9 months old yesterday

It's crazy, right? So here's some things about this boy that I love:

What he eats: still loves to nurse (although the teething phase makes it not so fun for myself....tmi?), his new love are the Cutie oranges, string cheese, still enjoys bananas, yogurt, rotisserie chicken, pizza

His milestones: he can crawl! Halle-freakin-lujah! 'Tis been a long time coming. What finally inspired him was his dad building towers with blocks. He looooves to knock down towers. So we build towers and crawls to destroy them. He could do it all day long. And his babbling is probably the cutest thing I've ever heard. He makes all kinds of sounds and plays with his voice all day long. He waves pretty well, not on command, but lots of times you'll see him waving to things he likes.

His quirks: he loves to give pats on my shoulder or back (melts my heart every time). Oh! He's done this for a long time, but I kept forgetting to write it down. He has this formula of "Cough, Cough, Sneeze". It happens when he is in the sun, when he's sucked in too much air or water or if he just needs to cough, it comes with a cough, cough, sneeze. He loooooves other kids and babies. He could watch them play all day long. If we are in a store and he sees kids, he'll start smiling, squawking, and smacking his hands down so they'll look at him.

What makes him laugh: peek a boo (specifically, peek a boo behind the couch). Daddy throwing him around on the bed, playing with cars, still loves any new noise i can come up with

Favorite Toys: He got tons of toys for Christmas. Some of his favorites include any ball that is throwable. He loooves throwing balls. The two that he prefers are his soft basketball and the bouncy green one. Not gonna lie, he's got a pretty good arm. He also loves his activity table, although that one requires adult supervision, because the boy has no hesitation to fall straight backward. He also has a spinning car race thing that he loves. Has an old school xylophone that he likes too.

Some of my favorite pics from the last month

Safety concerns? Nah.

It's possible I might let my baby do things a normal mom wouldn't. Like yesterday, I poured a bunch of water on his high chair and let him go to town. He was in heaven. 

And sometimes I let him feed himself banana, which means he ends up covered in goop. And I'm not so great at the whole bib concept.

And sometimes I let him eat my phone. Well, I let him do that all the time. (Curse you Cricket and your indestructible phones.) 

And sometimes I let him chew cords. Don't worry, I unplug them first. I do take some safety precautions. 

And today, I let him play with the dvds. I opened the door and he went crazy. I didn't expect him to know what to do, but apparently "dvd-destroying" is an innate reflex. 

Does he look slightly old-mannish here?

P.S. Leo is officially the "crawling-whisperer". He got Jackson to scooch quite a bit last night and tonight, he finally was using his arms to go forward. 

Blogging at 1 am.

Why? you might ask.... Oh my baby's just been screaming for an hour and half and shows no sign of stopping. This is no "fussing". This is straight up "conniption" crying. I finally decided to just shake myself out of sleepiness and get on the computer. The problem is if I fall in and out of sleep, I inevitably stumble into his room, out of habit, and either pat his back or pick him up. This might sound like I'm the worst mom in the world to not want to comfort my child when he's screaming his guts out, but for Jackson, it's necessary. He's such a bad sleeper and I know I'm partly to blame (I'm such a softie).

I've tried the slow separation, pat the back when they start crying, pick up put down methods and it hasn't helped. So, I have to figure out a way to be strong and not even touch him for hours while he screams. The part that stresses me out is him flailing his body around the crib. I took away his heavy blanket so he won't get wrapped up in it. Hopefully, all that crying is keeping him warm enough. Earlier, I stumbled in to pat him and he freaked out so much at me being there, that he was on his stomach and he pushed himself up into sitting position. Also, when he's on his stomach, he'll push up on to his toes, so his bum's high in the air and slam himself to the side. I told you. Conniption.

Yeah, I have to keep myself in wake mode or I'm just frustrated with him. If I can keep a straight head, then I remember that we're doing this for a reason. I'll feed him at 4, which is almost another 3 hrs. I bet you he cries the entire time. So what does that mean? If he never falls asleep, does he still associate nursing with sleeping? So the whole night was pointless because he never once fell asleep on his own. Ugh.

Pause. He's not crying. He's sleep hiccuping. Oh, j.k. Back to crying.

