...this turned into a really long post. :)
Swim Class
Our 2nd swim class was fun -- this time Josh went in the water. We did miss little Caleb and his parents though; and Euan and Jackson both seemed to be a little "blah" about the whole experience.
Jackson gets into "swimming" modes where he almost looks like he's doing something!
Jackson & Euan saying hello to each other ... all smiley!
Eating
A lot of new adventures with eating! Jackson now gets his 4th (last) serving of formula in the cup, as we begin our transition away from the bottle. We'll slowly replace the other bottles with a cup over the next several months, with a goal of being off the bottle by 1 year old :) He doesn't seem to be attached to the bottle (switched to cup with no problems), so I'm confident it will be a smooth transition :)
He's also eating a lot of finger foods now -- turkey,chicken, and ham bits, crackers, puffs, cheese (although I think I'm going to stay away from this until 1 year old, since we have family history of allergies, eczema, and asthma..... and he was a little rashy this weekend, and cheese is the only thing I can pinpoint). At first I was breaking up the crackers to small bits, but now he can just take bites off of it himself!
Cracker snack!
Jackson with some of his new eating skills
We are also dealing with some behavioral issues around eating. Jackson has always been very impatient with getting his bottle or food, and it's gotten progressively worse over the last month or so. He can be a pretty fussy baby when hungry, but as soon as you put him in the high chair, or give him a cue that you're preparing his food, he immediately erupts into tantrum-ish crying. So we've instituted some new methods of trying to curb those behaviors and teach him patience. We'll see how it goes......
He was also pretty fussy this weekend. Not sure what to attribute it to, but have a couple of ideas. First -- he could be teething again. Heard from another mom that the teeth up top can be seen on the front of the gums instead of the very bottom, and I had to fight to lift his upper lip good enough to tell, but it does look like there are a couple there. And he's been refusing to eat the meat/veggie baby foods with a spoon at dinner (which could be a sign of teething....but could also be an eating strike after all the turkey gagging/vomiting).
But, he's also been downing his bottles super fast, and acting hungry for more over the last several days. So now we've upped from 6 oz to 8 oz (4 times per day). It's not as easy to fix these bottles because they fill up to the very top....and it doesn't fit in my 7 oz cups either, so I have to make it in a bottle, and then pour most of it in the cup. Acck... Just when I get done working over all that rice cereal mixing stuff..... always somethin' right ? :)
Crawling Around
Jackson goes through phases now where he's pretty mobile, and other times where he refuses to move (he still always wants to walk around with our hands guiding). But we did get a lot done on the babyproofing front this weekend (and had a lot of frustrations too..... will any of this baby crap ever come with decent instructions and correct parts?!). The kitchen is good to go -- chemicals moved to the laundry room up high, and one cabinet locked up. Will lock a couple of drawers once he can get up to open them. I also decided not to gate it off...too much of a hassle, and it's pretty easily baby-proofed. I do have some standby pressure gates I can throw up if I'm doing some hardcore cooking or something. We haven't gotten the big office gate up yet (our doorway was 1-inch too wide...so we've had to mod the gate and cut/paint two extension blocks). We also attempted to put up the top-of-the-stairs gate, but it didn't have the right parts.... and we need to mod it as well with something at the bottom since we have to put it above our molding. So I guess it's more babyproofing this weekend....
Jackson has, however, already discovered many things that we have to steer him away from --- cords plugged in, remote control, Mocha's feeding area. We've tried to create an environment conducive to exploration and learning by removing most things that he's not allowed to get into.... but it's also good for him to learn "no" occasionally too :)
Discovering water in Mocha's bowl .... he made a complete mess all over the floor!
Standing Up
He loves it... and is getting a lot better. Starting to cruise, and even shifted in a 180 from sofa to coffee table (no hands!) a few times.
Halloween
Jackson's first Halloween was not much of an event. He did wear his fresh bones BabyLegs during the day...but the aforementioned fussiness kicked in around 6:15, and he was not easy to please. So even attempting to put on the monkey costume caused an uproar. I did manage to get it on... and took it off within 60 seconds due to the crying:
Luckily, we did get pictures in his costume earlier in the month for the photo card we sent out, so here's a respectable shot:
Other Pictures from this week:
Being super cheesy
Teething on the coffee table .... I'm glad it's inexpensive furniture!!
Josh thought this picture was hilarious... I think he titled it "Puffs Binge" or something. Jackson often lays down like this when on his stomach (just for a few seconds at a time). It looks staged.... too funny.
Riding in the car while Josh drives
