First Steps

Ryan took his first steps last night! We were all sitting in the family room watching TV together and he was cruising between James and I. We were all watching him and I think he didn't realize that he wasn't holding onto my legs anymore and took a few steps to James. We got him to go a few rounds between us, but then he fell down once, and wouldn't try again.

Knowing how cautious Ryan is, he probably won't trying walking again for a while, but I'm hoping he is walking well by the time it's warm enough to play outside. When he starts trying again, I'll get it on video and post it for you all to see.

Blogging question

Does anyone know how to make it so that you can click on a picture on our blog and have it show up bigger? Some of the pictures work on the blog that we did about the house, and some don't. It's driving me crazy and I can't figure it out! Thanks for the help!

Anyone want to buy a house??? Anyone???

Today we listed our house for sell in preparation for our move to California. I guess I haven't officially announced that James accepted a position working for a practice in Ventura. We are really excited, but today's events brought with them a very bittersweet feeling for me. We have loved this house, our time in Ohio, and all the friends that we have made. On one hand we never want it to end! But on the other hand, we cannot wait to get to California and move on with our lives. But I guess we all have to face the real world sometime, and our time is coming up quick!


So, on that note, if you want to buy our house... (Anyone? Anyone???) feel free to check out our blog that has more information and some pictures. You can also find it on www.realtor.com and other real estate websites.

http://5561seapineroad.blogspot.com

By the way, the pictures of Tyler's new cowboy room are much much better on the blog listed above. I had my 3-year-old photography assistant helping when I took the last post's.

Just in Time to Move

A few months ago, I put Tyler down for his regular afternoon nap (I miss those days!). I guess he didn't want to go to sleep because he came out a while later saying that something was wrong with his wall. When I went in to investigate, I discovered that he had picked at the cute wallpaper border and tore a bunch of it down.

Now that we are about to put our house on the market, we were forced to redecorate his room. James painted it, and I did all the decorations. I gave myself a $100 budget (not including the new dresser) to turn it into a cowboy room. I spent way too much time and effort on it, but I think it turned out rather cute, and I didn't go over my budget too much. I still need to get some pictures printed up for the frames, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

What do you think???

Before:

(You can just ignore the goofy look on Ty's face. But check out his cute cousin, Ben, who did not want to get his picture taken)

After:

James has been bugging me forever to cut Tyler's hair a little bit shorter. I compromised and said I would get it cut enough so you could see his ears, but that the rest was staying long. However, just as the hair dresser was trimming his bangs just a little bit to finish up the haircut, Tyler flinched. Thus we had to go quite a bit shorter than I anticipated, and his bangs still are not quite even!

I'm taking a poll because I really can't decide what to do with Tyler's hair. It was fun to have it longer because I think it matched his fun, laid-back personality. Plus it was different than every other little boys hair and I didn't have to get it cut very often, which is an excruciating process with Tyler! He hates them! I also think it looks good short and might even be persuaded to take it even shorter (Don't count on it though, James!!!), even though I may have to torture Tyler a bit more often. What do you all think???

P.S. I just noticed Tyler is wearing the same outfit in both pictures! Too Funny!

Happy Birthday, Ryan!

My sweet baby is one year old today! I can hardly believe it! Luckily he seems to be content to be a baby a little bit longer until we can realize that we have a 1 year old! He is still happy to be crawling and will not have a thing to do with any food but baby food and the occasional Cheerio. I'll keep him a baby as long as I possibly can!

