Happy Birthday!

Dear sweet little baby boy on your first birthday,

This time last year,
We saw each other for the first time;
I held you in my arms for the first time;
I kissed your chubby cheeks for the first time;
I heard the most precious cry for the first time;
And I cried, too, as a mother for the first time.

Throughout this last year,
You learned to roll over and crawl and make messes;
We learned that price tags aren't digestible;
You took your first plane ride;
I watched you smile as you discovered the world;
And I smiled, too.

Today,
I kiss your one year old chubby cheeks;
We celebrate with cake and presents and lots of hugs;
You make me laugh by being a big goofball;
We dance a lot;
And I love you more than ever.

As you grow from a baby into a little boy into a teenager into a young man into a grown man into an old man, I will still cry as a mother, smile at your accomplishments, kiss your chubby cheeks, dance a lot and love you more than ever. Thank you for sharing your journey with me.

Happy 1st Birthday, my Little Bug!

Love,
Mommy


Seems like yesterday you were so little...


...what a beautiful little boy you are.

It's My Party

I'll get straight to the good stuff. On this, week 51, in the life of one Master Jackson Wayne Bennett (see below), a great celebration was held in honor of his 1st birthday.


It was a great party, a great afternoon, and as Granddad put it "a perfect day". The celebration started at 11:00am. The theme was dinosaurs and the party was held at Blackbutt Reserve (the place with the kangaroos and koalas). There were 18 adults and 4 kiddos in attendance. The guest list included:
Mommy, Daddy and Jackson
Big Brother Jonathan and his girlfriend Chloe
Granddad and Marie
Auntie Allison and Cousin Callum
Jon, Bianca and Julian
Nino (David's drummer friend) and his wife Kellie and their daughter Sienna (age 4) and son Reid (age 6 months)
Kris (David's guitar friend)
Mel (Jackson's babysitter) and her boyfriend Nathan
Jamie and Steph (another one of Jackson's babysitters)
Andrew (my colleague and friend from the University)

We socialized and played and grilled out sausages and had cake and opened presents. Lots of pictures were taken. I did not upload them all to this blog, but you can see my complete collection by clicking HERE. Auntie Allison was the family paparazzi so once I get her pictures I'll post some more.

I'll touch on a few of the highlights.
First off, I made Jackson's cake. I couldn't have asked for it to turn out better.

I'm glad I took pictures of it before, though, because after sitting outside for 2 hours under a food protector it started to smudge and by the time we got around to cake time, the parsley trees had wilted and "Happy 1st Birthday Jackson!" read "Happy 1st Birthday Jickjon!". Still... it was a big hit and Jackson seems to enjoy his first taste of real sugar (and lots of it).

He did get a sugar rush and started acting all crazy. Adding to the craziness was the fact that his normal afternoon nap was not happening and he was TIRED. He never complained once though. He was such a good natured little birthday boy!

Next highlight of the day... remember the guest list... 4 year old Sienna? Well, Jackson LOVES her. I am talking about Love with a capital L. He flirted with her...smiled...and wouldn't stop hugging her!

But though he might love her, he isn't too sure about kisses from girls (who aren't his mommy, of course).



We had a really great time celebrating Jackson's first year of life. Of course, I wish my family could have been there (but we'll celebrate again in June). They would have LOVED it.

By mid-afternoon, we were all exhausted and everyone headed home. Jackson was out before we left the parking lot. He slept through his diaper change when we got home and for another two hours after that. It's hard work turning 1!




In other news this week, we pretty much did the normal thing. I started teaching again so time is once again cut short in the evenings. I am enjoying my students this term though!

We went to swimming lessons. This time daddy came with us and took some pictures:


Going to bed is getting a lot better. "Crying It Out" is pretty much non-existent. The most he cries is 15 minutes and most nights it's less than 3. AND he is still sleeping through the night. An additional benefit is that Jackson is now able to fall asleep anywhere whenever he is tired. For example, during our daily walk in the stroller...

Before, he would just cry unable to get to sleep. Now, sleep. It's actually a big relief for us. Hated going through it, but love the outcome. And I think he is doing better for it, too.

Our bedtime routine has changed slightly as well. We now do bath, play, nurse, book, and bed. We read two bedtime stories. The first one varies every night. The second one is always The Going To Bed Book. There is always one page that when I get to it, Jackson just smiles from ear to ear. He loves that page for some reason. What page is it? This one...



Jackson is getting there with the walking. He can take nearly 5 steps before falling over. Crawling is still more efficient for him though. Here is Jackson practicing walking with Daddy and then taking about 3 steps to me before falling into me:



Jackson is also starting to understand and follow simple commands. The most noticable one is "Go get a book". And he will crawl over to his book corner and pick out a book for bedtime. So clever!


Another favorite activity is riding on Daddy's shoulders:



New foods this week: sausage and cake (at the party). He is eating a lot more nowadays. He will drink a sippy cup of water and a sippy cup of apple juice every day. And that's in addition to nursing 5 times a day! Thirsty boy!

