Just for fun

Halloween is right around the corner and I've been costume shopping. This year, I'd love to dress the family as Star Wars characters. Jeremy gave me the thumbs up on this one...he's a huge Star Wars fan! If not this, maybe characters from the Wizard of Oz. Any other ideas?

Jacob as YodaOR Jacob as Chewbecca

Gracie as Princess Leia
Me as a Jedi


Jeremiah as a Jedi

How to have fun killing a fly

1. pick up inconsolable baby, one that refuses to let you put him down to do anything other than hold him

2. securely attach him to your waist, so you can multi-task

3. attempt to swat the yucky flies, those that like to land on the baby's toys

4. listen to baby laugh, laugh with him, and record it because

5. after disinfecting every single toy in the room with baby attached to your hip, you will need a good laugh to brighten your day and make you realize how grateful you should be to have such an incredible person who loves you and needs you more than anything else. =)

Speech delay??

Although the assessment results show that Jacob's language skills are appropriate for his development, I still have my concerns. Jacob tends to grunt for things that he wants instead of babbling. He would do this for a day or two and switch over to baby talk and then back to grunting. I expressed my concerns to the speech therapist (she comes quarterly) today during her visit. She told me that at this age, he is still exploring sound and voice. It is natural for babies to grunt, which is consider a syllable, and babble. She said that Jacob is in the 7-10 month range for speech development. Her advice for us was to continue talking to him, playing with him, and reading to him. She said that he is progressing very well and not worry too much about it at this age. She will come back in three months and perform another speech assessment. After she left, Jacob was in babble mode. Listen below...it's so cute.

Jello Jigglers

Update on Jacob's development:

-Support Coordinator or case manager came on Monday, June 29th for the annual ISP. She told us that the hours will be reduced from five hours to three and that after a few months, if he continues to progress as well as he has, they will drop him from the program. The report indicates that Jacob is doing well in the following areas when they assessed him at 9 months (CA) and 6 months (AA):

Gross Motor- 10 months
Fine Motor- 9 months
Cognitive- 9 months
Language- 9 months
Self-Help- 9 months
Social/Emotional- 7 months

-A visit to the High Risk Clinic with one of our all time favorite nurses, Christine, on Thursday, July 2nd was wonderful. I filled out a questionnaire surveying his social/emotional needs and skills and Christine assessed Jacob's gross motor skills and noted that in was well in the 11-13 month range for that area. He also needs to work on his fine motor skills, such as picking things up and transferring objects from one hand to another. Christine will send us an evaluation of the assessments in a few weeks. It was awesome seeing her. At the appointment, she gave us some tips on how to increase his fine motor skills and one of them were to give him jello so he could play and eventually put in his mouth. We've tried it twice so far. Instead of putting it in his mouth, he likes to throw it over the edge of his tray. We are going to continue to work with him until he develops that skill...it might just take a while. =)

-Jacob has learned how to climb up the stairs. He has also learned how to stand alone without support for about 15 seconds. He also has two new teeth cutting through the top gums. I belive they are called central incisors...not sure. He sometimes get a little warm, but has cried a lot because of discomfort. One more thing...he has learned how to pull down mommy's pants while she is washing the dishes or the bottles. =D

4th of July fun!

This year, Sam (Jer's brother)and his family came up spend the fourth with us. It was so much fun. Here, we are in downtown tracy waiting for the parade to start.
I think Isaac and Eliza likes Uncle Jeremy more than the like me. =( They kept wanting to sit next to him and Eliza kept giving him hugs and kisses...it's so cute! Eliza would say, "Uncle Jeremy??? I love you!" and then hug his legs. It's so adorable! And Isaac thinks Jeremy is the coolest ever. (Maricia, if Isaac does anything weird or strange, it's all Jeremy!LOL) Isaac got so much candy! He is one silly and hilarious boy! He was dancing, doing kung-fu, jumping, and screaming for candy. I have it all on video!

Eliza is so sweet! She gave Jacob so many kisses during the parade!

Eliza waving the flag!

Smith watching superheroes pass by. (spiderman was hilarious!)

Sam's beautiful family: left to right, Smith, Maricia, Isaac, Eliza, and Sam. Sam and Maricia are great parents. They are so loving and so gentle with the kids. I love watching them play together. They are great examples to our little family. I hope I will be half as good as they are to each other and to their kids. Thanks for a great 4th guys!!

