The kiddos

I'm long overdue on an update post... particularly for Jake, so his portion might be a bit lengthy.  Since he's my oldest, I'll start with him first:

I can't believe my baby boy is already 19 months old!  At his 18 month check-up last month he was 35 1/4 inches tall and 30 1/2 pounds... both of which are in the 98th percentile!  I think we have a future linebacker on our hands!  He's well into 2T clothes and is almost out of size 7 shoes.  The little man passes his "hand-me-ups" to his cousin, Adam, who is 2 months older than he is!  Must be his corn-fed Illinois roots!

I think at every stage I make the comment that "this is my favorite age," but I really mean it this time!  The kid amazes me because he learns something new EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.  And I'm with him all the time, so I'm not even sure where he picks some things up!  I could not possibly list all of the words that he says, but some of his favorite phrases include "Oh wow!", "Oh no", and we just started saying "Uh-oh."  The other day he was looking at a Halloween greeting card and saying "oh wow" over and over again and then handed it to Josh.  Josh said "thanks, buddy" and Jake looked back at him and said, "Say oh wow."  He cracks me up.  Honestly, he pretty much talks non-stop all day long.  It's endless chatter and I will pick up a word here and there, but the rest is just gibberish.  He has a Buzz and Woody doll and my favorite thing is when he holds them close to his mouth and talks quietly to them as if it's a secret.  Buzz and Woody probably have blackmail information on us by now, but we wouldn't know it!  Like I said, his vocabulary is huge, but the word "Anyo" can mean airplane, thank-you, Angie, or I love you at any given time, so you have to pay attention to the context!  He's also obsessed with the moon, which I love since I've always been a bit enamored with it, too.  He's such an observant fellow and will point it out even if he sees it in the daytime.  He'll also point out airplanes that he hears fly over our house when we're inside, which always impresses me.  And if we're in the car, he generally points out tractors (or other construction equipment), animals, and other obscure things before we even see them.  He once woke up out of a dead sleep in his carseat because he heard a siren and had to see where it came from.  It blows my mind.  There are also certain words that he always whispers, which is kind of strange, but I like it.  "Bye bye" is one of them and he usually says it over and over when we're leaving some place.  On the flip side, he always growls the word "Spiderman" (which sounds more like Mah-mah... maybe he thinks I'm a superhero?  Sweet!) because Josh said it in a strange voice the first time he ever pointed him out to Jake.  What a smartie.

Sorry... I don't think I meant to go on that long about vocabulary and that's only the tip of the iceberg!  Physically, Jake is one of the most coordinated little guys I've ever seen!  He can throw a ball clear across a room and runs EVERYWHERE.  Well, sometimes he gallops which is hilarious, too!  We have a pretty substantial hill in our backyard and he loves to walk to the top and then run down it at full speed.  I keep waiting for him to face-plant, but he always makes it down in one piece.  He also hasn't met a piece of furniture that he can't climb and I've even found him on the kitchen counter on more than one occasion.  He walks up and down the stairs now like a grown-up would, but prefers to slide down on his belly since it gets him there a whole lot faster.  Again, it's all about speed.  His jumping skills (on the bed, the couch, his crib, you name it!) have only improved since our last post about it.

Other things that Jake loves include cars, trucks, trains, etc... anything that has wheels it seems!  He also loves airplanes and was in awe of a firetruck that we saw the other day.  I learned today that he can put his puzzle pieces in their proper places and can point out all of the animals in his animal book.  If you ask him where the giraffe, zebra, bear, etc. is he will point right to it!  He still has a slight obsession with Barney and if he gets ahold of Josh's iPhone, he can literally unlock it with his finger, find the YouTube icon, and load a Barney video on his own!  But sometimes he's more in the mood to play his Cars game or play with his Toy Story 3 app and can load those up, too!  It's scary how good he is with that thing!  He is also very into dressing himself or, if I pick out his outfit, he will later come to me with something different (that he most likely found in the hamper) and start trying to pull off his shirt.  His choice is almost always red, but the other day his choice was something that Mommy loved!:

At mealtime the kid eats almost everything, but we're finding that he does go through phases of what he likes and dislikes.  He once loved grapes and now he won't touch them.  He still loves almost every other fruit though and asks for a "bapple" at least once a day.  We have to hide watermelon if we have it in the house because he would literally eat it all in one sitting.  Unlike his mama he likes most veggies as well and seems to prefer carrots and broccoli... I'm glad he doesn't take after me on that!  It's actually more difficult to get him to eat meat than anything else, but we find that he'll try just about anything as long as there's a healthy amount of Ranch dressing on the side, which is totally something he gets from his daddy.  We're starting to give him a cup of water without a lid at mealtimes, which goes well most of the time.  He loves to play in water though, so every now and again he'll splash his hands in it or dump it on his tray and swirl it around.... it just depends on his mood I guess.

Josh and I see a lot of our traits in him, which is good and bad.  He gets easily frustrated if he can't do something or figure something out right away, which is totally me.  He's also a natural leader almost to a fault and will physically grab your foot and move it in the direction he wants you to go.  Or he'll grab you around the leg and "steer" you there.  If you're carrying him, he will point to where he wants you to take him, so he's getting quite bossy these days!  If I'm holding Lilly he'll often point to her chair or carseat and say "Baby" until I put her down!  He still pretty much leaves her alone unless she's laying on the floor, in the bed, or on the couch (basically not in any of her baby gear) and then he's all over her!  He thinks it's hilarious to pull out her pacifier and shove it back in her mouth, so I have to watch him closely.  He also comes dangerously close to stepping on, laying on, or putting all of his weight on her, so I stick by to make sure she's safe.  I'm glad he seems to love her though.

Like I said, I could go on and on and on about him at this age, so I'll just mention one more thing and then move on.  I am particularly proud of the little man when it comes to learning his letters.  He has always loved books and has had a baby laptop that teaches letters since he was 9 months old.  Apparently that stuff has sunk in because he can now recognize several letters... see for yourself (and please ignore the crying baby in the background!):

Oh how I love him!

As for Lil, there is not too much to report since she did not have a 1-month check-up.  We went at two weeks and she was 21 and 3/4 inches tall (90%) and 8 pounds, 13 ounces (60%)... tall and skinny!  We go back at 2 months and I am interested to see how much she's grown, since I can definitely tell that she's gotten much bigger since then!  She's out of her newborn clothes (sniff!) but still swims a bit in 3-month clothes, particularly in the waist.  She still has all of her hair and I'm pretty sure she's going to keep it (unlike Jake did) because she has much thicker hair than he ever had and dark eyebrows and lashes.  Her eyes are still a dark gray-blue, so it might be awhile before we know what color they will be in the long run.  She's now six weeks old and giving us lots of smiles, particularly in the mornings.  She snoozes during the early afternoon and is a bit of a night owl, staying awake for hours at a time in the evenings.  The good news is that she sleeps for 5-6 hour stretches during the night so I'm getting more rest than I expected to at this point!  She still seems to have a pretty calm disposition and only fusses if I don't feed her when she wants to eat, particularly in the evening.  She doesn't mind tummy time at all and actually seems to prefer it.  And although I know it was a fluke, she has already rolled over from her tummy to her back!  Granted, it was one of her "angry" moments and she was wailing, so in her anger she accidentally rocked herself over!  We were impressed that Jake did it at 7 weeks, but she must have our competitive spirit and had to beat him to it!  What a big girl!

Here's our sweet Lilly at one month:

Love that cute little double chin!

Like I said, Jake pretty much leaves her alone until she's not in one of her designated baby seats, swing, etc.  When she's on the couch or in this chair for example, it's fair game.  These would probably be a whole lot cuter if he was actually wearing more than just a diaper!  But it goes to show their difference in size!

Ohhhh life with two... it sure does keep things interesting!  There's never a dull moment in Mauneyland these days!