Mr. Personality

I love love love watching Jacob's personality emerge. He's so interested in so many things and is always so busy. Lately, he has started looking at books all by himself... (he somewhat tolerates reading with me, but he will usually only stay interested if it's a book with textures to feel or noises to hear..)

He now has eight teeth... they've all been in a few weeks now and make for a super cute smile!
He's always so interested in what I'm doing and always wants to help. I was making banana bread today and trying to keep him entertained with a riveting performance of "plunk, there go the eggs!" and "splat, splat, splat, let's put in the milk!" but believe me, that's only entertaining for so long. He got his own spoon and bowl to bake like mommy... and loved it! (and stayed away from the oven long enough for me to stick the bread in!)

He loves watching out the windows, especially when there are "puh"s (puppies) outside. He will watch out the window and I can tell when he sees a dog because I hear him take a deep breath and squeal with delight. He often bangs on the windows when someone with a dog goes by.

He loves giving hugs and kisses. Like.. reallllyyy loves it. That is okay with me and I hope it's a stage that lasts a long time! He is a little snuggler for sure. Oh, and by kiss, I mean wide open mouthed slobbery smashing his face against mine smooch! This video is a pretty good demonstration of Jacob coming in for a hug and kiss! :) Sorry about the radio voice in the background.

I started teaching him one sign so far (sign language) for "all done." He does pretty well with it. I am thinking of trying to teach him a few more too. I have talked to several people lately who have used sign language with babies and they say it eliminates a lot of frustration. I wasn't sure if I wanted to or not because I have also heard that it delays speaking in babies. I read up on it a little bit, and there have been a lot of studies done that show that it doesn't delay speaking at all.

Another fun thing we started to do is going to "Music Together" on Thursdays. I signed Jacob up for a 6 week session and it seems that the majority of the "class" is within a few months of his age! He has so much fun dancing, playing the different instruments (maracas, clicky things, tamborines, etc.) clapping, and watching everyone! We have a CD of the songs they do in class and Jacob has been dancing to them all week. He even smiles and gets excited when the song about the pony comes on.. for some reason he really likes it! :)