Poor Sick Baby...

Well, Jackson officially started his first ever round of antibiotics yesterday. I guess it's pretty good that he's almost 2 years old and hasn't had to be on antibiotics until now. He's been feeling yucky since last weekend, had diarrhea for about 3 days, then developed a bad cough and stuffy nose. I figured it was just a cold and kept him at home for most of the week in hopes of just riding it out. Friday night was the breaking point, though. He didn't. sleep. at. all. that night. And neither did I. I felt so bad for him - he was clearly so uncomfortable and feeling so yucky - and I was feeling bad myself for not taking him to the doctor sooner. Luckily, our pediatrician's office is open on Saturday mornings, so I took him in then. Turns out he has a double ear infection! Great parenting, Heather! The doctor tried to make me feel better by saying that the infection probably just happened, since the fluids probably pooled up over the week and created the infection at the end. I hope that's true. It's amazing to me how fast the antibiotics work - he was feeling so much better yesterday afternoon and slept through the night even though he only had two doses of the medicine. Yeah for drugs!

Nana and Papa Swoop's Visit

We had a wonderful visit with Nana and Papa Swoop last weekend. That's Phil's dad and stepmom for those who don't know. :) It was great to see them and even though we had yucky weather the whole weekend (snowing, melting, wet, windy, cold), we enjoyed just hanging out together. We also ate really well! Lots of munchies, cheese, and sweets, and Phil and Chris cooked us girls a fancy pesto pasta dinner on Valentine's Day. Yum!

I especially enjoyed having a little break from entertaining J - Charlene is so great with him and he loves playing with Nana. He especially loved the 5 million rides around the house on his fire truck that Nana gave him. I don't know how your back survived that, Charlene! I thought for sure that he would be bugging me a lot to give him rides once Nana left, but he actually hasn't asked me once. I guess he knows that Mommy doesn't go there, especially 8 months pregnant Mommy.


Phil and his dad finished up the crown molding in Jackson's room and even took a trip over to Medford to pick up the beadboard and extra molding that Phil needed to finish the whole room. It really looks beautiful, and I know that Phil appreciated having his dad to help instead of me. :)

We had planned to go out to dinner together at least once and first tried to go on a Friday, but J definitely wasn't feeling well when he woke up from his nap and I didn't want the sitter to have to deal with an incredibly fussy toddler. So we canceled our plans for Friday and rescheduled for Sunday (since Sat. was Valentine's Day and we knew we wouldn't be able to get in anywhere, even in our small town). It's a good thing we didn't try to go out on Sat. because Jackson again was feeling terrible that evening - he was crying really hard for what seemed like no reason. We couldn't figure out what was wrong, but thought it had to be either teething or a stomach ache. I got upset, too, because he's hardly ever sick and it is really tough to have your baby screaming and crying in pain and not know why or what to do! Well, it must have been upset stomach because he had some really gross diapers on Sunday - blech! The poor babysitter even had to change two of them while we were out to dinner. I felt really bad!

Charlene and I wanted to go get pedicures together and we didn't get a chance to go until the last day they were here, so we were really looking forward to them. I made reservations at a nail place here in town and they were actually ready for us when we got there, which I thought was a good sign. Not so much - this turned out to be the worst pedicure I have ever had. The whole experience took less than 30 minutes and the entire time Charlene and I had to listen to the little nail techs (who were probably in their early 20s) talk about how they didn't feel like working that day and had so many errands to run when they were done with us. They actually even lied to customers who came in wanting services and said they were booked up for the rest of the day. They probably turned away over $150 worth of business - I wonder what the owners of the shop would have thought about that. The girl who worked on me did everything SO fast that it actually hurt and was awkward, instead of being pampering and relaxing. I will NEVER go there again. I think Charlene's girl did a better job, so that's good. I didn't tip my girl, which I never do, but I was so mad when I left there that I couldn't stand to give her extra money. Lazy people with no work ethic or sense of responsibility drive me crazy. Okay, enough of that. :)

Thanks for a great visit, Chris and Charlene!

Jacksonese...

Let me preface this video by saying that yes, we know all of the words sound pretty much the same, and yes, we know he should be talking better by this point. He's really making an effort to imitate us and say things, though, so we're not too worried. We love his little jibberish. To translate - that's tractor, water, Elmo, and doggie you're hearing, along with some unidentified Jacksonese phrases. :)



Phil is playing flag football for the base team and we went to watch him play the other day. KF has two really nice indoor soccer fields and during the week kids are allowed to go in there and run around on the fields and kick balls, etc. Jackson loves it there.

Here I was asking him, "Where's Daddy?"


We've been going out to lunch every week with my friends Lana and Rocky and today we went to this great little cafe downtown. They had the BEST tomato basil soup (Jackson even loved it, too), which was perfect because today was a really cold, yucky day. Before we left I let J out of the high chair and he immediately ran over to the big front window. He actually stood still for a while and just stared outside at the snow falling and cars driving by.


