"They outgrow us so much faster than we outgrow them."

The title of this post is a line out of the book I'm currently reading (My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult) and I just can't get it out of my head. I suppose the reason it has stuck with me is that I can already see the truth in it. Jake is becoming more and more independent. He really takes pride in doing things for himself... brushing his teeth... feeding himself.... walking... etc. Its really bittersweet to see your child growing up. You are so proud of every little thing that they accomplish but yet you're a little sad too because you're reminded that they will rely on you less and less as time passes. Every parent that we know has told us to savor every moment because it all goes by too fast and trust me we are taking their advice. Jake is our priority and we take great pleasure in every smile... every laugh... every hug... every word.... every little thing that he does... every single day.

We've had our first batch of corn soup this season and boy howdy was it good! Jake had already had supper but he wanted to try it too and I think he liked it because he came back for another bite.

Mmmm... so this is corn soup.


We're still hiking and sometimes we depart from a parking lot at a facility on the parkway. Jake really likes it when we do use that as our starting point because he gets to run around a lot longer. If we park on the side of the road he doesn't get to get down so we let him play and explore when we use the parking lot and its always tough to get him to leave.

Don't forget the water for our hike Mama.


There are a few cabinets in our kitchen that don't have cabinet locks on them because they don't contain anything that Jake could get hurt on and we thought it might be good if he had a few places that he could explore on his own. One of the cabinets has cutting boards, serving trays and cookie sheets and Jake empties it out regularly. He is especially partial to one of our serving trays that has snow flakes on it and he loves to pull it out and sit on it. We're not sure but we think he's practicing for sledding season.

Daddy can I use this as a sled?


Jake has always been a "propper". Literally since the very day he was born he has always liked to prop his feet up and still does it all the time. We've just started using his booster seat without the tray and it took him no time at all to figure out that he could prop his feet up on the table... yikes! We're working on teaching him that he really shouldn't put his feet on the table but it was just so darn cute that I had to share a couple of pictures.

I'll just hang out here until breakfast is ready Daddy.

Whewwww I need to relax after eating my breakfast.

This past Sunday was Mamaw's birthday (yep... just 3 days after Grandma's birthday) so we took dinner to her to celebrate. My wonderful husband made Chicken Tetrazzini, garlic bread and a huge salad which were all delicious. I made some really great (if I do say so myself) Strawberry Cream Cupcakes for the birthday girl. Jake provided entertainment for the gathering. As always he brought Mamaw and Papaw lots of smiles. He pushed one of their outdoor tables all over the porch like it was his job, he "talked" on the phone and flirted with a pretty girl (yep... I'm talking about you Laura).

Mamaw... your fung shui is all out of whack.

Hello

Who should I call now?

Happy Birthday Mamaw!

Papaw ... you're my buddy!

Jake is now 16 months old and still an absolute joy. He has such a sweet personality. Admittedly, he does have a bit of a stubborn streak that his Daddy says he got from me but so far its a cute trait. I might not say that when he gets older.

Happy 16 Month Birthday to Me!

I better proofread Daddy's sign to be sure that

he got everything right.

Jake is still loving his water and sand table. That thing was worth every penny! You can see from the picture below how wet he gets splashing but it doesn't bother him one bit in fact he LOVES it!

One more big splash and my shirt should be wet all the way around.

Mama... if I'm good can I play here all day long?

I need just a little more ketchup.

Last weekend... we took dinner to our friends that just had a baby. We enjoyed a really nice visit with them and their precious baby boy. Jake was intrigued and kept saying "baby" over and over.

Hi baby Kruz!

I'm coming Daddy.

Daddy... was that the last rock?

Oops... I'm busted... eating vanilla wafers again.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Appointment with Dr. Love (oops... forgot to include this yesterday)...

I knew that I was forgetting something in my update yesterday and last night it occurred to me that I forgot to share what a great doctor's appointment Jake had last week. It was his 15 month appointment and he weighed 20 lbs and had grown to 29 1/2" tall.

When we arrived at the pediatrician's office there was an adorable little girl in the waiting room with her Dad. She was probably 3 or 4 years old and Jake was totally taken with her. He literally could not take his eyes off her. He was sitting in my lap and he would smile at her and then bury his face against me over and over again. After a little while he asked for my keys so I gave them to him and he said "down" so I put him down on the floor. He then proceeded to march across the waiting room right up to the little girl where he smiled at her... held out my keys and said "keys". Her Dad thought it was hilarious that a 15 month old already knew how to win over a girl by offering up the keys to Mama's car :)

