Big and busy month!

Things have changed A LOT since Jackson has turned one :).

We had his 1 year well visit a few weeks ago. Jack weighed in at 24lbs 13oz. Big boy!!! And he's now 30.75" tall. He went from the 50-60th percentile in both weight and height (and head circumference) at 9 months, to 75th percentile in all 3. So he grew all around! He was given 3 shots in his thighs, but he only cried a little immediately afterwards, and then was fine. Never even ran a fever from them. Our pediatrician was very impressed with all the Jackson was doing, and says he's right on track in all areas and doing great!

Other things going on in Jack's world:

• We can now classify him as a walker :). He started taking a few steps here and there a week before he turned one, but then he started walking more than crawling, and now he walks everywhere and rarely crawls. Unless he falls of course :).


• We transitioned him to whole milk a couple weeks before he turned one, and he loves it!


• He doesn't take a bottle anymore, either! Just like that, cold turkey, and we've never looked back.


• He has 4 teeth (2 top and 2 bottom), with at least 3 more molars coming in, and a couple others that I can't even identify. Teeth, teeth everywhere :).


• He does simple commands, such as: "Can you go get mommy a book?" and "Where's your milk?".


• He's learning the names of his body parts, like eyes, foot, and nose.


• He signs that he wants some "more." We didn't teach him this, and neither did school, but apparently he picked it up from a substitute teacher one day???


• He moved up to the toddler room at school! His entire class moved up at the start of the new school year. He's adapted VERY well, and loves his new room. He now takes his nap on a cot, and sleeps better there than he did in the infant room! He sleeps from 12:30-3:00 every single day. It's wonderful :).

He's such a wonderful, good natured baby/toddler, and he makes us smile and laugh every single day. We have SO much fun with him, and can't believe how fast he's growing and changing! It's bittersweet of course, but it's an amazing thing to experience.

Happy Birthday To Jackson!

We had perfect weather for Jackson's little birthday party, which is hard to believe for early August! I remember when he was born, there was an AWFUL heat wave with insane humidty. We got so lucky this year, and we're able to spend a lot of time outside. We just did something small this year, since he doesn't know any different :). But it was so great because we were really just able to spend some time with family and close friends we don't get to see too often. Happy birthday sweet, sweet boy!

Here's the picture I painted for him. Blues and greens to match his room :). Of course you can't see in the picture because it's too far away, but his name and birthday are written along the tree branches.

Eating his cake in my high chair from when I was a baby.

Brownies!

Since we were saving Jack's first taste of cake for his birthday party, we had brownies after dinner on his actual birthday. Turns out he LOVES chocolate!

8.8.08

A little delayed, but better late than never :).

The light of our lives turned one on 8.8.08! In some ways, 8.8.07 seems so far away. Mostly because our Jackson was such a fussy little thing his first few months. He had colic, we battled with reflux, struggled through breastfeeding issues, and just tried to get through the days in the beginning. Learning how to balance a newborn and working full time was rough. But I see how far we've come, and wouldn't trade any of it for the world (ok, so just a little break from the fussiness would have been nice :)). Our Jackson has turned into the most amazing little person, with such a personality already, and he brings us more joy than I ever thought possible. What an AMAZING year this has been!

Jack turned one on a Friday, so we decided to take the day off from work. He went to school and celebrated his birthday with everyone there, and we planned to pick him up after nap time for some fun! Our awesome friends Bryan, Rachel, and Reese (who will be one in October!) traveled north from Blacksburg to spend the weekend with us.

We decided to take Jack and Reese to the Baltimore Aquarium for the day. It was a little busier than we would have expected, but we still had a great time. The little ones enjoyed seeing all of the aquatic life, while being carried on their daddy's backs :). It was a great way to spend our baby boy's first birthday!

Our baby has turned ONE!

Our baby is growing into a toddler quickly, with many new changes. I have lots to post, including birthday pictures, but here's a little slideshow I put together weeks ago of Jack's first year. Enjoy!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Itsy Bitsy Spider

Check it out!

Jack learned how to do the Itsy Bitsy Spider about a month or so ago, I had just never caught it with the camera. But I finally did! He doesn't do all the hand motions obviously, but he puts his little fingers together whenever you sing the song, or even ask him where the spider is. It's sooo cute!

Book lover

Jack has turned into quite the little book lover these days. He's much more interested in them than he ever has been, and I love it! Not like I have any time to read these days, but I hope he will learn to love reading like I did when I was little.

Every morning when Nick drops Jack off at school, they have book time on the play mat, and I think that's what has really sparked his interest in books. We hear that his favorite is Brown Bear, Brown Bear. The other day when Jack got there, Nick said Josh came over to Jack and handed him the book, and then Annabel walked over, and then all 3 went and sat on the mat to play with their books. I thought that was such a sweet thing!