Jackson is 9 Months Old

Hey Jax...that's what we are calling you these days...

My oh my, where has the time gone, you are 9 months old!

Here are your monthly in a chair pictures... You are just too stinkin' cute!

These pictures look great, if I do say so my self...but they weren't easy to get. You are quite the mover these days. You spent most of the 'photo shoot' doing this...

and this...

some downward dog...apparently you like yoga and no one has told you, 9 month old huge babes shouldn't be trying to walk...crazy baby!

stretching...and not amused that I am discouraging your attempts to walk

So you are crawling...wow! 

You have 4 teeth...I thought you would never get those suckers in!

You are still drooling like crazy...so maybe more teeth are on there way?

We have just started giving you puffs with your dinner, so you are learning to chew and feed yourself.

You eat three baby food meals a day and you love yogurt! 

You are still breastfeeding...and not taking any kind of cup or bottle...I really need to get you working on that.

You are sleeping through the night (you only wake if you get your head shoved into the corner), you are also sharing a room with your brother rather successfully. 

You weigh 26 lbs. and are 30.5" long

You are wearing 18-24 month clothes and 2T feety PJ's...it's what we had from your brother and they aren't that big so you are wearing them...tall boy!

You are super friendly and love to show people you can clap. You are figuring out how to wave and all the attention that that brings. 

You have a great smile and big blue eyes so every passing woman swoons...look out ladies!

You love wrestling with your Daddy and Brother...you especially love jumping on Jake!

This month I wanted to try something different with your pictures, I saw a cute picture of a baby in a bowl of cereal on-line and thought...hey we love cereal! Your Daddy and I have special night time cereal dates. So I got the biggest bowl in our house, poured 'Apple Jack's" (get it?!) in to the bowl and tried to set you in it. You too big for the bowl, you just sat on top of the cereal and your legs hung over the front...I couldn't' stop laughing! 

So, plan B...set you next to the bowl and cereal and let you have the time of your life flinging it everywhere. Your brother was running around saying,  "oh no, Jax is making a big mess...oh no!" and picking up the cereal. You had a blast and I have a blast taking pictures...win win. Life lesson: sometimes plan B's work out better then plan A's!

So happy to make a mess

Look at that concentration!

lovin it!

I love this shot...

What is this stuff?

Digging in with both hands

Distracted by Jake

Intense

This might be my favorite shot...please ignore the crooked frames on the wall...we were in the process of moving and hanging more frames...

I love that sweet smile!

playing in cereal is serious business...

love some black and white!

Success...you threw all the cereal out of the bowl!

These past 9 months haven't been easy, but I'm finally seeing the light at the end of the baby tunnel. Don't get me wrong babies are great...if you like not sleeping and not being able to go on a date and crying. Babies snuggle and smell sweet and have soft sweet cries. So they aren't all bad. I'm just not much of a baby person. You are becoming super fun. You giggle, interact and can express your self a little. Please don't take this the wrong way, I love you with all of my heart! You are a part of me, I would do anything for you! I just really enjoy kids more than infants. I love playing and running in the park and teaching and learning and reasoning and all that goes along with being a kid! Life is really starting to get interesting, you can move where you want and you are learning to communicate with your crazy expressions! I better hold on...life with two mobile boys is sure going to be busy! You are a joy my boy I can't believe you are 9 months old!

Love, 

Mommy...I better start planning your birthday party!

a quick trip to the pumpkin patch

I'm sure this was the quickest trip to the pumpkin patch. Ever. Poor boys I would have loved to have taken you for longer. It just kept getting bumped from our schedule so finally I thought, let's just make a quick trip over...I must have pictures of my children in a pumpkin patch! We waited until Jack woke up from his nap, we got in the car only to discover it was out of gas, so we got gas at the closest station, it was packed and took forever, off we went. I took a back road instead of the freeway. Apparently I forgot how far away this pumpkin patch was and I took a good 15 min. to get there. By the time we got there the sun was disappearing quickly and dinner was about to be on the table. I was determined though. We got out and raced to the pumpkin patch. I got a few good ones, you boys weren't really having it, I'm sure you felt rushed. Jake loved looking at all the pumpkins and trying to pick them up and Jack loved the hay...oh man was he in heaven with the dirt and hay! 

These last two pictures make me laugh so much. Jack was yelling at Jake to look at me! Goofy boys!

Happy fall my little munchkins. 

