Jake 9 Months!!

Jake was 9 months last Saturday. We went to the Dr. today and he is doing very well developmentally. He weighed in at 20lbs. even and is in the 75th percentile for weight. His height, well it seems like Jake hasn't had his growth spurt for this month again. That is what happened at his 4 month check-up. He was only 26 3/4" which was only 3/4 more than his 6 month check-up. It puts him in the 10th percentile. The Dr. says that doesn't seem right so he probably just hasn't grown for this period and wouldn't worry about it. Although Daddy is worried already of course! He asked what size clothes he is in and he is in 9 month to 12 month so he is on track!
Here are some 9 month pictures of Jake that my friend Carrie took. And below are some of the things Jake is up to now!


Jake is getting better with sleeping but we are still in training mode. He is going to bed well, by himself, with a little crying and he will sleep until about 5:00, but then he wakes up and wants to be fed. Then he will sleep for another 2 hours. For naps he goes to sleep MOST of the time on his own, crying for about 10 minutes or so. It is just the period of time he sleeps, I can't get anything done. I am lucky if he sleeps 1 1/2 hrs. And that is a rarity! It is usually 1hr. I even tried going to 2 naps a day. Didn't work!

Jake is still a very happy baby. We get SO many compliments on his dimples, everyone just loves them. They are pretty cute if I do say so myself! We are truly blessed or lucky that we have had such easy babies! The only time he is crying is when he is hungry, every two hours still! Or when he is tired. Almost most of the time Jake has his tongue sticking out of his mouth. Whenever he is smiling, which is pretty often, it usually comes out. Or right when he gets done nursing he sits up and his tongue is sticking out. It is the weirdest thing. I guess it might be hereditary because my Mom said that I always had my tongue sticking out of my mouth too!





Jake is crawling so fast now I think he is going to be an early walker like his brother. He has been pulling himself up on things since he started crawling. He walks around all the furniture, pushes the baby walker, goes from one piece of furniture to the other, and can crawl up the stairs. Don't worry, we have the gate back up! He gets around quite well! He has also been standing up and letting go. The time that he is letting go is getting longer and longer and he even is doing little squats, trying to balance! It is kinda a game now because we get so excited and therefore he gets so exited! He will let go, put his hands up, and smile real big. Like he is doing here! When he does this I say "So big", he loves it! I don't think he will be walking at 9 1/2 months like James but I don't think it will be too far off!


Jake loves his little blankie. I was a blanket kid and wanted James to be one so I practically forced it on James. Now he can't go anywhere without his blankie. It is kinda a pain, I don't know what I was thinking! Since Jake is so little and I don't want a big blanket in his crib for reasons of suffocation, I gave him this little blankie. I got it for the car for James when he was littler. It was supposed to be a "take-a-long" one but that never worked out. He always wanted his "blankie". Anyhow I put it in Jake's crib when he started sleeping in there and just in the last month or so he holds it when he goes to sleep, or sucks on it if he loses his binki. In the last two weeks he has been holding onto it even after he wakes up and will crawl all around the house holding it! It is so cute! I guess they will both be blankie boys!

Jake LOVES to play with anything that is in the form of a stick. Like this one here. He finds all of them. This one is from one of James' trains, he loves James' Lincoln logs, or the fat pen that goes to another one of James' toys. Any thing in that shape he loves it. My Mom tells me take that away from him he is going to gag himself, but he just loves them so much and it hasn't happened yet so when it does maybe he will learn his lesson! Or I will!



Jake loves his big brother and his big sister. He lights up when he sees Brianna, it is so cute to see. He cracks up at James all the time, I always wonder what is going through his head! He has just started mimicking James, it is so funny. They have the best time in the bath tub, my two little water babies. Sometimes I just put them in there for a little break! He follows James all around the house. James gets quite disturbed when Jake destroys his Lincoln Log houses, or takes his cars, and doesn't always handle it very well. Jake is going to be one tough kid!







