My sweet boys!

About 2 weeks ago, Jerry and Jackson went out on the town for Daddy time. I thought they were just going to run some errands. It turns out they spent the day doing things for me! They stopped by Whole Earth to buy me a pair of Reef flip flops that I'd been wanting. Next they stopped by Cafe Monet so that Jackson could paint a work of art for his mommy. I was so surprised! What sweet boys I have! They are absolutely the best! Here's a picture of what Jackson made me. He's so talented!! :)

The Pool

Some pix from Jackson's first trip to the pool a few weeks ago.

Father's Day

This is my (Jerry's) first post on Jackson's blog, and being that it is about Father's Day, we thought it was appropriate that I did the post. The morning started out just like all the rest, Jackson woke up sometime around 7AM, but this was special because he had a few gifts to give me. He made a unique card, had a mug printed with his picture on it, picked out a pop-up book that I could read to him, made a scrapbook of me and him, and found a book that I could answer questions about my childhood.

The card and mug required the use of computer skills, the books required the knowledge of buying things, and the scrapbook required fine motor skills like cutting with scissors and pasting with glue. Although he's still in diapers and he can't even crawl yet, he's developing quite well. I don't know if I should be proud, or scared that he's a freak of nature. Either way, he's my son, I love him no matter what.

We hung out the rest of the morning and played with some toys. I had to go to work at noon, so later that afternoon Jackson and mommy stopped by the station to say hello. All in all, it was a great first Father's Day. I'm already looking forward to next year's creations.

Dining Al Fresco

Jackson went to visit his great-grandparents recently. It was a nice morning out (before this ridiculous heat) so he decided to have some breakfast out on the porch. He enjoyed it. He made a huge mess and we had some good laughs!

Family

We recently had a family BBQ honoring my brother David who had just returned from his 2nd tour of duty in Iraq. We took several family pix and these are 2 of my faves. The first picture is my immediate famly and the second picture is all the extended fam.

Photography by Jackson

This is what happens when your baby gets a hold of the camera!!

We have a 6 month old!!

Our little Jackson has turned 6 months old! He's half a year old, people! That's unbelievable! We went out to dinner to celebrate. Jackson enjoyed his bottle, while we enjoyed Maudie's chicken fajitas for two! :)

He had his 6 month well check visit this morning. His weight was 17lbs, 2 oz (50th percentile), his length was 26" even (25-50th percentile) and his noggin measured 17 1/2" (75th percentile). I'd like to think his head is so big because he's got such a large brain, which means he super smart, like his girlfriend Hannah. :) Anyway, all went well at the doctor's office. That was until he received his vaccinations. Jackson got 3 shots and an oral vaccine. Poor baby!

So some things going on around here with the little guy:

• He has finally come around to eating some solid food - slowly, but surely that is. He's tried rice cereal, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, and bananas. Tomorrow he's going to try carrots!
• The toes have finally reached his mouth. That is one amazing feat! We'll have to get a picture of that.
• He's rolling over tummy to back like a mad man! He's done the back to tummy roll only a few times but seems to like the tummy to back roll much better.
• He's doing a lot of babbling where he's combining consonants & vowels. We've heard "mamamamama" and "bababababa"....um, at least we think we have.
• He's definitely sitting without support for longer periods of time. The coolest thing is that he is now sitting in high chairs at restaurants and the front of the shopping carts at the store!
• His two bottom teeth are pretty much completely out and we now need to start brushing them!
• He's experiencing a little bit of stranger anxiety. It was in full force a month or two ago but he still goes through occasional bouts of freaking out when he sees people who aren't mommy & daddy.
• Last but most certainly not least..he is sleeping 11-12 hours at night, even with teething! If someone would have told us 6 months ago that our 6 month old would be sleeping that long at night, we never would have believed them and we would have told them they were nuts!

Well that's all for now! Here's a few pix of our silly little bubby!

Jack & Amber

I laid Jackson down on the couch the other day with Patches (his stuffed doggy that his Bisa made him). Amber then jumped up, sniffed out Patches, sniffed out Jackson, and then plopped herself down just above his head. She kept whacking her tail in his face, which was pretty funny. They looked cute together so I grabbed the camera & took a picture!

-EYC

Feet!

Jackson loves his feetsies! It's really cute so we just had to share this pic!

