Eight and Nine Months

Jackson turned nine-months-old on the 25th of October.  Already 3/4 of a year old.  And since I missed his eight month post, I'm going to just do one for both months.  So lets see where should I start.  Let me take you back to Saturday, September 1st.  James and I were in Washington for James' brother Jay's wedding.  And the kids stayed with my parents.  Now I'm very lucky to be a stay-at-home mom, and I hardly leave the kids with sitters.  So what does Jackson decide to do on one of the rare occasions he is without me?  He decides to start crawling of course.  Oh well, he performed his new trick for me right away when we got back.  By day 2 James already said it was getting old.  And I'll tell you why.  Jackson is an explorer.  He's a fast little crawler, and he is so curious.  He spots the tiniest little thing from across the room and then quickly and loudly army scoots across the room to get it.  He sneaks his way behind furniture to grab at cords, and is just in to everything.  We will have to do some major baby proofing soon.  Besides getting around by himself, he also grew two more teeth this month- four in total.  Luckily these two came in much quicker then his first two and didn't bother him too much.  They have a tiny little gap in between them, which our family dentist assured me is normal and no indication of how his adult teeth will grow in.  But for now he looks like a little Michael Strahan.  : )

He continued to army crawl for about seven weeks before he finally started to get up on his hands and knees.  He will still drop down to his tummy to scoot when he is in a hurry as he has grown quite efficient at it.  Plus it's probably killer on baby's knees.  A few weeks ago he started to pull himself up on things and it has become his favorite pastime.  He is constantly pulling himself up on the ottoman and throwing all of the remotes and magazines it contains onto the floor.  He will just stand there for ten to fifteen minutes at a time.  His legs are getting really strong, and I fear walking will come sooner than later.  In addition to the soft, safe ottoman, Jackson has discovered a wide variety of things to pull himself up on including: the TV cabinet, the kitchen table and chairs, the kitchen cabinets themselves, the dishwasher, and the couch.  He also found a fun trick that drives daddy in particular crazy.  He discovered this box in the TV cabinet with all of these bright blue lights on them, and he has learned how to push those bright blue lights and do all kinds of fun things to the cable, including turn it off.  And I don't know if it's a boy thing or just him, but he is not in the least bit sensitive to scolding.  I try to be stern with him and tell him no when he does naughty things, and he just looks right at me and then the biggest smile spreads across his face.  I have to turn my face away so he doesn't see me smile.  Oh boy are we in trouble.  He is already so rough and tumble to.  Ben literally grabs him and rolls around with him on the floor, to which he just smiles and laughs to.  I have a feeling that breaking up wrestling matches is going to be apart of my everyday life soon.

And this kid loves food.  He eats almost everything, except for green bean casserole, and most recently a sweet potato, mango, & millet combination he tried yesterday.  Can't blame him.  What is millet?  But other than that he eats three meals a day, and sometimes to jars for lunch.  I have also added a couple snacks, which include vanilla cereal puffs, and mixed berry yogurt melts.  He was not sure about them at first and just kept gagging himself, but now he has the hang of it.  And he's so good and picking up the little tiny treats with his pinky and thumb.  It's hilarious though when they get stuck to the palm of his hand and he's trying and trying to get it into his mouth, but just can't.  As I write three more teeth are making an appearance.  Two on top and one on the bottom, right of the middle teeth.  So far they seem to not be bugging him too badly, although he is constantly gnawing on his hand, or anything else he can get ahold of, including my arm.  He bit me pretty hard yesterday and I scolded him and then put his in his crib for a little "timeout."  I thought he might get a little upset about being put in his crib, and perhaps learn the consequence of biting.  No.  Instead when I walked in less than five minutes later he was just about to fall asleep.

Sleeping is still his strong suit.  He sleeps about eleven hours straight at night and then usually takes one three hour nap from about 1-4.  Doesn't get better than that.  He's always so well rested, and hence always such a happy little guy.  His main tickle spot still remains his inner theighs, as he just cracks up whenever anyone touches them.  He follows Ben around everywhere, and if I can't find him, I know he has made his way back to Ben's room, has pulled himself up to his little tool bench bottom shelf, and is pounding away with a little hammer or screwdriver.  He's just so curious, and so independent.  He's not one of those kids that has to be right near you at all times, or cries when you leave the room.  I'm sure my mom is still waiting for me to have a kid like that- payback.  I was such a clingy kid.

We all just adore Jackson and can't get enough of him.  I'm so grateful for his easy going and happy nature.  He brightens my day everyday.