An Afternoon at the Beach

We took Jacob to the beach for the first time today (it's about time, since we live 5 miles away). Jacob was not impressed. He made fantastic faces as we let his feet touch the sand and the water. We also used our Snugli backpack for the first time.

the beach

Jacob's first Christmas!

Here are some photos from our first Christmas with Jacob. We have been very busy the last few weeks getting ready for lots of family to visit. Within a three day span, Jacob got to see all of his grandparents and aunts and uncles. Jacob also had his first haircut a week ago, but Mandi forgot the camera. Oops! We only had the back trimmed, though, which you can see in one of the pictures. There are also a few pictures from this afternoon, when Jacob decided it would be fun to climb into the shower and crawl around.

Christmas

Jacob continues to crawl and cruise all over. He can pretty much get wherever he wants to go, and grab whatever he wants to play with:



And he can even climb the stairs now:

Jacob Eats French Fries

Yup, he did. In-n-Out fries. Are we bad parents? Probably. But he ate. By himself. Something besides the bottle. We consider this one small victory.

I also included two pictures that show why Jacob is not allowed in the computer room.

French Fries & Computer Cables

A Typical Day in the Stiles House

Here are a few photos to show just a few of the typical activities you might find going on if you stopped by the house on any given day.

A typical day

Jacob "helps" with the laundry

Jacob loves helping out around the house! Here he is, helping Mandi sort out the laundry, and helping us check to make sure the washing machine is fully emptied out.

A Visit to Santa Claus

I took Jacob to see Santa Claus today. It actually went better than I thought. He wasn't scared, just totally amazed.

Santa Claus

Toilet Paper

As I was prepping lunch today, I realized that it was rather quiet in the living room. So I went and checked, and he wasn't in the living room. He was in the bathroom discovering the wonders of toilet paper.

Jacob and the toilet paper

Another Tooth!

Yes, that makes seven, and three of them in the last nine days. Poor baby. Now if only he would learn to eat with those pearly whites...

(Sorry, no pictures this time.)

Hello, Christmas card readers!

I've uploaded some full-resolution versions of the Christmas card pictures, for those who were asking for them:

Christmas Card photos

Next, we finally managed to capture his elusive lip-playing noises on video—check it out. I swear, we did not teach him this. It's all a Jacob original. (For those paying close attention, "Goose" is our Jacob nickname.)



We've also captured some great photos of Jacob doing some of his current favorite things. He loves brushing his teeth—any time he sees Mommy or Daddy doing it, he demands his toothbrush so he can play too. He is also fascinated by watching the washing machine rotate—good thing we got that front loader! And finally, he loves cruising and switching from one piece of furniture to the next.

Toothbrush, Washing Machine and Transferring

As for the current tooth count, Jacob has six! He cut two last week, he'll be cutting another any day now, and another sometime in the next couple of weeks. And his eating is slowly getting better. He occasionally likes jarred food and he loves the little Gerber puffs, but that's about it.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Jacob visits Grandma and Grandpa's

Although Steve (the dog) is not in the frame for many of the pictures, Jacob's eyes are on Steve in every picture in this album. He is fascinated by dogs.

Grandma and Grandpa's (Thanksgiving)

Incrediblock

Here is Jacob with his new toy! It's something he can pull up on, and it has lots of blocks for him to shake and put in his mouth. He seems to like it a lot so far.

Incrediblock

9 Months Old!

We can hardly believe it ourselves. He is 9 months old! He is also 30 inches tall (76 cm, Jay) and 20 lbs.! Wow! Jacob still only has four teeth, but he is busy as can be exploring his world. He is still working on pulling up on furniture, but once he's up, he's cruising away!

Here are some of our holiday pictures (we had to save some for Christmas). I also included a couple of Jacob cruising along the coffee table today.

Holiday pictures and early cruising

Halloween, and then Jacob stands!

Jacob got to go trick or treating at Blizzard on Tuesday. But we forgot the camera. We did get some pictures of him on Halloween, though, before going to visit the neighbors. He makes a totally adorable Snoopy.

Jacob has also been crawling all over the place, still dragging his belly. He has started to pull up though, mostly on us. But lo and behold, we discovered him in his crib today. I think it's time to lower the mattress!

The last seven pictures show Jacob about a week ago crawling down the hallway. Enjoy!

