Jacob in motion

While Erin and Jacob are on their whirlwind tour of Texas, I figured now would be a good time to clean out the video camera. All four of these videos are really cute and worth watching from start to finish, especially the third one.

JACOB LOVES STANDING
If an object is sturdy, Jacob will climb on it. If an object's not sturdy, Jacob will climb on it. He pulls himself up on tables, couches, people, our dog, you name it. He's learned to grip our clothing to help anchor himself. Once he's upright, he stays that way until his little legs give out. And then he's right back up.



TOSSING THE OL' RATTLE
Jacob's showing early signs he'll be giving the heater to the big boys. He loves to throw things and knock down blocks. That's my boy.



EATING CHEERIOS, SLAPPING HIGH FIVES
This has become my favorite video. Not only can Jacob grab tiny Cheerios, he knows to put them in his mouth and chew. Well, I guess that latter part really isn't that grandeur of a talent considering he puts everything in his mouth. What's so amazing about this feat, though, is his ability to utilize fine motor skills to grab these minuscule objects. A lot of the time, though, he'll just paw at the objects with his chubby little hands, drag them to the edge of the tray and clasp them before falling to the ground, where Dolly sadly awaits.

Oh, and Erin's trained, er, taught Jacob to give high fives. It's so damn adorable, it'll slap you silly with a fistful of warm fuzzies.



DOLLY POPS BALLOONS
This video focuses more on Dolly's skiddish reaction to a roomful of balloons, but you can see Jacob crawling around. We bought the balloons for a really cute New Year's photo, which will posted at that time.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

a few cute pics

Jacob loves to crawl under things like his excersaucer.


Jacob's first art project.

8 months already!

Jacob is 8 months.
We are starting to babyproof the place. He is crawling EVERYWHERE and so fast. He also pulls up on everything. He is starting to walk around holding on furniture. I am sure he will be walking very soon. He still has only 2 bottom teeth but I think his two front top teeth will be showing up soon. Everything goes in his mouth and he just chews. He is drinking about 27-30 oz. of formula a day and about 4-5 tablespoons of pureed foods but he is also starting to enjoy finger foods as well. Jacob is growing up so fast right infront our eyes. We are looking forward to going to Dallas/Houston for 10 days.

Happy 1st Thankgiving Jacob

SOme pics from our trip to Dallas.... Jacob's first THanksgiving

Holy Teeth

Have I told you about Jacob's Teeth yet? WELLLL... Jacob has 2 teeth. Both came through in the month of November. They are his two front bottom teeth. Teething hasn't been too bad but he does have his moments of fussiness or waking up in the middle of the night screaming bloody murder. He chews on EVERYTHING. If he sees something, doesnt matter what it is, it goes straight into his mouth. He is not really into teething rings but he likes cold towels to chew on. He hates it when I try to look at his teet by pulling his bottom lip down but I tried really hard to take a pic of his teeth. Hopefully you can kind of see something.

baby day at the synagogue

Our Synagogue had baby day with the babies who will be a Bar/Bat Mitzvah in 2022. It was so much fun and Jacob was able to play with other babies his age. A song leader was there and we sang some songs. Enjoy the pics:

And we're off!

No longer a dull moment in the Karlin household.

Baby pull-ups

Jacob has learned to pull himself up. Good for him. Bad for us. Time to lower the crib!

Giggle Monster Pt. 3

This was filmed after we got home from Chicago. It was around 10 or 11 p.m. — way past Jacob's bedtime. He slept during the entire flight, though, so he wasn't tired. But he was in a giggling mood! He was already laughing his head off for a few minutes before he decided to record it. It's hilarious to us to see what he finds side-splitting hysterical.

He slept like a baby that night.

Best friends

Now that Jacob is developing a playful personality, he's really starting to grow on Dolly. She still runs away when we try to lay him against her, but she's definitely more comfortable going up to him now than when he was younger. She loves giving him kisses, and he loves watching her run around.

It's starting to blossom into a lifelong friendship of trouble-making and mischievousness.

7 MONTHS OLD!

Jacob is 7 months old today! A few milestones he has met in the past month
- getting on all 4's and crawling backwards
- putting himself to sleep
- eating finger foods (usually Mum Mum's)and a little bit of bread
- the consonant M is used a lot
- getting into the sitting position from being on his tummy or all 4's
- pulling himself up from the sitting position holding on to fingers or a low table

He amazes us everyday with something new!

