A Date at Disney

Last night Bill and I went to a retirement party for my dear aunt, Babe.  It was a great evening with her family.  It was an adult only event, so we left the little guy with our friends, Matt and Lora and of course, Jacob's girlfriend, Malaya.  I was VERY nervous leaving him with them, not because I don't trust them, but because Jacob makes me nervous with his temper and tantrums.  The whole day I kept praying that he would be a good boy for them and even contiplated not going to the party. 

After an almost 4 hour nap, we had to wake him up to get going.  So, he was nice and rested when we dropped him off at Malaya's house.  He was instantly excited to be playing at her house and didn't care that we left.  We called them when we got to the party and they said he was doing great.  Matt and Lora took the kids to Disneyland in hopes of keeping Jacob distracted.  We left the party at about 8pm and met Jacob and everyone at Disneyland.  Jacob did great.  When he saw us he got excited, which made me happy.  He had two new toys!  Can we say SPOILED?!?!  He had a pirate ship from his happy meal and a Mickey light up sword thing.  The two kiddos had the same toys and looked so cute.

Of course Matt and Lora said he did great, didn't have any meltdowns and was actually pretty mellow the whole time.  They even asked if I gave him any medication (which I actually thought about doing, to keep him calm, but of course didn't).  I don't know if they are lying to us just to make us feel okay, but either way, we our proud of our little guy.  Lora told us that Jacob was chosen as flight commander on one of the rides in California Adventure.  How cute.  He got to hold one the the runway light thingies during the ride and got a sticker that said flight commander.  How cute, I'm so sorry I missed that one. 

Anyway, we joined them in the park and left after riding Buzz lightyear where Bill and Matt HAD to compete for the high score TWICE!  Bill lost both times, but we all had a great time anyway.  Jacob had control of the blaster and I helped him aim a little and the little stinker got over 20,000 points...He loves that ride with all the bright colors.

Today we are off to a BBQ/Swim party at the Gunnins.  I'm sure it's going to be a hot one so we'll definitely be in the pool.  So until next time...mommy and daddy love you!

0 comments - Posted by Missy Roberts at 8:18 AM - Categories: About Jake

Problems with our poopy!

This is just a wonderful topic to write about...poo-poo.  For a little over a week Jacob has been constipated. I know my poor baby, I'm writing about your little bum.  His last BM was on Monday morning and I must say I know it hurt him coming out.  It was so big, it almost clogged the toliet when I flushed it away.  He was in a lot of discomfort with it because as soon as he went, he pointed to his diaper and said poo-poo and he didn't run away from me when I went to pick him up to change his diaper. 

For the rest of the week, I could tell he was maybe trying to "do his thing" but nothing every came out.  So I thought it either is not wanting to come out, or that he doesn't want it to come out because it's painful.  Last night we were hanging out at the Shoppes and he stopped what he was doing and started making these wierd faces and arching his back (almost like a scared cat) and his legs were stiff.  I knew something was happening with his little bottom.  He stopped, I grabbed him and checked his diaper, but nothing was there except a little "shart" So off he went playing again.  Then five minutes later he started to do the same thing, again, no poopie.  At this point I knew that he was the one preventing the poopy from coming out. 

I called the on call nurse and she gave me some suggestions.  When we got home we put him in a warm bath with baking soda.  Strange, I know.  Anyway, he SCREAMED the entire time he was in the tub.  The nurse told us to have him squat in the tub.  Yeah, like that was going to happen on command with an out of control screaming child.  So there I went in the tub with him showing him what to do.  That didn't help, so we resorted to holding him down.  I took the top half of the body and Bill took the bottom half.  We held him there, torturing our child for a couple of minutes until, honestly, we couldn't handle it anymore.  Then we had to go straight to the bedroom and insert a suppository in his little bottom.  Yeah, that was FUN!  Again, he was screaming so much he was starting to choke himself.  I finally got all of it in, well most of it anyway and then we were told to squeeze his butt cheeks closed for 10 minutes.  Yeah, I wonder if the nurse had actually tried this whole sequence of events on a 20 month old.  Nearly impossible.  We put on Mickey Mouse for him and after holding his cheeks togethe for a few minutes we let him lay down and watch the cartoon.  Well within a minute of him laying down, out came the suppository.  Bill and I looked at eachother like "what do we do now."  Really, neither of us had the energy to do that again, so we let him sleep through the night and figured we would start again when he wasn't so tired. 

