Jacob is 9 months old

I can barely believe my little Jacob is 9 months old.  Quinn and I took him to the doctor for his checkup today. This was a great visit because there were NO SHOTS!!

His weight was 19 pounds 10 ounces and his height was 27 and 3/4 .   I can't remember what his percentiles were, but I know for sure he is not tall! For Buddy and I, the funniest thing is getting used to a normal sized child, after Quinn was always off the charts for his height.

Milestones:
Completely sitting up on his own.
Can go from laying down to sitting up without help.
Can go from sitting up to laying down without help.
He "army-crawls", dragging his belly across the floor.
Eating stage 2 foods
Starting to self-feed with puffs
Babbles and says "da-da", "ma-ma", "buh" (we think will be brother or bubba)
Throws toys out of crib, out of swing, off the high-chair, etc for us to pick up and give back just so he can throw it down again.
Is beginning to pull up

And here's my sweet boy on his 9-month birthday.

Christmas Eve 2012

We had a very simple Christmas this year.  With Buddy's new job he got back in the summer, he had a very minimal amount of time off. On top of that, his current project is due to be finished shortly after the first of the year, requiring him to work the day after Christmas.  Makes it hard to do our normal holiday traveling when the majority of it takes place after Christmas.  So we stayed home this year, although I will admit it didn't feel very much like Christmas without seeing the normal family.

I did manage to get a couple of cute pictures of the boys.

EOTS: Day 30

Today is Christmas Eve and Jingle will be leaving us sometime today.  It's been fun having this little guy around and we all hope he brings his mischief and merriment back next year.

He left us one last letter, and after Quinn and Jacob woke up from their naps, Jingle was gone. We never saw him leave....he sure is sneaky.

His goodbye letter ended up being a poem.  I won't retype it here, but you can click on the picture to see a bigger version. Jingle is reading Luke 2 and learning about Jesus' birth.

Thank you for visiting us Jingle.  We will miss you until you return next year.

EOTS: Day 29

Jingle won't be with us much longer as Christmas eve is tomorrow.  He decided to make Quinn's favorite breakfast item today.

EOTS: Day 28

I think Jingle may be tired of warm NC winters....he shared a bit of his winter wonderland with us!

EOTS: Day 27

Today Jingle decided to help me make Quinn's lunch since it was his last day of school before Christmas break.  I guess Jingle heard us discussing what a good lunch would be because he packed all of Quinn's favorite things.

A ham and cheese sandwich.
Cheetos
Applesops (applesauce)

EOTS: Day 26

If Jingle could talk he would say that he's just hanging around!

EOTS: Day 25

Jingle has been with us so long now, he truly feels like he's one of the family.

EOTS: Day 24

Jingle decided to visit the nativity display, to remind us the true reason we celebrate Christmas.

EOTS: Day 23

Somehow Jingle got tangled up in the curtains on his way in the back door last night.

EOTS: Day 22

Today was Quinn's last Show and Tell before Christmas break starts. Quinn has been asking me often if he can hold Jingle, play with Jingle, and my response is always the same. 

If you touch him, he loses his magic.

Imagine our surprise when we woke up to this today.

The letter says "Dear Quinn.... I know today is your Show and Tell day. Santa was happy you had a good day yesterday at school. He gave me extra magic....you can touch me today! I can be your Show and Tell today. I made special cookies for your class and Mrs. James. I can't wait to visit your school. Love Jingle."

I had pre-arranged this with his teacher, and Mrs. James was willing to allow Jingle to make a special appearance!  Quinn was so happy to finally get to touch Jingle!

Here is Quinn with his teacher Mrs. James and his cookie making elf!





(What a cool story to tell as my 300th post on my blog!!)

EOTS: Day 21

After yesterday's incident of trying to show Quinn the right way to act, and seeing how upset it made him, Jingle decided to take the simple approach!

EOTS: Day 20

Thanks to Jingle, Quinn has been getting pretty good reports from school on his behavior. He knows that Jingle hears us discuss his day and he wants Santa to get a good report each night. If you ask Quinn who is proud of him when he has a good day, he always says "Mommy, Daddy, Jingle, and Jesus", so he knows who he ultimately needs to please!

