Celebration!

Look Mom, it's cheese. Okay, it is rice cheese, but it actually tastes like American cheese. He loves it. I was happy that our store had it! Now I will try taking fake cheese and substitute noodles and making fake macaroni and cheese!

Here is the pooped out boy after our trip to the zoo!

So we had a pretty good birthday party. It was hot but the shade of our patio was nice. The food was good and Jake loved to entertain his guests. He wasn't so sure about the cake at first. I should have taken it out of the fridge sooner so the frosting could soften up some and be easier for him. It wasn't too bad of a cake. We will have to buy the cake mix again. I didn't like the frosting very much. I'm not sure if it was the fake butter or the frosting mix, but one of them had a very strong butter taste. I love butter, but I love real butter and this was too much. We will have to try something else or the cake was good enough for no frosting. Jake ended up with a terrible belly ache about 10:30 and I am attributing it to the cake. I was within 5 minutes of taking him to the hospital, but he started calming down.

One of my friends took such good pictures for me that it is almost like watching a movie. It was nice to have someone else taking pictures for once. Jake really got into the cake. There was cake a good ten feet away from his highchair. Once he figured out how the more he got into the cake the more all the girls cheered he had a ball! It was great. The one bad thing was that the fake butter is made from vegetable oils and he was slicker than snot even after the bath. His skin was sure soft the next day though!

So after his bath we opened presents. He could have cared less. I thought he would get into the paper and the bags but he didn't care at all. In the very first bag we opened there was a phone and that held his interest for quite some time.
Look a rare picture of mom! Mike's mom (in the background) was all in a tither before she came over. She gets all freaked out when there is an event. She likes events to be at her house and she gets all uptight before they happen. I called and asked Mike's sister to come over and watch Jake while I went to pick up food because my mom was late. When she got here she said she was so relieved to get out of her mother's house because she was having "the big one." I was exhausted because I literally had no sleep the night before between my two boys and I just didn't want to deal with her and how she gets. However, I was pleasantly surprised. After the initial "she's here" moments, she really settled down and actually had a good time. She had a couple of little mini fits, but they were easily ignored. It didn't help that my mom ended up being five hours late from the original time she was to be here. She was actually about an hour late for the party. That is her way of drawing attention to herself. Oh well. No one really cared so she wasn't a big deal either. So neither grandma ruined the day! Grandpa and dad both consumed a bit of beer but they were okay too. Mike just isn't a big gathering kind of guy. He doesn't do well with company. He and my best friend's husband do pretty well together so Doug helped keep him calm. Plus Mike's sister helps keep him relaxed. So all was well.

Yesterday I even got Mike to church. I thought he was going to die, but he did it. We FINALLY got Jake baptized. If we ever have another baby we will make sure we do it sooner. Jake was a bit of a stinker but church is during his nap time. He was asleep not ten minutes after his baptism was finished. I couldn't believe Jake sniffed his daddy's feet after we got home from church. Mike has major, MAJOR foot odor issues.

So our little Jake is really becoming a boy. He starting walking on Wednesday and is doing pretty well with it. He will take about a dozen steps at a time. He also has discovered that there is a world above what is at his chest level and we are in trouble! He is a little fella now. He weighed in at 21lbs 4 oz, and is 29 inches long at his appointment. Both were 50th percentile. His head however is 19 inches which is 95th percentile. Our doctor said he is going to be very smart with such a big head. I said, well, at least he will wear a big hat and she laughed. He is very chatty and you can understand most of what he says. He is finally saying "mama" regularly. He will say back just about anything you say. He says thank you every time he gives you something or takes something from you. He calls a lot of things "kitty."

I have loved being off for almost a week. I don't want to go back. We have had some really bad nights and I don't know if it is because we are out of our routine or because they were just going to be bad nights. I have really enjoyed my time with Jake and with Mike. I wish I could get used to this. I think Jake is starting to like it too. The only thing is that he is a very social little guy and I know he likes all the people at daycare. He will be in his new room tomorrow and we will see how that goes. They changed the teachers around last week so one of the girls that he really, really likes isn't with him anymore. She is the only person that has remained a constant since his very first day there. Can you blame him? She now stops in and sees him before she starts work.

Jake is taking bottles from me at home in the middle of the day. It is just hard when he gets tired and or doesn't feel good. Then he wants to nurse. He let Mike give him a bottle before bed last night even. I think I am going to stop pumping at work completely. I hoping that if I can make it the rest of this week at work we will be good. I will have supplies there of course, just in case I get too sore, but I think with this time off it will be okay. Last week was the first time he didn't get at least some breast milk at daycare. I don't think they can have much formula left and then we will switch to rice milk. That will be nice!