Category Archives: jakob


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by the way…

…I’m so proud. 10 weeks old and he can sit in a Bumbo unsupported.
I’m in the process of uploading some videos and once they’re ready I’ll put a few here and put a link to the others.
Sorry for the few posts this week, it didn’t seem like such a busy week but the time just went by. On Wednesday we went to the movies again, went with my mom and ran into Robyn, Sean and my aunt once we got there. The movie was I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. It was a cute movie, but not as gut-busting funny as my brother and Robyn’s brother made it seem. I think it would have been funnier with an audience of teens/adults laughing, because they would have made it more entertaining. What did we do the rest of the week? I know we did a bunch of errands, went to the Wool Store for some needles and to wind the wool I got to knit another sample for JCA (my winder is packed and I can’t find it). Friday night we had dinner then Debbie came over for a bit. Yesterday we went to Costco and then Julie and Rich came over, followed not long after by my brother Aaron and his friend Brad. Aaron came with more clothes for Jakob- this is one well dressed, spoiled kid!
Today I’m just trying to finish uploading Jakob’s photos to Kodak Gallery and trimming the home videos I took so I can upload those too, then we’re off to my parents’ house for supper.


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smushed peas

So the “Peas if You Please” project is no more.

We’ve been trying to come up with a way to keep Sam (the cat) out of Jakob’s room. I don’t want to always have to close the door but I don’t want cat fur everywhere, nor do I want to worry about suffocation. We know Sam was jumping in to the crib when Jakob was sleeping with us, because we found him sitting on the hutch with all of Jakob’s stuffed animals. We would have put up a normal screen door outside his door, but our house has metal door frames so we can’t mount a door like you normally would.

We ended up finding an expensive screen at Home Depot. It mounts in the interior of the door frame so we didn’t need to worry about screw holes, and it slides in and out so it has a very clean look. The screen is kind of like an accordian, when you release the catch it glides back on a roller track and folds in on itself. It works perfectly- except that Sam figured out that the screen is only a mesh fabric and that if he pushed he could walk right under it.

Yannick went out and bought a baby gate to put behind it. The gate blocks Sam well, but it is a little too high for me to step over comfortably, especially in middle of the night with Jakob in my arms. When my mom suggested something like a “draft blocker”, I decided to construct one.

The peas were for weight. I had 12 lbs of peas. We were hoping that 12 lbs, around Sam’s weight, would be enough of a mass that if he pushed against it, he’d feel resistance and not persist in trying to get under the door. I chose peas because they were the cheapest item in bulk, and I knew that I could always eat them if it didn’t work. Barley was cheap too…but I don’t like barley. My original idea was to pour the peas into two soda bottles, put them nose to nose, wrap them in fabric batting and stuff that into a nylon for structural support. I would then knit a cute cover for it. (Anything for an excuse to knit a “cozy”). After pouring peas into one of the soda bottles I weighed it and found it only came to around 4 lbs. A total of 8 lbs would not be enough weight to stop Sam, so I scrapped the soda bottles and just kept the peas in the plastic bags they came in (to stop moisture). I laid them in a row and wrapped the batting around, using the nylon to hold it in place.

I put the resulting sausage in place temporarily while I began to knit. The knitting worked out great, I have about 3 inches done. The blocker? Not so great.

Can you see the problem? Here’s a better view:
Sam just walked right under it. So now the baby gate is back up, and this project is scrapped. We will end up changing the baby gate for a lower “wall” that Yannick will construct for me, and I will have to resign myself to eating a lot of peas for the next while…unless anyone has other uses for 12 lbs of dry yellow and green peas?

My brother is slowly condo-shopping and borrowed Yannick last weekend to go see some open houses. While we looked on line for promising listings, Jakob kept Michael entertained for a while.
I’m so proud. 🙂


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the wonders of modern inventions

Since I’ve been home I’ve had a chance to do more cooking than in previous years. Ok, I’m not doing as much as I’d like- the kitchen is only recently unpacked and I am taking care of a newborn- but compared to the last few months of my pregnancy when we ordered in every night, cooking even once in a while is a lot. Also, when I was finishing work at 6:00pm and was faced with a half-hour drive home, it wasn’t often that I looked forwards to cooking a nice meal and sitting down to eat at 8:00pm. I missed the days at my previous job when I finished at 4:30pm and had time to shop for groceries, come home, cook meals from scratch and have it on the table by 6/7 o’clock.

