I am so happy to be home! Lots of exciting things have happened in the past month:
Jackson has started exclusively walking. Almost the day we got home from Florida (July 1), he gave up crawling and has been walking (no wait...running) ever since.
Teeth numbers 9 and 10 have made their appearance and I am sure judging from the amount of drool coming out of Jackson's mouth that numbers 11 and 12 are not far behind.
Jackson has learned a lot of new words. The current list is:
Mama
Dada
Nana
Hawa (Holly)
Dut (Duck)
Shoe
Achoo
Ocean
Hello
What's this/that
Who is it
Juice
Clock
And he fake snores (thank you Bapa). Some of his other staples are winking (with both eyes) and blowing kisses.
Jackson adjusted well upon arriving to the USA. He had jetlag for 2 nights (playing for 2 hours in the middle of the night before falling back to sleep) and then we were back in the normal routine.
We had a belated first birthday celebration for Jackson with my family. We went to Chuckie Cheese for pizza, rides and games.
And then came home for cake and ice cream.
Speaking of food, Jackson has mainly been eating adult food! It is much easier to get him fed. And, man, is he an eater! He'll eat nearly anything you give him. He loves fish, potatoes, mac and cheese, grilled cheese, pizza, carrots and peas, corn, applesauce, yogurt, turkey hot dogs and waffles with syrup. He has also figured out how to use his snack tub. I'll put wheat puffs, Goldfish, and yogurt melts in there and he just carries it around and pulls them out when he wants them. Brilliant!
Jackson also got his first professional haircut. We had to use a lollipop near the end to keep him distracted, but he didn't seem to mind. He did such a good job and Mindy did a wonderful job on his crazy hair!
I bought a baby bike seat for the back of my bike (it's easier to bike here due to the flatness). I bought Jackson a helmet as well. As you may or may not know, Jackson DOES NOT like hats of any kind. Never has... but he has to have a helmet for this. So we tried one on in the store. He hated it.
A couple of days later, we pulled the helmet out at home and put it on him. He loved it! He paraded around with his helmet just smiling. He kept it on for about an hour!
We finally got the bike seat put on the bike (by we I mean my dad and Mr Charlie) and off we went. FUN!
Our family took a vacation to Florida. We went to Disney World and then Daytona Beach. Despite the heat and my dad getting sick, we had a blast!
It's a Small World was by far Jackson's favorite ride. He "oohed" and pointed his way through it. Twice. And clapped at the end.
He also liked all of the 3-D movies. Even though he wouldn't keep his glasses on, he sat through them and looked and was totally into it! Epcot was the best park for a baby in my opinion. He could go on most of the rides there. And most of the rides were in the air conditioning.
At Daytona we spent every day at the beach and the pool. Surprisingly, the ocean wasn't a big hit with the little man.
As long as he wasn't near the ocean water, he was fine. He loved exploring in the sand.
But I think he much preferred the pool.
In other news, we are expecting our second baby! Jackson will make a great big brother!
The new baby is due December 22 (which currently makes me 17 weeks pregnant, although the picture is my 16 week bump).
I have met my doctor and really like him. Hopefully we will be able to find out the gender in the near future. Any guesses?
The pregnancy is going well. It is amazing how different this one is to Jackson. I mean some things are the same - I didn't have any morning sickness with this one either. But with Jackson I had gorgeous full hair and blemish free skin. Now my hair is falling out and my skin won't stop breaking out (including those pesky little skin tags). Everywhere. I felt both babies kick around the same time. I forgot how wonderful baby kicks are! I craved cheeseburgers with Jackson. With this one, I seem to be drawn to yogurt and fruit. YUMMY!
Most of all though, I am feeling a little guilty about not documenting this one as well. I suppose during my first pregnancy it is all I had to think about. But now I focus a lot of my time on Jackson and the pregnancy just... well... happens! The curse for the second child, I guess!
I am still nursing Jackson twice (sometimes three times) a day. I want to let him wean himself. I have a don't offer don't remind policy and if he wants it he lets me know. I have read that toddlers generally will wean themselves during the second trimester of their mom's pregnancy because the consistency of the breast milk goes to that of colostrum. And also supposedly the taste changes due to the hormones. But Jackson doesn't seem to mind. I can just see me tandem feeding a 20 month old and a new baby. I love breastfeeding Jackson, but I wouldn't mind having my breasts to myself for a bit before starting it all over again. I guess we'll play it by ear!
More exciting news: my sister got engaged!
Noel is a great guy and I am so happy for her. Uncle Noel is one of Jackson's favorite people (just below cousin Myles). Their wedding will take place next June and I am the matron of honor. That gives me approx 6 months to lose all of the baby weight (plus the Jackson baby weight I never lost). I will need a plan, motivation and lots of encouragement.
All in all, things are going really well for us here. I am happier than I have been in a long long time. I can't wait until David gets here on the 3rd of August. We miss him a lot!
