Last week we had Jacob’s 15 month check up.  His pediatrician moved into a brand new office and as we were walking through the lobby I felt as if we were in a really nice hotel instead of a medical facility. Instead of checking in with the receptionist there was a kiosk where we checked in electronically and sat down in the kids play area to wait for the nurse to call us back.  It was a short visit.  His doctor weighed him, measured him, checked his eyes, ears, mouth and everything looks great.  Jacob got his shots and we made an appointment to go back for a follow up in August.  Here are his latest numbers:

• Jacob weighs 21.6 pounds
• Jacob is 31 inches long
• The circumference of his head is 18 5/8 inches

A few fun things I want to remember about Jacob over these past few months:

When I stopped breastfeeding at 12 months old, Jacob was still taking his milk in a bottle.  At 13 months we made the transition from a bottle to a cup, it didn’t really go as easy as everyone made it seem.  He would drink water out of a cup with no problem since he had been doing so for several months, but when I put milk in it, he would look at the cup and see that it was not water and throw it on the ground without even one sip.  I had to laugh because I remember a time when I was desperate for him to take a bottle and now here I was trying to get him off the bottle!  After consulting with his pediatrician, he told me to stop the bottle cold turkey and keep trying to give him milk in a cup, and feed him lots of cheese, cereal with milk and yogurt to ensure he is getting the calcium and other nutrients he needs.  After almost a month of doing that, he finally realized that he was not getting his bottle back and resigned to drinking his milk out of a cup.

We’ve been signing to Jacob pretty much since he was born.  I know he understands what we are signing to him and he has been doing some signs on his own for a while, but recently he has really stepped up and is signing a lot of things.  It is so cute to watch him figure out how to communicate what he wants to say.  I really try to sign mostly everything, especially when I am reading or singing songs to him, but the main ones we do on a daily basis are: diaper, milk, water, eat, more, please, all done, bath, socks, shoes, dog, daddy, mommy, and poop…yes he does it when he is pooping and I have Justin to thank for teaching him that one 🙂

Jacob has been known for his charming smile and friendly waves to every soul that passes by for quite some time.  Now he is getting even more playful (and smarter!)  He puts his cheek to his shoulder and gives a sideways glance when he is being shy.  He starts to give you something then right when you go to take it from him he moves his hand back and giggles to play keep away.  When drinking his milk, if he notices we are drinking a beverage as well, he will hold up his cup to do “cheers” each time he takes a sip.  He loves to give kisses and blow kisses.  Anytime I try to pick him up to change his diaper or clothes he thinks we are playing a game of chase and takes off away from me.  He loves being naked and again when I try to get him dressed he desperately tries to wiggle out of my grasp.  He will point to his head, ears and toes on command, but if you ask him where his nose or bellybutton is he will only show you where your nose or bellybutton are.  He loves to lay on his tummy and roll back and forth, kind of reminds me of when he was a newborn and we spent so much time doing tummy time.  While he is usually his charming self, he has his moments too.  When he is tired or doesn’t get what he wants, he will throw full on temper tantrums, yelling, stamping his feet and throwing himself on the ground.  When he wants to be in the center of attention and Justin gives me a kiss or a hug Jacob will yell and try to push him away from me.  He is very vocal these days and has been making all kinds of noises testing to see what sounds he makes that we will respond to, this is where the sign language has come in handy. Thankfully those moments are fewer than the playful ones, but of course, they always seem to arise when we have company or when we are in public.  Go figure!