When the nurse called us back for Jake's appointment she told us to go to the "J" room and Jake started sounding out the "J". The nurse could not believe it and started asking him other letters which he was more than happy to sound out for her. He said a bunch of words for her while she was measuring and weighing him and she was just amazed. When Dr. Love came in he asked how many words Jake was saying now and I told him that he hit 100 several weeks ago and we had stopped counting at that point. Jake then said a few words for him including "doctor" and Dr. Love was thrilled and jokingly said that if Jake kept going at this rate that he would expect him to be able to read words soon. He was a little shocked when I told him that Jake could read most of his words now so I grabbed a piece of paper and started writing down various words (girls... eyes... shoes... trees... nose... teeth... cup... etc.) and Jake read each one of them as I wrote them down. Dr. Love smiled.. stood up and said ... "I'm going to get another Doctor, I'll be right back". He came back with another pediatrician in the practice and asked me to write down some more words for Jake (birds... car... keys... etc.). I did and Jake read them out loud and then the other doctor sat down and said... "in all my years of practice... I've never seen anything like that". When the nurse came back in later to give Jake his shots she said that the doctor's were all huddled up talking about Jake reading. I was so proud of my little boy!!!! He's just such a little sponge and he loves learning new words. I'm sure you can now understand why I couldn't resist sharing this story :-)

Snakes and tomatoes...

Yep... we're still hiking. Almost everyday when Jake wakes up from his afternoon nap he very loudly says... "DOT" to let us know that he's ready to go hiking and touch the dots on the trail. We've hiked back to the river a couple more times so Jake could throw rocks in the water and its tough to get him to leave. He loves to watch the splash when his rock hits the water. In the past couple of weeks we've also met several "friends" along the way. We've encountered 4 snakes (all non-venomous) on the trail so far this year including a 5 foot long black snake yesterday that nearly gave me a heart attack. I didn't see him until I was right upon him... yikes! He was trying to cross the trail and we happily got out of his way. We've also seen two really large black snakes in our neighborhood in the past week. I'm not a snake person but I refuse to let them keep me from hiking with my family so I guess I'll just have to keep my eyes open.

DOOOOT!!!

I love to hike!

Lets go Daddy!

Splash!

Mama ... when will Daddy be finished mowing?

Hold still Circles and I'll brush your hair.

I see you Daddy.

We love to grow fresh veggies... especially tomatoes... but haven't had any luck since we moved into this house in 2001. There just isn't a good spot for a garden since we're in the woods. We tried a raised bed on the side of our house and we also tried containers on our back deck but neither one received enough sunlight to produce. This year we decided that we just had to have some homegrown tomatoes so we planted them in containers in front of our house. They are doing great! They are already loaded with blooms and one even has a little bitty tomato. We are so excited that it looks like we'll have yummy fresh homegrown tomatoes this year.

Mama... I can help take care of the tomatoes.

Bye bye, Doh Doh

My Aunt Doris (the children of her nieces and nephews called her Doh Doh) passed away this past Friday and words are inadequate to express the sadness that I feel. She was so very special to me and I already miss her. I have so many wonderful memories of her but I just wish I would have had one more visit... one more chance to hear her laugh... one more chance to tell her how much I loved her. She was always there for all of her family and friends and I take some comfort in knowing that she is now in heaven watching over us still. Her grandaughter, Laura, read Proverbs 31:10-31 at her funeral and it fit her perfectly so if you have a chance read it and you'll get a glimpse of the very special person that will always be loved and greatly missed.

The picture below was taken at my baby shower last year which she helped my sister-in-law host. I love that she's laughing in the picture.

We already miss you Doh Doh!
I'm so sad that Jake won't get to know you like we did...

Walking... walking... walking...

I don't know how ... but it just keeps getting better and better. Jake gave up crawling all together about a week and a half ago and he is just the most adorable little thing walking all over the place now. Trip and I literally verbalize to each other every day how much we love our little guy and how grateful we are that God blessed us with Jake. We can not imagine life without him and truly don't know how we made it before him.

Jake has learned to hug and when you ask him for a kiss he'll lean his head in toward your mouth and make the kissing sound. It is absolutely precious!!!!

We're still hiking almost every day. The rain and has forced us to skip a couple of days but we try to go anyway unless it's just a down pour. Jake still loves it more than words can say and he even got to "hike" a little on his own one day last week. As you can see from the photo below ... he just couldn't resist digging around on the trail to see what he could find.

Look Daddy.... DIRT!!!! I love dirt!

Jake is still enjoying his reading videos and will now ask to watch them. He is just learning so much so fast and we're so proud of him. We work with him most every day but we always try to make it fun for him. He also loves his flash cards and he's crazy about books. He brings us books to read to him all the time and he loves to turn the pages for us.

Mama... can I watch my video now?

I love these cheese puffs!

The sand and water table we got for Jake is still a huge hit. He gets so dirty and has so much fun. He loves to try to dump all the water out ... one boat full at a time and after every one he'll say "uh oh"... SO CUTE! He also likes to try to move all of his sand from the sand side into the water side and occasionally if he thinks Mama & Daddy aren't watching he tries to taste it :) I was sick on Mother's Day so we weren't able to go to our annual Mother's Day brunch at Mamaw & Papaw's house. We were so happy that they came to visit us in the afternoon. They brought me flowers and really enjoyed playing with Jake.

