Sunday, January 31, 2010

Our Trip to Virgina

Well, as I wrote in my blog yesterday, we had a wonderful trip to North Carolina and had so much fun showing off Jake to family. At the middle point of the trip we took my cousin Stephanie for a road trip to Virgina so we could see some pretty country and go to an aquarium for Jake. Jake has LOVED fish ever since we went to a friend's house across the street and they had a big fish tank, he stared at that thing for the longest time. So we hit the road and drove first to Williamsburg where we spent the night and ate at a Cracker Barrel for the first time. yum :) Then we woke up and went to Newport News, Norfolk and Virgina Beach...had lunch at a WaWa which are awesome and I really wish we had them here. But the real fun was had at the aquarium which Jake absolutely loved. The best way to show that is a ton of pictures. So please, enjoy.
"Wow, aunt Steph....look at that fish"
Jake adored the area where he could touch the crabs...I really think he could have stayed there all day and been happy.
...although Ryan did have to watch that he did not pull the poor little guy's leg off. This kid had no fear.
....ohhhhh....big fish!
"oh my gosh oh my gosh....look at the fishies"
If Jake could have gone into the tank with the fish I think he would have.

They also had a pool where you could touch the Manta Rays which was a great hit. Jake really wanted to touch them but he was splashing so much that they were afraid to come too close.
...but he LOVED them!!!
Looking through the Hurricane simulator with his aunt Stephanie.
Look at the sea turtle....can barely see it right behind Jake and he is looking at another one above him.
My cousin Steph admiring the fish and turtles.
This picture amazes me as it is not a mural behind Jake...those are real fish and a sea turtle.
Although Mom and Dad ran into a little bit of trouble in the shark area. Yikes!!!
"Uh...Mom....don't move...there is a shark next to me"
Family Picture. :)
Jake really loved the aquarium...touched all the glass and always got excited when he saw the fish...hitting his hands on the glass tanks....poor fish.
Jake and mommy peaking through a reptile area.
Oh what a great time we all had together and it was awesome to see the aquarium through Jake's eyes...he loved it. So if you are ever in Virgina Beach...definitely see the aquarium there!
Thank you Steph for showing us the way and bringing us to a great place!!!

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Our Great Travels

Well I last wrote you before our great trip and wow the stories I have to tell. :) Once again I will have to split this up over a couple blogs. The trip started off on a bad note but it turned into a really great thing. We were supposed to leave on Thursday morning to go to North Carolina to see family and on the way to the airport we got a call that our flight had been cancelled. To make a long story short we were not able to fly out until the next morning. But luckily my aunt Joanie lives about 15 minutes from the airport we were using and so we were able to stay with her. Jake had not met his aunt yet and so it was great fun for them to be able to bond and get to know each other...although I am bummed I did not get a picture of them together. My aunt Joanie and her friend Amy also have a number of dogs that they breed and Jake quickly made them his best friends as they played together. They also inspired Jake to become a better crawler, as can be seen in the video below...keep in mind he crawled for the first time a week and a day before.

Friday morning we were able to leave as planned...Jake really wanted to take this airplane. :)
But we flew through Nashville on our way and had a 3 hour layover there. What at first sounded like a terrible plan turned great as we had some awesome bbq at the airport and they had two play areas at the airport which Jake absolutely loved. So much so he slept while taxing in Nashville and woke up when we stopped at the gate in NC. :) Yes my big boy ended up being a great little traveler. But we arrived around 9:30pm in NC and were off to see family as it was still early for us CA people and my family really wanted to meet Jake. We had such a wonderful time with them visiting and having fun with a certain game...izzle. (Brandt family will understand this and all my friends and family...you soon will) Such a wonderful trip that I only wish could have been longer. But here are some pictures with family and next time will be of our wonderful little side trip we made with my cousin Stephanie.
A picture of Jake on his first ever airplane ride.
Jake and his aunt Megan.
Ahhhhh...how cute.
Jake and his great aunt Amy.
Jake and his great uncle Ken. (sitting next to Megan and her friend)
Jake and his aunt Stephanie.
Stay tuned for the next blog of our little side trip and Jake's favorite place.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Jake is the Big 10 Months

Wow, I cannot believe my son is 10 months old...it really does seem like he was just born. Its funny because Jake has always been a big boy and so sometimes its hard to believe that he was ever small. So I was looking through pictures the other day and realized...huh...he was a small little baby at one point. :) Here is an example. I put him in his swing the other day at the upright angle to see if he would like it (luckily we bought a 30 lbs capacity swing) and he did. So of course I took a picture.

Then I looked at a picture of the first time he was ever in the swing...
wow, he was little. hehe

Ahh, but things have definitely changed in the last week. As my past blog showed, a little before he turned 10 months old he decided that he wanted to try out crawling. He still is a bit clumsy with it...especially when he is excited, like chasing after our dog Piper...but he gets it done. For a long time he would only go about 4 strides and then go down on his tummy, but now he goes a little farther and constantly makes it from his play area to the kitchen. I am realizing how easy I had it for a while. :) He also learned to sit up on his own on Jan 3 (his personal birthday gift for Mommy) but then did not do it again. Now he does it all the time and really seems to enjoy crawling somewhere and then popping up to sit and play. One morning I heard him and knew he had waken up so I looked at the video monitor. It took me a bit to realize that I was looking at the top of his head as he was sitting in his crib. Crazy boy. He also pulled himself to standing against the couch for the first time last Saturday...this boy does everything at once. Still not great at that as its a lot of hard work but he is practicing a lot by climbing on Mommy while trying to get to a remote control or phone. I love this boy.

