August was a pretty busy month for us.  But September is even busier.  I'm kind of wondering what my mental state will be at the end of it :)  We'll see.......

Some of the events -- 2 weddings / celebrations, a bachelor party, Jackson's photo shoot for the catalog, Jackson's weekly music class, deep cleaning service for the house, a few consignment sales, and three trips to Raleigh for these various events. 

This is what I see when I open our calendars in Outlook (minus the blur...I added that) -- mine is on the left, and Josh's on the right.  All the little bubbles are things to do, remember, or go to (and this is only for home....work is a whole other story...and calendar!).  Let me just say that if I ever had reason to give an award speech, it would begin - "I couldn't have done it without Microsoft Outlook and my Palm Centro!"  Thank you Outlook (2007), for giving me a super-easy way to organize my life...I love your categorization capabilities and the way I can just drag items over to Josh's calendar so he knows what to do without me having to tell him (although sometimes he grumbles when his phone buzzes to remind him every Tuesday at 7:00 to take out the trash).  And thank you, my little portable-organizer, Palm Centro, for always being there, ready to show me my email and calendar at a moment's notice. 

Since cooler weather is around the corner, I figured it's time to get a pair of shoes for Jackson.  He only wore shoes a few times (slip on Robeez) and a pair of soft loafers on Easter.  I wanted something that didn't look too baby-ish (just my style, don't knock it), neutral colors, and flexible bottoms (a must for the pre- or early walkers). 

After a quick glance around the Internet, I became head-over-heels-ready-to-elope in love with Pediped shoes.  I would wear these things myself, if they made them big enough!

So I ordered Jackson a pair of the Jake shoes from the new fall/winter line (how sad is it that I think that's the first time that phrase has ever been uttered from my mouth, and it's in reference to shoes for my 6 month old?!). 

They are just as cute in person as they are online!!

And here's a picture of Jackson (not posed) --- I think he wants to do some of his own marketing for the brand....

New foods last week -- oatmeal and bananas.  He likes them both ok....he'll pretty much eat anything though, even through gagging over the taste.

Creeping / Crawling Update:  Jackson is slowly getting better about staying on his stomach.  He has more strength to lift his upper body up for long periods of time, and he can kind of scoot around a bit using his arms.  Mostly he'll go in circles, pivoting around on his stomach.  I think he enjoys his newfound mobility.  And not too much longer before I'll probably have mixed feelings about it. 

Speaking of Jackson terrorizing the house (which he will....I am a realist, and the boy's already into anything within his ever-developing-fine-motor-skills-grasp), I'm already planning out all the babyproofing.  I can't make up my mind which way I think about it all --- is some of it overboard, and "too much" protection?  Or am I being negligent by not taking the extra steps and bubblewrapping all the sharp edges in the house and plugging up all the tiny electrical holes?  For example --- putting all those little plastic clips into the outlets.  They're in all the stores, they're cheap, and it seems like a just-do-it, right?  But then I had the nurse who taught my prenatal fitness and birth classes proclaim they're a waste of money because a little one likely isn't going to happen upon something small enough to fit in the hole that would also conduct electricity, and the little caps are a choking hazard b/c the tot is more likely to figure out how to pull it out and shove it in his mouth.  Hmmmmm.....point there.

So I decided to take the middle road on that particular choice --- I still got the little plastic plug-ins (inexpensive), but they can't be pulled out without pressing in a center button, which hopefully my little Houdini will not be able to master for some time. 

Electrical plugs taken care of......cabinets, drawers, gates, corners (?), furniture tipping prevention, etc to go.  Whew.  And speaking of gates, that's been an even more confusing research project, b/c our stairs have banisters (no wall) at both top & bottom.  I don't want to screw into the wood, so we're going to have to use something like this rigged up situation.....it looks like something your neighbor plumber, Paul, would have concocted out of leftover supplies, but this thing costs $43 (for one side of the banister).  And gates run about $50-$80 (for the kind we're looking to use on the stairs, center opening doorway).  So to gate off the top & bottom of our stairs is going to run us roughly $250+ (hopefully Josh doesn't read this post...it's better if he doesn't know).

Some pics & videos from this week (ps, I went a little crazy on the video front, but I know I'm a crazy obsessed mom, so it's all good):

Sometimes on bath nights, we let Jackson "explore" his food (i.e. smear it around everything he can touch)

Remember that post I made about Jackson shoving everything down his throat?