We go for our 1 year checkup on Wednesday. I am curious to see how much he has grown.

In one and a bit days my baby turns 1. I can't believe how quickly it's gone. But I love my little family.

Cry Baby

I said I would never do it. I SWORE adamantly that I would never let MY baby "cry it out". But on this, week 50, of my little baby's life, I let him cry it out. I had no choice. Monday night, he wouldn't go to sleep. It was 11:30pm and Jackson was completely overtired and he would not go to sleep. We resorted to David driving him around in the car until he fell asleep and then we quietly transferred him to his cot. On Tuesday, he would NOT go down for a nap. Finally, with 30 minutes of nap time left, I drove him around till he fell asleep. That night he would NOT go to sleep. David was at rehearsal; I tried EVERYTHING. Nursing, music, video, sitting in his room with him, laying down with him, singing, walking, patting, rocking, nursing while watching a video, singing while rocking, patting while nursing while singing, and any other possible (and impossible) combination of the above... and there was Jackson - rubbing his eyes and refusing to go to sleep. I was not about to drive him around - no way were we going to get into that habit. So I put him in his cot, told him I loved him, and left the room. SCREEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAM! He was crying; I was crying. My heart broke in a million pieces to hear him so upset. I had Fantasia 2000 on full blast. I called my mom. She reassured me I was doing the right thing (thanks, Mom). David finally got home and got me a bowl of ice cream (ice cream fixes everything). After an hour, he stopped. I stopped. And we went to bed. And slept all night. I was so frightened that Jackson would be really mad at me in the morning. But he gave me the biggest smile and hug. So for both of Tuesday's naps I put him in his cot. 20 minutes of crying for each and then sleep. Tuesday night - 30 minutes. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights - 15 minutes. Last night and tonight - 3 minutes at most. And we found Jackson prefers to hear noise (i.e. the TV going) so we don't have to creep around the house anymore. He has woken up once during the night from a bad dream, and I went into him for that, but other than that, if he wakes during the night, he whimpers and goes right back to sleep. We are sleeping through the night again! I swore I would never let him cry it out. It was hard. But I'm glad I did. And I have tweeked our bedtime routine to suit. We now start at 7:30 (instead of 8:00) and have bath, quiet play, boob, book, then bed. He gets to sleep with his pacifier (which he chews on instead of sucks). And it gives us a chance to tuck him in so he is fully aware of where he is and what is going on. No surprises when he wakes. I think we are all happier because of it.


With the hard part out of the way, Jackson and I enjoyed our last week together before I start teaching again. We tried to make the most of it by playing lots.

PLAYING IN THE KITCHEN


PLAYING BEFORE BED


PLAYING THE GUITAR



Jackson's favorite book is Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See:



We went shopping for supplies for Jackson's 1st birthday party next weekend (the Australian one of course; we'll celebrate American style in June). The invitations were sent out last week.




And I made a practice cake.

I had so much fun decorating the cake... I felt like a kid doing crafts. The real one will be bigger and square. We've already eaten this one. And it tasted good.


Jackson has been cracking us up with this big cheesy smile thing he does. He knows that when he does it we laugh. So he does it a lot.

No clue where he gets it. But it is irresistible!


He has been playing a lot with his walker toy. He has figured out how to back it up and turn it so now he can drive it all over the house.
Stopping, of course, to say hello to the baby in the mirror:


They shared a joke I am not privy to:


And there's that big cheeky smile:



On Friday as we were shopping for birthday supplies, we stopped to ride in the Jurassic Park Jeep outside Toys R Us:



Did I start him on any new foods this week? I don't think so. He has been eating more and more off of our plates during meals. He's still a big fan of toast with strawberry jam, banana bread, and watermelon.

And he loves his new toothbrush. With 8 teeth and lots of grownup food, he needs to brush 'em brush 'em brush 'em!



On a sad note, a woman who had a profound influence on my musical development and piano skills died this week. Cindy Farmer Wyatt (my piano teacher during most of the 90s) lost her battle with cancer this week. My heart goes out to her family. And though she will be missed, she will not be forgotten. Her legacy lives on every time one of her students tickle those ivories. Thank you, Cindy.

Thanks for reading. Looking forward to the Big 1 Dinosaur Party! How did you celebrate your child's first birthday?

Fever

What a better way to celebrate week 49 of life than with a Butler win and advancement to the final games! The three of us watched the second half of the game online (cool!) and I am sure Jackson was wondering what mommy was doing jumping around and screaming. I am so proud of my alma mater. It all creates a sense of nostalgia, and I have spent a fair amount of time this week thinking about my BU friends and college days. How cool would it have been to take David and Jackson to the game where I would have been certain to see many old friends in their adult-dom?

But back to reality... online watching will have to do. And luckily, FaceBook gets an almost immediate response during the game as well so it's like we are there... kind of.

