Jackson at 8 months

Photo Shoot
These pictures were taken a week before he turned 7 months old, so they never made it into a blog post yet.

Cute pic of Jackson, clearly not of Julia:


To me, these two pictures are his pose for, "Hey baby, How YOU doin'?":



And in these two, all I see is bright, big, beautiful blue eyes:



And here are the actual two we purchased:



Stats

• Weighs 18lb, 9 oz
• Measures 29in tall
• Wears a size 2-3 diaper
• Barely fits in most outfits that are sized 9 months
• Has 4 teeth. The top two teeth broke through during Month 7, and man, were those a doozy. Poor kid!

Sleeping

• SLEEPS THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!! He typically goes to bed anytime between 8-8:30, and wakes up anytime between 7-8am...occasionally even a little later!
• Is finally down to 2 naps. This gives our day a lot more predictability and flexibility now that he's able to stay awake longer between Nap #1 and Nap #2, and again between Nap #2 and bedtime. He's also doing much better with not crying so much when getting put down to sleep (he used to cry anywhere from 10-30 minutes many of the times he was put to sleep, regardless of how desperately tired we knew he was). There's something about his cry that sends me over the edge, so I'm extremely happy that he now puts himself to sleep with only about 1 minute of crying max. Usually it only lasts about 15 seconds. THANK YOU JACKSON!
• Can fall sleep in the car, but only when he's really overtired. Poor guy fell asleep still holding his frog toy this time:
  

Milestones, Fun Times, & Learning

• Sits up completely by himself, though he's prone to the occasional fall over.
  Here's a video of when he was just learning to sit up by himself for longer periods of time:
  
  
  
• Thoroughly enjoys taking a toy in each hand and banging them together.


• Continues to adore his sister. Sure he's very happy in the morning when he first sees his mommy or daddy, but you should hear this kid's excitement and the ridiculous smile on his face when he first sees his sister for the first time every morning. Fortunately, the feeling is pretty mutual and Julia takes pride and joy in making her brother smile and laugh.
  
  


• Has learned to clap AND even claps on cue when we ask him, "Jackson, can you clap your hands?"


• Is completely enthralled when I point to an object or facial feature and try to teach him the name of it.


• Has a love affair with all things wheels. He's mesmerized by them and seems to be genuinely studying how they go round and round and round as he plays with them.
  
  
• Fortunately and unfortunately he loves TV. Is absolutely mesmerized by it, and if he's ever having a really fussy time he immediately calms down once he's watching TV.
  Here they both are watching TV:
  
  Then Julia realized I was taking pictures so she decided to show just what a great Big Sister she is by sitting up to hold hands with him:
  
  Jackson is such a guy though - if I ever step in front of his path while he's watching TV, he moves back and forth so he can see around me so as to not miss a single second of the show. Here's a short clip showing what I mean:
  
  
  


• Is a screamer, particularly when excited. However, he also shows excitement by playing "pat the mama": When I'm carrying him around on my hip and he gets really excited, he takes both his hands and pats me over and over again. It's one of my absolute favorite things he does.
  


• Has possibly said his first word(s)? A few weeks ago, Jarret and I noticed him saying "D" sounds when his daddy was around. Then while in Graham visiting Katie B on his 8-month birthday, Jackson would cry anytime I left the room. On more than one occasion when this occurred, Katie said he cried a "Mm ma" sound. At home, there's been several times when I take him to his room to begin his nap/bedtime routine and he says "Na na" (I tell him "night night" time), which I never hear him make this sound in any other situations.


• Has gone out on the boat a few times now. He was extremely unimpressed on his first visit, but it's gotten a little better each time since. His main obstacle is the constraints of the life jacket, which we have actually taken off him occasionally even though it's illegal. Here he's hanging out and resting (not actually sleeping) with daddy:
  
  


• Loves hanging out with his daddy, who always finds a way to make him laugh particularly when getting dressed in his PJs on his changing table:
  
  I love that he still grabs his feet:
  
  This photo was taken just because we never take pictures of him taking a bottle, since that process occurs 95% of the time in his room so it can be dark and quiet since he gets so easily distracted:
  
  

Therapy Updates

• Is finished with his helmet (band). It seemed to make some improvement in head shape, though nothing that's "wow" worthy. Here's some up close shots of him wearing it:
  
  
  
• Has completed 2 Occupational Therapy appointments for working on his tummy-time skills. He's getting a little better about being on his belly, particularly if he's propped up on a pillow/boppy and playing with a toy. But he's nowhere near supporting himself in a position that would enable him to crawl.
  
  Here he was just after turning 7 months old:
  


• Has seen a nutritionist because from the time when we started solids (around 5.5 months) until he was about 7 months, he showed almost no interest in being spoon fed any sort of baby food. After several weeks of trying baby food, he had "improved" enough such that he'd open his mouth for 5-8 bites and then he would push his lips together and not take anymore. When he was 6.5 months, we began braving "real" food: we started with Puffs, yogurt melts, biter biscuits and he did great with all of them - in fact, he LOVED feeding himself. (See picture below) So then I began things like diced apples, carrots, etc. on a fork. I'd hand him the fork, and again he LOVED feeding himself. So even though he was doing better with table food, we kept our nutritionist appointment to see what she had to say. Basically, we got the green light to ditch baby food and continue exposing him to adult/table food.

Smiles and Laughs
You pretty much give us beaming smiles all the time -- except for when the camera comes out, and then you're often distracted by it...just like Julia was which explains why we don't have great pics of either of you smiling much as babies! One of the best pictures we have of your smiles is with Aunt Katie:


Your laugh is precious and it melts our hearts. I wish we could bottle it, but this is the best we can do:

We adore you sweet baby boy!!