Jacob turned one

Jacob turned one at the end of April, marking one year that we've been in Temple. I can't believe it's already been one year, but at the same time, I'm like, is residency OVER yet??? Sheesh. One year down, four more to go. Looking back, it's been a rough year. I've struggled with the newborn stage, having Jeff be gone ALL the time, and being the new girl with very few friends in a podunk town in the middle of nowhere. Poor Jacob didn't get the monthly photo shoots and monthly stats updates like I did with Christine when she was a baby. Jacob, I hope you will forgive me. You are lucky your mama is still alive.

We had a little birthday party two weeks after Jacob's birthday because we wanted to wait until Daddy could celebrate with us. Gigi and Pooh Bear came, and Tangie Bear and Blue (from blue's clues) were also invited (Christine was in charge of the guest list).

I made possibly the worst looking cake I've ever made. I think my cake decorating teacher would throw it in my face. The cake was too moist (though Jeff tells me that's impossible) but at least it tasted good.

 Christine assisted with the candle blowing.

 Then Jacob had his first ever taste of cake.

 He was a big fan of the strawberry cake.

 He gobbled it up quickly

And even ended up licking his plate clean.

Jacob is such a sweet boy. He likes to snuggle when he's not busy running and climbing and causing general destruction.

He says a few words like Daaaa (dad), bye, hi, ahhh duuu (all done), but nothing close to mama yet much to my dismay

He loves to run around outside. His favorite is playing in Christine's play house. For his birthday we got him a water table that he has so much fun with. Combine that with our splash pad and sand table and the kids have a pretty awesome time playing outside.

Jacob's main goal in life is to kill me. Recently he was chocking and I had to use the baby Heimlich maneuver on him. I had him upside down on my arm and wacked his back with my palm and out flew a metal bolt. "What the?!!!! Where did that even come from??"  I keep a pretty clean house, I try pretty dang hard to keep all small objects off the floor because Jacob puts everything in his mouth. I sweep my kitchen floor several times a day and had just mopped the kitchen floor spotless the night before the incident. How could he have possibly found a random metal bolt somewhere in the kitchen? a few hours later, Jacob was playing in the kitchen while Christine was finishing eating lunch at the table when I notice that Jacob has something in his hand: a metal washer. WHERE ARE THESE THINGS COMING FROM???? At the time he was under the table, so I get down on the floor and climbed under the kitchen table to figure out where these chocking hazards are coming from. Turns out he had UNSCREWED it from the table leg. I checked all the other bolts on the the table to see if any were loose and they were all tight. (afterwards I had Jeff take a wrench to all of them again to make sure they were extra extra tight). I was just baffled. He is deconstructing my furniture!  He must have been working on unscrewing that thing for weeks. Spinning and spinning it looser and looser until he got it off. Ahhhhhh!

 He loves to read books. Every night we read books together and Jacob loves to pull out a book and bring one to me then climb up on my lap, and when I finish he jumps down and grabs another. Christine of course wants to pick some books out too, so we end up reading about 10-20 books a night; always ending with Good Night Moon.

Sweet Jacob I love you so much!