another post from baby jack

this is the face daddy gave mama when she was trying to take a picture of me taking a bottle from him- it might be because i screamed for 45 minutes in protest of the bottle before i got to this peaceful state and my dad did not want ANYTHING to interfere! but i am glad i have a picture of daddy giving me my bottle ...mama went to see the new jennifer garner movie on friday and i got another bottle from daddy - i text messaged my mom and said "i love my bottle mama, i ate all of it!" this made her very happy! all dressed up in my church clothes and ready for church!
i like playing on all the different blankets people made me! this one is from cj's friend dorothy! i love to play with my rattle, though sometimes i like to throw it down just for fun.
i am very busy talking all the time - i love to talk! my favorite time to talk is in my bouncy seat looking at my hanging toys - also i like to talk on the phone when mama is talking - i love to talk for my grandparents on the phone!
hey what happened to mama's head? oh well, at least i look cute.
come visit me and play with me - i love visitors!!!!
love jackson

new things to play with

jack is starting to play with lots of new things....he can now grab the toys hanging from his play gym and pull on them....
jack also loves to play with cloths - this started by him always grabbing the "pee cloth" that we use to cover him during diaper changes and trying to shove it in his mouth. so daddy started giving him other cloths to play with during diaper changes.
he loves to play hide and seek with the burp cloths - pulling them up over his face and back down again.

he also loves to look in the mirror - the other day he almost laughed when looking at me and him in the mirror - lots of big smiles for the mirror. tonight all 3 of us were looking in the big bathroom mirror and he was smiling SO much at us!!! jack also laughed for the first time today! phil was holding him on his lap and i was jumping in and out of the doorway and he laughed 2-3 times. he is SO adorable, we love him SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much!

sleepy baby

jack fell asleep while eating the other day - so i put him down on the nursing pillow to give him his thrush medicine and this was the result...looks pretty comfortable to me!!!
he loves to sleep with his arms above his head!

losing the swaddle

we have swaddled jack since he was born for his nighttime sleep - the past few months we have only swaddled his legs for naptime....lately the nights have been getting worse, as in he has been waking up every 2 hours needing to be re-swaddled. this is not good, especially for daddy who is the only one who can swaddle him tight enough so he is the one to have to get up and take care of jack all night long (at least thats what mama made him believe, tricky tricky)....basically jack is just too strong for the swaddle now, and wakes himself up when he breaks out of it....

so on advice from aunt julie (who always seems to be giving us scary advice that works!) we decided to quit the swaddle cold turkey - we were preparing for 3-4 + nights of no sleep, with jack being unable to sleep without the swaddle - on tuesday night i asked our whole small group to pray for the transition and phil and i prayed before we put jack down - it turns out jack did GREAT without the swaddle - he slept better than he had in days....i think we only had to get up once to put him back to sleep! it was amazing.....the next night we were also prepared for a bad night, thinking the good night may have just been a coincidence - but the next night i woke up at 4:00 am waking phil up to ask him if he had heard anything from jack all night! of course i had to check to make sure he was ok and he was fine - just sleeping in his sleep sack all night long with no swaddle! he woke up to eat at 5 which has been somewhat of a trend lately, but then went back to sleep until 8:30! he is doing such a great job sleeping! right now he is taking a nap with no swaddle - it is hard for him to get to sleep because he will be almost sleeping and then his legs and arms with flail all over the place and startle him, waking him up - but after 3-4 times he settles down to sleep....his naps aren't very long lately but i am hoping he will keep learning to stretch them out.....

new things every day!

it seems like every day jack is doing something new. i think he is getting ready to roll over - we were at aunt julies the other day and all of a sudden he was up on his side.....
he is really trying to bring his top leg over and pull himself onto his tummy....
he also gets more and more vocal every day - like he is finding his voice! he sat on the play gym talking and babbling so loud!!! the noises he makes are so adorable - i think phil got some on video last night so hopefully it turned out!
he is very curious and alert - always staring at everything and looking around - i love his big eyes and eyelashes!
julie gave him a little toy to hang onto and he really liked it - kept putting it in his mouth and hanging onto it-so i got out the similar toys that we have at home and he has been playing with them ever since!

first snow

There was snow at Grandma and Papa's this weekend - so we went out there with all the cousins and bundled Jack up for his first trip into the snow!!!
It was a really nice day, not too much wind - but as soon as we got outside Jack started to be a little unsure of what was going on - I think it was a little too cold on his little bare cheeks!
Dad really wanted to take Jack on a sled!!! We also were going to go through the woods and find a trail to name after Jackson! He got a street sign for Christmas to hang like all the other grandkids.
Here is daddy pleading with Jack for just a few more minutes outside - but Jack wasn't having any of it! All in all we lasted about 4 minutes outside and then Jack came in with me while everyone else went sledding and playing in the snow!

my first new toy!

Since Jack has been grabbing his fists and grabbing washcloths out of our hands lately I decided to give him his first toy to hang onto. He held onto it for several minutes, putting it in his mouth and moving it all around!




It is so fun watching him experience new things and learn. I can just see in his eyes sometimes that he is learning something new - he studies things so carefully and just stares intently at things. He is so curious and so adorable! I love being Jack's mom!!!!

my icky medicine

as phil mentioned in his last post, jack and i are both being treated for thrush - well jack doesn't like the medicine so much....luckily he doesn't scream or cry - just makes a funny face and drools most of it back out of his mouth....

