This evening we went out to dinner and Jacob got his own kid's meal (chicken breast, french fries and apple juice).  I was trying to give him some apple juice out of the cup, but he kept grabbing for it, so we put a little bit of juice in the cup and let him go for it.  I figured I didn't have to clean up the sticky floor after he spills all the juice.  So he took the cup and drank away.  we had to keep refilling his cup with more juice.  Granted, a lot of the juice did end up on his shirt, but you could tell he was so proud of himself drinking from a big kid cup.  He was so precious.  He was also stealing sweet potato french fries off of his plate.  I had the plate near me so I could cut the chicken apart for him and he kept reaching over to steal a fry...He knows what's not good for him and knew he had to sneak it past mom.  But he was a good boy and ate lots of chicken. 

 He has become a picky eater lately.  Last night for dinner I made some pasta with zucchini and tomatoes.  He ate his pasta and tomatoes, but did not want anything to do with the zucchini.  This afternoon for lunch we had leftovers and he was all over the zucchini and did't want anything to do with the pasta noodles...kids. 

He has started to walk around the house with a bit of an attitude, almost as if he owns the place (whose kidding who, he does).  Anyway, he walkes and moves his little hips side to side and then swings one of his arms strongly by his side. When he really gets into it, both arms are swinging by his side.  It is so funny to watch. 

Tonight was the first night Jacob actually fell asleep in his crib.  I know I know...I've completely been spoiling him and rocking him to sleep everynight.  He's my baby :)  Well for the past couple of days I've put him down for naps in his crib and let him cry for a little bit and then after a few minutes I would go and pat his little bottom and he would fall right to sleep and would actually sleep for a long time, at least 1 1/2 hour naps which is a long time for him.  So tonight I finally did that routine for bed time.  It took him a little while, but he fell asleep no problem.  I guess it's time my baby becomes a big boy and falls asleep on his own.  I know other moms out there probably think I'm crazy, still holding my baby while he falls asleep, but really it just became habit and I love holding him and watching him fall asleep, even amongst the crying sometimes.  But I also realize that he will soon be one year old and I won't be able to hold him forever.  Plus eventually there will be a point when we will have someone else watch him during bed time, and I really can't expect them to rock a one year old to sleep.  So a new era in the life of Jacob begins...he falls asleep on his own now.  Now we just have to get him to sleep all the way through the night without waking up and crying and not wanting to go back to sleep on his own.  I guess eventually we will get a full nights rest. 

Unfortunately I have been feeling a little under the weather this week so we only went to stroller strides one day this week.  I think Jacob misses his little friends there and playing at the park.  Next week we will get back into the swing of things and he can run his little heart all over the park.  The day we did go, he went exploring the park.  He was walking all over the place.  His good friend Christian was trying to keep up with him, but he can't quite walk yet, so he was having a difficult time, but Jacob wasn't going to let him hold him back.  He was walking down the trail, in the grass, through the sand.  He really has the walking thing down now, different textures in the ground don't bother him anymore.  He used to have a difficult time walking in the sand, but not anymore.  He had a great time pushing everyone's strollers around for them too.

He is getting a little better at sitting still to listen to a story.  I managed to get through 4 pages of a book yesterday with him while he was sitting on my lap on the floor.  But then he got restless and got the book and tore out the first page, luckily it wasn't part of the story.

He's been pretty crabby the last couple of days.  I think he is teething again.  Any little thing will set him off.  Today he started yelling at his lion when he tipped the lion over and couldn't figure out how to get him back.  After a couple minutes I finally had to go over and show him how to tip it back over, then he was fine and playing with his lion again.  I hope these aren't signs of him having a short temper...that would not be good.

We are all done with our Christmas shopping, now it's just time to clean.  I am going to make a small cake for Jacob's birthday so he can smash his hands all through it.  I can hardly wait to see that.  I guess I shouldn't put too much effort into decorating the cake:)

Alright, I've got some stuff to do, so until next time...mommy and daddy love you!