Dubai

Recently, I hopped on a jet-plane with 4 of my closest friends for a nice long weekend in Dubai.  Me, Gavin, Miles, Brooklyn, and Savannah all planned to spend some time shopping and swimming. Oh, and just to be nice, we let our parents tag along.  We had a blast.

Our hotel had awesome views of the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa and the fountains that surround it.  We were in perfect walking distance to the Burj and to the Dubai Mall.  We arrived at our hotel kinda late in the evening and they were out of baby cribs so Mom had to make me a homemade baby crib.  It was very fancy!

My Crib

View from the hotel room

We spent our first day taking a leisurely stroll to the mall and then shopping till we dropped.  Well, at least thats what Mom did.  Dad and I hung out and shopped some and let Mom have some alone time. For dinner we ate outside at near the fountains at P.F. Chang's and then we took a nice stroll back to the hotel and stopped to watch the fountains along the way. 

Walking to the mall

Next up, I had booked us a sweet resort called The Atlantis Palm. This place is it's own mega-resort with lots of restaurants, shops, a water park, aquarium, and even a dolphin bay. Once we made our way to the Atlantis we didn't leave again until we were headed for the airport. Upon check-in, I explored our awesome new room.  It had a great bathroom to play in! I loved crawling around and exploring the new place.

Once I was done exploring we headed down to the kids area of the water park.  I had explored so much in the room that I was worn out before we even made it to the water park area. So the first thing I did was take a nap along with my buddy Miles.

 Finally, I woke up well rested and ready for some water-park fun!  I played with Dad and my friends in the water.

The next day we booked our very own beach side cabana where we were able to hang out and play ALL day long!  I even took my naps on the beach.  As usual, I just loved playing in the sand.  I would even crawl my way to the water. Mom thought the salt water would make me mad but she was wrong. I still loved splashing and playing in the salty beach water.

Napping on the beach

During the beach time, I had lots of fun time to play with Daddy!

Of course I hung with Mom some too.

After a long day at the beach, I decided I wanted to spend a nice quiet evening in the hotel room so I ordered a nanny to come stay with me while Mom and Dad went out.  She was a really sweet lady from Kenya and did a great job putting me to bed.  This is what Mom and Dad saw when they returned:

For our last day in Dubai we decided to hit up some of the spots we hadn't seen yet so we headed down to the Atlantis pool and then cleaned up and went to the Aquarium.  I loved splashing in the water and can't wait to go to the pool more often.  I also really enjoyed the aquarium.  The fish were so bright and pretty and moved around a lot!

At last it was time to head back home. Although Dubai was fun, I was excited to see all my toys again!

9 months!

Jacob’s Stats:

Age: 9 months

Weight: 18 lbs. 11 oz  

Length: 28"

Eye Color: deep blue

Hair color: blonde

Eating Schedule: 5 oz 3 times/day, 6-8 oz morning and night, Solids at lunch and dinner. Starting to cut out the dinner bottle

Sleeping: Jacob naps two times a day.  His first nap is in the morning and his long nap is from around 3:30pm-5:30pm.  He still sleeps at night from around 9:30pm-8:00am

Clothing: All 9 month clothes  

Woo-hoo! I'm 9 months old! I'm learning, growing, and changing everyday.  I love to explore and discover new things.  I also love being talked to, sang to, and rocked. My 8th month has been pretty great.  My Papa has been in Saudi for work and then at the end of my 8th month my Nana was able to come see me too.  I also took a trip to Dubai with Mommy and Daddy and a bunch of my friends but I'll write more on that later. It has been a blast having my Nana here during the day with Mommy to help take care of me.  I get lots of extra special attention and Mommy gets help.

I've learned lots of new things in my 8th month like waving "bye bye".  However, I do still do it after the person I'm telling bye has already walked away.  I learned how to climb the steps which has kept Mom super busy trying to teach me how to go down the steps without hurting myself (our villa has two steps that separate the kitchen from his play room and the foyer from the living area). Being able to climb the steps has also given me some more area to explore.  I found Mommy's abayas and played Peek-a-Boo in them.  As if that wasn't enough learning, I also learned how to pull-up on the coffee table, toys, and the couch.  I walk around the furniture some when I'm feeling really brave. I've even started crawling correctly when I want to.

This month I've been eating a lot more solids and even started chicken. My favorites are still apples, carrots, sweet potatoes, and bananas but I will eat most things Mommy gives me.  I've had a french fry or two and some bread from the table.  I still LOVE my puffs and Nana brought me yogurt melts from the USA which are yummy.

Note from Mom

*This post is for our boy to have in his book and for us to be able to remember each age and time period. It may be boring to outsiders. 