Chicago trip No. 2

With all the sky miles Jacob has racked up, it's a shame he actually hasn't paid for any of them. He could've earned us a family trip to Disney World by now.

We took the little one back to Chicago last weekend for my cousin Rebecca's Bat Mitzvah. It was his third flight in the six months he's been outside the womb and he'll take to the air two more times before the end of the year when we go to Dallas over Thanksgiving and again in December. He's also endured a 12-hour road trip from Dallas to Clarksville and a roundtrip from Dallas to Houston.

Phew! That's a lot of traveling for a little dude.

But he's one heck of a trooper. Never did we think a 6-month-old baby would be so calm and easy-going as Jacob was. Rarely did he let out a peep as we rushed from the truck to the shuttle to the airport and through the metal detectors, all the while shlepping a ton of baggage (mostly baby stuff). On the plane he was even better. Nobody wants to be stuck on a flight with a crying baby. With Jacob on board, that apparently will almost never be a concern. We fed him a bottle on the way up and he slept the whole time!

His easy-going personality continued to shine throughout the hectic 48-hour visit. Despite his sleep schedule being way off, he simply went with the flow of the weekend, including staying up way past his bedtime Saturday night at the party.

He's such a great baby! We love the little guy.

Sleepless in Tennessee

Jacob has reached another milestone: soothing himself back to sleep. Of course, every good thing comes with a price. Ours was consecutive sleepless nights.

This hellacious anecdote dates back to last week. It was time when -- I say this with the utmost of love -- Jacob was absolutely horrible. He wasn't eating well -- he was fussy and squirmy as he sucked on his bottle -- and he was sleeping more than usual during the day. He just wasn't his usual smiling, happy self. As a result, he was waking up in the middle of the night -- every... single... night -- like clockwork, around 2 a.m. Some nights we just had to rock him back to sleep. Other nights he was a wide-eyed, little night owl who wanted to play.

To his defense, he was coming off a fever from the flu shot he got the previous week, and we thought at the time he might've been suffering from a sore throat (hence the fussiness while sucking down formula). Regardless, he was exhibiting nocturnal tendencies that were driving us eye-twitching, head-pounding, fighting-over-who-would-stay-up-this-night crazy. At 6 months, he should be sleeping through the night. We had absolutely no clue what to do.

Late in the week, as he was tugging on his ear, we decided to take him to the doctor. We thought maybe he had an ear infection that was causing his irritability. Of course, as soon as the doctor began to examine Jacob, he miraculously perked up as if nothing was ever wrong. The doctor said his throat was a bit dry, but his ears were fine.

So we took him home. That night, as usual, we woke up to the midnight squeal coming through the monitor. And, like usual, we both let out a grunt of disgust. I looked at the clock. 3 a.m. We remained prone, staring at the silhouette of the ceiling fan, waiting, hoping, praying the crying would stop so we could go back to sleep. It didn't. It got louder.

Finally, Erin got out of bed and went into his room. No rocking. No cradling. No feeding. She just put his pacifier in his mouth and walked away.

Silence.

HE FELL ASLEEP! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! God bless that little piece of a plastic with the rubbery nipple!

We had talked about whether he was old enough to soothe himself, but we weren't sure if would work. I guess when you're against the wall is a good a time as any to try anything new. Luckily for us it was successful.

Since then, he occasionally wakes up in the middle of the night, but all we have to do is put the passy in his mouth and he does the rest. He even puts himself to sleep while he's playing on the floor. We hope soon he will be able to find the passy himself while lying in bed and become completely self-sufficient in the soothing department. But we'll take what we can get, and we got back our happy baby!

We're also happy to report that the past few days have yielded, what Erin believes, a bit of a growth spurt. Along with sleeping through the night, he's been eating more, both solids and formula. We think he's ready to increase his bottle amount from 5 to 6 ounces per feeding.

Jacob's first bubble bath

It's officially cold in Clarksville

I bought a hat from this lady on the Internet who knits winter hats for babies. It is the cutest hat I have ever seen, and it looks super cute on Jacob. We all went on a walk this morning and bundled Jacob up with his outer winter clothes, including his new hat. He looks so cute/warm.


Here is a better picture of his new hat