First Easter

Ah, our first Easter with Jakob, and like other things our family does, it came with its share of hurdles.

Jakob is still getting over being sick Wednesday night and since he's good at sharing, he decided to pass it on to his dear old dad. Since Friday night, Marc has perfected the "keep nothing down or in" diet and lost nearly 6 pounds. Will summer ever get here?!?!

Jakob has had opportunities to hear and see the vacuum, but has never confronted the beast, until now. We were there to catch the action as Jakob faces the monster: www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdvW0YSs5Ww

In addition, he has oodles of creativity including being temperamental when his song doesn't come out the way he anticipated. See more at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q8LRdhuJYk

As mentioned, we celebrated Easter with a great message at Vineyard Friday evening and then surrounded by Nana, Poppa, Great Uncle Wiley, Great Aunt Sandy, Cousin Gina, Uncle Nic and Aunt Lindsey. Since photos speak louder than words, check it out:

He's such a big boy now and he LOVES the great Tonka toy his Aunt Jill got him for Christmas.

One thing too that you'll notice is that Jakob has learned to wink. Or the flash is big from the camera. We choose to see it as winking. Thanks to Sandy and Gina for the great additional Easter photos from today:

Go Middle Tennessee State University Blue Raiders (where his cousin Tony goes to school)! Now Jakob is a Raider fan twice. . .blue and silver & black.

This week is going to be packed with our Christian Family Services case worker Susan coming to visit and then a small group workshop on Thursday, all leading up to Marc's birthday one week from tomorrow. Thanks for catching up with us!

More soon.

In sickness and in health. . .

First, YouTube has finally updated itself and allowed us to upload our latest video. Please enjoy our technologically advanced son at www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rYiH05ymuE.

Last night, Kim was reading her book, Marc was downstairs playing Halo 3 and Jakob was (we thought) sleeping peacefully in bed. We were awakened to him crying and doing what can only be described as his version of the "pea soup" scene from the movie The Exorcist. This was accompanied by a "best supporting actor performance" by about three FULL diapers (over the course of the evening/morning).

We stripped him and his bed and gave him a bath. Afterward he continued this routine while we got his pack and play ready in our room. A little before 2:00 a.m., exhausted, he fell asleep and didn't have any spells again.

He has been fussy off and on today and we're trying to keep him hydrated. He's slowly getting into better spirits and we hope he comes out of it before the weekend.

More soon.

The boy's got personality, and personality goes a long way. . .

We updated our email signature this week with the following phrase "If our son was in a band, it would be called 'Squealy Dan'" as a parody of the band "Steely Dan." It's easily one of the funniest noises we've ever heard. (Explanation made for the younger crowd who might not understand the true musical genius of lyrics like:

We hear you're leaving, that's OK. I thought our little wild time had just begun. I guess you kind of scared yourself, you turn and run. But if you have a change of heart, Rikki don't lose that number. You don't wanna call nobody else.

Last weekend, we put Jakob into the nursery at church and again got the kind of compliments we hope continue until he's out of our house and in college. One worker told Kim, "Jakob is so laid back. He doesn't cry or get fussy. He's just a good baby." While he does have his moments, you can imagine how proud we are of him.

Over the weekend we spent a little time with friends and just enjoyed more clues that Jakob is not going to crawl, but instead walk and jump. He's quite powerful in physical ability and temper. It's nice to see that he's taking after Marc in one way and Kim in another. . . you can decide which comes from which. And, he's crazy smart. He's already a problem solver. He adapts when we're playing games with him and knows to raise his arms when he wants up or out of something.

[We intented to have a cool video here, but YouTube is updating itself right now so it will have to wait until later this weekend. Whatever! Silly YouTube!]

Kim is in the middle of a much needed spring break and must be enjoying it as the smell of chocolate chip cookies was in the air yesterday. It's especially nice to have the house and our son smell like that.

Marc will be off with Kim and Jakob Thursday and Friday this week. This weekend we will celebrate our first Easter with the boy and hope to continue teaching him of the love sacrifice Jesus provided so we might have eternal life. We're going to have some quality time with Marc's parents, Uncle's Nic and Willey and Aunts Lindsey and Sandy and cousin Gina.

We'll have more photos next week of the family. If we don't see you this weekend, have a great Easter.

More soon.

Blog Prophesy

It's always nice when something you can sort of see coming, actually happens. Not that we have the gift of prophesy (although we've been scary accurate on a couple of things lately), but it's something definitely cool. Just over one year ago, Marc went to Orlando and purchased a SpongeBob Square Pants 6-month old outfit at the Universal Studios Store. We didn't know if we would raise a boy or a girl so a nice unisex outfit seemed just the ticket. Well, it's come full circle. See www.vasquezaddition.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html and then look below:

Pretty cool. Actually, really cool.

Jakob will now sit up on his own and has graduated to taking baths in the tub without needing the mini tub and loves to splash. It continues to be fun seeing him try things for the first time and see the wonder and amazement that goes with simple things like making water move:

Last weekend, Jakob's grandma Peg came down from Iowa to see him and they spent all day Friday together playing and enjoying the day. Kim and her mom went to a baby clothes sale at Metro North Mall on Saturday and then went with Marc's mom Delene to the new Liberty Olive Garden to eat. Kim got sick in the new bathroom and ended up coming home with her food packed to go rather than enjoying it at the restaurant. This was great for Marc who then had a nice dinner that night and lunch the next day. (Marc would like to send out a warm public thank you to her) Kim spent the evening under the weather but is feeling much better now.

Our Vineyard small group has multiplied a few times and continues to grow. That same Saturday, Marc went with individuals from each of the new small groups downtown to Grand Boulevard to a church on 9th and Grand that serves the "sojourners" of Kansas City. While many are houseless, at this mission there are no homeless, because most find this church home and call themselves sojourners. We delivered food to the mission, worked doing chores, went on a walk around the area to see the parts of Kansas City not so pretty and then learned more about the mission. Before we left to go downtown, we all met together to have lunch and prepare ourselves for the work that lay ahead. Leah, one of our leaders, took this photo:

Jakob continues to wow us and keep us on our toes. We've decided that since his favorite game is now "Jumpy, Jumpy, Jumpy" in both his bouncy toy and on laps, that his powerful legs won't settle for crawling. He's going to walk. The time change on Saturday made for a rough going for this little boy. He was off his schedule Sunday and Monday nights and he let us know about it. Sure, the photos below are cute and make him out to be model material (mom's get your daughters in line now or face the mob later), but we'll refer to them as the "before" shots:

This week Kim is frantically trying to complete her IEP's, Map-Alternate portfolios, Summer School recommendations and Career Ladder before next week when she finally gets a break from school. We're hoping her Spring Break has good weather and provides a time of relaxation before the final days of school begin to stack up.

As many of you know, we've set up the blog to send the individual pages to visitors who sign up at the link on the upper right side. We hope this offers another way for you to get up-to-date information on Jakob's travels and new revelations.

Thank you so much for continuing to visit us. In the upcoming weeks we will celebrate our first Easter and Marc's first birthday with Jakob. Soon, May will be here and his adoption will be complete!

More soon.