Happy 21 months

Jake is 21 months!! Can you believe it? I sure can't.
He's really growing up, he's no longer a baby, my Jake is officially a toddler, a little boy. I think it's the haircut. LOL!

Jake is still about 24lbs.
I have no idea how tall he is, I'll have to measure him someday soon. According to his pants, he's definitely grown though!
He now goes to bed at 730am. But he's getting up at night. We're hoping to work on that this month.
Jake is napping like a champ lately, a good two hours a day. I actually have to wake him up most days.
He's still not saying any new words, but communicates very well nonetheless. He can very adamantly say "no!" when he doesn't want something, and say yes when he does want it.
Jake's favorite toys lately are a couple new books, his mega blocks, and the park!!

We went to De Balloon again. It's a great play place and Jake has a blast. We met up with Leo and his parents. He likes this slide. He slides down pretty fast.

This is the smile that Jake has most of the morning. He loves this place!



Oh, and as tradition. This is Jake about a year ago. He was baptized when he was 9 months, and just starting to get mischievous.

The Big Slide

It was playgroup today, but we got there about half an hour before it started since my dad had to go to work. We went to the little park and Jake just loves slides. He wasn't too sure about the big slide at first, he went up the stairs, then went back down the stairs a few times before he finally decided to go down the slide. After that? There was no stopping him!
Playgroup was a lot of fun. The first thing Jake does is go straight to the snack table to get a croissant. This child adores croissants! Then he runs around, follows the other kids, and plays. Though yesterday, he stuck by me a lot and was pretty cuddly.
Jake eats so much during playgroup, I don't bother trying to feed him lunch, he gets a bottle, then goes for a nap.
After naptime, he had his snack in the kitchen with me while I finished dinner, I did sneak a few m&m' s much to his delight to keep him entertained.
We went outside to play, then supper, pj's, bottle and bedtime. He's going to bed around 730pm now, and he's ready for it, he's basically asking for his bottle, then dodo.

I find this picture funny. He was clapping and running back to the stairs at the same time!

Monday

Jake was up around 7am, not too bad, but he was up a few times during the night. There's no daycare this week (it's closed for repairs), so we spent most of the day playing outside.
This morning, we went for a walk, then to the park.
Then after lunch, and Jake's nap, we went to see the horses, and play in the backyard.

Lunch time

This is what lunch sounded like today in our house. (Backstory: Jake was up at 530am, but since the time changed today, it was really 430am.)

It's 1130 and I'm making Jake some lunch. My mom puts him in the high chair.
Mom: "He's getting sleepy Katie!"
Katie: "Here, give him a cheese string while I finish his lunch."
Mom: "I'm losing him! He's falling asleep!"
Katie: "Don't let him sleep! Keep him awake!!!"
Mom: "It's a lost cause!"
Katie: "Take him out of the high chair!!"
Mom: "Get the bottle!!!"
Katie: "It's heating up, don't let him sleep!!"

(I got Jake his bottle and he's drinks about half)
Katie: "Okay Jake, get your bear and we'll go dodo.
Jake: (In his mind) "Are you freaking kidding me lady. I'm exhausted. You get my bear!"

Jake had a nice long three hour nap.

A typical Saturday with Jake

Friday night
730pm: I bring Jake to bed after his bottle. On my way up the stairs, I promise to buy him m&m's if he sleeps until 7am. (No, I am not above bribery.)

Saturday
715am: I wake up to Jake gleefully yelling. Bribery=success. Or coincidence. Whatever way you want to look at it.

745am: I make Jake oatmeal with blueberries. Yummy.

755am: Jake throws his spoon and bowl on the floor. Grrrr!!!

8am: Grandma and mommy watch this week's Glee (we are way way behind here!)

9am: We go upstairs to get dressed. (A green t-shirt and brown overalls...sorry, I didn't take pictures today)

930am: We leave for Schinnen (the American Base)

1025am: The first of the tantrums. Jake would prefer to play in the road than go in the store. (Incidentally, I look like the worst mom ever during tantrums because eventually Jake just wants me to pick him up....he used to do that during time-out too.)

1100am: Jake entertains himself in the store by going up and down the stairs.

1130am: Lunch at Burger King! (Jake has chicken nuggets and french fries)

12pm: We go grocery shopping. (Jake is good and eats a cheese string..unfortunately the park is closed due to painting.)

130pm: We drive home. Jake falls asleep.

2pm: Jake goes to Natex (NATO base) with my dad since he's still sleeping in the car after unloading groceries. I put groceries away.

3pm: Jake eats 7 m&m's. (Yes, I follow through on my bribes)

330pm: Jake and I go for a nice long walk.

5pm: We play with puzzles (his favorite).

545pm: Supper time! It's fend for yourself night, so Jake has lasagna. (His favorite)

630pm: Bath time. Oh, an extra tantrum when I try to brush his teeth, he does not appreciate the help!

7pm: Bottle, then bedtime. Yes, I bribed him again on the way to bed.

Have a good day!

Happy Friday Night!

