Jacob Carter at 3 Months

I cannot believe that Jacob is already 3 months old! Crazy Crazy Crazy how time flies by!  We had his 2 month check-up late due to both babies getting RSV, so we had to wait until he didn't have a fever or anything for him to get his shots.  I knew Jacob was bigger than average but I was still shocked to find out how big he really was.

        Weight: 19lbs 2oz. (off the charts)
        Height: 26 1/2 inches (again off the charts)
        Head Circumference: 16 inches

   The Doctor's jaw literally dropped when he found out how much Jacob weighed.  We broke the record at the Polk-Davis office for the largest 2 month old.  Dr. Davis walked him around the office showing him off and how big he was.  The average 2 month old weighs 11 lbs and the average 1 year old weighs 22lbs.  I knew he was big simply because he is already wearing 6 month clothing and size 3 diapers but Dr. Davis reassured that assumption.  Other than the shock of Jacob's size everything else went perfectly, healthy and strong baby.

   Jacob made his first trip to Plano last weekend to see his Grammy, Grandad, Uncle Jeff, Aunt Debbi, Cousin Natalie, Aunt Megan, and all my church family.  He is just as good with traveling as Jo A is.  He slept the entire way there and only fussed the last 30 min on the way home.  This weekend we are traveling once again to see JoJo's side of the family for a wedding......keep your fingers crossed that they both will do just as well as they did on the trip to Plano.  

Happy Valentine's Day!

   Happy Valentine's Day to all!!! 
      On a day that is solely devoted to the concept of love it's hard to think of much else, and all I can think about it how lucky I am.  I am so blessed so have unconditional love from friends, family, my incredible husband and best friend, and two of the most precious little boys.  This morning I was able to wake up the most amazing "love" moment a person can ask for.  I woke up to hear JoJo in the shower so I decided to get up and start some breakfast and make him lunch.  On my way to the kitchen I looked down at Jacob laying in his bed and all of a sudden, with such an excited burst of movement, he got a huge smile on his face and started kicking his legs and waving his arms.  LOVE!!!!! Jo A. hasn't even woken up yet but I'm positive that I will walk into his room and find him standing in his bed and just the sight of me will bring a huge smile to his face, he'll start bobbing up and down, he'll grab his lamby and hug him, and then reach out for me.  Once again......LOVE!!!!!  I get to wake up to this every morning to this! I am so blessed!  I am confident that as the day goes on this amount of love that is shown by my precious angels will not fade.  Whether it is Jo A. kissing Jacob every 30 min., or if it's Jacob's constant smiles, or even when it's JoJo coming home from working a labor intensive 9 hour work day and still having enough energy to hug and kiss on me as soon as he gets home till we lay our heads down and go to sleep.  
   As a parent, it is so rewarding seeing this love that JoJo and I have and share with them pour out of their little bodies.  Jo A. has become so attached to this little lamb of his.  He always had  to have something to go to sleep with but now he will go into his room in the middle of play time and yell for his lamby that is just out of reach in his bed.  He even double fists it sometimes and will be walking around with lamby in one hand and his bear in the other.  I learned that children around the age of one start to understand this concept of "love" that they see in their home.  It makes me so happy to see him hug his lamby then hand him off to one of us to hug, and then grab him back and hug him once more.  He is mirroring the love he receives from us.  Even when I feel like all I am doing is telling him 'no, no' and making him cry because he can't get into everything he wants, he still feels the love through it all.  

"All you need is love."    
   

Out of the mouth of a baby

   Jo A has become even more vocal than he always had been.  He walks/runs around the house speaking complete gibberish with the cutest little voice. We love watching him.  He looks like he is carrying on a conversation with someone, and no one else other than him is talking.  His vocabulary is growing way too quickly, and we are having to be careful what we say and how we say things to him.


