New Accomplishments

Jacoby is starting to find his thumb pretty frequently and is starting to talk quite a bit as well. It's amazing how much his responsiveness increases from week to week. He's learning so much! He also finally went to watch his daddy coach a tennis match. My favorite is that for the last few weeks, Jacoby will smile a lot and then actually laugh in his sleep! It is hilarious, but I haven't been able to catch it on video because he is usually on my lap so I can't jump up to get my camera without waking him!

Randoms

1st Week Back on the Job

Well, it's my first week back at school. It is nice to spend time with my kids again, but I sprint up the stairs as soon as I get home everyday. Thankfully, my principal lets me come home over my plan period to feed Jacoby. Grandma Tam-Tam is staying with us to play with the little man during the day. We had a little photo shoot last night and decided that photographs just don't do him justice in showing his cuteness. It's just impossible, but here are a few of the snapshots we captured...

Happy Birthday Grandma Jo!!

We went to Granite City with all of the Bryans for Jo Anne's birthday. There were so many of us, in fact, that we had our own room. Have you ever seen the little helmets that come with ice cream in them at the Royals games? Well, 13 year old Bryan was thinking of his little cousin and cleaned it out for him to wear. The only other highlight is that Hillary actually had a screw on top of her potatoes. Seriously, a screw? Yes, for real...a screw. I would still like an explanation for that one.

Jacoby's First Sporting Event

On Tuesday, Jacoby was able to attend his first sporting event ever... a Spoofhound track meet to watch Aunty Em. I felt like a true mom carrying him in his little carrier/papoose. (I realize now we should have gotten a picture of that!) He must not have been too entertained because he slept through the whole thing. It was pretty fun to see Emily's friends run over screaming so they could ooh and ahh at him. He was even wearing a green and yellow paw print onesie under his fleece!

Easter 2009

For Jacoby's first Easter, we were in Chillicothe on our 1st overnight trip with a baby in tow. The Keiths got together on Saturday and then the Pyrtles gathered on Sunday after church out at the farm. Family gatherings like this are nice because there is ALWAYS someone wanting a baby fix so they ask to cuddle Jacoby for a while and Zach and I can eat with both hands! (We have become very skilled at eating with one hand while holding little man or a pacifier with the other because Jacoby loves being held and is rarely satisfied in his swing or bouncer. Our best bet is slipping him into his car seat or in his crib with his rainforest mobile.) Jacoby got to meet a lot of new people that weekend, including Penny, Natalie, Tucker and Rachel (Zach's cousins), Uncles Greg and Ray, James Morgan, who married us, and Great-Great (?) Aunt Francis, who held Jacoby in some very creative/interesting positions. Unfortunately, Uncle Jan and cousins Lily and Phoebe weren't able to be at the Pyrtle farm on Sunday, so they dropped by Ron and Becky's on Saturday night. Jacoby was very sleepy and I think overstimulated from being passed around all day, so he cried most of the time they were there, but they were so patient and good with him!

Here are some of our pics from that weekend.

The First Post

Before Jacoby was born, the idea of a blog seemed very unnecessary because we get to visit and talk to our family so much. However, I quickly realized why so many people said, "Enjoy it! They grow up SO fast!" Oh my goodness, they really do, don't they?!? My baby is almost 6 weeks old and changes so much from week to week. Guess I should have started this 5 weeks ago when my maternity leave started instead of 1 1/2 weeks before I go back to school!

Our little guy was born on March 9th at 11:41 pm after a LONG day of dealing with contractions at home with the company of my wonderful family plus Grandma Jo. Honestly, it was so exciting that I didn't mind the pain until the last hour or so before we were admitted to the hospital that night, which was around 7pm. Once there, I got an epidural pretty quickly and the rest of the night was an AMAZING experience. I really enjoyed the whole experience and we had a nurse that we loved, who coincidentally was my age and also named Amanda. We loved that our families were there into the early morning, despite a lot of waiting around. (Jacoby is sorry!) I try to replay the events that night in my head, but it was such a blur that I'm afraid I don't remember as many details as I would have liked!

A few memorable moments that stick out in our minds...

Amanda:

• feeling like I might fall asleep between contractions while I was pushing...I had felt like he was going to come the night before, so I couldn't fall asleep until after midnight and then my contractions woke me up at 2:45 and there was no point in trying to sleep after that...so it had been a long day!
• the moment Jacoby was laid on my chest...and just saying, "Oh my gosh!" repeatedly
• feeling bad that Jacoby was probably laying on some puke, and then realizing that he wasn't exactly clean anyway and that was the last thing I should be thinking about.
• my Grandma kissing me and telling me how happy she was that Jacoby had such a special name...and fighting back those tears from wishing my PaPa was there to enjoy his beautiful great-grandson (and give me a hard time about anything he could think of) :)
• waking up in the middle of the second night at the hospital to see jacoby just looking at me from his little cart. What an amazing feeling! (Who knows if he could actually see me...but it sure looked like it so I didn't care!)
• sobbing as Zach laid Jacoby's car seat down on the floor when we arrived home from the hospital. What a surreal feeling. That was soon followed by rocking him in his room and thinking of all the times in the last few months before he arrived that I sat in that same chair and just imagined what he would be like and how much I would love him.

Zach

• One of my biggest mistakes as a husband occured at 4:30 p.m. the day of Jacoby's birth. I had gone to school to make lesson plans for the next several days because we didn't know how soon the little man was going to join us. When I returned home, Tammy and Jo Anne told me Amanda was asleep in our room. I didn't want to wake her because she'd been up since 2:45 a.m., so I went downstairs and played Top Spin Tennis on PS2 with Uncle Brett. We played for about an hour when Amanda appeared and said she'd been in our room in pain from contractions and listening to us laughing and having a good time while playing video games. Needless to say, I probably should have checked on her when I got home rather than going downstairs to play video games. All was not lost, however, as I did manage to defeat Brett in Top Spin Tennis.
• Everything in the hospital was a total blur until the actual delivery. Amanda was throwing up between contractions, so the nurses and doctor were attending to that minor problem. In mid-puke, Jacoby started to shoot out, so the doctor had to go from tending to puke to catching Jacoby. It was a champion-like performance by everyone involved.
• The hospital was a tiring experience, but it was nice to get to see all of our visitors.
• Gena Lindsay brought me one of the best Georgia Mud Fudge blizzards from DQ I've had in awhile.
• The second night Jacoby started crying and I held him and he stopped.
• I started to feel bad for Jacoby by the time we left the hospital because the swelling in his face had gone down and it became evident he looked like me.