Jake is very much a Mama's boy. He loves his Daddy very much too and gets so excited to see Daddy when Daddy is done working but I can hardly leave his sight! I know I am with him all day and I am his food source but this little guy has some serious separation anxiety. If I am out and he is totally happy when I walk in the door and he sees me he starts crying and crawling towards me. Hi first word was Mama!:) Sometimes I feel like geez can I just get a break, but I know I will be missing these moments soon!

Happy 9 months Jake! Next BIG post will be 1 YEAR!!!

Disneyland with Friends!

Yesterday we did a spur of the moment Disneyland trip. I couldn't believe it worked out so well. My girlfriend Lindsay and I decided THAT morning to take just the older kids to Disneyland. I was able to leave Jake with my Mom and she left her daughter with her Mother in law and we took the two boys for a few hours! James was so excited to go with Ayden! It was also the first day with the Christmas decorations up so us Mom's were really excited since neither of us had seen them before!
Here are the boys in front of the tree. We told them to put their arms around each other! Aren't they cute!

Looking at the presents

Lindsay and Ayden on the rockets

James and I on the rockets

On the teacups!

We had a great day!

YEAH! Big Boy Food!

Many of you know that Jake does NOT like baby food. He has never eaten any kind of baby food very well. I have tried EVERYTHING so I decided to give up until his 9 month appointment with the DR. and see if he could give me some pointers. Then I thought maybe I should just try some pieces of cut up banana. Nope didn't work. Then he started to eat those Gerber puff things and he loved them. Eats them right up. This week I thought I would give it another try with the diced food. He does have 7 teeth now so he could easily eat them. I tried diced peaches and he LOVED them. Ate them all by himself. Then we did diced apples and it didn't go too well at first but then he just kept on and he ate them all up! Next I tried diced carrots, he liked putting them in his mouth but he didn't like the taste because he put every one in his mouth but spit every one back out! Yesterday I tried those little meat sticks. I can't stand them, I don't like the taste or the smell but I thought maybe he would. Brianna still likes them! He did, he ate half the jar and the other half today! YEAH! I won't have to nurse him forever like I thought I might!

Like Mother Like Son

After I took James' picture sleeping half on the couch half off I remembered seeing a picture of myself that way. Well here it was! I think I was about 7 years old. :)

Sleepy Boy

It always amazes me how James can sleep through anything. He can fall asleep with Jake screaming, music blaring, he can sleep through fire alarms and when he is asleep I can move him into the car, out of the car, or into a stroller and he will still be sleeping. Today he fell asleep in the car and I put him on the couch, during that time he changed his position and kept sleeping that way for about a half hour or so!

Halloween

Every year we go trick-or-treating with my nieces and nephew and a big group of kids. This year was the first year Brianna DIDN'T go trick-or-treating! She went to a Halloween party instead! :( So we went down to my cousin Vince's house and went trick-or-treating with all my cousin's little kids. We had a great time!

Here is the group: Jade, Daphne/Maggie, Jake, James, Maggie/Daphne, & Michael

(I can't remember which was which Daphne and Maggie)

Jake as Pooh Bear

Tigger & Pooh

James' ready to go

James did so well trick-or-treating. He said tick-or-treat and thank you at practically every house. There were only two houses that he was scared to go up to. I was so proud!

Nonni's cake she made

Brianna and her friend

Carving Pumpkins!!

I LOVE carving pumpkins! I love cleaning them out and the way the pumpkin feels between your fingers! My kids on the other hand, not so much. Brianna likes craving pumpkins but never has been too thrilled about cleaning them out. Here she is carving her pumpkin. She cheated and used a stencil!

Jake liked the pumpkin,

until it was time to clean it out!

James was asleep while we did this and when he woke up he did NOT want to carve his pumpkin. For some reason he thought it was scary. I think maybe because all of a sudden here were the pumpkins all carved and he didn't know how that happened!

Doesn't Jake's pumpkin look like him??