Negligence

I was reading in my Parenting magazine a couple weeks ago an article about what to do if you accidentally locked your child into your car. As I read it, I distinctly remember thinking, "What kind of parent would lock their child in the car? That's just negligence!" Well, it turns out that I'm that negligent mother.

However, in my defense, I didn't lock Jake in the car. Technically, he locked me out! It all went down this afternoon at the local Hy-vee grocery store. I put Jake into his seat then gave him the keys to play with to keep him busy while I was putting the bags of groceries into the car. I finished putting all the groceries in and slammed the door shut. Unbeknownst to me, Jake had pressed the lock button on the keyring, so when I shut the door, I also locked Jake inside!

So there I was, standing out in the freezing cold with my baby trapped inside the car. I could see his little fingers right on the "unlock" button, and I kept saying, "Press it, press it!" and he looked at me, smiled, and then dropped the keys. I called Joseph on my cell phone to see if he could somehow get over to the grocery store with his set of keys and unlock the door. We called one of our good friends (thanks Taysia!) to go pick him up, but before she got there I saw two police cars and an ambulance drive up to the store and I hurried and asked the cop if anyone could help me get the door open. He was there because of a medical emergency (which I was horrified to find out later was someone who had slipped inside the store and her baby hit her head and had been knocked unconscious) so that obviously took precedence over my minor situation. When he was done and the ambulance had left, he helped me get the car open. Jake was having a ball the whole time. I wish I had pictures because he was just smiling and playing around in his seat. He had absolutely no idea what was going on. We're all safe and sound, and I've learned my lesson. I will never again give Jake the keys to play with unless I am inside the car with him!!

Surprise visit from Papa!

Today I was feeding Jake when I heard the apartment door open and the smell of warm pizza came flooding in. The next thing I saw was Joseph carrying the aforementioned pizza, and to my great surprise, Papa (Joseph's dad) came in right behind him! Of course, as is often the case with grandparents, he came bearing a big bag of gifts for Jake! He had come for a dentist appointment at the school and surprised us with a visit this afternoon before he went back to have a tooth pulled (ouch!). Jake was thrilled with the toys and books that Nana had picked out for him and is sitting on the floor playing with the trucks as I write this. Thanks for the fun surprise Papa!

Also, Jake just learned how to wave a few days ago and he loves to wave hello and goodbye to people. It is quite possibly the cutest thing ever. Here is a video for you to enjoy.

I need help!!

AUGH!! Jake won't take naps anymore. He just sits in his crib and yells for an hour or two (depending on how nice I'm being at the time). He purposely throws all of his pacifiers out of his crib and then poops because he knows I'll come in and change him. I am all business when I change his diapers and give his pacifier back to him, then put him back in his crib. He doesn't usually cry, he just sits there and hangs out and sometimes yells for my attention. What do I do? Do I give up his naps? The real problem is that he starts to act really tired (you know, the whole fussy, rubbing eyes, yawning thing) right at about 9:00 when his morning nap usually is. So I think that he's tired and I give him a bottle then put him in his crib. But then he doesn't want to sleep! What do I do? Please help!!

I'm a life saver

Since I'm all done nursing (yes!) I can finally donate plasma, and I donated yesterday for the first time. They have a plasma center here in Coralville where you can donate twice a week and earn $300 a month! The donating itself takes about 30-40 minutes, so it works out to be a pretty good situation. They make life-saving pharmecueticals (sp?) out of the plasma in your blood, so really I'm just saving lives by donating twice a week. They even have a supervised play area for kids while the parents donate, so it's like getting free babysitting for Jake! It feels pretty good to be saving lives and paying for your grocery bill at the same time....

Alright, really I just want a fabulous Coach purse. Is that so wrong???

Picture

Some of you may have noticed that we changed our blog title picture. We decided that we needed an updated family picture since Jake is growing so fast and he doesn't look at all like the bald little baby in the picture we took 6 months ago. We've really been wanting to go to JCPenney or something and take some family pictures, but we just haven't gotten around to it yet, so our photo shoot took place in our family room. To get Jake to look we had a singing and dancing Santa (thanks Nana and Papa!) playing and hence the "give me that, I want to eat it" look on his face. Crazy kid!

Messes

I swear that Jake thinks that I clean things up just so he can mess it up again. One of his favorite things to do is take everything out of the desk drawer. He sits on my lap while I'm at the computer and one by one takes everything out of the drawer. He looks at it for a second, sometimes puts it in his mouth, then throws it on the floor. Within a couple of minutes, the entire contents of the right drawer are emptied out onto the floor beneath him. When he sees that there is nothing left in the drawer, he looks at me with those "what am I going to do now?" eyes, and I have no choice but to lean over and pick it all up. So he can do it again. And again. And yet again. Is this how it is going to be until he leaves the house for college? I'm in for it.

Do those taste good?

I was making our bed the other day (which is really quite a process between the sheets, two blankets and 9 pillows) and Jake was hanging out in our half bathroom attached to the bedroom. I was engrossed in fluffing all the pillows when I realized it had been quiet in our bathroom for a little while. When I checked on Jake, this is what I found:

He was eating one of my feminine products like it was a lollipop. I really don't know what else to say about that, but I think his smile says it all.