An Eventful Night

Our little 8 1/2 month old brings so much excitement to our lives. Today, as I walked in to pick up Jacoby from Trish's house, they wanted to show me that Jacoby figured out how to climb up the stairs. (our stairs go down, not up, from our living room so I had never seen this accomplishment before!) Anyway, he accidently bumped his mouth and was bleeding all over the place. It was kind of scary because we couldn't tell where the blood was coming from, so I called up to our pediatrician and he said to run him by. Apparently, Jacoby tore the tissue that connects his upper lip and gums. (I bet everyone reading this is feeling for theirs right now...) Dr. Lowry told us that it won't heal itself, but that he won't really need it and in fact, it causes a slight gap between front teeth sometimes anyways. The only difference would be that we can stick his head out the window and his lip may flap around in the wind. Glad nothing was seriously wrong so we could have a sense of humor about things!!! I'm a little relieved that the inevitable first boo boo is out of the way and that my pediatrician is understanding when we call and say, "How do we know if we are being reasonable or if we are just being overbearing first-time parents?"

Jacoby recovered and was a very giggly boy all night, so I got out the video camera to record him and Zach "racing" (while crawling) across the room. It was getting close to his bedtime, so he was tired of playing and pulled up on the couch. Suddenly, he turned and TOOK HIS VERY FIRST STEP!! I was so pleased that we had the camera on! (Dale Kisker's badgering paid off!) After going crazy, we pushed rewind to check if you could even see him since I was changing positions in the room at the time. Once we realized that it was caught on film, Zach and I were both (to our embarassment) screaming and giving each other high fives. Our lives are just so exciting, right? I think that has to be the most worked up we have been in quite a long time! Great night...very memorable! This one goes down in the books!

Jacoby Loves Dora

I came into the living room on Sunday morning and Zach had Dora the Explorer on in the background while he was playing with Jacoby, who was very much loving it. So, tonight, as I was flipping through, I had to stop and see what he would do. He couldn't stop dancing! I pushed rewind 5 or 6 times so he could listen to the theme song again and it never failed to make him move! It gives me flashbacks to my husband at our wedding reception. Now it's just too bad I didn't realize that I turned my camera sideways for a picture and never turned it back!!!

My Boy Loves Grocery Bags

Here is Jacoby sitting on the floor amidst all of the grocery bags...and it was very entertaining to him.

Long Overdue Update

People keep bugging me about updating the blog, so I figured I would go ahead and do it before I forgot or put it off any longer. We just had a read-a-thon at school, so my camera is not at the house to upload pics, but I figured I can write something now and put pictures and videos up this weekend.

Jacoby had his first doctor visit this week other than a check-up. Out entire family ended up with an upper respiratory infection, so he hasn't been himself for at least a couple of weeks. Sleeping well has been pretty much out the window. Luckily, he loves his new medicine and last night for the first time, he was finally acting like himself and laughing and playing all night. It was so nice to have him back! It's unbelievable how miserable a snotty nose can make a baby. To make matters worse, he got 3 new upper teeth at the same time he had the congestion, so that added ear rubbing and a nose that ran like crazy, not to mention and terrible time feeding him. SO GLAD they are in! I hope the next ones stay away for a little while! 5 teeth is enough for now!

I'm not even sure what Jacoby had accomplished the last time I wrote, so I will just venture on the safe side and put EVERYTHING that might be applicable.
Tricks he can do:
crawling
clapping
pulling up
cruising? not very interested yet but sort of
letting go and standing for a number of seconds
playing ball

New foods he's tried: (this is where I will have to list anything in the last couple months)
peaches
pears
sweet potatoes and carrots finally stay down (he loved them but spit up all night when he had then originally...we tried every once in a while and the last time was finally a normal feeding)
puffs...blueberry, peach, and strawberry banana
water and apple juice out of a sippy cup

We tried a mashed up banana, but it didn't end well
We have discovered that Jacoby has a pretty sensetive gag reflex...like his mom I think. If a puff or something is on the back of his tongue, he will gag himself and throw up...often. I cannot even tell you how many times I have seen that familiar look on his face and just reached out my hand and waited for it to fill up with puke. Ah, the joys of motherhood.

Jacoby has also tasted the flavor of some random things. These are things he can't eat but we let him put his mouth on it to try it out, for example a tootsie pop (not so sure) and an apple (loved it!).

Most of all, Jacoby looked right at Zach and said "dada" this weekend. He did it again a few other times after that. Then, tonight, he was in the living room fussing because he could see me making his cereal. He cried and watched me and then started saying, "mama, mama". I KNOW he was really crying for me! I about fell over. We knew that it would be easy to tell when he was really saying it because he is a man of little words...while most babies his age have been babbling for a couple months, Jacoby seems to prefer not to say constanants. He makes the same noise several different pitches, like he is really saying a sentence but usually there is not constanants. (If that makes sense). Bottom line: I was not expecting it so I was so surprised but it felt pretty amazing.

