Ho Ho Ho

I know, I know, this picture melts your heart. It does ours as well. In his best "where's waldo" impression, Jacob blends in with the presents. Best present we've ever had!

Things are going great here in Phoenix. It's about 65 and sunny, and the Pugh family is starting to assemble for a Christmas season full of little boys, and lots of toys.

So far it has been just Jacob and his cousin Parker who are both awaiting their first Christmas. The other two cousins, Samuel and Colby, will be in town soon.


Here are Parker and Jacob with their Ya-Ya.
While Jacob and Parker await their first visit from Santa, we find ourselves looking back on a fantastic year. Thank you all for your love and support of our little boy in 2008. We couldn't imagine our lives without yall!

We are thinking of all those we love around the country. Stay warm and Merry Christmas!

OK, one more picture-present for ya.


See ya in '09!

8 Months

Here's a breakdown of our smiley 8 month old.

The Likes:

-Jacob still adores being in his birthday suit, especially if a bath is part of the plan. He even crawls to the bathroom and waits for us when he feels ready for a bath.

-He loves to stand, thrust his little hips, and wildly bounce in his crib.

-Jacob loves to put things into his mouth, the grosser the better. Things such as shoes, his own band-aid, noses, toes- I think you all get the point.

-Little boy loves gumming on the crusty part of bread and rice cakes- and he loves rubbing the gooey mess into the carpet. It not only tastes better but it's more fun all around that way (ha!).

-Where there's a camera, there's a smiling and posing Jacob. Honestly, there's no use in trying to get a profile of this guy because when he hears the camera turn on he's fast to seek it out and smile.

-Jacob loves making friends with both kids and adults. He loves to laugh at kids- who doesn't? And he loves to catch an adults eye and just watch them until they smile then smile or laugh with them.

The Dislikes:

-Our 'little' one is realizing that being told "no" typically isn't pleasant and is beginning to emphatically respond to hearing the word. (And on occassion this distracts him to the point of ceasing the undesired behavior.)

-In just the past week, Jacob has really begun to express his dislike for being put into his carseat or stroller as opposed to in our arms or free to play. Fortunately, he tends to chill-out after the initial transition...at least while in the stroller...

His true dislikes are really just the typical -whines about getting his face or noise wiped, wants his mom/dad in crowds, can't handle loud and abrupt feelings toward sporting event- kind of things. He's just really a typical mobile baby who loves to interact, mimic those around him, and today, sport dennis the menace hair.

He has two teeth which he tends to hide with his tongue but that he uses to mash up his avocado, apple, or sweet potato chunks and little bits of peeled grapes. He still accepts pureed foods, but not usually for a ful meal of foods.

I can't think of much else to include about this guy, but he is growing like a weed- and we think he's growing up more than out for the first time since he was about 2 weeks old! Needless to say, he's a cutie who brightens up each of our days adn we're so fortunate that he's in our lives!!!

Soo sleeeepy

The title of this post is not so much to indicate daniel and my usual state, but rather Jacob's new "hobby". But first, here's the back story:
Recently, I've been really working on keeping Jacob awake during his before bed nursing so that he's put into his crib awake and thus connects the dots on how to independently fall asleep. After a few minutes of crying and yelling at us from his crib, he tends to go silent. We give him about 5 solid minutes of silence before we check that he's actually sleeping, covered, etc. This is when we discover his newest hobby: sleeping in the sitting position. He either so badly wants to prove to us that he isn't tired or he just doesn't want to miss a thing (or he just underestimates his exhaustion level). It's absolutely hilarious because he jerks himself upright over and over again- similar to the head jerk we all experience(d) during those really boring classes.
And yes, I got it on camera. Because it was just so funny and I was home alone and needed to show Daniel. And now we need to share it!
Aside from the sleeping while sitting thing, Jacob is up to his usual trying-to-be-a-toddler antics:) We'll update more in just a few short days when he turns 8 months old!

