Guess Who's 4 Years Old!

On the day you were born, I didn't get to physically see you for a couple hours, but I did get to feel, smell and caress you. Even without seeing you, it WAS love at first sight. I do remember seeing your hair when you were pulled from my body, and thinking "What the heck?" I always imagined having a bald baby - not sure why - but it was such a surprise! And then a few hours later after feeling your body and inspecting it with my hands, when the general anasthesia wore off, I could actually see you, and I thought, "Oh my gosh he is so cute, look at those lips, your sweet little face could melt anyone's heart!" Even the nurses in the hospital said you were the cutest baby born that day (You were one of two babies born that day!) I remember they loved to comb your hair. You were so tiny but so strong, already holding your head up to see us. Your little legs had extra skin hanging off of them, and you were swimming in your newborn outfit, when we took you home! I will always remember the feeling of joy and relief I had when I got to feel you next to me for the first time, even without being able to see you, it really was the most amazing feeling. One that brings little butterflies to my tummy, of excitement, joy, anxiety and LOVE.

Here is our first family photo, I remember asking to feel your feet, Daddy was guiding my hand to your feet.





Jakob, you were the sweetest little baby, and still are the most sensitive and caring little boy. You are the best big brother and the sweetest son. You already know how to make a woman happy, with all your compliments for Sarah and I, ("Sarah you are the prettiest girl." "Mommy you are as pretty as a sunset." "Mommy your whole body looks so pretty.") You are going to be the best Husband and Daddy someday!
I love you so much and hope you had the most memorable 4th Birthday!

We started celebrating early, on Thursday, Daddy gave Jakob his first of many (I'm sure), Star Wars toys - they were a big hit!


Friday -Jakob's actual birthday- wearing his Birthday crown from school and showing off some new dinosaurs that Nana and Papa sent.

Today we had a dinosaur party at the house (it was raining off and on, so we squeezed 9, 4 year olds and their parents into our tiny house. We had lots of activities and lots of playing, screaming, laughing,a few meltdowns, and some energy release in the yard, in between the rain.
Oh, Jakob also told Mark that he was actually 5 years old now, because he already turned 4 yesterday and was having another party today so now he was 5! Too cute!
Here are Jakob and Ian getting an early start on coloring their Shrinky Dink insects. Yep we did Shrinky Dinks, I'm sure most of you 30 somthing's remember those! I think they were more fun for the parents!

Digging for fossils (in our sandbox on the porch)


The super yummy birthday cake - made by Auntie Amber! Jakob was so excited to have a cake "with candles". He told me this morning that he didn't know "what to wish for before I blow my candles out." The cake was AMAZING, chocolate cake with chocolate butter cream frosting with a bit of raspberries - so moist and tasty - everyone loved it - so Shout Out to Amber! Amber was also our nanny on the side at the party, taking care of Sarah during all of the commotion - thank god!! It was about an hour after the party started that I remembered "Oh yeah...where's my other kid" NICE! It was really crazy here, luckily we had beer, Kahlua and coffee and snacks to keep the adults happy too!

Lexy and Audrey, wearing their dinosaur faces!

Opening presents!


Happy Birthday Big Boy - Here's to many many many more!

For the Grandparents - again

I know it's been a little while since I've posted - well not that long, but long for the Nana!
Here is Sarah tonight, practicing her newest move - clapping!


Sarah, actually eating peas, without having a whole body convulsion, with disgust! She likes them, as long as they are frozen and as long as she can feed them to herself!


Jakob and Ian at their 1st basketball class - they will have 9 classes, every Saturday - Jakob seemed to like it, but kept asking when he was going to go to swimming lessons. The story is that I asked him which class he would rather take "Basketball or Swimming" and he said "Basketball", but I guess that didn't stick - that's a 3 year old mind for you! We will try to get to the indoor pool more this year!


