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.

Halloween

The morning started off with some fun treats for the kids.  I made them festive breakfast and their GG had a special Halloween bag for them with toys, pjs, and some candy in Ben's.  Then it was off to school for Ben, where their teacher no doubt told me they were a little nuts!

Right after school I picked Ben up and changed him into a rocker right in the parking lot of his preschool to head to my sister, Katie's work for a little Halloween party/lunch.  He got a kick of running back into the classroom and showing his teacher his cool look.  My parent's brought my niece and my Grandpa Ron and Uncle Dave joined in the festivities at Kate's work cafeteria where a lot of her co-workers kids were there too.  All babies under one, like seriously five of them.  And all girls.  I should have gotten a picture of Jackson with all those girl babies.  Darn.  : )  We took some seriously cute pictures of the cousins though.

Festive lunch for Ben. 

Frankenstein cupcakes I made, and Jackson's festive lunch in the background.  

Once Uncle Jeff got home from school it was off to meet up with James in Los Gatos.  When we were living there we were told that we just had to go to Tait Street for trick-or-treating.  And it was awesome.  Almost everyone on the long block goes all out.  This was our third year going.  These houses do not disappoint.  Just on their own these houses make me drool.  Just love the architecture and the uniqueness of each and every one.

This year was so much fun too with Ben.  He loved everything Halloween this year, and was not scared by any of the creepy decor or scary costumes.  Last year he was so nervous walking around Tait Street that he eventually broke down in tears and we had to go.  This year he eagerly trick-or-treated at most of the houses on the block- those without crazy long lines that is, and came away with a good haul.  Jackson meanwhile was a champ in his stroller, just enjoying the sights around him.

I was so glad we got an early start because it was still light out when we first began and I could get some decent filming in before the dark.  And we were home by 8:30.  Great day.  Great night.  Great Halloween.

Pumpkins

We finally got around to carving pumpkins the night before Halloween.  I cut all the tops off of our family's four pumpkins and Ben was a great helper in cleaning all the guts and seeds out.  Ben requested a Frankenstein pumpkin for himself, and a ghost pumpkin for Jackson.  After I had done both of theirs I never got the energy back up again to do my own.  Oh well.  It took me a minute or two staring at James' lit pumpkin on the porch to figure out what it was.  It's the Lorax.  Then Ben requested that I roast the seeds, but after tasting a few the next day, he decided he's not much of a fan.  I still have a big jar of them.  Probably will throw them out soon.  Need to check online how long they keep for.

Fun times.  I actually really enjoy carving pumpkins.  I could do without the mess of course.  But I love, love, love the way pumpkins smell, and I enjoy creating something fun.  As long as they aren't extremely difficult pumpkins to carve.

Just call us Greene-day!

It was James' idea to go as rockstars this year for Halloween.  Since we always have multiple events to go to, for the last two years I've made/ put together two Halloween costumes for Ben.  One for him to wear solo, and another to go with our group costumes.  This year I did the same for Jackson.  James revealed his look to us right before heading out to Trunk-Or-Treat on Saturday before Halloween, and I revealed mine and the boys.  I love how we all pulled together and couldn't keep from laughing when I looked at my baby Jacky all punked out.

James and Ben were our guitarists.

Jackson was a natural choice for drummer as his little arms are always flailing around.

 These three really are rockstars in my eyes.

James cracks me up.  He claims he only does this kind of stuff for me.  But does this look like a man who was forced into this.  First of all, it was his idea.  Secondly, look how into it he got.  Yes that's eye liner.  And this pose just kills me.  : )  

 Me and my main man.

I'm just glad we got all of these pics on Saturday because we didn't go quite as all out on Halloween, and the only pics I got were of the kiddos and Ben trick or treating.  

Gratitude- Day 2

I'm very grateful to have such a funny, smart little buddy to spend my everyday with.  Ben just has such a great sense of humor, and just gets things so quickly and sometimes beyond what I imagined he could get.  We crack each other up everyday.  Like this morning, I kept saying to Jackson, "hi, baby.  Hi baby."  We were watching Shake It Up on the Disney Channel, and my hi babies, turned into, "hello ba-bay!"- Gunther style.  You have to know the show to have any clue what I'm talking about.  Not only did I crack myself up, but Ben could not stop laughing.  And then neither could I.  He's also so forgiving just like his daddy.  He doesn't hold a grudge and he is so understanding.  I can tell him that I'm sorry for acting grumpy, I have a bad headache.  And immediately he forgives my grumpiness and just understands that the pain from my headache is making me that way (not that I can't choose to be another way- but you know what I mean.  Maybe?)  I don't know if I am making much sense, but I just appreciate so much the way Ben is.  Very easy going.  Reasonable.  Understanding.  Forgiving.  Man I eke dwelling on that forgiving thing.  Can you tell that I screw up a lot?  I'm always asking him to forgive me.  For being grumpy.  For being short.  Etc.  I hope that it helps him by exploding that whole concept of my parents are perfect thing that supposedly young children have early so he can just get over that disappointment- ha.  And I also hope it helps him to learn humility, forgiveness, self-improvement (as I always talk to him about how mommy is trying to become a better mommy all the time and how he needs to work on things like being a better listener.)  Wow, this has really gone off on a tangent.  But anyway, Ben keeps life interesting around here.  He chats non stop.  Loves on his brother to the point of near harassment.  And loves me unconditionally.  Plus he's just so dang cute.  Love you kid.

Gratitude month

Well October is over and all of the Halloween festivities (which I still need to recap). November is here and I'm going to, really I need to work on focusing on gratitude. Also apparently doing a better job of teaching Ben what thanksgiving really is- as he said the other day "it's a day where we eat a lot of food. "
To follow in many friends footsteps I'm going to try and do a quick post each day about things I'm grateful for. And since I can now blog from my iPhone I really have no excuse.
So to kick it off I'm grateful for my little buggy bears, my Jacky boy. I'm missing him tonight as he is at my parents house for the night so I can work at Ben's preschool in the morning. Thinking of you baby and can't wait till noon tomorrow. Love you.

He's teething.  Can you tell?

Preschool Parade

Ben had his Halloween parade at preschool this morning.  It's about two minutes of the kiddos lapping the school yard twice, followed by ten minutes of doting parents taking pictures, and three minutes of changing kiddos out of costumes so they don't get ruined at school.

Jackson wanted to wear a costume like the big kids.  Here they are with Teacher Sarah. 

The fun for the kids started after us parents left.  They got to get their faces painted and played a few fun games, I think.  I can never really get too much information out of Ben about what he actually did at school.  All I know is my Ben walked out of school with a full painted Frankenstein face.  I was just telling my friend Shannon, after seeing her little Frankenstein that Ben hates to get his face painted.  How he always refuses, and sticks out his hand to be painted instead.  I was a little shocked when I saw him.  He told me on the way home that he didn't really want to get his face painted.  I asked him why he did it then, and he said "just for fun."  I think it was peer pressure.  It's beginning already.

I thought for sure Jackson would be a little afraid of his big brother when he saw him, considering he was very uneasy around James in his rock star costume, and all he had on was black eye liner.  Instead he laughed.  Love that baby!