It just breaks my heart, because during the day, Jackson and I play and giggle and snuggle and read and it's like the best little relationship I could ever ask for. And then, the night comes. (Ok, I really wanted to sing Les Miserables, "And the dragons come at niiight" Don't know it? I Dreamed a Dream? You're missing out.)

I think he fell asleep. I'm going to try to sleep while he does.

Well, it's 7:45 am now so you know we eventually did get some sleep.

I just read back through my post. 'Twas a rough night. Hopefully tonight goes better. Jackson woke up smiling. What a goober.

My baby's 8 months old

Jackson turns 8 months old today and I can't believe it. He's getting closer and closer to be a yr old and it's so bittersweet. This age is ridiculously fun. Here's a little bit about him:

What he's eating: Still prefers nursing over anything else but, he's starting to love table foods. We started giving it to him about a month ago and he likes people food way more than pureed baby food. His favorites are bananas, yogurt, graham crackers, any noodles, cheese, chicken, bread, and green beans. He still gags every once in awhile, which stresses his dad out. Probably should stress me out but as long as he's coughing, he figures it out. Loves having water given to him through a straw.

Developmental Milestones: He can roll both ways now, but this whole "rolling across the room", yeah. That's not happening. Jackson is content to just be still. He can get up on his knees and every once in awhile, he'll have a day where he planks a bunch, but other than that, no crawling. He belly spins a bunch and scoots backwards all day long. He loves it when we hold his hands and he walks and he gets really excited to stand against the couch. He's starting to grab at me like he wants to pull himself up so maybe in a month or two that'll happen. He's still not sleeping through the night and for awhile there, it was really bad. We've been doing some serious sleep training this past week and I think it'll take a couple weeks but I'm trying to be strong.

His favorite things: he likes rolling a ball with his dad, trucks, loves eating books (his favorite books to eat are these baby sign language books, I think we've only gone through the actual signs once), this plastic toy that sings about counting animals, still loves his baths, loves when I blow bubbles with my gum, enjoying peekaboo more and more, loves when his mom throws him around and flips him upside down, enjoys a good cartoon (specifically Super Why), and loves his mama and daddy.

Things he doesn't like: when I wipe his crusty nose in the morning, when he's sick and I make him do tummy time, when we take something away from him that he's eating or playing with. He's going through some separation anxiety right now and 2 wks ago, it was intense. I couldn't set him down to go to the bathroom without him crying. He's definitely a mama's boy.

What he's saying: "Mmbaaaaa", rasberries, and I don't know how to describe this one but he purses his lips together and then blows out a bunch of air. Anyway, it's all adorable.

His temperament: I would say overall, he's still on the needy side, but his happy days are sooo fun. He's super giggly and smiles at everything.

Being a mama is still the best thing in the entire world and I wouldn't trade it for anything. It is amazing looking at this little guy that you invest everything (and I mean everything) into and seeing how much he loves you.

Sick baby

Second day in a row I've been up at 4:30 with Jackson. He had a mild fever all yesterday and hopefully it'll go away tomorrow. Sad little cough and runny nose too. Yesterday, he just wanted me to hold him all day and I'm guessing that's how today will go. 

Here's how he looked for most of yesterday.

But he still gave a few smiles.

Vacations

So, I've spent the past couple weeks on vacation. I went to Texas to see my family, just me and Jackson. Tickets are expensive and Leo can't ask off that much work so yes, he stayed home and worked while I went and played. (Thanks hubby for letting me play) Anyway. It was wonderful to see my family. My nephew, Wyatt, is such a big boy and would run everywhere if he knew how to. He makes do with army crawling and running in his walker. So hilarious.

Jackson had a riot with my family. There is endless entertainment in my mom's house so the boy was in heaven. He finally learned how to roll from tummy to back. I wouldn't say he loves it though. He'll just roll over and then be content in that position for awhile. I'm not seeing a lot of motivation to be mobile. He definitely wiggles a lot more in my arms but if I'd let him stay in sitting position all day long surrounded by toys, he would be happy.

He also babbles a lot more. Mmbaah is his favorite and yesterday on our drive home from Boise (where we spent Thanksgiving), he said Ba Ba Ba Ba over and over and over again. The funniest part is that he has an angry Ba and a happy Ba and laughing Ba. Who knew?

Jackson has also fallen in love with adult food. He never cared for pureed baby food so I started giving him real food on vacation and he loves it. Like grunts when you're eating because he wants your food. We are going to buy a high chair today because the boy needs some independence with his eating.

