 |
| "Do NOT mess with me." |
Getting to know our second born little man this year has been a lot of fun. The first six months were not the easiest because he had a sensitive stomach and cried a lot, but sometime after the six month mark he opened up and exploded with personality. He is so unique.
First of all, he already has a temper. I say he got it from Scott's side of the family, and Scott says he got it from my side of the family. It's hard to tell. We both come from a long line of hot heads. The good news is that for right now, his tantrums are cute. He yalps, sticks out his lip, and flops on the floor. Sometimes there is some rolling after the flop too. Sometimes when he flops he plays dead, which always makes me laugh. He will also shake his finger at you and yell, "NO NO NO!!!" when you do something that particularly annoys him.
This week, a few days after his first birthday, he finally took some of his first steps without help. Scott and I have been practicing with him every night, when the other two minions are in bed, and the one on one time with him is finally paying off. He's still not very confident about walking, and he still prefers to crawl, but I'm pretty sure that by the end of the month I am going to chasing him all over the house even more than I already am.
Something unique about Jake is that he absolutely loves bears. This started when we visited a sporting goods store up north from where we live. There were a lot of taxidermy animals, including bears. He was extremely fascinated with the bears and still is. He even says the word "Bear," which sounds a lot more like, "Buur." He crawls into my lap when I'm on the computer and asks to look at pictures of bears all the time. His dad has an app on his ipad that shows pictures of animals and the sounds they make, and every time he pulls out the ipad Jake crawls over as fast as he can yelling "Buuur!" because he wants Scott to show him the bear on his ipad. He loves all animals, but especially bears.
Something else is that he is extremely competitive, especially with Seth. Whenever he see's Seth with any toy or any food item, or any object whatsoever he either has to have it, or at least won't be satisfied until he gets one of his own. He can't stand it when Seth is on my lap. He will crawl over and start hitting Seth and yelling "No No No!" and tries to pull him off me. When he's on my lap first and Seth comes in for a hug, he pushes Seth away and bellows at him. Don't get me wrong, he adores Seth, he follows him everywhere, he tries to wrestle with him, and he laughs at the things Seth does to entertain him. He just can't stop competing with him either. Luckily Seth is an extremely patient and loving older brother. When Jake gets aggressive with him he just laughs at him for "being crazy" and still goes out of his way to be kind to him.
 |
| When they're friends |
 |
| When he gets an aggressive streak and decides to pull his big brothers hair, which is more often than you think. |
Jake is also a snuggler. Every morning he wakes up around 8am and I wrap him in a blanket and give him a bottle and hold him while I lay (sleep) in bed until he's finished and ready to get up. Sometimes he falls back asleep and then we sleep in for another hour, which is the best. The sound of his breathing actually really relaxes me, and napping with him in my arms is one of my favorite things ever.
He has also become very social. He is the baby that is always flirting with some stranger he see's in the bench behind us at church, or basically anywhere we go. He also loves other babies. Just the other day at a restaurant we were at, Jake was signaling a little baby girl about the same age sitting at a table across the way. The two of them kept waving and giggling and making noises and yelling baby talk at each other, it was hilarious.
He loves taking baths. The fastest way to make him the most hyper is to put him in a bathtub full of water. He not only loves to splash, he does twirls and belly flops and sticks his face in the water all by himself. He will let out huge screams of joy every single time he's in there and when he gets a good splash he laughs really hard.
He likes to play rough. Whenever he sees his siblings wrestling on the ground he wants a piece of the action. He will crawl over and dog pile on top of them every time, it's hilarious. He loves to wrestle with Scott. They start off with a face off on the ground on all fours and then they crawl across the floor and meet halfway and start wrestling. It's Jake's favorite thing in the world, and he makes Scott wrestle with him every day when he's home from work.
He likes Elmo and Barney. Though he doesn't watch much TV being a busy one year old and all, when he does, it's always Elmo or Barney. Both make him giggle and dance. YES he dances, and he has good rhythm too.
When I took him to his one year appointment the doctor said that like my older two kids, he's skinny for a kid his age. The good news is that according to his pediatrician he's developmentally ahead with the way he interacts, plays, and communicates. People don't believe me, but since day one when he was a teeny tiny newborn, he looked me straight in the eye and made perfect eye contact, which they say newborns don't do, but my Jakey did, I don't care if you believe me or not. He's always been extremely alert to his surroundings.
He is a ninja baby. When I look away, within seconds he has destroyed something in my house. I don't even want to talk about Christmas tree ornaments right now except to tell that having a perfect looking Christmas tree at this time is absolutely pointless. Whether it's pulling off tablecloths and spilling food everywhere, or pulling out the HDMI cord to the T.V. and breaking the connector, dumping out all the baby powder, ripping apart his siblings storybooks, trying to eat things he finds in the couch cushions, you name it. He figures out a way to destroy everything or put himself in danger every chance he gets, and he's fast. I'm actually really glad he's not walking quite yet for this reason. He's a ninja of mischief and has so far defied all odds of supervision.
The truth is though, I love the craziness. I love the fact that he makes my life exciting because he is always finding a new way to break past the barriers of chairs and furniture I put up so he can sneak up the stairs. I love that is so great at telling me what he wants even though he can't speak. I love that he loves to tease and be teased by his siblings and parents, and I love that he has such a strong personality.
We were going to go out for his birthday, but Seth had a fever and was coughing so we stayed inside and had a private celebration at home. My parents still stopped by and at least gave him some gifts, and Jake was the happiest kid alive with a day of new toys, chocolate cake, and bath time. He loved his birthday even though it was low key.
 |
| Cake |
 |
| Singing 'Happy Birthday.' |
 |
| New toys! |
 |
| Eating cake |
 |
| Savoring the deliciousness. |
 |
| Best day ever. |
 |
| Really. Best day ever. |
 |
| Not even sure how I was going to pick him up and get him out of there. |
 |
| The only thing he likes more than cake is bath time |
