updates

Well, I cannot believe that it's been over a month that we've posted here. For those of you who aren't aware, Andrew and I have signed on to run a new business here in Fairfax, the Fun Bus (www.funbuses.com). It's a mobile kids' gym in a refurbished school bus that attends daycares and preschools for weekly sessions (and we do parties, too!). ANYHOW, that's why things have been slacking on the "look how cute Jake is!" end of things.

Not that he's not adorable. He walks everywhere now, although not always where we want him to go (and always with his hands held at shoulder height, for some reason). He's really fast, and LOVES to walk around outside, exploring things. I'll admit that it's nice to be able to put him down without worrying about him dropping to all fours and crawling through the dirt... of course, now we have to start finding some "good" shoes for him...

With his new-found mobility comes a lot of mischief. He loves to open and close the dishwasher and play with the knobs, and on more than one occasion he's set it to "timed wash" and we've woken up to hear the dishwasher going downstairs. Unfortunately the stove looks a lot like the dishwasher from his level, so we have to be extra-vigilant about that. He LOVES sticks or stick-like things, and he loves to hit things with them. Spoons, chopsticks, straws, brooms, mops, even toilet plungers (when our backs are turned) aren't safe from him... Luckily (or unluckily?) he's also discovered that you can sweep with a broom, so now he tries to help with that.

Still no real words yet, although "uh-oh" is a little out of practice. He definitely has a version of "hello" that he uses: "Eh-woo". He picks up anything that looks like a phone (and since our cell phones are small rectangles, that is almost everything) and tucks in under his chin against his shoulder and says "eh-woo" into it. If there's actually a person on the other end of the line though, he gets freaked out why his toy is making noises. He's also started using a version of "Thank you". It doesn't sound like thank you (more of a "dee-tah") but he says it whenever we hand him something.

I'm going to try to dig up some pictures from his birthday, so you can all share in that. We've been having a lot of fun over the last month, and our little boy is growing so much!

I think we're going to count Jake's first word as "uh-oh". It's the only word he consistently uses in context.

My babybear has had a terrible stuffy nose for a week now, and it's getting prety bad now. He can't breathe through his nose, and I can't make it better. :(

Jake's first haircut

We took Jake to get his first haircut today. Bianca, at Patrizia's Salone in Vienna, VA, has been cutting Andrew's hair since he was 8 years old, so of course she was thrilled to give Jake his first trim. She was so good, too, getting around all of his squirmy fingers and keeping him distracted. Jake looks so different now, all grown up. My little baby is a toddler now!

Jake's out-of-control hair and other pictures

Well, Jake's hair is below his eyes, so it's time for a hair cut. We've got one scheduled for tomorrow, and he needs it, as you can see:




Here's a few recent cute ones too:

Jake playing in the packaging peanuts


Bathtime:


Getting ready for Halloween:


Having lunch with Daddy:


And finally, a preview of Jake's ADORABLE Halloween costume: My Little Stinker

first steps!

Hi all!
On Tuesday evening (Sept 24th), in full view of Andrew, myself, Nana, Pop and Nana Jean, Jake took 2.5 steps! Wow! So I think we can say that he's really starting to walk!
I also am continually surprised at how smart he is. You know, for an 11-month-old. He loves closing doors, and knows how to get around them and out of the way so that he can close them completely (and then gets angry when he can't open them so that he can shut them again). He also has figured out how to go down steps!! I love watching him do it, because we didn't teach him that, he figured it out by himself! He turns around and backs up... only problem is that he does that for everything now; he thinks he can get down off the bed and everything that way! It's made him more fearless!

gift registries

Hi all! With Jake's first birthday coming up, we wanted everyone to know that he's still registered at Babies R Us/Toys R Us (registry # 62213659) and at Amazon.com (search "Rachel A. Korpanty"). You know, just in case. ;)

(Alot of the same stuff is on each registry, just FYI)

Jake's first step?

Jake turns 11 months old today, and we finally caught on video this thing he's been doing for the last several days: sort of a falling, half-step. I don't know if we can count it as an actual step, but if it isn't, it's pretty close!

Here's the youtube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOqdI4ICWck