L.O.V.E.

Week 42 here in Oz was a STINKER! And by stinker I mean constant humidity and heat and horribleness. We must have all taken at least 2 showers a day. YUCK!


But week 42 also brought some good things! For example, a tooth! Jackson, as of today, has tooth number five. It is on the bottom left side if you are looking at him. He has been drooling a lot, but otherwise showed no typical teething signs. I was surprised when I caught sight of the little toothie-peg this morning!

We had the opportunity to meet up with David's family today for lunch. A good time was had by all. Everybody made it - Neville (David's dad), Marie (David's stepmom), Allison (David's sister), Peter (Allison's husband), Jordan (nephew) and his fiance May, Callum (other nephew), Jon and his girlfriend Chloe, Jess and her boyfriend Rory, and Peter's sister Jenny and her husband.






Jackson was the life of the party and entertained everyone with his bouncing. He especially liked to bounce on his Aunty Allison.



Jackson crawls everywhere now... and I mean everywhere. He knows his way around the house and loves to go exploring. His new favorite spots are:

Under the table:


And in the cupboard underneath the drawers in his closet. I usually keep the doors to his closet closed. I forgot one morning and then he went quiet. When he goes quiet you had better look for him quick because it means he is in to something he shouldn't be. This was just too cute though:



His new favorite activities include:

Playing in the trash (Nice):


Playing Peekaboo:


Reading (I know this isn't really new, but he likes to read his books - his current favorite is the Little Polar Bear book with the finger puppet - thanks Nana!):


And pressing buttons on the printer (he knows how to turn it off and on):



If we tell him no or take something away from him, he cries. We can't help but laugh... it is so darn cute!

I like to think he was crying in this picture because Nana didn't answer her phone when we tried to call. But I think it was probably because I wouldn't let him press the buttons on the printer. Hm. Mean mommy.

He talks lots. Not as much as Myles... Jackson is more of a studier. He isn't afraid of new things... but will study them until he thinks he's got it figured out and then be crazy. I think this is good... though I suspect he will be a late walker because of it. Crawling is just too efficient. I am definitely willing to be proven wrong though. Here is one of the conversations we had this week:


Swimming went well this week. He played with another little boy most of the time. He didn't want me to hold onto him while he was swimming with his floaties on. I think I was cramping his style.

We went to lunch with Bianca and Julian this week. We were going to go see a movie, but decided against it at the last minute and just did lunch instead. I don't think Jackson would sit through a movie anymore. There is just too much crawling to do!

New foods this week: beef (he had a cottage pie with kumera mash and LOVED it...in the cottage pie was beef, celery, whole peas, etc topped with sweet potato); and we tried the mango again this time mixed with rice and bananas and it was a hit. He loves loves LOVES custard. He wouldn't have anything to do with his dinner tonight, but he sure did eat half my custard and peaches dessert!

Speaking of my dessert, I have been counting calories since being back from Christmas as my mom and I have a deal to each lose 25lbs by Disney World. So far I've lost 14.5lbs. I kind of blew the diet today, but it's the first slack day I've had so I figured it wouldn't hurt. I'd still like to lose another 19lbs... then I'd be back at my pre-pregnancy weight. I cleaned out my closet and drawers this week... got rid of a lot of stuff. But kept my pre-pregnancy jeans. I hope I fit back into them some day. I can't believe how skinny I was! They won't fit around my knees now!

Two other bits of random news:
1. We have officially booked a ticket to the States for June 14! Yay! Let the countdown begin!
2. We are moving house at the end of February. The landlord's daughter is coming back and wants to move in here. Inconvenient, but we're moving to a cheaper place so at least we'll save some money. And the new place has an airconditioned family room and an orange tree in the back.

Thanks for reading about our full week here! We love you! Happy Valentines Day!

Personality

Oh, the many faces of week 41!

Silly:


Mad:


Cheeky:


Happy:


And we've discovered some new places to play!
The bookcase:


The laundry basket:


And we even got some new toys!
A bowl full of cookie cutters:


An old magazine (but apparently he was just too tired to sit up and tear it apart. He loves to eat paper - I can't tell you how many times this week I have had to stick my finger in his mouth and retrieve paper... wouldn't want a repeat of the price tag incident):


A new walker toy thing (he hasn't figured out how to walk yet... just stand):


Mommy got something new, too! Something new and shiny!