However, yesterday was a different story. Quinn got a pretty bad report of things he did behavior-wise at school. Tuesday and Thursday tend to be the days that he gets a bad note, if he's going to. For some reason, he has more trouble on days he is not in preschool. I guess he gravitates toward the structure of Mrs. James' class, even though he does have a routine on the daycare days at school.

Anyway, Jingle was not thrilled that Quinn was ugly to his friends, so Jingle was a little mischevious last night.  He taped over Quinn's bedroom door so he could not get out of his room. Quinn was very upset when he got out of bed and realized the doorway was blocked.  He said "Jingle, that wasn't very nice. That was ugly."  I asked Quinn why Jingle was ugly, and Quinn said "Because I was ugly at school.  I will do better Mommy!"  And he did!

12-12-12

Today was a pretty cool day.  It was December 12, 2012.

My students were really fascinated with the idea that today would be 12-12-12.  I told them we would "celebrate" at 12:12 and (12 seconds). When the clock clicked over, they held a little countdown while I waited with my camera to capture this image.

What were you doing at on 12/12/12 at 12:12:12??

EOTS: Day 19

Jingle met Motorcycle Man and the two went on a little joy-ride through the living room.

EOTS: Day 18

We've had some unseasonably warm temperatures for December....even for North Carolina.  I mean, we don't get piles of snow like some places, but 70 degrees or higher is definitely not usual for our area.

I think Jingle must have been missing the cold weather, based on where we found him today!

EOTS: Day 17

Dear Jingle,

I promise that those antlers do not belong to one of Santa's reindeer!!

Love,
Quinn's Mommy

Fire Station Christmas Party

Every year our fire department has its annual Christmas Party.  There is usually a catered meal, and all the firefighters (active and retirees) as well as their extended families are invited to attend. The chief gives "years of service" awards for every 5 years of service. The other awards given are "Rookie of the Year", "Fire Fighter of the Year", and "Explorer of the Year" (our explorers are the high school kids).  Someone always ends up playing Santa and the young children get to share their wish lists.

The one thing I will always remember about this year's party was how fussy Jacob was. He would not let anyone hold him except me. I even had to eat while holding him. 

Until he met Santa....the baby whisperer!

Quinn enjoyed meeting Santa as well.

EOTS: Day 16

Why was I not surprised that the morning after we put up our Christmas tree, we found Jingle hanging out in the branches?

EOTS: Day 15

Jingle must love all this traveling back and forth to the North Pole, because today he was in Jacob's car seat, all ready to go!

EOTS: Day 14

Today's hiding place for Jingle was the best so far.  Quinn actually walked right by him on his way out of his bedroom this morning, but somehow did not see Jingle. He searched the entire house and I had to suggest he double check his room. He even walked in, looked around, and said "Mommy Jingle did not come home."  Finally, I had to show him. 

EOTS: Day 13

Jingle was putting together Quinn's four-foot long fire truck puzzle. When we found him, he was on the last piece.

EOTS: Day 12

Jingle found all of Quinn's toy trucks and spelled out a Q!

EOTS: Day 11

Jingle discovered Quinn's MagnaDoodle and wrote out both of their names, then waited in the hall for Quinn to wake up.

EOTS: Day 10

In this corner....wearing the red velvet suit with the matching pointed hat.....Jingle!

In this corner....wearing the blue spider suit with red accents, and web mask across his face...Spiderman!

Tune in for the exciting results of "SnowBall War 2012"

EOTS: Day 9

Jingle knows our family is "fully involved" with our fire department as volunteer members. Buddy moved up in the ranks several years ago and became a Lieutenant. 

Looks like Jingle wanted to prove that he's ready to join as well.  Silly Jingle....a fire here is ok!!

EOTS: Day 8

Jingle decided to see what it would be like to walk around in Daddy's shoes.

His opinion....these work boots were made for walking!

EOTS: Day 7

Anytime there are movies or nightly TV being watched at our house, Buddy almost always has some popcorn to go along with it.

