Happy 1st Halloween Jackson!

P.S. I lied.
Jackson doesn't have 2 new teeth coming in. He has 4.
All 4 of his top teeth have actually broken through at the same time. He's a toothy Superman.

Halloween Party

Babies and children were everywhere! And this photo doesn't even show all the kids that came. I guess we know lots of "breeders". We're like a gang or something. Jackson IS in this photo somewhere. Good luck finding him. It's like "Where's Waldo"!
Here he is before the party with his cousin Adam too.

Goose

Here he is playing with his daddy. Then he surprise "gooses" Venus. Poor, poor puppy.

8 Months Old!!

Jackson had a big day today.

He turned 8 months old.

His 4th tooth (upper right) broke through the gums today.

Just a few minutes after I realized the tooth was through, I saw him crawl for the first time. About 2 seconds after this video was shot, Chris and I looked at each other with "uh oh" expressions on our faces because we simultaneously realized what Jackson had done and what it meant for us. Life around the house just got more interesting! I think we need to go buy some stair gates this weekend....(I think the funniest part of the video is Chris standing there with one sock on, and one sock off. I mean, who does that?!?)

The minute he learned to crawl is the minute he figured out how to get himself into trouble for the first time....Then he was "punished" for the first time too (for pulling the basket off the shelf and spilling everything out). As punishment, I made him take this picture. Parenting is really fun!

Graham Cracker & Bed Head

This kid sure knows how to clean a plate/tray!
The self-feeding, finger-food introduction went really well. He took to it like a fish to water. It's still messy, mind you, but it keeps him quite happy. Venus the dog is quite happy to go on clean-up patrol under his highchair too. Of course, Jackson was bound to like self-feeding though...he likes anything that he gets to control.
Hmmm....that reminds me of a few people I know!

Three's a Crowd

His third tooth (top left) has FINALLY broken through and, as you can see, he is pretty ambivalent about it. I'm not ambivalent about it though, it has been driving him crazy! Presumably this means that the fourth tooth is shortly behind because I think it has been as much to blame for his attitude as tooth #3.

What Are YOU Looking At?

Jackson's Celebrity Relatives

Thanks for the idea Jennifer!

I'm chalking up the female look-alike references to the fact that females have more baby-like features.

Lots of Goings-On Lately

Blogger is being difficult and won't allow me to post any picutres right now, so I'll spend some time catching you up on the lastest happenings.....

Friday was terribly busy because of my surgery (everything went well). Jackson's Daddy had to run around like a chicken with his head cut-off all day though. The hospital had moved my surgery up 2 hours at the last minute, which meant he had to bring me and Jackson to the hospital, drop me off, go and wait for daycare to open up and drop Jackson off, come back to the hospital during my surgery, go back to daycare and get Jackson (after the doc had told him that my surgery was over and all was ok), and then bring Jackson to the pediatrician. He also made a few trips to the pharmacy for me and for Jackson sometime during the day. All the while, I just laid around and dozed on and off!

We obviously hadn't planned on making a trip to the pediatrician's office on Friday, but Jackson was coughing terribly and crying alot so we needed to get him in to the doc before the weekend started. We thought he had gotten the croup again because of his nasty cough, but it turns out he had a sinus infection and his FIRST ear infection. Personally, I think it is pretty good that he made it to almost 8 months before his first ear infection, considering the number of ear infections the other kids in daycare seem to get. Hopefully this infection is not the start of a new trend though!

Anyway, the rest of the weekend, Jackson spent lots of time with Daddy, Grandpa, and Grandma. It was nice that they came down to visit to try and help out since I am out of commission. We've all spent the last 2 days trying to recover from Friday but I know Chris is still feeling pretty exhausted though. Being Mr. Mom is hard work! He should try being Ms. Mom though! :)

Listening to the surprise of Grandma and Grandpa at all of Jackson's new tricks made me realize that I haven't been keeping the blog up to date with his most recent "feats".

He can wave "bye-bye". He has a very beauty queen wave though -- elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist. He doesn't do the open and closed hand wave.

He is routinely getting up on all fours and he has been known to move backwards in that position, but the forward "gear" is not engaged yet!

He has also joined the yoga trend that has stormed the country. He puts himself into the "downward dog" position a lot as he is trying to crawl -- hands on the floor, butt way up in the air, knees off the floor, and feet on the floor (like an upside-down "v").

Other than actually crawling, he has really started to master moving around. He can push himself into the sitting position from lying down anytime he wants now. This has helped with some of his frustration tremendously as he no longer has to rely on us to sit him up.

He LOVES standing up but he cannot pull himself up into a stand yet though. He can pull himself to his knees, but that is all.

He is also getting better day by day about leaving him alone in a room. He is having less and less anxiety fits when you leave him alone. For a while there, he screamed bloody murder when you left him alone in a room.

He loves to turn the lights off in his room too, if you help him stand up on his changing table so he can reach the switch.

As you can read, aside from the minor ear/sinus infection setback, he is doing great!!

His New Halloween Outfit from His Aunt Maureen

Boo!

Did I scare you???

The Great Escape

Trying to sneak away from getting a bath. I swear, you put him down for one minute.....

That's Zwieback Toast He's Gotten All Over His Face, Hands, Shirt, Shorts, Hair, Highchair, & Floor....

....and he's VERY happy about the mess he made.
Then I told him that Grandpa used to work at the factory where they made Zwieback, and Jackson said "really?!?" (Actually, he said "dadadadadadada?", which I took to mean "really?") He was VERY impressed with his lineage.

Yep, That's a Water Heater Behind Him

Fall Fashion Preview

He's pretending he's camera shy.