Kansas City and a Sick Baby

We had a great trip to Kansas City to visit with family and have a Pampered Chef party. I thought JJ was teething so I was worried about the drive there because had had been fairly fussy the day before. He was actually great on the drive. He slept for the majority of it and was pleasant during a stop at Shakespeare's in Columbia with Uncle Mike.

On Friday we spent the day hanging out with Gma. We went to Smokehouse and Jackson had his first Saltine cracker. It kept him quiet!

The next day he was feeling much worse. Poor guy. We tried to take him to a take care clinic thinking he had an ear infection. We couldn't get in anywhere so we went to Urgent Care. Apparently you have to be over 2 to be seen there. He was uncomfortable but we decided he didn't need a trip to the ER. We headed home on Sunday but had to stop at the ER in St. Louis because he was wheezing. He was diagnosed with RSV and we were on our way with instructions to get to the pediatrician as soon as possible on Monday.

We checked in on Monday with Dr. Liberty and we got this fun nebulizer for some breathing treatments. He recovered quickly and was back to his normal happy self within a couple days.

Even on his best days he still has some sad moments-getting stuck under the entertainment center, for example.

This boy is soooooo close to crawling. I am cherishing the last few days of limited mobility. I know my life will be totally different once he can move!

Jackson is 8 Months Old!

Jackson, at 8 months you are:

• soooooo close to crawling. You move all around the floor but you do it by rolling or scooting. In the crawling position you only move backwards.
• sporting a mouth full of teeth. The doctor said you are going against the flow because it is normal to get the bottom two teeth and then the top four. You have four bottom teeth and one top tooth.
• eating meats now. Mommy was silly and tried to give you talapia for your first meat. You gagged and spit it out. You love chicken with sweet potatoes, apples, and nutmeg.
• not the most predictable napper. Sometimes you sleep for an hour and a half but mostly you just have little short naps of about 30 minutes. Mommy has finally stopped stressing about it.
• soothed by the Mommy Loves You song. It's to the tune of "Oh My Darling" and we go through Daddy, Nana, Papa, Mimi, Grandpa, Claire Bear, and Lily. As soon as I start singing it, you settle down.
• eating crackers and puffs. You love Saltines so I always take some in your diaper bag in case you get fussy.
• developing quite the personality. You flirt with everyone when we go to the store. I get so many compliments about your eyes and your smile.
• funny in a swing. You love swinging when you are going backwords but you get a very serious face when the swing comes forward. I don't think you like the wind in your face.
• obsessed with the remote and Mommy's phone.
• often caught chewing on the dog toys. I thought I would have trouble keeping Claire from your toys but you are the one stealing hers. Gross!
• riding in a big boy car seat now. Even though you were on 20 pounds, it was getting too hard for me to carry you in your seat. You didn't really like being in there anymore anyway. Now you get to ride in the front of the cart too!

Lately

I am falling more in love with this kid every day. I can't believe I get to stay home with him all the time. I am so thankful to be in this situation! I am a lucky girl and truly blessed! These are just a few shots of what we've been up to lately.

He has loved this toy since the moment we put it on his carrier.
He loves going on walks. He fell asleep right after getting in the stroller so we took another lap to get a late afternoon nap in.

He loves playing with his music toys.

Swim Lessons

Jackson is almost done with his first swim lessons. A couple weeks ago Bryan was able to join us at the pool and took a few videos. JJ is so laid back in the pool. You can tell in the video that he just enjoys lounging!

Jackson is Seven Months Old- Take 2!

I wrote this whole post last week (still late) and then I lost the whole thing when I tried to publish it. So, here we go again!

Jackson, at seven months you are:

• babbling up a storm. You say dadada, mamama, bababa, and gagaga. I like to pretend you're saying Momma!
• eating lots of different foods. You have tried apples, pears, peaches, bananas, apricots, prunes, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, acorn squash, carrots, avocado, peas, green beans and zucchini. The only thing you didn't like was the zucchini.
• moving all over the floor but not really crawling. You rotate on your belly in all directions and you scoot backwards.
• taking fairly regular naps at 9am and 1pm. Your morning nap is very short and you are getting better at lengthening your afternoon nap.
• still amazed by your exersaucer. Every day you spend some time in there and every day you act like it's all new toys.
• sleeping fairly well. Your bedtime is anywhere between 6:30 and 7:00pm and you wake up for a feeding anywhere between 4am and 5am. After your bottle, you sleep until 7am.
• intrigued by Claire and Lily. You love to stick your hands out and let Claire lick them. Your favorite part about Lily is her long hair. She is very patient when you pull out handfuls of her hair.
• loving Music class. We go with Macy and her mom and you squeal every time we get out the scarves. You love it!
• very calm in the water during swim lessons. I think the water calms you! You have even gone under water!
• really needing another hair cut! Man your hair grows fast.

We love you so much sweet boy!

2011 Blizzard

We got a lot of snow this week. A LOT! Luckily we knew it was coming and could prepare for it. Bryan left work at 1:00 on Tuesday and it took him three hours to get home. It wasn't even snowing that hard yet but everyone was trying to get home. Once he was home, we were both a little excited to see how much snow we would really get.

This is what our backyard looked like before the storm. The old snow never melts.

It was starting to pile up by 10pm.
The wind blew the snow so much that it stuck to our screen.

The next morning was like Christmas! We were so excited to see what happened while we were sleeping.

A lot happened!

Claire had a good time in the snow once she figured it out. She was a little freaked out at first.

Bryan had to plow a way for her to get to the more shallow snow so she could go to the bathroom.

This drift measured 54".

This is the drift in our side yard. The fence is a tall privacy fence, for reference.

And then began the shoveling fun. There were 19 inches of snow that needed to be shoveled off our driveway. Bryan is very sore!

We had to get some pictures of JJ in the snow. He was unimpressed.

His first bite of snow

This was NOT Claire's first bite of snow!

Bryan's just a grown up kid.

It really didn't take long for the city to recover. The streets were all plowed that day and everyone was out and about by Thursday. The trash was delayed by one day and we didn't receive mail on Wednesday. Other than that, life is back to normal. We just have to wear sunglasses because the snow is so bright! And it will be here a while as the temperature never seems to get high enough to melt it until late March or early April. It's definitely winter for a LOOOONG time here!

Another Playdate

Jackson's friend Lukas let us come to his house to play last Saturday. His parents are Katharine and Brett and they had just moved in to their new house! It was so fun to see their new place. While Macy and Jackson see each other all the time, it had been awhile since we'd seen Molly and Lukas. All these babies met when they were just weeks old so it's fun to see how much they have changed.

Here is there little pow-wow! I think they are planning how to make sure they wake up multiple times at night for more mommy time.

By the end of our visit Jackson was quite tired and ready for a nap...which he never took. Because I'm a mean momma, I snapped this picture of his misery. Poor baby. Played too hard.
When we got home we got ready for Sarah to come babysit him while we went out the the Melting Pot for dinner. It was fantastic and Jackson got a good report from the sitter. It was great to get out for a night with Bryan. We even did a good job of talking about things that weren't related to Jackson!