Crazy Hair

The other morning we put Jackson down for a nap and all was normal. Well an hour later when he woke up, we found him with his hair sticking straight up! We have no idea how it happened but it looked awfully funny and we couldn't stop laughing!!!! :} It wouldn't go back down so we left it as it was and took a few pix!

Mother's Day

We spent Mother's Day with my family at my grandparents house. It was my first Mother's Day so I was pretty excited about it. We had some good food, good company, and a great time!

My sister made all the moms a lovely corsage. Jackson, with the help of his Mimi, gave me a cute picture magnet of him & I with a cute Mother's Day poem. He then further surprised me by giving me the Mother & Child keepsake box by Willow Tree and the Mother's Love charm from James Avery (his daddy helped him pick them out, of course).


Willow Tree Keepsake Box


Mother's Love charm


We also took some pictures to commemorate the day.

1 year ago today....

...I saw Jackson for the first time. I had my first OB appointment to confirm my pregnancy and have an ultrasound done. I had to go by myself since Jerry was working. I was nervous, excited, scared, happy...you name it, I felt it! I remember that my appointment was for 9:30 in the morning but the doctor's office called me around 7:30 and asked to reschedule to noon. That just made me even more nervous!

So I go in at noon and there is absolutely no one there! I'm the only patient in the waiting room. It was lunch time for the office but since my doctor, Dr. Schneider, had had an emergency come up in the morning she decided to see me during her lunch time. They called me back and did the usual checkup stuff, asked me my symptoms, and confirmed that I was indeed pregnant. The four at-home pregnancy tests several weeks prior still hadn't completely convinced me! It wasn't until actually hearing it from my doctor that I thought 'OH! MY! GOD! I'm having a baby!!!"

Dr. Schneider then took me to another room to perform the ultrasound. I was so nervous but then there he was...a tiny little bean with a beating heart. His little arm buds and legs were flailing like crazy! She measured him and said he was right on target and that everything looked great. He measured exactly 9 weeks, 4 days (which is right where I should have been) and his heart rate was beating at 160 BPM.

It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. I was so sad that Jerry wasn't there to share in the moment with me but at the same time it was cool for me to have that moment to myself. I saw my baby for the first time. This was a huge life changing event for me and at that moment it was just me & my baby.

I did a scrapbook page based on this experience and included a quote on the page that I feel summed up how that moment felt to me. It says "Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away." I couldn't have expressed it any better.

I remember wondering last year what life would be like in a year. We'd have a 5 month old and I just couldn't even wrap my brain around that! :) Well a year has passed and we now have a 5 1/2 month old who is the best thing in this entire world! He's so much fun and every day is new day with him. I honestly can't even remember what life was like before him but maybe that's because it's all a blur! At any rate, we're having the best time with the little dude and we couldn't be happier!!!

-Erica

A few pix of Little Bean Jackson! Actually, we didn't know Jackson was Jackson then, so he was affectionately called Baby Blob or Baby Cohen.

Dear Future Aunt Crystal,

My mommy, daddy, and me are sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo sorry that we forgot to leave a special birthday message for you on our blog. It completely slipped our minds and we didn't remember until last night that we never left a message for you! Actually, I reminded mommy and she thought "Oh no! I completely forgot!!" At least we didn't forget your actual birthday and I hope that you liked the card I sent you. I picked it out all by myself especially for you! Anyway, I digress. We're so sorry and we hope you can forgive us (well, mostly my mommy since she's the one that does all of this blog stuff anyway!).

Love, Jackson



Future Aunt Crystal, how can you not forgive this sweet face!?! :)

Buds

Jackson got to hang out with his buddy Wilson at the park last week. Actually, Jackson mostly watched Wilson get dirty! Wilson was all over the place, picking up rocks & sticks, while Jackson sat in my lap munching on his fingers. Jackson did take some time to swing on the swing set and before they left, Jackson & Wilson sat on the bench to take some pictures together! Just two cute buds, hanging out!
-Erica

Tripod

On Friday, Jackson sat in the tripod position for the first time! We were so excited. He sat for what seemed like forever but it was probably only a minute or so before he toppled over! He then looked at us bewildered! He didn't know what had just happened. It was too funny!

Sorry about some of the blurry pictures! He was bobbling around so much that we couldn't get too many clear shots! **notice Amber in the background**