Jacob's First Christmas

Christmas this year was more of a long string of Christmases, rather than a single event. Our last few weeks has been filled with love, family, friends, relaxation, travel, and complete joy. Jacob loved (almost) every minute of it!

Our trip started in Portland, where we spent the night after a long flight. We got to spend the morning hanging out with our cousins, Amelia and Lucas, in our pajamas and then taking a fun bath. It is amazing how much each of the kids has grown since they were all together in August. Lucas is crawling at lightning speeds, Jacob is grabbing and eating everything in sight, and Amelia is talking not just in sentences, but in dissertations. It was such a blessing to see them all together.

From there, we traveled onward to Pasco to see Grandma and Grandpa and a boatload of aunts and uncles. Christmas at my parents' house is always an epic event, and the addition of a grandchild only upped the excitement. Jacob was spoiled and loved and covered in bows all week long. It was very sad leaving.

After visiting Pasco, we headed up north, stopping briefly in Yakima to visit Ada and Lacy and Andy, our long-lost friends. Ada and Jacob fell immediately in love.

We then arrived in Bellingham to see Nana and Papa, who were very excited to see Jacob and share all the rainy joys of Bellingham with him. We went out to visit Great-Grandma Metta and Al as well, and Jacob impressed all with his masterful scooting and smiling. That kid is such a charmer!

I should mention at this point that Jacob is also a dream baby to travel with. Despite planes, carseats, strange rooms and cribs, and lots of relatives wanting to love on him, he never lost his cool. Well, he did lose it a couple times after being in the car for 3 hours, but to be fair, so did I. He is an amazingly flexible and chilled out little guy.

The final leg of our trip was back to Portland for a grand Christmas explosion (and viewing of the Rose Bowl) with the cousins and Auntie Laura and Uncle Aaron. Nana and Papa came with us, and we also celebrated Papa's birthday all together the night before we flew out. Amelia and Lucas were so much fun to be with, and we were all very sad to have to leave when our trip was

finally over. We can't wait until we have a chance to hang out with them for a much longer time.

At last, we arrived home, only to be greeted by a ridiculously long cab line at JFK and sub-freezing temperatures. Jacob, red-eyed and jet-lagged, comported himself with the utmost in dignity and fell asleep under a pile of blankets for the cab ride home. What a boy!

Snow Bound

We decided to make the most of our unexpected weekend in Brooklyn by going for some snowy expeditions, sledding in the park with friends, and sharing hot chocolate with Kavi and his parents. Marli came over, too, and helped Jacob work out how to use his new sippy cup that Brian and Lindsay sent him for Christmas! Despite our sadness at not being in Washington this weekend, it was kind of nice to have a whole weekend without any plans.

Today is West Coast Adventure, Take Two. Wish us luck!

Progressive Baby

Jacob is not content to scoot backwards or in circles, oh no, not this baby. It's forward all the way!

Not 12 hours after watching his grown-up 10-month-old friends crawling around at the holiday party, Jacob worked out how to propel himself in a forward direction to the object(s) of his desire. I swear, he is such a copycat! This video shows the early moments of his forward movement, but he is already picking up speed after a weekend of practice, and no remote control, cell phone, or electrical wire is safe.

We are, by the way, NOT on the West Coast. Due to circumstances too stressful and complicated to relate, we have been stuck in snowy Brooklyn all weekend. We are terribly sad to have missed out on a weekend of grandparently delights, but have extended our trip a few days longer to make up the time next week. But tomorrow we will (knock on wood, toss salt, etc.) be flying to Oregon, so let the great experiment begin!

Brooklyn Christmas

We leave for our big West Coast holiday trip early tomorrow morning, but we got started celebrating Jacob's first Christmas a little early here in Brooklyn. All we needed was a cute elf hat, courtesy of our wonderful babysitter, Margot! We all think that it makes Jacob look like a Who from Whoville.

Yesterday we ventured to Macy's to meet Santa - It was a delightful trip through Holiday Lane, but actually meeting the Big Guy himself brought Jacob to immediate tears. Somehow in the last week he has developed stranger anxiety - perfect timing for our big West Coast trip!

Today we went to our play-group's holiday party, hosted by Erica and Charlotte.

We had a wonderful time rolling around with all the babies, but this was as close as we could get to a group picture (we shouldn't have waited until the end of the party, I think!):

Before bed tonight we celebrated our own small Christmas by opening some gifts that were too big to bring West with us. As you can see, Jacob is primed for the big day next week!

This whole year is rushing by so fast, and this week especially we are trying to slow down and enjoy the beautiful small moments that are creating such special memories as fast as we can live them. Jacob is an absolute joy and every minute with him is one that we cherish. These holiday minutes are particularly wonderful, though, I have to say.

6 - 7 Months

Sorry it's been such a long time between posts... things have gotten crazy around here with the holidays and what not, but we definitely wanted to post some pictures before we leave for the West Coast. Also, today, Jacob is seven months old!!! Hard to believe how fast all of this is going...

Some accomplishments of Months 6 and 7:

• Jacob started eating solid foods and LOVES them! He started out with some oatmeal, and has moved on to a variety of fruits and vegetables. Favorites: Avocado, Butternut Squash, Sweet Potatoes, and Pears. Least Favorites: Acorn Squash, some kinds of Apples, Carrots. But he eats 3 squares a day on top of all his normal breast feeding, so he's growing pretty quickly.
• Jacob is sitting up all by himself these days - no more resting him in a pillow or propping him up or anything. He'll sit there and play with toys and entertain himself for minutes and minutes.
• Jacob is scooting - at this point, he can only move backwards and in circles, but he can get going pretty well. He really wants to be able to crawl and move forward, but just hasn't put that together yet.
• He has a couple of teeth that have been movin on up, but nothing has really broken through the surface yet, so we're anxiously awaiting their arrival.
• Jacob loved his first Thanksgiving, which was spent at home with his mommy and daddy. He also loved going to see Prababcia and Pradziadek (Great-grandma and great-grandpa in Polish) and getting to spend some time in the snow!
• Jacob talks of little else than how excited he is to go see Nana and Papa, Grandma and Grandpa, and all his aunts, uncles and cousins. We leave on Saturday the 19th for 10 days in the Northwest.

Jacob wishes all of you Merry Christmas (as that is what we celebrate, but surely he would wish you a holiday nicety of your particular choosing were he able to form words) and Happy New Year. We'll try to post a little while we're away, but will surely update with a very thorough documentation of all the Christmas festivities when we return.

On to the pictures!!!

Tonight's Dinner Brought to You by the Letter "B"

...and avocado and carrots...

How did you get so messy, Jacob?

Oh, that's how. "Bbbbbb!!!!" My baby looks like a Jackson Pollack painting in orange and green. The best part is the evil glint in his eye.

I'm too big, Mommy!

May 2009:

December 2009:

This was taken after he ripped the toy bar off for the third time in a row.

To all the future parents out there: Don't spend a lot of money on accessories for your baby. They last but a precious few months. I think it's time to upgrade this one to an exersaucer or something.