Jackson at 13 months

Oh sweet Jackson, you feel so very much older to us all of a sudden.  Why?  This has been a very big month for you!

• You are unstoppable in your mobility now!  And it has tremendously decreased your frustration level while at the same time increasing your willingness to play on your own because you know now that you can get where you want to go all on your own!
• You have finally figured out how to crawl on your hands and knees instead of army crawl.  And once you figured it out, you became fast in no amount of time.  You figured this out by first getting comfortable getting on your knees to pull up in your crib, which in turn led to...
• You figured out how to pull up and cruise consistently, first in your crib and then you moved on to everything else..  You had both pulled up and cruised for one day when you were 9 months old, but then you gave up on it when - at the same time - you figured out you could use us to pull up and walk around.
• On November 11th, you gained the confidence to begin walking on your own without a person in the vicinity to "catch" you.  It still amazes me how little ones don't look like they'll ever master a particular milestone and then all of a sudden one day it just "clicks".  So Nov. 11th is your "click" day!  CLICK HERE for video.
• Thus, you are now unstoppable because you've finally put it all together:  "real" crawling, pulling up, cruising, and walking!   
• Unfortunately, this has also come with it's share of bruises, bump, and goose eggs...some of them were even while you were holding on to my hand with 1 finger but made a quick u-turn and we lost our grip on each other.  It's been awful to watch you get hurt so often! I cried right along with you over the one shown below.  You were walking from the ottoman to the fireplace, but your sister was in the way.  Not sure if she was trying to catch you or hug you, but it got you off balance and you smacked hard into the bricks of the fireplace (we have padding on the main edge, but it seems you caught your forehead perfectly on the secondary inner edge).

• You are finally saying other words and making other sounds beside your other original three (mama, dada, ni-ni for night-night):
• Woo-woo-woo" at every dog you see, real or cartoon.  In the same sound family, you "hoo" at your Owl flash card, and "ooo-ooo" at a picture of a monkey.
• "sss" or "sh" when you see your Fish flash card
• "nanana" when you see your Banana flash card
• You got 2 new teeth, your first new teeth since your original four teeth came in when you were 6 months old.  The first four didn't bother you terribly much - nothing a little teething gel or tylenol couldn't cure - but these new 2 were doozies!  You were having a really happy month with your new mobility until the teeth started bothering you.
• When we ask you to "blow kisses", you put your palm up to your mouth.  Super cute!
• You and your sister have full out giggle fits making each other laugh.  We can really see that the interaction between the two of you is solidifying even when there is no one else in the room.

Other things about you:

• You have become obsessed with the drop-it game.  No amount of "no sir" or "Jackson, NO" has discouraged you from dropping food and cups off your highchair.  Then you're obsessed with finding the dropped object on the floor, which makes sense since you are learning cause-and-effect and where-did-it-go?
• Mickey is still your favorite cartoon.
• You shake your head "no" all the time.  Most of the time I think you just like the funny feeling you get when you do it.
• You detest getting your fingernails and toenails cut.  Daddy has always had this job with both you and your sister, and you used to do just fine when you were younger.  But over the last couple months, your hatred of this process has tremendously grown.  We have to pin you down while you scream bloody murder and break out into a sweat all over your body.  But since you've always been a scratcher, it's absolutely essential we keep your nails cut.  It's so sad to watch you go through this!
• You typically take 1 nap, which lasts anywhere from 2.5 - 3.5 hours. 
• You continue to be a mama's boy.  You play fine with other people until the second you see me, and then you want to be in my arms immediately.
• You love animals and have no fear of them.  You pat them and let them lick all over you, even holding up your hand in front of their mouth to "ask" for more kisses.  Between you and your sister's love of animals, maybe we should make a point to visit a dog park sometime soon.

Pictures from the past month:

Snuggling Daddy

The morning ritual of watching a video as soon as Julia comes downstairs for the morning.

This was a hand-me-down bath robe that I'd never tried on you until this month.  
It was only then I realized it was made for younger babies, as evidenced by the fact your tushy and boy parts weren't quite covered!

One of my two current favorite pictures of you.

Crawling - Pulling Up - Walking Pics
Remember, Julia never crawled on her hands and knees, and I've waited for 4 months for Jackson's army crawl to turn into a real crawl.  So give me some grace with the number of pictures I've posted here regarding this topic!

My other favorite current picture of you!

Look at the nasty drool bomb caught at just the right second.  GROSS!

Jackson turns One!

Poor baby, you celebrated your birthday with a missed nap because you were so congested you couldn't breathe.  Then we further celebrated with a trip to the doctor's office and a diagnosis of your first ear infection (your first sickness of any kind that required a prescription).  Here you are in the waiting room:

Luckily you snuck in a nap after the doctor visit so that you could celebrate your birthday evening with us and your grandparents.  You actually slept for 30 minutes on my shoulder/chest in the rocking chair in your room...the first time you'd slept on me in months and months!  At first, it took a little bit of forcing to get you to relax in my arms, but after a few minutes you were out.  It was precious snuggle time.  You had also snuggled Daddy and fell asleep on his chest in the rocking chair the few nights before your birthday, as even then you weren't feeling well.

STATS & SIZES

Weight:  20 lbs, 7 oz (20%) 

Height:  30 3/4 inches (80%)  Understandable why folks continue to describe you as "long and lean"

Sizes: 3.5 shoe, Size 12 month for pants, Size 18 month for one-piece, Size 3 diaper

THE BIRTHDAY PARTY
October 22nd

ACTUAL BIRTHDAY

October 27th

Lucky Charms as a birthday breakfast warm-up

Let the gift opening begin!

Fascinated by the puppy singing and talking

New ball toy, always a hit

Hello??

"Fire again?  And everyone staring at me and singing to me again?   

I'm not so thrilled with this idea."

"I AM thrilled with this brownie, however!"

FUN FACTS & PICS FROM MONTH 12

• We switched you to milk at the end of the month with no problems, but you refused to drink it from a cup.  If we give you a cup of milk, you take a sip and let it all dribble back out your mouth.  For the foreseeable future, you will still be on a bottle!  Oh, and did we mention that we still have get to give you the bottle because you don't wish to feed yourself.  In truth, we're actually completely okay with getting this built-in snuggle time with you. 
• You started dancing to music and bouncing.
• You try to play peekaboo with us, but you just can't seem to find your eyes in order to cover them.  Your hands usually end up on top of your head somewhere.
• Just a couple days before you turned one, you began pulling up and cruising again.  It first began in your crib and then you moved on to pulling up and cruising on everything else in your path. In turn, all of this led to you being more comfortable getting on his knees (in order to pull up), so you have finally begun to crawl on your hands and knees!  CLICK HERE to watch how excited you got when you pulled up in your crib.
• You still walk either (1) holding onto a person's finger or (2) walking by yourself only if you're walking directly to a person who is your line-of-sight and who can "catch" you.  You can actually walk a really long distance if walking to a person!  CLICK HERE to watch a short video and see what I mean.  You do NOT like letting go and walking to an object or to nothing in particular. 
• You dropped to one nap.  You did this all on your own because your first nap became long enough that it was too late in the afternoon by the time you were ready for a second nap.  You usually slept (roughly) from 10am-1pm which made for a very long afternoon since Daddy's project at work has kept him from getting home until usually 7-8pm.  Luckily, since your sister doesn't take a nap, we're free to leave the house as soon as you wake up from a nap and are able to stay out for the rest of the day if we wish.
• As you can see by the wet spots on your shirt in many of the previous pics, you have been a drooling fool!  (Explained by the new teeth you got very soon after your birthday.)

A rare photo of you sleeping...and on your belly!
You do remember that you had occupational therapy appointments
to help you learn to cope with being on your belly right?!

The one and only time you have ever held your bottle and fed yourself,
and it only lasted a couple of minutes.

Post-bath cuteness

Your First Trip to Chuck E. Cheese!

You loves it when Daddy throws you up in the air and then catches you: