10 Month Update

September was a fun and busy month for us.  Our little guy is growing up so quickly and is constantly doing something new and exciting.  I seriously just can't get enough of him!  He is such a happy baby, extremely laid back, go-with-the-flow baby.  He is so FUN!  Here are his weekly snapshots of our happy, active little booger:

Hanging out with mom in the kitchen at 40 weeks.

41 weeks old in our spare bedroom on Great Grandma's quilt she made.

42 weeks admiring Baba's flowers!

43 weeks and Jackson is mobile!  Look out!

44 Weeks just a swinging away on his new swing!  Jackson insists on holding his weekly sign.  His sign is looking pretty pitiful, hoping it lasts another 8 weeks until he is one year old.  8 weeks?!!!  Noooooooo!

I know I say this on every post I make, but I can't believe Jackson is 10 months old.  Time has flown by incredibly fast.  I'm trying to savor every second with him.  I'm so blessed that he is such a happy baby, loves to cuddle, and is easy going.

We have had a lot of fun this month!  This month started with a new gift for Jackson from his Baba and Papa.  Papa and Daddy built Jackson a swing in our backyard!  Jax LOVES it so much!  Thank you so much for building it Papa and thanks Daddy for helping Papa put it together. 

 Jackson has started to crawl, well sort of. Heehee.  He does the army crawl.  He gets up on his knees a little bit, and bounces for a while, then falls to his tummy and scoots along.  Jackson is very proud of himself!
Here is a video of him crawling:

Jackson has started to clap, too!  It's adorable.  He is very interested in his hands-he often will just stare and study them.  I love how he watches his hands open and close.  Jackson now waves all the time, at everyone and everything!  
Here is a video of him clapping:

Jackson loves to play peek-a-boo with his blankets and towels.  He cracks himself up when he plays peek-a-boo, and now he is the one that initiates the game.  Thanks to our sweet Baba, when you ask Jackson, "How big are you?", he raises his arms up over his head.  Then we say, "Soooooo big!"  I haven't quite caught that on video yet.  Hopefully next months blog I can share that.  Jackson will do it all the time (especially when he sees his Baba!), but stops when I turn on the video camera.  Little stinker!

 

One of Jackson's favorite things to do is still eat food and drink his milk!  He now eats chunks of cooked foods like carrots, green beans, banana, avocado, blueberries,  etc.  Jackson has tried meat (turkey and chicken), and of course loves it all!  The boy even loves beets, gross!!  We have yet to introduce a food to him that he hasn't liked.  Jackson is such a good eater.  But, unfortunately for Jackson, we now have to take a couple bottle feedings away from the little food monster.  We recently went to his pediatrician, and the Dr. shared with us that Jackson is in the 75% for his weight (he weighs 21 pounds!) and 15% for his height.  Since he is shorter than most babies his age and at a healthy weight, his BMI is getting close to the high end, not high, but close enough.  The Dr. doesn't want Jackson to loose any weight, he just wants Jackson to maintain a healthy growth chart and eat three meals a day instead of 5.  My how times have changed...we once were struggling to get the little preemie to gain weight, now he's on the verge of weighing too much!  I can't help but laugh about it.  I'm just looking forward to the day I go to one of Jackson's doctors appointments or developmental therapists and can be told, "Wow, Jackson looks great.  See you next time."  I know things could be MUCH worse (and we are extremely blessed), and I'm probably feeling sorry for myself and feeling a little frustrated, but I just want to go to one of his doctors appointments and walk away with all happy news, nothing we have to work on or improve or change or add to our list of concerns.

Anyways, Jackson's doctor kindly helped me with a meal plan for Jackson.  He's like us: eats breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  Is that weird it makes me a bit sad?  I'm already missing his infant stage.  We have only been doing his new meal plan for a few days now...so far, so good.  He isn't acting hungry in between meals and is continuing to take a great morning and afternoon nap.  He is, however, waking up in the middle of the night a lot...but he doesn't act hungry when Nick or I pick him up-he goes right back to sleep on our shoulder.  All the food stuff stresses me out!  When to introduce what food to him and when, when to start weaning off the bottle, sippy cups (which Jackson is not a fan of!), when to add more food/less formula/breast milk, how much does chunks of food equal in serving sizes, ahhhhh!  And, of course, every resource I read or mom I talk to does it differently   I just hope that I'm not overfeeding Jackson or not feeding him enough!  But Jax is such a happy and healthy baby, and that is all I care about! 

Jackson is feeding himself his veggies!  Such a big boy.

Jackson has some good chompers!  He has six teeth. Yes, six!!  Can you believe it?!   He has four teeth on top and two teeth on the bottom.  The pediatrician said Jackson has a high arch palate this last visit.  We will monitor it closely, but for now it's nothing to be concerned about.  Thank goodness we have Dr. Papa Palate.

Jackson's Uncle EJ is a Freshman in High School in Smithville and plays football.  Jackson likes to go to Uncle EJ's games and root for him (when he's not flirting with the cheerleaders!)

Silly boy!

We had the King family reunion in Smithville this past month.  It was a gorgeous Fall day.  Jackson had a lot of fun riding a pony!

Giddy-up!

Giving GMo kisses!