a little talkin' and walkin' at 14 months

Time for another Jacob update- he turned 14 months today! Here's his most recent picture- big smile, lot of drool.
So I've been keeping a little journal for Jacob since he was born, kind of like a little baby book and would just write little things that he does, so I figured I'd share the latest changes since he turned one.

Right after his birthday was when I noticed that Jacob was starting to say more words and that it wasn't all nonsense babble. Here are the words or sounds that he'll say so far:

"hi"- hi: He has had that one down since February and loves to say hi every time I answer the phone and while I'm trying to continue to have a conversation on the phone. He'll even say hi to pictures/videos on the computer, but mostly because we use Skype to talk to my family so he often thinks there's people at the computer screen to say hi to. And he'll smile and say hi to strangers, especially other kids. Oh and my favorite is when I go to get him out of the car, the second I open his door he'll shout hi! Haha that one always makes me laugh.

"dada" or "dad" - Dada/Dad: Has said dada for a long time but a little before he turned one was when I knew he was talking about Dad and often tries calling "dada" on the phone throughout the day :)

"mmm"- milk/more/drink/food: Basically this is how Jacob lets me know that he's hungry! And I've realized that if I ask him, "Are you hungry?" or "Do you want more?" he'll understand because he'll respond with "mmm". So this one is a little more general but it's still a way that he communicates that to me in a way I understand.

"bye" or "bab"- bye-bye: He will wave when he says bye, other times he'll only wave- and usually it's a minute after the person has already left! He used to say "bye" in kind of a whisper and now it comes out more as "bab" as in "buh-bye" which is what I guess I usually say.

"a-ba" or "ba" - book: Loves when I read him books before nap/bedtime and will often say "ba!" as soon as we go to his room, meaning he wants me to read him a book! And he'll say it like a question sometimes too which is cute!

"bah" - ball: Sounds close to the way he says book but he says them differently and obviously in reference to a ball he's playing with. He usually gets excited when he says "ball" too and loves pushing his big bouncy ball around and laughs hysterically when he can keep it away from me or rolls it down the stairs.

"gog"- dog: He picked this up right after his birthday and this one was a little more surprising than the others because I never really taught it to him- and we don't even have dogs! But our neighbors do and he'd hear them barking a lot or see dogs when we go on walks and just starting saying "gog" when he'd hear a dog bark! And he does love to play with little dogs- very precious, but I hope he doesn't get his hopes up at a young age because we have no plans in getting a dog!

"kaka"- cracker: This one cracks me up! I was a little surprised when he started saying this one too and at first I thought maybe I was imagining it until my friends heard him say it when they offered him a cracker one time and they were pretty taken back since it sounds just like cracker! And even if he'll be crying, I can just hand him a graham cracker (his favorite lately) and he'll immediately stop crying and say "kaka!" all excited and happy! Crackers are the new pacifiers :)


"mama" or "mom"- Mama/Mom: Yes Jacob finally started calling me mama! Or he'll say "mom" very distinctly, which is what he said the first time when I knew he was talking to me-trying to get my attention while I was shopping! I feel like he knows that's my "name" but it seems like he refuses to say it! Even still it's rare, but he does say it more now!

"a-da"- all done: At first Jacob was just doing the motions for "all done"- which for me is putting both hands up when he's all done eating. I'd ask him if he was all done and then he'd put his hands up and smile, and so now sometimes he'll say "a-da" along with it.

"up"- up: He started saying "up" last week and did for several days in a row but haven't heard it as much recently. But he would shout "up" over and over to either get out of his seat at the table, or he would tug on my leg for me to pick him up!

Ok and the last one I think I might be imagining, but I swear sometimes he says Kara! He says it more like "kaya" and sometimes he'll look at me when he says it but other times he won't. So this one is still under investigation...