Every time he is a month older, I think, "Wow, this is the best age." But then, he gets another month older and I think, "No, THIS is definitely the best age!" That's my disclaimer before I say that 8 months is most definitely the best age ever. He is learning SO much and has new tricks up his sleeve that he reveals every day.

Kind've a poopy night

A special guest blog entry by Holly:

So tonight was my second night to come over and bond with Jacoby. I worked through the mental list that Amanda had instructed me with. After I fed him his mushy rice and soft pink-colored bananas (don't know what was up with that), we headed toward the tub for bathtime. I was a little nervous as I've never given a baby a bath by myself. Everything went pretty smooth until suddenly he began to make an unusual face and his body position became awkward. He looked as if he was in pain. I felt bad for the little guy and didn't know what to do. Perhaps he was uncomfortable in his little tub chair. I picked him up out of the tub and I looked down to find two floating brown pieces of feces. I immediately froze with fear! (I am a person who isn't good with burping, farting, and especially not poop!) The one thing I feared about little kids (and dogs) and it happened in the tub of all places! I took him to his room, dried him off, and put him in his pj's. Now it was time to face the music. I reluctantly walked back into the bathroom, drained the tub, and contemplated how to conquer this fear of mine. I decided I would just have to pick it up with some tissue and put it in the toilet. I figured if I picked up the chair and tried to angle the poop into the toilet I'd miss and have an even bigger problem on my hands.

Unfortunately, I never got that far. Just looking at it and imagining my plan in my head was enough to send me into a major gagging fit, complete with coughing, watery eyes, and a red face. Jacoby thought it was pretty funny. I decided it wasn't going to happen and texted Amanda:
"So Jacoby pooped in the tub and I really tried to clean it up but I kept gagging. So I guess it will be here when you get back. I'm sorry"

I really do feel very bad. I am a bad babysitter. After all that, I couldn't figure out which way his diaper went on and his usual bottle/rocking chair routine didn't put him to sleep like it was supposed to. In the end, though, I was able to get him to sleep with a simple sway and back pat with music playing in the background (that is very relaxing by the way!). It was a very sweet moment.

Amanda and Zach, please don't band me from babysitting!! I'm learning! And I look forward to Jacoby and my's adventure next week.

Long Overdue Update

So our little man is now 6 months old as of Wednesday. He has accomplished a lot just in the last month!

1. sleeping through the night consistently without waking up to fuss
2. Feet in his mouth to suck on toes
3. Blowing raspberries
4. Playing with his momma's hair and sucking on her chin. It can be fascinating for a 6 month old.
5. 2 teeth! Every time we make it through another day of nursing, I feel very proud (and relieved).
6. Staying at a sitter for the first time!
7. 1st official play date with little Reagan, who is three days his elder
8. Saying mmm-bah and other babbles in "conversation" with us
9. Sitting up without support! (but not for long before he is reaching for something/anything and knocks himself over)
10. Eating solids...on his list of foods he's tried:

• rice cereal
• oatmeal with banana flavor
• rice with mixed fruits flavor
• rice with apple flavor
• green beans (pretty neutral about gb's...like most people)
• peas (shuddered every couple of bites the first couple feedings, but kept coming back for more. he's a little pig.)
• carrots (being shelved for a while... he kept spitting it up later although he loved it while he was eating it!)
• bananas (savored this one the most...he gave me the hugest, sweetest smile after his first bite!)

Last week, Jacoby had a full day of nothing but screaming and grunting. (No babbles or anything!) He really mustered up the energy to get out a good one each time. He would squirm and kick and then take a deep breath before shrieking at the top of his lungs. Try getting through lunch at Pizza Shoppe with that kind of behavior! I found myself plugging his mouth with a paci to get through the outing!

Jacoby has made a lot of friends at Trish's as well. During the day, he hangs out with Abby (4 months), Joanna and Sam (around 2 years). Although we thought he would befriend Abby first, he seems to be in love with her older sister Jo. Every morning when we walk in, Jo starts clapping and then puts her hands on her knees to look at Jacoby and talk to him. I was told that the other day she was telling Sam not to play with Jacoby and saying, "Mine!" Jacoby gets so excited when he sees Jo and laughs at her all the time. Too cute!

