Happy Birthday

3 years ago our dinner reservations to celebrate David's 30th birthday were foiled when this little guy was so adamant about sharing his birthday with his Daddy that he decided to make his entrance into the world at 11:47pm on July 21st. Here he is 3 years later. Why is it that it sounds so much older to say "my 3 year old" instead of "my 2 year old" ?

Happy Birthday to Jacob and of course to David, who, even though he got the best birthday present ever 3 years ago, does have to share his special day with his son.

**Here is Jacob one his 1st and 2nd birthdays:

Feeling Better

As the boys got to feeling better this week, we ventured back into a busier schedule. On Monday, we went to the zoo. Because it is so hot (100+ degrees for many days in a row), we arrived early and only stayed a short time. The boys enjoyed it even though it was a quick trip.

Jacob had an appointment with the ENT this week too. Looks like fluid is just sitting in his ear causing infection after infection. Tubes will likely be scheduled soon.

After a couple of days with PJ mornings and shopping afternoons, the big event of the week was a reunion with 3 of my best friends from college and their kids. 10 kids all together ranging in age from 1 to 6 years old. It was a wondeful visit, but way too short.

Over the weekend we took the boys to ride kid-sized trains at a nearby park with some family friends. I know the boys would have loved to ride again, but once again, the heat dictated our schedule and we only hung around to ride the train once.

Luke's sleeping last week was much much better than the week before when he was sick, but still not back to the feeding schedule he was at before getting sick. He was still waking most nights in a coughing fit about 3 or 4am and then was ready to eat.

Weaning slowly continues as we've dropped to only 4 feedings most days (including the early morning one.) He's walking all the time now and getting quick. Though he doesn't talk much yet, he does have a new favorite word- "wassat?" (meaning what's that, we think) which he says while pointing at something.

Jacob's favorite phrase of late is "are you happy?" He's starting to learn about/pay attention to emotions a bit more lately and likes to ask if you are happy. Ironically, he often asks this question of me after he has been scolded or punished. Of course, my answer is no, I'm mad or angry or sad or upset or frustrated because of what just happened. What is his response? "Mad again?" I wonder if he is trying to tell me something...

Here are the rest of the pictures from the week

I'm going to try...

I was reading a friend of a friend's blog last night and really got to feeling guilty at how poorly I have been documenting the boys' babyhood and childhood. Although I do take a lot (A LOT) of pictures to capture the growth of the boys, I have not been very good about documenting what they do. Like what skills have they mastered, what funny things do they say now, who seems to be their favorite person at the time, how do they get along, etc, etc, etc. The biggest reason I don't do better with this? I like to post pictures with each post I write, and that takes time. If I would just post without pictures, it would be a much faster process. So, baby steps. I am going to try to write a little blurb each day. I probably won't post it everyday, but perhaps every few days. This time in the boys' lives is so special and goes so fast, I want to have a reminder to look back on in 10 years when they are driving me crazy as teenagers instead of driving me crazy as toddlers.

Luke turns 1 and other news

Big news from last week was Luke turning 1. Though he seems pretty hefty to me, he is in the low percentile for both height and weight (21.2lbs and 29".) He's developing right on target though, so no worries here.

In 'honor' of his birthday, he decided to walk almost exclusively. He still teeter totters some, but he is getting more steady everyday. I bought his first pair of shoes this week (5.5XW) and he is still getting used to walking with them.

Unfortunately, we slowed down our busy schedule with trips to the dentist and doctor's offices. We made 5 trips to the MDs officies last week. One day was spent at the dentist to check on Jacob's now gray front tooth. Luckily, she said that is most cases the normal color returns after 6 weeks. We are keeping our fingers crossed.

The following day was Luke's well-check appointment which turned into a sick visit for both boys (Luke had an eye infection and Jacob's ear infections were still not healed) as well as the well check for Luke. Add a visit to an external lab for bloodwork and the pharmacy for a prescription and we had a long morning.

Because 3 rounds of antibiotics couldn't knock out Jacob's ear infections, we decided to treat them with 3 consecutive days of an antibiotic shot. He was less than thrilled, you can imagine. But, it seemed to work as his ears are finally better (for now.)

And as I write this today, the cold bug has bit the boys and I. It hasn't been horrible, but having all 3 of us sick hasn't been fun. The worst part, Luke is no longer sleeping through the night as he was before illness struck. He was sleeping until 5:30am very consistently without eating, so hopefully we'll be back to that soon.

Here are more pictures from the week (very Luke intensive because Jacob has decided he really doesn't like to have his picture taken and often times runs or turns away.)

1 year old

Jacob a day after turning 1:

Luke a day after turning 1:

Jacob's 1 year stats:

Height: 29 1/4" (25%)

Weight: 22.0 lbs (35%)

Head: 48 cm (90%)

Luke's 1 year stats:

Height: 29" (22%)

Weight: 21.2 lbs (19%)

Head: 47.5cm (80%)

New Shoes

Since I'm not really one for putting my kids in shoes before they need them (i.e. they are walking), we hadn't needed to buy Luke any shoes yet. But, since he's now walking more than 50% of the time, I decided now was a good time to buy him his first pair of tennis shoes so he can wear them a bit around the house to get used to walking in them. I figure he'll be ready to wear them out all the time in the next few weeks, so we should break them in on familiar territory.

Just as I did with Jacob, I decided to buy a pair of Stride Rite's for his first pair. They are a size 5.5XW. Jacob's first pair were a 5XW (we bought his when he was about 10 months or so.) My boys and their extra wide feet....

Aren't they so cute?

When not at the beach...

...we did spend some time at the beach house pool.

Here are the pictures from our playtime in the pool. I also have a short video of Jacob 'swimming' and Luke relaxing in the pool float that I will upload once I figure out how to get it off the video camera DVD.

Huntington Beach State Park

One morning of our beach trip was spent at Huntington Beach State Park in Litchfield. A man-made marsh sports alligators for people to come look at (we spotted a couple of alligators),

several boardwalks to watch birds and fish from,

a beach,

and when it got too hot, we visited the nature center, which Jacob thought was really neat.

Here are the rest of the pictures from the state park outing.

Beach Bums

We arrived at the beach house around 6pm on Saturday. After a quick pizza dinner, everyone put on their suits and made our first trip to the beach. This was Luke's first experience with the beach/ocean, and it has been over a year since Jacob has been, so both were a bit tentative, even scared, on that first day.
But thankfully, by day 2, both were over the fear and absolutely loved the water. Jacob wanted nearby to hold his hand or occasionally pick him up, but he loved jumping the waves and running through the water. He enjoyed playing in the sand too.

Luke wanted to join in the fun too. He would take off crawling towards the ocean and wouldn't stop. He went right into the water and the lapping (and sometimes crashing) waves. He would get knocked over or splashed in the face, but would get right back up and do it again. He played in the sand a bit and was quickly covered from head to toe with sand.

I have a couple of little beach bums.

Here are a LOT of pictures of the boys at the beach. I started to weed through them and just leave the best ones, but I got so tired of going through them, so there are a lot.