So besides all the new words, since he turned one he's also been doing a lot of practicing on his walking! I still can not say that he's completely walking yet- he still likes crawling more. But he has gotten better. Before our little trip he was doing well, was getting about 10-13 steps at a time, but then being in the car a lot, around a lot of new people, and being sick on our trip basically was enough to have him quit for a bit. But once we got back from our trip he saw all his friends had already mastered walking and so he started trying again and he's back to about what he was before we left. So he can walk across a room but he's just not very confident when he does, so he's still a little shaky and will give up and crawl.

And he seems to do a lot better when Luke is home because then he can walk between the two of us. Unfortunately though, this weekend we kept laughing when he'd fall, because it always seemed to be on the 3rd step, so then he started falling on purpose just to make us laugh! But he's getting there, I'm sure it will be in this month that he'll give up crawling for walking.

So maybe once Jacob does start walking he won't be so clingy to me! So many times in the little baby book have I written how he just wants me to hold him and I feel like he's still too much of a baby! I know everyone thinks that this should be a good thing and I should take advantage of him wanting me, and sometimes it is nice to cuddle with him but in public it's pretty annoying! Especially if I'm trying to get something done, or have him play with someone, or on the playgroud, or have someone else watch him, it's hard because he'll just fuss (and whine!) for me to hold him. And with Luke traveling so much lately (he's now on week 4 of being out of town) it's been hard to catch a break with Jacob needing so much attention.

Poor Jacob does miss his dad when he's gone though. Before when Luke would come home every night Jacob would just shout "dada" over and over and get so excited to see him! And now when he sees him on the weekends he clings to him and tries to spend as much time with his dad as he can, which is great. But now anytime that Luke has to leave (anywhere), Jacob kind of has a melt down- he's realized that any time Luke leaves, it's for a long time! At least after this week there's only 2 more weeks to go of him traveling for work!

So although Jacob can be tough at times, he's still such a sweetie, and he really has a sense of humor! One example is a few days ago I was sitting on the floor trying to get Jacob to walk to me. So he took one step towards me and then he smiled and quickly turned around and practically ran away from me! And he cracked himself up laughing- he seems to love to try and make me laugh too!
He is a lot of fun to play with and I love watching him play and interact with all his friends and other kids too!

And I love this smile that he's showing off here!

He's also been doing excellent at putting himself to sleep and going to bed (anywhere from 8-9:30, but usually 9), sleeping through the night, sleeping in (usually until 9ish!), and taking good naps (at noon for 2-3 hours) and has been leaning away from taking a 2nd nap lately.

And here's us together on Mother's Day last week. I couldn't ask for a better little boy!

"Spring Break"- Week One

To be honest, my life right now feels like a vacation every day. I feel very blessed to be able to be home every day and simply play with Jacob. But its even better when I get to go on a "real" vacation out of the house!

We were mainly headed out to Utah to attend Luke's sister's graduation at BYU and spend time with his family that weekend. So Luke and I took the 8-9 hour drive to Provo, Utah and I spent almost the whole drive trying to entertain Jacob, so I was just glad Luke was with me so he could drive the whole way! And we were lucky we made it in when we did because we woke up our first morning to snow on the ground and neither Luke or I packed any warm clothes! And it turned out the entire trip was cold, rainy weather!

But we enjoyed spending time with all Luke's family since we were all there together- both his sisters live out there, and Luke's parents also flew in for the graduation, and we were also able to visit with Luke's grandma and his uncle's family too. And we were excited for Jacob to see some of his cousins again. Unfortunately Jacob was sick that first weekend so he was not too happy and became very clingly with all the new people around. Thank goodness I have a friend that is a pediatric nurse and helped me finally figure out he had roseola. Poor baby had a fever for 2 days or so and then on the last day he got a rash, but then it was gone the next day and was finally feeling much better!

But we still managed to have a fun weekend just hanging out together, going out to eat(Utah has so many fun, unique places to eat!), and luckily Saturday was the one day it was sunny and warm so we were able to take an updated family picture and go on a little hike too.

Luke's parents with Jane at commencement

There were so many students graduating- it was packed!

updated family picture

Jacob with his cousins Christian, Andrew, and Owen-(Can you believe Jacob is 8 days older than Owen?! You would never be able to tell!)

on our little hike- Jacob still had a fever here but really enjoyed the fresh air and loved waving at our shadows :)

Christian and Andrew holding hands :)
Jacob was the only kid who wouldn't walk around! He was doing so good at walking at home before we left but he hardly took steps while we were on vacation!

Grandparents with their 4 grandsons, poor Jacob wanted nothing to do with it though :(

I also got to visit with my brother Daniel who was also at BYU just finishing his last semester before he leaves for a mission in June- he'll be going to Vegas, spanish speaking! So it was the last time I would see him before he leaves for 2 years so we hung out a little and Luke and I went out to dinner with him his last night. And I'm sad I forgot to take one last picture with him but here is his missionary picture.

So at the end of the weekend Luke actually flew out of SLC on Sunday for a business trip for the week. He'll actually be traveling every week for the next 6 weeks! He'll be able to come home every weekend but this is the most weeks he's ever had to travel in a row. But the first week wasn't so bad since I was already in Utah I was able to visit more family and friends between Utah and Idaho for the week until he flew back into SLC again by Friday.

So after Luke left I was able to visit two of my best friends from home, Morgan and Seth. I had a great time catching up with each of them! Then on Monday I headed to Logan, Utah to visit my grandparents who live out there. It was the first time my Grandma Susan met Jacob and so they had a good time seeing him and Jacob was just starting to finally feel better from being sick. And they had a little dog that Jacob loved playing with. He first started feeding the dog from the table and then he wanted to crawl around and play with the dog on the floor. Jacob even saw him drinking from his water bowl and put his face in the bowl to get a drink too! Haha he was great entertainment for the evening!
Jacob sharing his goldfish with the dog :)
Jacob testing out the dog's water- too bad I didn't catch a picture of him in action, haha!

So that's it for the first week. After I left Logan I headed to Idaho to visit my brother and my sister, but I will make a second post of the next week so that this doesn't become extremely long!

"Spring Break"- Week Two

So after being in Utah for a week I headed to Idaho- first to Rexburg to go visit my brother James who had just gotten up there a week before to start Spring semester. My sister Erika lives on the way in Pocatello but had finals so I had to stall another day until I could visit with her. Otherwise the 3 of us might have been able to hang out together, especially since Erika hasn't even seen James since he got home from his mission in January! But I was still happy to go visit with James on my own with Jacob and one of my old roommates was very gracious in letting me stay in her apartment and take her room!

So the weather in Rexburg was as bad as I left it in December of 07 when I graduated. It was cold and rainy but I wanted to check out the campus with James when I got there since they had done so much since I left! And if you've never seen BYU-I campus this might be a little boring- sorry :)

The first thing I noticed was this brand new conference center! It really is huge! They hadn't even started building it when I left but they say it will be ready this fall! And you can tell already that it looks really nice on the inside!

And here are the updates on the MC, here's the back view! They've made it much bigger, and all those huge windows are the huge new dining area and tons of seating!

And here's the front view of the MC, just slightly bigger in the front now.

Here is the new dining area- (The Crossroads, haha) and yea it's huge and completely different! It seems like most people I talked to miss the old buffet style dining though and I'm a little surprised they didn't keep that along with all the new restaurants they added. And ironically everyone says the food is too expensive and so a lot of people don't even go! Oh well, it still looks nice, but it reminds me a little too much of BYU! ;)

And the Rexburg temple is done! It actually looked like this when I left but it didn't open until a few weeks later. Someday I'll have to come back with Luke though and go in :)

So yea, those are the main updates. I took a ton more pictures of the campus for Luke to see. It was kind of sad driving back to Rexburg and being there without him! We spent almost our whole college experience together and so it was kind of funny being there without him and I know how much he was looking forward to seeing the campus- and his old boss. Luke made me promise to go see "Bossman" so after our little tour I stopped in to say hi to his old work buddies at Stores and Receiving. And James wanted me to introduce him to Bossman in case he ever needed to hire an extra guy, James wants to carry on Luke's legacy there, haha.

Later on James and I went out to eat at the newer Craigo's restaurant for their all-you-can-eat pizza buffet. There were some people a couple booths away from us playing chess, so it was kind of funny every time James got up to get more food he would walk real slowly pass them to check out their game, he's obsessed haha. And we had a good time but since Jacob never really napped he was kind of a pain. I was a little embarrassed when the waiter's kept checking on us and Jacob was sitting there on the top of the table with the salt and pepper in his hands dumping it everywhere...!
And it's also weird when I go out to eat with Jacob and another guy, such as my brother or a guy friend (which happened a lot in these 2 weeks!), and I know people assume we're married, haha.

the only picture I snapped of James before I dropped him off!

So after dinner James and I visited a girl we know from home in our old ward and that was fun, especially since James is really good friends with her older brother. And the next day I went out to lunch with another old friend from home, Eric. I really was so glad I had so much time to catch up with old friends!

Here's Jacob being so cute brushing his teeth! It was so nice to still have a friend to stay with in Rexburg because Jacob just wanted to hang out at her apartment all the next morning. Which was fine with me since it was extremely windy and hailing! Sheeesh, summer was usually a really nice semester because of the weather but it was not winning me over this trip, I was so tired of the cold bizarre weather!

So from there I headed to Pocatello to see Erika for a few days and meet her new fiancee! Her and Tyler will be getting married August 7 at the Twin Falls Temple and so I was excited to finally meet him! Erika and Tyler met at ISU last fall and she brought him home to meet the family over Christmas but me and my brothers were the only ones that hadn't met him yet.

So we had a fun time hanging out together at Erika's apartment, going out to eat together, shopping, and checking out the ISU campus.

Tyler and Erika

me and Erika, we were twins haha

Erika loves her little nephew so much and Jacob actually really liked Erika and Tyler too! They're the only 2 people on the trip that Jacob actually reached for and he had a lot of fun hanging out with them!

the 4 of us, haha

Erika and I went to the mall and I found Jacob this little suit for the wedding! Her color is teal and so this shirt is just a little bluer but we figured it was close enough and was too cute to pass up!

Erika and Tyler at the pillars on "I" mountain- this is actually where they first hung out and where Tyler proposed to Erika :)

me and Jacob at the pillars with more crazy wind and cold weather! Good view of the campus though!

And here's another view of the campus on our walk down from the hill.

I had so much fun hanging out with them and wished I could have visited with them longer! But by Friday afternoon I needed to head back to SLC to pick up Luke from the airport. At least I will see all my family again in August!

So after I picked up Luke we went out to dinner with Luke's best friend from college, Dan. He was Luke's best man at our wedding and we hadn't seen him since we had all graduated, so it was good to catch up with him.

Then we stayed the weekend with Luke's sister Kate and their 3 little boys. I was just glad that Jacob was finally feeling better from the week before and all the boys seemed to have a lot of fun playing together, and with their Uncle Luke!

Luke and I also had some time on Saturday to go visit a new temple. We both would have really liked to go to the Salt Lake Temple since neither of us had ever been and it seems just so big and amazing and has a lot of great history. But it was a little too far and would've been a little too long to leave Jacob, so we went to the South Jordan Temple instead. So that was still neat to go somewhere new, and Luke promised me he'd take me to the Salt Lake Temple at least before we die. :)

I have to admit these mountains can be beautiful, especially at sunset!

Then Luke left again on Sunday to head to Phoenix for the week. So Monday morning I took off for the long drive back to Denver. I was really dreading making the drive on my own with Jacob but somehow he slept almost the entire drive! He woke up just as I stopped for lunch in Rawlins, Wyoming and we took an hour and a half break there so by the time we got back on the road he fell asleep again and was awake for only the last hour but was an angel! I was so proud of him and happy, especially since there were crazy winds through Wyoming so if he had been up and fussy it would have been a nightmare! Either way, it's good to finally be back home and sleeping in my own bed and having Jacob back in his normal routine. But I had a blast visiting all my family and friends and can't wait for the next vacation!