With the kitchen mostly done I’ve been taking the opportunity to use some wedding and shower gifts that had remained packed for the entire last year. We waited after the bridal shower because we had no storage space and wanted to wait until after the wedding to see how much room we’d need, and it wasn’t long after the wedding that we decided to move, so there was no point in unpacking those items.

Last week I played around with our Crock-Pot slow cookers. One night I made a Mexican Strata (like a lasagne but with tortillas and olives and different spices). It was delicious but not really (to me) a slow cooker recipe because I had to cook the meat on the stove first. Last Sunday I made a pot roast with veggies. That was fun! In the morning I put in a bunch of cut up potatoes, carrots and onions, topped with a 3lb boneless beef rump roast that I’d rubbed with salt & pepper. Add a 1/2 cup of water, cover and turn on the machine to low. It was great- Jakob was calm in the morning so I had a chance to prepare it, then all I had to do was wait until it was ready to eat. It took 10-12 hrs to cook and I’d unfortunately waited until 11:00am to prepare, so we had to wait until 9:00pm to have supper, but it was worth it! The meat fell off the bone and the veggies were cooked perfectly. The taste was mild and was almost exactly like eating a stew that had been separated into individual ingredients. Perfect for a Sunday night, and perfect because Jakob fussed at night but all I had to do to get supper ready was to open the lid and serve!

This week I’ve been playing with our food dehydrator. A few nights ago I dried some watermelon slices. I’d heard they get sweet and candy-like when dried. Eh. Either my watermelon wasn’t sweet enough, or its just not to my taste. Two nights ago I used a pound of ground beef and a spice mixture and made a large amount of beef jerky. That came out really well, but I might have let it dry a smidge too long.

Tonight I put in a mixture of corn, peppers and seasonings to try and make corn chips. They should be ready by tomorrow, and then I will attempt some dried fruits.

The big advantage is that I can prepare foods when Jakob is quiet and have them ready to eat when he’s fussy and I don’t have time to cook. I’m really amusing myself with this! 🙂

In other news, we went for lunch this afternoon with Jackie and Bradley. I can’t believe how fast he’s growing up! Almost 2, talking and being such a little man- really a barometer for how much time goes by. I can’t believe soon Jakob will be sitting there on his own, coloring on the table. And Jackie is a friend I’ve known since the early days of high school. To have thought back then that we’d be sitting here over 13 years later, married, with kids…its crazy. I still feel like a kid- how can I have friends that I’ve known over a decade? I’ve been with Yannick almost a decade, and we’ll be married a year in September. And we have a child. When did I grow up?

I took Jakob outside when I got home and he played in his bouncer in the shade while I knit a few rows in the sun. I just finished the hem and turning row of a sweater (sized for 1 year…I think I mentioned it previously) and am about to start the body. It should go fast- its worked in stripes, and colorwork always seems to go fast. I’m afraid to “save as draft” and add a photo later in case I forget and don’t wind up uploading this post at all, so I’m publishing now and I’ll add a photo in a separate post.


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rainy, sleepy day

This is a photo from Wednesday. Jakob passed out in the car seat on the way home from the movies, and I couldn’t resist taking this picture. Instead of being slumped over like usual, he was holding his head up and had such a calm look on his face.

This is from yesterday when my mom was over. She’d taken him for a walk on Monday and didn’t like the sun in his eyes, so when out she found these sunglasses for him. I think he looks adorable! (And they go perfectly with his wife-beater!)

Mommy with Jakob at 9 weeks old.


This was from earlier today when we took some tummy time. It was raining all day so we slept in together and spent most of the day vegging on the couch. I did manage to unpack a few of the kitchen boxes, but Jakob really wanted to be held today so I didn’t have my hands free too often. I did manage to knit a few rows with him asleep in my lap, though.


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does it count as progress if no one can see it?

