Funny Comment

Today I took Jacob to the doctor (I thought he had an ear infection...he just has a cold...) I asked the doctor about having a hard time getting Jacob to nurse during the day. He's just too busy to bother. The doctor said he's probably just a good solid food eater. I asked if I should be worried about him getting enough milk. The doctor replied, "Well, he's obviously not wasting away." It made me chuckle that the doctor, of all people, was calling our baby fat in a roundabout way. :)

We Went Cloth!

I did it...I finally decided to use cloth diapers. I avoided it for a long time because I was never really convinced that it saved money. But now I am...enough people have talked to me about it. So now that we have a car payment, it's one of my efforts to trim spending. I got them on ebay for aboug $5/diaper. So far, in the first three days, I like it. But ask me again in a couple weeks when the novelty has worn off.... Here is Jacob in one of his stylin' new diapers. We have blue, yellow and green!

7 Months

Jacob is 7 months! I started out taking his picture every week...so now I'm aiming to do every month. Here's what he looks like!

And here is what he spends most of his time doing...

And I know this is blurry, but I like the expression on his face!

Backyard Transformation

Over break, we started the backyard transformation (I say "we", but I didn't do anything really!) David and Russ started cutting down trees to make way for a swing set. They started cutting, and cutting, and cutting. Take a look at the before shots.


Some action shots...


Some after shots...


And then the "leaf choppers" spent an hour in front of our house. I'm sure they love us :)

The Waterpark

Last week we got to go to the Coco Key Water Resort in Sharonville with my brother, my niece, and her friend. We had an absolute blast. Sometimes Matthew can be totally fearless, but if he gets scared, he lets you know. He immediately agreed to go down a waterslide. But at the bottom the first time he went down, he had a hard time getting his feet under him in the pool. After that, he stuck to the little slides! But he did great. It's so funny to watch the little skinny kid shiver, with blue lips, but not want to get out of the water! Jacob did okay at the begining, but quickly got tired and really wanted nothing to do with the water. He seems to get a little overwhelmed in crowded situations. But we had a great time!!

A Day at the Farm

On Sunday we had a family Easter gathering at a family member's farm. I was excited to take Matthew out there because he is so into tractors, trucks, animals, and, of course, dirt. Here are some pictures from our day.





And then just look at the pants...

Aunt Becca

Here you go, Aunt Becca. You made the blog!!!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter!!! (Can't you tell that's just what Jacob is thinking? His face shows it! ;)

An Amazing Expression of Love

Today we had two very dear cousins, Bob and Mary, stop by for a visit. Mary has been taking water color classes for quite some time now and has painted some amazing pictures throughout the last couple years (some awesome ones of her grandchildren!) Earlier this week they called and said they wanted to come and visit. This afternoon Mary came up to our door telling me she had something for me and was very nervous to see if I’d like it. She had painted a watercolor of Jacob’s 3 week picture, and WOW…words cannot express how I felt when I saw that picture. To think that someone had taken all that time to paint something for me, something so dear. It’s something that I will always treasure and will definitely find a prominent spot on a wall in our home. It’s truly an amazing picture. And I think it’s really special that it’s of Jacob, the poor second child who has no where near as many pictures of him as Matthew does. Well now he has something special that his brother doesn’t have! Mary, if you read this, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Again, it’s one of the most special things I have ever been given. I know you poured your heart into what you did and I just absolutely love it. It’s perfect. It's amazing.

Here's the original picture so you can see just how spectacular the painting is!

Egg Hunt

Here's an egg hunt we went to last weekend. It was Jacob's first egg hunt, and really the first egg hunt where Matthew really knew what to do and found more than 3 eggs on his own. I think it's the first time Matthew really figured out anything about the Easter bunny (and now he expects him to be at every Easter event...)

A Walk in the Park

This afternoon we went to Winton Woods as a family and walked a trail. It was the first time we have done this as a family of four. We had a good time discovering things with Matthew. It's amazing how as an adult I can walk a trail like that and not pay attention to much of the things I see, but Matthew can find a simple stick or little bug and be totally amazed. It's really eye opening to do something like this with such a little guy. Matthew's favorite part of the walk was throwing rocks into the creek - he's such a boy!





I think we're all looking forward to more opportunities to get outside and do things like this instead of playing cars and Veggie Tales over and over and over and over!

Another Jacob Talent

Can you do this?

Matthew Learns to Write

This morning Matthew was a little more into coloring (in the lines, specifically) than usual. So I asked him if he wanted to write his name. I wrote out each letter in crayon and he traced them. Keep in mind that this is the first time he has EVER traced anything, and take a look at what he did!! I think he did particularly good with the M, A, first T and the E (before he scribbled on top of it!).

The New Jacob

Our sweet, cuddly, calm Jacob is now gone....and now we have an active, opinionated, very determined little guy. Now that he can sit, he seems ever so slightly more content. But really, all he wants to be able to do is walk. If I'm sitting with him, he wants to be supported standing on his feet. He seems to be becoming very active (uh oh, another one). He pretty much demends being held all the time (we don't always give in, though.) And he's very much a mama's boy. He has also decided that he doesn't need baby food anymore. He's only been eating it for about a month and a half. He discovered that the rest of us are not eating off of a spoon, so he should not have to. In the last day or two he has also decided that he doesn't want to be fed...he wants to do it himself. I fear that if he's doing this at 6 months of age, he's going to become quite a stubborn little toddler! Everyone warned me that the second child would be a challenge - active and likely to introduce us to the ER (that's what our doctor said!). Up until recently I thought that maybe we had escaped that (and maybe had gone through it with child #1! We definitely met the ER with Matthew, a couple times!) At Jacob's first few visits to the doctor I told the doctor how calm Jacob was, and he kept telling me, "Just wait." Now I see why...

Here are Jacob's 6 month stats:
Weight: 17 lbs. 4 oz (only the 40th percentile...he's slowing down!)
Length: 27 inches (60th percentile)
Head circumference: 60th percentile - once again, I can't remember the measurement.

Last visit, all three measurements were equal, but now his weight has slowed down. This was about the time Matthew did the same thing. However, Matthew only weighed 18 1/2 lbs. at the age of 1, so Jacob is well ahead!
Here are some recent pictures.



Here is his six month picture.