Happy Halloween!

Yay for Halloween! Jackson rocked two costumes this holiday. On Thursday, he went with me to my work party as Darth Vader to my Princess Leia. It was cute. Then today to school he wore an outfit that says, "So Cute It's Scary" along with a Jack O'Lantern hat.

We came home from work and school and played on the porch with our pumpkin lanterns and stuff just relaxing and decided we would take Jackson for his first trick or treating. Not really, but we wanted to meet a few of our neighbors and this is a good way to do it. So daddy strapped him into the Bjorn and we went on our way.

Mom and dad were a little gun shy to knock on doors, but we decided to do it and met a few nice neighbors...the photos tell the story. Needless to say, Jackson was a total hit.

Daddy's Home!

Jackson's daddy went to visit his family this past weekend in Indiana and we were BOTH excited for him to be home yesterday. I was certain Jackson would be excited to see him and I was not disappointed.

He has developed this thing I like to call the happy dance. He is like too overwhelmed to shriek with glee from time to time when he is happy, so instead he does this flailing dance which I hope to soon get on video and onto You Tube. Daddy also brought Jackson some neato gifts from Purdue...a football, a beanbag man and a pennant for his room. We have started hanging pennants along the wall so he has some fun things to look at...as well as get him some idea of who the proper teams to cheer for are.

In the meantime, we are counting down to Halloween and the unveiling of Jackson's fantastic costume...tune in Thursday morning for that. By the way...Jackson turns six months old on Sunday. I can't believe it either.

This Time, I Didn't Miss It

So Jason is in Indiana visiting his family and watching football games. I'm here in Colorado hanging out with my boy. I had eye doctor this afternoon, so we cruised down to Lakewood for that. I stopped at Grandma and Grandpa's to drop off Jackson so I could make the trip to the doc very simple. We were looking through the Colorado Vault, a cool book my old boss Dave Plati did while Jackson was playing on the floor.

He started out on his back, and of course flipped over to his tummy since he's such an expert now. Then my mom says, "Hey, what is he doing?" and I look up just in time to see him flip back over from his tummy to his back! I saw it this time! Yes! Finally! The fact that it took this long for a repeat performance leads me to believe that perhaps I was hallucinating the last time I thought he did it...but you never know. I don't care. I saw it this time!

We called daddy to let him know. Maybe tomorrow he will sit up? Not so much.

Wednesday Morning Musings

So nothing really that new to report. He still grabs his feet and tries as hard as he can to situp but he's not quite there yet. He does lift his belly up when he's on his tummy and pushes up with his arms so that's a fun new development.

Last night sweet peas were a huge hit, which was nice. This morning he went all fire hose all over the living room couch and his father, which was not too nice. He's napping now and I'm waiting for some data to run as I work from home.

The pterodactyl sounds made a return today as well, which was kind of cute. He still babbles and loves to look around. Watching him in the jumperoo is a total blast the kid LOVES to jump.

That's all for today...

New Skills

Jackson has been picking up some new skills. A week ago he grabbed his feet for the first time as previously reported, which is an entertaining endeavor for us all, most of all him.

Sometime on Tuesday he learned how to make the "raspberry" sound. This consists of pursing his lips together and then blowing as hard as he can.

If you try this yourself, you will learn that this is basically making fart sounds. Obviously that is not his objective as he is just learning how to use his mouth and make different sounds, however it is still hilariously funny. Especially when he does it right when someone bends over. Which happens more than you would think it would.

My What a Busy Weekend

Jackson's uncle Eric is getting married today. So we have been keeping a pretty busy schedule with all the associated activities. He went on his first hike ever on Friday with Aunt Gay and Cousins Dan, Amy, Shari and Becky. We went to Chautauqua...he didn't last long as it was right in the middle of his lunch time so we had to address that mid-hike.

Then he went to Lakewood and met his Great Grandma Dot and his Grand Uncle Bill...my mom's mom and brother. That was a nice time. Then we hit the pre-bash at Uncle Eric and Aunt Jennie's where he got to sit by the fire with his daddy and his second cousins.

Saturday we undertook the task of attending the rehearsal dinner. Jackson did a fantastic job and played in the corner on the floor of the fancy restaurant right next to me and Jason. We brought his quilt and some toys so he was right at home. He was awake for a long time so he sure slept good that night.

Jackson LOVES to look around at absolutely everything right now...if there is too much going on he can't even pay attention to eating he is so tuned in to all the excitement in the room. It is a blast. He is a sweet little guy who loves to cuddle and smile and laugh, and is starting to assert himself when he wants to move around and can't because too many hugs or too much car seat time. But he is still a sweetheart.

