TA DA

New Things

I’ve been a little worried about Jacob’s language skills. While he’s starting to say more words a lot of them are not that clear and he hasn’t been putting words together. Tonight he surprised me at dinner by saying “more cheese.” Later when he was on the changing table he covered his eyes with his hands and then took them off and said “boo I see you.” So maybe he’s finally starting to get it after all :)

Jake can now count to ten by himself (well mostly). He’s also starting to recognize the numbers as well. Tonight when I handed him the phone to talk to Grandpa he pointed to the “9” button and said nine and then pointed to the “8” button and said 8. He also knew “1” and “2.” I’m hoping that when he finally gets moved to the twos room at daycare that things will really take off.

Jacob is Kosher!

Well actually he just completed the final step to his conversion to Judaism – immersion in a ritual bath called a mikveh. The first step was his circumcision which we did last March. At that time he was given his Hebrew name (he was named after my mother). The next step (which had two parts) we did today. The first part was a meeting with the Bet Din which is a group of three rabbis. They asked me questions about my background/Jewish upbringing and how I planned to raise Jake. The second part was to dunk Jake in the mikveh. He had to go completely under and I had to let go for a second so that the water touched him everywhere. He did a really great job and didn’t cry at all (although I’m not sure he really liked it too much). I had to say a couple of prayers and then we were done and Jacob was officially declared Jewish. We got dressed and we got a certificate to commemorate the event. It was a nice present to receive for Hanukkah!

I tried to take some pictures but because Jake is constantly in motion these days it’s hard to get any decent shots. Here are a few.

Where's the Baby?

This is what I found when I went to check on Jake tonight:

Jacob is Two!!

Happy Birthday to my (mostly) sweet boy!

Thanksgiving

My family came in town for the Thanksgiving holiday and it was great to see everyone. Jake loves hanging out with his Aunts, Uncles and cousins. Part of our weekend celebration included a family birthday party for Jacob and his cousin Shaun (whose birthday was December 1).

Sitting in Grandpa's chair:


Hanging out with cousin Shaun:


Checking out his birthday cake:

Jacob is 23 Months Old!

I can't believe my baby is almost 2 - only 1 more month. He's growing and changing every day. He's now starting to count. I say one and he does two, I do three and he's starting to say four and five. He's definitely got eight, nine and ten down. He can also say the letters in his name. And for some reason he knows the letter "T." When we watch Barney and the HIT logo comes on the screen he'll run up to the tv and point to the letter "T" and say "T."

Jake can point to and name all the boys in our family picture. Not sure why he'll only do the boys but he says Grandpa, Ata (which is Uncle Attila), Steve (Uncle Steve), Matt (Uncle Matt), Max (his cousin), Jack (his cousin) and Shaun (his cousin).

He is starting to sing along a bit more with songs. I can get him to do the la la la parts on several songs. And he knows how to do all the motions for the itsy bitsy spider. He does all the animal sounds for the Grandpa's farm song and says "pop" for pop goes the weasel.

Jake is getting better with going down the stairs and can do part of the way walking (i.e., with out scooting on his behind). He is climbing up on everything - which I'm not sure I really love.

He still loves Barney but has now gotten into Thomas the train as well (although he calls him Tata).

Happy Halloween

Grandpa came over on Saturday to help us carve the pumpkin. Jake wasn't sure he wanted to touch the inside of the pumpkin but we gave him a spoon and let him try to scoop out the seeds. He wasn't that into it so Grandpa finished the job and carved the pumpkin complete with boogers and barf! I loved it and so did several of our trick or treaters (actually I think it was the parents that made the comments but they were positive).






I wasn't sure how Jake would do trick or treating since the Halloween parade at daycare had been a bust - he didn't want to wear his costume and he ended up busting the zipper. Fortunately he was more into it on Halloween and he had a great time mostly because he got to run around outside in the dark. He got the hang of it quickly and was reaching for the candy himself. After we finished trick or treating he helped give out our candy and we watched the Barney Halloween episode (of course).










Here are a few pics from the daycare Halloween parade:

Pumpkinfest

Today Jake and I met my sister Eve and her two boys, Jack and Shaun at Butler's Orchard for Pumpkinfest (somehow we managed to come home without a pumpkin). We rode the hayride, Jake and Shaun each rode a pony (Jake loved it and wanted to do it again but Mommy said no), ran through mazes (including a hay maze), checked out some chickens and overall had a great time. Here are a few pictures from our adventures.








We also did a dry run on the Halloween costumes. He wasn't that into it but then again he only took a 50 minute nap this afternoon and he was trying to watch Barney (but Mommy wanted him to try on his costumes).

School Pictures

They took "school pictures" at daycare a couple of weeks ago and I wasn't optimistic that they'd be all that great (the ones from last Spring were HORRIBLE). So I was pleasantly surprised to see how nice they came out. They were obviously taken pre-haircut :)

1-Year Anniversary as a US Citizen

One year ago today Jake and I got home from Kaz and Jake officially became a US citizen!

Jacob is 22 Months Old!

TBC - Yeah I know I've been lame and haven't added anything here yet but it's been a crazy week.

Happy Gotcha Day

One year ago I was in Kazakhstan where Jake and I were finally together forever. I can't believe how much he's grown and changed in the last year.

September 28, 2009





September 28, 2010