Some recent Jackson stuff….

Play Doh
Jackson hasn’t really been into crayons (eats them) or finger paint (looks at his hands in disgust).  So I pulled out the play doh to let him give it a try.  He seemed curious about it, but still a bit undecided on exactly what to do with it.  I did make a ball, and he loved that!

Almost eating it --- till he got a taste of the YUCK!

Balloons!
Best $1 I’ve spent in forever??  The green balloon I bought at the mall.  Across from the play area is a store with random goodies and they had tons of balloons outside / inside, and Jackson kept pointing at them and saying “bahh!”  So I decided to buy him one.  We strapped it on the stroller, and he had fun while we wheeled around the mall (can I get one of these for every errand????).  Supposedly this balloon has like super latex and neverending helium, buc that think has lasted for like 9 days or something ridiculous.  It’s been his favorite toy at home this past week :)

I tied it to a weight and let him carry it around the house (this tactic kept him distracted from trying to lay on top of the balloon if the weight was on the ground)

Water Table
Jackson has a new water table that I set up on our back deck.  It’s nice to go have some splash time.  There’s something so Gastonia about a baby in nothing but a diaper and sandals splashing around on the deck…. :)  Also very Gtown?  My not so awesome rigged stairs gate --- which is a chair.  There’s a perfectly good wooden gate for there, but it just hasn’t made it quite to the installed phase yet (it is out of the box and sprayed with spray paint though, so baby steps!!!)

Visit with Amy & Nate :)
Amy & Nate came for a visit a couple of weeks ago.  Jackson loved pushing Nate in his stroller:

… and trying on Amy’s shoes :)

Jackson, reading his favorite book (which we are required to read at every bedtime, at a bare minimum)

Jackson is saying “mama” clearly today! :)

Baggin’ It
Jackson has started to grab bags, buckets, anything with a handle, and will throw it over his arm/shoulder, wave goodbye, and pretend like he’s leaving.  It’s so cute, and so amazing to realize what all he is observing and learning – things I didn’t even think about!

This is his dinosaur backpack filled with a couple of balls!

Carrying a purse that is as big as he is!

Sandbox
Jackson has a new sandbox in the back yard, and he played in it for the first time this week.  He didn’t seem too enthused, but did explore it a bit. 

Bubble Bath
I think this is the first time Jackson’s had bubbles in his bath, so decided to give him a treat.  He didn’t really seem to notice a difference, so maybe not worth the hassle at this point ;)

Balls!
Favorite toy by farrrrrrrrrrrrrr – balls.  Has to point at them in stores, books, on TV, everywhere!  We just recently got him a basketball goal, and he loves playing with it too.

Hats!
Another obsessive favorite right now??  Hats.  He has his own blue Old Navy hat, but he also insists on wearing our hats… and putting hats on our heads… and hanging hats up on hooks, rails, and chairs.

Cereal
Jackson has now started eating cereal with milk for breakfast!

He’s pretty good with a spoon, but that bed-head is no bueno (he has since received a much-needed haircut!)

Just a cute pic :)

Jackson is 16 months (as of yesterday)!  Our at-home measurements have him at  24.5 lbs and  31.75 inches.  Here’s a comparison:

14 months old    24 lbs (74%)  31.5 in (80%)
16 months old   24.5 lbs (68%)  31.75 in (59%)

Current Developmental Milestones:

• Signing – new signs are cat, hat, water, shoes
• Talking – repeatedly saying “was at?” (what’s that?), “boh” (ball), “bah” (balloon), “mama, and “dada.” Just the other day said “bahbah” for bubbles.  The last entire month has been sponsored by the letter “b.” :)
• Tantrums – the tantrums have calmed down, and he only has mini ones that usually don’t last very long. He still occasionally is seen hitting his head against the wall for some attention.
• Teeth -- 6 upper, 6 lower
• Favorite toy right now – balls and the basketball goal.  He is OBSESSED with balls and has to point them out in books, stores, tv, everywhere! 
• Favorite book – Goodnight Gorilla – he is OBSESSED with this book, and protests if we try to read anything else.  It is getting old reading it every night – especially since it’s doesn’t really have words!
• Cute behaviors – will put a bag or bucket on his arm and wave bye like he is leaving; loves to put hats on his head and hang them on rails or chairs; dances whenever music comes on
• Favorite TV show – still Yo Gabba Gabba … he loves the intro, silly faces, Biz’s Beat of the Day, and Cool Tricks
• Favorite foods – bananas, macaroni & cheese, animal crackers
• Wearing size 12 or 18 mos clothes, and in size 4 diapers

We took the annual trip to White Lake last week with Josh’s family (we went for four nights).  At 15 months, Jackson had a much better time, which was mostly attributed to playing with Sydney, Abbey, & Amelia and notsomuch with anything to do with the lake.  He didn’t care for the water (just like mommy!) and was somewhat indifferent about the sand, bike riding, etc.  The balls were a big hit.  As was straddling the pretend “boat” noodle.  Here are some pictures…..

 
Jackson loved toting this bucket and pulling the wagon.  Doing both at once occasionally proved a challenge. 

Pointing and saying “Whas AT??”  … most likely? A truck.  One of his newest obsessions.

Riding the pretend “boat” with Amelia

We also tried out our new bike setup for the first time.  We bought a bike attachment carrier seat for Jackson, and took him on a couple of rides (well, Josh did.  I’m still a little off-balance considering I haven’t ridden a bike in about 15 years.) 