Time at the pool after the parade and yummy lunch. Isaac learned so fast in the pool. He was so afraid to put his face under water, but after a few minutes, he was brave and did it the whole time. He later got into the big pool, which was super awesome!

Jacob loved being in the water. He was in the pool well over half an hour. The water was warm so it was super nice.

Look at Isaac...=) Eliza was brave too. She didn't want to get in the water at all, but after Maricia brought her to the middle of the pool she warmed up and had a blast! She liked pushing her dad into the water. It was funny.

Isaac in the big pool. Unfortunately, swimming time was over when Sam threw Isaac in the air resulting in Isaac sinking down lower than he thought and Isaac swallowing quite a bit of water. Isaac says he wants to come back to visit so we are happy that that incident didn't scare him from the pool! =)

Time with Grandma and Grandpa Horn

This is the "Completely Spoiled" look when at the grandparents house! My parent's house is pretty spacious and has lots of room for Jacob to crawl around, so when it was time to eat, he was not too happy. It didn't help having Grandma and Grandpa trying to get him out of eating! They wanted him on their lap to stop him from whining and crying! He eventually stopped crying when I closed the door so he wouldn't see them. Geez, he knows who can bail him out of things already...babies are so smart!

If mommy could take the pain away...

Jacob's hand slipped while walking along the side of the couch and he bumped his head against the metal buttons pretty hard. He had one of those silent cries and it scared me to death. I was on the verge of tears too! I called my sister and told her what happened and she pretty much told me it would be okay. *whew* He has a bruise now...poor baby! =(
Naughty, but funny boy! Today, we went to the grocery store and I thought it would be a great teaching opportunity for Jacob to learn about different veggies and fruits until...he started banging on the nicely organized onions and made them roll all over the floor!! (He was in the babybjorn.) I was so embarassed! It was even harder bending down to pick them all up. I was sweating like a pig before I was even done. Good thing onions have multiple layers!

The learning table was well worth the $$! =)

I love his new shoes!

We had to decide on purchasing a highchair that was $170 or $40. We went with the cheaper one realizing that mealtimes wouldn't last more than 30 minutes a time. Hopefully, we won't regret it.

Jacobs newfound hobby.

Grandma Sorensen's gift for Jacob

Huge pillows!! YES!!! It's what we needed because he was bumping into stuff and hurting himself quite often. Today, he took the longest nap (EVER) on these pillows...2 hours...yes, 2 hours! [SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE POSTINGS]
It looks way awesome with the covers on them. I'll upload pics later. We just love it!
Making silly faces while waiting for Grandma and Daddy grocery shop.
Standing up in his car seat. (We were parked. The car was not moving.)

I FINALLY got a good picture of his two bottom teeth. They first came out on 5/23/09.

The cutest little boy in the whole wide world!!

Swimming with Grandma Sorensen

Jacob swims with Grandma.
The water was kinda cold.
Ariel is growing so fast! It was just yesterday when I bathed her in the sink and strolled her in a baby stroller. Now, she is so tall, so into fashion, and going into 5th grade! She's one of Jacob's (mine too) favorite people.
Anthony is Ariel's older brother. He has grown overnight as well. He will be attending high school next year! It's crazy!!

Jacob being curious.

I thought it would be a great photo opportunity. He did not like the feel of the grass.

Jeremy's first father's day present...pictures of Jacob with poems and Jacob's handprint and footprint. Many of you know that it was once pictures of me and Gracie along with a poem with Gracie's pawprint. I replaced it with Jacob's this year. Gracie's stuff is still there, but behind the new stuff. =)

Grandma Sorensen is here!!!!!

We missed Grandma Sorensen so much! The last time we saw her was last year during Thanksgiving! It's so precious to see how much he loves to cuddle and laugh with her. They have a great bond.

It's like MAGIC. It didn't take long for Grandma to put little Jakey to sleep in her arms.

Grandma helping to make Daddy's Father's Day gift. Several attempts with the handprint and footprint before getting it right.

Jacob loves the camera. Say, "Cheese!"

Going...

Gone! Uncle Adam sings little Jacob to sleep. It was so cute!

Jacob loves to crawl. I put Baby Legs on Jacob when crawling in the kitchen because his knees get so red. Jeremy said he looked like a dancer.

Over and under the furniture!! He's already learned how to climb up the stairs!