After school, Sam's two older sisters are there for an hour or so and I have seen 2nd grader Carly singing and dancing for Jacoby several times. She also sprints off of the bus to beat the other kids inside and yells, "I get Jacoby!". Her little sister, Paige (who is in Kindergarten) stopped me as I walked in the door the other day and said, "Hey, Mrs. T, where's Mr. T?" I said he was at a tennis match and she said, "Oh, he's on the tennis team?" These are the kind of conversations I get to enjoy daily. We feel so thankful that the transition back to school has gone so smoothly and that Jacoby is so loved in Trish's home. All of my uneasiness about leaving Jacoby and missing the afternoon with him was relieved when I realized this. We are truly blessed to have a church family that loves our son like their own.

I'm excited to experience the holidays with a kid. It will be so wild! That is something we are looking forward to in the coming months.

As a side note, we had our beginning of the year kick-off for Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) tonight. We were amazed to find about 75 kids there for ultimate Frisbee and a blizzard eating competition. A high schooler from our church that I like to call Jr. Zach (for several reasons) can eat a large blizzard in just 37 seconds and there was another high schooler that actually thought he could beat that amazing record. Between the two showdowns, Zach shared his testimony with the high schoolers, which made me very proud. He was reflecting on the wasted years of being too timid to share the gospel with his friends and teammates, and that he finally realized that God calls us to be bold in our faith and to not have a spirit of fear or timidity. I can attest firsthand of the change of heart that I have seen in my husband even since we started dating. It has been wonderful to watch him really be a man about being a servant leader and to have a heart for sharing his faith. There is nothing better than that.

6 months

Can you BELIEVE my baby boy is 6 months old?????

Professional Pics

Angela has edited and uploaded just a few of our pics on her website as a preview. Check it out!
http://www.angelaphoto.blogspot.com/

Red Barn Farm

Last night and this morning, we went with Jacoby to get a photo shoot with Angela, a family friend. Jacoby had never seen chickens or goats before, so we had to take some pictures ourself. We will post some professional photos when we get them back!

This week was teacher's first week back for inservice, which means Jacoby's first couple of days at the sitter. This fall, Trish will have Jacoby and three other little ones, all of whom belong to teachers. He seemed to do really well at Trish's...he even took a 2 1/2 hour nap both afternoons! Unfortunately, he also woke up with his first cold this morning. A woman from our church told me that when she went back to work, she always reminded herself that she was a better mom when she missed her kids during the day and appreciated her time with them while she was home. I have reminded myself of that daily, as it is very true. I am definitely not taking being blessed with a child for granted. Jacoby and I's time together is made that much more special. Anyways...here are the pics!

Big Weekend

This weekend, Jacoby and I hosted a wedding shower for Kailey, who is marrying my little cousin Jakey. Here are just a few pics from the shower.

Two person texting...



Sitting up by leaning on his hands for a minute! (I actually took the picture because his little crack is showing, but sitting up is an accomplishment in itself!!) On August 16th, Jacoby had a couple of big accomplishments. First, he learned how to blow raspberries (as if he doesn't drool and blow spit bubbles enough). Second, he finally figured out how to put his toes in his mouth. Zach was "babysitting" while my mom and I went to a teacher store in Kansas and told me he took some pictures, but Jacoby was naked as a jailbird in the pictures, so I had to crop them to edit out certain boy parts. Zach likes to let Jacoby sit around with no clothes on and then calls it "naked man time". (Also, not sure he wants me sharing that.)



After we got home, Jacoby was getting fussy so I was going to feed him after I changed out the trash bags. As I shook the bag to open it up, he started laughing like crazy. Apparently trash bags are hilarious! So, we recruited Aunt Hollie to take a video of it for your viewing pleasure.

Long story, but I will start at the beginning...

Zach played tennis with a girl named Gena...Gena got hired to be my partner teacher at PC...Gena's former roommate was also having a baby in March, so I heard about Michelle all the time...we became friends on facebook and messaged back and forth pretty frequently the last 5 months, as her little girl Reagan was born 3 days before Jacoby. Tonight, Gena had a housewarming party and Reagan and Jacoby were finally able to meet! There are a lot of pics, so I just put them on a slideshow. They were really cute together. It was strange to tell people that I was hanging out with my friend Michelle whom I had never met in person. That's what happens when you become a momma I guess...you are instantly bonded to other mommas. Fun night! We love little Miss Reagan. She is super sweet and very strong! She was already sitting up and practically doing push-ups. I love that little girl! (and I think Jacoby does, too!)

They really do grow up so quickly!

Jacoby gained two pounds in the last month...partially due to the fact that he will actually eat rice cereal finally. In fact, last night, he kept wanting more and more until he had eaten twice the amount he normally gets! It's pretty fun to see him reaching for the spoon and getting so messy. (I still need pictures of him with food all over his face).
Something so fun about Jacoby right now is that I often wake up to him talking and cooing in his crib. It's hard to mind waking up when you can run in and cuddle such a happy baby! He gets in talkative moods (like his momma) and just blabs non-stop for several minutes. Hopefully we can get a video of it to upload.

