Sick

After 2 weeks of a runny nose and several days of coughing (especially at night), I finally decided to take Jacob in to see his doctor. I called yesterday morning and there were no appointments available for the day...with any doctor in the office! I was amazed. Since it wasn't urgent (after all, he wasn't getting worse, it just wouldn't go away), I made an appointment for today. Anyways...as it turns out, Jacob has a double ear infection and sinus infection. Poor guy. So, back on the antibiotics we go. Of course, when something like this happens, I feel like such a bad mommy.
Everytime we leave the doctor with a positive illness diagnosis, I always question myself. Did I wait too long to take him in? I thought it was a cold and I was giving him some time to kick it on his own. I feel like after 21 months of doing this, I should be able to tell when my child is sick and needing to see the doctor. Unfortunately, my usual tell-tale sign (Jacob acting clingy and overly fussy and whiny) has been ongoing for over a month, so I couldn't use that to identify his illness. He rarely gets a fever (I think when he had strep over a year ago was the last time he had a fever), he doesn't tug or mess with his ears, and he doesn't really slow down when he's sick...he's still go go go. I'll just have to keep watching and figure out some other signs.
In other news, we are doing better with the pappy. He hasn't gotten in outside of his bed in several days. Hopefully, once he's feeling better he'll quit whining for it altogether...we'll see.

21 months - week 1 - Hill Country visit

There are a lot of pictures this week as we headed out of town over the weekend (again!). We had some great photo opportunities in a different setting than Houston, so of course, I had to play around a bit. This time, the trip was a road trip to the hill country. We first headed to Belmont,TX for an outdoor party with friends. Jacob had a blast playing in a bounce house, throwing rocks in the river, and riding along on a hay ride. It was a beautiful day - perfect for a picnic. We then headed to Wimberley to visit with Great-Granddaddy and Gigi. It was nice to visit and spend the night at the ranch house. Even though the drive was only 2 hours to Belmont, and another hour to Wimberley, Jacob was not too happy to be riding in the car. As I've said before, he's not the best traveler. Lucky for us, once we are at our destination, he adjusts well and settles in quickly. Sleeping in a strange place doesn't seem to bother him. Now if only he would nap in the car (as we had hoped and planned on) - it would make the drive time easier. It makes me dread road trips in the future, which I am sure will be more abundant once we become a family of 4. Go here for the rest of this week's pictures.

Jacob's Giggle

I just love the laugh of a child. If someone were to ask me what my favorite sound is, this right here, would definitely be it.



and yet another giggle fest (from a few months ago)

ABCs and 123s

As every parent learns, every kid learns differently, at different times, and knows different things. One child knows the alphabet, another counts to 20, another can name every tool in the toolbox, and yet another knows 10 different body parts by the time he is 15 months (that would be Jacob!). As long as the child continues to learn and grow, he is doing exactly what he needs to be doing.
That being said, it is still my job as a mom to provide the best possible environment for learning. This is often times easier said than done. The key to teaching anything to anyone is to make it fun or relavant to that person. This is especially important with small children - especially one like my child with endless energy and little desire to sit still to listen and learn. I honestly have tried time and time again to teach Jacob "the basics" like letters, numbers, colors, shapes, etc. He often times is uninterested in what I have to show him. He would much rather play with his cars. So, we have had to become a little more creative. We are starting with 2 tactics to teach Jacob some of these basic skills, and, so far, they seem to be working.
First, is the bath. Jacob loves his bath and will stay in there for awhile, if we let him. So, we use this opportunity while he is in one place for a bit to work on his letters and numbers. He even seems excited to learn. He can now recognize and say about half of the letters and a few numbers with pretty good accuracy. When he sees the letters outside of the bath, he will often times point them out to me. It is amazing to me.
The second tactic is to use Jacob's obsession with cars/trucks/buses, etc. We count cars to help with the counting skill and name the colors of the cars to help learn colors. This newest trick is only a few days old, so he hasn't learned much yet, but I think it will work. For now, everything is blue. :) We'll keep you posted on our progress on this one.
It is funny what kids pick up. Jacob may not count or sing his ABCs, but he sure knows his animals, forms of transportation(cars! trucks! jeeps! airplanes!, etc), and food. Can you guess what his interests are?

20 months - week 4 - Laying low

After a beautiful weekend with a lot of time spent outside, we tried to lay low this week as Jacob came down with a little cold on Monday. It only slowed him down a little bit, but we didn't go out and about much so he had energy to get better and we didn't spread the germs to the world. Between the clingyness of late and the fact that he wasn't feeling well, Jacob's pacifier was entrenched in his mouth much of the week. Swim team coaching started for Mommy this week, so Jacob gets to spend that time playing with his cousins...something he really enjoys. We've been working on letters and numbers a lot lately as Jacob has showed a lot of interest. It sure makes it easy to teach kids when they want to learn! Though you try to teach your kids manners, it is wonderful when they pick up something on their own. Jacob started 'blessing' people after they sneeze - too sweet. Go here for the rest of this week's pictures.

Updated

Thank you Jill for letting me know about the lock on my commenting capabilities. I've opened it up so that anyone who has a comment they want to leave, can.