Halloween, crawling, and standing

Jacob Likes Yogurt

As many of you already know, we have had our difficulties trying to feed Jacob solid food. It has been an uphill battle all the way. So recently we have been trying to be more flexible, maybe try some different approaches to feeding, just to see what works and what he likes.

Well, he likes yogurt, if we let him eat it his way. It's quite messy and entertaining and a lot easier than spoon-feeding. This was a fun experiment and might be worth trying with some other foods as well.

Videos from around the house

We've captured some fun Jacob moments on film for all to enjoy. First, here is a video of our typical bathtime experience nowadays. He does this every time we put him into the tub—he's really enjoying his new game.



Although now, we have to close the shower curtain because he splashes so hard!

Next, here he is with one of his toys—it's a block with a piece you can pull. It looks like a frog leg. When you pull it back, it retracts and makes the block vibrate. Now, we've enticed him with this before by showing him how it works, but we didn't expect he'd find a way to operate it on his own. (It helps to have teeth. His current count: four!) Well, he sure proved us wrong:



He's pretty darn clever! It never ceases to amaze us.

Jacob Has Surgery

Jacob had surgery, again, yesterday at 7:00 am. Jacob developed another lump on his bottom, in a different spot from before. They did the exact same procedure as done previously. Unfortunately, we don't know what causes it, how to prevent it, or whether or not he will get any more. The procedure was in some ways much easier this time, as we knew what to expect, and it was done so early in the morning (Jacob only complained about not getting his breakfast for about 20 minutes before the surgery). Also, because it was taken care of so quickly, the infection was much smaller this time, and should heal faster. He fell asleep in the car on the way home yesterday morning, and then slept for almost 3 hours! Other than that, he has been his happy busy self. Now, we just hope he doesn't get any more of these darn things.

To demonstrate how well Jacob is doing, I included pictures of him at dinner last night.

Jacob's sippy cup

Pioneer Day

We just got back from Paso Robles, where Jacob (and Daddy) got to experience their first Pioneer Day. Some of the festivities included the anual Pioneer Day parade full of tractors, and a trip to the Pumpkin Patch.

Pioneer Day

While we were there, Jacob got lots of practice attempting to crawl. Nana and Papa's dog was a huge motivator for Jacob. Unfortunately, we forgot the video camera, so we recorded some of his attempts at home. We also included his "swimming," which is rapidly disappearing as he improves with crawling.

Crawling, Almost

At long last, Jacob has figured out a crude form of locomotion. He digs his toes into the floor and then flexes his knees to scooch along the floor. It's slow going, and doesn't work so well on bare carpet (rugburn!), but he's certainly pleased with himself. Mommy and Daddy are quite proud too.

Our new favorite game is to build a little tower out of plastic stacking cups and set it about a foot out of his reach. Then we just sit back and thirty seconds later, he'll invariably have crawled over to it and knocked it down. He loves knocking down towers.

We'll be leaving town for Nana and Papa's tomorrow morning but maybe we will bring along the video camera to try to record Jacob in action. It's pretty fun to watch. Not exactly action-packed, but still highly entertaining.

(Sorry, no new photos this time.)

Jacob Explores His World

This is an eclectic selection of snapshots from the last two weeks.
He's been growing fast! Two teeth are have broken through the gums now, and we're starting to think that he's going to be able to crawl any day now.
The last four pictures in the album are pretty hilarious... Mandi sent out an email which I'll quote verbatim:

Jacob can finally fit in (and the weather is cooperating) his totally adorable outfit from the Baxters. He is so cute! He is also wearing his new shoes that I bought him to keep him from kicking his socks off. Except... the pictures show the problem.

Jacob Learns About Shoes

Babble

Jacob is starting to get the hang of consonants! We managed to capture a bit of his babble on film. (Once again, the video starts out gray for the first second... weird.)

Bounce bounce bounce!

Jacob has figured out how to bounce in the bouncer! Before he would just move his feet around randomly, which kind of worked, but he's mastered it now. Look how much fun he's having!

(The first second or two is all gray, not sure why. It looked fine before I uploaded it.)

Grandma and Grandpa babysit!

Last night Mandi and I went to see a concert! Of course, we couldn't take the boy. So it was up to Grandma and Grandpa to come visit and watch Jacob for the evening!

Thankfully Jacob was mostly on good behavior and a good time was had by all.

