Jacob at 15 months

SOOOOO.. we took Jacob to his 15 month appt. with a new Pediatrician. I am not thrilled about it. We love love love Dr. Rhoads!!!! He is absolutely wonderful and def. spoiled with a great doctor. The new pediatrican was not kid friendly and seemed like she really didnt know what she was doing. We are going to try out a new pediatrician for his 18 month appt. Hopefully it will be better.

We are going to compare stats from 1 yr and 15 month appt

1 yr.- 19.1 lbs and 29 in. long
15 months- 19.9 lbs and 29.5 in. long

Jacob is having a hard time growing. The Dr. told us to not give him us much liquids and give him more meat. He eats wonderful at daycare so hopefully something will happen and he will go through some kind of growth spurt between now and his 18 month appt.

Also, the Doctor told us that Jacob is a little delayed in speech and asked if we wanted to do a hearing test. We decided to wait till his 18 month appt and see how many words he can say then. At that time he was saying 3 words when he should be saying 5-7 words. He was saying mama, dada, and Hi.
Now, Jacob can say talk a lot but having a hard time getting the consonants out. He can say all gone but cant say the consonants with it.. he can also say night night but with out the consonants. I am a little worried so I have scheduled a hearing test for next week and see what we need to do. Since scheduling the hearing test, he now says 2 more words. He says bye-bye and ball. So hopefully he will be ok and wont need Tubes!.. other than that.. he is an extremely healthy boy!
Stay tuned for more posts!

Introducing Beau Stafford!!

My cousins Annie and Trey had their first son, Beau, at the end of April. We are so excited for Jacob and Beau to grow up and be able to play together. We went to houston and was able to finally meet Beau. Jacob has never been around a little baby, but he did really well.

happy 4th of July!

The three of us enjoyed a wonderful evening on July 3rd at Lee Victory Park in Smyrna. We had so much fun eating watermelon, walking around the field, hanging out in the back of the truck. Jacob enjoyed playing ball with the other kids. He didnt understand to kick the soccer ball but he picked the ball up to give it back to the kids and then ran after it when it was kicked. It was too cute. At 9, we watched a great firework show and Jacob absolutely loved it. He sat very nicely in my lap for the first 5 minutes and then got up to watch it standing up. I am so glad he liked the fireworkS!

An important message from Jacob Lee Karlin

I replay Jacob's "Hi!" all the time in my head while I'm daydreaming at work, and it always brings a smile to my face. It's really weird to hear his true voice. For the past few months he's been grunting, squealing and whispering under his breath in the form of "dada" and other consonant sounds. But those sounds, to me, are different from the word he just created through his finely-tuned vocal chords.

Can't wait to hear what comes through those high-pitch pipes next time. I hope it won't be anything inappropriate.

Jacob's first word: Schlep

No, that's not his first word, but it should be.

We just bought Jacob his first backpack with his name embroidered across the top. He doesn't like the feel a cap on his bald head, but he doesn't seem to mind the loose straps draped over his shoulders. We'll see what he thinks after we load a few dozen rocks in it.

Without the use of a rapid-fire camera, it's very difficult to capture a photo of him standing still because it does not happen. He's like a wind-up car. As soon as you release your hands, he's off until something stationary distracts him.

Hopefully his backpack will last until he gets to preschool.


Jacob is going to love carrying our stuff.

Fun in the sun

What's the difference between a boring summer and a fun summer? About 50 miles.

Ever since we freed ourselves from our little townhouse in Clarksville and moved to La Vergne (house pics to come later; still unpacking, er, decorating), it's become much easier to find family-friendly activities around the area, spontaneously take a trip to Nashville or simply go outside.

In La Vergne, we're 10 minutes from Murfreesboro (where I work) to the south, 20 minutes from Nashville to the north, 20 minutes to Franklin (wealthy part of Nashville) to the east and plenty of other stops along the way.



In Clarksville, we were 40 minutes from Nashville to the south, 70 minutes from Murfreesboro even farther south and right on the border of southern Kentucky (what the hell were we supposed to do there?).

Simply put, there is much more to do as a family near our new home, and we are taking full advantage of it before the dog days of summer arrive and Erin goes back to work. We've made an effort to get Jacob (and Dolly) out of the house every day, whether it's going to a specific place or just playing outside for a few minutes in the backyard or in the cul-de-sac.