Oh, and my little accomplishment - I grew a red bell pepper, I can't believe it! I am not a gardener, nor do I really enjoy it, but I planted some tomatoes and a pepper and they actually lived, not sure how the pepper will taste, but I did it! We also grew some strawberries, they were delicious, the ones that I got to have, Jakob ate most of them, as he does with the tomatoes! Maybe next year we will actually make a garden plot - when we have our own place - we'll see how adventurous I get! As we are in Portland longer and longer, it makes me want to garden, it's just the effort and knowledge of which at this moment I don't have either, but everyone around us does it! Plus, Jakob loves it.



Oh and a little first for Jakob, he watched Star Wars for the first time on Sunday and is ADDICTED, he has watched it in the morning and evening everyday since! I think he likes the spaceships and the "light savers" a.k.a. lightsabers. Like Father Like Son!

Exhaustion

This is what we are feeling in out house right now. Between Me having to get up at the crack of dawn to leave the house with Sarah by 7 am, Sarah getting over a cold, Jakob having nightmares - we are all very sleep deprived! Oh, and Sarah is requiring a lot more work now as she is moving everywhere!
This little video is for Sarah and Jakob's big cousin, Sam, who hasn't seen Sarah crawling since she has become and expert! She is also now cruising along the couch, pushing doors open and recently discovered how fun the toilet bowl can be!



"Standing Pretty"

Sarah attacking Jakob in the tub

Jakob trying his best to make a "Santa beard"

Happy 8 Month Birthday Sarah!

Sarah is 8 months old today! She rung in her birthday with a visit to the Pediatrician, she's got a bad cold and was up from 4:30 am-7am coughing! Of course, when I took her in she was just fine, lungs clear, ears fine! This is her 2nd cold in about 3 weeks - gotta love daycare!
So, we spent the rest of the day trying to rest after our early morning hours awake - although Sarah only took a super short nap in the afternoon - which meant a super short nap for Mommy! Ahhhhh, the joys of parenting!

You would never know she was sick, here she is making a wonderful new discovery today...
Chewing on the corner protector of the coffee table

Laughing hysterically when I said "Sarah, what are you doing?" She totally knew what I was saying and kept on doing it - so proud of herself!

Some Recent Pictures

Sarah, standing at her play/music table, she is everywhere and pulling herself up on everything, including people and doors - which makes it hard if you go outside to get the groceries, because when you come back she is standing at the screen door (can't open it or she will fall out)! Lucky for us she has a big brother who can ever so gently pull her away from the door and lay or sit her down! I had to post this picture, because I love her little skirt and she is outgrowing it so fast.


Hiking over the weekend at Tryon Creek (It's really my favorite place to hike in the summer, it's always shaded and has nice trails). This time we took 2 different trails and got a bit lost and walked for a little over an hour - Jakob did awesome, he loves hiking and Sarah just slept on my back most of the time!

A couple Jakob funnies

While playing and looking at spiders and/or caterpillars in the backyard tonight with Daddy and Roxy...
"No Germany!" to Roxy, most of you know that Mark so lovingly calls Roxy "German" since she is a German Shephard.

And then to me after spotting a spider...
"Mommy what's your favorite spider?"
Me: "I guess the Daddy Long Legs? I kind of like their long legs and small body" (Stretching for an answer as I'm not a fan of spiders).
Jakob: "Well, do you like the Mommy Long Legs too?"

Helping Others

So, we have "The Peace Book" by Todd Parr, checked out from the library. It's really a cute book. I read it to Jakob tonight and we talked about what we can do to be peaceful or help others.
Here are some of Jakob's ideas:
His first response was, "We can pick up someone else's dog poop" (Because some else's dog pooped in our yard)
"We can pick up trash that people forgot."
"We can be someones friend...like if someone doesn't have a friend, I could be there friend...I would just ask them what their name is."
"I can teach someone how to read if they don't know how" (Jakob doesn't know how either, but apparently thinks he does!)
About helping homeless people..
"We can let them sleep in our house"
"We can give them a couch if they don't have one."
"We can give them some clothes or books if they don't have any"
"We could give them some food or some seeds so they could plant some food...or pretty flowers!"
"We can give them money if they don't have any...then they could buy a house" (seems so easy doesn't it!)