We had a good day today. Jake got up at 435am with a couple of cries, but settle down fairly quickly, and honestly, I think he just babbled and stayed in his crib until 621am (Yes, I know exact times because I look at my ipod when I hear him.)
We went to daycare, it's his last day for a week since they are closed next week for repairs. He's just full of energy there and loves to play with the other kids. Jake is actually starting to play and interact instead of just going off on his own. His teachers find him very independent for his age. Jake definitely likes to do things himself.
We came home, he had a nap, we played outside a bit, picked up my mom at work, went to the store to buy some flowers and dirt, came home, played outside some more, played inside, had supper (pizza!), played a bit more, bottle, then time for bed!
On our way outside. He dug into my purse until he found some treats (toddler gummy snacks).
Clapping at the park.
Going down the slide.
Serious baby.
This tractor has peddles, and Jake tries, but his legs aren't quite long or strong enough to quite get the motion.
Jake was just being really silly, he was walking all over the living room on his knees.
Acrobatic baby.

Helping out. Sweeping the deck.

Taking care of bear!

It's been a bit of a crazy week. Jake's been all over the place with sleeping. He was even up from 330am to 8am one day. Luckily, he went down for a morning nap.
I also revamped my blog. By I, I mean Becca from JumpingJaxDesigns. She's pretty awesome!

I have a ton of pictures to post, but I'll start with these one and post more later today or tomorrow AM. I can't blog at night as much since my parents are busy on the computer, and uploading pictures takes up a lot of our already crappy internet!

Here's Jake with his bear. He's always giving his bear kisses, trying to feed it, then the other day he was giving him drinks with his sippy. I just thought it was so adorable!

Drama King!

That's Jake. Well, that was Jake yesterday.
We had a pretty good day, Jake went to daycare, I picked him up, we played a little bit, then he had a bottle, then I put him down for his nap.
When it was nearing 4pm, I went to go wake him up. I thought I heard him when I got up the stairs, so I burst into his room, aka a "Here's Mommy!". Except he wasn't awake, and did NOT like being woken up with my theatrics. If looks could kill....
Then he was mad and let me know it!
He eventually settled down and we went outside to play.
However, isn't his outfit just adorable! That's why I kept taking pictures, he looks like a little boy, not a baby.

The flip side of sleeping.

Jake was up around 7am this morning. Very good! Lately, he's been getting up super early every second day or so. Hopefully, he'll stop completely soon! That would be great. I have noticed that if he takes a long nap, he gets up early the next morning. As nice as nap time is, I try to wake him up at 3pm at the latest.
However, I do think I should rave about Jake's napping and going to bed at night. I've been hesitant to do so because I don't want to jinx it! LOL!
Jake is a pro at going to bed. It's amazing. I truly believe sleep training him was the best thing I ever did. Jake could be a total monster during the day, but the fact he goes to sleep so well, negates a lot of that!
Jake goes to bed at 7pm. He probably could go to bed later, but he's happy at 7pm, and when we change the time next week (in Germany, daylight saving is on the 27th), his bedtime will probably be closer to 8pm. We normally have a bath every second night, though lately with all the outside playing, it's been closer to 5/7 nights. After bath time, Jake has a bottle. He's a little particular about his bottle. I tried switching to a sippy cup, and he was not having it! Plus, he'll only drink his milk warmed up. (When our microwave broke, my mom had to go old school and heat up his milk on the stove.) After his bottle is done, he gets his teddy bear, gives kisses, then I bring him up to bed. I put him down, put a blanket over him and leave the room. He goes down awake and rarely makes a peep. It's as simple as that. Bath, bottle, bed.
As for naps, Jake has been a nap rock star lately and is routinely taking 2-3 hour naps. It has been fantastic. He does the same for naps, has a bottle, but sometimes he fusses before falling asleep again.
Anyhow, both of these keep me sane despite the early mornings at times.

These pictures are from a couple days ago, but Jake has really been into building with his mega blocks. He's so funny too, if I'm on the floor playing with him, he's a lazy butt and makes me get the blocks, and he just builds. I guess I'm his assistant!

Wildpark

Today, I planned to go to the Gangelt Wildpark. I was hoping we would get the weather, since they were predicting rain.
I decided to risk it anyways, and I'm really glad we did. When we first got there, I was thinking it was still closed, there wasn't even a teller! But a worker told me to just walk in, so I did, it was kinda nice to get in for free. Plus, we were there for two hours and didn't see anyone until we were leaving, it was like having the entire zoo to ourselves.
Jake had fun, I think he had as much fun running in the woods than he did looking at the animals!
The only bummer is that we didn't get to play at the park. They had a great playground, but everything was really wet from earlier rain. Jake didn't seem to mind too much, but I did have to put him in the stroller to get him out of there!
Petting the goats. They came running up to him.

You can't really tell on the picture, but he was running up and down a little hill. He would run up, touch the fence, then run down. Repeat.





I left him in the stroller to see the Wild Boar. Because...
She had babies nearby and was being really protective. I didn't want to risk Jake putting his fingers in the fence. But the babies were so adorable!
The bears. Well, here's one bear. There was another one getting on her hind legs, and Jake kept waving. It was cute.
I woke Jake up from his nap to pick up Andrew. We went to rent some movies, and stopped at McDonald's for nuggets since Andrew hadn't had anything to eat. He thought he was going to eat them all, but Jake made him share one!