Hello my sweet boy!  You are 8 1/2 months old right now and just so much fun.   There are so many things about you and your personality at this point in your life that I don't want to forget.  

You are the happiest, smiliest baby.  All anyone has to do is smile at you or talk to you and you smile back.  You love to talk and babble. Your favorite sounds are ba, da, and squeals.  I keep trying to get you to say "mama" but you smile at me and laugh. 

You love to play with your toys by yourself.  You are great at playing on your own.  You have this big barn thing with a door that you can crawl through.  This barn has little shapes that are planted like vegetables and you can't stand it when the vegetables are in their correct place.  The barn also has a basket that holds fake eggs.  You also can't stand it when the eggs are in the basket.  Come to think of it, you don't like for any toy to be "put together".  Your rings are always off the ring holder and blocks can't be stacked. One of your favorite things to do is throw the eggs around the house and chase them.  

You still army crawl and only occasionally crawl correctly but you know how to get where you want to go in a hurry. Our villa has two steps in-between the kitchen and your play room and also the foyer and the dinning you room.  For a long time you would sit at the bottom of the steps and talk to them.  I would joke that you were telling them how one day you would conquer them.  Well, that day came and you climbed the steps.  Now I can't keep you off the steps.  It's your favorite place to play. One of your favorite things to do is to take a toy up the steps with you.  It's like your own personal challenge.  Of course you haven't quite figured out how to go down the steps which is giving Mom a heart attack.   But you are a determined little boy and I want you to keep exploring, learning, and playing. 

You have a little bike that you can ride or walk behind.  It plays a few different songs, honks, and has engine noises.  Recently you have started really enjoying playing on it and even trying to get on it by yourself.  While riding the bike was one of the first times I saw you attempt to dance. You bounced up and down while sitting and listening to The Beatles, "ticket to ride".   After that, I put on a Beatles cd and keep trying to get you to dance.  You occasionally dance a little by bouncing up and down or swaying side to side.  It's so cute!

You laugh at the most random things. You love to laugh at people sneezing, fake or real.  You laugh when I fake hiccup or if I say "Boo" to scare you.  You laugh when Mom tries to dance.  You laugh when I blow raspberries on your belly.  You laugh when I "steal your kisses".  One night you laughed hysterically when Dad would throw a soft toy at you and hit you.  Sometimes when I'm holding you I watch tv and end up laughing loud.  You like to look back at me and laugh too.  You have the best most contagious laugh.  

For some reason you still hate getting your diaper changed.  I've tried everything to get you to stop flipping out but you are determined. However, you love baths! You love playing with your bath toys and splashing.  

You have started pulling up on everything. The coffee table, couch, toys, chairs, anything you can reach.  You even tried to transfer from the coffee table to the couch but didn't make it.  I'm sure you will be doing that soon.  You are growing up too fast!

You eat solid foods at lunch time and dinner time. Your favorites are carrots, sweet potato, apples.  You also eat green beans, sweet peas, bananas.  I started giving you chicken but you aren't sure what to think of that yet.  You LOVE puffs.  You bounce up and down in your high chair when I pull out the puffs. You still get 4-5 bottles a day but the bottle at dinner is hit or miss.  You have two bottom teeth and a third one is starting to come in.  

You take a morning nap which is sometimes really short and sometimes and hour or more.  We tend to be out and about during your morning nap so it isn't as consistent.  Sometimes you really fight taking this nap.  You also take an afternoon nap around 3:45pm-6:00pm.   You almost never fight this nap and go right to sleep. 

Dad and I start getting you ready for bed around 8:45 with a bottle, putting your pajamas on,  and reading you books.  We love to read you "Guess How Much I Love You", "Are You My Mother", "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", and your baby bear "Bible".  After books we rock you, sing to you, and then put you to bed.  I still sing "You Are My Sunshine" every time I put you to bed. Lots of nights you spend another 15 minutes talking to yourself in bed.  We love to listen to you on the monitor and laugh.  You are usually asleep between 9:30 and 10 and wake up around 8am.  

Jake, you bring so much joy to our lives.  I never imagined I could enjoy playing with a baby all day long and not want to do anything else. It's so much fun to watch you explore, learn, and grow.  I can't wait to see what the next few months bring. I love you!

Surfs Up

I absolutely love playing at the beach. I have awesome parents who just let me go exploring and don't worry about me getting dirty or wandering. My first time out this year I had to do a taste test of the sand but after that I decided it wasn't tasty enough to be a part of my regular diet.  

Mom really likes to take me out in the afternoon when I get tired of playing inside with my toys.

 Occasionally our friends come out to play too!  I had a blast playing on the beach with my friends Gavin, Miles, and Brooklyn.  This time Mom even put me in the water to let me play.

I can't wait for many more days at the beach!