Walking to chase after Mocha...she can always make him laugh!

"Talking" to Josh :)

Congratulations to Amy & Joel -- their Baby "Ace" is due Mar. 10th!  A little ATL cousin for Jackson :)

So excited for them and their little one on the way!!!

Whew....now I can breathe a sigh of relief and stop worrying about accidentally spilling the beans and letting the secret out!

Me & Amy

We visited our friends Amy & Joel in Atlanta last weekend.  Fun trip...but it went by way too fast.  We headed up Friday after work, and were able to hang out a bit on Friday afternoon.  Saturday was packed with activities among all of us --- Josh, Jackson, & I ventured out into Duluth (7 miles from Amy & Joel) to visit my former manager and his family.  He had an amazing house, like the kind you might see on MTV Cribs or one of those real estate shows.  We were in awe (and kinda drooling over it, especially the finished basement...complete with gym room, pool table, bar, card table, big tv, etc).  I joked and asked him if I could rent it for vacation when they go away on their trips....only half kidding. :)

The rest of the day was comprised of shopping with Amy (no boys!), a partial game of The Office Trivia, Joel heading out for his fantasy fb draft, and, OF COURSE, some Skipbo games with Amy!  Oh, and she gave me my birthday gift....this really cool hand-stamped necklace with Jackson's name & birth date on it.  I love it!  I need to post a pic soon(you can see it in the picture above, but I still need to get one that shows the detail)...

Then we headed back to CLT on Sunday morning, and it was BAU. 

We'll get to see them again in October -- they scored tickets to a Panthers game and are going to take us as guests! :)  Roooouuuaaaaaarrrrrr (that's my Panthers fb growl) ....haha.

Jackson ended up with 2 dr appointments this week -- a GI specialist follow-up and the 6 month regular checkup.  Josh and I had to tag-team them and go separately so it wouldn't disrupt work too much.

So Josh handled the GI appt on Wed.  Everything seems to be going fine with him on that front.  We've transitioned him to soy formula, to do a trial to see if he still has the protein intolerance.  Another poo diaper test, and this time it came back negative, so it looks like Jackson has grown out of the intolerance, and we can end our $50+/week formula costs!  Yay!  We'll try another transition to regular formula in a few weeks, and it's expected that he'll tolerate that fine as well.

Jackson's still a rather spitty baby.  It's a lot less in frequency and volume than when he was younger, but he's probably much "spittier" than other babies his age.  The dr. said half of all babies stop by 6 months (not ours!) and then it continues to decline from there with a small portion going all the way to a year or so before stopping.  I have a feeling we'll be cleaning up regurgitated first-birthday cake....  In any regard, the Prevacid is controlling his acid reflux issues, and the dr said we should probably keep him on it as long as he's spitting up frequently.  Once the spitting stops, we can try weaning him from the medicine and see how he reacts.  So Prevacid is in our daily regimen for now. 

As for the regular 6 month appt, he weighed in at 19 lbs and 27.5 in, and is staying between the 75-90 percentile; so his growth seems to be slowing down from the earlier 90/95%.  He still seems realllllllyyyyy tall to me though.  Matter of fact, I dropped him off at Steph's after the appt, and there was a mom and 1 year old girl there.....who was the exact same size as Jackson (19 lbs, 28" approx).  Lucky me, b/c I didn't pack enough diapers, so he could borrow the ONE YEAR OLD'S....because they wear the same size!  Insane.

Ok, back to the appointment... Everything checked out fine, and as always, I had a few questions for the doctor.  He does some weird stuff with his hands / fingers, and I've only noticed it recently, since he bangs on EVERYTHING he can manage to flatten his hand against (my arm, the table, high chair, his own legs.....).  He kind of holds his fingers separated between the middle and ring ones a lot of times (yes, like the Star Trek hand thing, and sometimes his ring finger seems to bend all crooked-like.  But the dr said he looks fine, no disorders or medical issues related to it....he might just have weird fingers :)  It does seem to be less pronounced than a month or so ago, so maybe it's going away as he achieves more control over his hands and fingers.

And then....always the sad part.....he got his next round of vaccinations.  He always starts crying as soon as he gets the (oral) RV medicine....it must taste bad.  And it's downhill from there.  But the nurse is really fast, so it's over pretty quickly.

