Zoo

We took Jackson to the Memphis Zoo. I am sure we had more fun looking at the animals than he did. There were tons kids so he was so intrigued and distracted by them. He did watch the tigers and the hippos that were relatively close...

We enjoyed the new Teton Trek that just opened. We watch three grizzly cubs play, swim, and find/fight over a fish. Jackson looked like he would fit right in with his little bear coat... Jackson and one of the famous panda bears...

Jonathan thought it would be hilarious for Jackson to pose in Marco Polo's face. I have to say it really was. Nice mustache...

Sweet daddy and sweet baby boy. My two precious men...

Family photo in front of the hippo dressed as a Memphis tiger. All the animals out front were in costumes for Zoo Boo.

Sweet Aunt Holly (my best friend) came with us too. At lunch, she even fed and rocked him to sleep while we ate! She is the best...

October life

Sorry for the lack of blogging. Since Jackson has been in daycare full-time while I have been sick with this pregnancy, there have been WAY fewer photo-ops. I am feeling much better! Starting in November, he will be back home with me like before...so more blogging material!

He is doing so much now. Life is so fun with him. He loves my phone. He will fuss if he sees me on it because he wants to play with it. He also has learned to put it to his ear, although usually it is behind his head. IT IS ADORABLE!

Grammy found out that he enjoys riding in his dump truck. He loves this dump truck Aunt San gave him before he was born. He loves spinning the wheels, pushing it, and climbing in it.In the morning, he will be standing up or playing with his lamb. All smiles of course!

Happy 9 months!

Oh, Jackson! My how you have grown! You are the joy of our lives. It is hard to believe you have been in our lives for nine months. You have grown so much. Everyday it seems there is something new. Just yesterday you started really pulling up fully by yourself and even tried to climb the stairs... Two weekends ago, you began moving from your stomach to a sitting position. We had never even seen you try this before and magically you just did it! Now you crawl a few feet, sit up, back to the tummy, crawl, and sit up again. You are all over the house. There is no corralling you! You like playing under the dining room table....You are a social butterfly. You will go to nearly anyone (unless you are really tired). At school, they say you are a "ladies' man" because you go between the only two little girls in the class. You on many occasions have tried to kiss both of them. Here you are with one of your little girlfriends, Meg. Your dad says that when he brings you in the mornings and she is there she scoots to you as fast as she can. Your teachers say that you like to put her pacifier in her mouth for her. Just like your dad, you already know how to take care of a woman ;)

Lastly, I will leave everyone with this adorable picture of you which pretty much sums up how you are 99.9% of the time...

Baltimore/DC

Papa had a conference in Baltimore last week and asked us to go along and keep Yetti company. Unfortunately, Jonathan was unable to go; so Jackson and I made the trip with them. It was many first for Jackson. He did great on his first plane ride. Getting through security was like a circus with 3 laptops, a stroller, bottles, baby food, every one's shoes (including Jackson), and an infant! The poor line that developed behind us! We made it, checked in the hotel, and then spent the afternoon walking around Inner Harbor. Here are a few pictures from the Inner Harbor:

People watching...

Lots of boats and action going on...

Sunday, we ate that morning (well noonish) in Baltimore at The Blue Moon Cafe (sorry, couldn't find a good link). I seen an episode of "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives" about it a LONG time ago, BUT it's Captain Crunch French Toast stuck with me. Guy Fieri seemed to love it and for good reason. All three of us ate it and though we had to wait over two hours for a table (very small restaurant and very popular)...it was soooooooooo worth it. We all loved it! If you are ever in Baltimore, it is a MUST!!! After eating, we took a train to D.C. for the day. Of course, it was Jackson's first train ride. Like always, he was a champ. He lasted all day without being fussy.
We decided to take a double decker bus instead of strolling everywhere, normally I would love to walk all over the city but it was hot and I was nauseated. Here they are with the Lincoln Memorial in the background:

That night we ate dinner in beautiful Union Station in DC before heading back to Baltimore.

Monday, we ate breakfast. He had his first tastes of pancakes which he loved.

Then the search by his Yetti for an Orioles jersey was on! We had tickets the next night to the Orioles-Yankees game. Though his Papa is a Yankees' fan, all there were in Baltimore was Orioles' gear. So here is his adorable Oriole self:

