Jackson @ 2 months

We love you little man. This week you are 2 months old and growing so fast. You've learned how to smile at us which was a very fun milestone.























I think this boy is ready for college. :)




















You love your daily tummy time and you have already gotten so strong. You often will hold your head and chest up with your little fists pressed to the ground and you often get mad when you can't move yourself the way you want. But you have already come so far.


Bathtime has become so fun for you. You love the bubbles and the warm water all over your body. I think you think you're at a baby spa! You often take a morning bath in the sink and you can hold yourself right in place. (Although mommy is always right there is case you get tired)
Nothing makes mommy and daddy happier than seeing you happy.




Once bath time is over you get all wrapped up in one of your little hooded towels and then we hang out on your changing table with the space heater on your bum.

You have a full head of hair still and it is currly when it is wet. Mommy loves to play with it but daddy always likes to keep it straight.
You have developed the cutest little face and we love watching you discover the different faces you can make when you get excited.



We love you little Jackson Bear and we can't wait to see what you'll do next. Until next time...

Spring Days

Life has changed so much for me since becoming a mom 2 months ago. I have these sereal moments of pause lately just thinking about everything wonderful and new in my life now. In the last week we've had Mike's sister Vera and her husband Chad visiting us from Oklahoma City. Having Jackson has been a great excuse to finally get some of Mike's family who have not come to Oregon since our wedding celebration 4 years ago, to come back. What a special time of visisting and playing with Jackson.




















The happy newlyweds





The Mini got a little love this weekend too! She hasn't been taken out much lately but when the summer comes we will be bumping her all over town.
Jackson loved this position when being held by his Aunt Vera. He was pretty fussy one night so she tried the booty pat but he wasn't having it.
I remember when none of our friends had kids. Now most of them do and we get to see them growing up together. This touches my heart because I've always wanted my kids to have friends that they've had since they were babies.

Friends: Eryn/Addison, Shannon/Payton, Brenda/Katya - at Addison's 1st birthday party.

The guys: Mike, Allen, Ryan and little Jackson


After a late night of fun.

What we've been up to

Jackson is smiling. Hurrah! That's one big thing that we've been working on.

























Jackson has been in his car seat more than usual this past week. We've visited many friends which Jackson loved...to many to list...serious fun!




















Autie Megs visited for a few days. Jackson loves his Aunt Megs, she sings to him, talks to him with funny voices and gets him to smile at her.
We also went to visit Grammie. She loves to get Jackson to exercise and we found out that the little guy is getting super strong.


















We are working on some serious projects right now. So this weekend we made some yummy shrimp ceviche and burned a bunch of bushes from our yard with our friends Allen and Eryn.
A pyromaniac's dream come true!
The finished parking strips.

Baby Faces

Jackson says HI blog readers! He wanted to show you how strong his little legs are. He can hold himself up (pretty much) and loves to exercise.

He now weights 9lb 5oz which means he has almost doubled his weight in a month. He's also grown 1 1/2 inches and his head has grown by 1 inch too. The nurse said that she remembered when we first came in just 2 days after he was born and he is SO much bigger now and has developed quiet the personality.

As I write this he is fussing in the background because he doesn't like going down for his nap. But I tell him that without the sleep he would be a fussy boy. A part of his personality that has developed in the past few weeks is that he noticeably loves being with us and when he gets put down he squawks. We've learned his different cries and know that he can be quiet the actor. 7pm tends to be his personal fussy time where he just won't relax and he HAS to be with us. I think it is because Mike is home.


What boy wouldn't want to be with a dad like this. They get along just like peanut butter and jelly. Although sometimes Mike gets a little crazy when he goes into daddy mode. But he is a super cool papa.

Male bonding time!

SLEEP

Last night Jackson dropped a feeding! He slept 2 - 5 hours streches without waking up to eat! I've been reading up about how to get him to sleep longer streches at night and hopefully soon sleep through the night. According to my book Baby Wise the plan is to have your baby on a 3 hour, eat, wake time, nap schedule. And then miraculously they start sleeping longer stretches (something about their metabolism becoming established). Well, at 5 1/2 weeks I am happy with only having to get up at 2:30am for a feeding instead of at 10, 2, 6 and 8:30! Any ideas about this are WELCOME!


Since today we were going out into the cold weather I decided to try on Jackson's little fleece "wild west" outfit. He loved it and in fact it fits him perfectly. (I thought it would be small but he is really growing fast) As you can see in his photo, he isn't really sure about the way the fabric feels.

Jackson's new favorite thing is to climb up the couch by pushing his legs off my hands. When he reaches the top he hangs over the side and looks at the contrast of the lights on our wood blinds. As you can see in the bottom left hand corner, he reaches for the light and cries out when he can't hold onto it. (or so I think)

The Fence is DONE!

As of last night the fence is complete, thanks to Mike who spent the better part of his weekend working with our neighbor on it! Now all we have to do is relandscape our yard. :)

This has been our big project the past 2 weeks. But before that it was our ongoing saga. If you have not heard the story already, in short, our neighbor came to us last summer and asked to replace the fence with a new cedar fence. We liked the fence the way it was but since it meant a new fence for us without much effort, we agreed. Well, we agreed on a plan, set deadlines and the fence was taken down. A new cement foundation was poured and then the project stalled out...for 6 months! We ended up having to sue our neighbor since he would not respond to new deadlines and many attempts to renegotiate. But recently the lawsuit produced some results. And now, almost 8 months and a dozen headaches later, we have a fence. It is not completely finished still...but I couldn't wait to post pictures. Hurrah! Now we have to re landscape the yard and everything else.

Here is a photo from before we started the fence project. We had already done SO MUCH work. Now it is a big mud pit. AHHH!

But to brighten the gardening spirits, my magnolia are blooming. Yeah!