Grandma and Grandpa babysit!

Fun with Solid Food...

... and a tooth!
... and a visit from Molly!

Jacob has been busy in the last week or two. First of all, he is learning to master the art of the spoon. As you can see, he is still a novice, but he's enjoying himself at least! Normally we use a bib but this time we decided to let him have some fun.

Also, we had a visit from Molly! She's temporarily back from Samoa and this gave her a chance to meet Jacob for the first time. As you can see they made friends right away.

And last but not least, a tooth! It's not easy trying to photograph the inside of a baby's mouth. They like to squirm, clam up, and get their tongue in the way. So our picture is a little blurry—but it's a little tooth, poking up through the gums, and it's razor-sharp! This made its appearance on Tuesday and has been inching up ever since. It's still barely protruding but you can tell there's progress being made.

Fun with Solid Food

Video time

I've uploaded two fun videos from the past week or so.

First, here's Jacob laughing as Mom makes goofy noises at him.



Second, here is a demonstration of Jacob's prowess with water! He loves the stuff and has figured out how to drink it any way he can--sucking it out of a washcloth, sippy cup, glass or straw. We were amazed when we tried him with a straw--he figured it out on his first try!

Hangin' Around the House in Summertime

I've uploaded some random pictures from the last few weeks of Jacob doing cute things. He is progressing so fast right now; a few days ago he could only sit up for thirty seconds at a time or so, and now he can sit up for as long as he wants. And he has been rolling back and forth for months, but he's finally getting the idea that rolling equals mobility, and if he sees something out of reach, he might actually try to go get it. Now it's still pretty likely that he'll go in the wrong direction, or that he'll roll on top of his target and cry, but just the fact that he's put all the pieces of the puzzle together is exciting.

Anyway, on to the pictures.

Hangin' Around the House

Six month portraits

Jacob got his six-month portraits today and they came out great!

Six Month Portraits

Please, don't rush out and order prints of these—we've got you covered big time. We ordered lots of sheets. Just tell us which ones you want and they are yours.

Summer Fun

I've posted a new batch of pictures for everyone to enjoy... it's just us, hanging around the house, playing with toys:

Summer Fun

Summer Vacation

We visited both sets of grandparents for the 4th of July—here are some of the highlights. Like Jacob playing with a beer keg.

Summer Vacation

The Exersaucer!

Not sure if that's how it's spelled, but Jacob sure finds it fascinating:

Maestro!

Jacob has learned to play the piano. What a talented kid!

New portraits!

Mandi took Jacob into Babies R Us yesterday to have portraits done. I was really pleased with the results—he was a lot happier than the previous portraits so we got some really great pictures out of it. Here are the winners:

4.5 month portraits

I'm Mobile!

Jacob is rolling now. A lot! It started two nights ago when he flipped himself over in his crib while swaddled. We can't swaddle him anymore. Now anytime you lay him on his back, he tries to roll, mostly onto his left side. He's pretty fascinated with his new trick.

Belated Update

It's sure been a long time since the last update! I bet barely anyone even checks the site any more.

We've had a busy few weeks. Jacob had a stubborn abscess on his bottom which wouldn't go away—we'd give him antibiotics, it would vanish, then the antibiotics would run their course and it would come back. Turns out he had a fistula (click here if you want the gory details from Wikipedia or here for Emedicine if you have way too much time on your hands). Now this is easily treatable, but it requires surgery including general anesthesia. It's an outpatient procedure and the doctor was experienced in this sort of thing but still, Mandi and I were worried sick.

Fortunately, there were no complications and Jacob did fine. He woke up screaming at the top of his lungs but hey, I can't imagine that I would have handled the situation any differently. It will be a few weeks before he is fully recovered from the surgery but so far he is healing up as well as can be expected.

At present, Jacob is two days away from his 4-month birthday, and in 12 hours I will be leaving town for a week to attend a conference in San Francisco for work. Mandi's mom is coming down to help take care of Jacob while I'm gone.

I've uploaded a random collection of pictures from the last month:

Vroom

Push-ups and 3 months!

Happy 3-month Birthday, Jacob (a few days late)! Wow, he has grown and changed so much!

We have been giving Jacob tummy time now and then so he can practice pushing up and build up his muscles. He is already starting to get the hang of it! And in my opinion it makes for some great pictures:

Push-ups

Jacob also loves to watch hockey with us as we cheer on the Ducks. Go Ducks! Jacob pushed himself up enough so that he could watch the game while on his tummy. Go Jacob!