"please mama, do not give me that medicine" - who could resist this face????

ok ok - it wasn't that bad......but do i have to wear this bib??

we are hoping to be done treating for this in the next few weeks - especially me because i cannot eat sugar or sweets until we are done!!! it is driving me crazy and it has only been 3 days. 3 long days with no reeses pieces, no chocolate chip cookies, no ice cream...yikes, i guess i have been getting pretty used to eating sweets since jack came along!

Couple new things Jack has been up to lately. He's now taking his last feeding about 8 p.m. and not eating again until getting up at like 6:45 or so the next morning. Mom loves the extra sleep she is getting, but it's hard for me sometimes because by the time I get home from work at 6, I hardly get any time to see him.

He's also smiling a TON now. Nothing makes my day more than coming home from work, seeing him on the living room floor and getting a big grin from him when he sees me. I mean seriously, have you seen a cuter kid than this one?

He's outgrown the first outfit he ever wore, his Piston's one, so we're on to the next hometown team and all ready for spring training.

His other trick now is when he sleeps, he puts his hands behind his head. Almost anytime we peek at him sleeping, he looks like this. I think he might be trying to flex his guns.

Anyhow, he's doing great. One downer, Amy is treating for thrush, which is an infection somewhat common with breastfeeding. It causes some pain for her, and the treatment involves both treating herself and giving Jack a solution after every feeding. He's not too fond of the medicine so it usually ends up on a burp cloth, which is fine because the goal of it is just to coat his mouth. So, any prayers for that would be more than welcome.

Also, for those of you who remember our friend's baby Grant, he's back at UM as of today with some heart issues, congestion, etc. Haven't heard any next steps since they've been there other than they are trying to rule out certain infections. They could use your prayers as well.

Hope everyone had a great holiday season.

bundled

A Busy Boy

We have been a busy family lately! Jack has spent a LOT of time over at Aunt Julie and Uncle Don's - he loves their swing and likes to smile and flirt with Eve. We were there last week just to hang out with Aunt Julie and then on Saturday we went to the new mom's group over there. Here he is busy playing in his gym before church on Sunday. After church we had Grandma, Papa, Aunt Denise, Matthew and Jacob over for the afternoon. Papa and Jacob built Jack's new toy box - Jack was very busy discovering and staring at his fists, and getting lots of attention from everyone. Jacob and Matthew both held him and made him smile.
On Monday Jack went to work at CJ's all day with mama - he was a great baby, he took naps and played on the floor next to mama's laptop. It was fun to be back at CJ's and see everyone - Jack has another friend, Gabrielle, who lives there! She was very curious about Jack.

On Tuesday mama had to take Jack to the doctor because he had some problems with his toenail - we thought it might be ingrown and need some work, but the doctor said all baby toes are like that and he had just bent one of his toes back and that is what was causing him a lot of pain and redness. Poor baby -we did not know what was wrong with him on Monday night! He was pretty wiped out from all the adventures......
After the doctor we went back to Aunt Julie's to play for awhile- then Jeff came over to visit us. Jeff was very good with Jack, trying to protect him from tummy time.
Mom was tired out from all the adventures too.

On Tuesday night Aunt Amy came over to babysit so we could go on a date. We went to Outback for dinner and then to Panera for cookies and hot chocolate. It was really nice to get out and spend time together - of course we missed Jack a lot. When we got home I had to let him sleep on me for awhile (:
We are on our way to another new moms group at church today and hopefully a relaxing day at home.

My first New Years Eve/New Years Day

On my first New Years Eve I went to my friend Caitlin's house to play. Daddy held me high....
then he snuggled me down.....my neck was getting tired!
after a little rest i was ready to look around again....
after all that fun, we played on the blanket and i smiled for daddy, i love smiling at my daddy.
My friend Caitlin was busy chasing her kitty Gabby...if you look close you can see Gabby hiding behind the tv. Caitlin wears cute cloth diapers like me!
Daddy and Mama made me go home at 9:30 pm on New Years Eve. What a bummer. Caitlin's parents made her go to bed too - when we are older we'll show them. Apparently I had to go to bed at 10:00 PM!!!! This was the first year my mom and dad didn't see midnight on New Years Eve since they were little kids. I guess I am so much work that they needed to get some rest.

On New Years Day Caitlin came over to play at my house! I had to show her my new cloth diaper!!! Don't I look cute?
I went through many outfits on New Years Day - I tried to tell my parents that my disposable diapers were too small and I needed the next size up, but it took me peeing onto my clothes 3 times before they realized it! They aren't always the brightest....Good thing Gigi bought me 4 new sleepers because I wore all of them!!!!
Here I am getting a great stretch in as I can't quite sit up on my own yet.....
All in all it was a pretty great holiday for me -I slept over 8 hours on New Years Eve and then got up to eat and play for a bit and went back to bed for another 2 hours almost. I am pretty sure mama snuck back to bed during my morning nap. My good friend Billy stopped by but he was sleeping in his car seat - luckily his mom and dad came in and got to give me hugs and kisses- I gave Becky and Dave a huge smile!!! It was very fun to see them. My mama and daddy really love me a lot - they are always kissing and holding me and playing with me - I am so happy all the time.

Thanks for reading my first post,
Jackson