9 Months!!!

It's hard to believe that Jacob is really 9 months old (he will be on Friday)! We had his pictures taken today. I was totally surprised that after all that happened on Sunday (see the next blog post...), that we didn't have to cancel pictures due to bruises and cuts on his head!! This is what we got.


He is such a ham. He really smiles so well for the camera. I think this was the photo shoot with Matthew where it started getting more stressful. But Jacob was really quite easy. He's such a happy guy!

What a Day!

Here's a story for you if you need a pick-me-up. You can tell yourself "at least I didn't do that!" Sunday at church, I was sitting on the ground in the nursery with Jacob in my arms. I went to get up quickly to go get something. My foot got caught in my dress and I stumbled all the way across the room. I took several steps trying to catch my balance, but really, I just picked up some momentum. I ended up wiping out, very hard, on the ground, with Jacob still in my arms. I'm sure it was quite a scene to watch. I managed to get carpet burn all over my face - all around my right eye, forehead, in between my eyes. I scraped on my right foot and left knee and somehow managed to land on my left shoulder in such a way that it likely popped out of socket. I'm not totally sure what happened. I just know that my whole arm went numb and I couldn't move it for a few minutes. Now it's really sore and a little swollen. I also bashed Jacob's head into the ground. Luckily it was his forehead, the hardest part of his head. He's totally fine - no bruise! So really, it was pretty ridiculous. I mean, who does that?

Today as I was out and about I noticed that very few people would actually make eye contact with me because of the scrapes on my face. It gave me a little insight into how people with permanent deformities feel. I don't think people mean to do it. They just don't know how to react or what to say. It was interesting, but not really an experiment that I recommend for others to try :)

The other crazy event of the day came in the evening. David and I decided to go out to dinner for our anniversary, despite our insane morning. We left both boys with my mom. After dinner, we called to check in and see if we had time to get ice cream. I asked her if everything was okay. She said, "It is now..." So here's the story...she took the boys for a walk to the lake by her house. There is a big fish they keep trying to find. My mom saw it. So she stopped the stroller and walked close to the lake to try to find it. As she was looking, the stroller continued to roll on its own, all the way into the lake, with both boys inside!! It flipped upside down, putting both kids under the water. She had one of those super adrenaline moments and was able to flip the stroller out of the water. As she screamed for help, there was a man nearby who came to help her get the kids and the stroller out of the lake. Wow...so scary for everyone. I try not to think about the other alternatives to the end of that story, but it's hard not to...We are so thankful that God was really watching out for us on that day, and that after all was said and done, everyone was okay. We have a few cuts and bruises, but we're fine.

And we hope to never have another anniversary like that again!

Jacob on the Move

Jacob is so determined to keep up with Matthew. In the last couple days here are just some of his accomplishments: 1. Starting to scoot backwards 2. Going from his belly to sit up (he pushes himself over his feet to a sitting position) 3. Saying "mama" to me 4. Getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth 5. Once or twice he has used the pincer grasp to pick up food (using thumb and forefinger - normally he uses his whole hand to pick things up) 6. Pulling himself to a stand. 7. Standing by himself for 3 seconds - holding a bucket in his hands at the same time. 8. And finally - crawling for the first time!

New Consonants

From the very beginning, Jacob was not a very verbal baby. We were slightly concerned with him right after birth because he really didn't cry very much. Well, he has finally made some progress towards making words. And I am thrilled because it's "mama".
I think he might be saying "more". He only says it while he's eating. But who knows!

Was That a Pterodactyl?

Yesterday I thought I heard a pterodactyl....

Oh wait, it was just Jacob.

Ignore the fact that he's playing with an alarm clock and is tangled in the cord!

Blessing

The other night we had something happen to us that had never happened before...a good thing. It's a "random acts of kindness" story. It had been a long day, and a lot of the day had not gone as I had planned (which happens a lot with little kids!)I really needed to go to the grocery store and didn't really have anything great to fix for dinner, other than the usual pull-it-together kind of meal (mac and cheese, grilled cheese, etc). So David suggested we all go to the grocery together. We decided to run through McDonald's and just eat at the grocery store. I was kind of bummed that we were going to spend our eating out budget in such a fashion. It wasn't even going to be fun to eat out! Well, as we pulled up to the window to pay, the lady inside said, "Your order was paid for by the car in front of you." Wow!! What an amazing gesture! Little did that lady know what a difference she made for my day! I can't even begin to tell you how that made us feel. I almost teared up. It's something that I am going to do sometime - pay for the car behind me. So, it's kind of a long story, but something that I wanted to share.

We Were Bored...

Sometimes when you're bored, you have to get creative to entertain yourself...so one day we were at my mom's and were totally bored. Jacob was sleeping, so I decided to pull out my old dress up boxes to see what we could get into. Most of the dress ups were "for girls", so Matthew told me. But we did get into some of my old dance costumes. Matthew's favorite was the turtle costume, from when I did a dance to "Under the Sea". He also liked being a rhino from "Lion King", but he needs some time to grow into it! We also made a tent out of bed sheets that day and turned it into a pirate ship with all of my old troll dolls working on the boat. It was fun.