Saturday morning he woke up nice and early, despite not going to sleep until close to 10pm.  He came and layed in bed with us and then Bill touched his bottom and guess what..there was something there!  YIPPEE!!!  He finally had a BM.  It was a fairly big one and pretty hard.  But at least he had one and didn't go through any convulsions to pass it.  We cleaned him up and he got a bottle of good old prune juice.  About 15 mintues later, there was another one...this one was a lot softer.  That prune juice was working fast.  By 10 in the morning he had 4 BMs and each one got softer and softer.  Now I think we are going in the other direction...with diarrhea. 

We played at the park, brought him home and he actually had lunch a half PB&J and some corn, yum yum.  He gobbled it all up.  I think he hadn't been eating because his tummy wasn't feeling well.  After his lunch I layed him in his crib and he almost instantly fell asleep.  I think all the pooping made him worn out.  So now he is peacefully sleeping. 

Tonight Bill and I have a retirement party to attend.  Matt, Lora and Malaya are going to watch Jacob for the few hours we are gone.  I really hope he does okay.  this will be the first time (other than church) that we leave him with someone other than family.  Wish us luck!

So until next time...mommy and daddy love you!

0 comments - Posted by Missy Roberts at 12:56 PM - Categories: About Jake

Raising havic at Fazioli's

This morning after Stroller Strides, Jacob and I went to a swim party for his friend from SS, Jack.  They have a toddler pool, only one foot deep and all the kids had a BLAST!  Jacob had fun playing in the water and with Jack's Thomas trains.  Jacob fell asleep on the way home and slept for 3 1/2 hours.  When he woke up he was ready to go.  We ended up meeting our friends, Matt, Lora and Malaya.  Lora and I went to get a pedicure and Matt and Bill took the kids to Fazioli's across the street for dinner.  Apparently while they were there, the manager of the restaurant went up to Matt and Bill and told them to quiet the kids down because someone in the restaurant complained that the kids were too loud. Okay, if you know Jacob you know he can be very loud, both in a good way and a bad way.  But when he's happy and loud, it really is not a disturbing sound.  I will be the first to say that Jacob can be annoying when he is crying and screaming, but when he's happy, it's a good sound.  So now here is my problem with this.  First, I could see if they were screaming because they were upset and they were crying, but no, they were having a good time laughing with eachother.  Second, Bill is the first person to take Jacob outside if he thinks he's out of control, so in my opinion, even though I wasn't there, Jacob was not that loud. Third, According to the dads, there was only a couple of other families there (with little ones) and a couple sitting across from them who were laughing at the kids, so obviously they did not say anything to the manager.  So where does this manager get off telling my husband to quiet down my son?  HUH! When Lora and I got to the restaurant the guys told us everything and we went straight to the manager and voiced our complaint about her telling our husbands to take the kids outside because they were too loud.  Again, if they were crying and screaming that's another story.  But they were having a good time in what we thought was a family establishment.  The manager gave us some lame story about a customer complaining to them so they HAD to say something to the dads.  WHATEVER lady!  She should have asked those olds cruds is they were ever children or if they've ever had children or if they are ever happy.  Give me a break, they guys were sitting at the back of the restaurant doing their best to keep the kids happy.  Old cruds need to get a life and realize that if a child is happy you do whatever you can to keep them in that state.  We will NEVER go there again, besides the food is terrible anyway and we are going to tell all of our mommy friends in Chino Hills to never go there or they might be told to quiet down their kids.  So there!

So to continue the rampage we walked over to Best Buy and Jacob and Malaya had fun banging on the drums on the video game, Rock Band (or something like that).  I'm surprised we didn't get kicked out of there too :)

So until next time my loud baby, mommy and daddy love you!

0 comments - Posted by Missy Roberts at 9:41 PM - Categories: About Jake

A fun morning

This morning Jacob had all of his friends from Stroller Strides over for a fun morning of playing with water toys in the backyard.  The mommies also had a small baby shower for our instructor's Kelly, who is expecting boy #2 in October.  The kids played in the backyard in a small pool and with the Elmo sprinkler and others played inside with all of Jacob's toys.  I think everyone had a great time!

After a long 3 hour nap, Jacob woke up and had a snack and some more prune juice on his new "Cars" table.  He looked so cute sitting on his little chair eating his snack.  He's been constipated for a few days.  Then all of a sudden he looks at me points to his diaper and says "poo-poo"  Oh my goodness, is this the first sign that he is closer to becoming potty trained.  I smelled his little booty (which is what I usually do when I think he's done his thing) and wouldn't you know it, he had poo-poo.  He still kinda ran away from me when I tried to get him to change his diaper, but once I caught him, he was okay with me changing the diaper.  This is the first poo-poo in a long time that he didn't scream about having.  Like I said, he's been constipated and I don't think his poo-poo felt too good coming out.  I think the prune juice is starting to work it's magic.  Luckily, he's been drinking it with no sour face.  I don't know how he drinks the stuff...I dilute it for him, but still...prune juice...YUCK!  So I think I may start sitting him on the potty without his diaper just to see what happens.  Wish us luck!

