"No" means "2 minutes on the couch"

This year for Halloween Jakob was Max from Where the Wild Things Are which is both a favorite book of ours as well as something extremely timely with the movie having just come out. When we took Jakob to his daycare Harvest Fair we noticed something about his costume from this year as well as last year (he was an ewok last year). We walked in and found there were four little ones dressed as ewoks. We also received a lot of "Oh that's so cool" and "He looks just like Max!" Jakob looked at some of the "ewok impostors" with a "that is SOOOO last year" face. We were left with two feelings. On the one hand, we felt like we had unwittingly helped Jakob become a trend setter, and on the other hand we couldn't help but hope we will always have the ability to help Jakob feel special.

Like his Max costume, and thanks again to Marc's mom for again coming through and making something amazing for him, Jakob is anything but "off the rack." As his parents we have found ourselves trying, in the most healthy way possible, of giving him reinforcements that he's the next best thing to sliced bread.

With that mission, we've also had to help him understand structure, discipline and rules. Jakob is clever and finds new wonder in every moment of every day. With that also comes his testing of every boundary possible. Many of those situations end him up for two minutes on the couch with a few tears. But, we hope eventually he will understand that we don't put him there because he's a "bad kid" (because he's far from it) or because we don't care about every atom of every molecule that makes up who he is. That's been hard for us because we don't want to disappoint him, but at the same time don't want to spoil him.

Juggling discipline and happy moments has not been easy and when our parents said, "this is going to hurt me more than it's going to hurt you" we completely see where they were coming from. [Editor's note: Marc is pretty sure he heard his dad say at one point or another, "this is definitely going to hurt you more than it's going to hurt me." :)]

But back to the Harvest Fair. We tend to cling to the feeling that every parent wants to have their child be the one in the spotlight, and between Kim's organization and Marc's creativity, we've had success in helping Jakob enjoy the limelight. The most interesting part of that is that even as much as we've tried to do (with a lot of help from God), he does so much on his own. He's a good looking kid and while we joke about him eventually becoming the world's first lawyer/band front man/model, we'll do everything we can to help him understand the possibilities are endless. He can do anything and he will do so much.

His dependence on his dwindles each day. Sure, there are times when he's overwhelmed or feeling over stimulated and he raises his arms and only one of us holding him will do. But, there are more and more other situations beginning to come to light where he wants down or wants to "do it" on his own. It's great to see that leadership ability coming through, but it's also a sign of things to come. It's a signal that eventually he'll want to practice the ball or instrument on his own, or go do something with just his friends or want to take the car keys and go it alone. That will be bittersweet.

So, we say all of that to say that so much can be summed up from just a Halloween costume, and it truly is the little moments that mean the most. Well, that and the fact that he's singing to songs, asking for original things (some of which we don't know how he knows about), making decisions about food and clothing and understanding just what "I love you" really means. That's not too shabby either.

More soon.

Who is this big (little) boy?

One of the things that is hard to fathom is how much Jakob is changing. We see him every day so his growth seems to blend together. We sometimes forget he was 4 pounds when he was born, that he could have died if his birth mother hadn't have come in when she did and that we worried we would break him just by holding him.

The other day, Marc's screen saver was on at work (which is loaded by a feed of more than 2,000 photos and Jakob is only 2 years old) and when he touched his mouse it went from a screensaver image of Jakob's tiny self to his current form of 27 pounds (Marc's wallpaper photo). Wow. How could this have happened?

Jakob is a Leo which means he's going to be a leader, compassionate yet stubborn and opinionated. He's going to be someone his friends look to that will listen and want to help. Wait, we did say "will be" and "going to be" right? He's actually there now except for that listening part. Not a fan so much.

He sits on the couch a lot for two minutes (one minute for every year in age) and while we don't know if he's understanding why, we're trying to be consistent. We'll see how it goes.

There was a time when daddy could do no wrong. Jakob wanted to be with Marc over anyone. That has changed and he prefers mommy when we're at the house. HOWEVER, when we go to Nana and Pape's (Marc's parents) or they come to see us, no one outshines Pape. All the way there we hear "Pape's truck? Pape's truck?" He loves to hang out outside with Pape pretending to drive the Blazer.

We're pretty sure Marc's dad taught Jakob how to say "Hey baby!" but we can't prove it.

Marc and Jakob went to the Liberty Early Child Development Center's Daddy Event "Rev Your Engines" last Tuesday. The event was fun and while Jakob had a blast with a tunnel, rocket ships, Matchbox cars and a parachute, he didn't realize he was actually learning and giving us ideas for Christmas.

Sunday, we spent the day with Marc's parents celebrating Marc's dad's birthday (early), and while Marc's dad got a present from Jakob, the real present was most likely time spent with the little guy.

The hardest thing right now is when he wakes up scared and we can't console him, or when he's completely upset as a result of having to be disciplined. He gets so disoriented when he's still in that not quite awake not quite asleep mode. We just hold him and tell him we won't let anything get him. When he acts up, in one vein we want to keep it so he understands boundaries, but in another it's so hard not to feel like we're being the bad guy.

Kim's heart melts every time he says "Rocka momma" wanting to be held one last time. There will come a time he'll have long forgot that so Kim indulges him every now and then. Mornings and weekend nap times are amazing because he likes to be held, and after he drinks his juice he falls asleep in our arms. If we look closely, he has that little one look he had when he was first born, and it's better than anything. It's the kind of situation where you want to call in sick to work or cancel your afternoon plans. In those moments, he's perfect.

But, right now he's running around the basement screaming to keep from getting tickled, and he wants to play guitars with daddy.

More soon.