It's Jackson's birthstone (diamonds). And it's stackable. So if we have any more children, I can just keep on a-stackin'. On the inside it's engraved: Jackson 20-04-2009.

Jackson has been sleeping a lot better this week. He was consistently waking up at 3:30 to eat. Until I realized that I wasn't feeding him enough dinner. So we added a cube to his dinner, and voila. Sleeping through. He woke up twice last night - but both times he put himself back to sleep without me having to get up. And when he wakes up in the morning, he doesn't make a sound. He just sits up and plays with his toys until we go in to get him. What a good little guy!

Jackson LOVES to point at things. He points at things he wants, at things he likes, at people he knows, and any random object that catches his fancy. He points at me when he eats (solids and during nursing sessions). He points at the pictures on our fireplace mantle when he wants to look at them. He points at the baby in the mirror. His finger points.


Jackson has started imitating what we do. This includes rolling his tongue, making kissing noises, and roaring (inspired by Kleptosaurus Rex):


New foods this week: Cottage Cheese...EPIC FAIL...you should have seen his face...it was like I fed him worms! I tried twice. I got the same reaction both times. Now he doesn't trust me to put something nice in his mouth. So I'll try that again at a later date and go back to our trusted anything mixed with apples. Hey! There's an idea... maybe I'll mix it with apples. He'll eat anything if it's mixed with apples! We also tried Apricot Chicken with whole pieces of rice, sweet potato fries, and blueberries (smooshed up and mixed with bananas and custard). I also forgot to mention that a couple of weeks ago when we went to Bianca and Jon's for dinner, we had Lemon Meringue Pie for dessert. We thought it would be funny to give the babies a little taste of the lemon bit to see their faces. Julian made a horrible sour face. Jackson not only didn't make a face, but clamored for more! That's my boy!

We are still liking and excelling at swimming. Jackson closes his mouth really tight when he swims so he doesn't get any water in there. Clever boy.

This next week brings much of the same: swimming, playing, etc... and a little variety: big brother Jon moves in, a movie with Bianca and Julian, and a get together with Grandad, Marie, Auntie Allison and Uncle Peter.

Have a good weekend! Go Colts!

Hello Goodbye

Yes, the new thing this week is waving. He loves saying hello and goodbye, and we think his little waves are the cutest! Jackson will play and explore and then look to make sure you are still there. Then he will wave to you. SO CUTE!

So hello (read: wave) to week 40 on the outside!


This week we had our 9 month doctor's visit. Everything looks good. He is 8.75kg (19.5lbs) and 70cm (27.5in) long. Consistently little (25th percentile on both height and weight). Dr Henderson confirmed that he appears to be allergic to eggs. So no more eggs :( He was doing fine with them... but then he started throwing them up. I mean vomiting...adult-like vomiting... with an adult-like stench. What I was told is that the sensitivity was triggered and developed as he was exposed. So we are to cut out eggs until he is 1 and then try again. Hopefully he will grow out of it, but if he doesn't we will deal. If he doesn't, that means no cake, donuts, etc... poor guy. Poor Nana!
We were in the doctor's waiting room for 1 hour (!!) so Jackson played in the children's area. He found this dinosaur that he become quite fond of. Little did I know that he put it in the diaper bag during his play and we walked out with the toy. We have fondly named him "Kleptosaurus Rex".


He LOVES that dinosaur... while I was making baby food, Jackson made dinosaur soup.



All four teeth are in and growing. And I can see numbers 5 and 6 getting ready to make an appearance as well. Doesn't he look cute with his teeth?


We had another hair cut this week. Don't worry his hair is still long. And fun to play with in the bath.


Mel came over and played with Jackson Friday afternoon while David and I went on a date to see Avatar in 3D. If you haven't seen it, go. Seriously. It is the best movie I have seen in a long time. It was one of those activities that when I walked out, I thought "I'll never be able to experience that for the first time ever again", and felt a little sad because of it. Luckily, there is supposed to be a sequel.

New foods this week: plums and cheese. But not together. Ew. And we got our American snacks from Bapa and Nana. Phew! Just in time, too! We were on the last wheat puffs!

Another exciting thing happened this week: Jessica moved in with us! So now Jackson has his older sister in the house! AND... Jonathan is moving in with us next weekend! So Jackson will have both his older brother and sister around! What a lucky baby!

We hope you all have a good week! We love you!