Jacoby is 14 months old!!

I can't believe that JD is already 14 months old. He is a pretty active little guy. Here are a few thing that have been going on in his life right now.

1. Eating big people food, no more jarred baby food for him. He likes just about everything. His dessert is graham crackers, but I think he has more fun trying them into dust piles than actually eating them.

2. No more bottles. That happened because day care did not give him a bottle during the day once he turned one. So it made it real easy for mom and dad to take away the morning and night bottle.

3. Has a pair of big boy shoes. He got his first pair a few weeks ago and now he can walk to the mailbox with dad and he gets to play outside when it is nice with the big kids at day care.

4. For the last 2 days he has slept on a mat during nap time at day care. No more portable crib for him. (Hopefully when we put him in a big boy bed later on it will be an easy transition)

5. Had his fifth hair cut just last week. Man his hair grows super fast and it has a little wave to it.

6. Knows how to crawl up the stairs all by himself, now if only he could figure out how to crawl back down. Someday he will.

7. Loves to give hugs and yes he still drools a lot, hopefully that will stop someday soon.

8. Loves to throw the ball. I think his dad would be very proud if he played baseball when he gets older.

Below are some pictures. The last 2 are of dad and JD playing ball. I love to watch my boys play.

Happy New Year!!

We hope that you had a Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year!! We had a great Christmas. Jacoby spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa Otter's house the night before Christmas Eve since daycare was closed. Then he spent the whole day with them. We had our traditional Christmas Eve at my parent's house, church, dinner and then we opened presents.

It was a little crazy opening presents. Johanna and Adelle would have opened every one's gift if we would have let them. I had to fight for my gifts at one point Adelle was opening my gift. She did open several of JD's gifts. He had fun playing with the wrapping paper and boxes. Johanna and Adelle got a doll house and JD had a blast ringing the door bell on it.

On Christmas morning it was just Mike, JD and me. We got up and opened presents from Santa. Santa was pretty generous to us this year. Then Mike's parents came over for dinner. It was a great day and I was sad that the time went by so fast.

New Year's was a pretty happening place around here, okay that is not exactly the truth. We celebrated the New Year with New York and then put JD to bed. I think I was asleep by 11. Exciting times around our house. But it was okay, because I don't need to stay up to see the new year. I would rather sleep so I can play with my son.

I can't believe how fast he is growing. He is learning new things everyday. I cherish all the hugs that he gives me, because I know some day it will not be cool to hug your mom.

Here are some pictures from Christmas. enjoy

New Year's Eve. Marshmellow with chocolate sauce. yummmm

What? I am not eating anything. I am innocent.

Happy 1st Birthday!

Well, he made it. WE made it! One year! Though blizzards, sleepless nights, a cold, a fever, a dum-dum sucker high, and plenty of loaded diapers, here we stand after 365 days of parenthood!

It all began with a somewhat frantic trip to the hospital in the wee hours of December 2nd, 2008. Stacy woke me up only after having contracts for the last hour, and decided when she was four minutes apart that it was time to wake me up to drive us to the hospital. As if we were not cutting it close enough, Stacy then wanted to start washing some dishes before we left. She got overruled.

After several hours of labor, Jacoby was born a 5:17....I think. Something like that anyways. We enjoyed the attention we received at the hospital and wish we could have taken a full-time nurse home with us. Sometimes I wish we still had!

A couple weeks into parenthood, the big blizzard hit, and Stacy and I had a crash course in parenting. It was just Stacy, Jacoby, me, and the Christmas tree and a LOT of snow. After almost two weeks the weather finally broke, and we were happy to receive guests again.

As the months have passed, it has been amazing to watch all of the strides Jacoby has made. He goes to a great daycare full of older children, so he is always pushing himself to learn things quickly so he can play with the other kids. First came rolling over, then came crawling, then standing up...now walking. We have our little Frankenstein wandering around the house.

Jacoby has also developed quite the personality. he is a happy-go-lucky kid with a great sense of humor and an appetite for destruction. He is also quite the ladies man, and he is always flirting with the checkers at the grocery store and has all the girls at daycare wrapped around his little finger. I have a feeling he is going to be quite the heart-breaker when he grows up, our little Barney Stinson.

Let's see, what else? the dum-dum? Yeah, one night Stacy took a grouchy Jacoby out to pick up some chinese food while Daddy worked on his homework. When they came home Jacoby had a dum-dum sucker in his mouth that the chinese restaurant owner gave him, and he was smiling and laughing, and falling all over the place for several hours! Everything was funny, and neither one of us had the heart to put him to bed because he was having so much fun. He paid the price the next morning when I had to wake him for daycare though. Sack of potatoes.

So what's in store for birthday #1? Well, first thing is taking him to Segals to have his car seat turned around so he can officially face forward for the first time in the car. More legroom for him, and more legroom for us also. Then off to Dairy Queen for a lovely family dinner and Jacoby's first ice cream cone. Then back home to give him his birthday Tonka truck and then watch him zing around the living room for a couple hours high on sugar.

Over the weekend we will have some family and friends over and introduce Jacoby to cupcakes and wrapping paper!

So it is a great milestone for all three of us as we trudge forth on to year #2. So in the meantime...

