Baby Steps

Jackson has been practicing his walking between us over the past week or two and he's getting more and more steady every time.  Just a few days ago, he'd start to lose his balance after a few steps and end up falling but today, he would pause, catch his balance and then keep going.  The best part?  His version of walking is a bit of a march.  Way too cute.  I also love the very proud look on his face as he concentrates on keeping his balance.

Check out these clips of our munchkin on the move:

(Note: No babies or mommies were hurt during the filming of this video.)

11 Months

Want to know what's crazy?  I'm in the midst of planning Jackson's first birthday.  His FIRST birthday.  How did this happen?!?

I have loved the past few months with our boy --- this is such a fun age (my favorite so far, in fact!).   He grows more and more independent each day, learns so fast, and it's so fun to see him make his way all around the house at lightening speed to find trouble.

Here's a recap from the past month:

• Dangerously close to walking.  He started using his walker just about a month ago, and he now cruises along behind it, walks along furniture/walls and stands for a few seconds at a time without holding on to anything.  He hardly braces himself on our hands with walking with us, but the second we try to let go to have him balance completely on his own, he falls to his butt like he's scared of being on his own.
• Likes a few new foods (Goldfish crackers, waffles with fruit puree) but still isn't a fan of picking up too many solids.  He does like more veggie purees though. 
• No new teeth but still lots of drool.
• Still has no desire to hold/drink his own bottle or out of a sippy cup
• Loves to open the kitchen drawers and take out anything he can get his hands on.  His favorite are the clothes pins and the Tupperware that contains them.
• Laughs when I hug (i.e. squeeze) him.
• Takes only one nap (around 1 p.m.) at daycare about 75% of the time.  They often try to put him down for two, but he just gets too distracted.  One day a few weeks ago, he kept standing and playing with the baby girl in the crib next to him.  After moving his crib across the room, he proceeded to do the same thing with the new baby girl he'd been placed next to.
• Figured out how to turn on the light in the infant room on and off at daycare.  There's a little staircase for the babes to practice climbing stairs and it happens to meet the wall right under the light.  His friend Gray figured this out a few months ago, and finally Jackson has mastered this skill.  The same day, he learned out to open the door to the infant room.  Lovely.
• Learned how to climb up on things (i.e. the dishwasher).
• Will not let us brush his teeth anymore, but will 'brush' his own teeth (i.e. chew on the toothbrush)
• Won't wave on command anymore, but will occasionally surprise us with one out of the blue, at appropriate times, like when I lift him up at daycare ---  he'll sometimes wave at his favorite teacher.
• Doesn't dance or clap much anymore.  Sad!
• Loves playing with the dishwasher, washer and remotes on my nightstand, often turning on the TV and clock radio.
• Still loves going out to eat, which we probably take advantage of a little too frequently.
• Has been sleeping from 7:30 p.m. to 6:45 a.m. (weekdays) or 7:15 (weekends) for almost two months now and it's been heavenly. 

Next week, Jackson heads to the toddler room three days a week and will complete the full transition to that room by the end of April.  I can't believe we have such a big boy!

We've Got a Climber

Jackson quickly crawled over to the dishwasher today as I was loading it with his dirty dishes from daycare, so I let him play with the door as usual.  I walked past him and proceeded to open a box we'd gotten in the mail about two feet away.  Less than 10 seconds later, I turned back around and found this:

Yes...he's about to STAND on the dishwasher door.  This comes just a few days after he appeared to be trying to climb onto the couch (i.e. he kept trying to swing his knee up and onto the couch while standing in front of it), but was unsuccessful.

Laundry, Dishes & Dusting - Oh MY!

Our boy has been VERY busy with "chores" these days.  He spends the majority of his days and evenings at home doing laundry, dishes and dusting.  By laundry, I mean opening and closing the washing machine door and playing with the dials, by dishes, I am referring to him playing with the soap door and the racks in the dishwasher, and by dusting, I'm referring to his arms and hands moving dust around on the nightstand as he plays with the remote controls on top (which he often uses to turn on the TV and radio).

I'll be sharing these photos with Jackson some day to remind him of his love of these things when I'm actually trying to really get him to do these chores.

And in his spare time, Jackson enjoys lifting weights.

CT Scan Day

Today was Jackson's CT scan at Children's to get a better look at his cyst before his surgery to remove it. 

Because J needed to be very still for the scan so that they can get some good pictures, they'd planned to put him under; however, when we got there, they said they'd try to do it with him awake.  While it was a good thought, trying to get a 10-month old to lay still and not cry, kick and scream when placed under a huge machine with unfamiliar faces around him was definitely not going to work.  They ultimately gave him some gas that quickly calmed him down and put him to sleep, but not without three of us trying to hold him still so they could keep the mask on his face to administer the gas.

The scan took less than 10 minutes and he woke up about 10 minutes after being wheeled back into the 'recovery' room, so all in all, it was a pretty quick procedure.  We hadn't been able to feed him since his last bottle last night at 7 p.m., so he was starving when he woke up around 9 a.m. (Surprisingly, he didn't fuss or cry before we left the house this morning even though he normally gets a bottle right when he wakes up around 7 a.m..  We did give him his pacifier, which is usually only reserved for bedtime/naps, and I'm sure having that helped him forget about being hungry.)

We had a few hours between his scan and the follow up appointment with his surgeon, so we headed over to the U Village for some coffee and shopping.  When we got back to the hospital, J snuck in a nap while we waited for the doctor (in fact, he didn't even really wake up while the doc talked to us about the scans and felt his cyst).  The doctor thinks the cyst looks pretty normal and still thinks the surgery will be straightforward and should only take 45-60 minutes.  With the way it's situated, the bone was forced to grow around it, which is fairly common, so they'll just need to ensure they get all of the cyst out from under the bone when they're in there.  Once the cyst is out, the bone will regrow and fill in, but there may be a bit of on indentation until the bone has a chance to grow in its proper place.  The doctor still thinks J ultimately won't have much of a scar, which is great, but until then, we think he'll just look like a tough guy who got into a bit of a brawl on the playground.

Children's will be calling us soon to schedule J's surgery and we are looking forward to having this all behind us.

Waiting for our mnchkin to wake up after his scan.

Once he woke up, J was more than ready for his bottle - he laid back, crossed his feet, and got down to business.

Our Little Ham

I've mentioned before that Jackson absolutely loves going out to dinner, and this picture says it all.  Give the kid lots to look at, lots of snacks, and lots of noise, and he's happy as a clam.  Add to that all the attention from neighboring diners (as was the case last weekend at Snoose Junction, when this photo was taken) and the waves and smiles he exchanged with them, and I'd say we have quite the ham on our hands.