Aaarrgggg he's driving me crazy!

Jacob is testing me all of the time. He yells, whines, and hits. I don't know what to do. I have been there for him from day one and he has no reason to take his frustration out on me. I know he has no way to vent his anger other than the above stated ways but I wish he was just a little nicer to me. If he hits my hand I don't want to hit his hand back to show him that it hurts because that's showing him that hitting is ok. How do I vocalize to him that it's not ok to hit Mommy? I hope I am not losing control of my son at 15 months and I hope that this isn't a peek in to the future. I have never written a blog other than happy experiences but I am hoping someone will read this and give me some input.

And the climbing and naughtiness continues......

Jacob is scaring me to death lately. He is climbing on EVERYTHING! He climbs on the ottoman to get on the chair, he climbs on his garage to get the pictures off of the cd cabinet, he climbs on the wipe box to get to anything. I feel like I am going to have a full head of grey hair before I'm 30. It doesn't matter if I am standing right next to him he will climb on to things and fall and I feel like I am watching him fall in slow motion and my hands are glued to my side. There are tears, laughs, boo boo's and scares but I love watching him when he gets in to his curious mode. You can see it in his face that he is trying to figure out what to climb on to get to what he wants.

Also, he is just getting to be so naughty. I feel like I am in the midst of the terrible 2's early. He tests me and stomps his feet on the utter of the "NO" word, he whines when he wants something, and will do what you just asked him not to do. I know he's still a baby and I know he doesn't know better but goodness he pushes my buttons sometimes. I am hearing "boys will be boys" a lot. Whew I am tired from keeping up with the naughty climber.

Oh the dare devil he is!

Today I was in the kitchen doing some dishes and I noticed that it was very very quiet in the living room where Jacob was. Well as any parent knows, quietness is not a good thing. It either means sleep which is unlikely or trouble. Well in today's case it was trouble. I go in to the living room to see what was going on with Jacob and I see him on top of his toy chest looking out the shutter of the sliding glass door. I didn't want to startle him in fear that he would fall so what does a Mommy do????? Grab the camera! Here is the picture and video I was able to take. Boy o' boy I see grey hair in my near future.

Teefies and sickness, oh my!

Well Jacob already has his two bottom teeth that managed to poke through at 11 months and 24 days; just in time for his 1st Birthday. Well today Jacob and I were rolling around on the floor and Mommy was blowing bubbles on his tummy and he was cracking up. I looked up at his little angel face and see some white poking through the top of his gums. The left tooth looks like it is coming through before the right. So poor bug on top of being sick he's also teething.
Oh yeah about the sickness. I took Jacob to Gymboree play gym last Friday and again for his make up class on the following Sunday. Sunday night Jacob had his first fever. It ranged from 99.3 to 101.1. I was a little nervous because we haven't had a fever scare yet. I gave him Tylenol every 4 hours and put him in warm baths throughout the day. Poor baby he was sooo irritable and not hungry except for Mommas milk. The fever lasted 3 days. On the third day I called Kaiser's Nurse Advice line and they stated not to bring him in unless his symptoms changed or worsened or fever reached 104! 104! yeah 104 (crazy)....Well as I said the fever finally broke but was IMMEDIATELY followed by a rash that covered his trunk area. I googled his symptoms and followed up with Kaiser's Nurse Advice line and it turns out he has/had Roseola. It's nicknamed "baby measles". The rash is not itchy but baby is irritable. Since he got it now, he won't likely get it late. His appetite is improving but he still has the rash and diarrhea. I called Gymboree and asked to speak to someone in Corporate. When children are enrolled in Gymboree the parents are given documents about Health Standards and they are NOT to bring their children in sick. Well Jacob could have only caught this at Gymboree because that's the only place he went and only caught it if the child was contagious with a fever or the rash. So poor baby has not left the house in a week, and neither has poor Mommy. He is super clingy and just wants to be held. Can you blame him? Mommy gave him sugar free popsicles to make him feel better.

It's been over a month

Well it's been about a month since my last post. Partially because I had no Internet access for about two weeks. Jacob is getting to be more mischievous, more adventurous, and more defiant daily. He knows he's not supposed to get in to the dishwasher as I am unloading it and will look at me and smile as he climbs in. He knows he's not supposed to climb the book shelf and will look my way as he puts his foot on the first bank of steps. It drives me crazy that he does this but I wouldn't change a thing about him. I love that he is so adventurous and that he challenges me. I just need to make sure that I am stern and repetitive with him so he knows that those things are a no-no. Jacob has also stopped napping frequently and for longer durations. He used to nap 2-3 times a day for at least an hour and a half each. Now there are 2 naps that run about and hour each. That means my cleaning, laundry, eating, and showering time has been cut but it's been a smooth transition because that means I get to spend more time with him. I have had to baby proof the house in every way imaginable. His wife Leyla and sister-in-law Evelyn came over while my parents were gone and Jacob watched Leyla open doors by the handle. Well as soon as she left, he began opening doors by the handle. Leyla also taught Jacob how to climb on to the coffee table. It scares me to death that he is learning these things but I stop and look at his face while he's doing it and see the wheels turning in his head and it's amazing to watch him. I love watching my child grow, not only physically but emotionally as well. He is getting taller and is in the 75th percentile for height and 50th for weight. I love that he is so independent but there are the moments when he comes running to Mommy to give her a big hug and kiss. He's a great baby- I mean big boy.

I have started a scrapbook for his first year. I intend on doing one for every year. It's great to stroll down memory lane and remember how teenie tiny he was. Well I hope to keep up with my blogs, after all this is an Internet scrapbook for Jacob to look at.

Jacob's swim class

Since I am a stay at home Mommy, I want Jacob to have the ability to socialize with other children. He is already enrolled in Gymboree and is flourishing! It has given him self confidence in his climbing, walking, running, and interaction with other children his age and older. This being a really hot month and Jacob loving the pool, I thought it would be a great idea to enroll him in swim lessons. RCC offers a summer course for Child and Parent and other age groups as well. It was a two week course, four days a week for twenty five minutes per day. Ms. Camille was the swim instructor and Jacob quickly made eyes with Megan, an 11 month old girl in his class. Two classes in they were high-fiving each other. Ms. Camille taught them to kick on their back, kick on the tummy, float on their back, and float on their tummy, go under water, and jump off of the edge of the pool to their Mommy/Daddy. Jacob was a little apprehensive about floating or kicking on his back because he DOES NOT like the sun in his face and it being 11:00am the sun was bright and right upon us. He quickly warmed up to the floating and kicking on his tummy. Mommy made it like she was a tug boat and blew bubbles at him and pulled him along while he was kicking away. Jacob's favorite part of the class was the jumping off of the wall. I think if it were up to him, the entire class would have been built around jumping in to the pool. The part of the class I was unsure of was dunking him in the water. I was afraid he would choke. Surprisingly enough he was ok with it. The trick was to blow in his face before he gets dunked. He really was a champ and Mommy couldn't be more proud. I am going to Rancho Physical Therapy because they offer year round swim lessons and it's indoors so Jacob won't have the sun in his face. We will for sure be returning next year to the RCC swim class. It was a great experience for Jacob and I.

Jacob's 1st Birthday

It's hard to believe that mama's little baby buggy is 1 but he is. I cried the entire week prior whenever he gave me a snuggly hug, or cuddled me, or just let me hold him. Those occurrences are so rare now a days that when they happened, I just wanted to cherish them. I did all of the grocery shopping a few days prior and the cart as loaded down. I'm sure I over shopped but our families eat big and takes left overs. I was up early Saturday morning to make cakes. I wanted to make Jacob a cake with the monkey from his invitation on it. That cake turned out super cute! I also bought a Wilton's monkey cake pan and that cake turned out cute but I was soo tired by the time it came to icing it, the whole monkey got brown fur with no distinction where the hands and feet were. I made two other cakes as well. So between making the cakes, making the butter cream icing, and dying all of the icing to color coordinate to the party, Mama was tired. Sunday came and I couldn't wait for Jacob to wake up so I could wish him a Happy Birthday. His wife and mistress came over early to help set up and he was in heaven. He chased them all around! More friends and family came; it was everything I wanted for his 1st birthday.

When it was present time, Kila decided to lay on one of the presents and refused to get off. Jacob helped in peeling some of the paper off but he really needed some Mommy assistance. Let's just say Jacob received some really cool presents. This boy got hooked up in the present department. He couldn't wait to ride his quad. He's already trying to do some tricks on it. After presents came the cake. I was fully expecting him to dive in to his cake and ravage through it, but nooooo not my child. He wanted to poke at it and did no ravaging of any sorts. I tried to stick his hand in the cake to get him started but all he did was freak out because his hands were dirty. We gave up on the cake ordeal and Daddy gave him a bath and the party started to wind down.

I really couldn't have asked for a better birthday for Jacob. He had all of his friends and family around to share his big day with him. Happy Birthday Doodle!