the Big Splash by Jumping Jacks. This brand comes in wide & double wide. (Jake is a 6.5 wide.) It has a flexible sole & can be worn in the water too. The other nice thing about it is because of the covered toe, Jake can wear it to school. So it was a win-win! (Note: Rob's shoe cost $20 more than mine! Ha!! I was the bargain shopper!)

Since he can wear the jumping jacks to school, we are retiring his New Balance. (It was getting really hard to cram his foot into them!) When we bought the NB, I was nervous because they were not flexi-soles, but they have been great. They make the NB in a wide & double wide too. We have been very pleased & plan on buying him another pair this fall.

His first pair of tennis shoes November 2009

May 2010
Now was that a ridiculously long post about shoes or what?!?

HELP!

I can't believe it, I actually didn't take any pictures this weekend. It was a mommy & Jake weekend though & we had so much fun! (Rob & a bunch of guys were having a "boys" weekend in town.) We had some fun play dates, went shopping & played outside (thank you rain for staying away!).


I do need some help though. Does anyone know a place that sells wide sandals for boys? (Other than Stride Rite.) I know that I'm crazy, but I am very anal & picky about Jake's shoes. A while back, I decided I wanted him to have a pair of Saltwater Surfer sandals. We went downtown on Saturday to a shop that sells them. My poor baby's fat little chubby feet. The strap wouldn't even fit around his ankle. I figured the store wouldn't have it in a wide, but I thought maybe I could find it online. Nope. It was not just them that don't make sandals in a wide. NO ONE hardly makes any shoe in a wide. I've looked all over online & can basically only find 4 toddler boy sandals that they make in a wide. Unfortunately, I hate all 4. It's very heartbreaking. So, if you know ANYONE who makes a shoe like the one below, in a wide, PLEASE let me know. I do not care what the cost is! (Even though I'm sure Robbie would disagree!) Please help! If not, a little boy is going to have to wear tennis shoes & socks all summer!