Unfortunately, on Monday afternoon I was super-nauseated which worsened through the evening. I sent them off to dinner without me and not an hour later was I calling them to come get me and take me to the hospital. Two Baltimore ERs (first the trauma center...thanks Mr. Cabbie, then Mercy Hospital), two ultrasounds, pelvic exams, blood draws, four bags of fluid, and eight hours later...we were told to fly home as soon as possible and go on bedrest. Scared to death, we came home the next day. Jonathan and I went to see my local OB who said I was too early to be on bedrest for my Subchorionic Hemorrhage. We have an ultrasound in three weeks to see if it has resolved or worsened. Poor Jonathan was a wreck not being there and not knowing every step of what was going on! So needless to say, we didn't make it to the game or to NYC where we were going on Wednesday through Friday. It was good to be home and back with Jonathan after such a scary event. It is hard to not be together in those kinds of situation when you have toughed it out together and leaned on one another for the last eight years! So far this pregnancy has not been too different from Jackson's, hospital visit early on and lots of vomiting. He gave us so much trouble in utero that now he is making up for it by being the happiest, sweetest little thing. Bring it on Baby #2! Be just like your big brother!!!! ;)

Big News

For those of you that don't know, Jackson is going to be a big brother. We found out about two weeks ago that I was pregnant. It was a shocker but nonetheless very exciting news. Baby #2 is due April 14th. That will make them almost 16 months apart. Life will be crazy come April!

Jackson is growing so much, more than ever in the personality department. It is truly unbelievable the things that he has started doing lately. It really is something new everyday! Here are a list of things going on with him right now:

-Eating baby food well (FINALLY)

-Learning finger foods (fruits, Cheerios, etc)

-Army crawling like a champ...not sure he'll ever crawl. He is just fine with his present method.

-Though he won't get on all fours to crawl, he'll do it just to crawl over or into things which he LOVES doing. As seen below:

-Waves goodbye and hello which just makes me smile every time!

-Does need assistance to pull up but loves to stand holding on to something for hours!

-Plays chase with us. We will crawl out of sight, he will come find us, then once he does he immediately turns around, squeals, and takes off away from us! It is precious. I think he learned this from his Yetti and Papa who always play a similar game but just with Yetti holding him and Papa chasing him.

-Rocks back and forth and dances when happy or prompted to dance.

-Knows the meaning of "no" and sometimes gets his feelings hurt after telling him not to do something. It is the most pitiful sight!

-Spits out his pacifier for food or his bottle. It is so funny!

I am sure there are many more funny/adorable things that he is doing, but that is all I have for you right now. He still is the happiest little man.

Jackson's First Beach Vacay

This past week was a week for firsts for Jackson. It was his first trip to the beach. We went to Destin with Yetti, Papa, Uncle Heath, Aunt Courtney (yes, she is Aunt Courtney official now...they got engaged on our trip!!), and Uncle Rhett (who was there for only a few days). It was such a nice week! The beach is very different with a little one. Instead of just bringing a cooler of beer, a bathing suit, and maybe a chair/umbrella...there are a hundred other items also to bring. We had a cabana, baby pool, bottles, toys, diapers, swim diapers, outfits, pacifiers, baby sunscreen, etc. It was a workout loading and unloading for the beach! Jackson loves the water and of course loved the ocean. He didn't get in the first day because the waves were too big, but later that week he got in and swam in his float. He liked the sand and would try to eat it when possible. Here he is on his first day after he reached over in the sand and grabbed a handful. I got most of it out of his hand, but you can see he still wanted to eat it!Like I said early, there were lots of firsts. His Yetti taught him lots of things this week. He yells (in a very cute way) anytime she opens her mouth wide. Also with her persistence, he is now eating baby food! He finally opened his mouth to eat and now does it every time. Ironically, she was not there the first time it happened. Here he is yelling with his Yetti.

Silly boy! He was so great all weekend long. Unfortunately, you can't see what else happened this week in this photo. BUT...he got his first tooth!On Monday Papa, Heath, Rhett, Courtney, and Jonathan went deep sea fishing. Yetti, Jackson, and I met them at the dock when they came back in. We didn't expect to be there that too long, so Jackson didn't have sunscreen on. He got his first little bit of sun. He had the cutest farmer's tan from this outfit!
Lastly, this is my favorite photo from my camera all week long. His eyes are so blue!

He is also scooting, getting on all fours and rocking, and on the verge of crawling. I would imagine that he will be crawling in the next few days or weeks. SCARY! He also started throwing temper tantrums. The first time he did it I thought he was hurt or having some strange seizure! It was crazy, but I soon figured it out that he just wanted out of the high chair. I will have more photos soon. I didn't use my camera much since Yetti's is so much better. By the way, my camera is not as bad as these photos make it seem. I just had it on a night setting from the night of the proposal and never changed it. Oh well...

Weekend in Memphis

A few weekends ago we went to Memphis for the weekend to Jonathan's parents. Grammy and Granddad had planned for family to come over for lunch on Saturday. We got to see Aunt Terry, Mrs. Vicki, Granddad (who we refer to as Docky since there are two Granddads on the same side), Grandmom, Aunt Sandy, Uncle Kevin, Granddad and Grammy.

Grandmom played the piano with Jackson. He loves music or any interesting noises.Jackson had fun sitting in Docky's lap. He also loved playing with his chest hair which was way too funny! Poor Docky was such a good sport!