We are off to our last Concerts in the Park for this summer.  We've had such a great time at each concert.  I don't know what we're going to do next Wednesday night...oh yah, we'll be in YOSEMITE!!!! woo-hoo!!!!

so until next time...mommy and daddy love you

0 comments - Posted by Missy Roberts at 5:47 PM - Categories: About Jake

Good Food Day

Jacob had fish for the first time tonight for dinner.  I've tried a couple of times to give him fish, but he just shook his head and said no.  Not tonight though!  He saw his daddy squeeze some lemon (which he loves) on the orange roughy and Jacob took a big bite and then dove in for some more.  Again, he had a good dinner and lunch in his big boy chair.  Breakfast, I'm afraid is a different story.  I tried giving him some Elmo Oatmeal (just packages of instant oatmeal advertised by Elmo himself).  Well, he took one look at it and shook his head and said no.  So then I was a bad mommy and tricked him by pretending to give him yogurt.  He took in the spoonful of oatmeal and literally gagged.  Luckily, nothing came up and he swallowed the oatmeal, but he gave me a dirty look after that.  I felt so bad so I gave him a cup of yogurt and called it a breakfast (along with some nectarine and some cheerios).

This afternoon when he woke up from his nap we were piddling around the kitchen and he saw the fruit basket and asked for an apple, which for him means any fruit.  So I picked up a plum and asked if he wanted that (he's been a little constipated, so I thought I would start by giving him a plum), but he didn't want that, then I went to a nectarine, again no.  When I picked up the apple he grabbed it from my hands and took a bite out of it.  He proceeded to eat almost the entire apple all by himself without me cutting it up for him.  He was eating the apple like a big boy.  I couldn't believe it.  He was walking around the house eating his apple.  Amazing, I tell you!

We got him a little kid activity table with Disney's Cars on it.  Bill and I put it together this evening and he sat at it and colored for a little while and then it became a racing table for his trains to race on.  He is such a boy.  What was I thinking to think that he would actually sit down at the little table and do a quiet activity?  Nope, instead the table has become a train track, race track and whatever other track he decides it's going to be.  Oh well, I'm sure we'll get good use out of it.  Maybe it will be a good snack time table too :)

So until next time...mommy and daddy love you!

0 comments - Posted by Missy Roberts at 7:56 PM - Categories: About Jake

Sitting with the Big "Kids"

For the last few weeks Jacob has not been wanting to eat. When I put him in his high chair for a meal he would cry and throw his food off the tray (yeah, lots of fun).  At dinner time, he would cry and reach his hands out to his daddy.  So Bill would get him out of the high chair and let him sit on his lap to eat dinner.  Last week I went out and got him a booster chair.  His first dinner in the booster seat sitting at the dinner table went great!  He ate all his food (well most of it anyway) and only got out of the seat one time to go play music on his toy and then he came right back, sat in the chair and continued on with his meal.  Ever meal since then has been great in the big boy chair :)  He's even coming running from playing with his train to eat because he can sit at the table.  All I've said is "come have lunch in your big boy chair" and he dropped his train and came running over to the table!  AMAZING!!! 

At restaurants he's pretty much done with the high chair too.  for the last couple of months whenever we went out and tried to put him in the high chair he screamed and we either left the restaurant or put him in the booth with us.  He does fine in the booths.  We haven't tried a chair yet, but in the booth, yes he will stand, but he's good about not bothering anyone and eats most of his meal.  This past weekend we attempted CPK adn he did GREAT!  He even sat in their booster chair for a little bit while he ate his pizza. 

So, I think it's time to put away the high chair since he's doing so well in the booster seat!  I keep forgetting to take a picture of him in his booster seat.  Hopefully I'll get a picture in the next few days!

 So until next time...mommy and daddy love you!

0 comments - Posted by Missy Roberts at 9:14 PM - Categories: About Jake

Lots of catching up

We have lots of catching up to do...so here we go.