And of course Erin plasters a thick coat of SPF 5,000 all over Jacob's ghostly body.

Here are a few of the things we've done thus far:

• Became members of the Nashville Zoo (have already been three times)
• "Swam" in the inflatable kiddie pool in our backyard
• Splashed around the splash pad in Smyrna (adjacent to La Vergne)
• Attended Books and Babies at the Smyrna library
• Went to the Science Center in Nashville
• Went to a free after-hours Father's Day session at the Discovery Center in Murfreesboro
• Shopped and walked around The Avenue outdoor mall in Murfreesboro
• Play with Dolly in the backyard. Jacob loves to laugh at her fetching tennis balls.

Activity details:, One of the best part about living in La Vergne is we're only 15 minutes from the zoo. It's not the world's best zoo, but it has a lot of room for growth and improvement. We decided to buy a membership. We've already paid it off and then some. We've been three times, although the second time we had to cut it short because of an unexpected storm. But, hey, that's when memberships come in handy. The past two visits were spontaneous. We just decided that morning to pack up the baby bag, let the dog out and head down to the zoo. Jacob enjoys looking at the animals and we get exercise. We've had to start in a different spot each time because Jacob falls asleep about half-way through. One day he'll get to see everything in the same trip.



Murfreesboro is a great town. It's smaller population-wise than Clarksville, but there's so much more to do. The Discovery Center is a building full of hands-on exhibits and learning stations suited for little kids, including Jacob's age. There was a firetruck, an early 1900s pickup truck, music stations, coal mining, arts and crafts, reading circle equipped with rocking chairs, tire-changing station and more. I tried to learn something from that last station long after Jacob lost interest. There's also an area called Tiny Town where little ones can go grocery shopping, build and paint at Home Depot, play music and climb in a tree.









The Avenue is this ginormous, beautifully developed outdoor mall. It's great to walk around on a nice day. Erin's already obsessed with it. In front of Maggie Moo's ice cream and Great American Cookie is an open turf area for kids to run off their sugar high. Jacob was no stranger. Man, that little squirt must run on Energizer batteries 'cause he keeps going and going and going and going... Just outside the 'Boro is the Renaissance Festival fairgrounds. Can't wait to feed Jacob his first giant turkey leg next May!



This blog post was paid in part by The Avenue, Maggie Moo's, Great American Cookie and Energizer batteries.

We moved in

I can't believe that we haven't posted yet about the new house. Nate was living in the new house starting April 5th. We closed on April 2nd and Nate's new job started right after that. Ever since we have closed on the house, we have made this house our own. We started with the guest room, painting it a pretty yellow. My vision is to make it a Beachy room so we can finally hang up our frames and art that we bought in Jamaica. We currently have a full size bed in it. Thats it. Its currently storage for boxes that w are too lazy to unpack right now.
I have not done a lot to it but this is what it looks like now.




Jacob's room is almost complete. We threw away the Jacob letters that were above his bed and we are ordering other pictures to hang there. Also, we bought him a new and better crib because he other one did not make the move.





The guest bathroom/Jacob's bathroom is almost complete as well. Just waiting for a couple of pictures that i bought on Etsy.com. The color/theme was a hard decision. Should we do a nice and calm looking guest bath or a kids bath since its jacob's bathroom too. We decided to make it a kids bathroom since he will be using it more. I love monkeys so of course the theme is MOnkeys.


We have not painted our bedroom yet so pics to com later.

Our Bathroom theme is Blue and brown. We painted the room blue and have brown accessories. It looks really cute. Art and pictures will be hung up and we will be putting up a shower door as well.



When I get pictures and art up in the living room/hallway I will post pics.
My parents bought us a patio set for a house warming gift. I love it and its really comfortable even without cushions.





Jacob has adjusted very well to the new house. I was a little worried about him not sleeping well but we had no problems. He is a ton of room to run around and it tuckers him out quickly. Also, Dolly has a ton of room to run around outside and has already lost some weight.
We love this house and it is the perfect fit. Our neighbors on both sides are so nice and are second fathers to us (kind of). They help us with anything we need help with. They know that we are first time home buyers and we have no idea what we are doing.
More pics to come soon!