This morning we went for coffee at Starbucks with some friends (to clarify - we didn't really go to Starbucks - we went to the grocery store that our only Starbucks is in). J and his friend were sitting in these chairs jibbering to each other and I thought they looked really cute.

And here's just a picture of J putting his vehicle puzzle together. Do you remember this one, Mom? He can put all of the pieces in by himself now. It's just amazing to me how much he changes and develops all the time, and how quickly!

Toddler Coffee and Other Happenings...

I've figured out that Cheerios are equivalent to coffee for Jackson in the morning. If I give him a cup of Cheerios as soon as he's dressed and ready for the day, regardless of what we eat later for breakfast, he's a happy camper for most of the morning. He hasn't quite perfected the use of the snack trap cup, though, so I usually end up with a trail of Cheerios all over the house. It's worth it for a happy toddler, though.


Last night he figured out how to climb up on the fireplace hearth. I don't know why it's taken him so long to do this, but I'm glad he hasn't done it until now! It makes me totally nervous. He loves to get up there and walk around and then get down all on his own.

Everyone always says that J is a little clone of Phil, and he definitely is when it comes to mornings. I'm almost always a little grumpy when I wake up, but it's hard to stay grumpy when I have this little cutie following me around the house giggling and babbling to me in Jacksonese. I talk back to him just like we're having a real conversation, even though I have no idea what he's saying. I got a great video of him talking the other night, but when I tried to upload it I realized that the file is too big, so I'll have to take another one.

We haven't been doing too much of anything exciting lately. Phil had been working hard this past weekend to paint and put up molding (moulding) in the baby's room, so we hung out in there a lot to keep him company. J loved sitting in his own little chair. The room turned out beautifully, by the way!

Here's J trying to help me find missing toys... he does this quite a bit now and it cracks me up!

And last night was officially, "Everyone Pile on Dad Night". I missed out on the piling, though, having to be the photographer.


In other news, the language-barrier frustration level is steadily increasing. I know it's got to be difficult for J to not be able to tell me what he needs/wants, or should I say, for me to not be able to understand what he needs/wants. We've had a bit more whining and mini-tantrums lately. There's even been some hitting of mom when things don't go his way that I'm trying to nip in the bud. Overall, though, he's still a really good boy and his communication seems to be getting a little better every day... well, maybe every couple of days. :)

Baby #2 is still doing well, but boy, is he ever active. He does somersaults in my belly almost all day long. It takes me at least an hour to fall asleep every night because as soon as I lay down he decides it's time to party in there. Jackson has been sleeping until at least 8:00 every morning, though, so that really helps.

Oh, last thing - I went out to lunch with some friends the other day and after I paid for my lunch I stupidly let J carry my credit card around for a few minutes. I know that was dumb, but he was restless and a little grumpy, as it was past naptime and he'd been sitting in the high chair for an hour. Anyway, I guess I wasn't keeping as close an eye on him as I thought because the next thing I knew he had stuck my card into the air vent in the front of the dessert display case. The hole for the vent was the perfect size for a credit card and it just slid right on in there. Oops. The whole thing happened so quickly!! The waitress tried to open up the case to see if we could get the card out, but no such luck. At least it wasn't my car keys or some cash or something.

Baby Boy and "Big" Boy...

We had the best ultrasound yesterday! We had to go get baby #2 checked out again because during the first ultrasound they weren't able to see a part of his heart. So, lucky us, we got to go see him again! He was in a great position for us to see him, his heart and everything else looked great (he definitely enjoyed showing off his manhood again), and the ultrasound tech even switched her machine over to 3-D so that we could get some great pictures of him! These are so amazing to me - I was totally tearing up in the ultrasound room! Isn't he just adorable?? I cannot wait to snuggle with him.

That big circle on his forehead is the reflection of the ultrasound or something. In the second picture his little hand is up by his nose. :)

Here's a picture of him in 2-D. This is a side profile shot, and while we were looking at him move around he had a really big yawn! The tech managed to snap a picture of it right at that moment. Can you see his mouth open wide? Thanks, Rocky, for letting me use your scanner to post these!

Here are some pictures of our out-of-the-womb baby... or maybe we should start calling him our "big" boy! It is so difficult to get a good picture of him nowadays because he is always on the move and will not sit still and pose for me! Here's a few times I managed to get some decent ones...


He loves his buddy, Hank...



And he loves this big exercise ball...



It's funny... my friend Andrea has mentioned several times on her blog that when she takes certain pictures of her boys they look so grown-up to her and it makes her a little sad. I totally feel that way about these pictures I just posted - like he's growing up too fast! In some ways he seems so much like my little baby, but then in others he's just like a little boy. Oh, and for the record, I think we may have some words being said in addition to "Mommy"... tractor, water, hot, what's that, dryer, dog, and airplane (although dog and airplane don't sound anything like they should, so maybe they don't count). He still won't say "Daddy", though... poor Phil!