Some funny Jackson quirks (scroll down if you don't want to read and just want to see some videos):
1. He loves Tylenol. Any time I need to give him some, he gets a big smile on his face and waves his hands all excited-like. He sucks it down, too.
2. He usually wakes up very happy in the morning or after a nap. We can hear him in his room just squealing and talking to himself and sometimes banging on the wall above his crib. He loves to stand up in his crib and "run" from one end to another, or walk in circles and then fall down and crack up laughing. It's so funny!
3. He's becoming kind of a picky eater. If I give him something he doesn't want to eat he takes his pointer finger and moves it around the high chair tray for a few seconds and then pushes down hard and smooshes it. Sometimes he will pick up the food (like a banana) and squeeze it really hard in his fist. I try not to laugh about it, but sometimes I can't help it. You should see how hard he squeezes!
4. He loves to "run" around the house. It's amazing to me how quickly he has gotten so good at walking. He almost runs now. He will go around our kitchen island, into the living room, and down the hall to the bedrooms and back just running and screaming with delight. It makes my day!
5. He loves to throw a ball. We went to the squadron last Friday for a family night and he loved to get the little balls out of the foosball table and carry them around, chuck them, and watch them bounce. He especially loved to throw the balls from the pool table because they make such a loud noise when they land on the floor.
6. He still adores that blue and brown blankie. Now he "asks" me to get it out of his crib and loves to carry it around the house (usually while "running" and screaming with delight). He's learned to hold it up and out to the side so that he doesn't trip on it, although sometimes he forgets and faceplants. He usually lands on the blanket, though, and just ends up laughing. We think he looks like Linus (from Peanuts).
7. He'll now bring a book to me or Phil and want us to read it to him. Of course, he still only sits still for about a minute, but I can usually make him sit until the end of the story. I have to hold the pages of the book down b/c he loves to turn the pages and will try to do that before I even get one word read on the page.
This isn't a Jackson quirk, but I felt baby #2 move yesterday for the first time! It was so exciting! I was sitting at the computer and thought I felt something, so I sat really still and...yep! That's what it was! I haven't felt it too much since then b/c I'm usually not sitting still enough to pay attention. Oh - we find out the gender of baby #2 on Phil's birthday in 2-1/2 weeks - December 1. We can't wait!!
Here are some fun videos from yesterday and today:
Here we are before church last week. J did not cry at all in the nursery this time!! Yahoo! Phil took him down there after the first song and he just sat right down and started playing. Oops, I forgot - he did cry a little right at the end when we came to pick him up. He was the last one in there and might have thought we forgot about him! This picture was pre-haircut. I like his short hair so much better! We'll have to clip it more often from now on.
Okay, one picture is obviously enough - now he's on the run again...
This is a great idea I got from my MOPS group. I decorate this dead branch with spiderwebs for a spooky tree for Halloween, and then spray paint it white and hang ornaments on it for Christmas, but I didn't know what to do with it in between those two holidays. One older mom at MOPS was telling us how they had a tradition in their family of writing down things they were thankful for on paper leaves each day during November, and then hanging the leaves on a dead branch. I thought it was a neat idea, so Phil and I have been doing it. Next year J should at least be able to tell us something to write on his leaves. I'm sure that will be a hoot. We have so much to be thankful for - it's hard to think of just one thing at a time to write on a leaf. Thank you to everyone who helps make our lives so blessed! Happy Thanksgiving!