Rollin With My Homies

So as previously reported, Jackson joined the rollover crowd I guess it was two weeks ago as far as the stomach to back version. He did the back to tummy like 7 weeks ago, but hadn't really demonstrated any real proficiency or affinity towards that.

Ya that's changed. Yesterday he decided it was game on and rolled over at school and at home about four times over the course of the day. Today I basically stopped counting, and that was just in an hour in the morning and another two tonight in addition to reports from school. He is officially a roller. Changes must be made in our home.

He also has some wicked bad diaper rash due to some overnight poo on Sunday night/Monday morning. You'd think sleeping in your own feces would bother a five month old, but alas, it does not. So now we have some lovely reda$$ to deal with. Super.

When You Least Expect It

So last night was kind of brutal. Jackson is over having his hands restrained via swaddling when he is napping or sleeping, so we are in the process of retraining him to sleep sans the full swaddle. Now that he has full hand access, he eats them, yells at them, pulls on things with them, all at 3 a.m.

Last night was the first attempt at overnight sleeping without hand restraint, and it took him a little while to fall asleep. He was still doing his leg booms, which keeps Jason awake so Jason retreated elsewhere in the house to attempt to sleep as we always try to take turns being the one who gets to sleep. Meanwhile, I stayed in our room to address any needs that might arise. Turns out there were several.

The typical 3 am pee diaper was followed up with an atypical 4 am poo diaper. At 1 am he needed something and was shrieking about it. I can't remember what. At 545 am (10 minutes after I finally fell asleep after the 4 am shenanigans), more of the same. (I obviously know that he is learning that he can do things and the result is that mom and dad will come into his room to help him...we are learning the difference between "I need something" and "I want to see mom or dad and smile and coo and play so I will make a noise because I think that will make them come in here to see me") Then sometime after 6 am more noise and I was like, "Honey, I love you but you have to wait it out utnil 6:30 and then I will come in."

But something sounded a little different in his chattiness with himself, so I decided I would peek in and make sure all was well (we just removed his crib bumper the day before). I peek in and behold! My child has rolled over onto his stomach in his crib for the very first time! I was so happy that I picked him up, took him to his father (who was blissfully asleep until that point), went back into our room and slept for an entire hour in a row for the first time all night/day.

So after the longest night of Jackson's short life (FIVE MONTHS OLD TODAY!) I was rewarded for my patience and love with a pumpkin who finally rolled over on his tummy.

Baby Picnic, Round 2

So we tried to get together with the baby class again, and we had four babies this time around...that would be Jackson at 6 o'clock, Colby at 9, Jack at 12 and Eva at 3. Jackson would be the one laying happily on his back in the Cubs outfit. He was cute and laughed his face off most of the time (he is laughing here) but is the only one of the group not doing the super roll over all the time. That would be due to swaddling him still...which I've been considering trying to taper off and now am sure it needs to happen. I know, I know...they all develop at their own pace and it's not a race, but seriously, he is almost five months old he should maybe be a little further along in the rolling over department in my very unexpert opinion. In any case, he struggles to get his arms out most naps anyways and then just falls asleep, so as of now he is swaddled with arms out so we don't have to mess with that whole ordeal of him getting his arms out and then falling asleep.

He also is rocking some fantastic eye goop, which I will be calling Dr. T about in the morning. I swear I should just put them on speed dial. I have read like 90 books and websites about what to do about eye goop, and they all say that he doesn't have pink eye but needs some drops anyways. So I guess I will see about getting him some drops. Suuuuuper.

I would also like to add that we tried squash as his latest vegetable, and it was another super success. So far he likes sweet potatoes, squash, bananas, apples and is okay with carrots and sweet peas and not so much with peaches.

Things That Are Awesome

Jason got up with Jackson this morning so I could get a few more winks in, and also because I got up to change Jackson's diaper that was filled with four pounds of pee (what has affectionately become known in office coffee trips as simply, a "pee diaper" courtesy of Justin who has no children and still endures pee diapers stories in exchange for a free ride to Fivebucks) at 4 in the morning. Then Jason went to the basement and I finished laundry, and started to make some potato salad for our baby class picnic later today.

Whilst folding laundry and boiling taters, I heard the familiar BOOM from upstairs at about 9:30, like 45 minutes into Jackson's morning nap, so I went in there to check on him. As soon as he saw me, his entire face lit up and he started flailing around with a huge grin on his face he was so happy.

You can't buy that kind of awesomeness, nor can you describe what it looks like or how it makes you feel. There just aren't words.

I have a lot of married friends at work who don't have kids. And I hated being pregnant so much and was so totally honest about how it made me feel that I think I scared them out of it, which is okay because I think that honesty is the best policy. But for as much as I hated being pregnant (and trust me here people, I have NOT forgotten) I love having my little man and think being a mom is sofa king cool.

Additional cool things: