One year ago today...

...our adorable little guy came into the world. Ok, so he was not so little. But he was adorable. And still is.

I can't believe that a year has passed. On some level, it feels like the last year has flown by. But then I remember the sleepless nights, the inconsolable crying and the endless, cold Chicago winter. Then the year seems exceptionally lllooonnnngggg. ha.

We have not officially celebrated yet as Mark will be back in town on Friday and then we will let him devour his first birthday cake. Instead, Grandma, Grandpa, Jacob and I celebrated today by going to Stacks for breakfast, then to the wildlife park in San Mateo (where we unfortunately didn't see much wildlife) and then we took Jacob to have his 1 year pictures taken. He was in a great mood and hammed it up for the camera as usual.

I get a little emotional when I think about him being a "toddler." There's something so grown up about it that I'm not really ready to accept the fact that I don't have a "baby" anymore. But then I see him walking/running around, laughing at anything and everything and growing more and more personality by the second and I realize that the best is yet to come.

So, in honor of our dear Jacob, here's a little glimpse into our special year with him. Month by month.

The dangers of walking

Jacob and I have been frequenting the mall that happens to be right across the street from our corporate housing. It has a Target and Old Navy attached to it (2 stores I have grown to love since having a baby. I think I can officially say that I am no longer the fashionista that I used to be.) The best thing about this mall is that they have an indoor play area that's perfect for toddlers. Since Jacob is walking now, I like to take him there to practice his new skill. I can tell after only a few visits, he's gaining more and more confidence each day.

Here's the problem. Because he is still wobbly on his feet, he reaches for anything he can hold on to when he starts to topple over. At home, it's usually a piece of furniture, the wall, the cat, or my leg. Away from home, he has a whole other world of options.

So we're at the playground yesterday and I'm encouraging him to walk to the horse, then to the igloo, then to the tunnel, and he's just frankenstein-walking around. So I sit down to let him explore and he starts walking across the play area when I see him lose his footing. No big deal...this happens often. Sometimes he recovers on his own, sometimes he grabs onto something. Unfortunately, that "something" was a little girl in a pink sweater directly in his falling path. I'd say she was about 2 years old but, not surprisingly, the same size as Jacob. As if in slow motion, I jump up to try and rescue at least one of them, when Jacob just throws his arms around her and drags her to the ground. In my head I'm thinking "oh crap, her moms's gonna kill me!" I run over to find the little girl laughing hysterically and Jacob bawling his head off. I thought to myself "why are you crying? You tackled her!" ha. The little girl then proceeded to follow Jacob around saying "I'm sorry baby. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry baby." Her mom was very sweet and we got a good laugh out of it. Two seconds later he was off exploring again (ready to grab onto anything/anyone he could.)

Babies. They crack me up.

p.s. Unfortunately, I didn't capture his tackle on video, but I do have some video of him at the playground. Watch carefully as he almost collides with a little girl in a pink Gap sweatshirt. Apparently he loves little girls in pink.

I also got a cute pic of him looking at me through the tunnel.

It really is the little things...

...that make him die laughing.

The soothie makes a comeback

So, since Jacob was born, he was never really interested in pacifiers. The only thing he took was the green soothie (another version of a paci) that was given to him at the hospital and we only used that to get him down for naps because it seemed to settle him down. For the most part, he even stopped using it at bedtime.

I've always felt somewhat grateful that he never took to love pacis because I've heard about the challenges of weaning babies from pacis and the thought of having to come up with some elaborate "goodbye paci" ritual just exhausts me. So I have felt fortunate that we wouldn't have to go through this exercise.

Until now.

For some reason, in the last 2 days, Jacob has a newfound love for his soothie. He gets SO excited when he sees it. He pops it in his mouth and sucks on it as he walks around the house. He pops it in my mouth whenever he gets the chance. He throws it on the floor, laughs, runs after it and then pops it back into his mouth (or back into mine, thank you very much.)

I'm not sure what to make of this, but I am wondering if I should start planning his goodbye paci party.

The jury's still out on this one folks. I'll keep you posted.

please come down kitty, PUH-LEASE!!!!

I honestly don't know what I'd do without Catcher. He provides endless entertainment (and frustration) for Jacob. He wants to hold him SO badly. You'd think Catcher would throw him a bone. A little snuggle...a quick lick on the face...SOMEthing. Nope. I think the cat secretly loves to torture the little one. And Jacob just keeps chasing him around.

How sad is this? It's like Jacob is saying "please come down kitty!!! Plllleeeeaasseeee!!!"

(and yes, I know my child is half dressed in these pictures. He has found a new dislike for diaper and wardrobe changes. If I get him half dressed, I call that a successful day.)

planes, trains and automobiles

Well folks, we did it. We have moved back to San Francisco! Leaving our house in Chicago was not easy. I stood in the doorway for a moment and felt a heaviness in my heart. That was the house that we brought Jacob home to. It was where we gave him his first bath, where we witnessed his first toothless grin, and more recently, where he took his first precious steps. What pains me even more is that he will never remember that place...and all the amazing times we had in it. (sniff, sniff)

Ahhhh, but we have to move on. Yesterday went almost as smoothly as it could possibly go (other than the fact that I left the DVD player on the plane. The BRAND-NEW-CHRISTMAS-GIFT DVD player that has already been left once in a restaurant in Angel Fire, New Mexico. No worries though -- it was retrieved after a short delay). I was feeling so strange about our arrival to SF until we landed and were welcomed with crystal clear, blue, sunny skies. I couldn't believe it. I forgot how incredibly beautiful this city was. My sadness lifted then, and I was excited to be back in the city where Mark and I began our lives together.