I meant to post this last night after Jackson went to bed, but it turns out the poor little guy got sick and had a 39.1C (102.1F) temperature and found it a bit difficult to get comfortable. After 2 hours, we finally managed to bring his temperature down a bit and he went to sleep. (To make matters worse, during the day he was cruising alongside the entertainment unit, when he sneezed. His head went forward and he banged it on the edge. The resulting lump caused a few headaches I'm sure.) I went to bed shortly after not knowing how much he would be up during the night. When he cried again 2 hours later and I took his temp, it had gone down to 37.8C (100.4F) and he was able to go back to sleep with a little nursing. He didn't sleep exceptionally well through the night, but it could have been worse. And he didn't sleep late either... in fact, he was up a half hour earlier than normal. But today his runny nose appears to be 90% better and his fever is gone (so is his lump). He is in good spirits. Phew! I was a nervous Mama last night!

Jackson hasn't been an exceptional sleeper this week at all. Out of the 8 nights that have passed since the last blog post, I would only consider 3 to be "good". I am sure his "bad" nights have been due to his molars and incisors making their way to the surface. For 3 nights in a row, he (and subsequently me) was up every 25 minutes. And I thought newborn baby sleep deprivation was bad. Now, I know what you're thinking... surely this sweet face

wouldn't have any difficult pushing teeth through. Well, let me tell you now, that the poor little guy is NOT a good teether. Amber necklace or no, it causes him pain and it really seems to bother him at night.

As a side note story: one of the only nights when Jackson slept through, we didn't. Why? Because there was a mouse in our room. How do I know? Well, about 4:00 Jackson started whimpering. I woke up to find David staring at our drawers. "There's a mouse in there," he said. And sure enough I heard scratch scratch scratch. Then it hit me. "I know where it is," I said.
"Where?" - David
"In the top middle drawer." - Me
"How do you know?" - David
"Because I keep a secret stash of M&Ms in there." - Me
Needless to say, it was a secret no longer and David was NOT amused by said stash. We could hear said mouse eating said stash. I was mad at the mouse; David was mad at me. We began taking out the drawers one by one, but the mouse kept running down the drawers. Finally we had it trapped. We got a shoe box ready to capture it and set it free OUTSIDE. It ran behind David's guitars. We were ready. Then it disappeared. Gone. We've seen it no more. But 1 hour later we were back in bed. Jackson had gone back to sleep and stayed that way even though we were making a horrible racket. And I was the cause of that night's sleep deprivation.

So in a haze of sleep deprivation, I write you this blog. Please forgive if it doesn't make any sense, or I rabbit on, or I forget something major. It's mommy brain.

Some of the week's major developmental milestones include:
Walking...well, 4 steps...and he didn't know what he had done. David let go and he walked the 4 steps to where I was. He didn't realize that David had let go and he was doing it on his own. And he was certainly confused when David and I started screaming. So I don't think it counts as "the" walking, but he's getting there!

Jackson is nearly too big for his Exersaucer now, but he still sits in there while he's eating his snack. When he's done with his snack, he has a jump. It's a bit scary sounding:



On Saturday morning as I was folding clothes, all of a sudden Jackson climbed onto the coffee table. Apparently Ben 10 is better from up there.



In addition to a Butler win on Sunday morning (our time), the Easter Bunny came to visit. He brought David and I a chocolate egg each and Jackson his first chocolate bunny (organic, lactose-free of course). We let him have the ears for breakfast.


The smile says it all.



Other foods this week: Pizza (well, toast with pizza sauce and cheese)

Messy, but good!
We are glad that he is able to eat off of our plates more often now. It's a little more convenient, but we usually still fix him his own little meal. Just today I made about a months worth of fruits and veg from the Farmers Market yesterday.


Because of the holiday weekend, we were lucky to have David home for a 4 day weekend. We tried to do something fun everyday. On Friday, Julian came over to play (while Julian's daddy Jon came over to talk with David). The boys had so much fun playing. Jackson showed him all his toys and the cool things to do around the house.

BLOCKS


MAGNETS ("Look Julian! No really... LOOK!)


SHARING MAGNETS


Jackson likes his friend Julian so much!



On Saturday, we went to the park.



Sunday, was, of course, the Easter Bunny and Farmers Market. We stayed home in the afternoon and most of the day today due to Jackson's being sick.


What else did we do this week?

Well, the normal swimming and day to day routine. Jackson helped me do the laundry.


He did a fair amount of singing.


And banging.


And playing.



Every evening Jackson gets excited for Daddy to get home. He'll wait for his Daddy by the door and gets so excited when he sees his Daddy finally walking through the front gate.



I think I've covered everything. I would just like to add that in 2 weeks from tomorrow my little bitty baby boy will be 1. Wow. I have been reflecting on what I was doing this time last year. Mainly being very large and complaining a lot, I think. I can't really remember what life was like without Jackson. Nor do I really want to. He is the best thing that I have ever done.

GO BUTLER!!! We'll be watching online decked out in our Butler Blue. Where will you be?