Anyone who can help

The wonderful lovey you see here is Jacob's. He received it as a baby from Papa, and it became his favorite and the one he sleeps with all the time. Over the past month or so, he has become even more attached to "dog" and wants to take him everywhere. I don't mind, really, except that it is the only one we have, and the more places he goes, the higher the probability the dog gets lost or destroyed. As every parent learns (often times too late), it is always good to have 2 of the lovey your child becomes attached to, because God Forbid, it should get lost or torn or misplaced, etc. Unfortunately for us, we didn't realize how attached Jacob would get to this little dog (he had several different loveys to choose from), and once we figured it out, Carters no longer made this style and it was impossible to buy a new one. I've searched Ebay and have been able to find another one, but they have been $40+ and used. I don't mind buying a used one as a backup (after all what are washing machines for?) but I don't want to spend $40. So...my request to any of you - if you find this particular lovey anywhere, please let me know. I would love to get another!

Mommy Dilemma

As I have mentioned a couple of times in previous posts, Jacob is going through another separation anxiety phase. People keep telling me that it is perfectly normal at this age, but it doesn't make it any more fun to deal with! He only went through it for a month or two just before he was one, and it didn't seem nearly as severe as the phase we are in now.

Just about everytime he is dropped off at a nursery (YMCA, church, Bible Study) he just cries and cries and is overall very upset. Depending on who is working the particular nursery, he sometimes can be comforted and distracted, other times, he can't. It makes it very hard to get much of a workout in if the childwatch has to call you out to retrieve your crying child after 15 min.

To make things even more fun, this clingy behavior and overall fussiness and whining continues at home. He constantly is begging for a treat ("treee") or his pacifier ("pappy"), neither of which I want him to have. His pacifier has been a nighttime/naptime and travel item ONLY for nearly a year. Why he seems so desperate for it all the time now, is beyond me. Some days, I just can't handle any more whining or fussing...so I give in and let him have the pacifer. It makes a world of difference. He almost seems like a different kid - happy and content for the most part. I also pack the pacifier in his diaper bag and let the nursery workers know that it is there in case of an inconsoleable meltdown. He gets it from them more than half of the time. The same is true when we are out running errands or out to eat and he is just being a major pill - I plug in the pacifier and we can get our errands done or eat our meal out in peace.

So, the dilemma, you ask? I don't know how much 'damage' I am doing by letting him go back to his pacifier. I don't mind him having it when he sleeps because it really does help him sleep better, but I don't want him to have his mouth plugged up all day. He is talking so much and adding to his vocabulary daily - I don't want the pacifier to get in the way of that. Plus, I would like for him to completely drop the pacifier in the next 6-9 months, and this just seems like a giant step backwards.

For now, the pacifier is being used when absolutely necessary, but I am trying to thicken up my skin a little more each day so the whining and fussing doesn't get to me as much. I keep dropping him off at nurseries and hope that if I just keep doing it, Jacob will eventually get back to his happy go lucky self about being in a nursery...or get over the phase faster. We'll see.

20 months - week 3 - Blogging and Traveling

Today - I finally revealed the blog to many of my family and friends. So, for those of you reading this for the first time, welcome. I hope to keep up this blog weekly, at the very least, and hopefully more. Time and energy levels will determine the frequency at this point. If you scroll down, you'll see a more detailed entry about the wedding travel woes, but I'll leave this little post as it mentions Jacob's "side" of the wedding fun.

This week involved another trip for Jacob. This time, he traveled with Mom and Grandma to Atlanta for a dear friend's wedding. The flights were pretty good for Jacob both coming and going. I wish I could say the same for our luggage, which was delayed overnight, wreaking some havoc on our first night. The wedding was Jacob's first to attend. He wasn't too happy when I left him to participate in the ceremony, but once reunited with me, he was excited to run all over the place during the reception. He seemed to enjoy himself, as did I. He started to get tired at one point and sat quietly in my lap. But after a 30 min rest, he got his second wind and was ready to run again. I only wish I had half of his energy.

As is the case when we return from many of our trips, Jacob was a bit crabby and tired for a couple of days, but that tends to happen when a kid with a pretty routine schedule gets off that schedule for a few days. With all of the traveling he has done lately, he is starting to recover a bit faster. He did sleep great this week, taking 3 hour naps for the past 4 days and sleeping solid for nearly 12 hours. Ahhh...the life of a toddler. Go here to see the rest of the week's pictures.

Traveling woes and a Beautiful Wedding

So, how can I fit a dread and a positive into one title and post you say? Well - our trip to Atlanta this weekend definitely fits the bill. As many of you know, we have been traveling a TON over the past 8 months, including flights to WV (2), Virginia, San Diego, Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando, and most recently to Atlanta. It seems that each flight experience has gotten a little bit worse. After a 2 1/2 hour delay, sitting on the plane on the runway on our way to Orlando, I thought it couldn't get worse. So, of course, I had to proven wrong.