Our new temporary home is "charming". Isn't that the code word for "small" in San Francisco real estate lingo?? I'm not sure -- I'm reaquainting myself with the market out here. Actually, the corporate housing we have is very nice. The place is brand new and nicely decorated. Jacob and I will just have to play outside more to give him some space to run around (and really, how could we not, in 60 degree sunny weather?)

Now if we could just convince all of our friends in Chicago to move out West. Hmmm, I'll be working on that...

It's official

Jacob is walking!

How to scare a baby - 100% effective rate

I finally got a chance to download our pictures from Kansas and I had to share one of our favorite photos. As background, Santa comes to visit Nanny and Papa's house every year around Christmas time to hand out gifts and to share a few cuddles. This being Jacob's first Christmas, he has been uncertain about Santa from the beginning (as evidenced by our 2 trips to the mall to take pictures with Santa that were unsuccessful because Jacob would just scream in Santa's arms).
Exhibit A:

Well, when Santa came to visit us in Kansas, Jacob's opinion of Santa had not changed.

Exhibit B:

As long as mommy and daddy were close though, he would let Santa near him. This picture is hysterical for many reasons but mostly because Jacob is looking at Santa as if to say "Don't you come near me you scary, faceless, sweaty Santa!"

Thanks Mom!

Most of you know that Jacob doesn't nap very well. 90% of the time, he wakes up after 30 minutes and can't go back to sleep (30 min. doesn't cut it my friends.) So, instead of fighting with him to get him back into his crib, most days I just accept the fact that I will be rocking him for the next hour in his room while he sleeps soundly in my arms (I do realize that I have no other children to tend to, so I am lucky to be able to do this.) Well, this was one of those days. I'm trying like crazy to clean out our master bedroom to rid ourselves before we move of the junk that has just piled up in the last year, and I hear him crying. Poor thing. He also developed a horrible cold 2 days ago and you can hear the congestion when he breathes (stupid weather in Kansas and New Mexico!)

So, I throw in the towel, bring my Diet Coke into his room and pick him up and rock him. About an hour later after I had rocked my own self to sleep, I wake up because he's trying to sit up in my arms. He looks at me with these sleepy big eyes and I say "well hello there baby." And this is the magical part. He turns to me, smiles, and leans forward and plants a big wet kiss right on my mouth. Don't be mistaken. It was a KISS. Usually, he busts out the teeth and uses my face as a teething ring. But not this time. He leaned over, gave me a kiss, then wriggled out of arms to the floor and grabbed my hand to take him out of his room. As if to say "thanks mom! thanks for rocking me while I slept!" Ah. TOO cute.

Now, we'll ignore the fact that 10 minutes later he was banging his head on the floor because he was frustrated about something. That doesn't matter because he kissed me.

No rest for the weary

It's amazing the kind of havoc that traveling can wreak on a baby's life. We survived 5 days in Kansas and 5 days in New Mexico, but not without many a sleepless night. I understand now why many of my friends have never left their hometown with a baby. And let me go on the record and say this...shame on all of you who never warned us about altitude sickness and it's truly ILL effects on babies little bodies. Holy Moly. Our first night in Angel Fire was worse than it ever was when he was a newborn, and I would have given my right eye for more than 1 hour of sleep that night. At 1 am (after endless screaming since 8 pm) I wearily climbed the stairs to make a bottle. John came up soon after and said "Good NIGHT, I wouldn't wish this on anybody." ha. I then proceeded to cry on his shoulder. Frank popped up shortly after that wondering why we couldn't keep that kid quiet. Then he decided to take a shower (yes, at 1 am). Jacob had the whole house up -- except of course my parents. They were soundly sleeping through all of it. And that's actually quite surprising. Mom could sleep through freight trains and tornadoes, but Dad wakes up if you blink your eyelashes too hard. Better for us though...that just meant that they had baby duty in the morning.

Ah, but the lesson here is this: "This too shall pass." As I write, Jacob sleeps peacefully in his own crib (hopefully until the morning).

In a perfect world we would avoid traveling for a while, but we don't like to roll that way. Instead, we're packing up and moving back to San Francisco in less than 2 weeks. That day should be interesting. We must pack everything we will need for the next few months because we will temporarily be living in corporate housing. Let me write that again. "We must pack everything we will need for the next few months." And an 11 month old baby. And a 16 pound cat. God help us.

Rachel, if you are reading this, please be waiting at SFO with a bottle of Xanax and wine (in that order.)

Ah, you all know I'm kidding. Despite the lack of sleep, we still had a great time with all of you that we visited. And boy did we get spoiled for Christmas! Thank you for all of your wonderful gifts! Oh, and even in the midst of the madness, we still managed to get a cute pic of our little guy in his snowsuit sporting some cool shades. Merry Christmas!