Finally, last week Jacoby got to camp with the Bryans. He was amazed by the campfire and loved napping in the camper. He also attended a Royals game and then went to the lake with some friends from Sunday School. Grandma came down a day early to babysit so we could get some work done at school. While she was playing with him, Jacoby figured out how to kick his ball, which is the video I think I wrote about previously but didn't get uploaded. Busy week for such a little guy! He was happy to be home and back in the normal swing of things.

We have one week left at home with Jacoby before inservice, and a few days after that before school actually starts. No, I am not looking forward to it, but I can't complain considering how fortunate we are to have the entire summer home to watch him grow and get to know him so well. I am very happy to say that I will be doing no school activities after hours so I will have lots of time to enjoy him starting at 3pm!

Pictures From Becky's Camera (Some Old, Some New)

First From Pomme De Terre

Oldies but Goodies

Pomme de Terre and Others

Rough Week

Well, teachers have to be back to school in officially 17 days...which is exciting but also a really sad thought. Worse than that, Zach starts the tennis season in a week. Thankfully, it is only an 8 week season, considerably shorter than any other fall sport. To prepare Jacoby to go to his sitter, who will have three other little kiddies, we finally bit the bullet and started laying Jacoby down in his crib instead of walking him to fall asleep. You can imagine the crying that has occurred, but it is most definitely working. In fact, last night he fell asleep without any crying for the first time! (Since we started a couple days ago) I guess the rationale is if he is going to cry himself to sleep in our arms, better to cry himself to sleep in his crib with us rubbing his back and then finally learn to be able to do it on his own. I may have cried just as much as him in the last 48 hours, but can definitely keep the big picture in mind after seeing his quick progress.

Jacoby really likes to grab people's noses right now and he puts his tiny little fingers in my mouth and smiles really big quite often. Today, while we were playing, I did it back to him and felt something sharp...a tooth coming in!!! It is so crazy! He had been showing signs of teething for the last few weeks, but our pediatrician said it could be quite a while, so I can't hardly believe that my little boy is getting teeth already. He'll be eating steaks before we know it. :)

We just got back from Lake Pomme de Terre, an annual trip with the entire Keith family. The best part is that we got to see Zach's cousin Audrey and her husband, who are currently living in Virginia. As I was downloading his cousins' pictures to our computer, I realized that anything with Jacoby seemed to be a good photo opporunity and that he is even in other people's family pictures at the lake. We had a ton of fun on our trip and of course we didn't have any problems finding a babysitter while Zach and I went out on the lake to ski. I am proud to say that I skied with a rope for the first time...although there was a debate over whether I had before or not. I was very confident because I thought I had two summers ago (last summer I was pregnant). I kind of wondered why everyone in the boat was so excited and cheering wildly, until Zach told me that I had only skied on the boom, not with a rope. I thought he was wrong until he later told me that his Uncle Ray, my ski instructor, agreed that I had not but did not want to burst my bubble.

I will upload a few pics sometime soon.

Dad's Comments from Chillicothe

We all had a good time in Chillicothe last weekend. Jacoby was so anxious to arrive that he cried/screamed all the way from Cameron to Chillicothe on the way there. Luckily grandma and grandpa provided some good entertainment for him when we arrived, so he was a happy baby the entire weekend. Dad and I rode mountain bikes on Saturday afternoon, and Clint and I played tennis on Saturday night. Jacoby didn't get to ride bikes or play tennis, but I'm sure he had a good time w/ mom and grandma. It was really nice to be home and hanging out with the Keith men. Grandma and grandpa were the highest bidders for the Vo-Tech house, so they'll break ground on "the property" in the next couple of weeks. We took a picture where the house will be on Sunday, and in one year we'll take a picture in front of the completed home. Everyone is really excited. Jacoby was really sad when we left. In fact, he cried/screamed all the way from Cameron to Platte City.

Weekend in Chillicothe

We spent last weekend in Chillicothe to celebrate David and Shirley Pyrtle's 55th Anniversary. It was SUCH a special weekend, but Zach is going to write a post about it, so I am just uploading pictures. Jacoby is laughing, rolling around a ton, and will smile at me just because I smiled at him first. I have been thinking a lot about how I only have a month left to stay home with him before school, and the next time he won't be a baby anymore, so I am actually enjoying getting up with him at night (usually...I am sometimes too groggy to even realize I got up). I am taking 2 grad classes right now, so I am anxious for July to be over so I can really take in the last several days with my boy.