Here are more beach shots as promised!





As you can see, all Jacob wants to do these days is walk around. He even wakes up in the middle of the night hoping to get led around the apt by his arms. For him crawling is okay, but nothing beats the upright movement.



We thought the cold sand would bother him, but he loved sticking his feet in it and eventually his hands, too.

Mmmmm. Here he has some remnants at the very corners of his mouth of the delicious san he devoured (-I couldn't stand seeing his mouth full of grit, so you only get the aftermath. sorry!)

And this picture was the evening after we got back home. You'd think after a day of walking at the beach, playing in the sand, and hanging out with his friend Tavin, Jacob would want to take it easy. No way! Jacob wanted to cruise around on all furniture and objects at his eye level- so he did. And we just think this shirt (for 12-18 month olds- big baby!) is too "Berkeley" for words.

Beach Bound

We made an afternoon trip to the coast today and dipped our toes in Ocean Beach. After just a 30 minute jaunt through San Francisco, we arrived at our destination and Jacob was thrilled to see something other than the apartment and nearby parks.

Despite the frigid temperature, Jacob actually seemed to enjoy getting his feet wet and getting to 'walk' around with the sand between his toes. He also seemed to love the feeling of sand in his hands and taste of sand in his mouth. When I caught the little guy shoveling sand into his mouth, he wasn't upset by the taste or texture of sand, only the interruption I caused by attempting to remove the particles from his mouth and face.

These are our wonderful neighbors and friends, Sarah and Tavin, who helped make the beach outing a good time. Both little guys were troopers and some cute pictures were taken by many.

There are some more pictures to add, but the blog is being difficult and won't add them at the moment. I'll attempt again soon so stay tuned.

"Who needs sleep, well you're never gonna get it..."

Here we are with a 7 1/2 month old who puts newborn babies to shame for wakefulnes during the night. No kidding at all. For the past two nights, Jacob has woken not just every 1 1/2 hours, but there's also a 2-hour block in the middle of the night where he just wakes up to stand, jump, kick, and babble in his crib. It'd be cute if it were during the day....but it isn't.

Any suggestions? Truly, we really could all use more than 1 1/2 hours of sleep at a time! (And then he won't nap because he's too happy and wants to touch, taste, pull himself up on everything!)

We're of the belief that because he's pulling himself up with no trouble and picking up speed with his crawling, that the boy just can't sleep due to excitement about mobility. That and intense teething (which we're pretty sure is a huge culprit in the not sleeping issue). He's working on getting his second tooth. That's right, tooth #2 because his first one cut through during this past week! (The front bottom two) We often ask ourselves where our baby has gone cause this boy is some kind of little kid now. He's babbling all the time mainly with the 'baba', 'mama', ocassionally a 'dada' sound, and responds with vocal glee (and sounds similar) to "yay" and "hi".

Just wanted to post the most recent developments...but we feel like at his current rate of growing up, he'll probably be conversing with us next week while riding his bicycle. Or maybe sleeping every once and awhile. That'd be nice......

For now, enjoy pictures of Jacob with his grandma (and corn cob) and grandpa along with an updated video of his crawling.

Crawling bebe!

So, tonight Jacob made his way across the floor on his hands and knees. We're gonna call it crawling though he looked like a wiggly worm. As he gets the hang of it, I'm curious to see what his crawl progresses to....but needless to say, things are certainly about to change around here with a crawling babe! Here's some footage of his worn-out efforts to get to the technology at hand: the laptop.

7 months old

Seven months old and our little boy is just as mischievous as we'd hope and close to becoming a full blown "hand full"- in the best of ways.

--Well, actually, the boy weighs 19 pounds 9 ounces ( a week ago), so he's already 2 armfuls plus some...
Fittingly, he still has yet to outright dislike or refuse a new food and he currently has added avocado, prune, banana, and pear to his repertoire.

We believe he gave up on teething. After some days of obvious discomfort and disrupted sleep, he returned to his non-teething self and just bites a little harder on toys and fingers. Go figure.