We still read to Jacob before every nap, bedtime and randomly throughout the day.  He has his favorite books and will let you know if you are not reading the one he wants to read.  Once we determine the correct reading material for the moment he settles in to enjoy the story.  I love that he knows what is coming and will say things or sign something at the appropriate time in the book.  In Snuggle Puppy whenever we say the word kiss, he will blow a kiss.  In We’re Going on a Bear Hunt he picks out the doggie on every page and every time we say “Oh No!” he puts his hand up to his head.   In The Very Hungry Caterpillar when we get to the part when the caterpillar is full and fat, he will flip back to the beginning of the book and compare the hungry (skinny) vs the not hungry (fat) caterpillar.  In Goodnight Moon he always points out the red balloon, and when we come across the kittens he always says “doggie” (close enough!) In Where’s Spot? he sometimes waves to the animals behind the door/stairs/piano, etc… when he lifts the flap and after he finds Spot in the basket he gets a big smile of accomplishment on his face.   In Guess How Much I Love You he will reach his arms out to show how much he loves us. In any book where there is a dog (or any furry animal on 4 legs) Jacob will exclaim “doggie!”  When done with the book he closes it and signs all done.  It just blows my mind sometimes how much he really understands and comprehends…it is amazing!

Jacob is not quite walking yet.  For months he has been pushing around a walker toy and cruising around on furniture. For a while he would climb to a standing position behind my legs and push me forward so he could walk behind me.  Then he moved onto holding onto my finger while he walks around, which is what he wants to do all.the.time.  This week he has been standing on his own and experimenting with taking a few solo steps here and there.  He is very capable of walking on his own, he just doesn’t want to.  He keeps reaching for my finger and every time I wriggle my finger out of his grasp he takes a step and realizes that he doesn’t have any support and sits down.  I know there will come a day when I will be begging him to hold my hand and right now I keep trying to wriggle my hand out of his grasp…kind of like the bottle thing.  So the walking on his own is the next big milestone he is working towards at the moment.  Justin and I have a bet, when he turned 15 months old I said it would be at least another 3-4 weeks before he started walking on his own, Justin thinks it will be earlier.  So stay tuned…

There is so, so much more and no way I can document everything.  All in all, Jacob has been so much fun!  We truly are enjoying this little man who has taken over our lives and we are so blessed to be his parents!

Here is our little monkey taking his phone calls in the laundry basket.

What little child doesn’t enjoy time spent at a playground!  We are lucky to have a few of them within walking distance.  If we don’t have some kind of big outing planned or errands to run then we always go to the playground, it is part of our typical day.

The first thing we do when we arrive is hit the swings.

This usually doesn’t last too long, he gets ansty to cover the playground territory and climb all over everything.  But he does enjoy it for a little while.

Actually now, his favorite way to “swing” is to stand up holding onto the seat of an adult swing and move back and forth and side to side with it.  I call it dancing with the swing.

This particular day was a Saturday morning, there is no way I could take pictures and chase Jacob around the park by myself, so we had daddy with us.  Jacob was delighted to have his daddy on the playground!

We spend a little time playing in the sand

Of course, Jacob thinks that the other kids toys are way cooler than his…

When he is ready for some real exercise Jacob heads for the big play structure and starts the climb

He likes to spin the rocket ship through the solar system.

Then he heads over to the top of the slide

and either sits in my lap while we go down or he lays down on his belly and slides down backwards by himself.

At the bottom of the slide, he immediately scoots himself off and starts the climb back to the top again.  We do this over, and over, and over again!  It’s good exercise chasing him around!

The tricky thing about the playground now is when we are on a walk with the dog, I have to remember to go a different route that does not pass by the playground, because if we don’t stop to play when we pass by, Jacob gets a little upset!

On a typical morning, I will unload the dishwasher after we have breakfast.  And when Jacob hears the click of me opening the dishwasher, he drops what he is doing and makes a beeline for it.

He loves to help me unload and takes his job very seriously.

I quickly put away the wine glasses and other more fragile, breakable items before he can get to them.

So far nothing has been broken

And he is so happy to help me out around the house these days, can’t wait until he learns how to take out the trash or mop the floors!

Ugh mom…if only I could reach those knives for you all the way in the back

Moving on to the top rack

Another activity that Jacob likes to do everyday (sometimes multiple times a day) is rearrange the pantry.