Jo A's vocabulary includes:
Yes= Yeah
Truck= ruckkkkkk (the 'ck' is over eccentuated)
Lamby= ammy
Sock= sssockkkkk
Baby= baubyy
Mia (our dog)= Ah Mi....I don't know how he got this but he says it backwards
Puppy= puppppiiiiis
Please= Peeees
Nap= Ap
Up= Upppp
Fish= Ish

All of this talking is so new to him and us and it just shocks me every time something new comes out of his mouth.  It truly is amazing how much of a sponge little kids are. 
   When Jo A was born I really didn't read many 'how to' books, I just kinda winged his whole first year with the help of the advice from certain people.  It was doable with one baby, but now I can't really just wing it with Jacob in hopes that something would stick. The main topic right now is sleep.  Jo A has been such an amazing sleeper since he was only weeks old.  He was sleeping through the night, 9+ hours, every night.  One thing that I think really helped that was moving him into his own room much earlier than most.  He was about 3 weeks old and we had moved him out of our room and into his.  That has been the easiest thing ever since.  He LOVES his naps to the point of walking himself to his room with his paci and lamb and if we didn't catch his hint he will come back out and wait till one of us follows him in and puts him down.  He also does not require any sort of coddling before sleep and never has.  I started out trying to rock him and read to him but he would just wiggle his way out of my arms.  We very quickly realized that all he wanted us to do was lay him in his crib and put his lamb on his face and walk out.  I was not about to fight him about it.  But now I have a 6 week old who is sleeping about 5 to 7 hours through that night, which I am very thankful for, but I still can't move him into the room with Jo A yet.  I would much rather have one kid sleep through the night uninterrupted, than none.  So, now I'm onto the 'how to' book idea, but where do I begin?
   Besides 'sleeping through the night' ( 5-7 hrs), Jacob has become such a little socialite.  He has been very vocal since day one, which was screaming and crying, but now is onto some of the cutest noises.  It's almost like he reads the emotions of us and portrays them back to us.  Whenever we are excited or getting loud, which is normally during a funny movie, playing with Jo A, or playing the Wii, Jacob turns into this little social bug.  He will start moving his whole body, kicking his legs and waving his arms around, and start 'talking'. He also has begun gracing us with his beautiful smile.  Jacob's and Jo A's smiles just melt every inch of me. 
   My life has a purpose, and it is proven to me when my children smile & cuddle with me.  Nothing could ever replace it or be described until someone has felt it themselves. The unconditional, untainted love of a child......Ahhhhhh!

2011 here we come!!!

So another year has come and gone! These last two years have been two of the best years of my life. In 2009 JoJo and I found out we were pregnant....SURPRISE, had my dream wedding where I married my best friend and love of my life surrounded by wonderful friends and family, and had Joseph Andrew Ramirez. Turning the corner to 2010, I thought there was no way life could get any better. Once again God showed me who was really in control of my life. Just as I was getting use to being a mom and getting comfortable with my life we found out I was pregnant once again.....SURPRISE! This news made me realize that I needed to slow down and enjoy these beautiful babies' childhood, so I quit my (high-stress) job and relaxed at home and got to watch my baby grow up! Boy do they grow up fast! Jo A turned 1 on November 11, 2010 and decided to start walking the very same day! With him getting around so well and myself being 8 months pregnant, I was worn out! Jacob must have known I was ready to be done being pregnant because he chose his own birthday and came almost 2 weeks early on December 3, 2010, weighing in at a whopping 9lbs 11oz. Needless to say the past month has been crazy busy with little to no time to sit down and relax, but I'm loving every minute of it.....at the moment.
Yet again, I feel that God is going to give us another memorable year with Jo A starting to talk and pick up on things so quickly and Jacob absorbing everything this world has to offer. This new family of mine brings me so much joy and love that it is impossible to explain in words. I know that the future brings me many days where I won't be able to hear myself think for one second, and days of complete exhaustion, but also, without a doubt in my mind, I know that God will not give me more than I can handle and he has lots in store for me and my family in the new year!

Here are some pictures just to recap since I last posted!




Jo A's first "real" haircut at the barber shop!



Pig Roast 2010. His first taste of Illinois soil.

Jo A's first Jack-O-Latern

8 months prego with Jacob.


Jo A posing for his first pic being 1 year old! ha Ha Ha this cracks me up!



His new tricycle he got for his birthday!



Digging into his birthday cake!



Jacob Carter Ramirez; 12.3.2010


Our family as of 12.3.10. Jo A is such a love bug!


Our little angel.



Merry Christmas 2010!
I hope all of you are just as excited about the upcoming new year as we are and may God bless you and your families!

Recap on the last few months

Ok so I have been neglecting this blog. Jo A. has kept me busy for sure!