Jacob is getting really close to independent mobility with backward crawling and he can bounce / rock himself in forward crawling motion, but collapses to his belly to roll somewhere faster.
Recently, we added a guest bed to our bitty apartment, which relocated Jacob's crib across the room. (So please please come visit! It's a queen bed and tres comfortable!) While in the process of moving things, we placed Jacob in his crib only to discover him gripping and gnawing on the crib bar in full standing position. Needless to say, he was proud of himself and did a little happy jig as we laughed and took pictures.
Currently Jacob has his grandma ruth and grandpa jeff out to visit him, so he's getting spoiled rotten. And he absolutely is having a blast. :) Much love to all!

Happy Halloween

We know it's still a few days away, but we've been holding on to these pictures now for almost a week. It's really time to share Jacob as his Nemo and with his cousin Parker as a ghost!

Enjoy!

I shake my little tush on the catwalk

Jacob saw his first photo session yesterday with his cousin Parker Perez. While we are waiting on the pictures to be developed (they won't be done until November 4th) we couldn't wait to get the pictures out to all of you. Tune in next week for the photo shoot involving his halloween costume. Lots of love from Texas!

Sorry for the delay

I certainly didn't mean to leave that last blog photo-less for a whole day! Daniel arrived today with my lap top in Houston, so now all is back on track. Here are a few from our travels:

Jacob on the plane (in the empty middle seat)

Swinging at All Children's playground in Raleigh with Ashley Eckert
He put himself under the bouncer, then didn't know what to do. It was quite funny for all involved.
Jacob enjoys his peas!! He's had sweet potato, butternut squash and peas...and has yet to find something he doesn't love. We aim to try avocado next and cross our fingers that he'll love that, too.

And this is Parker, Jacob's cousin and new buddy, and our sweet godson!

Glob-trotter. err....nation-trotter

In the past few weeks we've been to North Carolina (Raleigh) for Steven and Chase's wedding and family time. Now, we're in Houston visiting aunt Tally and Uncle Trent along with Jacob's new cousin baby Parker! Here are some photos from our journey thus far.

6 months

Jacob turned 6 months yesterday...and I can better understand now how time creeps up on people!

We knew he'd be 6 months "not long" after moving to Berkeley, but than all of a sudden time flew and here we are with a curious 6 month old who is grabbing/mouthing everything, communicating in a consistent way, and beginning to incorporate some foods in his day. And possibly maybe get a tooth soon- we aren't yet certain about that one.

Here's an overview of just who this little boy is:
Jacob senses and clearly responds according to the emotions of those around him. He finds laughter hilarious along with about anything else if it's repeated enough times but actually cries at the close sound of the vacuum cleaner and food processor. He's beginning to respond to his name and follows our conversations with his eyes like a tennis match back and forth. When people meet him or show excitement toward him, he tends to flail one of his arms like he's waving....but we don't think it's intentional.

For some goofy reason, he still tries to eat his daddy's nose but now he uses his super- human baby strength to grab on to daddy's sideburns and yank daniel's face to his mouth. And then laughs.

Jacob sits completely independently- he only falls when he's reaching for something way beyond his grasp. Once down, he'll roll across the room and play with anything on his way- this especially includes the paper from the recycling box by our computer. Occasionally, he gets frustrated when he tips backward and will lay there grunting with his head and shoulders lifted until he gets distracted or we come and pull him back to sitting. There are times when on his tummy that Jacob appears to be channeling a frog- he pulls himself up onto all fours and rocks. Then, when bored with that, he lifts one of his legs and looks like he's trying to stand.