Jacob's canine teeth finally broke through so he's been having some good night sleep for the last week or so.  Mommy and daddy are very happy about that.  He's also been working hard at learning his alphabet...but it seems as though all the letters are either "S", "X", "B", or "E" as no matter what letter he is holding up, he says one of those letters.  He loves playing with his "sticky" letters in the tub and the other day he got a toy that goes on the dishwasher that says all the letters...he LOVES his new toy.  He's also working on learning his numbers.  He's got "2" down now.  When I start to count something for him I'll say "one" and then he says "two" and that's the extent of his counting...but he's working on it.  He now has somewhere between 30 and 35 words in his vocabulary not counting his numbers and letters.  I can hardly wait until he's talking...he seems to get so frustrated when he wants something but can't express himself.

We think he is done sitting in his high chair.  he doesn't want to get in it and when he does he doesn't eat and cries until one of us takes him out and puts him on our lap.  So we got him a booster seat so that he could sit with us at the table in a "big boy" chair.  Amazingly, it's working so far.  He loves sitting at the table and eating off of his placemat with Elmo, Big Bird and Cookie Monster.  He's eaten every meal we've given him from his big boy chair.  In fact one afternoon he was playing with his choo-choo and I called him over to eat lunch.  Of course he ignored me (as usual) but then I told him he was going to eat while sitting on the big boy chair and he dropped his train and came running over and ate all his lunch.  I couldn't believe it.

Jacob has really been enjoying these summer months.  Every Wednesday evening we go to the Concerts in the Park sponsored by our city.  He loves to hang out, run around with and dance with his friends Christian, Malaya and Brixie Lee.  They are so cute together.  As the weeks have gone on, the kids get more and more daring and are venturign out farther and farther from our blankets.  We all have our eyes on them, but they are thinking they are getting away with something.  Jacob has also gone to Disneyland a lot, usually in the evenings and likes to stay up as long as he can to take it all in.  Last week Daddy and Jacob went with Malaya and Christian and their daddy's to Disneyland...it was Daddys night out with the kids.  They had a GREAT time and I think Bill enjoyed being on his own with Jacob at the park without me nagging him :)  The other night we went to California Adventure to watch the Disneyland Electrical Parade.  I loved that parade as a child and was so excited for Jacob to see it.  He LOVED it.  He and I sat on the floor (then daddy joined us after the parade started) and one of the snails came up to Jacob and had a little chat.  Jacob was a little scared because I felt his little hand reach for my arms and grip tight!  But overall he really enjoyed the parade and was pointing and babbling about all the floats!  It was so much fun for me to watch him enjoy the parade.  I can still remember being a kid and watching that parade after a long day at Disneyland...that was one of the highlights of my childhood memories.  Jacob has also really enjoyed his Little Gym classes.  He goes once a week.  His favorite parts are the free play time when he can run around and play on all the equipment, the bubbles, the balls and the stamp at the end.  When his teacher, Miss Melissa, asks who wants a stamp, Jacob's eye's light up and he is usually the first one at the door waiting to get out to get the stamp on both hands, both feet and one on his belly!  He LOVES those stamps and shows them off to anyone who will look for the rest of the day.  He's also still enjoying his mornings at the park with his Stroller Stride buddies.  He's gotten in trouble a few times this summer and had to leave the park early for hitting his friends, but we are working on that.  Again, back to the lack of communication, that is the only way he knows how to tell his friends that they can't have the toy he's playing with.  I really hope he doesn't turn out to be the bully of the playground..that would NOT be good. A few times this summer his friend Christian came over to play in the sprinklers outside.  We have an Elmo water toy that the boys love.  They especially loved when I got the hose and sprayed them.  They also enjoyed eating their orange juice and cranberry juice popsicle...which Jacob also called "kycle" 

Jacob had the 2nd haircut of the summer on Thursday.  Again he screamed in the chair.  The hairstylist gave him a lollipop (a dum dum).  It was the first lollipop he's ever had and he was amused by it for a few licks, but then he remembered that he was strapped down in the car/chair and having his hair cut and he started screaming again. He was so happy when it was all over with so we let him play with the train set they have there for a little while. 

His motor skills continue to improve.  He can pretty much walk up and down stairs by himself now.  I do however hold his hand almost every time.  At the park he is up and down the stairs at the park by himself, but at home and on the jungle gym, mommy always holds his hand.  He thinks he's a big boy sometimes and doesn't want to hold my hand, but I always win on that one.  He loves riding on his motorcycle tricycle.  He's gotten pretty good at steering it around the house.  He'll go from the family room to the kitchen, around the island and back to the family room with no problems.  There are a few times when he tries driving into the bathroom and gets stuck.  Then I hear some loud crying and it's mommy to the rescue to help him steer himself out of it.  I am trying to teach him the three point turn, but he just wants out of the bathroom as quick as he can so he can continue riding. 

