Category: Parenting

This is the area dedicated to our grand experiment of raising children. Check here for grand adventures, trials, and wonderful mistakes.

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Activities Parenting

7 Months and a Late Night Visit

Thursday, August 25th, marks Jacob being 7 months old.  This past Monday he has returned to daycare in Washington as Elise’s summer vacation ended.  All the kids and caretakers definitely enjoy Jacob’s presence.  He has unknowingly learned how to shake his head “no”, which is quite hilarious.  This most likely stemmed from Elise and I bobbing side to side in order to make him laugh.

This past weekend, we were also blessed with a surprise visit from Caitlin Kennedy.  On her way to Georgia with her roommate, the two spent the night at our apartment.  In the morning, they were able to get a quick tour of Kalona, a delicious roll from the bakery, and a cup of coffee before heading out again.

Elise has returned to Washington H.S. for her third year and will be teaching Biology and Kinesiology this fall.  Monday-Wednesday were reserved for teacher workshops, while the students will arrive on Thursday (the 25th).  She is experimenting with an online classroom resource utilizing Moodle (an open-source, online education management system).  While the system holds much potential, Elise’s site will be a listing of courses with assignments, lectures, and deadlines.  Check it out at EliseWerth.com and use the guest password: WHSscience.  If you have any ideas or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment below!

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Parenting

6 Month Checkup

On Tuesday, Jacob had his six-month checkup at the University of Iowa Clinic.  The doctor (and nurses) said Jacob looks great, is healthy, and continues to develop steadily.  Jacob weighed 19.5 lbs, which put him in the 72nd percentile for children his age.  His length was 26.5 inches and head circumference 18.1, placing him in the 31st and 96th percentile respectively.  In short, we have a short, fat baby with a massive head. 🙂

Along with all the measurements, Jacob received a number of vaccinations – several of which were the final in the series.  However, the immunizations resulted in a low-grade fever on Wednesday.  After some rest and baby Tylenol, he seemed to be doing better and the fever had subsided.  As always, Jacob loves to play with any paper he can get his hands on, shown in this video: Fun with Paper.

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Parenting

Talkative

In the past week, Jacob has continued to progress rapidly in his development.  One noticeable instance has been the increase of sounds coming from his mouth.  He has become quite verbal making all manner of little squeals, grunts, and la’s.  His loves to move his lower jaw in a wawawa sound, seen a little in this video: Tupperware!

Jacob also enjoys sitting up, and is doing a great job balancing himself, despite the tendency to tip over backwards.  While filming this one, he decided to also carry out some other matters: Sitting (and grunting)

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Parenting

Jacob’s New Toy

Jacob received his first toy ever from Elise: a Woody and Buzz Lightyear ball.  He enjoys playing with this strange spherical object and, of course, loves to suck on it.  Enjoy these videos:

Fun with the Ball
Fun with the Ball 2

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Parenting

Laughing and Rolling

In the past few days, Jacob has continued to grow into quite the young man.  His hands can now touch over his head, he continues to laugh at mom and dad, and is getting much better at moving around (through rolling and pushing up with his arms).  We’ve attached the videos below so you can enjoy the fun as well.

Laughing with Mom

Happy Jacob

Tummy Time!

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Activities Parenting

A Day at the Beach

On Saturday morning, the Werth family decided to take the canoe out for a spin at Kent Park.  It was Jacob’s first time for many things: being in a canoe, wearing a life jacket, and being in water other than the bathtub.  Overall, the little guy did just great – although, he was rather stunned by the lack of a bathtub bottom.  When he did find the bottom, he found the sand to be a rather strange feeling on his feet.  Enjoy the pictures from the day:

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Parenting

Solid Foods

Jacob continues to progress well on solid foods; well, most days anyway.  He is now eating apples, butternut squash, avocados, and pears.  Currently, he does not like bananas.  Here are a couple pictures from his not so good moments:

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Parenting

Jacobs’s New Tricks

Happy Boy

The second half of June has been an exciting time for young Jacob.  While his parents were gone to the east coast, he was able to hang out with his grandparents and aunts.  During that time he started being able to roll and has continued to work on it to this day.  He can now turn from his back to his stomach and continue to his back – turning to his left.  In the past two days, he has begun to roll to his right but hasn’t quite figured it out yet.

In addition to the rolling, Jacob (with the help of his mom) has discovered his toes.  Namely, that they are an additional object on which to slobber.  He is quite the flexible little guy:

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Parenting

Solid Food

On Thursday, Elise and Jacob took a trip to the doctor’s office for Jacob’s four-month checkup.  He is doing very well, in the 40’s percentile for height and weight, and 94th percentile for his head size.  He now weighs 16.5 lbs, and received 3 immunizations. You can see the band-aids above.

This evening Jacob tried solid food for the first time.  The evening was rather uneventful since Jacob did quite well.  It was a little messy, but overall the rice cereal went down nicely.  Check out the images below for photos of the event.

 

 

 

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Parenting

Stay at home dad

Last week was the first of two weeks for me to try out my stay-at-home skills.  With the spring semester completed, our lovely ladies gone home, and Elise finishing out the school year, the men are having a chance to bond. After a rough second day (Tuesday), Jacob is being a fantastic little guy. It is amazing how much attention he requires, evidenced by how little I can manage to get done. Working from home, packing, and taking care of Jacob proves to be quite a challenge. Despite the challenge, I am immensely enjoying my time to hang out and have fun with him.

The previous post pictures are from the last few weeks, with Teresa supplying some of the photos as well.