Happy Birthday Jacob!

Happy Birthday Jacob! We had a fun pirate themed birthday party.

Jacob with his birthday candy!

He loved his new pirate ship!

Jacob is now 28 lbs 4 ounces and 35 inches tall. I switched him to 3T clothes a couple weeks ago and they are pretty big on him. Lots of growing room! He is wearing size 7 shoes and size 3 diapers. Although we are hoping to potty train him soon because I am way over having three kids in diapers! The only problem is he has zero interest in potty training.... And I don't want to start him too soon and have it turn out to be a disaster! So, we shall see.

Jacob is still the most picky eater. He does like all breakfast foods. Like pancakes, waffles, oatmeal. His most favorite breakfast right now is what he calls rolled pancakes. AKA crepes. :)  He also likes smoothies, pasta and apples. Yup... that is about it. Haha. Seriously, trying to find stuff for this kid to eat is the worst! It's almost impossible. He also really likes fruit candies. Like gummy bears, starbursts and stuff like that although he isn't a real fan of baked goods at all. We discovered at Jacob's last doctor appointment that he is anemic. Which means he is low on iron. (That process was a traumatic experience for both of us). So he now on an iron supplement which we hope helps. The reason we even checked it is because Jacob eats dirt. Like he finds big marble size clumps of dirt and snacks on them the whole time he is playing outside. He eats so much dirt that his poop is clay. I felt like this was a little extreme so I brought it up with his pediatrician who decided to drew some blood so they could check his iron. Now hopefully he will stop eating dirt so that Ida will also stop eating dirt.

Jacob's favorite thing to do is watch TV. If I let him I think he would watch TV all day everyday. And I know when he is watching he is paying very close attention to what he is watching because he will randomly quote from the movies he watches. He also loves to ask a million questions about the movie if there is someone in the room that will answer them.

His favorite questions are, what's that? What are they doing? What happened? Oh ya.... And Why? Jacob has been asking why for like a year now. Everything you tell him he says, Why? And will keep asking why for every answer you give him. I try my best to answer him. But it gets to the point that I have no idea why something is a certain way! It's one of those things that is fun and annoying at the same time.

Jacob also really likes to ride his bike. And he is getting so good at it! People are constantly complimenting him when we are out for a walk and he is riding his bike. It is his balance bike and he loves to go down hills, put his feet up on the bars and just cruse. He has really good balance and I know that if we wanted to we could switch him over to a real bike now and he would pick it up really fast. But I think Scott wants to wait until next summer.

Bike crash!

First time mountain biking

Jacob does really enjoy being outside and doing outdoorsy things as well. Like hiking and camping. We want to get a rock climbing harness this summer and get him going on that. He went once in an indoor gym last year but we want to get him on real rocks.

Jacob also enjoys swimming and has no fear of water. We have to watch him very closely around water. He loves wearing his floaty and it gives us a lot of peace of mind as well!

Jacob is his father's son and has found a love for rocks as well. He has a big collection that he keeps in a box. The only problem is the box is already full.... So we might need to find a bigger box. He also still loves to help mom cook and insists on putting in all of the ingredients and stirring it himself.

Sorting his rock collection

Jacob has started into the midst of terrible 3's I think. So far I don't find them to be as terrible as the terrible 2's he went through about 6 months ago. That was about 3 month's of pure awfulness! He was testing every boundary we had and I really felt like I couldn't even take him into public because he would not listen to me at all and no punishment mattered to him and he would just throw the biggest fit if he didn't get something his way. It was so awful. Thankfully. It was very short lasting but believe me. He definitely threw everything he could at us in those few short months. Now he is just a three-nager and talks back about everything. It's definitely really annoying but not as awful as the terrible two's. He tries using the same tricks that we use on him to get us to let him do something. It's actually very amusing at times when I'm in the right mood. He still throws a lot of fits. But when he was in him terrible 2's I started just calmly putting him in his room in timeout where he had to stay until he was "calmed" down. That is... calmed down as soon as I would enter the room because he would just keep yelling until I would come in. So I still use that as well has giving him lot's of options that I can live with. Like asking if he wants the door opened or closed when he is in time out and stuff like that. It seemed to really work for the 2's and so far is working for the 3's as well. The arguing I really don't care for though. He never just takes no for an answer and tries over and over to get you to say yes to whatever he is asking for. He says, "Just say yes mom" or "Mom, ask me" Which means he wants me to ask him if he wants to do whatever it is he's trying to get me to say yes to and then when he says yes I'm supposed to let him do it. That other day I was getting him into the car seat and he hit me. So I asked him, "Jacob, did you just hit mom?" (He knows that if he says no he will get in trouble for lying and if he says yes he will get in trouble for hitting) So he starts looking around, turns to dad and says, "Hi dad, what are you doing?" Haha. So clever.

Helping mom sew

 Some of the stuff this kid comes up with just really cracks me up. He is turning out to be quite the manipulator. Like when I tell him he can't watch TV right now he will make his voice all high and squeaky and try to ask in the most innocent, fun way so that I will say yes. Or he goes and finds a movie that he knows I like and asks if we can watch that one. Or he'll say, "Just one mom." His new thing is he wants to talk to mom or dad when we are trying to talk to each other or someone else. He says, "Mom! I'm talking to you!" and repeats it over and over until you acknowledge that he's talking to you. So now. When we are trying to talk to each other we just make Jacob think we are talking to him but really we are talking to each other. So we look at him and say his name repeatedly through whatever we are saying and that seems to do the trick. :) But when Jacob wants to talk to you he always starts the conversation with. "So.... What are you doing?" It's pretty funny.

Jacob really is the sweetest boy though. He is always telling me he loves me and gives me kisses. He also really enjoys cuddling. And although he still likes to tease his siblings, he is really great with them as well. He likes playing with idea. Or rough housing with her... Which she doesn't think is very fun. And likes to hold Austin and tells him he loves him all the time. He will also go give him his pacifier without being asked if he is crying.

Jacob is still a great sleeper! He takes a nap still between 11 and noon and will sleep anywhere from an hour and a half to tree hours. He hardly ever fights taking naps or going to bed. Sometimes it's a bigger fight trying to get him to stay up longer when he wants to take a nap. But when he is feeling tiered he will want to go take a nap. Or when he just needs to rest and reset I will often find him in his bed just laying there. He lays there for like half an hour then he comes back out and is ready to play again. He still won't give up having his pacifiers at night and for naps but we don't use them at all during the day anymore. He also has to have at least 2 but preferably 3 pacifiers when he is going to sleep.

All in all I think Jacob is shaping up to be a little mini Scott. I know Scott is loving taking him on all sorts of adventures! We love you Jacob!