At the doctor appointment 

The regular check ups are going to be a little more spaced out now; he goes back at 9 months (and no shots at that one!).  But with the GI follow up and an InfantSee eye appt on tap, we're not out of the waiting room just yet.....

Oh, and I updated the 6 months post with all the "official" stats and growth charts....

Jackson's still doing all kinds of things that amaze me!  Like his babbling....it's now progressed to mixtures of sounds, and all of a sudden, it sounds a lot closer to real talking (an example, "bishimjuuuhhhhhhhhmmaaahhhh")...even with accents and intonations, as though he's really telling us something important (usually, he babbles more when he's bored, frustrated, or fussy). 

We're also practicing drinking from a cup, and he's already made so much progress!  My goal is to have him skip the "sippy" part of the cup and go straight to regular cup and straw drinking (high hopes, right?).  So at night after his last meal, we've started practicing with 1 or 2 ounces of water or diluted juice.  His cup has handles on the sides, so it makes it easy for him to grab, but I do have to hold on and guide it towards his mouth (at this stage, he would just fling it to the floor).  So we take practice sips.  At first, he would just let too much go in his mouth, and he would spit it out and do little choke / coughs (I didn't let him get too much though).  But now he understands how to take in just a little bit at a time, and he pushes the cup away after each sip....he only dribbles a bit here and there.  So our next goals are to get him to hold the cup himself.....no telling when that stage will come...

Playing with one of his favorite things to steal-- his daddy's hat!

 
Taking a nap on Josh...look how tall Jackson is!  He's already making me feel short....

New foods this week -- peas (not so into these....even gagged a few times) & applesauce (shown here...he's kinda "ehhh, whatever" about them)

Coming up this week:  2 doctor visits :(  The GI specialist and 6 month check-up. 

I scored some awesome deals at the annual CMOMs Sale last weekend! :)

Disclaimer -- I am not usually motivated to seek out good deals.  I do try to use coupons, and occasionally snag a deal on something on CraigsList, but I am by far a convenience shopper.  I only rifle through messy sales racks before I become bored and walk away.  I can't be bothered with warehouse clubs because I don't want to make an extra stop at ANOTHER store.  You get the drift.  But I ventured out (with my doubts in tow) to the CMOMs sale after I had heard some rumors it was worth it.

It was!  I decided to pay $2 to go to the "early bird" sale at 7:30 am (1 hr before the free public sale).  I drove up 15 minutes early and saw the "day-after-Thanksgiving" style line of sale-hungry moms waiting to get in.

I was worried it would take forever to get inside; Or a bunch of frenzied moms would mow me down lunging for a deal; Or, even worse, there would be parent-zombies everywhere (you know, those people who, in a public, crowded place, directly in front of your path, decide to construct their own social rules and stop the flow of traffic, often times with a large stroller blocking any means of passing). 

No such things happened!  CMOMs runs a tight, organized setup with this sale.  No strollers allowed (YES!).  People were efficiently brought inside.  Items were organized according to category and size, if applicable.  Everything was labeled and priced.  And there wasn't any running or fighting over "hot" items.  AND there was a ton of good stuff (even big stuff like furniture, bikes, baby gear....)!

I got all of the following, for only $58:

• 1 pair of jeans
• 8 sets of pajamas
• 4 shirts (2 which were brand new!)
• 2 coats (1 which was brand new, and retailed at $50)
• 8 bowl / plate sets
• 4 spoons
• 3 teethers
• 1 pull toy
• 1 pull cart

I will definitely be going back next year :)

Takin'  a break from baby bloggin'...

I had a birthday last week - 26!  Josh was sweet and got off work early and showed up (I was working from home) with some of my favorite things:  flowers, ice cream cake, and best of all, Jackson (he had picked him up early)!! 

In other news, I chopped off the hair (good riddance).  Way too much of a hassle.  I decided to let Courtney (a friend of ours) do a hair makeover for me.  I like it....but there is a learning curve for me on the styling front (in her defense, she did give me all kinds of tips and pointers....I just gotta keep practicing). This picture is from her styling it - I haven't been able to reproduce such results :)

New food - green beans.  Healthy diet and developing a wide variety of tastes -- awesome.  Green spit up -- not so awesome.

Playing with Mocha