This photo isn’t from today…I just thought its a shame when only cute, smiling photos are posted, since crying babies are still just as cute. Especially when they are crying really hard and their cries have that rattling, raspy sound. This sounds so mean! Don’t think I let Jakob cry all the time…I don’t! I just think that sometimes he’s adorable when he cries. 🙂

Today was supposed to be a sleepy, rainy day. Instead I got a surprising amount of work done. My mom came over to help me work on the kitchen for a while. Jakob was really good and played in his bouncer or slept most of the time, and we tackled the remaining boxes. There have been 11 boxes stacked in front of my patio door for over a week now, just sitting there and taunting me. 4 of the boxes were easy, as they were one-item boxes (Cuisinart, Raclette, Deep-Fryer and Roaster), but everything else was a hodge-podge of kitchen items, big and small. And Tupperware. I have a LOT of Tupperwear. We decided to empty the 11 boxes once and for all…then realized that we couldn’t really put away the small or every-day items properly, until the larger, rarely-used items were stored, so we’d see how much space was left. I have a very large kitchen (what a change from our old house!) with a lot of cabinet space and I needed to make sure everything was well placed. That meant we had to go downstairs and gather up all the service platters and stuff that I got for my engagement party and bridal shower and wedding, open EVERYTHING up and put it all away. We worked on the kitchen from 1:00-ish until 6:00pm. There is a huge stack of empty, flattened boxes in the middle of the kitchen floor. Most of the cabinets and drawers are fully, and everything has a place. I’d feel great- if only I didn’t still have the 7 original boxes still to unpack! Plus, the kitchen still looks a mess, even though behind the closed cupboard and cabinet doors everything is beautifully placed. Oh well, at least the rest *should* be easier, now that things are organized.

Things with Jakob have been going well too. He has slowly started drinking a bit more, sometimes even up to 10-12 minutes per side, which is amazing for him, since his usual is to chug for 5 minutes then shut his mouth. I’m not used to feedings taking so long, but it is really only a bother at night when I want to go back to sleep. During the day I turn the TV on while I feed him or have a magazine nearby, something flat that can lie open since I still need both hands to feed him.

He has been extremely alert and playful, and it is such a nice change to see his big blue eyes open all the time, compared to his first few days when they were such a novelty because he’d be so lethargic and sleep all the time. He truly has a great personality about him.

I have managed to find some knitting time while he sleeps in my lap after feeding. I did 10 rows today and might manage to squeeze in a few more tonight before crashing. No one has yet guessed what my mystery project is so I’ll give a bit more info: I decided not to use the soda bottles, the nylons, peas and batting were used together, and the knitting comes last. Any ideas now?


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two months old

Ok. I’ll cave. Everyone does it, and I can’t resist- “Where did the time go??”

I can’t believe it has been two months since Jakob was born. I love falling in love with my little guy. I love watching his personality emerge, and watching him learn about the world around him. Each day brings so much change, from his eyelashes getting longer and thicker to watching him stare at his hands as his fingers move. I can’t wait until it dawns on him that he’s the one moving them!

I love all the firsts- he smiles all the time now, and has let out two very real, very loud laughs. He holds his head up constantly. He sleeps by himself. He has grown out of many outfits. He recognizes people. He’s getting ticklish.

I could go on and on. Last night my sister’s boyfriend came over for dinner, and although there was a TV on with a funny Simpson’s episode, all three of us spent the entire meal staring at Jakob, who was amusing himself in his bouncer by kicking to make the motion-activated lights and sound operate. Three grown adults, two of which were men, all captivated by this little bundle of wonder.

I’m so lucky that I get to watch him grow, yet even luckier that I get to spend each day with him while he’s so small. I’m lucky that Canda has a better maternity leave system then the US so I can choose 40 or 50 weeks to be home, and I’m lucky that when I go back to work I get to bring him with me every day.

It amazes me that if the last two months have gone so fast, then it will be no time before I go back to work, until he’s in school, until he has his first best friend, first girlfriend, breaks a girl’s heart, gets married, has kids of his own. I want to both see it all right now AND make every second last an eternity.

But right now I want to go cuddle my son. I can’t believe I’m expected to do housework and cook and unpack boxes too. 🙂 Can’t I make cuddling my full-time job?


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what a week!

Mommy with Jakob at 8 weeks old.