He empties boxes of crackers and puts other items back inside the empty box.  Things on the bottom shelf end up on the middle shelf or the other way around.  It makes it interesting when I go to look for something in the pantry that is not in its usual spot.  But hey, who knew shaking containers of rice or even driving a can of diced tomatoes across the floor like a car could be so much fun!

There is a reason I included this on the dishwasher post.  On this particular day while rearranging the pantry, Jacob thought that the soup cans would be better off in the dishwasher.

He spent quite some time arranging them so they fit just right

And he is pretty proud of his hard work

And letting him play in the pantry sometimes ends up like this…

Guess we are having pasta for dinner!

When Jacob was 4 months old, I did a post about some things we would do throughout the day (by the way, I looked back on this post and omigosh (!) I had forgotten what a little chunky monkey he was!!)  Almost a year later at almost 15 months old, those activities have obviously changed dramatically.  His toys only keep him busy for a short time and when we are not headed out the door somewhere, I find myself having to get creative to keep Jacob entertained when at home. He has really started taking an interest in what I am doing, so household chores have become his favorite thing to “help” me with.

For example, doing laundry…When I run the washing machine and sort the laundry, he likes to “help” me put clothes in different piles, and he will also sort his own balls, pieces of his train tracks, and other various toys into the laundry basket, so I have to be careful that I don’t toss a toy in with a load!  When the clothes are clean and ready to go in the dryer, Jacob likes to help me load them in.

After I check to make sure he didn’t toss a toy in when I wasn’t looking, I tell him it is time to close the door and he makes a beeline for the back of the door.

And with one strong push, he swings the door.

Sometimes he needs a second push to ensure it is really closed.

And after he gives himself a round of applause for a job well done, I push the start button and he puts his hand on the dryer to feel the vibration.

Once the load is dry, he likes to help me hang the clothes up.  We have a basket that we keep our unused hangers in (because I really don’t like unused hangers taking up space in my closet).  So he sits on the bed and takes all the hangers out of the basket

Then he hands them to me

And if I don’t take it from him right away and tell him thank you, he gets mad

After he has given me all the hangers, he likes to put them all back into the basket.

He loves the basket of hangers and it is one of his favorite things to play with whether or not we are doing laundry.

When Jacob does actually play with his toys, his favorite ones are the ones that make music so he can boogie along to the tune and anything that he can stack up, knock down and put things inside of and take things out.  So we have a lot of nesting toys, balls, shape sorters and toys that play music.  He is so proud of himself when he fits something through the shape sorters or he delights in piling everything into a bucket and then dumping it out or finding a ball that will fit into a cup just right.  It is pretty cool to watch him figure these things out.  I have a bag of balls that we used at his birthday party and one day I got a bunch of them out and gave them to Jacob with a muffin pan.

He was delighted that he found something new that the balls fit perfectly into.  And he would fill up the muffin pan with balls and then look at me with a big grin and clap his hands.

Now the novelty of it has worn off, but Justin showed him the art of throwing the balls in hopes that it lands in one of the muffin pan holes.  I guess it would be the baby version of beer pong! So now we have these balls all over our floor from Jacob throwing them across the room.

The one thing that has not changed from the daily activities we do are our walks.

All 3 of us enjoy getting out of the house, getting some fresh air, enjoying the beautiful weather San Diego has to offer and the exercise (at least for Apollo and I)

Jacob likes to kick back, relax and eat his snacks…Apollo has gotten pretty good at catching whatever Jacob throws out of the stroller.

Aside from playing with toys, walks and household chores, we have been keeping ourselves busy with getting together with other moms & kids, storytime at the library, running errands, daily walks to the park and we’ve been meeting with some MOM’s groups to get to know some new people and find new activities to do. Every day is a little different and we are keeping ourselves busy!

Stay tuned for more about Jacob’s favorite things to do…I’ve been taking the pictures, now I just need to get them on here!