13 months

Jacob is 13 months. He has really been doing a lot in the last month. Earlier this week, he got 2 new teeth, his top 1st year molars. I wasn't even looking for them since he is still missing one of his incisors, but when I was tickling him and he was laughing on Friday, I saw them. I guess that explains why he was so grouchy and was sleeping so poorly last week. Jacob stands alone all the time now. He stood alone for a significant amount of time (about 30 seconds) on Samantha's birthday. Before that he would only stand momentarily and only if he was distracted. He also took one step alone on Samantha's birthday. He has not repeated that again. He is perfectly capable of walking, as he will hold onto just my pinky finger and walk all around his room, not even using me for any balance, only for security. He just isn't quite ready to go at it alone yet, though. I guess he is more like Samantha was than I realized. His crawling so early and being adventurous threw me off, but in walking, he is doing the same thing she did...waiting until he is capable of running before actually walking.

He has turned into quite the monkey, climbing all over everything. Any box is an invitation to climb up. He even managed to climb onto Samantha's bed the other day. From the arrangement I saw when I got into the room, I am guessing that he pushed the box of duplos up against the toybox and then used that to climb onto the toybox and used the toybox to climb onto the bed. Brent nearly had a heart attack when he went into the kids room and found him up there on the bed. I figure that I am being paid back for all the climbing I did as a young toddler, and for all the near heart attacks my mom had as a result of my climbing.


Jacob has several signs: more, all done, eat, and milk. We are currently working on drink, as well. He also says Mama, up, all done (well he said that once, as he signed it, but it was very clear), Dada and ball. I think that he says Samantha, too, but I am not certain about that one.

Jacob still loves stuffed animals and snuggles them every time he sees one. He waves bye-bye, blows kisses, plays peek-a-boo and claps. He loves to listen to music and dances every time he hears a song.


He nurses 3 times a day (as long as he doesn't wake up during the night) His 4th nursing (the one before his morning nap) has been replaced, in the last week, with a cup of milk and he is doing very well with that...except at church this past Sunday, where I finally had to give in and nurse him so that he would quit screaming.

This boy eats and eats. He can easily eat 2 waffles at a sitting in addition to other finger foods, torn up deli meat, yogurt and fruit. He is eating more and more regular food. He loves green beans and carrots and he also thoroughly enjoyed the bean dip I made the other day. So far he only drinks water and milk...and he actually hasn't been introduced to cows milk yet. I still have A LOT of milk that I pumped while working in the freezer, so we are lowering that supply before I start him on cows milk. The way he takes to everything else, though, I am sure that he will be enjoy cows milk once we do give it to him.


Jacob is a smiley, happy boy almost all the time. He loves his sister and looks for her to play with him as soon as he wakes up every morning. I love listening to them from the other room as they giggle back and forth while they play. This week he has been playing with the music toys that Samantha received for Christmas and he figured out how to play the kazoo and the recorder even faster than Samantha did. He gets excited when Brent gets home from work each day and fusses until Brent picks him up and plays with him. He still wants me most of the time, but you can definitely tell that his Daddy is important to him as well.

We are so grateful that Jacob is part of our family and we look forward to seeing what the future holds for him.