One more month

One more month until Jackson is TWO! Today my little man is 23 months old. He's such a little boy now - not a baby anymore. It is sort of bittersweet. He is amazing! You can carry on an actual conversation with him. Yesterday on the way home from school, I asked what he did at school. Jackson: play with bubbles. Me: Oh, yeah? You love bubbles. How fun! What else did you do? Jackson: play outside. Jackson fall. Me: you did? How did you fall? Jackson: Fall off slide. It's totally cool! He's totally cool! He has started singing along to Old Mac Donald, Little Bunny Foo Foo & Itsy Bitsy Spider - I need to get it on video! He's done The Wheels on the Bus for a long time now, but it's still cute!

We've recently moved him out of his high chair and into a booster at the table. He climbs right in now. It's great! We plan on moving him into his toddler bed during the Christmas break. Right now, he's still not trying to climb out or anything, so I see no reason to rush it. He's showing more signs that potty training is in his near future. The other night he spent the night with Yaya & Pops. When Yaya was bathing him, she said he got a funny look on his face and she asked him if he needed to go poo-poo. He said no. tee-tee. and then started peeing in the bath tub. Not the ideal situation, but in my mind, at least he recognizes the feeling and knows what's going to happen.

My sweet, active, sweaty little 23 month old Wacko!

Recent News....

Emerson has been doing FABULOUS at sleeping lately! As I aid before, we started the "sleep training" on Monday night. Both Tuesday & Wednesday nights have been E.A.S.Y! Tuesday I put her down, she cried for maybe 5 minutes and then was out like a light until 5:30am. Only then did she wake up because I woke her. I HAD to feed here before I exploded. Last night, same thing. Aaron put her down. She fussed for a few minutes and then slept for 9 hours before I woke her again at 5:30am. She is the best baby! Love her!

Here is her First Day of School picture:
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Sunday we went to the Oil Ranch. This was our first time and we were very impressed with it. Jackson had a blast! Emme, of course was oblivious to most of it, but she just enjoys being outside. There was tons of stuff to do & look at, so much so that we learned this is more of a spend-the-day-there type place instead of a couple of hours like we did. There was a pumpkin patch, hay rides (didn't get to do this), a train, an Indian village with teepees and some sort of swing thing that my kids were too young for, bouncy houses (didn't do this either), petting zoo, pony rides & cow milking. It was super-fun! Jackson was so excited to see the cow until we actually got to it and then I think he was intimidated by it's size and just buried his head in Aaron's shoulder the whole time. He did say "Bye bye cow. Moo. Bye Bye" as we walked away. He cried on the pony ride too. Last year, he loved the pony ride at his school - this year, not so much. All in all, we had a wonderful time with Gabby & Papa!

Well Hello Scarecrow!

Jackson kept throwing the pumpkins down. I was so afraid he was going to smash them.

Aaron caught a piglet - it was pretty tough & I have never heard squeals like that before! Yikes!

And, here's how he was on the pony. ????

4 Month Stats

Emerson had her 4 month well check yesterday & as promised, here are her current stats:

Weight: 14 lbs 9 oz - I totally expected it to be more. 75th percentile
Height: 24 3/4 inches - also 75th percentile
FOC: 16 inches - 45th percentile

She got 2 shots and 1 oral immunization. She cried for a total of 15 seconds and then was fine. What a trooper! I told Dr. Pielop that she sometimes sleeps 7 hours and sometimes sleeps 4 hours. Dr. Pielop said that Emerson had blow her cover and she should be sleeping 7 hours or more every night, now that we know she can. So last night, Aaron & I started sleep training, for lack of a better term. It ended up being a whole lot less painful than I anticipated. Hopefully, she continues to do as well! We got all the paperwork filled out while at Dr. Pielop's and today....

...she went to school. I will post her First Day of School picture this evening. Her teachers were very excited she was there and she seemed perfectly content this morning when I dropped her off. I haven't gotten any phone calls or emails, so I assume she is fine. I was running so late this morning that I didn't have time to cry. I guess that's good in a way!

4 Months Old

Emerson is 4 Months Old!

