carrots!

Jackson tried carrots for the first time the other day! He is starting to get the hang of it!

Peaches and 4 month pics

Dan and I canned peaches last week! I hope they are good.


Jackson is definitely feeling better. I took his 4 month pictures yesterday. Here are a bunch of cute ones.

Jackson at 4 months:

• is learning to use his voice and screaming/shrieking when he's happy
• is bringing his hands to his mouth all the time and sucking on fingers or his fist
• is grabbing toys and also bringing them to his mouth
• loves to go outside when he's fussy
• and loves to kick in the bath
• loves to be lifted up and down in the air

magic number 4

During the last four days, Jackson had four doctor visits and turned 4 months old.

Here is a shot from my phone when he wasn't feeling well.


He started sleeping a lot and coming down with a fever on the 23rd. I wasn't too concerned because I know babies get sick, but I called the advice line because his only other symptom was that he was pretty fussy and didn't like to be moved around. He would start to cry immediately when I'd pick him up or move him. No cough, runny nose, diarrhea, nothing else. The nurse thought he should be checked out, so we went in at 11am the 24th. She couldn't find anything else by just examining him, so she said to wait and see what it does and come in the next day. He continued with a fever and what I think are body aches till the 25th when we take him in again.

I still wasn't too concerned, just thinking it was a regular illness or possibly teething. We see a new doctor and once she hears and sees what is going on, she says "we need to find out what's going on, I want to do a catheter to get urine, blood work, a spinal tap, influenza test and a chest x-ray." ... now I got concerned, I started to cry. I was worried about him having a spinal tap. I've seen it done on adults and it worried me to have Jackson get one.

So a rough 4 month birthday, after...

• a tube in his penis
• swab up his nose
• needle in his arm
• needle in his back
• and in a strange contraption for the x-ray

...they started each coming back negative...good signs. Everything went smooth, no problems getting the spinal tap or a vein for blood. Two tests took 24 hours, but everything else was negative right away, so she gave two shots of antibiotics in his legs. We called the next day, Jackson was doing a little better, fever stopped for a bit but came back real low. They had us come back in and he got two more shots of antibiotics in his legs. Then the next day I took him in again for a check up and he was still doing a little better and she prescribed an oral antibiotic for the next 5 days and the other two tests also came back negative. So the doctor just thought it was a viral illness since she ruled out everything else. He's about 90% right now, doing so much better. He hasn't had a fever for at least 24 hours. Has been playing some, but a little fussy before naps still.

bath time

Dad took some pictures while I took a bath with Jackson. Jackson does great in the bath and likes to float on his back.

This one is a capture from a video, but I didn't want to post the video. I like the cute face he makes.

Jackson is almost 4 months!

Jackson had his 4 month doctor visit a little early. It was this last Wed, so he was just over 3 1/2 months old. Jackson weighed 13 lbs 6.5 oz (about 40% on charts) and 25 3/4 inches long (about 80%) and his head is 41 1/2 inches (about 60%). The doctor was happy with his growth and very impressed at his muscle strength and grabbing ability. He was really showing off to the doctor all he can do, he was pretty cute talking up a storm and blowing bubbles.

Yesterday morning I took about 200 pictures of Jackson in the bumbo. There are so many cute ones, so I'm posting a bunch. I had a hard time narrowing it down this far.

laughing at mom

Guess what I was doing in the background while Dan was videotaping this?




I was jumping up and down and waving my hands in the air. He loved it. It started with me just jumping once and he did a little smile/giggle and then I jumped again and he started to laugh.

Also, I've been wanting to note what he's been doing lately:

• blowing bubbles/spit - Jackson likes it a lot when I blow through my lips (what do you call it, raspberries?, but not on him) and he has started to do it too, it's cute.
• smiles lots at mom
• knows that when we shake his bottle of milk in front of him what is coming
• loves sleeping in the moby
• still sleeps great at night
• sitting good in the bumbo seat - can't believe he's such a big boy that he sits in it already, no good pictures yet of him in it, will add some soon.

Pictures of my garden and of course Jackson

Here is my little garden. There isn't too much and it's pretty simple.

After transplanting these from a friend's garden three years ago, they are finally growing tall. This was taken a couple days ago and now they are opening up and starting to bloom!

I love just taking pictures of Jackson on the couch sitting by himself.

He really was interested int he camera.

I put one of Jackson's bibs on kitty just to be funny. He didn't care at all and went about his business. He even escaped outside with it on. We made jokes that all the neighbor kitties would make fun of him for wearing it.

Today while Dan was at work, I wore Jackson on my back. He did really good just hanging out while I did chores around the house. Then he fell asleep. I was suprised since it hadn't been very long since his last nap. The back carry worked well though.

Amy is letting us borrow her jumper and Jackson really likes it. He love to watch the lights and monkey while the music plays. He does really well with grabbing them. He can just barely touch the ground, so no real jumping yet.

Dan and I canned cherries yesterday! He wanted canned cherries really bad, so we did it. I've never had canned cherries before, so I'm curious to see what it will taste like.

cousins, swimming and dessert!

Jackson got to meet his newest cousin, Cohen, a couple days ago. Cohens' sister, Elise, is holding him.

Elise and Cohen's brother, Landon, was holding Cohen for the pictures, but Elise wanted to.

Cohen came to visit us at our house two days ago. I can't believe that Jackson is so big! Cohen weighed 8 lbs 2 oz when he was born, so Jackson was even smaller than Cohen (7.0 lbs).

Elise loves to hang out next to Jackson. Such cute cousins.

Today was very warm out, in the mid 90's (F), so we went swimming at our friend Jesse's pool!

Amy and Wyatt came too. Jesse's son, Brady, was tired and was taking a nap, so we didn't get a group picture.

Jackson did great! He really did so much better this time than his first time in the pool at Sunriver. He liked this float and he liked it when I held him looking out and swam him side to side.

And for America's Independence Day tomorrow, I made these mini cupcakes for a BBQ we are going to. They were pretty easy to do. I'm pretty proud of them. I've always wanted to do a festive dessert for the 4th, but never have until today!