…why am I still counting weeks??  Well, in truth, I lack the creativity for titles every week.  At some point I’m either going to have to break my rigid weekly posting cycle (?!!??!!) or start getting creative.

We started a new music class last week – Music Together in Charlotte on Thursday mornings.  I specifically chose this class because:  i) the location (very close to where I work uptown; and ii) it’s comprised of mostly babies (the oldest is 13 months).  Jackson’s Grammy is kind (and accommodating) enough to drive him to Dilworth for the class, and I use my lunch hour to break away from work and have some fun music time with Jackson.  He’s the youngest baby (I think the next was 5 months), so he’ll have some good role modeling for socializing, crawling, walking, etc!  We really like the teacher and it seems like it’s going to be a really fun and engaging program (I may even learn some things, since I’ve always been musically deficient……seriously….I failed the singing portion of my final exam in an Intro to Music Education course in college).  What’s really neat is they give you the song book with the lyrics, music, ideas for activities, and a recorded CD so you can play along at home in between classes.  We think we might have Josh pull out the guitar and see if he can play some of these fun songs :)

We also had some portraits made this past week.  Look for a post soon.  Some are super cute, and they got me wishing I could enter the J-man in the magazine cover photo contest….sadly, he’s not old enough!  Next time, I guess.

Reflux update – I think it’s starting to slowly rear its ugly head again.  We definitely saw improvements once we started Jackson on Prevacid a month ago.  But for the last week or so, I’ve been suspecting some reflux signs again --- more fussiness, crying / arching back, often after spitting up, hiccupy a lot, etc.  We’ve been giving him his 15mg dose as the whole tablet at 5:00 every day, but I started to wonder if it wasn’t lasting the whole 24 hours (crankiness was most pronounced in the afternoons / early evening), especially after hearing from other reflux moms that it’s believed children metabolize the drug faster and might require splitting doses.  So yesterday I started our super-scientific experiment – splitting the tablet so he gets 7.5mg in the morning and the other half at 5:00.  Both yesterday and today he seemed better throughout the day…..but notsomuch at bedtime….definitely an increase in fussiness/back arching/etc than before.  Luckily we have a wellness visit later this week, so I’m going to have to see what happens during the rest of my “experiment,” and get the doctor’s advice.  Up his dose?  Keep splitting?  Supplement with the Axid?  Take him to a GI specialist???  It’s such a random trial / error kind of thing.  Ugh.

New fun things:

• All of a sudden, he ADORES Mocha dog!  He watches her a lot now, and smiles at her (even though she pretty much ignores him unless he burps/hiccups/coughs/gasps/spits up, and then she tries to french-kiss him in hopes of scoring a “treat”).  And occasionally, he’ll laugh out loud at her if she’s playing and jumping around.   See the video below (and I do apologize for Josh’s Blair Witch filming style)
• More & more upper body strength.  Remember that video a couple weeks back where he was doing his he-man pull ups on the high chair??  Now, he just holds himself upright without his hands!  Feats of strength :)  He can also hold his head and chest up for good lengths of time on his tummy (although he hasn’t replicated rolling over again). 
• Sitting up – he’s getting close to being able to sit up unsupported.  He leans forward quite a bit with his hands in front, but he’s not as wobbly and requires minimal intervention typically. 

Cute pics from this week:

 
…starting out early :)
(btw – this pic was not posed….he’s started becoming obsessed with grabbing the mouse when I sit at the computer with him)