Dad and the Birthday Boy

Tyler and I spent a while this morning on the internet looking for a cute birthday cake to make for Ryan. We finally settled on these cute bug cupcakes that I thought looked easy to make, but I realized that there are those who are born to create and those who are not, and I am definitely the latter. I'm not sure it was worth the effort since Ryan smashed the cupcakes all over his highchair, threw the pieces on the floor and wouldn't even take a bite - like I said earlier, he is not a fan of real food. But they were fun to make and pretty entertaining to watch him go after that cupcake. One thing I did learn is that dark blue icing will stain a baby's hand and turn a bath bright blue. :)

We were not going to do much for his birthday this year since he really doesn't need anything and it would be just one more thing to pack up this summer when we move, but Tyler really wanted to get him a present. So this afternoon, Tyler and I went on a little shopping trip. I thought it was pretty sweet that Tyler wanted to get Ryan a present so badly. Of course, what did Tyler pick out??? You've got it, a Baby Einstein movie.

Tyler trying to give Ryan a hug and kiss after giving him his present.

James, Ryan and Tyler all trying to get the Elmo Remote out of the box.

Ryan was thrilled with his new remote!

Tonight one of my best friends brought over this darling blanket she made for Ryan. Thanks, Laur! He loves it! He laid in his bed tonight drinking his bottle and rubbing the soft silky edge and looked very relaxed.

Happy Birthday, Baby Boy! We love you so much!

A Little Bit About Ryan

Tyler, Ryan and I have made it back home safely from Ireland. James is still at "our Dublin house" and will be for another week. At some point I really will finish blogging about our trip, but for today, I wanted to tell you all about Ryan. He had his 9-month check-up last week and he now weighs 19 lbs. 5 oz (30th percentile) is 28 3/4 inches long (50th percentile) and his head size is in the 85th percentile. Pretty typical for a Jacobs' baby.

Here are some of the fun things about Ryan that make us love him sooo much:

1. He is truly his father's son. They look so much alike. It's almost like Heavenly Father put James' head on a baby's body.
2. I always know when he is after something that really is exciting because he will start laughing "Ach, ach, ach, aaaach" in his very growly voice as he is racing to get whatever precious item is on the floor. (Watch the video below to get a little sample of his growl - but please ignore Tyler's hacking cough in the background)
3. The precious item is usually either Tyler's Crocs or a Lightening McQueen car.
4. I have started calling him "Screech" at night because when he gets really tired, he gets really loud. And shrill.
5. I just watched him learn how to clap a few days ago. He was trying so hard to get both of his hands to stay flat long enough to make a noise. He would get one hand flat, and then use that hand to pry open the other, and CLAP! Then the other hand would close into a fist and he would start the whole process over again. He was determined to get it right and he finally did after a full 10 minutes of sincere concentration. I only hope that determination sticks with him the rest of his life.
6. He thinks that Tyler is the funniest person alive. He laughs and laughs at Tyler, which eggs Tyler on, which gets them both rolling.
7. He has no interest in baby toys. He only wants to play with what Tyler is playing with. Even if Tyler isn't home and he has the choice between Tyler's toys and baby toys, he always chooses Tyler's.
8. Ryan is such an easy baby. He is so mellow, was so good at sleeping through the night from about 6 weeks on and is so so happy 99% of the time.
9. Ryan recently graduated to a real crawl, but since he was about 6 months old, he had moved around using the "pirate crawl." The "pirate crawl" is a modified version of the army crawl where Ryan would move forward (very quickly) using his arms and only one leg. His right leg always dragged behind him and was not at all useful - kind of like a pirate's wooden peg leg.

10. Ryan will take a binky, but will also suck his thumb if he can't find one. But it's not just his thumb that he sucks. He somehow manages to get part of his sleeve or shirt over his thumb and sucks it through that. Lately he has also been grabbing a fistful of my hair and wrapping it around his thumb and then sucking it.
11. He and Tyler have the same cute dimple when they smile.

12. Ryan's first finger food was a McDonald's french fry. And yes, he loved it. It did bum him out when he would mistake his thumb for the fry though. (Here is my disclaimer for my bad mom moment. We were in Ireland, I had nothing else to feed him and he was starving and whining. The french fry solved all our problems and let Tyler have enough time on the play yard to burn off some serious energy on a rainy Dublin day.)

We love you, Ryan!