Jackson in Action

Just had to post a few of the videos we captured over the last month of Jackson --- testing out his Saucony 5.5 extra wides, dancing and chasing Roxy.

1 Year

Had Jackson's 1-year check-up today and received another good report.  Aside from the multiple tantrums he threw throughout the appointment (I had to wake him up early from his nap at daycare to get to his appointment, and I think he was still a bit sleepy), the appointment went well.

Stats:

• Length: 33" (99th percentile)
• Weight: 26 lbs, 7 oz (98% percentile) - He absolutely refused to let the nurse weigh him today, so this is his weight from an appointment last week, when we took him in for an eye infection.
• Head: 47.5 cm (90th percentile)

He received four shots and was mid tantrum before the shots even began, so I literally had to lay on top of him to keep him from rolling and moving while the nurse did the shots.

The doctor advised us to move from 28 oz. of formula per day to 20 oz. (max) of whole milk so ultimately it becomes a supplement to full solid meals, vs. the main meal with solids being supplemental.  So hopefully this will help expand his solid tastes and he'll eat more of them.

Finally, sadly, with our upcoming move, we'll need to switch pediatricians but luckily our doctor was able to provide a few Sammamish/Issaquah area recommendations. 

Outside of today's appointment, here are other things going on Baby J's world.

New Stuff:

• Top two middle teeth are breaking the skin as we speak.
• Can walk up to 10 feet on his own and has been taking a few unassisted steps between objects, vs. just Corey and I.
• Almost fully transitioned into the toddler class at daycare and is doing very well with naps on his mat.  In fact, Corey had to pick him up early the other day for a follow up appointment for his cyst and when he got to daycare, Jackson was the only one still asleep.  He was in the middle of the room alseep while other kids played all around him.  Maybe he's a deeper sleeper than we thought?
• Hates having his diaper changed and does everything he can to roll over/get up.  Up until a week ago, he never tired to roll on the changing table, but now, regardless of whether we change him on the table or the floor, there's a whole lot of rolling and squirming going on.
• Has become more open to using a sippy cup, and with assistance, has sucked some water down in the last week or so.
• Likes chewing on his toothbrush but HATES when we try to brush his teeth.

Foods loved:

• Bananas
• Puffs
• Mum Mums
• Gold fish crackers
• Oatmeal
• Plain Greek yogurt (I'll often mix in pureed fruit)
• Tofu
• Pear fruit cups
• Applesauce
• Cottage cheese
• String cheese
• Almost any jar of fruits/veggies and some turkey or chicken flavors
• Waffles, bread/toast

Foods hated:

• Meatballs
• Chicken
• Any kind of pasta or noodle (though I have gotten him to have a few bites of mac & cheese)
• Any fresh veggie
• Fish (breaded or non)
• Non string cheese, cheese
• Basically anything not on the 'Foods loved' list above

Net is that our kid loves carbs and fruit.  Smart boy.

Happy Birthday, Jackson!

I have no idea how it happened so fast, but here we are, exactly one year since Jackson was born.  It has been the best year of my life in so many ways. I never knew I could love someone so little so much.  He truly makes me smile and laugh many times every day and I love watching him learn and try new things, him smile and play and most of all, his hugs.  He is such a fun little guy and I can't wait to see who he becomes in the next one, two, five, and ten plus years.  He truly is a joy.

And though I love the kid more than life itself, it's also made for one of the most challenging years.  Being a parent is HARD work.  But I wouldn't trade any single rough moment for anything in the world because it's one of the many moments and memories that have brought us to today and every moment makes up who this munchkin is.  And no matter what, J, his fantastic daddy and I are in it together and can get through it as a family.

Here's a video we debuted at his birthday party over the weekend, which recaps the last 365 days with our little man.  I had so much fun looking through photos deciding which to include and what music to use.  It's a little long at nearly 17 minutes, so sit back and relax, and hopefully these photos make you smile and laugh as much as we did.

Enjoy!

Party Time!

Yesterday we celebrated Jackson'sfirst birthday with many of family members and close friends and had a blast.  We are so lucky to have so many great people in our lives who were willing to come by and wish Jackson a happy birthday - seriously, I never expected the great turnout that we had.

We wanted to keep things simple and fun, from the actual event (an 'open house'), to the decorations, to the food.  We simply wanted people to be able to come by for however long they could, snack a bit, have a drink or two, mingle and give Jackson a high five (which he loves to dish out).

Our good friend Natalie offered to take on the decorations a few weeks ago, and I gladly agreed.  I knew that the end would result would be amazing, and she definitely did not disappoint.  Everyone loved the colorful decor and thought it was perfect for Jackson's big day.  (Big shout out to her hubby Chris, who helped decorate!)

My parents and Joan helped provide snacks and drinks and Corey and I each whipped up a few things, including two kinds of cupcakes.  To top the cupcakes, I attended a chocolate making class with Natalie and one of her friends recently and they helped come up with the idea to make number ones.  They really went well with the decorations and were a fun touch.

When it came time for Jackson's first cupcake, he spent a lot of time playing with it, and not much time eating it.  But by the end, he did have quite the messy face and hadn't thrown it on the floor like we thought he would, so we considered it a success.  After all the sugar, we turned on a slide show I made using Picasa, photos Corey's taken throughout the year, and some fun songs I downloaded. (Check back tomorrow to see it.)

Even though we told everyone no presents, Jackson was completely spoiled with tons of fun gifts, which we opened this morning.  He spent the day checking out his new toys, clothes and books, including a personalized ABC book of photos from Corey's Flickr site from Natalie herself.

Here are a few photos from J's big day.

