Some Favorites of 2009

Here are some of my favorite picture memories from 2009.  There are too many to post all at once so I will do this over a few posts.

Jacob meeting his new cousin, Colby

Jacob and Tony exploring the rocky beach and tide pools in California

Rub a dub dub three cousins in the tub.

Brooklyn "helping" Jacob with his juicebox

How much would you pay?

Apparently, you can purchase our little Jacob for $1. I took this picture back in July, but it cracks me up every time I look at it.  Jacob actually put this on himself. It is a price tag off of a little keyboard I bought from D.I.  

Terrible Twos

Jacob doesn't actually turn two until next month, but this last week he has adopted terrible two's attitude. I know that I will one day probably look back at this time of his life and laugh at all the crazy things he is doing, but for now I thought I would post them so all of you out in blog land can have a laugh today.  I  love my little monkey, but here are some examples of things he has done during the past week to try my patience. (It probably doesn't help that Tony has been out of town for 8 days)

1. He picks his nose EVERY time I look at him and picks both nostrils at once as soon as I tell him to stop
2. He takes off his diaper when I get in the shower.  Please note that he keeps his pants on and just shoves his diaper down into his pant leg
3. He refuses to eat more than two bites of anything unless it is made of cheese or chocolate
4. He copies everything I do.  Now sometimes this is really cute, but when he tries to copy me giving our dog Max his medicine, I get a little worried.  For those of you who have never had the pleasure of giving a 65 lb dog a huge pill, let me explain what it entails.  First you pry open their mouth then literally shove a pill down their throat.  Hopefully you can appreciate how potentially dangerous it can be for a toddler to try and shove things down a dogs throat.
5. He has decided that since we don't own a pony, the dogs are the next best thing and he is constantly trying to round them up and ride them.  Poor dogs
6. He tries to brush Abby's teeth with his toothbrush (again...poor dog)
7. He started walking in his sleep.  Aaaccckk!!  I don't know if this is necessarily a two-year-old thing or just an unfortunate result of being related to me.

Hopefully this will make someone laugh....and I'm sure that someday I will have the ability to laugh  about it too.

Rain

This morning when I was driving Jacob to daycare it was raining like crazy. Jacob looked at the rain and said, “Raining, momma?”

Me: “Yes, it’s raining”

Jacob: “Wet, momma?”

Me: “Yes, the rain is wet”

Jacob: “Washy hands?”

Me: “No, we don’t wash our hands in the rain”

So the remainder of our drive he kept saying, “Washy hands rain?.......Noooo.” And then he would laugh hysterically. Seriously, this little monkey of ours is hilarious. I guess it might not seem that funny, but you really need to have heard Jacob say this kind of ‘no’. He says it long and drawn out while pursing his lips together and squishing his face up. Hilarious…at least to me.

Skills

The other night I put Jacob to bed and left the room. A few minutes later I heard him call, “Mama!”. I didn’t really think too much about going and checking on him because he always calls for me after I put him to bed. A few minutes later, he called for me again and I decided to go to his room and check on him. Much to my surprise, he was straddling the crib railing and, of course, was very proud of himself. I put him back in his bed and told him to lay down, but he immediately repeated the trick. Needless to say, the next day we took off the crib railing and replaced it with the toddler rail.

The first night in his new bed he seemed to go down fine, but quickly realized he could get out of his bed. After putting him back in his bed 10 times, Tony finally just closed his bedroom door. We thought we were safe because he didn’t know how to open doors yet. We heard him playing in his room, but he went to sleep without any problems. The next day he figured out how to open doors. Luckily he has been really good going to bed and hasn’t come out of his room.

It is really weird to have him able to get out of his bed by himself. On Saturday morning, Tony and I were still laying in bed when Jacob got up and silently walked down the hall. I just caught a glimpse of him out of the corner of my eye and it really freaked me out until I realized it was just Jacob. This is going to take some getting used to!

Europe..pictures to come

As many of you know, Tony and I recently took our first trip alone since little J was born. We went to various places in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. We had a great time and enjoyed having an actual (sort-of) vacation (that never seems to happen anymore since Tony works almost every weekend). I have been a little lazy and have not taken the pictures off of the camera yet, but I wanted to post a few things about our adventure before I forget about them. So, here is a list of humorous/strange/interesting things that we saw/experienced on our trip. Hopefully you will find this list helpful if you ever travel to Europe.