Happy first birthday Jacoby! Smoke em if you got em!

DISCLAIMER. No babies were actually smoking during the making of this blog.

Recycling

So today I threw away some pacifiers that Jacoby doesn't like. Since they are plastic/rubber I put them in the recycling bag. Well, Jacoby likes to play in the recycling bag and pulls everything out of it and scatters all the contents all over the kitchen. He found a steel water bottle that is broken and starts chewing on it and then the next thing I notice.....he has the blue pacifier in this mouth. The same pacifier that he hasn't liked in the past, but since I threw it out he now wants it. Crazy boy. But at least he is happy, he only sleep 30 minutes today at daycare.

ps He now has 2 bottom teeth and 1 top tooth that is coming in. He weighs 23 lbs 12 oz and is almost 31 inches long.

It is official......Jacoby is mobile. Now I wanted Jacoby to learn to crawl, but now I am rethinking that. My poor ficus tree has lost lots of leaves. Yesterday I transplanted it and moved it into our bedroom where it will have a better shot at surviving. I can't say the popcorn popper was that lucky. I was standing in the kitchen and all of a sudden I saw the popcorn popper moving. Jacoby had grabbed onto the cord, which was hanging over the edge, and pulled on it. I was able to push it away from Jacoby so luckily it didn't land on his head, but it hit the floor just right and broke the plug. Mike is sad no more popcorn until we get a new popper.

On Friday, night he managed to spill a full glass of ice water on me at a restaurant. It was great. Good thing we where on our way home. My dad thought it was pretty funny.

Jacoby for some reason loves the recycle bag. He pulls all the recycling out and then plays with it. The other day he played with a pizza box for 15 minutes. Cheap toys are the best!

Jacoby meet his Great Grandpa for the first time last weekend. Great Grandpa is 91 and JD is 8 1/2 months. It was great to see Great Grandpa again. He lives in Oxnard so we don't see him very often. He is a great guy and I wish we lived closer to one another.
Crawling around on Grandpa & Grandma Gellner's deck. He had a great time playing in the water fountain. Boys will be boys.

The next family artist. Carrie would be very proud of him. Here JD is making a thank you picture for Great Grandpa.

SMILE!!

You may wonder what Mike and I have been up too. Well Mike is collecting baseball cards and that is keeping him pretty busy. He just finished his second to last class for his Master's degree and has some free time before his last class starts.

I was just awarded a year cross-training downtown in Accounts Payable. I am pretty excited to learn something new. Plus Mike and I can carpool to work together. The down side...Jacoby has to go to daycare a little earlier starting on the 16th.

Well I am off to watch How I Met Your Mother and I'm going to go to sleep. Sleep is the best!

Where have the Gellner's gone??

So there have been a few things going on at our house. Jacoby and I have started a mommy and me swim class. Jacoby loves the water and at first wasn't sure what to think of the "giant bath tub" with lots of kids in it. But as the weeks go on he pays a little more attention to me during the class.

A few weeks ago I agreed that Jacoby needed a haircut. So I made an appointment to get my hair cut and his too. All his little curls are gone, but not lost. Adriana did a great job and kept all his curls for me to put into his baby book. He did great. He chewed on a comb the whole time. Yes, it was clean. Now he looks more like a little boy.

Last week we went to Neskwin with Mike's family. Jacoby loved playing in the sand and hanging out with his cousins. During our vacation Jacoby turned 8 months old. He weighs approx 23 pounds.

Then on Tuesday night, Mike and I saw Jacoby crawl for the first time. He didn't make it too far but we where sure proud of him. Our little boy is growing up so fast. Please he is now going to sleep on his own at night and has been sleeping all night. Which is great for everyone. Tonight it is taking him a little longer to go to sleep. I can hear him crying. Hope all is well with everyone.

Jacoby's First of the Fourths (of July)

Our neighborhood is known to be a bit of a war zone when it comes to 4th of July fireworks. Our next door neighbor is a certifiable pyro and certainly does not keep within the legal 6 feet off the ground variety. With this knowledge in mind we decided it would be best to hit the road and head south for some good ol' fashioned Mt Angel 4th or July fun.

We packed up Jacoby and got to town just in time for his very first parade. The mount angel parade is a small, but fun parade with tanks, fire engines, classic cards, and lots and lots of tractors. Jacoby sat on my lap and jumped a few times as the firemen went a little crazy with their sirens, but other than that, he handled the parade pretty well. We both jumped a bit when the tank went rolling by, and it just got bigger and louder as it drove by.

Then it was off to the in-laws and a little barbecue and sunshine. There was a little kiddy pool heating up in the sunshine, and little JD sported his jams and SPF 50 and took his first dip in a "big" kids pool. He had a lot of fun, but was slipping and sliding around with all the sunscreen, so mommy and daddy took turns making sure Jacoby did not take the deep plunge!

We finished up the evening with Jacoby's first fireworks show. He handled them pretty well, but I think he was pretty confused why we not only had him still awake after 10 pm, but why we were OUTDOORS after 10 pm. Needless to say, he was out cold in the car ride home after less than five minutes of driving.

Of course, for every big day there is the fallout, and today he is a little grumpy and has taken three naps already, but overall we had a very relaxing and enjoyable time. Next up, beach trip!