New direction

It's been quite a while since our last post. It feels like the more we plan for things, the less time we tend to have. Jakob continues to grow and advance and it seems he's hell bent and determined on becoming his own person. He's testing the waters in every aspect and has begun outsmarting us on many levels.

We've entitled this post "new direction" because we're trying something new. Some of you will be reading the RSS feed of this from Blogger.com but now more of you can hopefully chime in via Facebook. We've found the directions on how to get this to link up with it and it seems much more worthwhile now.

As we explained in a previous post, with Twitter, email and Facebook, Blogger tends to get lost in the mix. It's not that Jakob's story isn't worth continuing on here, it's more a time constraint. Here's a brief glimpse of what we've gone through since August 6, the date of our last post:

- Jakob turned 2 and after much planning, we were able to host the second most amazing party ever
- Marc has been asked to be the 2010 Kansas City PRSA Membership Chair
- Kim has been planning lunch/movie days for this year and Special Olympics for her kids at school
- We took Jakob to see "Big Trucks" on display at Liberty South Valley Junior High (photos on Facebook)
- Marc is on the Kansas City PRSA PRISM Awards Planning Committee
- Kim serves on the nursery team at church
- Marc went to Asheville, NC, to attend a Vineyard Worship Leaders' Retreat
- We finally finished Jakob's Bat Cave new big boy room and moved him into it (photos on Facebook)
- Kim and Jakob went to Iowa to help her parents move into their new home, approximately 100 feet away from their old home, :)
- Marc had his second gastric scope to see how his acid reflux medication is doing
- Jakob had his first overnight vacation at Nana and Pape's house

So, as you can see, with all of this and work on top of it, we've been swamped. We have the best intentions of being more faithful to this post, but we have to wonder, are people really reading? Most bloggers want to know what they're writing about is interesting, and while we feel our boy is the next best thing to sliced bread, we hope you all find his life interesting too.

The latest news is that Jakob's competitive side and possessiveness has kicked into full swing. He's used the infamous "no," "mine" and "I do it!" on a regular basis. It should be known that he's both teething and still suffering from having 4+ sided tonsils (based on a scale of 1-4), but he still has it in his head that when he wants something or doesn't want to do something he makes it known. Thankfully, he's still doing quite well in daycare and his teachers love him.

But, sadly, we've been stricken with a fatal flaw. We love him. We love him like no other and he means the world to us. We reassure him when he acts up and has sat on the couch for his "2 minutes" that there is nothing he could ever do that would make us love him any less and he is always forgiven.

So, we'll keep you posted on how things progress and add photos here and there in the hopes there are a lot of you who care. . . :)

More soon.

Calling Tyra. . .

Okay, so we're not really calling Tyra Banks to get Jakob in for an America's Next Top Toddler Model spot, but is it bad that we're actually researching contests and modeling exposure for him? We went to Portrait Innovations Thursday and got his 2 year pictures taken just in time for his birthday this Sunday.

Take a look at this beautiful boy God has blessed us with. The world needs to see him too on covers everywhere:

More soon.

Superhero in training

Our son is on his way to being a vital member of the Hall of Justice. Here's proof: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN8WihvmsZg.

We gotta get to this more!

This summer is proving to be busier than most and we've left you out in the cold. Sorry about that. With this July proving to becoming one of the second coldest on record, it's just not right of us to add fuel to the fire.

Therefore, we're going to cut down on the chatter and increase the photos. It's been a few weeks since we last posted and a ton has happened. We're pretty excited that the little boy is plenty more mobile and talking up a storm. The only problem is that he's listening more and repeating so we definitely have to watch what we say around him Pape (Marc's dad) we're especially talking to you. HA!

First, we went to the Deanna Rose Farm and learned that animals are fun. . . at a distance. Jakob felt this was nice, but the real fun was the gigantic slides and outdoor metal jungles the farm had.

The Royals stink so why not head to the T-Bones game? Turned out to be a great evening with Nana, Pape, our friends the Fields and Kim's coworker/friend Christy and her daughter Grayson. The T-Bones smoked the other team from some other town 15-0. That's a baseball game! It was military recognition night and Jakob got to see some of our finest up close and personal. Very cool.

Kim had been waiting since March to head to see her favorite band Def Leppard at the Sprint Center with her sister Jill and her friend Christy. She got to see them along with Cheap Trick (no jokes) and Poison. They had a blast and while the photos are a little blurry, you get the idea that the stage rocked and I'm pretty sure there were some mall bangs, fringe jackets and pinch-rolled pants in the audience.

Last weekend we went up to Omaha to meet Kim's sister Jill and Jakob's cousins Becca and Daniel to go to the Henry Doorly Zoo. It was great weather, but it was also free day and the park set a new attendance record. So, we saw a few things, escaped before they could keep Kim and headed over to the Old Market for a great dinner at the Spaghetti Works and shopping. The next day we got to see Marc's roommate and good friend from college Scotte Hansen, his wife and their new great looking boy Lane. Plus we got to eat at Qdoba!

The little boy is growing up fast and we've graduated to a big boy bed. BUT, not ordinary big boy bed will do for our guy. We got him a Little Tikes bed, painted it black and we're working on getting a Batman emblem for the front. As you can see, he's somewhere between Adam West and Michael Keaton in terms of quality superhero.

Next weekend, Jakob turns 2 and we will be celebrating his birthday. It seems like only yesterday that we got the call during Mad Men on AMC that he had arrived. He's one amazing kid and we couldn't be happier.

More soon.

Catching Up

In an effort to provide you with a better way of getting the complete update of Jakob's spring and summer (so far), we've created a new YouTube video.

Check it out at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-HK2suiER0

More soon.