Our Little Vaquero...

he's 8 months old now! He turned 8 months on July 29th (last Sunday). Here's the latest on what the little Vaquero has been up to:

• He's pulling up onto his knees, occasionally to his feet.
• He's "talking" non-stop. Seriously, the kid doesn't know how to keep it quiet! He's our very own little mockingbird...he makes all kinds of different sounds, noises, & babbles over and over and over again!
  
• He's lunging forward from the sitting position as if he wants to crawl.
• He can put himself back into the sitting position from his hands & knees.
• He can rotate around while sitting or while on his hands & knees.
• He can stand supported for a long period of time. He loves to stand at his learning table and the coffee table.
  
• He loves to play peek-a-boo! He laughs those great big belly laughs whenever we play with him.
• He absolutely loves his learning table. He's also very much into his board books and his cloth dinosaur book, his Baby Einstein blocks, and his remote. Yes, folks, he has his own remote!
• He's eating solids very well and has even attempted some table food. He loves puffs...absolutely loves them! He's gotten so much better at picking up small pieces of food off his tray and putting them into his mouth.
  
• He's also drinking water from his sippy cup. He can drink from both a spout and a straw cup but prefers the straw cup.
• He's learning sign language. We've been teaching him the signs for eat, more, drink, and milk. We think we've seen him use the more sign in the correct context but we're not sure if that was a fluke or not!
  
• Last but not least, he's teething again! We can see a top tooth coming through. Oh, the joys of teething!

Oh yeah, a huge muchas gracias goes out to Jackson's buddy, Bryce, and his mommy & daddy, Ann & Josh, for the awesome cowboy hat!!!

Best Friends

My best friend, Courtney, and her two boys, Noah & Jacob, moved from San Antonio to Oklahoma City recently. They were in town 2 weeks ago so we met up with them for breakfast at Cracker Barrel. We hadn't seen the boys in forever and they're so big now! It was so great to see all 3 of them. We definitely miss them and we can't wait to see them again! In fact, we're planning an OK City trip for sometime in October. It should be fun!


Noah, Jacob & Jackson...such cute boys! :)

A year ago today...

we found that our little dude was in fact a little DUDE! I had my "big" ultrasound on 7.26.06. and it was the most exciting yet most nerve wracking day of our lives! This was the ultrasound that was going to tell us how the baby was developing, if there were any complications, and whether it was a boy or a girl. Our appointment was in the morning so thankfully we didn't have to wait all day before finding out how our baby was doing.

The technician took us to our room and had me lie down on the table. She hooked everything up and we were able to see what was going on up on the TV screen that was across the room from us. She started moving the wand around on my belly and it was amazing! We could see Baby Cohen moving around, having a good old time! I did make sure to drink a glass of orange juice in the morning!

The technician pointed out the legs, the arms, the head, the chambers of the heart...it was so cool! At one point, she got a great shot of his face. We had brought a VHS tape with us so she was able to record the whole ultrasound on video. The whole time she was checking the baby, I was just dying! I was so nervous because I didn't want anything to be wrong but at the same time, she was killing me b/c I didn't know if she could tell yet if it was a boy or girl. It seemed like forever before she asked us if we wanted to know the sex of the baby. We said yes. So she asked if we had any guesses. I said that Jerry thought it was a girl but that I was convinced, absolutely convinced that it was a boy. I told her that I was pretty much in the minority though because everyone else seemed to think we were having a girl. She then told me "You should have bet money on it...you're having a BOY!" I thought "OMG...I was right! I knew it!" I was so excited! She then proceeded to show us that yep, the baby was indeed a boy! :) It was so cool. We couldn't have been more thrilled. He was healthy and growing right on target for a December 14th due date.

We left the doctor's office extremely happy and relieved at the same time. After that, the phone calls began! From then on Baby Cohen became known as Jackson Joseph Cohen. I remember thinking wow, we're having a boy...I wonder what life will be like a year from now with our little boy! Well a year later, Jackson is almost 8 months old. He's attempting to crawl, he's pulling up on things, he's making silly noises, he's screaming at the top of his lungs, he's 'talking' ALL THE TIME, he's showing a bit of attitude (huh!?! where does that come from?), he's clapping ... he's just doing all sorts of fun things and we're having a blast with him! Hmm...I wonder what life will be like a year from now. We'll see!

I'll leave you with some pix of that sweet little baby from a year ago now doing one of his favorite things - playing and pulling up on his Leapfrog learning table!

Sunset

The sunset this evening looked amazing! Jerry took some pix of what it looked like from our backyard.

Play Date!

Jackson went over to his friends Ellie Rae & Luke's house for a play date recently. Luke is only 7 weeks old so he couldn't really play but 2 year old Ellie Rae was down for some serious play time with Baby Jackson (that's what she calls him)! She was very sweet to him, it was super cute. Jackson really liked her as well. They had a great time playing together while Luke slept and the mommies (my great friend, Angie & I) chatted. Jackson can't wait to go over to their house again to play...hopefully next time they'll have batteries! ;)

What a mess!

This is what Jackson typically looks like after dinner! He's always a complete mess. He eats like his daddy! ;) Here he had just finished eating a yummy sweet potato/oatmeal mix!

Lady Bird Johnson

On Saturday we made a trip over to the LBJ Library to pay our respects to Lady Bird Johnson. There wasn't much of a line so we were able to walk right into the library, sign the guest book, and make our way up the stairs to the casket. As we were going up, Lady Bird's oldest daughter, Lynda and her husband, Charles, were making their way down. They stopped to thank all the people in front of us for attending. They then made their way to the three of us. Lynda shook my hand and said "Thank you so much for coming." She then turned to Jackson and commented on how cute he was! She asked what his name was and how old he was. She then told us that they had a 13 month old granddaughter running around somewhere! We thought it was very cool that she personally thanked us and all the other visitors. Her and her husband were truly gracious!
After visiting Lady Bird, we took some pictures outside the library. Our favorites being the view of the fountain from Jackson's perspective!

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Independence Day from Jackson! Hope everyone has stayed safe & dry!

Some pix from Jackson's stint as a 6 month old

I love reading books in the laundry basket!


You'd better feed me or else!


Yep, he's real! (Jackson's friend, Graham)



Aren't I a hunk! I'm off to the pool to check out the ladies!


Check out my backside!


Mmmm...my thumb is good!


What am I going to watch today?

OH MY GOSH! We've made a HUGE oops!!!!

We completely forgot to wish Grandma Flo a very Happy Birthday and her birthday was almost a month ago on June 6th!!!!! We hang our heads in shame! :( We feel so, so bad!

It's been a busy month with play dates, music classes, and the such, so we haven't done as great a job of keeping up with the blog as we would have liked. So in the process, we completely forgot to make a special post in honor of Grandma Flo's birthday. We're so sorry Grandma Flo!

We hope to make it up to you when you come out for your visit next week!!

XOXOXO

Mesh Feeder

Jackson loves eating fruit in his mesh feeder! Here he is chomping on an apple. YUM!

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!!