What are those neighbors doing now?


"Uh Oh"


"Good Morning Mama"

We did a 5 mile hike about a week ago that lead us to the river so Jake got to throw rocks in the water for the first time. He had so much fun watching the rocks go over the bridge and splash into the water. Daddy also played Pooh Sticks with him which is a game that Winnie the Pooh plays with his friends in one of Jake's books. It's basically a stick race. You drop two sticks over the bridge on one side and then you run to the other side to see which stick comes out first :)

Mama... look... a rock!

Which rock should I pick Daddy?

Okay enough pictures... can we throw some more rocks in now?

Jake takes after his Mama when it comes to waking up. It's a process but once he wakes up he is always smiling and ready to go.

Is it time to get up already?

Happy 15 Month Birthday to me!

Below are several new videos that we wanted to share including a great one of Jake chasing our cat, Circles, and one of him eating an orange. He loves oranges and we love watching him eat them. The very fist time he had one Trip was trying to let him know that it was okay that it was a little sour so he gave an exaggerated reaction after he ate a bite before giving a bite to Jake. Well sure enough... the bite gave Jake the shimmy shakes and we died laughing which Jake thought was great so now he fakes the shimmy shake after almost every bite of orange to get us to laugh. Enjoy!

More wobbly steps...

Yippeee... Daddy's home!

Trying to catch the cat...

Sour stuff...

Precious first steps....

Well ... if you read my last post you'll remember that Trip was really hoping that he wouldn't miss Jake's first steps while he was in Raleigh. As you may be guessing from the title of this post... unfortunately, he did miss those precious first steps. Jake and I went to visit Mamaw and Papaw while Trip was in Raleigh and Jake took his first steps while we were at their house. He still feels like the fastest way to travel is by crawling but he's walking more and more each day. Here are a few of his adorable wobbly steps...



We got Jake a sand & water table to play with outside and it was a huge hit. He even enjoyed helping Daddy put it together. After playing with it and getting so dirty that we had to strip him down to his diaper before he came back in the house he was ready for some milk and thought Daddy needed some too.

"Here Daddy... let me help you with that."

"Daddy... I've got your next screw ready."

"Thanks Mama & Daddy! This is awesome!"

"Look Mama... Daddy is drinking my milk."


We're still hiking every day that weather permits. We do at least 1.5 miles each day. We're hiking part of the Mountains to Sea trail. It has several access points on the Blue Ridge Parkway one of which is less than three miles from our house. They mark the trail periodically with colored dots on trees to help you insure that you're staying on the correct route. Jake looks for the dots and hollers out "DOT" as soon as he spots one. He touches each dot with his stick and then he says "go, go, go" so Daddy will jog to catch up with me. He LOVES our daily hikes and gets so excited when we tell him its time to go walk in the woods. I can not thank my cousin, Missy, enough for giving us the backpack that Jake rides in because it has brought great joy to all of us.

"Go... go... go... Daddy!"

"We're coming Mama. Daddy was just
showing me a fern. "

"Okay Daddy...I got that dot. "

"This seems like a good place to hold on. "

"Daddy... do you think Mama saw these pretty flowers?"

"Whew... hiking makes me thirsty. "


Trip is so hoping that Jake will love golf and so far so good. He loves to "play" with Daddy's clubs out in the yard. He'll be getting his own little clubs very soon.

"Daddy... I think this club may be too long for me."

"Look out Tiger.... here I come. "


Jake loves to play outside so we're in the yard a lot now that the weather is nice. He loves to play with his toys, find leaves and sticks or just dig in the dirt. We've been blowing bubbles for him too and he was really puzzled at first but now he thinks its funny.

"Hmmmm... what should I play with next? "

"Which way should I go? "

"I love these bubbles! "

"Hey... where are my bubbles going? "


Jake still loves his Tonka truck. Luckily, with a slight adjustment it becomes a walker so he's now pushing it all over the house. He walks behind it and says "go... go... go" until he runs into something and then he says "crash". It is the cutest thing!

"Go... go... go... CRASH!"


Jake is still very happy to be facing forward in his car seat and now loves nothing more than when Daddy rolls his window down. He smiles all over himself and throws his hand up immediately as soon as Trip asks him if he wants his window rolled down.

"I love to feel the wind."


Jake is looking less and less like a baby and more and more like a little boy. I just love this picture of him!

"Hey Mama! "


Jake really enjoys watching Sesame Street. He LOVES Elmo and gets all excited when they do the letter of the day. Trip was out of town and Jake had a rough night with teething so he slept late and didn't get breakfast until it was time for Sesame Street so I let him watch while he ate his cream cheese toast. He just looked so cute eating with his little feet crossed that I couldn't resist getting a picture of our little man.

"Wonder what the letter will be today Mama?"