Safety disclaimer – he wore a helmet for the ride, but we didn’t want to push our luck for the picture :) 

The older kids had fun playing games after Jackson went to bed.  The trash talking UNO tournament was pretty rad, except that we never finished it… well, the game that is.  Trash talking ensued with the subsequent games of Cranium :)

We finally had Jackson’s pictures taken!  I planned to wait until he was walking steadily to do his official “1 year” pictures because I wanted to be sure to capture that early toddling stage.  But then, because we planned to do the shoot outside at a local park, the weather unfortunately caused us to have to reschedule twice! So we finally had them taken a couple of weeks ago, and I just received the prints and digital images I ordered.

We did the shoot in downtown Belmont – some in Stowe Park, some by a red brick building, and some at a stationary train.  We love downtown Belmont --- it’s our favorite park to visit, and there are some neat shops and restaurants right there.  Not to mention the super cool train & tracks that I’m sure will delight Jackson once he hits the cars and trains and planes, oh my! stage.

This photo shoot went much better than any of our previous ones --- he enjoyed running around the park and checking everything out, and there was no fussiness.  He sure did have the photographer running to chase him around to get good shots, though.  And, he got so excited, he did fall and skinned both knees.  Thank goodness for photo editing --- drool, and boogers, and boo-boos be gone! 

Here are some of my favorites, but to see them all, click here:  http://collinsfamilyblogs.smugmug.com/gallery/8398409_8CaZb/1/#551287744_ZgyfT-A-LB

This is our favorite by far….

Inspiration for our new blog header

Video:  within a minute, Jackson blows a kiss, picks his nose, and then hugs me!

Video:  This is Jackson in his grunting communication mode. Occasionally (although less frequently lately), he will refuse to sign, and will only use grunting and pointing.

Cool thing with signing though …. he’s really starting to pick up signing fast!  So I’m trying to learn more so I can teach him more words.  Now he’s at the point where he’s sometimes imitating the sign as soon as I show it to him.  For example, we were in the pet store this past weekend (where the birds really freaked him out!), and we saw some fish, and I signed it, and he signed it right back! Also, his signing is really cool when it shows that he recognizes something beyond what we’ve directly taught… as an example, when he sees something in a book, and points at it and signs the word, without us prompting or identifying the word, like “dog”.  It’s very cool to see that he’s expanded the concept of dog beyond Mocha and other in-the-flesh doggies!  I’m so glad we stuck with signing….there were a few months where I felt bored with it and wondered if he would ever sign back (I was SOOOO over milk, more and eat!), but it is really paying off now. Some new ones I learned (I have to watch the Baby Signs DVDs to learn them myself!) are please, sorry, and thank you, so I’m going to try to start using those more.

Oh yeah, he is SO workin’ it.

I had to throw this picture in --- Josh & Nate (Amy & Joel’s little guy).  Amy & Nate stayed the night with us before we all left for Raleigh for my college reunion.  I had fun lovin’ on him and smellin’ his baby smell (and to top it off he didn’t spit up on me ONCE!!  I don’t even know what that’s like!).  Jackson got a bit jealous one time, and also wanted to hold Nate himself, so we helped him “hold” the baby…. and we almost got a photo, but by the time I came over with the camera, he had lost interest.  Oh well…..

Playing Outside
Here are some pictures from playing outdoors; now that the weather’s nice, we tell our allergies to suck it (ok, it’s more like I just stay loaded on drugs and am constantly squinting my right eye, but whatev… )

His newest favorite game is putting the basketball in the hoop from up high.  Awww, it’s just too bad that mommy’s too short! Ha.

 
He’s finally wearing his sunglasses and hat for any length of time!!!

Some other random stuff:  We (well, really Josh & Alan) worked on building a sandbox for the backyard this past weekend.  We just have a few more things to do on it, and then it will be ready to go!  I’m very excited about it!!!

Also, we had a photographer shoot some pictures of Jackson a couple of weeks ago, and I should be getting the digital files this week, and will post them on the blog (and probably update our header too).  I am excited --- they are awesome!  

Jackson had his first experience with finger-paint recently.  He seemed quite perplexed at this new stuff that was given to him in the high chair, but yet wasn’t food, and was oh-so-slimy, and in bright colors!

And this face says he’s sooooo over finger painting! :)

Jackson is 15 months (as of today)!  Our at-home measurements have him at 24 lbs and 31.75 inches.  Here’s a comparison:

13 months old   23.5 lbs (75%) 31 lbs (78%)
15 months old   24 lbs (68%) 31.75 in (73%)

Current Developmental Milestones:

• Signing – new signs are banana, cracker, sleep/sleepy, dog, and bath
• Walking – up to running now!
• Tantrums – have really geared up over the last few weeks.  He went through a short phase of hitting his head and falling out, but he’s passed that now, and just has mini-crying tantrums…. only about 25 times a day! :)
• Teeth -- 6 upper, 6 lower… and newest are 2 lower first molars
• Favorite toy right now – play and real telephones; he loves to hold them up to his ear, and of course, pressing the buttons!
• Favorite TV show – Yo Gabba Gabba
• Favorite foods – bananas (sometimes will eat 2-3 a day!) and macaroni & cheese
• Wearing size 12 or 18 mos clothes, and in size 4 diapers