What a week it has been! I took Jakob to his first movie, then on Friday we went up north to Yannick’s parents place and it was Jakob’s first time there. It was fun but we stayed overnight and it is always a bit of a challenge because I need to try extra hard to keep him quiet during the night, so as not to disturb everyone else in the house. I don’t mind waking Yannick up (let him help! LOL) but I didn’t want to wake up anyone else. Luckily Jakob was really well behaved and slept through the night in his usual way. He also slept most of the way home, so I had a chance to cast on and knit one row of a sweater for him. One row might not sound like a lot, but 176 stitches with sock-weight-thin yarn is a lot of knitting for me right now. 🙂

We got home Saturday afternoon and had to get ready because that night we had dinner plans with my family to celebrate my brothers’ birthday (late). We all went to Baton Rouge for supper, so that was another “first” for Jakob. He had been to a restaurant already (Bocaccino’s for lunch with my mom and grandmother) but this was his first dinner out. He was really good and the night went really well.

Yesterday was another first, too. Last night was the first night Jakob slept in his room. It was so tough for me! He’d been sleeping between us to make night feedings easier, but now that he sleeps for a longer stretch at night I wanted to get him into his room before he got too used to our bed. I waited until we had a screen on his door so that our cat wouldn’t get in. Yannick installed the screen in the afternoon, and I very hesitantly put him to bed around 11:30pm. I was afraid that he’d wake up early because usually he stirs around 1:00 and 3:00 am and I jiggle him to help him fall back asleep. I was also really sad to not have him next to me and I actually cried a little. :}

I swaddled him as usual and put him into his crib, shut the screen door and put the baby monitor next to my pillow.

Doesn’t he look lost in that big, empty crib? It nearly broke my heart to leave him!

It seemed like no time at all that I was awakened by his kvetching. I couldn’t believe it- it was 4:00am! He’d slept through from around midnight to 4:00, which doesn’t sound like a lot but for his first night he did a really good stretch in the crib, without crying at all! I fed him and put him back to bed and he went until 6:30. Not his usual times but for his first night I’m not complaining. We’ll see how it goes tonight though. (And, I have to admit that after the 6:30 feed he started to complain at 8:15 so we brought him back to bed with us). All in all, a lot of firsts and a very busy week!

Today we went to look at blind options for our bedrooms, then my friend Debbie came by for a little visit. I’d prepared a pot roast in our slow-cooker earlier in the morning so I didn’t have to worry about supper, and tonight we got to enjoy a really nice, home-cooked meal. I don’t know yet what I’m doing tomorrow but one of my mom’s friends is in from Arizona so I think we’ll be going over there for a visit.

On the knitting front I was able to knit 2 more rows tonight while watching some TV with Yannick holding Jakob. I’m glad I decided to knit the “1 year” size instead of the “6 month” size, because at this rate it will take me that long to finish! Oh- I forgot another “first”- Jakob laughed for the first time! Not a big grin with noise, but an actual giggly laugh. It was so cute! I have some videos I want to put up here but I don’t have my speakers hooked up yet and I want to watch the videos first to make sure I don’t sound obnoxious in them. 🙂

I still haven’t had time to go through anyone’s blogs or even sit at the computer for longer than 5 minutes (it has taken me an hour to type this with the brief snatches I get with my arms free) so I just wanted to say that I hope everyone is doing well and having a great summer. Goodnight!


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a fussy day

Here’s a photo from a few days ago. It’s funny- I take a billion photos of Jakob alone or with other people, and there are so few photos of he and I other than the ones I take every Thursday.

Today we had a trip to the movies with my mom, my aunt, my cousin Robyn and her son Sean. Our local movie theater does something called “Stars and Strollers”; they allow you to bring babies of any age, they provide changing tables and diapers and a microwave, they have the sound lowered slightly, and you get to enjoy a movie without worrying if your baby cries or needs to be fed. The movie was License to Wed- an okay movie. It was cute but could have waited for video. Jakob didn’t do too well at first. He started to cry and then couldn’t be consolled. He was hungry and didn’t want to feed but kept jamming his fists in his mouth instead of trying to suck. Finally my mom got up with him and walked around, and he fell asleep until the end of the movie. It was so frustrating and I was ready to give up breastfeeding altogether, but everyone has told me that he is probably reacting to the vaccines from yesterday- apparently the second day is worse than the first.

He’s been really fussy all day, doesn’t know what he wants, wants to eat but doesn’t want to, tries to sleep but cries instead, so I’m really hoping that it is just from the vaccine and will have passed by tomorrow.

He was in his usual good mood for about 10 minutes earlier, so I took the opportunity to grab a photo of him in his cute little outfit.

Now I’m off to watch some TV until the next feed, then its bed-time for both of us. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll spend all day vegging and catching up on some rest. Happy Wednesday!