And a video of him trying a cupcake can be found here.

Moving On Up

Over the past few weeks, Jackson's been "practicing" in the Toddler room at day care, before officially transitioning from the Infant room later this month.  From what they've said, he's been doing great and seems really happy with the "big kids".

I wish I could be a fly on the wall during circle time, nap time and lunch/snack time.  Apparently he loves circle time and often mimics the teachers.  I have no idea how they get all the kids to sit and stay still during circle time, though.  For nap time, all the kids rest on mats (no more cribs!) from 12-2 and Jackson has been getting great sleeping reports.  How does he know to lay down and sleep and not crawl around??  And for lunch time, he sits in a chair at a table.  Again, how does this work? 

Here are a few of my favorite daily reports:

It seems that my baby is really turning into quite a big boy, right before my eyes.

House Update

Things are moving along quickly as we get closer to closing on our (soon-to-be) house! 

After frantically pulling together all the necessary paperwork and documentation early last week for our pre-approval letter, we're in a holding pattern for now. 

We were able to go back to the house for a few hours on Wednesday while the inspector looked the place up and down.  It was great to see the house again, for a longer period of time, and jot down some measurements so we can start deciding on furniture placement.  The great news is that the house checked out fabulously.  In fact the inspector said that it was the best house he's seen this year, from his perspective.  Gotta love that the current owners took such great care of the house and that no work is needed prior to us moving in, even though it's 20 years old.

The bank is moving forward with the appraisal and underwriting, which I would expect to be complete in the next couple weeks.

As far we can tell, we're on track for our May 15th closing!

Here are a few of the things I'm most excited about:

Lots of BBQs this summer.

Cooking lots of yummy meals with Corey in here.

 

Love the master bath and all the updates!

So Long, Cyst!

Today was Jackson's procedure at Children's to remove the dermoid cyst above his left eye.  Like his last visit for the CT scan, he wasn't able to eat breakfast, so we let him sleep in and then played with him to keep him distracted so he didn't realize how hungry he was before it was time to leave for the hospital.

Surgery was scheduled for 10:15 and after checking in, we were taken to the prep room where he changed into a hospital gown and comfy socks and was given some toys to play with while we met with the various doctors and nurses that would be caring for him. 

When they were ready to begin the surgery, I was able to don disposable scrubs, a cap and booties so that I could accompany J back to the operating room. The anesthesiologist, a few nurses and I tried to keep J happy and occupied while they put the gas mask on to put him under.  It only took a minute or two, and then I gave him a kiss and was escorted back to the prep room to meet back up with Corey.  We then spend the next hour or so waiting for our munchkin.

Once the surgery was done, J's surgeon came out to fill us in that it went well.  He mentioned that the cyst was 'pretty large' and had a 'long stock' that went right through the bone (as expected).  J has disposable stitches that are actually on the inside of the wound, which, in addition to the skin near the eye being the most regenerative in the body, should make for little to no scarring.

We were then able to meet up with J in the prep room again and were able to snuggle and feed him - he got SO excited when he saw his bottle.  They'd left in the IV port, which wasn't connected to anything, but it was a toy to him, so he kept trying to play with it and tear it off.  This resulted in a bit of a blood bath all over him and me before the nurse could run in and take out the port and bandage him up.  Hopefully we didn't scare other families as we walked out of the surgery area with my shirt covered in blood splatter.

We got home and Jackson, who didn't seem the least bit phased from the morning's events, got busy playing with his favorite toys and enjoying a big lunch of applesauce and puffs.  After a long nap this afternoon, he seemed a little fussy, which we assumed meant the local anesthetic had worn off.  This was our queue to give him some baby Tylenol, which seemed to do the trick right away.

We are so glad the surgery is over and done with and now we can continue focusing on his big birthday bash.  And assuming he sleeps well tonight and feels good tomorrow, we'll be heading to Yakima for a fun weekend with my fam. 

Big, exciting weekend

Over the past few weeks, Corey and I have gone from casually looking for more space in the 'burbs to full on house-hunting given the good interest rates, house prices and the opportunity to rent our condo to Joan (her landlord is looking to sell the house she's renting).  We kicked off the weekend by touring a great house in Sammamish with our realtor, which we quickly put an offer on. (As we've been searching for houses, we've noticed that all the ones in our budget with the feature we're looking for are pending after just 1-2 weeks on the market, so we knew we'd have to act quickly when we found something we liked.)

We spent yesterday touring a new housing development in Newcastle should our offer not get accepted on the Sammamish house.  Later I met up with Kelsey and Sara to put together Gina's baby shower invites --- it's on Cindo de Mayo and we can't wait for celebrating baby Gorden!

Today, after a family grocery shopping/coffee run, we ran up to Northgate to find Jackson his first pair of real walking shoes.  Apparently the kid has wide feet - we ended up buying a pair of 5.5 extra wide Sauconys.  (We'd tried for some Stride Rites, Nikes or Pumas, however they weren't available in wide or extra wide.)  They're super cute and look like a baby's version of a running shoe.  He had a bit of trouble figuring out how to walk in them, but he's slowly getting the hang of them.

This afternoon, I met up with Natalie and her friend Wendy for some candy making.  I made a bunch of chocolate 1's when I can use as cupcake toppers at Jackson's birthday. 

We also found out today that our offer was accepted on the house!  Assuming all the paperwork goes through, we'll be homeowners very soon and I can't WAIT!

Looking forward to the week ahead and the progress we'll hopefully make towards closing on the house.

 Our (hopefully) soon-to-be new house!

 Testing out the walking shoes.

My multi-tasking husband and his sous chef.

My multi-tasking munchkin.