I know there is lots more to catch up on, but I can't think of it right now...so until next time...mommy and daddy love you!

0 comments - Posted by Missy Roberts at 9:01 PM - Categories: About Jake

What is Jake saying these days...? Hmmm...?

Hi everyone.  This is Bill posting today.  It's been a while because I've been very busy with other things.   So I'm now back in action!

What can I say?  The title of this blog entry says it all really.   Jake is talking so much.  He's babbling still and is having full-blown baby talk with mommy and daddy.  Many times, I must admit, I don't understand him and I'm sure this doesn't come to anyone's surprise.   Jake is also saying a lot of words that I can finally understand.  So..., today's blog entry is dedicated to Jake's success in being able to say about 30 words.  There are actually many more but I can't think of them right now.  Good job buddy!  Mommy and daddy love you!

Check them out: 

• ball
• baseball
• basketball
• belly button
• bubble
• byebye
• car
• cheese
• choo choo
• cookie
• dada - Jacob's first word, of course ;)
• duck
• dumbo
• Elmo
• football
• mama
• motorcycle (cycle)
• no
• oh no
• papa
• please
• thank you
• trash truck
• uh oh
• water
• where is it?

0 comments - Posted by Bill Roberts at 9:30 AM - Categories: About Jake | About Bill

Doing a little better this week

So Jacob's top two teeth are now mostly in.  He's been sleeping much better at night which is wonderful.  He's even eating a little more than he was last week.  he managed to down some chicken and rice last night which was so nice.  Saturday at a birthday party, the only thing he would eat was cake and ice cream (he's acting like me now!).  Along with his teething he had a sty on his right eye.  Poor thing, when it rains it pours with him.  It finally came to a head Sunday night and it now going down.  He does not like having the warm wash cloth put on his eye.  It sometimes takes both Bill and I to get the washcloth on his face.  I took him to see Dr. Gladstein yesterday about his eye and he said he's looking fine and to keep doing what we are doing (and good luck at that).  He would not let the doctor look at his eye.  He shaked his head back and forth so fast that the doc had a hard time seeing his eye.  Dr. Gladstein looked at me with sympathy and said Good luck!  He was able to see the wrath of Jacob.

Jacob is definitely catching up on the sleep he lacked last week.  Saturday he took a long nap at Anissa's birthday party.  He doesn't usually sleep for a long time at someone else's house especially when he is napping on a blanket on the floor, but he must have been really tired!  Then yesterday he took a 3 1/2 hour nap!  I must admit it was nice for him to sleep for so long.  I was able to catch a few Z's myself.  Both Bill and I woke up not feeling well on Sunday morning, I think it was mostly exhaustion!

This morning we were at Little Gym and once again he had a GREAT time!  His friend Christian joined him and the two of them were running around everywhere.  After we went to Henry's and we saw some firemen walk in as Jacob started crying.  I told him there was a firetruck outside and that only little boys who don't cry get to see them.  One of the (cute) firemen came by and gave him a Jr. Firefighter sticker and Jacob calmed down.  I put the sticker on him and when we walked outside he saw the firetruck and then pointed to the sticker on his chest.  I was surprised that he was able to make that connection.  He is such a smart boy! 

Yesterday early evening we were all outside as daddy was barbquing some chicken.  Jacob was running around like a mad man in the backyard and I was sitting in my chair, reading a book and drinking some cranberry juice.  Jacob came up to me and said "please" so I let him have a drink of my juice. I didn't think he would like it since it's a little tart, but he loved it.  I put the cup down on the floor and the next thing I knew he picked up the cup and drank from it without spilling any of it!  Gosh, what a big boy!  I was so proud of him and I could tell he was proud of himself.  He kept drinking.  Then he put the cup down and it was mommy who tipped the cup over and spilt almost all of the juice out!  good one mommy!  Jacob grabbed the cup and tried to get out the last of the juice.  He was having a difficult time since there was only about one sip left, but he quickly figured out that he had to tip the cup higher to get the last of the juice...seriously I think he gets his smarts from me...okay, I guess a little from daddy too!  he's growing up so fast, it almost makes me sad!  We finally got our video camera and one of our still camera's working so we should be posting some pictures shortly!  So until next time...mommy and daddy love you!

0 comments - Posted by Missy Roberts at 12:34 PM - Categories: About Jake