1. Train travel is great. We bought a rail pass before we went and essentially could go anywhere we wanted without having to drive and try to understand road signs in different foreign languages.

2. Train travel is great unless there is an electrical storm...If there is lightning, the electric trains seem to just stop (go figure) leaving you stranded and/or taking a 45 minute detour around the storm

3. Check the city calendar of the city you are going to BEFORE you go. For example, we ended up arriving in Cologne, Germany for a gigantic Gay Pride Festival. Now Tony and I are not haters, however we hate gross displays of public affection and sexuality regardless of sexual orientation. We saw enough....I'll leave it at that.

4. Old man public urination in pristine medieval city parks is gross, but kind of funny.

5. Teenage public urination on train station walls is just gross. We were on a train from Wuppertal, Germany to Cologne, Germany that was packed. I mean it was so packed I ended up having my face shoved into some sweaty guys pits for about 35 minutes (gross). This train was filled with tons of people going into Cologne for the Gay Pride Festival. People were drinking on the train and had to use the restroom...which was difficult to get to since the train was so packed. We stopped at some small station and several teenage boys jumped off the train and started taking care of their business against the wall of the station...the doors closed and we thought we were rid of them, but somehow they got back onto the train in a different car and rejoined us at the next stop.

6. Public puking onto the sidewalk is gross, and it doesn't matter who is doing it.

7. It is amazing how multi-lingual homeless bums can be.

8. Cities with good public transportation are wonderful to travel to

I have more things to tell everyone, but I will save it for when I have pictures.

Goodbye Old Friend

This week we said goodbye to an old friend: our 1992 Honda Accord LX. Aahh, the memories. (Tears welling up slightly). This is the car that Tony bought when he got home from his mission. This is the car we drove back and forth to Iowa probably 10 times. We have eaten, slept, and practically lived in this car. She has been all over the country with us from Chicago (I think that is as far east) to the California and Oregon coasts. We have never had any real problems with her, except when the distributor had a problem starting in Laramie, WY until we got her fixed in Iowa (That is around 700 miles!). This car has been a constant through our marriage and it seems strange to have her gone. I am not trying to sound overly sentimental, but I will miss her. I am not sure why I think of her as 'she'. Anyway, we sold the car to a nice family who needed a reliable and affordable vehicle. I hope that she will be good to them. She only has 159,000 miles, gets 27 mpg, and still has a lot of life left even though she is 17 years old.

FYI...she has been replaced with another Honda. This time we got a Civic to use on the long commute from the University to our house. I like the new car...I can hook up my ipod to the radio and I don't have to worry about it falling apart while I am driving. I am not sure if the new car is a 'she' or a 'he'.

Lawnmower

Have you ever heard a word said so many times that it starts to drive you a little crazy?  Well, for me (and Tony), that word is now Lawnmower.  Yes indeed.  Our little munchkin is OBSESSED with lawnmowers.  He asked to use the lawnmower for an hour straight this morning.  Of course we couldn't let him because we mowed the lawn on Thursday, it was pouring rain, and we were trying to get ready for church.  We have to say goodnight to the lawnmower.   If we are on a walk he will point out every lawnmower he sees.  His pretend lawnmower won't do anymore, it has to be the real thing.  Some kids like trains. Some kids like airplanes.  But our child, he likes lawnmowers.  

First trip to Lagoon

Last weekend we took Jacob to Lagoon for the first time.  I was a little worried about how he would react on the rides.  He is not afraid of anything, but you never know what a toddler (17 months) is going to do when you put them in an unfamiliar situation.  We were lucky enough to be able to go with the Boyacks (Tony's sister's family), Grandma and Grandpa Peterson, and Brett.  The first ride he went on was the "Jumping Dragon".  We thought this would be a good choice because we could ride it with him....this is probably not the best ride for small kids because it goes pretty fast, but Jacob absolutely loved it!  He had a kind of confused look on his face when we were riding, but when the ride was done he did the sign for MORE!  This happened with almost every ride he went on and he would throw a fit nearly every time we tried to take him off of a ride.  I would say he like the bumper cars the least mostly because he didn't know how to work the car and he tried to escape once his car got stuck on the side.  Brooklyn and Owen were so sweet with Jacob and went on rides with him and played with him when the adults were going on rides.   My favorite moment of the day is when Jacob went on the flying aces with Grandpa Peterson and made Grandpa sick because Jacob insisted on controlling the ride.  It was a really fun day.

Here are some pictures

Jacob riding Bulgy with Owen.  I can picture Owen telling Jacob that he needs to hold on tight.

Jacob on some airplanes with Brooklyn

Just cruising with Brooklyn in the cars.

Three cousins in a helicopter.

Jacob asking for help so he can shoot his gun on this ride.

Suggestions for Europe

As many of you know, Tony and I are taking our first Jacob-free vacation (thanks Grandma and Grandpa P.!) at the end of June.  We are going to Amsterdam!  Hooray!  Tony has a meeting for work there and then we have a few days to explore the rest of the Netherlands.  I am just wondering if anyone has traveled to that part of the world and if so, do you have any suggestions for things to do that are a little less touristy.  We are planning on seeing some of the standards like the Anne Frank museum, Van Gogh, and Rembrandt. We are also going to rent bikes and cycle around the city.   We are willing to travel to Denmark, Belgium, and Germany, but we don't want to spend our entire vacation on a train.  So if any of you out in bloggerville have some interesting suggestions we would really appreciate it.

Sewing Question

Recently I have been on a sewing kick.  I guess I was inspired by Tony's cousin, Shannon Y., who recently opened an Etsy shop (click here) full of cute dresses and skirts for the toddler/young kid crowd.  My sister Megann has also given me lots of great ideas for sewing the last few months.  Anyway, I feel that I have been pretty successful at making simple things like Tag blankets (see example here...these aren't mine though) and customized burp cloths (see example here) (I actually got this idea from Shannon V. who gave me some fabulous burp cloths when J was born).  So I guess my success had to run out sometime.  I decided to try to make this super cute skirt for my niece Marley in the hopes that it would turn out beautifully and that I could then move on to making a couple for my nieces Ava and Brooklyn (Lisa, don't tell them, I would like to surprise them).  

Once I had the skirt put together and was trying to feed the elastic through the waist casing, it was abundantly clear that it was not going to work out as I had hoped.  The biggest thing is that the circumference of the skirt was much too large for a 12-month old size skirt.  I couldn't get the elastic to make it around the skirt.  Yikes! 

So my questions for all you seamstresses are:

Did I make the circumference too big by not following the instructions correctly?

 I measured just like it said and cut on the fold...

Are the instructions just really bizarre?....almost 72 inches around for a toddlers skirt.

Anyway, I ended up chopping circumference of the skirt in half and making a less fabric-y (is that a word?) skirt.  In the end, I still think it is a super cute skirt, just not as twirly as I had hoped.  I will post some pictures later, but I am baffled by this skirt.

Here are the pictures as promised

Here is the final skirt after the removal of the excess fabric.

And...here is all the excess fabric.  Like I said, YIKES!

Paper saver

I recently found this really amazing website that helps you save paper when you are trying to print out information from a  website.  It is called Print What You Like (www.printwhatyoulike.com).  

It allows you to select only the text and/or pictures you would like to print from your favorite website and eliminate the advertisements and other junk.  As you can imagine, you can save tons of paper this way.  You don't have to download a program or do anything special.  You just go to printwhatyoulike.com and type in the website you are interested in.  Then it will navigate you to that page and a sidebar will show up in your browser.  You pick the parts of the webpage you are interested in and tada!  That's it.  It also allows you to save your new document in pdf or html format.  The website also has a short tutorial to help you get started.  I really like this program because it allows me to create pdf versions of my most recent posting on my blog without the sidebars or main photo.  I can then save them in my journal or use them in iphoto.  I know that you can make a book out of your blog with blurb, but for me this seems to be a better choice.