She looks like such a big girl in that picture. Yesterday, Emme turned 4 months old. Where does it go? She is such a joy! Her little personality is becoming more and more evident - and it is a GOOD personality! She talks, smiles, and giggles ALL the time - I mean constantly! She talks so much that Jackson will even immitate her sometimes. Super funny! Her 4 month well check is not until Monday, so I'll report her stats then. But take a look at those thighs and you'll see she isn't hungry! She eats about 5 ounces every 4-4.5 hours. She is still exclusively breastfed, although we recently attempted rice cereal and I don't think she was ready. We got a little tongue thrust, so we will try again later. I knew we were jumping the gun a bit, but we thought we'd try. She had been sleeping really well - taking three or four 1.5-2 hour naps a day and going to bed around 8pm and sleeping until 4:30 or 5am. Lately she has been taking little cat naps during the day, usually 30 min to an hour and then waking up at about 2am to eat. She sometimes even refuses to sleep longer than 30 min in her bed, but will sleep well in our bed. I know we are only perpetuating this behavior by allowing it, but I'm back at work now and I'm sleepy! I don't know what is up with her napping... hopefully, her sleeping patterns will get back on track soon! Emerson ADORES being outside. Today we spent much of the late morning and early afternoon (before the Tech game) in the backyard. Jackson ran around playing in the dirt and sliding and "helping" his daddy rebuild the flower beds. Emerson spent her time in her Summer seat - sort of like an exersaucer, but lower to the ground & converts to a booster later - you can see it in the background of the picture below.
She seems to be getting very close to rolling from her back to her front, but nothing yet. She has rolled a few times from front to back, but not consistently. She spins her legs around so much that she spins, but doesn't roll. Jackson rolled from front to back once at 3.5 months and then didn't do it again until around 5 months old. She will start school on Tuesday following her 4 month well check on Monday. I pray that she does well. It is the same school Jackson goes to and her teacher asks me all the time when she is going to be able to get her hands on her, so I know she'll be loved. I have a few friends with girls in her class too, so I'm glad she'll get to socialize with them! She is the sweetest, most precious baby girl! We love this little one so and thank God everyday for giving us 2 beautiful, healthy children. We are so blessed!

I just love this little dress!

Her first cereal & last for a little while longer.

I was reminded of some of Boogies other words:
rain
cahcahcopter (helipcopter)
barn
ready (he says this ALL the time when he wants to see something. For example, we will point out a helicopter in the sky and after it flies away, he will say Ready. because he wants to see it again. He will usually do the sign for more also. It's too funny!)
yellow
green
red
blue (for the most part everything is either blue or yellow right now, but we are working on it)
two
moon
cookie
cracker (cookie & cracker sound virtually the same)

I can't believe I forgot all of these. Silly Mommy, but last Thursday & Friday were my first days back at work after taking leave and boy was I tired! Thanks Yaya & Daddy for reminding me of the ones I forgot.

22 months old

I can hardly believe that in 2 short months Jackson will be TWO years old. So basically, this time 2 years ago I was becoming increasingly uncomfortable but also increasingly excited. These last 22 months have been a true joy. We adore this kid! He has begun telling us that he loves us, which only makes us fall more in love with him. This morning he was standing at the window looking out back and I heard him saying I lah u to something - don't know if it was a squirrel, a tree or what, but with us he always says our name too. I lah you, Mama. I lah you, Daddy. I lah you, Yaya. And my personal favorite: I lah you, Daddy & Emme, which he said as he and I were leaving for school yesterday. So cute! Jackson has also started speaking in sentences more and has added many new words to his vocabulary.

Some of those I have mentioned before and include:

railroad

cactus

he finally started saying duck instead of just quacking & cow instead of mooing

'mon (come on)

'raff (giraffe)

mouse

house

tout-si (outside)

bahball (football)

car (he used to say tractor for everything with wheels)

truck

walk

rope

sing

cashew (referring to both the nut and his fish, which he named after the nut)

elbow

up (we had to work a long time on this one - he would always point up, but say down, but he's got it now)

down

play

fork (if you don't give him one, he SCREAMS even if a fork is not necessary like with muffins)

And our personal favorite...Texas Tech. He said this as he pointed to a Double T on Emerson's onesie. It was our proudest moment as parents! ;)

Yesterday, he said Nana, Jackson go Nana's car? and pointed out the window at her car. He constantly says 'mon, Mommy. Play choo-choo. It is amazing to watch him grow & learn! Speaking of growth, I measured him this morning and he is 32 and a half inches tall, which I think is sort of shrimpy after hearing my friend say her 18 month old is 33 inches tall. Crazy! I don't know how much he weighs, but I'm guessing around 26 lbs. He is in to everything, pitches fits when he doesn't get his way, talks back to us and tests us - in short, the terrible twos are here! In spite of this, we still adore him and he still makes us laugh and fills our hearts with joy everyday!

He refuses to put his arm around Emerson. Not sure why.