RAIN!

We woke up Saturday morning to a beautiful sight, rain! And cooler temps. We haven't been playing outside much, other than going to the pool, since it has been so hot and Jake asks multiple times a day to go play outside. So we went out and played in the rain! He loved it and cried when it was time to go in (he was getting cold).

Josh started back to work this week. It is weird to be back to a "normal" schedule around here though. It has been almost 9 months since we have had this schedule so it is more adjusting again and now finding more activities for Jake during the day. Hopefully as the school year gets started we get back into a good routine!

18 Month Check up

Jake had his 18 month appointment last Wednesday. I can't believe he is a year and a half old already. He is all over the place and the doctor says he is doing great and talking at a 2 year old level. YIKES! What are we going to get whe he is actually 2?!

18 month stats:
Height: 32.5 inches     56th percentile
Weight: 25.8 lbs         44th percentile

And new things he is doing

• He has 50-60 words and is adding more every day
• Climbing
• Dragging us to whatever it is he wants
• Running
• Attempting to jump
• His memory for things we have done in the past is amazing
• Knows his animal noises
• Helping pick up his toys (with a lot of proding)
• Following commands more regularly

Destroying the couch fort

Brown Bear, Brown Bear

One of the current favorite books in our house is Brown Bear, Brown Bear. From reading this book so much, Jake has developed a fun new skill, animal noises! He suprisingly picked up all the animals in the book very quickly!

What we've been up to

I have officially been back to my part time schedule at work for almost a month now. Somehow I thought that would mean we would have more down time during the week. Apparently not. We have been able to spend a lot of family time together and do lots of running together. We have been trying to get to the pool at least once a day so Jake can practice swimming, although it doesn't always happen. Last week we took Jake to storytime at the library, although he was more interested in exploring the room and running around than sitting and listening to stories! Josh took him again today and apparently he was a little more willing to sit. Unfortunately today was the last day of storytime for a few weeks. I am hoping to go every week in the fall.

This weekend Josh and I had two date nights. We headed to one of Josh's co-workers wedding Friday night and to the rugby banquet on Saturday night. We had a blast both nights but were SO exhausted on Sunday and we all took naps.

Other than that, we have just been enjoying spending time with Jake and watching him learn so much so quickly! He is saying a ton of words, climbing on everything, and seeming so much more like a toddler every day.

Riding daddy horse

Mmm...cupcake

He-man!

Definitely doesn't get his balance from momma

We have a beautiful boy

Apparently the blocks are more comfortable than the floor or a chair

First Trip to the Cardiologist

We had Jake's first appointment with a cardiologist on Tuesday. It was an appoint to check a couple of things. First, because of family history he has to be watched and checked every 5 years. Second, at his last pedi appt the doctor heard a heart murmur. Jake's heart checked out just great. No signs of any heart disease and the murmur is innocent, just a random noise from the bloodflow but nothing to be worried about. He did great, but wasn't a fan of having to be held on his back for the EKG or echo.

Happy 2nd, 3rd, and 4th of July!

Whew. We celebrated our country's indpendence all weekend this year! Saturday started with our community celebration. They have a parade around the neighborhood then a cookout at the pool. This was the first year we participated in the parade. We decorated Jake's wagon and Josh pulled him. After the parade we hung out at the pool for a while (2 hours!) and ate some lunch down by the pool.

So Sunday we headed over the Grammy's house then the Morrow's for some more swimming, dinner, and fireworks. I am so proud of how well Jake is swimming! He really loves it and most of the time it is hard to hold onto him in the pool because he just thinks he can swim everywhere. We headed out to watch fireworks about 8:30, already way past Jake's bedtime. The fireworks didn't start until 9:30 though so poor Jake had a rough time staying awake and still. We were in a parking lot and unfortunately behind a little building so we didn't have the best seats. Once we got in the car to come home he was out though. And fortunately for us, slept until 7am Sunday! I couldn't even begin to guess when the last time was he slept in that late!

Sunday we just hung out in the morning and Jake took a 3 hour long nap. Grammy came to hang out at the pool. We tried putting some goggles on Jake so he could see when he was swimming without the chlorine burning his eyes. He wasn't a huge fan of that but tolerated it for a while. We weren't at the pool very long Sunday, Jake was worn out. After dinner Josh, Jake and I headed to Mckinney's 4th of July Festival. We hadn't been there before so we didn't quite know what to expect as far as traffic, parking, activities. When we got there we were pleasantly surprised that our parking spot was right by where the fireworks were going to be shot off. We were literally about 150 yards from them. We walked around for a while and Jake got to play in a bounce house. He LOVED that. Josh had to go in to get him because he didn't want to come out of there. We saw some mounted police and Jake got to pet the horses and we listened to some music before going back to our prime firework watching spot to get set up.

While we waited Jake ran around and played and did much better staying up later not having to be held the whole time. We could see a couple of other firework shows from where we were so we watched some of those. Once ours started Jake was fascinated. We were worried that the loud noise would scare Jake, but he absolutely loved it. When there was a brief pause in the fireworks he would look at us and ask please more. He laid down for a while and said ohhh or wow after each one. He did start to get antsy toward the end but he really did well.

It did take us about 20 minutes to get out of the parking lot when it was time to leave and Jake wouldn't dream of going to sleep while we were just sitting waiting to move. So he was awake until at least 10:30. Two late nights in a row, but he did so well. I think the rest of this week he will be catching up on sleep though!

Waiting for the parade to start

Eating some yummy watermelon on a swimming break

Swimming baby!

Aww...sleepy boy.

Goggles!

Loving the bounce house

Hi horsey

Waiting for fireworks in Mckinney

Look Who's...

Swimming!