Weekend in Wadsworth

This weekend we went and stayed with my family in Wadsworth, my hometown.  Our dog is the most outwardly excited when we go.  He knows when we start packing up that we might be going to visit, and when we ask if he wants to go see Steve, my family's dog, he about loses his mind.

Andrew, Jake, and I are always excited to go, but at least we don't whine by the door until we leave.

We decided to go this particular weekend because my sister Kim and her husband Darrell ran the Akron 1/2 marathon!

We were so proud watching them finish the race.  That's quite the accomplishment!

They were done running by 9:45am, so we had a whole day of fun after that!  First, the girls went shopping.  No offense to Andrew, but shopping with them was so much more fun.  We all readily agreed that our husbands aren't much for shopping :)  And we'll get to have some girl time next weekend, too.  I'm very glad to have my mom and sister so close!

My dad took Andrew and I to an apple orchard in the afternoon.  We got a 1/2 peck of apples and are excited to eat them.  Ohio apples in the fall are delicious!

My grandparents came over in the evening and we enjoyed a non-Thanksgiving turkey dinner prepared by my mom.  MMM!  Poor Jake was stuck with a tub of prunes and apples mixed.  He liked it, but only because he didn't know what he was missing out on!

We had fun relaxing with football games on and being entertained by Jake after dinner.  Mom mom bought a singing dog dressed up as a ghost that plays the tune of Ghostbuster's.  Jake did NOT know what to think about it.

He really enjoyed having new terrain to explore (since this is his first time at their house now that he can crawl), and he definitely loved having an audience to perform for.  He's such a cheeser and quite animated.  So much personality for such a little boy!

GREAT Grandparents

In the past week, Jake has seen his Great-Grandma and Grandpa Coy twice!  That's pretty impressive, especially since they live 2.5 hours away.  Lucky boy!  And lucky us!

Dog Wannabe

I'm convinced that if Jake could talk and I asked him what he wanted to be when he grows up, he would say a DOG!

Here's my top 10 reasons why:

10.  He gets around great on all fours.

9.  He seems to love the dog more than anybody.

8.  He gets just as excited as Kyle to go on potty trips outside and walks around the neighborhood.

7.  Dog food intrigues him more than his own food.

6.  The first time he crawled was to get to a bone.

5.  He loves to have his back rubbed.

4.  His K9 teeth came in first.

3.  He loves sitting by the window and watching the world go by.

2.  No matter how many of his own toys are around to play with, he still manages to find a dog toy to chew on (gross!).

1.  He has an affinity towards the toilet.  He is always trying to get to it.  Yesterday Andrew left the door open when he showered.  I heard the water go off, the shower curtain open, and "ANDREA- COME HERE!"  We found him playing with the toilet paper, trying to get into the toilet.  Ahh!  

We seriously love this little boy- and we're glad he is a little boy, not a dog!

Saturday Morning Sleeping In

Friday night Andrew and I stayed up pretty late.  When we were going to bed we decided not to set any alarms- we had one sleeping in the next room over.  He's always up between 7:30 and 8, although sometimes we're lucky and on the weekends he'll sleep until 8:30.  So we were surprised when we woke up before he did.

It was 9:15 and we had to go get him up!

Ohh how I've missed sleeping in.  But waking up to his cute, smiling face every morning makes it worth it a million times over!

Little Helper

Jake loves moving around.  He hates when we are in the same room too long, or if he can't get too far.  And he has gotten FAST.  Andrew said the other day that we better watch out- when he learns how to walk, he'll be running the next day.  This kid is active!

He also likes being involved with what we're doing- take the dishes for example.  He can now pull himself to standing next to the dishwasher.

He can also pull himself up to standing by the window sill.  He is spending a lot of time looking out the windows these days.  He loves watching the world go by!  It also makes getting ready for me really easy- he will stand there long enough for me to put on makeup, dry, and style my hair.  

One of the good things of having him so active is that his naps are even better now than they used to be.  He's taking a 2.5-3 hour nap in the morning, a 2 hour nap in the afternoon, and a 1.5 hour nap before dinner.  Again, I'm sure a lot of that has to do with us keeping him up until 10pm, but our evenings with him are so nice.  We love our adventurous little man!

Clean Carpets and a Trip to the Zoo

Friday afternoon we had our carpets cleaned.  Our floors got more messy that I can believe in the year we've lived here.  I blame it on the dog.  When we renewed our contract, the office agreed to clean them.  I'm so glad because we have quite the little crawler on our hands now.

