Today, Team Bonilla attended the Ohana Potluck at our church and Jacob had so much fun watching all of the little kids running around and playing. One day, that will be him. We are blessed to be part of such a great community.
And I have been meaning to upload this for ages. For those that were not in attendance, here is a video of Jacob’s dedication from September 29, 2013 at South Bay Community Church in Torrance.
I say “semi” because they are not exactly solids. Last night, Jacob started with a mostly watery mix of rice cereal and breast milk. We will slowly make it less watery and make his way to his little mashed carrots or peas. Other than they fact that it is far too slow for him, he does not seem to mind it. It is messier than his normal feedings, but we all had to start somewhere.
This is a big step for Jacob. So big that we recorded over 8 minutes of video from his first semi-solid meal. Yup. I said over 8 minutes of him just chowing down.
Tonight, he had some more and already fully understand how being fed with a spoon works. Except, once he gets tired of the slowness and inefficiency of eating in this way rather than just out of a bottle, he likes to play with his food by blowing bubbles in it and sending it everywhere.
We have known that Jacob’s been teething for quite a while now, and during our trip it seemed the drool and hands in the mouth increased a lot. He also woke up more often at night, but thought it may be from such a different environment. One day I saw a little bump in his mouth and I have been waiting for something to emerge.
Tonight was the night! At dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Gonzales and family, I finally felt a sharp little hard, poky thing when Jacob put my finger in his mouth! His bottom right tooth has started to poke through! David and I are in shock even though we knew this was happening. I guess we are both a little sad that our little baby is growing so fast. We hate to see him in pain from this process, but know he is going to need us more than ever to comfort him and give lots of love.
I can’t wait for more tooth to poke out so I can show a picture with his toothy grin.
Tonight is our final night in Kauai. Tomorrow we head back home. This was our first vacation as a family since Jacob entered our lives. Jacob has discovered a few things. He likes to swim. He likes the wind. He can poop just about anywhere (ask us later about the pooptastophy on a mountain top). He is fascinated by chickens and roosters. He’s intrigued by Hawaiian food and even tried to grab it right off of our forks a few times. He likes to sing. He likes luaus. He can get his toes into his mouth. Most importantly, he knows how to attract the ladies. They stop to look at him or talk to him and that is when he works his magic with his smile. One local even said that she would wait for him!
Jacob celebrated his 6 month birthday here. There is no better place to do so than this paradise. Valerie and I learned that there is no such thing as a stress free vacation when you have a baby. It is a lot of work. However, watching Jacob experience all of these things for the first time, building memories, and getting photos and video that will allow us to look back and remember these good times were all worth it.
We look forward to many more trips with our little man.
Jacob’s first tooth is coming in and he is not having any fun with that. Despite that, today was his six month birthday and it was filled with fun. As usual, he woke up early today. Then grandma and grandpa Gonzales, mommy, daddy, and he went into Koloa, picked up some breakfast, a birthday cupcake, and some sandwiches for our packed lunch.
Then we drove up/through Kokee State Park and had a picnic atop the mountain. We sang to Jacob and mommy ate his cupcake. He is way too young for cupcakes. After that, we walked through the Kauai Coffee Plantation. Then we all headed to Kukui’ula Village Shopping Center for gourmet farmer’s market.
We also played a voicemail for Jacob of grandma and grandpa Bonilla singing happy birthday to him.
Jacob is getting so big and becoming more and more curious about the world around him. Each day, he makes us laugh. We smile when he smiles and we love spending time with him. Traveling with him has been tough, but these memories that we are gaining are worth it. We know he will not remember it, but at least we have the pictures to prove he was here in Hawaii.
We are a few days in to our vacation and Jacob seems to be doing well. He is experiencing so many new things and it isn’t too overwhelming yet (we think). Jacob is a real trooper and we are relaxing despite all the work it is to keep him both entertained AND quiet for our hotel room neighbors. We may owe them a bottle of champagne.
One of the highlights from yesterday was a river tour and luau at the Smith Family property on the Wailua river. Jacob took a nap right before getting on the boat, but ended up squealing due to his gums hurting from teething. We gave him some teething tablets, however, and he was happy on the way back. After that he was very hungry and tired, so he fell asleep during the luau dinner. The noise of the crowd and the show woke him up and he stayed awake all the way back to our hotel. Luckily, since he fell asleep closer to 10pm (instead of 6:30 like the first few nights) he slept all the way until 6:30am! Woo hoo!
Today we are going to take him to a little baby beach near our hotel. I think he will have fun splashing in the ocean while Mom is worrying about sand everywhere! We’ll see what happens š
Well, it’s 5 AM local time and we are all awake. Jacob decided that 4 AM was time to play. The time difference between here and California has thrown him off. We’ll see what today brings.
Anyways, yesterday was his first day on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. It was his first day seeing the ocean up close. He was fascinated by the waves. It was his first time putting his feet in the sand too. I’m not sure he knew what to make of that. These are the things that we love. Watching him experience things for the first time. It makes the usual even more special for us.
Luckily, we have an ocean front room so we have a beautiful view of the water from the 3rd floor of the resort. That means that leaving the sliding patio door cracked, we can listen to the waves crash all night and, being Hawaii, it is still not too cold for Jacob.
Our lucky little man will be spending his six month birthday on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. Today is the start of his first vacation. This should be interesting and a big test for Valerie and myself. I am sure that the traveling part will be the toughest portion of this trip. It is amazing how much stuff someone so little needs. But our bags (many, many bags) are packed and we are ready to go.
I am so excited to see Jacob’s little face as he experiences new things like the beach, ocean, swimming pools, and the overall beauty of Kauai. I know he won’t remember it, but we will.