Successful surgery

First of all...for those of you who knew it was happening,  my surgery was successful!  And for those of you who didn't know...my surgery was successful!  I had an right arm ulnar nerve decompression and transposition on April 2.  The reason was because I had been having quite a bit of pain in my elbow, lower arm, and hand for the last few years.  Imagine feeling like you smacked your funny bone several times a day without ever even moving your arm.  Lately, it became quite unbearable and constant.  Along with the pain, my pinky and ring finger were almost constantly numb and it was driving me nuts!  Basically the Drs moved my ulnar nerve (funny bone nerve) from the back to the front of my elbow.  My younger brother, Andrew, had a similar surgery several years ago and my older brother, Josh, recently had the surgery, too.  I guess it runs in our family.  When Josh got his surgery it gave me the nerve (no pun intended) to finally take care of things.  So I had the surgery on April 2 at the U of U Orthopaedic center and other than a bit of recovery pain, things have been great.   It was difficult not picking up Jacob for a couple of weeks, but Tony was a great help and took care of him while I was recovering.  The best part is I can now feel my pinky and the pain is mostly gone!  

 Here are a couple of pictures of my newly acquired scar.  It is in a really good spot because no one can see it unless I awkwardly hold my arm over my head. My arm is still a little swollen and blotchy, but nothing too disgusting.

The Dr. said that if I hadn't had this surgery done, I would have eventually lost muscle function in my hand and would have had permanent damage.  Hooray for modern medicine!

Outside....Finally!

A few weeks ago, we were able to take Jacob outside to play in the park.  As you can see from the pictures, he loved it!  He was in heaven playing on the swings and slides.  He also just loved running around and not being confined to a small space.  We look forward to many more adventures outside with him this summer.  I know that I am a little biased, but I think he is adorable.

Swinging

    

Watch me slide! 

It was really great to see him enjoy himself so much.

Sleep update #1

So after consulting the ever informative internet and reading a little more of "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby" we tried something new last night.  We put Jacob to bed when he first acted tired (6:00pm).  I made sure that I did not hold him until he was asleep, but put him down drowsy, but awake.  He fussed for about 15 minutes and then went to sleep.  We checked him before we went to bed and then did not go in his room again until he woke up this morning.  Around 12:30am I heard him crying and saying 'mama', but I was strong and did not go in to pick him up.  He cried about 10 minutes (maybe more, but I fell back to sleep) and then slept until 5:30 this morning.  I can handle 5:30 because that's when we get up anyway.  Also, because I didn't give him a bottle or drink during the night he woke up and actually wanted to eat breakfast.

Hopefully we can stick with this plan of getting him to bed a little earlier and then letting him soothe himself.  I just hope I can tell when he really needs me during the night.

Suggestions for getting the boy to sleep

Ok, I thought that when Jacob was sleeping through the night by 3 months that we had it made.  But now our little man has decided that he should wake up at 3-4 am and won't go back to sleep for 1-2 hours.  We have tried giving him milk, water, and letting him cry (not so good at the last one after 20 min or so of him screaming).  Nothing has worked.  I think that part of it might be that he is getting 4-6 more teeth, but there is only so much Motrin he can have.  

Here is his schedule

6:30-7:00 pm - in bed usually w/o a fight

12am-1am - wakes up and screams until someone comforts him

3am-4am - wakes up and won't go back to sleep

6:30am - grumpy and wants to sleep.

So, all of you experienced moms out there send me your suggestions.  I don't mind waking up and helping him if he has serious needs (like when he puked all over in bed), but for Tony's sanity as well as mine this has to stop.

Constantly Amazed

I just have to say that I am constantly amazed over how quickly Jacob picks up new words and learns to identify new objects.  Kids are just little sponges and I love watching him learn to recognize new animals and other things.  He keeps us completely amazed.

Ashes

So Jacob learned to play "Ring around the Rosies"  at the babysitter's house.  Over the last few days he has been walking around the house saying "ashes".  The only problem is that "ashes" doesn't really sound like "ashes" and more like....well, you can figure out what it sounds like he is saying.  He also has a habit of saying something that sounds like "hole" immediately after "ashes".  I really don't know what he is trying to say, but every time he says it reminds me of that movie, 'Meet the Fockers', where the little boy picks up swear words and just keeps repeating it.  Now, this is not a phrase that is used here in the Peterson household so I am sure that Jacob is just trying to get me to play Ring around the Rosies.  I know that we shouldn't laugh, but it caught both Tony and I off guard and we have laughed quite a bit about the whole thing.

On another note, Jacob has learned to fold his arms and be mostly reverent during the prayer!  I nearly started crying when he folded his arms in church on Sunday.  