Story Time

The other day I decided that it had been far too long since we took pictures with me in them. I realized that it looks like you two have tons of adventures with out me...or your Daddy. So I wanted to remedy that. I set up the tripod and busted out my trusty timer to get these...I'm pretty in love with these images.  It's just the three of us hanging out on my bed reading some books but, someday these pictures will fill my eyes with tears and my heart with joy to remember you both so small, in your sweet feety pajamas, in my arms, curious about the world and listening to me read. Oh be still my heart, I'm teary already. These are the moments I love to freeze in time, I hope that someday you will look back fondly and remember all the stories your Daddy and I told you and read to you. 

Of course we couldn't just read...

big brother was our photographer for these...

I love you boys with all that I am! 

Jack is 8 months old

My happy Jack, you are 8 months old!

'Say what mom?'

Oh I know, I can hardly believe it. You are getting so big! It seems that over night you have become quite the opinionated little human! 

You officially threw your first fit...I was taking you into the changing area, it's in your closet, and as we were walking in you looked at me, got in my face and grunted (universal man language style), grabbed my hair and yank, yank, yanked! I grabbed your hand, looked you in the eyes and said, "no, no Jack, we do not yell or pull hair!" You instantly felt bad, you looked at me with remorse and buried your head in my shoulder. Funny baby. You felt so many human emotions all at once. Anger, frustration, sadness, remorse, forgiveness, compassion. Wow...what a moment! No one can convince me you are not intelligent, you knew exactly what you did and that it was wrong. Amazing. 

You are sitting...when you want to. You would rather stand...which is hard on my arms and back, you are over 25 lbs! You can stand mostly unassisted. You are wanting to crawl so bad, you get pretty frustrated that you aren't quite coordinated enough. You are definitely strong enough though, you can do a downward dog pretty well and can get up in a plank position and do a push up...crazy baby!

You are eating like a champ, you love fruits, naturally, but I can mix in just about any veggie and you gobble it right down. You eat about 8oz of food at lunch and dinner and 4oz for breakfast, not a huge breakfast guy. We are still breastfeeding. I'm pretty proud of that, that everything has allowed us to do it for so long, it's a huge blessing financially. I really really wish you would take a bottle, sippy cup or straw cup. You can drink out of all of them you just don't like to. You will sip a little and then get distracted and chew on it. I even tried giving you juice to entice you, and to help with some constipation issues. I am not a fan of giving kids juice, empty calories, but in this case I was desperate. Nope...you didn't care. You took a few sips, your eyebrows raised like "yumm" and then you lost interest. Oh, well. Just you wait mister...I'm cutting you off at a year. I have loved being able to provide for you but I need to get out...alone. I also desire to go on a date with your Daddy...seriously! 

You are one ferocious teether. You finally have one bottom tooth peeking through and I can almost see the top of the other one...finally! I think you are starting to work on the tops now too.

You have been sleeping through the night with no food for a few weeks now. And you are just starting to not need any assistance to get back to sleep in the middle of the night, I would get up and scoot you down in your crib and give you a binky. You have slept through the night twice...both of those nights I wasn't able to sleep all the way though...figures!

Your first sounds have been more like first words. You say "hi, hey and yay!" When you say 'yay' you clap...it's adorable. Of course you say 'da-da' and you are getting a 'ma' sound out when you really want me. You are starting to say 'ba' I think for brother. You can also wave...when you really feel like it.

It's fun to watch how different you are from your brother...he is all we have known in our parenting lives so it's really fun for us to see such stark differences with you both being so young! 

You love your family and have the sweetest smile. You love your bouncer and your new walker. You love to play ball and can even palm most of the kid balls we have, you figured out that balls bounce and now chuck them all at the ground and giggle with delight. You think Ted, our dog, is your hilarious hairy older brother. You adore your big brother, like totally adore!  When we all play together you are cast as baby Godzilla most of the time, as you destroy what ever it is we are playing with, Jake just laughs. You want to wrestle with your Daddy and brother so bad. You love to be included in everything we are doing, better not leave out the baby. You aren't always the easiest baby. But, you do bring us so much joy. You add a bit of excitement to our family that wouldn't be there with out you. We have grown quite attached to you these past 8 months my little man...you are the perfect addition to our family. I can't wait to see how you will grow and change this month. Things just get more and more exciting from here on out!

Happy 8 months my little monkey!