Our Little Scientist

Eric has loved been obsessed with animals pretty much his whole life. It's like he just cannot absorb enough information about them, or look at enough pictures of them. He knows the names of far more dinosaurs, sea creatures and wild animals than I did even as an adult (before becoming this guy's mom, that is). Lately he's been getting really interested in where the animals come from, like Australia and Africa and "this tiny island where Mommy used to live".

He has such a driven and passionate personality, and we are really loving watching him grow and develop. So curious to see what he does with this mind of his! :)

* He has a few dino apps on the iPad and he will pour over them forever! The one in the photo above doesn't even make noise, its just about 200 different species of dinosaurs and their pictures. He wants me to sit with him and tell him all their names over and over.

* Today we went to Crown Books and got him a bunch of cheap animal books. I think the ones in this picture are field guides or something from the 80's. We looked at them for about an hour this afternoon.

* He loves to categorize his animals by size, type (cats, sea animals, farm animals, etc), and other criteria. Recently he noticed that some of his animals have "C E" on the bottom, so he's been going through all his toys looking for that marking.

Jake 15 Month Check-Up

Yesterday I took Jake to his 15 month check-up, so I figured this was a good time to post his stats and milestones. I didn't have total confidence in the nurse who did his measurements, but this is what they gave me.

• He weighs 26.5 lbs (73%)


• He is 2' 8" tall (68%)


• He is currently cutting 4 teeth, so that combined with the 4 shots he got at the dr's and cold we've all had means he's a bit of a grouch today.


• Jake has started talking a lot lately. His vocab includes "muh-ku" (monkey), "pitsah" (pretzel), "uppah" (apple) plus the usual mama, dada, Bubba, dog, etc. His favorite things to say are "Jah" (John) and "Ha-tah" (hat). He repeats them over and over and over. These are not only his favorite things to say, but also his favorite things in the world.


• We are finally 100% done nursing. He has an allergy to lactose, so we are experimenting with different kinds of milk and trying out bits of cheese and yogurt here and there.


• We took him to the opthamologist before Christmas because he has a sort of "lazy eye" we wanted to get checked out. It turns out he has Brown's Syndrome, which means the muscle on his right eye cannot move his eye all the way up. This results in "crazy eyes" sometimes when he looks up at us, with both eyes looking in different directions. Dr said it's nothing to worry about yet and we'll just keep tabs on it.


• Jake is a lot better at listening when we tell him no than his brother was at this age. Though sometimes he'll smile slyly and do it again before he obeys. He does this especially with Eric, if he is doing something Eric doesn't like, he'll do it a few more times just to get the reaction.


• He LOVES to dance! When Eric is playing a game on my phone, I often catch Jake boppin' along to the background music.


• He is the silliest little boy, and we always say he is his biggest fan. He loves to get a laugh, and he cracks himself up all the time. We love our Jakey!!

"Knee deep in Cheerios and gratitude"

The title of this post is a quote from a new blog I've been reading (many of you probably are, it's the lady who wrote the "Don't Carpe Diem" essay that's been all over the internet lately). This line really hit me and has been in my mind since I read it.

Knee deep in Cheerios and gratitude...

Life can get a little nuts sometimes with two very energetic boys, and I get frustrated about how little I am accomplishing during the day. But this was such a beautiful description to me of this phase of life that I'm in.

My "word for the year" is lovely. This came from Philipians 4:8, which says "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things." I am trying to think about and pay attention to the lovely things in life this year.

In the Don't Carpe Diem essay, Glennon talks about the Kairos moments that transcend normal time. The precious snipets of time when you stop and savor the overwhelming blessings you have been given. So, over the past week or so, I have been trying to pay attention to and remember those Kairos moments. Some may not fit the definition perfectly, but these are just some things I have been thanking the Lord for lately...


~ When Jake wakes up from a nap and Eric says, "Good morning, Sweet Jakey!"
~ Eric's haircut that makes his ears stick out even more (just like his Momma).
~ When I put my cold feet on Christian in bed at night, he is always warm.
~ When Jake walks around signing "all done", but it just looks like jazz-hands.
~ The boys played together in their room for 15 minutes and noone cried!
~ The word "twelve-teen".
~ The four person snuggle pile in our bed every morning.
~ How much joy Jake gets from a hat to play with.
~ When Eric runs over and says, "I love you, Mom" in the middle of playing outside.
~ The way Jake pats my back when he gives me a hug.
~ The dirty, sweaty, peanut buttery smell of boy.

How about you? Any kairos moments today?


 

Tuesday Getaway

Ok, seriously. We had the best time on our trip...

Christian and I decided this year instead of Christmas presents for eachother, we would take a trip just us. I found a groupon.com deal for the Paradise Point Resort and Spa in San Diego and we decided it would be perfect (and nice and close). Mom stayed with the boys (becuase she's a saint, you see).

We had lunch at a yummy little spot on the water in Mission Beach. 

Then we went and checked into the resort. It was beautiful!

It reminded us of a place we stayed in Cancun.

The rooms are these little bungalows right on the water. So pretty!

We enjoyed some champagne on the private beach.

Ok, so you know those cell phone commercials where the lady is trying it unlock the Benz (or whatever) and is talking about having Cornish game hens, but it's not really her car? That's how we felt. We really don't get out much and we kept getting coupons for stuff, so we really did cram as much luxury into those 24 hours as we could! We got a couples massage in this private palapa thing. It was wonderful! Then Christian went in the sauna while I relaxed and had some complementary refreshments. Ahhh!

We ate dinner at the restaurant there. We were literally the only guests. I guess Tuesday nights in January are a little slow :)

Off to dinner

After dinner we went out to the beach and made s'mores with our complementary s'mores kit. So fun!

We slept in this morning and had breakfast in our room. Glorious.

After we checked out we climbed up this tower and saw some beautiful views of the ocean and San Diego.

We had a fun, quick trip. It was so nice to have some kid-free us time. That ought to hold us for another couple of years :)

Thanks again, Mom and Dad, for watching the boys!!