January pictures

I finally went to a portrait studio to try to get some nice pictures of our little guy.  I thought that I was doing well because he was dressed in a cute outfit and was in a good mood.  I was wrong.  I put my happy little guy on the ground for the photographer and he proceeded to run like mad.  The pictures you see are the result of nearly 45 minutes of taking shots.  Most of the pictures were fuzzy flashes of something somewhat resembling Jacob.  I had the pictures taken at Target and was pretty happy with the result as well as the patience of the photographer.  My only suggestion would be for them to close the studio door so that my son can't escape and terrorize the candy at the nearby check-outs.

 

   

Birthday Boy (one month late)

Jacob turned 1-year old on December 24.  We had a small party with Grandma & Grandpa Gatherum, Grandma Peterson, Brett, Kurt, and Amanda.  We would have loved to have more family there, but because he was born on such a busy day we didn't want to disrupt everyone's Christmas Eve celebrations.  We had a great time eating dinner, opening presents, and, of course, watching Jacob eat his birthday cake.  Probably the best part of the night was when Jacob opened a gift from Grandma and Grandpa G only to find ladies Sunday shoes instead of a pair of snow boots.  My mom had accidentally grabbed her shoes instead of Jacob's boots.  In all fairness, the gifts were already wrapped.  I guess that is one of the hazards of having a Christmas Eve birthday.  

We are so happy to have Jacob in our family. He has been such a happy boy and always makes us smile.  He is a huge flirt and charms everyone he meets.  

Opening presents.  Jacob wasn't really interested but he loved the attention.

Grandma's shoes instead of boots.  Jacob actually played longer with these shoes than any of the other presents.

I love cake!  The frosting was colored whipped cream and Jacob loved it!

Tagged..a while ago

Back in the beginning of December, my sister, Megann, tagged me.  I have never been any good at responding to tags, but I will give it a try.  I have to admit that I will not follow all the rules because the rules annoy me a little.  Anyway, here goes.

TAGGED:

Rules:

1. Post Rules on your blog (I guess I can do that)

2. Answer the six '8' items (I will try)

3.Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving them a comment (won't do this one)

8 favorite shows

1.  Dirty Jobs (even though I don't have cable, I watch this every chance I get)

2.  Wait, Wait, Don't tell me (Radio news quiz Saturdays on NPR...I know. I am a bit of a nerd)

3. The Office (who doesn't love a show with awkward moments and scenes you can laugh about later)

4.  America's Funniest Home Videos (laughing is always good)

5.  Lost (I don't really like it all that much since it seems to just drag on and on, but I am a little hooked)

6.  Cooking shows (most of them at least)

7.  House

8.  I can't think of anything else

8 things I did yesterday

1.  Went to work

2.  Went to Costco for the third time in a week (don't ask)

3.  Tried to clean out Jacob's nose so he wouldn't sound snotty (unsuccessful)

4.  Watched part of American Idol (I really hate that show...once again I was sucked in to watching it)

5.  Played tug-o-war with my dog, Abby

6.  Pushed the snooze button three times

7.  Ate too many chocolate covered cinnamon bears (delicious!)

8.  Drank 90 ounces of liquid (trying to prevent a cold from taking over my body)

8 things I look forward to

1.  Sleep

2. Nights out with just me and Tony

3.  Nights in with me, Tony, and Jacob

4.  Jacob trying to scare people with his soft 'ba' (he thinks he is saying boo)

5.  Jacob saying new words or doing new tricks (his latest is to spin around)

6.  Going on walks with my boys and my dogs

7.  Getting email messages from real people instead of just junk mail

8.  Eating really good Thai food

8 favorite restaurants

1.  Any good Thai restaurant that has really good Panang Curry

2.  Plates and Palates (small place in Bountiful)

3.  Cafe Rio (most of the time)

4.  Hickory Park in Ames, Iowa

5.  Aunt Maudes (again in Ames)

6.  Anything Japanese that is worth the money

7.  

8. (I told you I wouldn't follow the rules)

8 things on my wish list

1.  Clean house (ha ha)

2.  Dog mess to disappear from the backyard without me picking it up

3.  Find a college teaching position

4.  Jacob to give up his binky without a fight

5.  Cookies to give you the nutrition you get from fresh fruit and vegetables

6.  A good nights' sleep (Jacob sleeps fine, it's just me)

7.  New wardrobe without having to shop for it

8.  Remodeled kitchen so that I could see into the living room when Jacob is playing

8 people to tag

Any volunteers?