Our sleep routine went to pot with all the traveling so "flash back!"- we're back to sleep training. I'm so motivated though. He just loves nursing way too much and it is definitely his crutch to falling back to sleep. He doesn't have a clue when it comes to self-soothing. So, I must be brave and endure some crying it out for the next week or two. I can do it though, because I haven't had more than a 3 hr span of sleeping in a loooong time. I don't even know what it'd be like to function on real sleep.

Other than that, my bubba is perfect and sooo fun. I love watching him grow and learn and become more and more social. Oh annnd he totally recognized Leo when we got home, which I thought he would, but ya never know? 3 weeks is a long time. But he still squeals with giddy when he sees his daddy.

Most of these pictures have been put on facebook but I'm still going to share them on here.

Everyday I'm picnikin'...

Wy and his walker

This is Bella, the neediest (most needy?) Yorkie ever. But she's also the snuggliest and the happiest.

Surprisingly enough, Jackson kind of stressed Wyatt out. 

Yeah, he hasn't take a pacifier since that day.

Give me that camera!

Snuggled up for one of Cody or Callie's soccer games

Ok. This picture is too good. No lie, I'm pretty sure Wyatt actually had grass in his teeth.

Lovin on Uncle Cody

Hangin' with grandpa in their LSU onesies!

Jackson's dancing again? How sweet is Wy in this!

We've decided that Jackson might have "Eeyore syndrome". He finds the ground way more interesting than anything else.

Jackson wasn't quite as coordinated in the walker... Again, content to be still.

Out trial run for Christmas pictures, which are on Facebook. I'll prolly put some on here tomorrow.

It was such a good trip. Much needed. We spent Thanksgiving in Boise and it was so good to see Leo's family again and to let them see Jackson!

No bottle...

Oh little child of mine. You don't want to take a bottle. I realize it's mostly me to blame because I didn't try until you were 2 months old, but still, it would be nice if you would take it. I've tried 3 different kinds of bottles and you no like a single one. Oh well, I guess there's not much I can do, but keep loving you and thinking you're perfect. It's hard to not when you're such a handsome goose. 

P.S. If you could stop grinding your fancy new teeth, that would make me cringe a lot less. Thanks.

Warning: More pictures than you could ever imagine or want....

Jackson is 6 months old today. That is craziness. I cannot believe that he's half way to being a 1 year old! It's so bittersweet. On one hand, I'm so glad that he has become such a happy, loving boy. But on the other, I don't want him to get any bigger. I decided to go through my pictures and choose my favorites. 

This is him in the hospital. I'm pretty sure it's the first day and Grandma is holding him. He was a beautiful newborn. 8 lbs 10 oz. 

 He was a couple wks old here and as you can see, thoroughly enjoying his bear suit. He really did have a perfect scowl. 

This picture was taken with his 1 month photo shoot. His Auntie Gen took the pictures and they were beautiful. 

This one was also with the photo shoot. My obsession with adorable boy clothes had already begun. 

This was taken on the day of his blessing. It might surprise some of you, but I used to be horrible about remembering to take pictures, and so, we didn't even get a picture of him in his blessing outfit. Woopsy. 

 I think he was 2 months old for these. 

 4th of July. Check out his noggin. 

 He was 3 months old in the next couple. 

And now 4 months old.

  And 5 months old...

  

 The rest of the pictures came from last Saturday. Leo's sister, Genevieve, was willing to do a little family photo shoot for us up in the Canyon. We were all getting together for a hot dog roast anyway and so we took advantage of the fall colors and went to town. These first few were after we'd spent an hr taking pictures. I call them Angry Bear Series. He was just slightly done with the cold weather. 

  Note the dramatic coughing...

 Now all of these pictures are from the actual photo shoot. 

Okay, I couldn't help but put in this first awkward picture. I was trying to get him to sit up, but he's not that great at it yet and we were on concrete and as Leo pointed out, also on a bridge over a freezing river. However, it does take me back to the day he was born. (inappropriate?)

 I put this one in because this is what he is doing 90% of the time. Pulling my hair. He especially loves the back of my neck. You know? The really sensitive part? Yea, that's his favorite.

However, it's pretty hard to stay mad at this face.