Jacob is almost 9 months!

I have tons of photos that I want to share, but I will post them later. Here's an update on how the Furlong family is doing:

Jacob is growing up so quick. He went from army crawling to pulling himself up in 1.5 months! He still does the army crawl most of the time, he finds it quicker than trying to put one knee in front of the other knee. He’s pretty slow still with the traditional crawl. This last week he started sitting from a crawling position. He loves to pull himself up on boxes, he thinks he’s hot stuff that he’s standing up! His favorite things to play with are cords (which he doesn’t get to play with) and anything that he can press buttons to make noise. He also likes to spin the wheels on cars and Emma’s Little Einstein Rocket. He’ll find a car and army crawl all the way to the tile to make it roll on the tile. Pretty smart! He has two bottom teeth that are growing fast. They are broken all the way through, so the whining is over for now. Teething has been pretty rough for him. He mimics us when we are talking. He tries to say ma ma or da da, but it usually comes out Ba, ba, ba, ba…. And he’ll go back and forth with a short “aahh” between us. He’s eating 2nd foods now, I tried the 3rd foods, but they were too thick and he gagged on them. So we will stick to the 2nd foods for awhile. He still thinks his sister is funny stuff and laughs at her all the time. Jacob is such a Momma’s boy still, he wines and cries for me if he sees me and someone else has him and then is very happy when I come and get him. But he is becoming more of a Daddy’s boy lately. He starts crying immediately a panic cry if someone other than Mommy, Daddy, or Grandma holds him. I hope he grows out of that soon!

Emma is getting really good at recognizing her ABC’s. We bought her Dora letters that she can stick on the wall of the bathtub, she loves spelling simple words like CAT and DOG and EMMA. Last night she decided to spell her name EMMB because the A was already used in the word CAT. She didn’t want to mess it up. She loves coloring and she likes to trace any letters she sees in her coloring books. She’s even pointing to the words in her books and having me read them. I think she finally gets the concept that we read left to right. For the longest time she would point to pictures from right to left. She’s still very headstrong and when she has her mind set on something, it’s hard to convince her otherwise. In October she got to go to 2 pumpkin patches. We went to a very commercialized pumpkin patch as a family. It had all kinds of games to play and rides to ride. She rode on ponies, bounced in the bouncy blow up ride, rode on a cow train, and walked a straw maze. It was a great time. Then with her daycare we went to a more traditional pumpkin patch where she got to feed goats and turkeys, pet ponies, and pick out her own little pumpkin. That was fun too. We carved 2 pumpkins this year and Emma loved helping but hated pulling out the seeds. She said they were too slimy. But then she helped me sort the seeds to roast them. She really loved eating the roasted pumpkin seeds.

Jerrod is finally back to work, he started back the first of this month. He is doing really well. We haven’t been back to the Dr. for the final appointment, due to not being able to afford the trip, but the last time we went, the Dr. said that he thought Jerrod represented the best case scenario. Praise Jesus for a great range of motion! He is done with his therapy sessions and I am continuing to stretch his arm at home. He still can’t lift a lot with that arm, I am sure that will take some time still.

As for me, I am enjoying my family tremendously. It is nice to have a husband back in commission that can help around the house and with the kiddos. And he has been absolutely wonderful. He has been cooking every evening, I don’t even remember the last time I cooked a meal. And he cooks wonderful, tasty meals! He’s great with the kids and they love their daddy! This last weekend we put up our Christmas tree and decorations. I know it’s early, but we usually don’t have time the weekend after Thanksgiving. We thought it would be nice to enjoy it longer this year. It is beautiful and has gotten us all in the mood for Christmas!