8 months!

Well, Jackson at 8 months:

• crawling on his hands and knees everywhere! and hasn't army crawled for awhile now
• pulling himself to standing at everything
• had turkey on Thanksgiving! it was baby food turkey & vegies
• takes a short nap in the morning (about 20 mins) and then a longer nap after lunch (usually 1-2 hours) then maybe another nap late afternoon
• no teeth yet, just lately he's been grabbing my hand and biting it though
• likes it when I sing and do the hand motions of itsy bitsy spider
• shakes his hands/arms with or without a toy in it and is all excited, like in the picture with the giraffe and will usually have his mouth in the shape of an O like he's really concentrating and excited
• still loves to pull my hair... and hard! pulls Dad's hair, but can't grab it as well. He also plays with his hair in the evening when he is drinking his bottle. It's pretty cute.
• (thought of another one...) has learned the game of throwing something on the ground and getting mom to pick it up and then throwing it on the ground again and mom picking it up again and throwing it on the ground again, etc. etc.

More Arizona pics

Shadows then and now

Then... (April 2008)

Now... (Nov 2009)

Plane ride!

Dan drove down with his Grandparents to Arizona (they stay there for the winter). Then Jackson and I flew down and got a rental car and met them at the RV park. We stayed three days and flew back home. It was so nice down there, blue skys and in the low 80's. Here is one pic on the plane. I'll add more later.

I was a little worried flying alone with Jackson, but he did great! We had to wake up early at 4am to fly out at 6am. I gave Jackson a bottle when we were taking off. He then slept for just about the whole plane ride (1 1/2 hours). Then we had a hour layover at San Francisco, which was just enough time to change terminals and relax a bit and let him play a little. I gave him another bottle when we took off again and he took a short nap. Then he played a little and I gave him some lunch. We got into Phoenix and got ours bags, got the rental car and then drove to Ajo/Why Arizona. It is about 2 1/2 hours and Jackson took a 2 hour nap during the drive. I was worried about the drive the most. I'm so glad he slept most of the way.

quick pics

Riding & Laughing

He loves riding his giraffe. I was trying out a comb-over look for him too, hehe.

Jackson is watching Baby Signing Time DVD on our computer. It shows a little clip of a cartoon with two kids and a frog. He likes the kids laughing a lot.

snow and finger foods

It's kind of been snowing slightly off and on today. Sticking for a bit and then melting. Jackson noticed it this morning and was watching it fall. (Don't mind his pajamas and diaper ... oh but if you want, notice that this is a new diaper I sewed out of an old Church Camp shirt of Dan's...cheap fabric!)

Jackson has been getting frustrated with me spoon feeding him. So I've been giving him more finger foods. He likes the independence I think.

And to mark a date, I don't think Jackson has army crawled at all in the last 30 hours. He is full on regular crawling on his hands and knees. He goes all over now. And is pulling himself up to standing at everything too, which is causing him to fall more and is starting to get bumps and little scrapes (there is a tiny one on his chin).

loves being outside

Jackson loves being outside. It's too bad our winters get so cold. I'll take him out some, but there is no way he can go out the same amount that we were during the summer.

Cousins

Pat & Courtney and kids came to visit from California. It's fun to see them together again.

doing lots

Jackson is trying new stuff all the time now. I thought it would take him awhile to do, but he's already pulling himself to standing at the couch. And he has crawled on his hands and knees a few times too! They have been very short distances, like three movements and that's it. Usually it's after a toy (sometimes being dangled by me, but some on his own). If it's any farther, he just goes to his army crawl.

Clapping

Jackson has been practicing clapping!

Here is another one of him clapping, I just didn't get all of it.

I put this house toy in between the living room and dining room to try blocking Jackson from getting out of the living room. He loves going into the dining room. I think he likes to look out the sliding door window and play with Kitty's food container. But it only blocked him for a couple minutes and he figured out how to open the door and then he was off into the dining room. Before, the house was in the dining room and he never really played with the door, so I didn't think he would get it that fast.

Here are some cute expressions of seeing me on the other side.