Despite the apathy Jacob showed toward rice cereal, he has been trying to eat the food off of our plates for about 3 weeks. During dinner recently, Jacob opened wide with every forkful I brought to my mouth. I felt like I was cruelly teasing him! With all those "ready-to-eat" signs in addition to always acting hungry and nursing allll the time, we introduced his first pureed food: butternut squash. I had no idea he would be so easy to feed. In addition to not batting an eyelash at the new taste, he barely closed his mouth the entire meal. He has joyfully gobbled it down now 3 days in a row...and we're thinking about introducing some peas tomorrow...

Tomorrow in the wee hours of the morning, we are headed to Raleigh, NC for "uncle" Stevo's wedding. Then Jacob and I are headed to Houston for 2 weeks to stay with his brand new cousin Parker! Until the next time, we love you all! (And if you are in Raleigh over the next few days, it'd be fantastic to see you!)

How about a picture montage of Jacob's favorite activities:


Swinging in the big kid swing at the park just a few blocks away.


Monkeying around with daddy.


Hanging with the family (including grandma!) in San Francisco.


Attempting to crawl. Really, just rocking back and forth and smiling about it.


Reaching for things to play with, suck on, pinch, etc. while holding on to the couch.

He's still a happy boy, giggling for everyone and actually happily eating 2 rice cereal meals a day (this is only true since last week). Enjoy the pictures!

Jacob (the liar.)

Well, really Jacob never lied..I shoudn't call him a liar. He just made me a liar! Apparently typing that Jacob didn't like rice cereal made him willing to try it:)

He's eaten it sparingly but at least he isn't aggressively turning his head away. Honestly, his cereal covered bib and empty spoon seem to appeal to him more than the actual spoonfuls.

Cabbage patch kid growing in the garden...

5 months old and such a blast! We know we’re really lucky to have a kiddo with such gleeful demeanor and flexibility. Though he is able to eat his toes, I mean less physical flexibility and more flexibility with schedules, locations, who he’s around, etc.

His days here at seminary have been fun and chockful of interesting places and people. Aside from visiting the Berkeley marina and San Francisco, Jacob spends his days chilling with his buddy Jackson (21 months old), flailing and flying in his Johnny jump-up, and flirting/schmoozing heavily with all the seminarians. Obviously, we think highly of our little one but it sure is fun when other adults have fun playing with him, too. One such person told Jacob he is in the cabbage patch phase- chunky, bald, and smiling. We agree, thus the title this post. Though, to his defense, Jacob is finally beginning to get some more hair as you can see in the following pictures if you look hard enough.

Jacob doesn’t protest tummy time nearly as much and actually seems to enjoy doing what “big kids” (i.e. parents) do. From push-up position, he can easily flip himself onto his back and he now does so when he’s about to get his diaper and pj’s on at night. About 2 weeks ago, Jacob started some independent sitting. He's now up to about 30 seconds before he just can't quite maintain the upright position.

He also now enjoys standing a bit while holding on to the couch. He happily stands there until something distracts him and he turns his head with his whole body. But just look at those legs....they'd hold just about anyone upright :)

Needless to day, our little nudist doesn’t prefer clothing. In hopes of wearing him out before bed but avoid the cranky stage, we just have about ½ an hour of naked time for him. We can’t say that the end product is a baby who sleeps better, but at least he’s delighted up until the pj’s get put on.

We didn't want to introduce rice cereal too early but we felt that since Jacob is grabbing for food, drooling, and pretending to chew, we'd let him have a taste of some cereal. His reaction to it leaves us wondering if he'll ever willingly taste it again. He appears to absolutely hate it- to the point of clamping his mouth shut and shaking his head to avoid the spoon after just three bites. This is the kid that will put anything in his mouth and gnaw away. Perhaps when he's ready for pureed foods we'll just bypass the cereal all together....

That's the overall life of Jacob. He squeals, flails, and gnaws on anything around him. He is wearing mainly 6-9 month clothing but being that September is the "hot" month in Berkeley and we have no fans, little boy is having some flashbacks to AZ and naked afternoons. He really doesn't mind :). Much love to all from Berkeley! -We've only had one earthquake and it wasn't too bad, so don't be scared about visiting :)