We moved as much as we could into the kitchen and bathrooms so more of the carpet could be cleaned.  And while they were there working on the cleaning, we were getting ready to take a trip to the zoo- to burn the time when Jake had to be off the floors.  We strapped Jake in his high chair in the kitchen to watch once he was ready to go.  I LOVE his cheesy grin :)

We put shoes on Jake for the first time in awhile since it's getting colder.  The kid HATES to have anything on his feet.  He'll do anything he can to pull whatever it is off.  And he's good at getting his socks and shoes off.  I'm not sure what we're going to do now that his feet will actually need to be covered.

I cannot believe how OLD he is looking!

Once they were finished scrubbing the carpets, we were off to the Columbus Zoo!  Our water park passes also work for the zoo- we've been putting off going since it has been so darn hot and the water park is only open part of the year.  But now that the water park is closed for the season and it has cooled off, I think we'll be making lots of trips there!

We stayed for about 2 1/2 hours and saw lots of cool and interesting animals, but our favorites were the 3 month old tigers, some entertaining monkeys, the brown bear, and the elephants.

I know Jake noticed at least some of the animals.  He also loved the people-watching.  But the entire experience was during his 2nd naptime of the day, so by the end he was all tuckered out.

We all had a fun day at the zoo!

Mr. Adventure

Andrew told me the other day that our blog site shouldn't be meetandrewandandrea.blogspot.com, but meetjake.blogspot.com.  I realize he's right, but eventually (not any time too soon) they'll be another one to write about.  Plus I named it before he came along :)

I love his little smile and adventurous personality.  He is ALWAYS into something, especially because he can get where he wants to go now.

His favorite things are the dog, making noises (both with his mouth and by hitting things together, shaking noisy toys, etc), standing by the window sill and watching the world go by, playing with dog toys, and ripping/crumping paper.  He also loves straps- like on Andrew's backpack, his carseat, stroller.  He is so proud of himself that he can stand in his crib, and now flings himself back onto the mattress and laughs.  

He now bonks his head quite often (like when he falls over in his crib, when he's standing against furniture and lets go, and when he stumbles while crawling), and it doesn't seem to phase him at all.  Not too long ago Andrew was holding him and somehow Jake and I bumped heads.  I said ouch and held my hand up to my head because it hurt, and Jake acted like nothing happened.  A lot of his spills look painful and even leave little goose eggs, but apparently he is much less of a wimp than his mom.

I love everything about this little boy and being a mom.  Andrew and I can't believe how much joy he brings us.  What a blessing it is to have a family!

Sunday...

Jake does not like Sunday's.  Church certainly isn't as enjoyable as it used to be now that he is officially the grumpiest little guy by time we've been there 45 minutes.

And his mood doesn't really improve when we get home.

Hello grumpy gills...

Good thing he's cute!

Skills

Look who crawls and says mama (his first official babbling)!

He figured it out Friday, and he's good.  He can really move fast!  We've been working on seriously baby-proofing the last 2 nights.  He likes getting into the trash, eating the dog's toys, taking books off the bottom shelf and tearing out the pages, and most concerning of all: crewing on electric cords.

Trouble

Our sweet little boy is quite adventurous.

In the past few days, he has tried to climb the blinds in mine and Andrew's bedroom,

figured out how to get the dog's food,

and got himself all mixed up in the dirty laundry.

But I love his sweet little face and fun personality.   Even when he's causing trouble, I can't get over how wonderful our little Jake is!

New Roof

Last Saturday we received a notice on our door that they'd begin re-roofing our apartment building on Monday.  We knew it was coming because they had already done about 5 other buildings in our complex, but I was dreading it.

I was so worried about Jake not being able to sleep through the people walking all over the roof and the nail guns with the power generators that his awesome Aunt Kim and Uncle Darrell said the two of us could come stay with them in Beaver Creek (Dayton area- about an hour away).  Our first sleepover with them!

So Sunday night we packed up and Andrew took us over.  Jake had a lot of fun exploring a new place and playing with Aunt Kim.

He also enjoyed watching football with Uncle Darrell.

When Tuesday evening came (after lots of fun and delicious dinners Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday) Kim and Darrell brought us half way back to Columbus and we met up with Andrew.  My sweet husband showed up with a huge grin, flowers, and chocolate for me!

And they weren't finished with the roof.  In fact, they just weren't finished right above our apartment.  So Wednesday we listened to them walk above our heads, scrape off the old roof, and use the nail gun to secure the new shingles in place.  It was loud, just like I expected.  But unlike I had expected, it didn't seem to phase Jake.  He slept like a baby while they were working right above his crib.  And when he played, he didn't even seem to even notice anything was different than usual.

And Thursday they did the clubhouse, right outside mine and Andrew's bedroom window.  Jake liked watching them work and probably would have all day if I'd have let him.

Now we have a new roof, know that Jake really can sleep through anything, and had fun spending a couple days with Kim and Darrell :)