I have also gotten braver and have given him more big people food...I mean he is getting older and some day has to move away from baby food. At this moment he loves vanilla yogurt, bananas, pancakes, hash browns, bread, spaghetti, grilled cheese and Cheerios. I am still feeding him baby food for meals but he gets a couple bites of other stuff as a treat sometimes.

But that is Jake Davis Brown at this point in his history :) Now here are some pictures to enjoy as well. :)
Wow, those "wagon wheels" look really big...I am not sure that Jake can handle those
good thing the child has a big mouth as he is a typical boy and sticks the entire thing in his mouth hehe
This is a state I have found Jake in many times. Grandma and Grandpa Loretz gave him some dump trucks with Mega Blocks in them for Christmas and many times Jake likes to use the little ones as pacifiers. Silly boy...is he telling me that his are too small? :)
Oh and my boy LOVES to read, sometimes I find him just like this pulling out one of his favorite books and looking at it on his own on the floor. Sweet Little Man.
And just this once I thought I would give Jake a chance at learning how to drink out of a cup. I took the lid off a sippy cup and put a little bit of water in it. He loved it...although I am not sure how much of the water he actually swallowed. Before we were done with this exercise he was soaked. But man, he really had a good time!
Well have a good week everyone. We are off to North Carolina this weekend to see family and take a nice vacation. Talk to you all again next week!

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Uh Oh

...need I say more :)

Saturday, January 9, 2010

New Years and First Time at the Park

Wow...as I have been sitting here uploading my pictures my son just army crawled (pulled himself forward on his belly using his arms and sometimes his legs) from me to his books (about 5' away), back to me, and then back to the books. I cannot believe this boy. He just started working on this before New Years and he is already making progress. Wow

Anyway :) New Years was a wonderful time. We went to our good friends Melissa and Steve's house to spend time with them and have our little ones play. We had a wonderful New Years with them and uncle Steve even gave Jake some crawling lessons...so I am blaming you Steve for this new army crawl. ;) Jake and Kadence seemed to have a good time playing around each other and did not really upset each other...so I call it a success. hehe New Years Day our friends, Becky, Troy and Jim came up for a surprise birthday party for Becky which was so much fun. We then had a house full of kids and adults just having a good time. So much fun. I love these times when you can get together with old friends. So fun and relaxing and awesome to see our kids grow up together.

Another thing that we were able to do the first day we got there was take Jake to a park for the first time. The boy was 9 1/2 months old and had never been on a big swing or on a slide and seeing that they have a bunch of awesome parks around there house we went on a little adventure.

Here are some pictures showing our great times:
Jake and Kadence getting ready to go to the park. And yes Kadence is 6 months older even though they look to be the same size) :) "Okay momma, I am in this strange thing and getting all buttoned up...now what?"
"Wo this is fun...again...again."
"Dad I know you are holding onto the back of my overalls...but I am not sure about this."
"Oh...that was really fun...I think I like the slide!"
This was really funny as both Kadence and Emma (Becky and Troys little girl...really bummed we did not get a picture of the three of them together) loved to sit on Jake like a little horsey. Jake was exploring the floor on his tummy a lot so I guess he looked like a little pony to them. But here you can see that Kadence was really happy and proud of herself just barely sitting on Jake.
Here Jake has fully thrown his rider and looks quite pleased about it...the rider...not so much.
Ahhhh...a little sleepy cuddle time between Jake and Becky
This I just though was cute. We did not bring our dog Piper on our trip and I think Piper and Jake really missed each other as Jake went right to her when we got back and Piper gave him a nice puppy kiss. :)
Hope you all had a wonderful New Years as well and we all have a great 2010!!!

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

And here we are for the second installment of Jakey's first Christmas. We had a wonderful time with Ryan's parents, sister, and grandma celebrating Christmas at our house and then we got to take a trip to my parents house to have another Christmas with my parents, grandma and Aunt Kathy. We had a really great time with them too and Jake loved his opportunity to share all his new tricks and show off his two bottom teeth (the second one cut on the 23rd) to more of his fans. Here are some pictures from our wonderful trip:
Jakey opening up a Christmas Bear
I really think that one of Jake's favorite gifts was this wrapping paper. It was shiny and made a fun noise when you moved it around and he just loved it.
A Very excited little bear (if you have not noticed already Jake's nickname has become "bear"...kinda morphed from buddy bear, to Jakey Bear to Bear)
"Ooohhhh is this for me?"
Grandma and Grandpa got Jake a big dump truck which he loves.
...and he can ride on it and hit buttons which make all kinda of noise (luckily there is a volume and on/off switch)
Jake and his GG loved cuddling...so much that they both fell asleep on this occasion.
Jake giving his Great Aunt Kathy some love.
Christmas Family Picture...I loved spending this holiday time together without school, work, or other craziness getting in the way.
If Jake could have sugar right now I would call this picture "Sugar High"
Jake and Mommy
And for your viewing pleasure, a small demonstration of Jake opening a present and absolutely loving the wrapping. It really was the best part of watching him during his First Christmas.
Stay tuned for New Years Pics...