Jingle picked up on this, and this morning we found him in "Daddy's Chair" eating "pine-corn" (as Quinn used to call popcorn).  He even had the remote, and was watching Toy Story Part 2 when we woke up today.

EOTS: Day 6

Quinn's new chore to help around the house is to get Dixie's 3 scoops of dog food for her breakfast and supper.

Jingle decided to hide in the pantry today...took Quinn quite a while to find him. I eventually had to give him some clues.

EOTS: Day 5

Quinn loves to play Candy Land....or as he calls it "CandyCane Lane Land".  He was quite thrilled when he saw Jingle, and 3 of his sleepy time snuggle friends, Monkey, Elephant, and Patty (the Penguin...Quinn always calls them Patty) had played a midnight game!  It's a little hard to tell, but if you look at the picture, each friend is holding a picture card, showing where they were on the board. Jingle had the cinnamon roll so he must be winning!  Quinn couldn't figure out how Jingle got his friends out of bed and out to the living room.  I guess that is the "elf magic" at work!

EOTS: Day Four

Jingle is just hanging around!   

EOTS: Day Three

Yesterday our family went to the local Christmas Parade. Jingle made friends with the ChickFilA Cow and they both got into the candy.  I think Jingle even has sugar on his face!

EOTS: Day Two

Jingle must have been hungry when he got home this morning.  He got into all the Froot Loops. He even showed his smarts by spelling Quinn's name with the pieces of cereal!

And I realized after I took the picture that Quinn and Jingle had the same expression on their faces!

EOTS: Day One

Getting to know our family and making that first trip home to the North Pole must have been hard for Jingle, because he only made it to Jacob's swing when he returned.

Quinn thought it was hilarious that Jingle was sleeping in Jacob's swing!

A Thanksgiving Night Visitor

Tonight we had a late visitor for Thanksgiving. We heard a knock at the door, and when we opened it, this is what we saw.

This little guy was holding a note that said:

After reading the book, Quinn decided to name his little friend Jingle.  Our book taught us that Jingle has been sent by Santa to watch out to see if Quinn and Jacob are being good boys. Each night he will return to the North Pole to give a report, but will return by the next morning. He might be in a different spot, so we will have to find him each day.  On Christmas Eve, he will return home to the North Pole and we will see him next year.

Here is Quinn and Jingle.  And the most special rule of all....NEVER TOUCH or his Elf Magic goes away.

Halloween 2012

Halloween 2012 was a lot of fun.  We were able to attend a Trunk or Treat event at our church and visited a few of our neighbors.  I had hoped Jacob would be able to wear a costume that Quinn did not get to wear. Quinn's first Halloween he was supposed to be a dragon, but outgrew this costume before he could wear it. I had to settle for him being a spider instead.  I tried the dragon costume on Jacob and it fit.....except somehow the zipper broke and we couldn't zip it up. 

So guess what Jacob ended up being.....

Quinn was a Clemson Football player.

Jacob was asleep before we were done trick or treating in the neighborhood, so he totally missed out on his first Halloween.  Maybe he didn't want to be a spider anymore than I did!

Fall is for Football

One of Buddy's sisters has moved back to live in NC, and only live about 45 minutes away from us, so when she let us know that our nephew had a home football game coming up, we decided to drive over to watch him play!  Buddy's parents came too, so it was a great way to have a little family reunion.

Tre goes to a Christian school, and his team is comprised of other Christian school and home-school kids in the area who want to play football but can't because their school doesn't offer it.  They play in a league that involves a lot of travel (one game was even in Tennessee). 

Quinn loves his cousins Ethan and Tre, and he was really excited to go see a real football game.  Either that, or he was excited to eat popcorn! 

I'm going to let these pictures speak for themselves. Tre is #32....he is easy to pick out in the group shots, as his cleats have orange laces and orange on the back. 



And although Nana enjoys a good football game, I think she enjoyed watching little Jacob sleep!  He took  a great nap, in the arms of his sweet Nana!

Although Tre's team did not win, they could not have played harder or with more heart than they did. Those boys never gave up, despite being outscored!  Good job Tre....can't wait to watch you play again next year!