Eighteen Months

The Jacob-boy turned 18 months old on Saturday!   Crazy to think that he's been in our little family for a year and a half!  Many people have made comments to us about how exciting it is that he'll now go to nursery on Sundays . . but not so, my friends, not so.  Ben & I were called to be the Junior Nursery leaders basically as soon as we moved here, so Jacob has been going to nursery since he was 15 months old!  He's a pro by now.  Jacob is a toddler, and as such, pushes me to my limits.  But oh, how I adore him.  He lights up my life with love, joy, innocence, and excitement.  He's a smart little fellow and I love watching him learn and figure things out.  At 18 months, Jacob - 

- weighs 23.4 lbs (16th percentile)

- is 31 inches tall (15th percentile)

- sleeps 12 hours through the night

- takes a 2-ish hour nap each day

- says "no," "yesh," and "Da"

- loves gymnastics class, swimming class, and ECFE "preschool"

- loves going to the park to run, climb, slide down the biggest slides, and swing

- is happiest when he's outside

- knows his bedtime routine: bath, diaper, pajamas, brush teeth, go upstairs with Mickey Mouse, say prayers, give Dad a kiss, give Mom a kiss, wave to Dad, nurse to sleep - it is CUTE watching him know what to do

- you read that ^^ right - he is still nursing . . hoping to wean soon!

- greats Dad at the garage door as soon as he hears it open each night

- loves to read, stack blocks, hammer things, and is all about CARS, TRUCKS, TRAINS . . like oh my goodness

We LOVE our Jake-boy to pieces!!

Settling In

We are starting to settle in to our new lives here in Plymouth, MN.  The transition was rough - we felt rushed moving in, and it was a really big change for Jacob (and for Ben & me).  But now that we've been here for 2 1/2 months we are feeling more settled both physically and mentally.  We're all unpacked, we know where the grocery store is, and we are getting into a routine.

Ben is really enjoying his new job at General Mills.  He's working on the Old El Paso team and has a really great group of people to work with.  The work is busy and overwhelming, but so enjoyable for him (and for me to talk about with him at dinner time . . much more so than his previous work).

I am getting into a better routine with my Usborne work, which has really taken off over the past few months.  I thought I was busy last year, but I am much more so now.  I am loving it and I love helping to provide for our family doing something that I enjoy and while filling our home (literally to the brim) with amazing books.  Jacob loooooves to read and that just fills my heart with joy.

Jacob is a busy little man!  On Mondays we have gymnastics class, where he excels - he loves to run and climb and jump and roll.  This past week he was very much interested in walking on all the balance beams, and he surprised us by knowing when/where to do somersaults!  He needs our help, but he loves to "roll" all the time.  On Wednesday evenings we have swim class and Jacob likes to kick, but loves to jump in over and over even more.  On Thursday mornings, Jacob & I go to baby story time at the library where we read books and sing songs and then play with toys - we both enjoy it very much.  On Fridays, we have ECFE - early childhood family education - it's like a preschool setting where the 16-20 month olds learn about that kind of environment and the parents discuss parenting toddlers with a family educator.  It's such a great resource!  When we're not doing one of those activities, we are usually at one of the 65 (65!!) parks in the city of Plymouth.  The parks here are amazing...like really, really amazing.  We also go for walks and run errands to the grocery store and to Target.

Jacob & I joined the gym, and while we had a very rough go at it for a long time, Jacob went this last Thursday with no tears at all!  This is so great for us because he gets to play and learn how to be okay without me, and I get my exercise in!

It is already getting cold, cold, cold outside and I know we have many, many, many more degrees to go down this winter.  It's a little worrisome, but we plan on getting ourselves outfitted for the winter at REI soon.  We have been so surprised at how wilderness-y it is here - a very beautifully developed city, but plenty of open space and ponds and lakes and trees and birds and squirrels and bunnies . . we LOVE it.  Plymouth is SO family-friendly.  There is so, so, so much to do here for family and young children - all year round - and thus far, Plymouth has very much exceeded our expectations.  We are so impressed! 

Here are some totally-out-of-order picture high-lights since we've been here.

Indiana

After leaving Los Angeles and visiting my family for a few weeks, we left California (sad day for me) and flew to Indiana to spend a couple of weeks with Ben's family!  Trying to soak in our last few weeks of Ben not working before we works, well . . for a long, long time.  We had such a blast in Indiana!

Buddy was a trooper on the airplane rides.  He's wild, be we hung in there.

Ben's friend Josh, who play in the NBA, had a bunch of guys over to play basketball one night and we stopped by.  We'll show Jake these pictures some day - playing basketball with an NBA star.  ;) 

Thanks to Usborne, I purchased my very own car all by myself!!  Isn't she a beauty?

We visited White Rock park, which was tons of fun - a swimming hole in an old rock quarry.

Jacob is very good at helping Nana clean.

And he loves arcade games!

Here is our little family now . . 

and here we are pre-marriage!  

 Jacob loved the water park and he absolutely adored the children's museum.

Sky Zone was a blast . . possibly more for me than for my boys.

This was just funny.

And we celebrated my 27th birthday before we left Indiana to begin our new adventure in Minneapolis!