Smiles!

Mandi and I propped up the camcorder and tried to get Jacob to smile. It was a challenge, since the camera distracted him, but I think we got some good results anyway:



He also giggled last weeked, just once, but we haven't been able to get him to do it again. Another thing that happened a while back—two weekends ago!—was a visit from Luke, Heather and Wendy Brannon. Here are some photos of that. (Try getting two babies to stare at a camera simultaneously! Good luck!)

The Brannons visit

Aunt Anne and Uncle Kevin visit!

This Saturday, Anne and Kevin decided to drop by and say hello to their nephew:

Anne and Kevin visit

Jacob was in a good mood; it was lots of fun!

Back to work!

Things have been a little hectic since Mandi went back to work! We haven't been taking quite as many pictures as before. But now that it's the weekend, I've had a chance to experiment with something new--actually taking the video from my new (and barely-used) camcorder and uploading it to the web!



Cool, huh?

You can view it larger by clicking here but honestly I think it's a little blurry that way.

Picture overload!

The Krols gave us a CD loaded with pictures of the baptism. Here are some highlights:

More baptism pictures

Also, we got some portraits done at Sears today. Unfortunately Jacob got tired and fussy pretty quickly, so the last few pictures are not so great, but there are some gems in there.

Sears 2 month photos

Two months!

Jacob went in for his two month checkup today (as well as first vaccinations). Vital stats:
- 12½ pounds!
- 24 inches long.
- 15¼ inch circumference of the head.

Also, Jacob's baptism was in Paso Robles over the weekend. Here are a few pictures of the family in Paso--more coming soon.

Paso Robles

Grandma and Grandpa's House

We are on the road! Here is a picture of Jacob's first adventure out of town.

Storybooks and Sun Hats

Jacob is now over seven weeks old!
To celebrate, what else? More pictures!

Storybooks and Sun Hats

Growing like a weed

Six weeks! And Jacob keeps growing and growing.

Here he is at five days old, compared to today:



Although usually when he's in his car seat, he looks more like this:



Or one week old, compared to today:



One more:



Oh, also, Jacob got a really cool surprise anonymous gift! He got a BMW before we did :) We think we know who sent this, just based on the return address:



Pretty soon he'll be old enough to ride it!

Smiles and Giggles!

Jacob is starting to learn how to smile! We got a few pictures of it this morning.

From Smiles and Gi...

Happy birthday!

That's right, Jacob's one month birthday has come and gone. Here are the latest pictures:

From Jacob once more

Three weeks and counting!

Time flies! Jacob is healthy as a horse and is already well on his way to the ten pound mark—at his last weigh-in he was 9 pounds 11 ounces, and that was several days ago. I've uploaded another small batch of photos. You can view the album by clicking the picture below and then using the left/right arrows at the top of the screen.

From Jacob 3 weeks

Visit to the pediatrician

Jacob got his two-week checkup today! The pediatrician tells us that he is doing "perfect," which is certainly encouraging for us to hear.

Fun baby statistics:
• Height is 21 ½ inches, only a half inch longer than at birth. That is, however, 80th percentile for a two week old.
• Head circumference is 14 inches, 20th percentile. (I believe this is an inch or two larger than at birth, but I'm not sure since the hospital told us centimeters, not inches, and I forgot the exact amount.)
• Weight is a whopping 9 pounds, 1 ounce! This is 1.5 pounds larger than his birth weight, and brings him up to 55th percentile.

Meeting Aunt Anne and Uncle Kevin

Last night, Jacob was introduced to his Aunt Anne and Uncle Kevin! Here are some pictures:



We also got a few good candid shots, such as this one. Jacob is learning to grip onto anything within reach, and this includes daddy's chest hair. Ouch!!



What do you do when there isn't a pacifier within arm's reach?



Jacob, learning to play Superman:



"These aren't the droids you're looking for":

Meeting new friends

Jacob has now met his paternal grandparents:



As well as Aunt Dana and Uncle Josh:



He also took a nice stroll through the park (but managed to sleep through almost all of it):



Blizzard has even sent us some cool baby swag! A blanket, a teddy bear, and a onesie (that won't fit for a few months):



One more picture for good measure:



For more, click here to view the album.