Let The Voting Begin!!!

One of our local radio stations is having their annual Baby Idol contest and you guessed it... Jacob is entered!

http://www.star1043.com/cc-common/globalcontestfinder.html?contest=24928

We need your vote!

Click on the link above from each computer you use. They have a way of tracking multiple entries from one computer, so don't even try, but do be sure to vote from each computer you use -- work, home, PDA, etc.

The way they have it set up, you have to vote for each baby before you get to the one you want. After you have cycled through them, the rotation begins again. You only need to go through it once. There are roughly 40 babies in the set.

Grand prize baby idol winner receives a $500 shopping spree at a local boutique: Bon Bebe. I've never shopped there, probably for good reason - couldn't afford it.

Thanks for your votes and support!

August Travels

Seems like this has been a busy month for us. Jacob tends to take more and more of our time instead of less. But we're not compalining. We thoroughly enjoy every minute of it. Even more so when he does new and surprising things. More on that in a minute.

Bill and I took a much needed mini-vacation to Knoxville and Pigeon Forge last weekend. Yep, it was just the two of us. Jacob got some spoiling from Nana & Pops Quade while we were gone. Mammaw & Pappaw Ball got some spoilin' in too as well as some more pics and video. We stopped off in Knoxville first and saw Christy & Andy's new baby girl, Madison Emma. She is precious as can be and so light compared to Jacob! Her brother, Riley, was very well behaved for having company over and treats his new sister with lots of love and care. Madison came in weighing 9.3lbs and Christy went all natural childbirth!

A visit to my soap box
We had a very nice view from our room at the Music Road Hotel in PF, but that was the only outstanding thing of our stay there. The room was a bit musty, the hot tub was no where near hot and my biggest pet peeve - we couldn't seem to get away from smokers anywhere we went. Now if you are one of those considerate smokers who doesn't stand right outside the door of a building and chooses not to blow smoke in the face of other patrons and children at a crowded pool or small town sidewalk, then this isn't directed at you. It just seems like we can't escape it from all of the other inconsiderates and Gatlinburg has become notorious for it. There was even a man in his 50's smoking in the stairwell at our stay in Knoxville. Not cool when it's a non-smoking facility. We drove into Gatlinburg thinking we'd visit just a couple of specific shops, but with the crowds and parking at $10 a pop, we turned around and headed back to PF.

...now back to the regular scheduled blog.

We ate well at Bullfish Restaurant, Applewood Farmhouse Restaurant, Johnny Carinos and Bob Evans. Bill couldn't pass up the opportunity to eat at Mimi's Cafe in Knoxville either. We caught some bargains at Tanger Outlet, mainly buying and stocking up for Jacob which means someone is going to be busy with cutting lots of price tags soon! We missed little man, especially when we saw other babies his age. But I must say, it was nice to be able to sleep through the night uninterrupted! Yeah, he's still getting up a couple times a night.

Jacob has been doing some traveling of his own lately. Just this week, we put him down in his crib for an afternoon nap and knew he wasn't sleeping yet, but was very quiet (always something that worries a parent when their kid is too quiet). Bill went back to check on him and motioned for me to come take a look. I must say I was completely shocked since he was facing completely the other direction than what I laid him down. He was pushing up with his arms and looking around at everything, but very content. Guess we have to keep a closer eye on him now!

It's also official -- he has rolled over 4 or 5 times for us now! I don't think he has quite mastered going either direction yet, but he seems to think it's a pretty cool trick until he can't keep coordinated enough to do it over and over.

We have been trying several times now to get Jacob to take a dip with us in a nearby lake or pool, but it has never worked out until now. We just up and decided yesterday to go to the Y since we still have free guest passes from our childbirth class. Yup, Jacob's first time in the water other than the bathtub. He seemed scared and overwhelmed at first, but never cried and I think he even enjoyed it. Getting those swimmer diapers on is a bit of a challenge though!

Little man finally outgrew his car seat, so we had to go shopping for another. We thought we were going to get one similar to his where we could easily carry him and trade him from one car to the next, but those only go up to 30lbs, so we'd only be buying a few month's time with one. So we ended up getting the bigger, toddler kind that stays put in the vehicle, meaning we have to carry him to the car and take him out of the car seat when trading cars or going shopping. We got a basic one for Marcia & Alan's car to get him from point A to B. Now, we just have to be a little more careful in planning for who picks him up or takes him somewhere.

We've submitted Jacob's picture to a local radio station for a Baby Idol contest, so stay tuned for the details to vote!

I love my new Jumperoo!

Marcia, Alan & Breanna brought back some things for us from their trip to WI. They were able to rack up at some rummage sales and got some things we had requested they look for while they were there. One of them being his jumperoo! I think he's going to get lots of use out of this one. He picked right up on it and stayed in there until he got hungry again. Some of the other things we'll have to put back until he's a little older. We try to only introduce him to new toys gradually so he appreciates them more.