Since this trip was without Daddy, it was going to be a bit more challenging right off the top. Not only dealing with the traveling specifics, but dealing with Jacob himself, who, is not the greatest kid on the plane. Anyways, the plane only took off 40 minutes late (of course, 30 minutes of that delay was while we sat on a very warm plane, waiting to take off), and we arrived in Atlanta only 30 minutes behind schedule. We had a fairly tight schedule for the afternoon in order for me to make it to the wedding rehearsal that night, but the 30 min. delay could be absorbed. The part that wasn't ok - our luggage never left Houston! Apparently there was a weight limit issue on the plane and more than half of the luggage was taken off the plane to be sent to Atlanta on a later flight that day. Evidently that was the delay we had in Houston getting off the ground. Did the airline bother to tell us that??? Of course not. Instead, we stood around the conveyor for what seemed like forever waiting for the luggage to come out. In the Atlanta airport, there are bags from multiple flights all coming onto one conveyor at the same time. So, although there was luggage coming out for quite some time, it was from 4 different flights. We decided to get our rent car while we waited on the rest of the luggage to be unloaded to the conveyor rather than just watching it. When we returned to the luggage claim area, no new luggage was coming out and we had no idea what had happened. While I wandered aimlessly looking for somewhere to report the missing bags to (this included 2 suitcases and Jacob's carseat) a man from our flight recognized me as being on the flight and told me about the left behind luggage. We then had to go stand in the Delta claims line to make a claim on our luggage. What a pain! Needless to say, by the time we were leaving the airport, it was nearly 4pm.

The rehearsal was at 4:30, and we were 45 minutes away. I called the bride-to-be and told her what happened. She was so understanding and sweet and told me not to even try to make it to the rehearsal but go to my hotel and get settled. I'm so glad she wasn't a bridezilla or things might have been much worse. I did make the rehearsal dinner - wearing what I wore on the plane and a shirt of my mom's that was a little nicer. I had to make a Target run for a few things we needed for the evening for Jacob. Quite a stressful evening.

The luggage arrived early Sunday morning, thank the Lord! I got my hair done in the afternoon and the dress I had borrowed for the wedding fit wonderfully and the whole ensemble came together great. The wedding was at an inn and it was wonderful. The ceremony was outside and the weather was perfect. Jacob wasn't too happy to be sitting with my mom in the crowd while I was up front, but my mom kept him from crying the whole time so that was good. Jacob had a great time running all over the place during the ceremony, which kept me running as I tried to keep him from falling down stairs or getting run over by someone. We had a lot of fun and I'm glad we were able to make the trip, despite our rocky beginning. The flight home was uneventful (except for a mini-meltdown of Jacob about mid-flight) and we were happy to be home with Daddy. The photographer at the wedding captured a few pictures of Jacob, so hopefully, if I get a chance to see and buy those, I'll post later, but for now, these few will have to do.

20 months - week 2 - Spring is here

Once again, it seemed like a busy week last week, but the picture content is low again. I suppose that is ok, since I still continue to take pictures every week. It isn't like we are lacking in photos of Jacob. Spring has come to Houston, and with it lots of greenery and beautiful flowers, including the bluebonnets. For those who haven't seen a field of bluebonnets, you are missing a treat. I tried to take a few of Jacob in the bluebonnets, but he was not in the mood (as you saw in the previous post about the bluebonnets in Brenham.) We'll try again, hopefully. Jacob has been particularly attached to his lovey and pacifier the past few weeks for some reason. I wish I knew what that reason was. He's been attached to me a bit more too. He even cried when I dropped him at the Y, which he hasn't done in a long time. Another growth stage, I assume. Jacob has become quite the parrot, repeating everything (except his own name still). We definitely have to watch ourselves when we speak now. Go here to see the rest of this week's pictures.

Pictures in the Bluebonnets

For those of you who haven't been in Texas in the spring to see the bluebonnets, you are missing a wonderful sight. There are a few weeks in March-April when they bloom in bunches in a field and make for a marvelous picture. So, today we headed to Brenham (about 1 hour from our house) to take some pictures of Jacob in the bluebonnets. I was excited to see what kind of shots I could get with my new camera. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond our control, the picture taking moment was delayed and we hit meltdown mode for Jacob. It was past naptime and he wanted no part of the pictures. I took a few anyways, but as you can see, he was less than thrilled. But the flowers are pretty, aren't they? Hopefully, we will have an opportunity a bit closer to home to take some more pictures before the bluebonnet boom is gone for the spring.

Walking Mommy and Daddy

So - the latest thing for our family is to go on a nightly walk around the block. We've always enjoyed taking a walk in the evening, but rarely have we been as consistent about doing it every night as we have the past month or so. But...with Jacob we aren't allowed to 'forget' or say 'I'm too tired.' Each night, he is ready for his "wok" once dinner is cleared. In the past, walks used to be: Jacob in the stroller, Daddy pushing it, and Mommy trailing along. Now, Jacob sets the pace. And he is no strolling child. He likes to run. And sometimes, he likes to bring along a little push toy - he's even faster with it. So...needless to say, he is walking Mommy and Daddy. Don't get me wrong, it is great exercise for all of us (and Lord knows we need it the way all 3 of us eat!), but this pregnant Mama is actually struggling to keep up with her 1 1/2 year old - crazy!