The little guy is now 8 months old! AHHH! JoJo and I were just thinking how crazy it is to think that he will be a year old in only 4 months. 4 months go by extremely fast these days! He has TWO little chompers and boy were those a pain coming in! He has slept through the night since he was 2 months old and both nights before the tooth came in he woke us up yelling at the top of his lungs so I knew something was up. The first one came in on Father's day as a gift to his daddy, and the second one came in on July 4th. Jo A. is also becoming extremely mobile! He took two crawling movements forward and that is all we have seen in the way of crawling. I call him either my rollie pollie or my aligator because he LOVES to roll places and he is quick. He will be stuck up against something and will somehow still roll over...his aligator death roll. I really think he will be walking before he crawls. He pulls up on everything and loves to be standing and takes small steps. We will see! Ok ONE more thing....he sat up on his own yesterday from laying on the floor!!! He has been so active the last couple months there is just so much he is now doing and it's so exciting!


Ok now onto our new exciting news. Most people know that JoJo and I are expecting bundle #2 in December. Last week we found out that Jo A. will be having a little brother to pick on and play with for the rest of his life. It is my lot in life to be surrounded by handsome men! We were so exciting to be having another boy! I have always wanted all boys and JoJo wouldn't know what to do with himself if he had a girl! So God has blessed us once again!

12 WEEKS!!!

Jo A. is 12 weeks today! It is insane how quickly this precious time has gone by. Our love for this little guy grows so much everyday. And everyday I think it is impossible to love him anymore than I already do!

We had our 2 month check-up a couple weeks ago and got our first round of shots. The count down to the screaming baby was so sad, but he was such a tough boy and was fine 10 minutes later. The following week was a little rough with him being fussy and a little feverish from the shots but we made it through. Then I got sick last week. It was a nasty bug that put me out for 3 days. I think Jo A. got a little bit of it towards the end of the week but he toughed it out and he didn't get fully sick, like I did...THANK YOU GOD!

2 MONTH STATS: (He is much bigger now)

Weight: 13 lbs. 13 oz (75th%)

Height: 24 inches (90th%)

Food: Still breast fed but he gets a bottle of formula around 6:00pm. He eats pretty much every 3 hours like clockwork. If I forget that it's time to eat he will surely be so kind as to remind me!

Sleeping: We are so lucky! He sleeps through the night and has been for a couple weeks now. This was all his own doing. He started sleeping one night all the way through from about 9:00pm to 6:00am about twice a week, and now he goes to sleep around 9:30pm and we wake him up around 7:45am. I am so extrememly thankful. I am a much better mom and wife when I have plenty of uninterupted sleep. During the day he usually takes one good 1-2 hour nap in the late morning then might dose off for a cat nap every now and then but pretty much is as awake and alert as he could be.

He has really started "talking" to us now. He has a chair at my work that vibrates and that thing gets him going. He will sit and talk to the little animals hanging from it and he gets so excited while doing it. His disposition is absolutely incredible. Even if he is hurting from one of his many growth spurts we still can get a smile or two out of him. He LOVES to be around people and watch everything that is going on.

One new thing that just happened this morning while at work is he busted out a full on laugh. I don't think it is a true belly laugh because I think he has more in him but I was able to get it on video on my phone....now I just need to figure out how to get it off my phone and onto the computer so you can see him!

A couple weeks ago he started immitating his daddy and sticking out his tongue!

He has had his first ride on the 4-wheeler!

He doesn't suck his thumb or fingers or anything.....he sucks his fist! He will try to get the entire thing in his little mouth.

My mohawk baby!!!!

My two boys! You think he will become a hunter?

I am so in love with this boy!

He has arrived!

Joseph Andrew Ramirez has arrived!
He was born on November 11, 2009 weighing 8 lbs 3 oz and 20in. in length!

The labor and delivery went very well and only lasted about 15 hours. I started out wanting to do the whole thing natural but after about 10 hours I gave in and got an epidural. I had no idea how much it would do. I took a 20 min. nap during labor.....it's a miracle drug let me tell you! We were discharged on Friday afternoon and were so happy to get him home.
I always thought women were so funny when they became moms and thinking that their child is the most perfect child and most beautiful child born to this earth. Well I now know what they are feeling because I am now one of those women! I am obsessed with our little man! He makes me so incredibly happy. I can't stop staring at him.
On Sunday we had to go back into the hospital because Joseph had jaundice pretty bad. It broke our hearts to see our baby boy go through so much. They were trying to start an IV and ended up sticking him 4 times and still never being able to get a vein. It wore us out! Then he had to lay in a "Bili Bassinet"....basically his first tanning bed...for 24 hours. The only time I could take him out was to change him. It was very hard looking over at him and not being able to hold him! But he was a trooper and we made it through and are back home now!

He was being such a good boy!